Dr Sam Baars gives evidence to the Education Select Committee inquiry

Sam discussed a wide range of important points, including:

1. Gaps between ethnic groups differ at different stages of the education system
2. Area-based trends, and the need to focus on outer urban neighbourhoods
3. The influence of men in the teaching profession and school volunteering
4. How to define ‘working class’ in the 21st century
5. The utility of income- vs. free school meals-based definitions of ‘disadvantage’
6. The importance of history and genealogy in discussing what ‘class’ means to people
7. The negative role of low teacher expectations
8. The relative reduction in funding to schools in the most deprived areas
9. The importance of wider systems of support such as CAMHS
10. The ‘forgotten third’ and the poor outcomes of young people with SEND
11. Young people’s attachment to place, and the problem of expecting young people to ‘move out’ in order to ‘move on’
12. The importance of creating thriving local communities that attract young teachers
13. The importance of adult education, lifelong learning and parental self-efficacy

You can watch the full session here.

For more info, you might want to read:

• The written evidence submitted to the inquiry by the Centre for Education and Youth
• A full transcript of the evidence session
• Dr Sam Baars’ PhD thesis, which explored how young people’s aspirations are shaped by the areas they grow up in
• Other research  published by Sam, on aspirations and meritocracy, and white working class boys in the education system
• A keynote speech (and slides) that Sam delivered at Edge Hill University in 2019 called Taking the long view: how the ‘social mobility’ ideal breaks down at different stages for different groups of young people
• An opinion piece Sam wrote for Schools Week on how to speak to young people about their aspirations
• Previous CfEY reports on related topics, for the Greater London Authority, King’s College London, and the Social Mobility Commission