The Grass Ceiling: Hidden Educational Barriers in Rural England
Rurality is rarely integrated into analyses of educational inequalities and this article presents an alternative perspective on rural–urban attainment and highlights the impact of rurality on educational outcomes. The traditional narrative of urban–rural educational disadvantage is that urban pupils...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-02-01
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| Series: | Education Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/14/2/165 |
| _version_ | 1797298398195351552 |
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| author | Luke Graham |
| author_facet | Luke Graham |
| author_sort | Luke Graham |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Rurality is rarely integrated into analyses of educational inequalities and this article presents an alternative perspective on rural–urban attainment and highlights the impact of rurality on educational outcomes. The traditional narrative of urban–rural educational disadvantage is that urban pupils do less well in the English exam system. Decontextualised data across different English exam performance measures demonstrate how rural pupils outperform their urban counterparts. Socioeconomic disadvantage (SED) has the most significant impact on attainment and this analysis explores the rural–urban attainment gap through this SED lens. An analysis of the Department for Education (DfE) data explores possible factors that might explain the emerging rural educational gap and presents an argument that rurality is another limiting factor that intersects with SED. This article demonstrates how rural underachievement in England has been hidden by the relative sizes and SED distribution of rural and urban populations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T22:34:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2a2c2582bf6e4c7da874525ec7b22abc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2227-7102 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T22:34:18Z |
| publishDate | 2024-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Education Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-2a2c2582bf6e4c7da874525ec7b22abc2024-02-23T15:14:27ZengMDPI AGEducation Sciences2227-71022024-02-0114216510.3390/educsci14020165The Grass Ceiling: Hidden Educational Barriers in Rural EnglandLuke Graham0School of Education, University of Exeter, St Luke’s Campus, Exeter EX2 4TH, UKRurality is rarely integrated into analyses of educational inequalities and this article presents an alternative perspective on rural–urban attainment and highlights the impact of rurality on educational outcomes. The traditional narrative of urban–rural educational disadvantage is that urban pupils do less well in the English exam system. Decontextualised data across different English exam performance measures demonstrate how rural pupils outperform their urban counterparts. Socioeconomic disadvantage (SED) has the most significant impact on attainment and this analysis explores the rural–urban attainment gap through this SED lens. An analysis of the Department for Education (DfE) data explores possible factors that might explain the emerging rural educational gap and presents an argument that rurality is another limiting factor that intersects with SED. This article demonstrates how rural underachievement in England has been hidden by the relative sizes and SED distribution of rural and urban populations.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/14/2/165ruraleducationattainmentEnglanddisadvantageexam outcome |
| spellingShingle | Luke Graham The Grass Ceiling: Hidden Educational Barriers in Rural England Education Sciences rural education attainment England disadvantage exam outcome |
| title | The Grass Ceiling: Hidden Educational Barriers in Rural England |
| title_full | The Grass Ceiling: Hidden Educational Barriers in Rural England |
| title_fullStr | The Grass Ceiling: Hidden Educational Barriers in Rural England |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Grass Ceiling: Hidden Educational Barriers in Rural England |
| title_short | The Grass Ceiling: Hidden Educational Barriers in Rural England |
| title_sort | grass ceiling hidden educational barriers in rural england |
| topic | rural education attainment England disadvantage exam outcome |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/14/2/165 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lukegraham thegrassceilinghiddeneducationalbarriersinruralengland AT lukegraham grassceilinghiddeneducationalbarriersinruralengland |