Miseducation

SECOND EDITION COMING APRIL 2025

In this book Diane Reay, herself working class turned Cambridge professor, presents a 21st century view of education and the working classes

Drawing on over 500 interviews, the book includes vivid stories from working class children and young people. It looks at class identity and the effects of wider economic and social class relationships on working class educational experiences.

The book reveals how we have ended up with an educational system that still educates the different social classes in fundamentally different ways and, vitally, what we can do to achieve a fairer system.

‘Working-class children get less of everything in education - including respect’ in The Guardian

“Miseducation would benefit anyone interested in social mobility and education in the UK… Reay’s contribution to debates on education and social background is to personalise everyday working-class experiences of school and university, something usually absent from current discourse. This, combined with statistical evidence of the extent of inequalities, makes for particularly engaging reading.” LSE Review of Books

“I’m sad that this second edition is still needed but thank goodness for Diane Reay’s updating of this important and powerful book.” Kate E. Pickett, University of York

“Incredibly insightful and passionate – Diane Reay really does get class. Mandatory reading for anyone proclaiming greater equity in education.” John Smyth, University of Huddersfield

“An inspiring and hopeful book [which] commands us as educators to make schools places of nurture, creativity and inspiration, not places where fear of failing is the daily diet of all children, especially working-class children.” Kathleen Lynch, University College Dublin and author of Care and Capitalism and A Critique of Human Capital and Carelessness in Education

"Diane Reay's compelling analysis synthesises memoir, a wealth of personal testimonies and statistics to reveal a hidden story of Britain's education system. Her sharply argued book demonstrates why selective education is bad for all of us." Selina Todd, St Hilda's College, Oxford

"A tour de force. An excoriating and rigorous analysis of the class-riven English education system. Diane Reay is simply the best writer on education and social class that we have." Stephen J Ball, Institute of Education, University College London

"This searing critique of how schools and universities fail the working class and reproduce inequalities should be at the heart of contemporary debates on education." Andrew Sayer, University of Lancaster

“No one has done more than Diane Reay to confront the complex emotions in living class inequalities in education. Her heartbreaking volume bears damning witness to neoliberalism’s contributions to the injuries of class.“ Lynne Layton, Harvard Medical School

“A must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the systemic mechanisms driving social inequality in education.” Mieke Van Houtte, Ghent University

"Passionate, provocative and deeply troubling, this book examines contemporary working-class education.... should be required reading for politicians of both the left and especially the right." Tim Strangleman, University of Kent

"Excellent text, highly relevant and accessible to all." Caroline Lewis, UWTSD

“Miseducation is freshly updated, and it offers a highly readable and compelling analysis from one of the very best educational scholars of our time. Highly recommended!” Annette Lareau, University of Pennsylvania

"Intellectually compelling and inspiring in the way it systematically exposes the myth of meritocracy in economically unequal societies. It will inspire those who read it to work cooperatively for social justice both in education and society." Kathleen Lynch, University College Dublin, School of Education

“A trenchant portrayal of class processes in twentieth and early twenty-first century England…. a must read for all those interested in educational opportunities, the global economy, and the ways in which working class individuals and collectivities construct and live under conditions of massively intensifying inequalities.“ Lois Weis, State University of New York, University at Buffalo, USA, Author of Class Reunion: The Remaking of the American White Working Class