Levelling the playing field of learning

Lee Elliot Major, Professor of Social Mobility, University of Exeter, UK Introduction All teachers aspire to reduce the barriers and unconscious biases that impede the learning of students from under-resourced backgrounds. Research shows that these impediments are multifaceted, consisting of cultural, material, educational and health-related factors that operate inside and outside the classroom. Explicitly thinking about how teaching can be made genuinely inclusive to benefit all students, whilst identifying and overcoming barriers to learning outside school, are two foundations of an ‘equity-based approach’ to education (Elliot Major and Briant, 2023). The purpose of this article is to show how educators can use this approach to help to level the playing field of learning. Cultural and material divides The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu produced a framework comprising three forms of capital in describing the cultural as well as material assets deployed by middle-class p