Educational Attainment And Society Continuum

Studies In Education Nigel Kettley download

https://ebookbell.com/product/educational-attainment-and-society-
continuum-studies-in-education-nigel-kettley-2372132

Explore and download more ebooks at ebookbell.com

Here are some recommended products that we believe you will be
interested in. You can click the link to download.

On The Edge Of Commitment Educational Attainment And Race In The

United States Stephen Lawrence Morgan

https://ebookbell.com/product/on-the-edge-of-commitment-educational-
attainment-and-race-in-the-united-states-stephen-lawrence-
morgan-46830178

On The Edge Of Commitment Educational Attainment And Race In The

United States Stephen Morgan

https://ebookbell.com/product/on-the-edge-of-commitment-educational-
attainment-and-race-in-the-united-states-stephen-morgan-51942808

Educational Attainment In Immigrant Families Community Context And

Family Background Gabriella C Gonzalez

https://ebookbell.com/product/educational-attainment-in-immigrant-
families-community-context-and-family-background-gabriella-c-
gonzalez-51348632

Noncognitive Skills And Factors In Educational Attainment Myint Swe

Khine

https://ebookbell.com/product/noncognitive-skills-and-factors-in-
educational-attainment-myint-swe-khine-5609320
Child Abuse And Neglect Attachment Development And Intervention David
Howe Auth

https://ebookbell.com/product/child-abuse-and-neglect-attachment-
development-and-intervention-david-howe-auth-5878976

The Risk Of Downward Mobility In Educational Attainment Children Of

Highereducated Parents In Germany 1st Edition Sophie Hahn Auth

https://ebookbell.com/product/the-risk-of-downward-mobility-in-
educational-attainment-children-of-highereducated-parents-in-
germany-1st-edition-sophie-hahn-auth-5608726

Determined To Succeed Performance Versus Choice In Educational

Attainment Michelle Jackson Editor

https://ebookbell.com/product/determined-to-succeed-performance-
versus-choice-in-educational-attainment-michelle-jackson-
editor-51933416

Determined To Succeed Performance Versus Choice In Educational

Attainment Michelle Jackson

https://ebookbell.com/product/determined-to-succeed-performance-
versus-choice-in-educational-attainment-michelle-jackson-4384232

Toward A Science Of Education Kauffman James

https://ebookbell.com/product/toward-a-science-of-education-kauffman-
james-11829934
Nigel Kettley

Educational Attainment
and Society
Educational Attainment and Society
 Also available from Continuum

The Supply of Teachers: Key Issues - Stephen Gorard, Beng

Huat See, Emma Smith and Patick White
Analysing Underachievement in Schools - Emma Smith
Educational Attainment
and Society
NIGEL KETTLEY

continuum
 Continuum International Publishing Group
The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane,
11 York Road Suite 704
London New York, NY 10038
SE1 7NX

© Nigel Kettley 2006

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or
retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
publishers.

Nigel Kettley has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

EISBN 9780826488565

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

Typeset by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Manchester

 Contents

List of Tables and Figures vi

Glossary vii

Preface xi

Part 1 Introduction 1
1 Empirical and Theoretical Approaches to Attainment 3
2 Reconceptualizing the Study of Attainment 24

Part 2 Locating Attainment 49

3 The Context of Attainment 51
4 Patterns of Differential Attainment 74

Part 3 Explaining Attainment 103

5 The Declining Relevance of Gender to Attainment 105
6 The Persistent Impact of Social Stratification on Attainment? 135

Part 4 Theorizing attainment 171

7 Situational Adaptations, Educational Practices and Attainment 173
8 Conclusion 201

Appendix: Measurement Issues 211

References 214

Index 226
 List of Tables and Figures

Tables

3.1 First-year student enrolment and retention at SC and MDC 60

(1996-99)
3.2 Indicators of the local community context (1998-99) 63
4.1 Gender differences in GCSE entry qualifications 81
(1999-2001 cohort)
4.2 Gender differences in A/AS-level attainment 82
(1999-2001 cohort)
4.3 Gender differences in A/AS level attainment by college 85
attended (1999-2001 cohort)
4.4 Social stratification and GCSE entry qualifications 88
(1999-2001 cohort)
4.5 Social stratification and A/AS-level attainment 90
(1999-2001 cohort)

Figures

4.1 Value added in the total sample (2001) 97

4.2 Value added at SC (2001) 97
4.3 Value added at MDC (2001) 98
4.4 Value added at MTC (2001) 98
 Glossary

A level Advanced level. A system of examinations introduced

in 1951 for pupils aged 17 or 18 to assess their potential
for university study. Typically, students sit three A-level
subjects over a period of two years and these subjects
are assessed by written examination papers.
AS level Advanced Supplementary (now Subsidiary) level. A
system of examinations introduced in 1989 in an
attempt to broaden the sixth-form curriculum. These
examinations carry half the value of an A level for the
purpose of university entry. New Labour introduced a
revised version of the examination, the Advanced
Subsidiary, as part of Curriculum 2000.
A/AS level Advanced and Advanced Supplementary level. The
combined programme of study at Advanced level
and an index of examination performance at this level.
Cambridge Scale The Cambridge Scale (now the Cambridge Social
(now CAMSIS) Interaction and Stratification Scale). A non-categorical
scale of occupations based on the measurement of
social interaction, which indicates overall patterns of
lifestyle advantage and disadvantage.
CSE Certificate of Secondary Education. A system of exam-
inations introduced in 1965 for pupils in secondary
modern schools (and later those in comprehensives) to
improve their educational and employment prospects.
Replaced in 1986 by the GCSE.
CSS Cambridge Scale Scores. The Cambridge Scale ranks
occupations from a score of 0.56 for brickyard workers
to a score of 85.04 for university lecturers.
Vlll Educational Attainment and Society

DES Department of Education and Science. Name given to

the Ministry of Education in 1964.
DETR Department for Environment, Transport and the
Regions (responsibilities now divided between the
Department for Transport and the Office of the Deputy
Prime Minister).
DfE Department for Education. Name given to the DES
in 1993.
DfEE Department for Education and Employment. Name
given to the DfE in 1996 (renamed the Department for
Education and Skills in 2005).
E Ecstasy (as in E-clubbing). An abbreviation in Britain
for a dose of the drug ecstasy.
EOC Equal Opportunities Commission. The agency respon-
sible for dealing with sex discrimination and gender
inequality, for example in the workplace, in Britain.
FE Further Education. Non-advanced post-compulsory
education that originated in the late-nineteenth
century to transmit vocational skills. Redefined in the
Education Reform Act (1988) as courses for adults at or
below the equivalent of A level.
FEFC(s) Further Education Funding Council (s). Non-elected,
semi-public bodies created in 1992 to administer the
finances and courses provided by FE colleges. The
FEFCs for England and Wales took control of colleges
away from elected local authorities.
GCE General Certificate of Education. School examinations
that replaced the High School Certificate in 1951 and
available at Ordinary (O) and Advanced (A) level.
GCSE General Certificate of Secondary Education. An exam-
ination system introduced in 1986 to provide a single
method of assessment for all pupils aged 16 (replacing
the O level and CSE examination systems). First exam-
ined in 1988. Typically, students sit nine or more GCSE
subjects, which are primarily assessed by written exami-
nation papers.
GFETC(s) General Further Education and Tertiary College (s).
Large comprehensive vocational institutions within the
 Glossary IX

FE sector, which provide some academic courses usually

in separate sixth-form centres.
GNVQs General National Vocational Qualifications. A system of
assessment mainly for pupils aged 16 to 18 in full-time
post-compulsory education which relate to broadly
defined vocational skills. Assessed at Foundation,
Intermediate and Advanced levels. The latter carry, in
theory, parity of esteem with the A-level examination
system.
HE Higher Education. Advanced post-compulsory educa-
tion primarily for students aged 18 to 21. From the mid-
1960s to the early 1990s, HE was provided mainly in
universities and polytechnics. This binary system was
abolished in 1992 and polytechnics acquired the right
to become universities.
LEA(s) Local Education Authority (or Authorities).
Administrative authorities created by the Balfour
Act (1902) to provide elementary and secondary educa-
tion in specific geographical areas. LEAs acquired
responsibility for the provision of FE in 1944. However,
FE was taken out of the control of LEAs in 1992.
LRPP Land Registry Property Prices. The Land Registry is the
government department responsible for maintaining
the Land Register. Each quarter, the Land Registry
reports changes in average prices and sales volumes in
the residential property market. Average Land Registry
Property Prices are available for a variety of housing
types in the majority of postcode districts.
LSC Learning and Skills Council. The quango that replaced
the FEFC in England in 2001. It has a remit to promote
participation and attainment in FE irrespective of stu-
dents' social characteristics and backgrounds.
MDC Middle District College. A large GFETC in Middle
Town. Originally established in the late-1980s when the
LEA combined three existing providers of FE.
MTC Middle Town College. A large SFC in Middle Town that
specializes in the provision of A/AS-level courses.
Originally established in the 1970s as a relatively selec-
tive provider of post-compulsory education.
 Educational Attainment and Society

NATFHE National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher

Education. The largest trade union and professional
association for lecturing, managerial and research staff
in FE and HE in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
NEMDA National Ethnic Minority Data Archive. Archive of infor-
mation related to ethnic minorities in Britain, derived
from census data, held at the University of Warwick.
NVQs National Vocational Qualifications. Qualifications
intended primarily for people in work or part-time post-
compulsory education which relate to specific occupa-
tional skills.
OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development. An organization of 30 member countries
committed to democratic government and the market
economy that publishes, among other things, statistical
research related to economic development, education
and technical change.
Olevel Ordinary level. An examination system introduced in
1951 for pupils aged about 15 or 16 in grammar and
private fee-paying schools. Students usually sat nine or
more O-level subjects, which were formally assessed in
written examination papers. Replaced in 1986 by the
GCSE.
SCs Specialist Colleges. Colleges in the FE sector that
provide highly specialized training, usually in only one
vocational area. For example, Agricultural Colleges or
Performing Arts Colleges.
SC Southern College. A large GFETC in Southern Town.
Originally founded in the 1920s as a municipal college
to provide vocational training for men and women.
SFC(s) Sixth-form College (s). Separate colleges for students
aged 16 to 19 which take pupils from several schools in
a region. These colleges are often highly selective and
primarily provide A/AS-level courses. Formerly admin-
istered by LEAs, the Further and Higher Education Act
(1992) placed SFCs in the FE sector.
 Preface

This book reports the findings of a longitudinal, mixed-methods study of dif-

ferential educational attainment, at Advanced and Advanced Supplementary
level, in three sixth forms in England. It is primarily concerned with the rel-
ative impact of gender and social background on attainment. During the
1990s and in the early twenty-first century, sociological research has tended
to prioritize the analysis of gender differences in attainment and to margin-
alize the analysis of attainment difference by social background. Research has
also isolated the study of patterns of attainment from the social causes of dif-
ferential educational practices and performances.
This work takes a fresh look at the social conditions of learning, drawing
on the principles of the Cambridge school of sociology, to provide a holis-
tic account of the impact of students' aggregate lifestyles on their attain-
ment. It is shown that gender had a relatively modest and declining effect
on educational practices and attainment, while the impact of social back-
ground was more substantial and persistent.
The declining relevance of gender to attainment was explicable in terms
of students' growing awareness of gender, the convergence of their educa-
tional practices and changing patterns of social interaction. Nevertheless,
gender became more relevant to attainment the closer issues of social strat-
ification were approached. Social background continued to restrict the edu-
cational aspirations and achievements of less privileged students because
social stratification was largely taken for granted by students and their lec-
turers. Furthermore, the responses of students to the sixth form, including
their educational practices, were substantially related to their social
background, while gender was less relevant to their everyday conduct.
Educational attainment was explicable in terms of the social relationship
that developed between the student and the institution, which primarily
reflected students' social backgrounds. The neglect of students' situational
adaptations to and of educational contexts in many recent studies of attain-
ment has, unfortunately, resulted in an incomplete understanding of the
relationship between educational practice, attainment and society.
xii Educational Attainment and Society

