Educational inequality and academic achievement in England and France

"Within both countries there exists a wide variety of learning cultures, sometimes operating within single schools, sometimes segregated into different environments. Students are exposed to multiple influences from families, friends, teachers, and neighbourhoods and have subjective inclinations to situate themselves within the learning cultures to which they are exposed. They have multiple resources and a variety of cultural schemata at hand to guide them, but they also have agency, a limited ability to influence outcomes and to adjust their position within the educational system. At the same time, the state influences the distribution of, and access to, these learning cultures. ... Taken together, the effects of state decision making and individual actions produce a wide spectrum of academic achievements. ... In this article, I show how, in England and France, inequality results from a series of influences on students' academic motivations and achievements, beginning with those that opoerate most immediately at the level of individuals and their failies and then progressing to institutional constraints". Some issues in detail: the social context of learning (family, school), gender influence on math and science, sorts of defining schools as an institution, tracking of schools. (DIPF/ Text uebernommen/Bi.)