Cracking Social Mobility

Tom Moule

Description

In the UK and most countries today, a person’s life chances are unfairly influenced by their socio-economic circumstances at birth.

This has led to societal divides that have become wider and more pronounced as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. There is now heightened awareness that the current state of affairs is unacceptable. Innovative approaches are urgently needed in order to combat social immobility.

Drawing upon the latest research, Cracking Social Mobility explores the factors that contribute to social immobility, and puts forward focused, innovative solutions. The book impresses upon readers that social mobility is a societal goal worth striving towards, and that societies can take strides in the right direction by harnessing the power of digital innovation. From democratizing the private tuition sector and enhancing the effectiveness of teaching and learning, to supporting inclusive recruitment practices, technologies can help to level the playing field. A heartfelt call to action, this book explores how this can be achieved.

‘Cracking Social Mobility highlights the very-real urgency of this issue but also (thankfully) suggests some potential road maps for the future, the most important of which is technological innovation and – vitally – applying it to education it in a way that is beneficial to all.’ Lord David Puttnam

‘This is an important and timely book… Tom Moule’s arguments are urgent and compelling.’ Geoff Barton

‘AI offers real prospects for significant advance on social mobility for disadvantaged students, who have been insufficiently helped by conventional educational approaches. This book addresses a very important subject.’ Sir Anthony Seldon

‘For the sake of future generations, we cannot afford to ignore technology’s potential to improve the delivery of teaching and learning in the classroom.’ Rt Hon David Davis MP

Sujets

• Economic Disparity
• Social Classes
• Social Policy
• Public Policy
• Social Science
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• EDUCATION
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Philosophy
• Social mobility
• General officer
• General

Informations

• Publié par: Legend Press
• Date de parution: 03 août 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781800315631
• Langue: English

Extrait

In Cracking Social Mobility: How AI and Other Innovations Can Help to Level the Playing Field , Tom Moule provides intelligent proposals on how to tackle social immobility. This book illustrates that by harnessing the power of tech, we can ensure every student reaches their full potential. For the sake of future generations, we cannot afford to ignore technology s potential to improve the delivery of teaching and learning in the classroom. We should grasp opportunities to ignite innovation, whenever they arise. A must-read for policymakers in the Department for Education.
The Rt. Hon. David Davis MP
AI offers real prospects for significant advance on social mobility for disadvantaged students, who have been insufficiently helped by conventional educational approaches. This book addresses a very important subject.
Sir Anthony Seldon
This is an important and timely book. So much of our education system - its curriculum, its methods of assessment, its attitudes - seems locked in the past. Cracking Social Mobility looks to a more optimistic future, demonstrating how our most entrenched societal weakness might finally be overcome through technology, especially artificial intelligence. Tom Moule s arguments are urgent and compelling.
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders
Social mobility must have begun to feel like a worn-out aspiration to vast swathes of the global population. The consequences of our collective failure to fill this widening gap will be deep and long-lasting and for the most part we as societies, governments and citizens are merely sleepwalking into the ramifications. Cracking Social Mobility highlights the very real urgency of this issue but also (thankfully) suggests some potential road maps for the future, the most important of which is technological innovation and - vitally - applying it to education it in a way that is beneficial to all.
Through a series of sincere and passionate arguments, Tom Moule shows us how better adoption of technological innovation can improve equality in education, and how technology can help amplify the efficiency of educators and educational institutions. He suggests a number of ways in which we can close the growing chasm between the world s digitally divided communities to create a sustainable playing field for future generations. When it comes to the social mobility crisis, this book doesn t pretend to have all the answers, but it certainly offers some of them. For anyone thinking about strategic policies to future-proof our global community, Tom s book is a very good place to start.
Lord David Puttnam