The data reported here were gathered between September 1999 and
October 2001. The Economic and Social Research Council funded this
research. Educational research does not develop ex nihilo; rather it reflects
the cooperation, guidance and encouragement of many people. I should
like to thank members of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences,
University of Cambridge, for their support and advice. A particular debt of
gratitude is owed to Bob Blackburn for his invaluable academic insights
throughout the research. Similarly, I should like to express my thanks to
Jackie Scott, who was particularly helpful in assisting me to structure this
research.
Substantial thanks are also due to Mark Wharton, Ursula Werners and
Valerie Wise for their help with the preparation and analysis of the primary
data-sets. Most importantly, I wish to express my gratitude to the many stu-
dents and lecturers in the sixth forms whose enthusiastic participation made
this research possible. In preparing this manuscript, I was fortunate to
receive the editorial support of Anthony Haynes, formerly of Continuum,
and the encouragement and advice of Professor Stephen Gorard, University
of York. Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Carmen Kettley, for her
indefatigable encouragement, help and optimism. This book is dedicated
to her with my love.
Many of the strengths of this work are attributable to the people who
assisted me with the research, most of whom remain anonymous for reasons
of confidentiality, but its weaknesses are undoubtedly my responsibility.
 Parti

Introduction
 Chapter 1

Empirical and Theoretical Approaches

to Attainment

The social conditions of learning are familiar themes in sociology. This book
is no exception since it is centrally concerned with the relationship between
gender, social stratification and educational attainment. Nevertheless,
familiarity should not breed contempt. The conceptual position adopted
here advocates a novel and innovative approach, as we will see in Chapter 2,
which challenges orthodox treatments of this subject matter. In part, this
rejection of prior models of attainment reflects an awareness of their limited
research agendas, findings and policy successes.
Problematically, the history of educational research has largely reflected
political debates related to schooling, the prevailing structure of education
systems and predominant perspectives in sociology. The context of research
has shaped its empirical and theoretical contributions. These delimiting
factors have inhibited the production of studies of the extent and causes of
differential attainment that give equal weight to gender and stratification.
Specifically, the contexts of the old, the new and the contemporary soci-
ology of education have led to different priorities being given to gender and
stratification as attainment-related variables (Williamson 1974: 6). An exam-
ination of major trends in research in Britain and, to a lesser extent, the USA
and Australia in the period after 1945 can be used to highlight the limita-
tions of prior approaches to attainment. However, the purpose of this review
is not criticism per se, but rather to learn from the relative merits of differ-
ent academic traditions.

1.1 The old sociology of education

The old sociology of education includes the research of structural function-

alists and social-class analysts related to schooling. Functionalism flourished
in American educational sociology from the 1950s to the 1970s, and class
analysis or educability studies predominated in British educational sociol-
ogy in the 1950s and 1960s. However, this theoretical distinction was blurred
4 Educational Attainment and Society

since some research did not fit neatly into this scholarly divide (see
Bernstein 1961). At first sight, functionalism and class analysis may appear
strange bedfellows, because the former was committed to a consensual
model of society, whereas the latter challenged social inequality in both edu-
cation and society. Nevertheless, these approaches shared a concern for
social background as an attainment-related variable that resulted from the
application of structural theory and quantitative methods to similar educa-
tional contexts.
This convergence of research partly reflected the expansion of state-
funded education in the postwar period. In the USA, high school enrol-
ments grew in the 1940s and 1950s (Trow 1967:442). This growth generated
research into the functions of education, differential attainment by social
class and access to the universities. In Britain, the 1944 Butler Act expanded
secondary education for pupils aged between 11 and 15 years by making it
free and compulsory. However, secondary education was selective and
pupils were placed in grammar, secondary modern or technical schools
according to their score on a test at the age of 11. Grammar schools catered
for the most academically able minority, secondary moderns for the less-
able majority and technical schools provided vocational training. The cre-
ation of this system of schooling led researchers to analyse class differences
in educational selection, attainment and progression. Therefore, the unity
of the old sociology of education resided in the emergence of similar
research concerns and contributions among sociologists of very different
theoretical perspectives.

Structural functionalism
The greatest strength of the functionalist approach to education was that
it emphasized the link between schooling and society. In particular,
Durkheim (1956) examined how education functioned to recreate value-
consensus and the division of labour in industrial societies. This concern
for social order led many functionalists to analyse the association between
individual value-orientations and class background, because stratification
was considered to be a major subsystem of society (Kluckhohn 1950; Rosen
1956). These studies concluded that middle-class culture, unlike working-
class culture, was based on individualistic and future-oriented values asso-
ciated with the doing and mastery of tasks. Until the early 1970s,
functionalists drew on such findings to frame their analyses of family life,
social class and attainment.
Functionalist studies of attainment gave priority to cultural rather than
material analysis. This concern reflected Durkheim's (1956) preoccupation
with the moral basis of society and was manifested in attempts to measure
 Empirical and Theoretical Approaches to Attainment 5

the relationships between pupils' social class, their value-orientations and

their school-based performances. Indeed, researchers such as Strodtbeck
(1961), Kahl (1961), and Banks and Finlayson (1973) successfully demon-
strated that boys' value-orientations varied by class and that the values of
working-class boys were related to lower attainment. In addition, function-
alists gave primacy to the process of primary socialization as ^explanation
of differential attainment, since absolute deprivation had declined after
1945. Values learned in the family, such as activism/mastery and disposition
to gratification, were believed to guide behaviour in the school.
Gender received less attention from functionalists as an attainment-
related variable than social class. This situation reflected theoretical beliefs
about women's familial role, the extent of women's participation in the
postwar labour-market and the belief that men's occupations determined
the class position of the whole family.
When functionalists did examine sex differences in attainment, they pri-
marily adopted a cultural model of gender relations. At this time, the func-
tionalist approach to gender was based on the idea of sex-roles, which
equated femininity with expressive values and masculinity with instrumen-
tal values (Parsons and Bales 1956). In their research, functionalists found
the 'feminine' personality traits of girls to be generally helpful to attainment
and the 'masculine' personality traits of boys to be generally detrimental to
attainment (Banks 1976: 107). This situation was believed to reflect the pas-
sivity, compliance and diligence of girls that resulted from sex-specific
socialization. However, this process was age-related and 'masculine' per-
sonality traits among girls were found to promote their intellect as adults
(Kagan and Moss 1962).
Demands for increased social justice rarely emerged from functionalist
studies of attainment because the causes of poor academic performance
were located in the values of individuals, their families and communities.
Some functionalists also continued to believe that the persistence of educa-
tional inequality was necessary for the allocation of talented individuals to
socially important occupations (Davis and Moore 1945). However, techno-
logical change in the postwar years motivated a minority of functionalists to
assess the form of education required to meet the economy's demand for
increasingly skilled labour (Clark 1962). This interest in economic ef-
ficiency led to challenges to the dysfunctional allocation of labour and 'was
congruent with the traditional socialist critique of inequality of educational
opportunity between classes' (Karabel and Halsey 1977: 9).
Many of the cultural concepts of functionalism have had a lasting influ-
ence on educational sociology. The feminists Licht and Dweck (1983: 73)
have, for example, used the notion of achievement orientations to explain
sex differences in intellectual performance. Likewise, the functionalist
6 Educational Attainment and Society

exploration and measurement of the relationship between gender identity

and attainment is partly echoed in contemporary psychological research
(Whitehead 2000, 2003). However, the functionalist approach to attain-
ment was criticized in the early 1970s.
In terms of measurement, functionalist studies were criticized for using
teachers' assessments of attainment because there is a danger of bias in
grade allocation. Functionalists also used a range of dubious scales of social
stratification to examine patterns of attainment. For example, Rosen (1956:
204) amalgamated indicators of parental occupation, education and resi-
dency to measure students' social class. Such scales are atheoretical and gen-
erate artificial groups, which have little to do with the actual socio-economic
experience of families. Likewise, the work of functionalists related to gender
and attainment drew heavily on questionable measures of personality traits,
masculinity-femininity scales, used in psychology.
In terms of theory, functionalism was criticized for its preoccupation with
value-consensus and social integration. The structural concerns of func-
tionalists were expressed in an obsessive interest in social order, which pro-
duced analyses of the parts institutions played in maintaining the status quo.
Therefore, functionalists largely ignored conflict in education, the content
of the curriculum that led to role-allocation and school processes that
shaped attainment (Young 1971; Apple 1982). Additionally, class-related
values were identified by many functionalists as the cause of differential
attainment, but they ignored the material origins of these moral sentiments.
This perspective also depicted middle-class values as normative and
working-class values as deviant. Therefore, the low attainment of some
working-class pupils reflected their 'pathological' moral sentiments and was
indicative of 'cultural deprivation'. Functionalist studies of education also
suffered from another deficit: they separated social class and gender as
attainment-related variables. The social context in which functionalists
operated meant that priority was given to class differences in attainment,
while gender differences were often treated en passant.

Educability studies
The ideas that guided educability studies of attainment were largely derived
from neo-Weberian class analysis, which was concerned with the develop-
ment of reputational scales of occupations, social mobility and the rela-
tionship between education and mobility (Goldthorpe 1967). Therefore,
educability studies explored material and social factors that 'prevented a
perfect relationship between measured ability, educational opportunity and
performance' (Flude 1974:16). This approach to attainment has a long and
complex history in official reports, educational research and studies of
 Empirical and Theoretical Approaches to Attainment 7

social stratification. However, its neo-Weberian and social democratic cre-

dentials are more easily traced.
Educability studies have been described as part of a "* meritocratic" para-
digm', because they analysed educational inequalities and sought to
promote social justice (Moore 1996: 145). This commitment led to studies
of social class differences in educational selection and attainment. For
example, Douglas (1964: 121) demonstrated the disparity between child-
ren's actual test scores at the age of 11, used for the purpose of selection to
grammar schools, and what should have been expected on the basis of IQ
test scores at the age of 8. Unsurprisingly, working-class children obtained
fewer grammar school places than should have been the case. Similarly,
Dale and Griffith (1965: 15) showed that academic deterioration in a
grammar school was concentrated in the working class. Educability studies
used such findings to urge the government to introduce non-selective,
mixed-ability schools for all the children in a given neighbourhood, so-
called comprehensives, on a national basis.
In true neo-Weberian style, educability studies explained class differences
in selection and attainment by reference to a plurality of factors in the home
and the school. Dale and Griffith (1965) identified the following variables
as class-related determinants of attainment: home facilities; family size;
parental education; disharmony in the home; pupils' attitudes; and the
quality of teaching. Attainment differences were the product of a constella-
tion of class-related factors, rather than a lack of material resources per se.
In later educability studies, however, more emphasis was placed on social
interaction in the school, including the polarization of pupils' subcultures,
as the cause of class-related differences in education (see Hargreaves 1967;
Laceyl970).
Educability studies devoted slightly more attention to gender as an
attainment-related variable than did functionalism. However, this concern
was usually expressed in the measurement of gender differences in attain-
ment, rather than in the theoretical explanation of such patterns. Douglas
(1964: 70) found that girls were more likely to go to grammar schools than
boys and that teachers assessed working-class boys' abilities unfavourably,
but simply accounted for these differences by reference to the keener
interest of girls. Nevertheless, educability research such as that of
Holly (1965: 153) showed that boys tended to outperform girls in sec-
ondary schools, but provided scant explanation for these attainment dif-
ferences. Neo-Weberian theory, after all, lacked a convincing model of
gender relations.
The neo-Weberian basis of educability research, like the structural basis
of functionalism, also created an interest in the supply of labour. This
concern with production led many sociologists to argue that selective
8 Educational Attainment and Society

