Study title

This project had interrelated substantive and methodological foci. The substantive aim was to investigate the link between social background and educational experience, using a variety of methods and comparing England and Germany. This link is well established, and there are various theories to explain it, including rational choice theory, i.e. the notion that people undertake an analysis of perceived costs and benefits of courses of action, and habitus theory, which regards educational pathways and outcomes as shaped by behaviours and dispositions reflecting familial class origin. Methodologically, since the balance of rational and habitual behaviour may vary in complex ways by social origin, I used an analytic method orientated to such causal complexity, Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), to analyse large datasets in combination with in-depth interviews. I studied various outcomes, including GCSE results, A-level subject choice, the differences between comprehensive and selective Local Education Authorities in England and Wales, which type of school someone attends at age 17 in Germany, moving up and down in the German secondary school system, and entry to Higher Education in Germany. Analysing large datasets with QCA, I found evidence of complex interactions of social background factors with other factors such as ability in producing social inequalities in education. In process-tracing interviews conducted with 15 to 18 year olds in both countries, I found evidence of behaviour in line both with rational action theory and with habitus theory, but also of how differing habituses across social classes shape the boundaries within which rational decisions are taken.An individual's adult economic and social status is influenced by the pathway he or she follows through the educational system. It is therefore important to understand the factors and processes acting on the individual, social and systemic levels to produce the distribution of students across these...