Journal ArticleDOI
Reflections on the meritocracy debate in Britain: a response to Richard Breen and John Goldthorpe
TLDR
Re-running some of my earlier models using measures that they favour and a method designed to privilege their position demonstrate that, while class origins have some effect on class destinations, ability and effort exert a much greater effect.Abstract:
A paper by Breen and Goldthorpe recently claimed to have exposed ‘fatal flaws’ in my work on meritocracy in Britain. This paper responds to their criticisms. The results of their re-analysis of the NCDS data set are shown to be consistent with my earlier findings and arguments. Furthermore, re-running some of my earlier models using measures that they favour and a method designed to privilege their position, the results once again demonstrate that, while class origins have some effect on class destinations (in particular, for those born into the middle class), ability and effort exert a much greater effect. Based on these results, the paper identifies three core propositions about meritocracy in Britain on which all parties to this debate should now be able to agree.read more
Citations
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Intelligence and socioeconomic success: A meta-analytic review of longitudinal research ☆
TL;DR: This paper conducted a meta-analysis of the longitudinal studies that have investigated intelligence as a predictor of success (as measured by education, occupation, and income) in order to better evaluate the predictive power of intelligence, also including meta-analyses of parental socioeconomic status (SES) and academic performance (school grades).
The Importance of Teacher Quality As A Key Determinant of Students’ Experiences and Outcomes of Schooling
TL;DR: For instance, this paper found that the quality of teaching and learning provision are by far the most salient influences on students' cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes of schooling, regardless of their gender or backgrounds.
Journal ArticleDOI
Intergenerational social mobility and mid-life status attainment: influences of childhood intelligence, childhood social factors, and education
Ian J. Deary,Michelle D. Taylor,Carole L. Hart,Valerie Wilson,George Davey Smith,David Blane,John M. Starr +6 more
TL;DR: In this article, the influences of childhood social background, childhood cognitive ability, and education on intergenerational social mobility and social status attainment at mid-life were examined for men born in 1921 and who participated in the Scottish Mental Survey of 1932 and thereafter in the Midspan Collaborative study in Scotland between 1970 and 1973.
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A Transgenerational Model of Status Attainment: the Potential Mediating Role of School Motivation and Education:
TL;DR: In this paper, a pathway model of transgenerational status attainment is conceptualised, taking into account the context as well as the timing of individual status transitions, and the influences of parental social status, childhood cognitive ability, school motivation and education on social status attainment in early adulthood using Structural Equation Modelling.
Journal ArticleDOI
The pivotal role of education in the association between ability and social class attainment: A look across three generations
TL;DR: The authors found that social class of origin acts as ballast, restraining otherwise meritocratic social class movement, and that education is the primary means through which social class movements are restrained and facilitated.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Class inequality and meritocracy: a critique of Saunders and an alternative analysis
Richard Breen,John H. Goldthorpe +1 more
TL;DR: A reanalysis of the National Child Development Study data-set, used by Saunders, reveals that while merit, defined in terms of ability and effort, does play a part in determining individuals' class destinations, the effect of class origins remains strong.
Journal ArticleDOI
Social Mobility, Individual Ability and the Inheritance of Class Inequality:
Mike Savage,Muriel Egerton +1 more
TL;DR: The authors examined the intergenerational social mobility of young adults in Britain, from a secondary analysis of the National Child Development Study (NCDS), and showed that by examining the relationship b...
Journal ArticleDOI
Might Britain be a Meritocracy
TL;DR: Most research on social mobility in Britain has found high absolute rates of upward and downward mobility but has emphasised the apparently low relative rates as measured by disparity and odds rati... as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI
Social Mobility in Britain: An Empirical Evaluation of Two Competing Explanations
TL;DR: This paper showed that ability is an important factor influencing social mobility chances, and through a series of logistic regression and multiple regression models, it demonstrates that meritocratic factors (individual effort and ability) outweigh social advantage/disadvantage factors in predicting the occupational class achieved by over 6,000 men and women by age 33.
Journal ArticleDOI
Routes of success: influences on the occupational attainment of young British males.
Rod Bond,Peter Saunders +1 more
TL;DR: The model demonstrates that individual ability is by far the strongest influence on occupational achievement, that motivation is also important, and that factors like class background and parental support, while significant, are relatively much weaker.