secondary schooling was undesirable, since it wasted working-class talent

and created an inefficient labour-market (Westergaard and Little 1970).
Moreover, the social democratic ideals of many educability researchers,
unlike the conservative sentiments of many functionalists, generated pres-
sure for educational reform. In part, this pressure contributed to the
Labour government's request in 1965 that local authorities in England and
Wales introduce comprehensive schools. Therefore, educability studies
helped to change the school system.
Despite its contributions to the political debate on school reform, the
educability approach fell into disrepute from the late 1960s onwards. The
measures educability studies used to establish inequality were criticized for
relying on IQ tests to establish 'innate' ability. Educability studies were also
criticized for the poor quality of their scales of social stratification. In par-
ticular, Douglas (1964: 43) had created a new social scale by simply amalga-
mating variables previously shown to be relevant to attainment. This
approach to stratification failed to examine how material and social factors
interacted in the home to determine life chances. Furthermore, a number
of researchers challenged the statistical procedures and findings of educa-
bility studies. In terms of Douglas's (1964) work, Horobin et al (1967: 113)
reanalysed the data-set and claimed that the 'class gap in ability' was no
more than regression to the mean.
Educability studies were also criticized for their theoretical treatment of
the relationship between individual action and the social structure.
Specifically, Archer (1981: 262) has argued that educability studies treated
pupils' class as an atomized school input, which simply determined school
outputs. Therefore, the neo-Weberian interest in social action was lost
in the 'black box' of the school. Educability studies also tended to
dichotomize material and cultural experience, a flaw common in neo-
Weberian analysis, which often resulted in working-class culture being
blamed, albeit inadvertently, for low attainment. Most importantly,
perhaps, the reform agenda of the educability approach fell into disrepute,
because it became apparent that 'Education cannot compensate for
society' (Bernstein 1971).
There was a considerable degree of continuity between the functionalist
and the educability approach to attainment. The old sociology of education
frequently produced more of the same, because it focused on the extent and
causes of class differences in educational selection and attainment. A lower
priority was given to gender as an attainment-related variable. This conver-
gence of research reflected the similar political, economic and educational
contexts in which these very different theories operated. However, these old
approaches to schooling were criticized in the late 1960s and early 1970s for
ignoring knowledge, power and social reproduction.
 Empirical and Theoretical Approaches to Attainment 9

1.2 The new sociology of education

The new sociology of education emerged in Britain in the early 1970s

and included phenomenological and neo-Marxist approaches to school-
ing (Young 1971; Brown 1973). There were similar developments in the
Western European and American sociology of education (Bourdieu 1967;
Karier 1973). Phenomenologists were primarily interested in the stratifica-
tion of knowledge in education and society, whereas neo-Marxists were pre-
occupied with the relationship between schooling, culture and capitalist
productive relations. However, the central theme uniting the new sociology
of education was its concern for social reproduction which promoted qual-
itative studies of social class, gender and ethnic divisions in schools.
In part, the emergence of the new sociology of education in Britain
reflected a change in the political debate related to schooling. The com-
mitment of the Labour government to the introduction of comprehensive
schools fostered an interest in the content of the curriculum, rather than an
interest in the process of selection. Specifically, the government wished to
extend the length of the curriculum by raising the school leaving age to 16,
promote the teaching of sciences and increase examination entries. These
proposed curriculum innovations fostered the study of the relationship
between educational knowledge, power and control. This new approach to
education also developed as a result of changes in sociology. In particular,
the dominance of functionalism and neo-Weberian analysis was challenged
by the growth of phenomenological, neo-Marxist, feminist and ethno-
graphic sociology.

Phenomenology, neo-Marxism and feminism

The key organizing principle of the new sociology of education was its inter-
est in schooling as a source of cultural and economic transmission in capi-
talism. Phenomenology, neo-Marxism and feminism all provided analyses of
the relationship between the reproduction of capitalism, schooling and
attainment. These analyses can best be examined in terms of new socio-
logical approaches to the school, social class and gender.
Schools were treated as miniature social systems embedded in society by
the old sociology of education (Parsons 1959). However, Young (1971) was
highly critical of this approach to the school because it implied that the
meaning of education was unproblematic. Instead, Young (1971) viewed the
school as a political institution that imposed legitimated and stratified
knowledge on pupils. This knowledge reflected the government's interests
and reproduced the class structure. The new sociology of education often
viewed the school as part of the ideological superstructure of capitalism,
10 Educational A ttainment and Society

which reflected and reproduced the infrastructure of capitalism (Althusser

1972). This model of the school led to detailed analyses of the relationship
between school processes and the social differentiation of learning.
School processes were interpreted as complicit in the low attainment of
working-class pupils by the new sociology of education. Keddie (1971)
examined how, for example, teachers typified pupils' academic ability and
their social class. This process informed the teaching materials selected for
specific ability groups, interaction in the classroom and pupils' responses to
education. The school contributed to the low attainment of working-class
pupils, because teachers viewed their social background as culturally
deprived. Similarly, Hargreaves et al (1975) argued that teachers' specula-
tions about pupils' identities could affect their enthusiasm for academic
work and, in some cases, lead to the reproduction of routine classroom
deviance. The new sociology of education, particularly in the USA, also
examined how language differences and school processes influenced the
educational attainment of ethnic minority pupils (Labov 1973).
Phenomenological studies of school processes frequently ignored the
measurement of the relationship between class and attainment. However,
Bourdieu (1973) did enumerate the part education played in the repro-
duction of cultural capital by social class. He began his work by asserting that
it had 'nothing in common with the analytical recording of relations exist-
ing . . . between the academic success of children and the social position
of their family' (Bourdieu 1973: 71). Nevertheless, Bourdieu (1973) pro-
ceeded to develop a neo-Marxist social-class scale that was used to analyse
the cultural activities, educational experiences and intergenerational
mobility of specific occupational groups. The distribution of cultural capital
was argued to advantage the children of the capitalist classes in education.
The scarcer an educational resource or qualification, the more likely it was
to be dominated by these social classes. Therefore, the distribution of cul-
tural capital and the 'habitus' or social milieu of specific classes determined
their educational experiences (Bourdieu 1984: 169). This relationship
reflected and reproduced the infrastructure of capitalism. Clearly,
Bourdieu's (1973) work had much in common with educability studies, ir-
respective of his initial assertion.
However, many neo-Marxist and feminist studies of gender and education
did invert the focus of the educability approach. Rather than measuring
gender differences in attainment, they theorized about the relationship
between gender, schooling and social reproduction. Sharpe (1976) and
Willis (1977), for example, examined how working-class pupils interpreted
and responded to schooling in capitalism. In the former case, many
working-class girls viewed education as unfeminine and irrelevant to their
futures in the family and labour-market. These opinions were reinforced by
 Empirical and Theoretical Approaches to Attainment 11

sexual stereotypes in the school, which generated behaviour that inhibited

girls' attainment and reproduced the gender division of labour. In the latter
case, some working-class boys viewed education as unmanly and irrelevant
to their futures as factory-workers. These 'lads' responded to education by
forming an anti-school subculture that emphasized masculinity, reduced
their attainment and was complicit in their labour-market subordination.
Therefore, Sharpe (1976) and Willis (1977) both argued that education
reinforced class-related gender identities, inhibited working-class attain-
ment and reproduced capitalism.
The new sociology of education and the idea of social reproduction have
had a powerful impact on educational research. Indeed, Moore (1996) has
noted that their emergence contributed to a 'paradigm shift' in the
discipline that created an interest in gender and ethnic divisions, rather
than social-class differences. Despite this transformation of the disci-
pline, or perhaps because of it, the new sociology of education has been
heavily criticized.
In particular, phenomenologists abandoned any attempt to measure
what went into the school, in the form of pupils' social class, and what came
out of the school, in the form of pupils' attainment. Therefore, phenome-
nological models of the link between school processes, attainment and
social reproduction were not verified or falsified. Neo-Marxists and femi-
nists also postulated a relationship between family background, learning
and the reproduction of capitalism. However, they usually failed to define
attainment or measure differential attainment by gender or social class. In
addition, neo-Marxists and feminists frequently failed to measure inter-
generational social mobility. Examining the extent to which education
functioned to transform the class structure would potentially have defeated
the reproductive model (Lynch 1988).
The theoretical notion of social reproduction has also been criticized for
being deterministic and tautological, because in its original incarnation it
assumed an isomorphic relationship between education and the structure
of capitalism. This 'correspondence principle' generated dichotomous and
contradictory interpretations of pupils' responses to schooling (Bowles and
Gintis 1976: 131). For example, Sharpe (1976: 83) dubiously equated nor-
mative masculinity with success in capitalism and effeminacy with jeopar-
dized success. However, Willis (1977: 192) polarized boys' subcultural
responses to school and equated the hypermasculinity of lads with low-paid
factory work. Therefore, new sociological approaches to the school, class
and gender often provided contradictory explanations of differential attain-
ment. Additionally, the contexts in which they operated inhibited the simul-
taneous analysis of the extent and causes of differential attainment by
gender, ethnicity and social class.
12 Educational Attainment and Society

Educational ethnographies
The new sociology of education favoured naturalistic enquiry over posi-
tivism. This epistemological preference has promoted ethnographic studies
of the relationship between students' lifestyles, their everyday responses to
education and the outcomes of schooling. However, educational ethnogra-
phies have paid little attention to the measurement of patterns of attain-
ment. This deficit only makes sense if we conflate ethnography, the analysis
of lifestyles and cultures, with qualitative methods.
One of the main contributions of ethnographies to the sociology of edu-
cation has been their analysis of students' responses to specific educational
contexts. In particular, the concept of adaptation or adjustment has been
used to denote students' responses to their educational experiences. For
example, Woods (1979) studied students' class-related adaptations to the
success goals of a secondary school and Walker (1988) examined boys'
gender-related responses to schooling in Australia. More recently, Bloomer
and Hodkinson (1997, 1999) have examined the studentship and learning
career responses of 16- to 19-year-old students in England. These studies
have recognized constraints on students' capacities to adapt to education,
such as their social characteristics, and have explored students' agency in
the determination of their learning. Moreover, ethnographies have equated
positive responses to schooling with middle-class backgrounds and en-
hanced attainment, while negative responses have been linked to inhibited
attainment and working-class backgrounds.
Educational ethnographies have also sought to provide integrated expla-
nations of differential attainment (see Walker 1988; Sewell 1997). Such analy-
ses have drawn on the concepts of the new sociology of education to explore
the connection between students' lifestyles and their attainment. In England,
Aggleton (1987: 73) has explained the 'underachievement' of 'new middle-
class' students by reference to their resistance to education, to traditional
gender-roles and to uncreative labour. These students pursued authentic
experiences that led them to adopt theatrical values and bohemian lifestyles.
This authorial ideology generated a belief in effortless academic ability that
inhibited attainment. Aggleton (1987: 123) interpreted students' resistance
to education as indicative of a 'grammar of principles' or system of meanings,
which reflected their tolerant families, cultural capital and habitus.
Despite using ideas derived from neo-Marxism to explain differentiation
in the learning process, ethnographers have tried to avoid 'full-blown'
models of social reproduction (Connell et al. 1982: 192). In particular,
Aggleton (1987: 127) and Blackman (1998: 224) have identified how stu-
dents' resistance to education may contest hegemonic patriarchal and
social-class relations. Similarly, Bloomer and Hodkinson (1997: 74) have
 Empirical and Theoretical Approaches to Attainment 13

