5.2 Education and Social Mobility

2026 Syllabus Objectives

  1. Equal opportunity and the idea of meritocracy.
  2. The extent to which education systems are meritocratic today.
  3. The importance of education in influencing life chances, and the consequences of educational under-achievement for the individual and for society.
  4. Evidence and arguments about the links between education and social mobility.

Equal Opportunity and the Idea of Meritocracy

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🔑 Key Concept: Social Mobility

Social mobility refers to the chances people from different backgrounds have of attaining different social positions – moving from one social class or status position to another. Social mobility can be either upwards or downwards.

Types of Social Mobility

1. Inter-generational Mobility

  • Movement between generations
  • Compares differences between a parent and their adult child's occupational position
  • Example: A child of a factory worker becoming a doctor

2. Intra-generational Mobility

  • An individual's mobility over the course of their life
  • Compares someone's starting occupation with their occupation on retirement
  • Example: Someone starting as a junior clerk and retiring as a company director

The Concept of Meritocracy

Contemporary industrial societies are broadly based on achieved social status and mobility. The individual's position in society is not fixed (or ascribed) by characteristics such as age, gender, or ethnicity. Instead, it is earned or achieved on the basis of factors such as educational qualifications.

Meritocracies are societies where individuals achieve the level in society that their talent and effort deserves, whatever their starting position.

📌 Functionalist Perspective on Education and Social Mobility

Functionalist arguments focus on how education systems represent a bridge between the family and the economy. According to this perspective:

Social Mobility is Functionally Necessary

  • People must be allowed to move up – or fall down – the occupational and social structure
  • This ensures that important social positions are filled by those who are most qualified
  • Upward mobility is earned through demonstrations of individual merit

The Role of Differentiation

In modern societies, which contain a wide variety of occupations – from unskilled workers such as road sweepers at the bottom, to highly skilled professionals such as doctors and accountants at the top – people must fill these positions on the basis of their knowledge and skills.

For functionalists, mass education systems develop in modern industrial societies because their primary function is differentiation – allowing individuals to 'demonstrate their differences' in objective ways.

Requirements for a Meritocratic Education System

For education systems to perform their role effectively, they must be meritocratic. This involves:

  • Earned rewards: Well-paid, high-status occupations are allocated through individual abilities and efforts in the education system
  • Competition based on equal opportunities: If some people are disadvantaged because of their sex, race, or social class, then society cannot ensure that 'the best people' will end up in the most important roles
  • Inequalities of outcome: Meritocratic systems inevitably involve inequalities through testing and examinations
  • Objective testing: Tests must be objective and everyone must have an equal opportunity to take and pass them

⚡ Role Allocation Theory

Role allocation is a mechanism through which those who are intellectually most able and talented achieve work roles that offer the highest rewards in terms of income, power, and status.

According to Harris (2005b), for traditional functionalism, social mobility develops from the way people are encouraged to perform different roles, some of which are more important, skilled, and difficult to learn than others.

Key Elements:

  • The promise of higher levels of status, income, and job satisfaction by working for educational qualifications represents necessary motivations and rewards
  • These rewards lead to the development of social hierarchies – some jobs are more important than others
  • This creates functionally necessary social inequalities

Davis and Moore argued that inequalities that flow through social mobility represent 'an unconsciously evolved device by which societies ensure the most important positions are conscientiously filled by the most qualified people'.

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