Within education, social mobility is often seen as the holy grail for many of our pupils, implying success, new horizons and a “better” life.
Yet this view overlooks the risks and challenges that accompany social mobility - and I would say this is one of the biggest blind spots in our educational system.
While a high-quality academic curriculum and qualifications are unquestionably critical to attaining the success that we want for pupils, achieving this in isolation can leave some young people unable to fully integrate into any future worlds they may inhabit.
Real challenges
It is well known that adults from various backgrounds commonly experience issues such as status anxiety and imposter syndrome.
However, there is plenty of research to indicate that these challenges are particularly intense for individuals from lower-income or disadvantaged backgrounds.
These psychological challenges are not trivial. They can lead to debilitating behaviours, including fear of success and failure, self-sabotage, perfectionism and chronic procrastination. Such issues can result in anxiety, depression and self-imposed limitations that hinder success in higher education and the workplace.
The language we use around social mobility is problematic too: phrases like “levelling up” or “climbing the ladder” suggest that students are currently “down” or “behind”.
This terminology often spills over into the curriculum, inadvertently making judgements about the communities our students come from and, by extension, who they are.
Culture, the canon and Stormzy
Such detrimental language also permeates discussions about curriculum. Nuanced debate is often lacking, leading to polarised arguments about concepts like “cultural capital” or “the canon”.
One side may criticise the predominance of “dead white men”, while the other may lament the “soft bigotry of low expectations”. Such debates rarely yield constructive outcomes and are often more about individual soap boxes than they are our students.
Instead we must see it from both sides: it is essential to introduce students to the literature, music and art that are prevalent in our culture - not because these are superior but because they are ubiquitous and equip students with cultural codes to navigate the worlds of education and employment.
However, we must be cautious not to assign greater value to this knowledge or to imply that students cannot arrive without their own cultural icons and values.
Instead of squabbling over the merits of Mozart versus Stormzy, we should focus on teaching students to appreciate diverse musical traditions while respecting their own preferences.
Development curricula
At Creative Education Trust, we are beginning to address this challenge through an enhanced personal development curriculum, currently being co-constructed by the personal development leaders in our schools.
Drawing inspiration from Annette Lareau’s concept of “concerted cultivation” and Lee Elliot Major and Emily Briant’s work on equity, we are leveraging the knowledge we have of our students to prioritise the exploration of their innate passions, skills and interests with a view to expanding our offer of curricular and co-curricular activities.
Where this is already being done well in our schools, we are seeing re-engagement in academic lessons from students with previously poor attendance, which is achieved by encouraging them to engage first in something they are passionate about.
This allows students to resocialise and reconnect with staff and students, making the “threshold” of their full academic diet less daunting as time goes on. In essence, allowing students to experience success within their comfort zones builds the confidence needed to venture further from them and succeed.
That way, when our students are offered great jobs or opportunities, they can take them, free from the social baggage and instead with the innate belief that they have the right to be there as much as anyone else.
Ultimately, if we want to more students to break through “the glass ceiling” that we often refer to as hindering progress, then we need to give them a marble floor on which to stand with confidence.
Nicole McCartney is director of education at Creative Education Trust
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