noted that the development of students' learning careers involved an

element of 'unpredictability' that reduced the correspondence between
their social characteristics and attainment. Nevertheless, these ethnogra-
phers concluded that education primarily reproduced existing patterns of
social inequality, since students' thoughts and behaviour were constrained
by the material conditions of their existence.
The major strength of ethnographic studies of education resides in their
efforts to link students' agency to the process of social reproduction.
However, the ethnographic approach to education is flawed. In terms of
quantification, ethnographers have provided cursory reviews of students'
examination grades and have failed to analyse patterns of attainment by
gender and social class. Specifically, Aggleton (1987: 142) simply listed
examination grades as proof of students' 'underachievement' and did not
examine the extent to which these grades diverged from their prior perfor-
mance. In addition, many ethnographers have used Bourdieu's (1973)
model of social class to explain differential attainment. However, they have
not used his social scale, or any other, to measure the relationships between
students' class, their attainment and the extent of social mobility. Con-
sequently, these studies have failed to verify or falsify their explanations of
the relationship between schooling and social reproduction.
Theoretically, most ethnographic studies have based their model of stu-
dents' adaptations on Merton's (1957) work. Adaptations have been depicted,
therefore, as the resolution of a static goals-means dilemma that gives rise to
discrete types of behaviour. Indeed, Sewell (1997: 76) acknowledged the lim-
itations of Merton's (1957) categories of adaptation, but defended their use
as a 'heuristic device'. Many ethnographic studies have also explained stu-
dents' responses to education using concepts such as resistance, cultural
capital and the habitus. This reliance on neo-Marxist ideas also artificially typ-
ifies students' experiences, for example by separating cultural and economic
capital, and tends to reduce their agency to an expression of capitalist pro-
ductive relations. Consequently, ethnographic attempts to provide individu-
alistic and inclusive explanations of learning are often negated.
There was a substantial degree of continuity between phenomenologi-
cal, neo-Marxist, feminist and ethnographic approaches to attainment.
This convergence of research reflected changes in the political debate
over education, changes in sociology and a concern for the issue of social
reproduction. Most importantly, the emergence of the new sociology of
education resulted in theoretical explanations of social divisions within
schools, in terms of the workings of capitalism, and in a general failure to
measure patterns of attainment by social class. Contemporary research
related to differential attainment has also paid little attention to the issue
of social stratification.
14 Educational Attainment and Society

1.3 The contemporary sociology of education

The contemporary sociology of education in Britain includes new men's
studies, feminist and attainment-'gap' research. There have been similar
developments in the American and Australian sociology of education
(Gilbert and Gilbert 1998; Foster et al. 2001). Much new men's studies and
feminist research has focused on school-based studies of the construction of
gender and the effects of gender on interaction and attainment in the
school. In contrast, attainment-gap research has often explored the mea-
surement of gender differences in public examination results by analysing
absolute group differences only. These research interests have generated
numerous analyses of either the extent or causes of differential attainment
by gender. They have also marginalized the role of social stratification as an
attainment-related variable. However, there have been some important
attempts to provide holistic accounts of educational attainment (see
Gillborn and Mirza 2000; Smith 2005).
This convergence of attainment research around the issue of gender
partly reflected the emphasis the New Right placed on the measurement of
educational performance. In Britain, the introduction of the General
Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in 1986, a new examination
mainly for pupils aged 16, promoted an interest in gender differences in
attainment. Additionally, the Conservative government's introduction of
national league tables in 1992, comparing the examination results of pupils
in schools, provided the data necessary to promote studies of gender dif-
ferences in attainment. These official data indicated an improvement in the
attainment of both gender groups at GCSE in the late 1990s, but according
to Epstein et al (1998:5) girls' results improved 'faster' than boys'. However,
the media and some academics interpreted these changes as evidence of a
'crisis' of boys' 'underachievement', and this fuelled interest in gender as
an attainment-related variable (Noble and Bradford 2000: 1-22). Concern
has also been expressed about gender differences in attainment at
Advanced and Advanced Supplementary or, more recently, Advanced
Subsidiary (A/AS) level, because these examinations are primarily taken by
students aged between 17 and 18 as a route to university.

The new men's studies and contemporary feminism

The new men's studies and contemporary feminism have largely rejected
sex role models of gender and full-blown models of social reproduction.
Instead, they have embraced the postmodern deconstruction of gender
categories, the analysis of gender discourses and practices, and the belief
that gender relations are based on power inequalities rather than an
 Empirical and Theoretical Approaches to Attainment 15

asymmetrical notion of patriarchy. In the new sociology of education,

schooling was viewed as part of the superstructure of capitalism that func-
tioned to reproduce labour. However, the new men's studies and contem-
porary feminism have postulated a looser 'fit' between gender, education
and the economy (Connell 1987: 45). Therefore, education may primarily
reproduce the existing state of gender relations in society, but it may also
contribute to the alteration of these relations. This approach to the com-
position of the 'gender order' has produced detailed analyses of gender
processes in schools, the social differentiation of learning and the outcomes
of education (Connell 1987: 98).
Unsurprisingly, the social construction of masculinities has been the
primary concern of new men's studies researchers (Renold 2004). For
example, Connell (1989: 291) has identified the competing subject posi-
tions of 'cool guys, swots and wimps' in Australian schools and Mac an Ghaill
(1994: 56) has identified four modes of masculinity and micro-cultures in
an English school. In both cases, these rival masculinities emerged as a
result of boys' gender- and class-related discourses and practices, which were
modified by school processes. Moreover, these masculinities were impli-
cated with either the promotion or the inhibition of attainment. Connell's
(1989: 294) 'cool guys' sought sexual status at school, were 'troublemakers'
and poor learners. On the other hand, 'swots and wimps' were fearful of the
hypermasculinity of 'cool guys', but their practices encouraged learning
and short-range social promotion. This research, like Mac an Ghaill's
(1994), related particular types of masculinity to differential attainment and
specific occupational destinations.
Contemporary feminists have usually provided more sophisticated analy-
ses of the construction of gender relations in education and society than
new men's studies researchers. In particular, they have avoided producing
typologies of femininities, have examined the plurality of subject positions
in education, and have devoted more attention to the relationship between
men and women. Skeggs (1991) has studied the impact of educational dis-
courses and practices on gender relations in education. This research exam-
ined how male teachers regulated female students' classroom behaviour by
sexualizing situations. These practices were said to oppress female students
because they superordinated men's desires. However, some female students
resisted male teachers' conduct by adopting 'masculine' subject positions,
which reflected an attempt to reconstitute the gender and power relations
of education. Similarly, Francis (2000) has analysed how teachers' and
pupils' sexism, homophobia, misogyny and gendered talk and pastimes
served to construct gender relations in school. These practices shaped a
variety of class-related gender subject positions that had the potential to
affect pupils' learning. Nevertheless, pupils often ridiculed academically
16 Educational Attainment and Society

focused boys, but the educational and occupational ambitions of girls were
not ridiculed, and this promoted their GCSE attainment.
The new men's studies has explained boys' academic 'underachievement'
by reference to educational and social process which may have contested
'hegemonic masculinity' (Connell 1995: 77). In particular, these explana-
tions have focused on: the anti-swot culture of boys; the boy-hostility of the
curriculum; the growth of mother-headed lone-parent families; the decline
of manufacturing industries; and the failure of teachers to challenge boys'
anti-swot culture (Bleach 1998). However, the new men's studies has rarely
explored the interaction of these variables to provide theoretical accounts
of attainment. In contrast, feminists have attempted to theorize changing
patterns of attainment by gender (Arnot 2002). Specifically, Francis (2000)
explained the higher achievement of girls at GCSE by reference to the inter-
action of gendered subject positions, school processes and pupils' aware-
ness of changes in the labour-market which undermined traditional notions
of masculinity.
Having analysed the impact of gender on learning, the new men's studies
and feminism have explored the curriculum innovations needed to
promote gender equity. Initially, the new men's studies suggested counter-
sexist education to challenge hegemonic masculinity, to prioritize the ex-
perience of marginalized groups and to promote the degendering of society
(Connell 1989: 301). More recently, these ideas have been developed to
suggest changes in teaching materials and methods, the mentoring of boys,
and therapeutic work with boys to improve their academic self-concepts and
attainment (Salisbury and Jackson 1996; Jackson 2003). Similarly, much
feminist research in the 1980s focused on the development of'girl-friendly'
education to promote female attainment. However, changing patterns of
attainment have led some feminists to explore teaching strategies and
whole-school equality programmes to promote the performance of both
girls and boys (Rudduck 1994: 10).
Finally, some contemporary feminists, unlike pro-feminist men, have
analysed the relationship between students' family backgrounds, their social
class and their attainment. These feminists have explored the contribution
of family dynamics to the academic success of working-class girls. Mann
(1997) has, for example, identified four modes of differentiation (facili-
tated, negotiated, guarded and wrested) which allowed working-class girls
to become independent of their families. These routes to personal auton-
omy contributed, in different ways, to the academic success of girls.
Similarly, Plummer (2000) has examined how educated working-class
women achieved academic success by separating off from their parents'
expectations, by rejecting traditional gender-roles and by adapting to the
middle-class values of education. However, Plummer (2000) has argued that
 Empirical and Theoretical Approaches to Attainment 17

current patterns of attainment imply that most working-class girls and boys
continue to 'underachieve', because the curriculum ignores their psycho-
logical and social experiences.
New men's studies and feminist approaches to schooling constitute part
of an 'equal opportunities paradigm' that has dominated the sociology of
education since the mid-1970s (Moore 1996:145). These perspectives have
provided sociocultural explanations of differential attainment based on
the analysis of gender discourses, practices and relations in education.
Nevertheless, there are serious methodological and theoreticalflawsin such
new men's studies and feminist research.
Most contemporary studies of the construction of gender in education
have ignored the measurement of institutionally specific patterns of attain-
ment by gender and social class. This omission weakens the assertion of
researchers such as Connell (1989) that there is a loose connection between
specific forms of gender, academic attainment and occupational destina-
tions. Moreover, studies of the construction of gender have often assumed
that school-specific qualitative data can be used to explain the national
pattern of attainment or vice versa. However, this logic is erroneous as
gender and social-class differences in attainment in specific schools may
diverge markedly from the national pattern (Jesson 1998). These studies
have also failed to recognize that attainment differences within gender
groups tend to be greater than those between gender groups. Similarly, fem-
inist studies of family dynamics and education have ignored the measure-
ment of gender and social-class differences in attainment. This neglect
reflects their preference for qualitative methods and their unconvincing
rejection of neo-Weberian class analysis as a malestream activity.
The new men's studies and feminism have also been criticized on theo-
retical grounds for providing 'culturalist' accounts of gender differences in
attainment that are 'low in explanatory power' (Ahier and Moore 1999:
524). This limitation reflects a preoccupation with positions inside educa-
tion, rather than with structural processes such as social stratification, which
directly constrain students' learning. Moreover, the new men's studies and
feminism may have produced erroneous explanations of differential attain-
ment serious because they have largely accepted that girls' examination
results have improved more 'dramatically' than boys' in the 1990s (Francis
2000:10). However, recent research has cast doubt on this interpretation of
gender differences in attainment (Gorard et al 1999).

Attainment-gap research
Educationalists have used the concept of an attainment gap to describe dif-
ferences in the measured academic performance of two groups of pupils in
18 Educational Attainment and Society

relation to their gender, ethnicity and/or socio-economic background.

