Summary and Conclusions

Abstract

This study on working-class educational upward mobility is part of the research field of social inequality in education. While most studies in the field focus on discrimination, barriers, and difficulties working-class people face in education, this study explores the contexts and circumstances that enable their success. The life histories of educationally successful people from working-class families brought to light all sorts of discrimination, barriers, and difficulties but also ways of overcoming them and, more to the point, social contexts favorable for working-class people. The study, therefore, connects to the research field on social mobility and other studies on working-class educational upward mobility.