Copyright Tom Moule 2021
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This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
ISBN 978-1-80031-5-624
CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapter 1 - The Case for Social Mobility
Chapter 2 - The Case for Technology
Chapter 3 - Disrupting the Shadow Education System
Chapter 4 - Equality of Excellence (Making Schools Engines of Social Mobility)
Chapter 5 - Achieving a Dynamic and Inclusive Workforce
Chapter 6 - Further Roles for Technology
Chapter 7 - Lifelong Learning and the Digital Economy
Chapter 8 - Overcoming the Digital Divide
Chapter 9 - Where Technology Is Not the Answer
Conclusion
References
INTRODUCTION
The public mood is sour, sometimes angry. Whole tracts of Britain feel left behind. Whole communities feel the benefits of globalisation have passed them by. Whole sections of society feel they are not getting a fair chance to succeed. The growing sense that we have become an us-and-them society is deeply corrosive of our cohesion as a nation. There is a mood for change in Britain.
Alan Milburn, former Chair of the Social Mobility Commission, writing in the foreword to Time For Change: An Assessment of Government Policies on Social Mobility 1997-2017, The Social Mobility Commission. 1
The term AI winter refers to a period of stagnation during which the advancement of artificial intelligence grinds to a halt and widespread despondency creeps in. The world is not currently undergoing an AI winter; that said, the period we are now enduring could aptly be described as a social mobility winter. At the current glacial rate of progress it will take more than forty years to bridge the developmental gaps between less well-off and more advantaged five-year-olds, 2 eighty years will pass before people of all socioeconomic backgrounds achieve equal access to university; 3 and if things carry on as they are, a century from now we may finally see the eradication of the educational attainment gap at sixteen between those who were born into poorer households and those who were born into richer ones. 4
A sense of helplessness accompanies this inertia. Polling conducted by the Social Mobility Commission in 2019 demonstrated that 44% of people believe that your successes in life are mainly determined by your background and who your parents were 5 rather than by how hard you work. The same poll showed that 39% of people felt that it was becoming harder to climb the social ladder, compared to just 22% who felt it was becoming easier. Equally disheartening is that efforts to mount a resurgence have often been deprioritised by those in power. In December 2017, Alan Milburn, then chair of the Social Mobility Commission, resigned from his post, citing that the government lacked the necessary bandwidth to ensure that the rhetoric of healing social division is matched with the reality . 6 Despite lip service being routinely paid to the social mobility cause, there is often little reason to think that we as a society will emerge from this wintry haze anytime soon.
This inclement climate is a cradle for discord and despair. Some benefit from the opportunities that confer greater life chances; others don t. The latter group feels justifiably aggrieved. Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum has warned of the dire consequences of such aggrievements, emphasising that entrenched societal divisions are giving rise to:

a growing sense of unfairness, precarity, perceived loss of identity and dignity, weakening social fabric, eroding trust in institutions, disenchantment with political processes, and an erosion of the social contract. 7
Others have suggested that this profound frustration lies at the heart of the political volatility experienced during recent years. 8 Among these, Sir Michael Wilshaw, former head of Ofsted, the inspectorate for state schools in England, has argued that the malaise born out of the disenchantment felt by families whose children have had an unfair deal is partly to explain for the result of the EU referendum. 9 A red flag is clearly waving. If we as a society cannot spring ourselves out of this malaise, then this social discord could spiral out of control. Such inequities cannot continue indefinitely. At some point the frost must thaw. But, as I write, we may actually be regressing into a bleaker state of winter.
The impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on social mobility have not been the primary concern; that said, there are warning signs that the life chances of the least privileged could suffer disproportionately. There are clear indications that the limited provision from nurseries and schools during lockdown has exacerbated existing educational inequalities in the short term. The prolonged period of economic hardship that threatens to follow could leave the less privileged further behind in the long term. 10
At least during these difficult times some small consolation can be gained from the renewed zeal with which many long-standing societal ills are being grappled. The suffering of victims of domestic violence, the plight of the precarious workforce and the rejection of invaluable members of society who happen to have not been born in this country, are starting to be given warranted levels of attention. Let s hope that in the aftermath of our darkest hour, the concern and compassion that once shone through manages to translate into tangible outcomes. In this spirit, we should seize the chance to resolve the deep-rooted inequalities of opportunity that have plagued our society for so long. It s time to awaken from this state of hibernation and allow all people, from all backgrounds, to blossom.
Any strategy for exiting society s social mobility winter must be centred on practical solutions. Prospective ways forward will come in many shapes and sizes. Wide-reaching reforms will be needed, and so too will highly focused programmes. My intention here is not to provide an overview of the full spectrum of approaches that could be taken. Instead, my aim is to make the case that technologies can help level the playing field when they are purposefully utilised. But demonstrating the role that technology has to play in this endeavour is not my only intention. I am equally eager to make the case for why social