Initially, this term was used to refer to social-class differences in school-based
test results, but has recently been appropriated by feminists to refer to
gender differences in attainment (Horobin et al. 1967; Arnot et al 1996).
The concept of a gender gap in attainment largely emerged as a result of
the first GCSE examinations in 1988 because this method of assessment con-
tributed to an improvement in girls' performance relative to boys'.
This improvement largely reflected the introduction of a substantial course-
work element into the examination system (Measor and Sikes 1992: 139).
Furthermore, contemporary research has measured the gender gap to
varying degrees of sophistication, which has created conflicting interpreta-
tions of patterns of attainment by gender. Therefore, the explanations pro-
vided by such research for differential attainment by gender are potentially
artefactual (Gorard etal 2001: 125).
The new men's studies has often provided unsophisticated reviews of
changing patterns of attainment by gender. In part, these analyses reflect a
desire to legitimate the problematization of heterosexual masculinity as a
separate field of educational research. Noble and Bradford (2000:11) have,
for example, examined trends in the gap between boys' and girls' GCSE
results for the period 1996 to 1998. They concluded that boys achieved infe-
rior results to girls and use this finding to justify the claim that 'we are facing
a crisis' of boys' 'underachievement' (Noble and Bradford 2000: 3).
However, these researchers failed to note that the percentage of boys achiev-
ing the top four grades at GCSE improved in all of the subjects they listed.
They also failed to measure * underachievement' by reference to prior and
expected performance, assumed that boys and girls should obtain similar
results, and did not examine proportional changes in the size of the gender
gap (Gorard 1999). Therefore, we can ask, 'Are boys really underachieving?'
Some feminists have also reviewed gender differences in attainment in a
cursory way (see Plummer 2000: 24-6). However, Arnot et al. (1999) have
provided a more sophisticated approach to measuring and explaining
changes in attainment by gender for the period 1975 to 1995. In this
research, the gender gap was defined as 'the measure of difference between
the sexes in relation to the proportion of girls and boys entering and/or suc-
ceeding in particular school subjects' (Arnot et al. 1999: vii).
This approach to entry and/or achievement gaps produced a variety of
statistical evidence, which was interpreted as showing a long-term closing of
the gender gap from a situation of girls' lower achievement compared to
boys' in the 1970s. Closure was a product of three processes. Firstly, girls had
widened their GCSE subject entry base and had increased their perfor-
mance compared to boys. In particular, they had reduced boys' advantage
in sciences and mathematics. Secondly, boys had widened their GCSE
 Empirical and Theoretical Approaches to Attainment 19

subject entry, especially in English and modern languages, but their attain-
ment was lower than girls'. Thirdly, the gender gap was also closing at A level
as more girls were staying on and attaining the highest grades and more boys
were doing arts subjects. However, boys continued to dominate A-level
sciences in terms of examination entry and attainment.
Initially, the closing of the gender gap was explained by reference to
changes in women's social position, the development of feminism and
processes of economic restructuring that were inscribed on education
by social democratic and New Right reforms (Arnot et al. 1999: 156).
Therefore, the education system was separated from the traditional gender
order and this promoted girls' attainment. Recently, this analysis has been
developed using the concept of 'gender codes', which indicate how school
knowledge and pedagogic structures are supposed to transmit gender rela-
tions (Arnot 2002: 8). The development of new gender codes as a result of
feminism is argued to have enhanced girls' classroom experience and
attainment. In turn, changing patterns of attainment by gender are said to
'signify a new gender order that represents a challenge to male hegemony,
but this challenge has not yet transformed academic gains into economic
gains (Arnot 2002: 176).
Despite the apparent sophistication of this approach to the gender gap,
it is deficient in a number of respects. Firstly, the assertion that the gender
gap was closing simplifies patterns of attainment both historically and con-
temporaneously. Importantly, it must be recalled that some girls have always
outperformed some boys at school (Douglas 1964: 70). Similarly, it must be
remembered that the extent of the contemporary gender gap is school-
specific. In most schools the gender gap may favour girls, in others it may
favour boys, and in some schools there may be no gap at all. Secondly, this
research failed to measure the relative effect of gender, ethnicity and social
class on attainment (Gillborn and Mirza 2000). Therefore, it has con-
tributed to the marginalization of social stratification as an attainment-
related variable and wrongly portrayed gender as the main cause of
academic differences. Thirdly, the rapid closure of the GCSE gender gap in
the period 1988 to 1990 identified by Arnot et al (1999: 15) may simply
reflect changes in the examination system, such as the increased assessment
of coursework, rather than the effects of changing gender codes on girls'
behaviour. In addition, this process of closure looks more like a widening of
the gender gap because, using the evidence provided by Arnot et al. (1999),
girls marginally outperformed boys before 1988 and the first examination
of the GCSE compounded this advantage. Fourthly, the closing of the
gender gap may have little to do with the impact of schools, feminism and
the state on patterns of attainment. The improvement in girls' results in the
1990s may simply reflect individual agency and a growing awareness of the
20 Educational Attainment and Society

value of qualifications in a competitive labour-market. Finally, it is unlikely

that changing patterns of attainment herald a new gender order, since the
decomposition and recomposition of gender relations requires modifica-
tions to the structures of labour, power and cathexis (Connell 1987: 116).
Indeed, Arnot (2002: 195) argued that women had not converted academic
gains into economic privilege, but did not consider the issues of vertical and
horizontal segregation in the labour-market (Blackburn et al. 2001).
The contemporary sociology of education has been preoccupied with
gender differences in attainment. However, a 'new political arithmetic' is
emerging in educational research that seeks to provide a more inclusive and
sophisticated approach to the social conditions of learning (Brown et al.
1997: 37). For example, Gillborn and Mirza (2000) have analysed the rela-
tive sizes of the 'gender, race and class gaps' among pupils achieving five
or more higher-grade GCSE examinations for the period 1988 to 1997.
Unsurprisingly, they found that gender had a smaller effect on attainment
than ethnicity which, in turn, had a smaller effect than social class.
Recently, this confirmation of the importance of social class to schooling
has generated several studies of the relationship between socio-economic
conditions, school careers, examination performance and occupational
destinations (Bynner andjoshi 2002; Ball 2002; Power et al 2002; Power et al
2003). These studies have primarily confirmed the association between
socio-economic deprivation, school processes and lower attainment, but
have often failed to provide holistic analyses of students' lifestyles. In par-
ticular, Power et al (2003) have examined variations in academic success
within the middle class, drawing on biographical data to identify patterns of
attainment. While finding that middle-class students are not necessarily des-
tined for academic success, Power et al (2003) fail to provide an adequate
exploration of the relationship between gender, social stratification and
attainment. The exploration of variations in middle-class attainment pro-
vides only a partial consideration of socio-economic experience, since it
neglects differences between social classes.
A more inclusive and sophisticated approach to the measurement of
patterns of attainment has been provided by Gorard (1999, 2000).
Contemporary research has often depicted British education as being in a
state of'crisis' related to the increased segregation of schools, the increased
polarization of school results and growing achievement gaps between
groups of pupils. However, Gorard (1999, 2000) has shown that these 'crisis
accounts' are frequently the product of inadequate statistical measures.
Using a proportionate technique, he has found that the gender gap among
pupils gaining five or more GCSE examinations in Wales for the period 1992
to 1997 and England for the period 1990 to 1997 has not grown, rather it
has decreased (1999: 240, 2000: 149). Furthermore, Gorard (2000) has also
 Empirical and Theoretical Approaches to Attainment 21

measured the gender gap in GCSE, AS- and A-level results for all pupils in
Wales for the period 1992 to 1997, using the same method as Arnot et al
(1996), but with higher-quality data-sets. In terms of A level, it was found
that gender entry gaps tended to be larger than at GCSE, reflecting the
freedom of students to select subjects, but that gender achievement gaps
tended to be smaller than at GCSE (Gorard 2000: 174).
The crisis account of British education also maintains that attainment
gaps by ethnicity and social class have grown over time, but proportionate
analyses have shown how such differences in GCSE results have declined
(Gorard 2000:145). However, interest in ethnic and social-class differences
in attainment has been less marked than interest in gender differences. In
summary, Gorard's research found that social justice in the British educa-
tion system was growing because 'divisions between the home nations,
between school sectors, between schools and between students are declin-
ing' (2000:180). These findings imply that many researchers may be trying
to explain artefactual patterns of attainment. Therefore, it may be the soci-
ology of education that is in a state of crisis rather than the education
system itself.
New Right education reforms, postmodern theories of gender and a new
political arithmetic have shaped the contemporary sociology of education.
Changes to the education system have affected the outcomes of schooling
and altered the focus of research. The new men's studies and feminism have
primarily explored the construction of gender in schools and the causes of
gender differences in attainment. In contrast, attainment-gap research has
mainly examined changing patterns of attainment by gender. However,
there is an emergent interest in the production of more inclusive and
sophisticated approaches to patterns of attainment. Nevertheless, these
approaches to schooling have often preserved traditional divisions in edu-
cational sociology and have rarely examined the extent and causes of
gender and social stratification differences in attainment simultaneously.

1.4 Developing a holistic approach to attainment

Adopting the parlance of the classroom, the history of attainment-related

research has been one of remarkably diligent effort and, unfortunately, slow
progress. An uncomfortable feeling of deja vu is experienced when reflect-
ing on the empirical and theoretical contributions of prior research. The
old, the new and the contemporary sociology of education have all exhib-
ited an interest in the relationship between students' social characteristics,
their attainment and the effects of schooling on society. The exact form of
this common concern has reflected prevailing political, ideological and
22 Educational Attainment and Society

educational realities in specific countries. However, the illusory feeling of

familiarity experienced when reviewing attainment-related research has
more to do with the continuity of limited research agendas, which focus on
discrete aspects of students' backgrounds and experiences, than the repli-
cation of specific research enterprises. Hardly any research has explored the
social conditions of learning, the relationship between educational attain-
ment and society, by giving primacy to students' aggregate lifestyles, their
experiences and their everyday conduct.
Despite this common deficit, there have been notable discontinuities in
attainment-related research. The primary concern of research has shifted
from social class to gender differences in attainment. Many researchers have
also become less interested in the accurate measurement of patterns of
attainment. In addition, the explanations provided for differential attain-
ment have shifted their focus from structured socio-economic processes to
social practices and relationships. Finally, the curriculum innovation strate-
gies proposed by many researchers have become more complex, but the evi-
dence provided for these strategies is often very weak.
These discontinuities in educational research largely reflect the adher-
ence of sociologists to categorical, dichotomous and contradictory thinking
(Holmwood and Stewart 1991). Many researchers continue to treat quanti-
tative and qualitative research as separate undertakings, gender and social
class as discrete features of students' lifestyles, and social relationships and
structural processes as distinct explanatory frameworks. These practices
have inhibited the production of simultaneous analyses of the extent and
causes of differential attainment that give equal weight to gender and social
stratification. The future of attainment-related research should involve the
production of holistic and integrated research agendas, which seek to
expand the explanatory resources of sociology. Such a future can best be
secured by learning from the relative merits of previous research.
Therefore, this study of gender, social stratification and educational attain-
ment was informed by a number of lessons derived from appraising prior
approaches to the social conditions of learning.
Firstly, it is erroneous to study the extent and causes of differential attain-
ment separately, because this isolates aetiology from empirical reality.
Consequently, studies of differential attainment should reject the artificial
distinction between quantitative and qualitative methods. Secondly, the
causes of differential attainment are plural and located in students' aggre-
gate lifestyles. It is preferable to examine the relationship between gender,
stratification and attainment simultaneously. The holistic analysis of the
social conditions of learning requires us to reject artificial distinctions
between social relationships and structural processes. Thirdly, it is inappro-
priate to study the attainment of men and women or specific social classes
 Empirical and Theoretical Approaches to Attainment 23

in isolation, since gender and stratification are best conceptualized as

emerging from social relationships. Fourthly, a holistic approach to attain-
ment requires a contextually and temporally sensitive examination of stu-
dents' everyday experiences both inside and outside of education. Finally,
students' experiences and their differential attainment are best analysed
continuously, rather than through the construction of crude categories and
types, since social life is contiguous not fragmented. These principles
guided this study of educational attainment and society.
 Chapter 2

Reconceptualizing the Study of Attainment

It is the duty of the serious critic to offer a constructive alternative.

