The term social mobility has crept into the vocabulary of educationalists in recent years, probably because of the role it has played in the rhetorical arsenal of politicians across the past decade.
I have always had a problem with the term though. For me, it infers that working class people should aspire to be something more than working class. This is inherently insulting.
A more appropriate term, perhaps, might be social justice. As educators we should help the young people we work with to achieve their aspirations without overly concerning ourselves about whether or not they are able to “escape” their working class upbringing.
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