Education and Identity

Schools are not just places where knowledge is transmitted — they are powerful sites where identities are formed, negotiated, contested, and sometimes imposed. The AQA specification requires you to understand how education shapes class identity, gender identity, and ethnic identity, and how pupils' identities affect their experiences and outcomes in the education system. This topic draws together many of the themes covered in earlier lessons and requires you to think about how class, gender, and ethnicity intersect in the formation of identity.

Key Definition: Identity refers to an individual's sense of who they are — their understanding of themselves in relation to others. Identity is not fixed; it is socially constructed through interactions with others and shaped by social structures such as class, gender, and ethnicity.

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Class Identity in Education

Social class profoundly shapes pupils' experiences of education, not only through material and cultural factors (see Lessons 2-3) but also through the formation of class identities. The way pupils understand themselves as working class or middle class — and the way the education system responds to these identities — has a significant impact on educational outcomes.

Archer: Working-Class Identity and "Nike Identities"