Therefore, the intellectual tools required to reconceptualize the study of
attainment are now established. This process of rethinking attainment-
related research did not develop ex nihilo, rather it was informed by the prin-
ciples of the * Cambridge school' of sociology (Holmwood and Stewart 1991:
viii). The characteristics of this school of sociology are now summarized to
position my study theoretically and illuminate its distinctive approach to
attainment. However, it would be incorrect to portray this restructuring of
attainment-related research as simply an act of theoretical sophistry. My
commitment to the production of an inclusive and holistic model of the
social conditions of learning emerged, in large part, as a result of my teach-
ing career. It also reflected, as we have seen, a personal dissatisfaction with
existing approaches to attainment.

2.1 Conceptual approach to attainment

The naming of branches of social research, like the naming of cats, is a dif-
ficult matter that presents at least three problems (Eliot 1940: 9). Firstly, a
group of researchers must provide a new and coherent set of principles for
investigating social phenomena to warrant the naming of a distinct per-
spective. Secondly, once 'christened' this perspective must contribute to
the progressive thrust of a field of enquiry or discipline by resolving acad-
emic problems in a manner that expands our understanding of society.
Thirdly, as a new perspective matures it must be open to expansion, the
application of its domain assumptions to new problems, and to rigorous
scrutiny to assess the merits of its findings. There are always those, of
course, who would resist the naming of a new perspective. However, the
results of such a nomenclative act, not commitment to orthodoxy, should
validate originality.
 Reconceptualizing the Study of Attainment 25

The Cambridge school of sociology

Holmwood and Stewart (1983, 1991) have examined the role of contra-
dictions in modern social theory. Drawing on Lakatos's (1970) model of the
philosophy of science, which distinguishes between degenerate and pro-
gressive research, they differentiate productive and unproductive sociol-
ogy. Productive sociology is willing to engage with research problems,
rejects the idea that social experience can be paradoxical and acknowl-
edges the unity of explanatory issues. It also recognizes the indivisible and
continuous qualities of social life, generates explanations consistent with
the totality of human activity and expands explanatory resources to foster
theoretical progress.
In contrast, unproductive sociology attempts to rescue existing theory by
converting its explanatory failures into contradictory features of social ex-
perience. Theory fails when it is contradicted by empirical evidence.
However, unproductive sociology responds to this theoretical deficit by inte-
grating additional concepts into its explanatory schema in an ad hoc fashion,
rather than by transforming its existing theory. This process results in soci-
ologists claiming that social experience is confounding and contradictory,
because they are unwilling to accept the inadequacies of their own abstrac-
tions. Therefore, sociological problems are translated into social problems
and the principle of falsification is violated. Unproductive sociology inhibits
theoretical progress. This distinction between productive and unproductive
sociology is best thought of as a continuum with the polar extremes being
characterized by either progressive or retrogressive methodological and
theoretical practices.
By distinguishing productive and unproductive sociology Holmwood and
Stewart (1983,1991) seek to name and recommend the empirical approach
of the Cambridge school. This approach to gender and social stratification
is associated with the following works: Stewart et al (1980); Prandy et al
(1982); Prandy (1990); Siltanen (1994); Blackburn (1999); Blackburn
et al (2001); and Browne (2006). The conceptual principles of the
Cambridge school can be clearly delineated.
Firstly, empirical research is not denigrated or pejoratively associated with
quantification, rather it is given centrality in sociology. Despite attacks on
empirical sociology, associated with the 'cries of anti-positivism', the
Cambridge school has remained committed to explanations based on the
interpretation of individual practical knowledge, experience and conduct
(Kent 1981: 179). Individuals are located in structural positions, institu-
tional contexts and temporal processes that constrain their experience and
inhibit their comprehension of the totality of society. However, although the
totality of society and components of it are unapparent to most individuals,
26 Educational Attainment and Society

such as the selective mechanisms of the education system, empirical

research can verify the regularities of experience to provide progressive
explanations. In addition, practical conduct contributes to the composition
of the individual's situation and to the reproduction of society in so far as it
is patterned. Primarily, patterned conduct reproduces existing social
arrangements, but it may also modify or transform these arrangements. In
general terms, members of the Cambridge school prefer straightforward
explanations of social processes consistent with everyday experience, rather
than the contrivances of 'grand theory' (Mills 1970).
Secondly, the Cambridge school rejects a priori categories, false
dichotomies and bounded abstractions in social research. The history of
sociology is littered with conceptual assumptions and reified oppositional
categories that are unproductive. In particular, Siltanen (1994) advises soci-
ologists to avoid assuming that gender is a priori meaningful, to locate
gender in specific contexts and to avoid studying men and women in isola-
tion, because gender is a relational phenomenon. Similarly, Stewart et al
(1980: 105-13) have rejected the artificial distinction between social class
and social status since it generates discrepant explanations of, for example,
the occupational experiences of clerks. Importantly, this conceptual
approach rejects unproductive logical structures and insists on the indivisi-
bility and continuity of practical experience.
Thirdly, the Cambridge school has combined its challenge to categorical
analyses and its belief in the investigation of social relationships with the
provision of research instruments to facilitate this task. Central to this pro-
vision has been the Cambridge Scale of social stratification, now the
Cambridge Social Interaction and Stratification Scale (CAMSIS), and work
on occupational gender segregation. The Cambridge Scale provides a rela-
tional measure of stratification arrangements, as we will see, and conceptu-
alizes the occupation structure as a stable and continuous hierarchy.
Finally, members of the Cambridge school have applied these analytical
tools to the resolution of substantive debates and to the evaluation of prior
sociological theory. In the field of education, the Cambridge Scale has been
applied to the issues of university access, by gender and social background,
and to trends in attendance at selective schools by parents' occupations
(Blackburn and Marsh 1991; Marsh and Blackburn 1992; Blackburn and
Jarman 1993). In these studies, previous assumptions were evaluated and the
explanatory resources of sociology enhanced. For example, Blackburn and
Jarman (1993) have shown that the massive expansion of the universities in
Britain between 1938 and 1990 has led to a reduction in gender inequalities
in participation rates, but that inequalities in access by social background
have not changed substantially. This reduction in the gender gap in
access has resulted in women succeeding in getting desirable jobs that were
 Reconceptualizing the Study of Attainment 27

previously male-dominated. This conclusion, based on rigorous statistical

procedures, challenges the widely held belief that women have not trans-
lated their improved attainment into economic success (Arnot 2002: 195).
No sociology can presume on its reception, because academia is not a
mutual admiration society. Despite its laudable principles, the empirical
approach of the Cambridge school has faced criticism. In particular, Evans
(1998) provides a multifaceted critique of the Cambridge Scale, which
focuses on what it actually measures. However, Stewart et al (1980: 28)
explicitly state that their scale measures shared experience indicated
through friendship choice, and subsequently selection of marriage partner,
which highlights generalized patterns of lifestyle advantage and disadvan-
tage. Moreover, Prandy et al (1982) have consistently differentiated their
measure from neo-Weberian scales of social status. Thus, 'We should
emphasise that our measure, unlike most others in this area, does not
attempt to tap perceptions of status ordering or of the relative standing of
occupations. Instead, it reflects the hierarchical ordering of overall lifestyles
and social interactions' (Prandy et al 1982: 38).
Clearly, there should be little confusion as to what the Cambridge Scale
actually measures. Evans (1998) should not expect a definition or validation
of this measure in neo-Weberian terms, qua Goldthorpe et al (1987), when
it originated as a critique of such analyses. The crux of the debate between
Evans (1998) and Prandy and Blackburn (1997) is whether the Goldthorpe
class schema or the Cambridge Scale provides a superior measure of strati-
fication. In this study, the latter scale was preferred since it is based on a
superior theoretical assumption. As Smith (1979: 40) has noted, only the
measurement of social interaction can generate truly social classes or, in this
case, a hierarchical ordering of occupations, because 'these patterns of
social contact may generate their own meaning systems which in turn
produce similar behaviours'. In contrast, the measurement of occupational
status generates artificial categories, which may be 'capable of "explaining"
various forms of human behaviour, but such categories are not social en-
tities in and of themselves' (Smith 1979: 40).
Nevertheless, when educational research has analysed the relationship
between attainment and social class, using scales of occupational status, it
has found that the middle class generally obtain superior results to the
working class. However, the weight of this evidence does not, in and of itself,
validate the class schemas used in such studies, because nothing can trans-
form artificially constructed categories into living, social entities. In this
sense, it is possible to think of the social-class analysis of attainment as a 'lie
that tells the truth'.
It is, perhaps, the distinctiveness of the Cambridge Scale that has led some
academics to name the Cambridge school of sociology. However, the true
28 Educational Attainment and Society

merit of this empirical approach to sociology resides in the clarity and unity
of its underlying conceptual principles. These principles include a commit-
ment to locating the spatial and temporal context of practical experience,
an insistence on continuous rather than categorical and typological think-
ing, and the privileging of social relationships in the research enterprise.
The application of this framework is central to the reconceptualization of
the study of gender, stratification and attainment.

Social stratification and attainment

Initially, the principles of the Cambridge school may appear somewhat eso-
teric and marginal to the study of educational attainment. However, this is
not the case. Sociologists such as Connell et al (1982) have firmly rejected
the concept of social stratification as an explanation of differential attain-
ment, because in the 1950s some researchers believed that:

All modern societies were . . . 'stratified', that is, divided like layer-cakes;
and enormous ingenuity and uncounted computer hours went into mea-
suring the number of layers and the thickness of the cream between them.
Further, it was assumed that the recipe for each layer of the cake was dif-
ferent - people in different 'social strata' had different attitudes, values,
child-rearing methods, personality problems, and so on . . . Members of
lower status groups . . . failed because their homes . . . weren't up to it.
(Connell et al 1982: 25-6)

This parody of 1950s research is unnecessarily derogatory, but it does encap-

sulate the categoricalism of some early studies of attainment. However,
having consigned the concept of social stratification to the graveyard of
modernity, Connell et al (1982: 187) proceed to explain differential attain-
ment in terms of 'class lifestyles', which mediate the relationship between
the home and the school. Additionally, Connell et al (1982:189) argue that
distinct social classes exist as part of a class system, but that they are 'complex
and internally divided groupings'. This research is unproductive and con-
tradictory, therefore, because it both denies the existence of relatively
homogeneous strata and accepts the existence of culturally heterogeneous
bounded class categories.
A productive resolution of this dilemma would have been to modify
rather than to reject the concept of social stratification. Indeed, the
Cambridge school's approach to stratification appears to resolve many of
the concerns of Connell et al (1982:189) related to the meaning and mea-
surement of social inequality, since as they themselves note research
should focus on 'classes in terms of activity, what people actually do in
 Reconceptualizing the Study of Attainment 29

daily life'. This resonates with the emphasis placed on social relationships,
institutional contexts and temporal processes by members of the
Cambridge school.
Despite criticisms of the concept of stratification, my research was
informed by the principles of the Cambridge school. This investigation of
gender, stratification and differential attainment was empirical. This is not
to assert that it was grounded in logical positivism or was purely quantitative;
rather it accepted that sociological knowledge must be derived from an
interpretation of aggregate patterns of experience. Productive sociology
must be verifiable or falsifiable by reference to these patterns. In the
Cambridge school, experience is defined as individuals' practical know-
ledge and conduct. Practicality indicates what individuals really do in spe-
cific spatial and temporal locations, 'their own descriptive statements of
their practical experience', rather than 'data descriptive of individuals'
states of mind abstracted from actual conditions' (Stewart et al. 1980: 8).
This study was framed to explore the relationship between individual,
institutional and societal experiences that shape students' attainment.
When considering the extent of differences in public examination results
the attainment of individual students was measured, attainment was com-
pared between educational institutions, and the association between in-
dividual attainment and the stratification dimension was measured.
Likewise, when considering gender, individual identity, institutional
'gender regimes' and society's gender order were examined as potential
causes of differential attainment (Connell 1987: 98). Initially, it may appear
contradictory in an empirical approach that denies the utility of a priori cat-
egories to consider experience individually, institutionally and societally.
However, Stewart et al. (1980) have argued that 'whether or not there is a
true level of analysis concerned with the "social" as a world distinct from
the "individual", the social is experienced as if it occupied a separate realm'
(Stewart et al 1980: 7).
This sleight of hand is, perhaps, inadequate to defend my distinction
between individual, institution and society since it is tantamount to assert-
ing that a priori categories can be accepted in empirical work when they are
experienced. Clearly, the social phenomena referred to by any a priori
assumption can be experienced. Consequently, any a priori assumption is,
therefore, potentially acceptable. A more convincing justification for the
framing of my research is to acknowledge that an individual's experience
is simultaneously subjective, intersubjective, institutional and societal.
Therefore, the determinants of attainment are experienced contiguously,
whether individual or social, because individuals make sense of their
everyday lives. Investigating practical knowledge, experience and conduct
on the individual, institutional and societal level is one approach to
30 Educational Attainment and Society

transcending the dichotomy between structure and action (Holmwood and

Stewart 1991: 89).
In summary, my study conformed to the principles of the Cambridge
school because the extent and causes of differential attainment were viewed
as indivisible, the attainment-related variables of gender, stratification and
institution attended were examined simultaneously, and my research
avoided problematizing particular social categories per se. The purpose of
this research was to generate a productive explanation of differential attain-
ment which was sensitive to students' practical experience, the educational
context and their aggregate lifestyles. This abstraction sought to acknowl-
edge the indivisibility and continuity of social processes and extend soci-
ology's theoretical resources. It also recognized the relationship between
social formation and causation. Clearly, the principles that guided my
research are not exclusive to the Cambridge school. However, these prin-
ciples are optimally expressed and facilitated by the research instruments
and conceptual model of this perspective.

2.2 The topic, sector and aims

This study reports the findings of a longitudinal analysis of differential

attainment in the examination results of full-time students, predominantly
aged 16 to 19 years, which took place in three colleges located in England.
These colleges are all part of the state-funded further education (FE) sector
that provides a broad range of courses to pre-university standard. The
research focused on attainment in those courses usually thought of as aca-
demic, rather than those viewed as vocational, because the former remain
the preferred educational route of full-time students.
Henceforward, I shall refer to the institutions included in this study as
Southern College (SC), Middle District College (MDC) and Middle Town
College (MTC). These colleges attracted dissimilar populations but when
combined, the cohorts were typical of education at this level as a whole. The
analysis of patterns of attainment provided here illuminates how social back-
ground continues to limit the aspirations and achievements of less privi-
leged students. Such findings have been shown to be relevant to all
European Union (EU) countries and those nations of the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that are economically
prosperous (Muller and Karle 1996; OECD 2004; Gorard and Smith 2004).
It is not unreasonable to suppose, therefore, that my choice of topic, sector
and aims will generate findings that resonate with educationalists both
nationally and internationally. Parallels between educational experiences
can, however, only be drawn if the system generating them is understood.
 Reconceptualizing the Study of Attainment 31

Compulsory and post-compulsory education

The historical development of compulsory and post-compulsory education
in England and Wales (there is a separate system in Scodand) is the result
of the gradual acceptance of responsibility for formal learning by the state
and the subsequent manipulation of provision reflecting competing politi-
cal ideologies. This situation has led, as in many other countries, to an edu-
cational system that manifests an excessively complex organizational
structure, a somewhat idiosyncratic system of assessment and a teaching pro-
fession that is often said to be suffering from initiative fatigue.
Compulsory education originated in England in 1870 with the passage of
the Forster Act, which established public elementary schools for children
aged between five and 13 years. Before this the Church, philanthropists and
the State provided some schooling, but children were not required to
attend. Similarly, the Balfour Education Act (1902) established a system of
secondary schools to extend existing provision and created Local Education
Authorities (LEAs) to administer schools in specific regions.
However, the contemporary provision of compulsory and post-compulsory
education owes more to the provisions of the Butler Act (1944), which estab-
lished the structure of the modern system. These provisions included the
abolition of the distinction between elementary and higher education and
the creation of a unified non-advanced education system composed of three
sectors. Primary education was to provide schooling for children aged up to
11 years, secondary education was to school children aged up to 15 years and
further education was to provide college-based, pre-university education for
students above the school leaving age. While the boundaries of these sectors
have changed over time, for example with the school leaving age being
raised to 16 years in 1972, the subsequent development of the education
system has largely maintained this overall structure.
The 1944 Act, as we saw in Chapter 1, also established three types of sec-
ondary school: grammar schools, secondary modern schools and technical
schools. This tripartite system was selective and pupils were allocated to a sec-
ondary school based on their results in the eleven-plus examination. Pupils
sat a test in, for example, English and mathematics in their final year of
primary school to decide which type of secondary school they would attend.
However, this system of school selection generated concern relating to social-
class inequalities in the allocation of grammar school places, and in 1965 the
Labour Government directed LEAs to introduce comprehensive schools.
This process of comprehensivization was never completed because some
LEAs resisted the attempt to move away from selection. Therefore, compre-
hensive and grammar schools, as well as private fee-paying schools (often
referred to as public schools) coexist in some regions of England today.
32 Educational Attainment and Society

Despite Labour's failure fully to tackle inequalities in the provision of sec-

ondary education, it did succeed in altering the prevailing system of exam-
inations. Pupils in grammar and private fee-paying schools began to sit
General Certificate of Education (GCE) Ordinary (O) and Advanced (A)
level examinations in 1951. The O level was designed to test pupils' suit-
ability to proceed to A level and the A level was designed to examine poten-
tial for university study. These examinations were not, at that time, available
to pupils in secondary modern schools, which excluded them from certain
occupations and university entrance. Therefore, the Labour Government
introduced the Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) for pupils in sec-
ondary modern schools in 1965. Later, the CSE was also made available to
pupils in comprehensive schools. While this new qualification did not have
parity of esteem with the O level, as we will see, it did enhance the edu-
cational and employment opportunities of some students.
Pupils usually sat O-level examinations at the age of 16 in a range of sub-
jects, frequently nine, ten or more, in the fifth year of their secondary
schooling. Each O-level examination, typically, consisted of a written paper
up to three hours in length, marked externally to the school by an exam-
ination board. Each examination board had its own grading system. In 1975,
however, a standard scale was introduced, withfivegrades: A to C were pass
grades, while D and E were fail grades.
Pupils usually sat A-level examinations at the age of 17 or 18 in a more
limited number of subjects, typically two, three or four, after two additional
years of post-compulsory education. Examinations for A-level subjects
usually consisted of two or three written papers of up to three hours in
length, but there was considerable variation between disciplines. A-level
examinations tended to be graded variously, depending on the board, until
1963, when a scale offivegrades (A to E) was introduced. The programme
of study leading to A levels was, and still is, often referred to as being in the
'sixth form', because it begins in the sixth year of education after the com-
pletion of primary schooling.
In contrast to the O-level examination, the CSE was graded on a numeri-
cal scale (1 to 5) where a pupil achieving grade 1 might reasonably have
been expected to achieve an O-level grade A to C, but this variance in per-
formance was not recorded. Employers and universities, therefore, inter-
preted a CSE grade 1 as equivalent to an O-level grade C. The grading of
the CSE examination resulted in it being labelled by some pupils, parents
and employers as an inferior qualification to the O level. The lack of parity
between the CSE and O level, in part, led a number of examination boards
to experiment with a single system of assessment for pupils completing their
secondary schooling in the late 1970s and early 1980s. These experiments
and the commitment of the Conservative Government to improved school
 Reconceptualizing the Study of Attainment 33

standards led to the introduction of the General Certificate of Secondary

Education (GCSE) in 1986.
The GCSE provided a single examination to be taken by most pupils at
the end of their fifth year of secondary school and effectively combined the
grading scales of the O level and CSE. Pupils typically sit GCSE examinations
in nine or ten subjects, but highly able pupils may enter more examinations.
Currendy, more than 50 subjects are provided at GCSE and these subjects
are all graded A* to G with an additional result (U) for those not achieving
the minimum standard. In addition, although GCSE results are not sup-
posed to be interpreted in these terms, grades A* to C are considered pass
grades, equivalent to the old O-level pass grades, and grades D to G are con-
sidered fail grades. Therefore, schools and colleges set minimum entry
requirements for progression to A level in terms of GCSE grades.
Changes to the structure of compulsory and post-compulsory education
in England, including the examinations system, have largely been motivated
by the economic and social policy objectives of particular governments. The
move toward comprehensive schools and the introduction of the CSE, for
example, represented part of a social democratic political agenda to
promote social justice through the expansion of opportunities for working-
class pupils. The introduction of the GCSE was motivated by the concerns
of the Conservative Government. These concerns included a desire to
improve educational standards, to enhance the skills of the country's
human capital and to monitor the effectiveness of teachers through the
publication of performance indicators, national league tables, ranking the
examination results of schools and colleges.
Nevertheless, the educational objectives of governments' have not always
diverged. In 1989 the Conservative Government introduced the Advanced
Supplementary (AS)-level examination in response to concerns that the
number of subjects studied at A level was too narrow. Initially, this examination
was intended to be taken at the age of 18, graded A to E, with half of the value
of an A level for university entrance purposes. It became common, therefore,
to refer to the new system of examinations as Advanced/Advanced
Supplementary (A/AS) level. However, many schools and colleges encour-
aged students to sit AS-level examinations at the end of their first year of the
sixth form as a means of assessing their suitability to proceed with A-level
courses. Despite the worries of many pupils and parents about the burdens of
increased assessment, New Labour has remained committed to the AS level,
introducing a revised version of the examination (Advanced Subsidiary) as
part of Curriculum 2000, which also sought to broaden the post-compulsory
curriculum. Perhaps this convergence of policy is unsurprising given the
desire of recent governments to increase the number of people progressing to
university as a means of maintaining the country's economic competitiveness.
34 Educational Attainment and Society

The contemporary political see-saw that the English education system has
been subjected to is probably best exemplified by the renaming of the
Ministry of Education (1944-64), which was originally established in the
Butler Act. The former Ministry has been named the Department of
Education and Science (DES) (1964-92), the Department for Education
(DfE) (1993-95), the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE)
(1996-2004) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) (2005).
Unsurprisingly, the various emphases in these names reflect predominant
political and economic concerns. The technological revolution of the 1960s
led the government to promote a scientific agenda for education, through
the DES, as a means of reskilling the industrial workforce at a time of near-
full employment. Whereas the naming of the DfEE reflected the belief that
education should primarily function to prepare young people for work,
despite relatively high levels of youth unemployment, which persisted in
some regions throughout the 1980s and 1990s. This concern for education
as a route to employability and as a preparation for adult life is extended in
New Labour's emphasis on skills. Throughout the twentieth century, such
economic forces and political commitments shaped the structure, organi-
zation and assessment of compulsory and post-compulsory education in
England and Wales.

Research topic and aims

My topic was selected to contribute to the new political arithmetic in edu-
cational research that seeks, as we saw in Chapter 1, to provide inclusive and
sophisticated approaches to social phenomena. This contribution consists
of a simultaneous analysis of the extent and causes of differential attainment
by gender, stratification and college attended. While this research agenda
has a potentially international appeal, the selection of full-time students
studying A/AS levels in colleges as the study's focus may be viewed as some-
what parochial. However, such an interpretation would be erroneous. After
completing compulsory education, many higher-achieving students in
England remain at school or enter college to commence post-compulsory
education as a potential route to university. Most students study A/AS levels
in secondary schools, but over 200,000 students were studying for these
examinations in over 400 colleges in 2000. Nevertheless, studies of attain-
ment in colleges and post-compulsory education more generally are rela-
tively scarce, because researchers have focused on patterns of school-based
academic performance.
Recent research related to FE has concentrated on the long-term effects
of 'incorporation'. This transformation of colleges into financially in-
dependent bodies, as a result of the Further and Higher Education Act for
 Reconceptualizing the Study of Attainment 35

England and Wales (1992), has generated analyses of the impact of change
on sectoral management, gender relations in colleges and the market image
of colleges (Theodossin 1992; Prichard and Deem 1999). Unsurprisingly,
this research has paid little attention to students' attainment. Several
recent studies of colleges have, however, identified the social conditions of
learning as their central concern (Bloomer 1997; Harkin et al 2001).
Surprisingly, this research has also given scant attention to students' attain-
ment. Nevertheless, a small number of studies have explored patterns of
attainment in colleges, but they have examined these patterns in isolation
from the educational contexts and social process that produce specific
learning outcomes (Goldstein and Thomas 1996; Yang and Woodhouse
2001). My choice of aims sought to overcome this dichotomous treatment
of social formation and causation.
The research aims of this study sought to provide a 'numerate, rational,
empirical and balanced' approach to the investigation of the social condi-
tions of learning (Gorard 1999: 244). A statistical analysis of the extent of
differential attainment, defined in terms of students' public examination
grades, was combined with a grounded approach to the explanation of pat-
terns of attainment (Glaser and Strauss 1967). The development of a theo-
retical explanation of attainment was based on intimate and extensive
involvement with students, lecturers and middle-managers in the colleges.
This approach to attainment was relatively ambitious and called for sub-
stantial primary research. The vast majority of the fieldwork was undertaken
with the 1999-01 cohorts in the colleges; it therefore predated the provi-
sions of Curriculum 2000, but involvement with these institutions continued
until 2004. In addition, the conceptual principles that underpinned the
study and the aims of the research required the construction of a mixed-
methods strategy. Consequently, this study is based on the analysis of 1,385
students' college records, the analysis of questionnaire data gathered from
330 students and the analysis of 201 in-depth interviews conducted with stu-
dents who completed the questionnaire, together with some of their lec-
turers. The fieldwork conducted at SC and MDC was directly comparable in
terms of its breadth and depth. However, the fieldwork conducted at MTC
was on a more modest scale, reflecting limited access and the resources
available to me, but when combined these data-sets were sufficient to
examine my aims.
The first aim of my research was to assess the extent of differences in stu-
dents' A/AS-level examination results, considering the relevance of their
gender, social background and the college they attended. The purpose of
this statistical analysis was to establish current patterns of attainment within
and between the colleges. Additionally, the temporal stability of current pat-
terns of attainment was assessed at the colleges and students' attainment was
36 Educational Attainment and Society

compared at GCSE and A/AS level by adopting a 'value-added' measure of

performance (DfE 1995). Therefore, it was possible to consider the extent
to which attending college had intensified or ameliorated differences in
attainment. The present government has promoted an egalitarian vision of
post-compulsory education, in accordance with its concern for social justice,
which attempts to encourage participation and attainment regardless of stu-
dents' social characteristics. The initial aim of this study facilitated an assess-
ment of the extent to which this vision was achieved by the colleges.
Having established patterns of attainment at the colleges, my second
aim was to explore the causes of students' differential attainment consid-
ering the relevance of their gender, social background and the college
they attended. The purpose of this analysis was to explain the mechanisms
through which these variables, as facets of students' aggregate lifestyles,
actually shaped their educational practices and attainment. This task was
achieved by using a modified version of 'grounded theory' to analyse the
data generated from a longitudinal programme of student in-depth inter-
views (Glaser and Strauss 1967). Specifically, these narrative data were
analysed to explore the relationships between the regularities of students'
practical knowledge and experience, their social characteristics and the
examination results they finally achieved at college. Therefore, this
research aim involved the deconstruction of the qualitative/quantitative
divide in sociology.
The final aim of my research was to develop a theoretical explanation of
students' differential attainment in the colleges and, perhaps, post-
compulsory education more generally. This abstraction sought to provide
an explanation of patterns of attainment consistent with the totality of stu-
dents' educational experiences, their everyday practices and aggregate
lifestyles, rather than one that had to appeal to contradictions to conceal
its explanatory failures. Initially, this aim was pursued by considering the
interaction of students' gender and social background as determinants of
their educational practices in the colleges. However, this task was finally
achieved by analysing the degree of alignment between students' social
characteristics, their 'situational adaptations' to the college experience and
their aggregate levels of attainment (Prandy et al. 1982: 14). The explana-
tion that emerged from this analysis, labelled the 'congruence' approach
to educational practice and performance, overcame the limitations of
reproductive explanations of differential attainment (Eckstein 1997;
Kettley2001).
These research aims were selected and organized to produce a relatively
inclusive approach to gender, stratification and attainment. This commit-
ment to a holistic approach to attainment reflected my prior teaching
experience and equal opportunities work in post-compulsory education
 Reconceptualizing the Study of Attainment 37

(1987-97). The decision to undertake educational research often has a 'per-

sonal beginning', as Shumar (1997:1-2) has noted, which involves the aca-
demic claiming to 'know the people because s/he has been there'. However,
my aims were selected to be relatively inclusive, inverting Shumar's (1997)
logic, because I was aware that I did not know the people I had taught or the
reasons for their educational performance.
Nevertheless, the aims of this study were delimited both before and
during the fieldwork. Ethnicity was excluded as an attainment-related vari-
able from the research at the outset because a national sample is required
for an adequate analysis of patterns of attainment by ethnic group. This
requirement reflects the fact that ethnic minority groups constitute small
proportions of the total population, which are unevenly distributed
between regions (Gillborn and Mirza 2000: 8). In addition, my research was
unable to measure changes in patterns of attainment as a result of the incor-
poration of the sector because it became apparent that the colleges were
unable to provide adequate records of students' examination results that
predated 1998.
My aims were also influenced by the conceptual principles that
underpinned the research. Educational researchers have, for example,
expressed a long-standing interest in the relationship between the sexual-
ity of some students, particularly gay men, and their educational experi-
ences, the impact of homophobia and their responses to schooling
(Walker 1988; Mac an Ghaill 1994). Such research provides qualitative
analyses of the formation of gay identities, the experience of 'coming out'
at school and the impact of being gay on students' education. However,
there is little consideration of the effect of sexuality, whether gay, bisexual
or straight, on attainment. This deficit reflects the ethical difficulties as-
sociated with gathering data related to sexual orientation and the small
number of openly gay, lesbian or bisexual students in most cohorts.
Nevertheless, my study did not consider the impact of sexuality on attain-
ment directly because it is unproductive to conceptualize biological sex,
gender identity and sexual orientation as discrete components of students'
personal lives. It is preferable to examine students' practical knowledge
and experience of gender, as young men and women, related to the issues
of personal identity, interpersonal relationships and sexuality. Therefore,
the exploration of the relationship between gender and attainment sub-
sumes the notion of sexuality.
The research aims of this study were conceived of as an interrelated
sequence, which would facilitate the description and explanation of
the relationship between educational attainment and society. This set
of aims required a mixed-methods approach to data collection, analysis
and interpretation.
Other documents randomly have
different content
9. A candlestick that giveth light without is a good work, which by its
good example inflameth others. Of which it is said, 'No man lighteth
a candle and putteth it under a bushel, but in a candlestick.'
[Footnote 214] This candle, according to the Word of the Lord, is a good
intention: of which He saith Himself: 'Thine eye is a light.'
[Footnote 215] But the eye is the intention. {38} Therefore we ought
not to put the candle under a bushel, but in a candlestick. Because,
if we have a good intention, we ought not to hide it: but to manifest
our good deeds to others, for a light and an example.

[Footnote 214: S. Matthew v, 15.]

[Footnote 215: S. Matthew vi, 22.]

10. Man must also have an ark. Now area is derived from arcendo:
discipline, therefore, and regular life may be called the ark; by which
crimes are driven away (arcentur) from us. Now in the ark were the
rod, the tables, and the manna: because in the regular life there
must be the rod of correction, that the flesh may be chastised; and
the table of love, that God may be loved. For in the tables of the law
were written the commands which pertain to the love of God.
Therein must also be the manna of divine sweetness: that we may
'taste and see how gracious the Lord is: for it is good to have to do
with Him.' [Footnote 216] According to that proverb of the prudent
woman, 'She tasted and saw that it was good.' [Footnote 217]
Therefore, that we may be the temple of God, let us have in
ourselves an altar of oblation, lest we appear empty in His presence,
according to that saying, 'Thou shalt not appear empty before the
presence of thy God': [Footnote 218] let us have a table for refection
lest we faint, through hunger, in the way: as saith the Evangelist, 'If
I send them away empty, they will faint in the way,' [Footnote 219] a
candlestick by good works that we be not idle, as he saith in
Ecclesiasticus, 'Idleness hath taught much mischief,' [Footnote 220] let
us have an ark, that we be not as sons of Belial, that is,
undisciplined, and without the yoke: for discipline is necessary, as
the Psalmist teacheth, saying, 'Be instructed, lest He be angry.'
 Concerning which, and other ornaments, we shall speak
[Footnote 221]
in the following chapter.

[Footnote 216: Psalm xxxiv (Benedicam Dominum), 8.]

[Footnote 217: Prov. xxxi, 18. Marg. reading.]

[Footnote 218: Exodus xxiii, 15.]

[Footnote 219: S. Mark viii, 3.]

[Footnote 220: Ecclesiasticus xxii, 2.]

[Footnote 221: Psalm ii (Quare fremuerunt), 12.]

{39}

11. He buildeth this altar who adorneth his heart with true humility
and other virtues. Whence Gregory: He who gathereth together
virtues without humility, is as he who scattereth dust to the wind.
For by the altar he understandeth our heart, as it shall be said when
we treat of the dedication of the altar: it is in the middle of the body,
as the altar is in the middle of the church. [Footnote 222]

[Footnote 222: Lev. vi, 9.]

12. Concerning which altar the Lord commandeth in Leviticus: 'The

fire shall always be burning upon Mine altar.' [Footnote 223] The fire is
charity. The altar is a clean heart. The fire shall always burn on the
altar, because charity should always burn in our hearts. Whence
Solomon in the Canticles: 'Many waters cannot extinguish charity,'
[Footnote 224] for that which ever burneth cannot be extinguished. Do
thou, therefore, as the prophet commandeth, keep holy day and a
solemn assembly, even to the horns of the altar: because the rest of
thy thoughts will keep holy day. Concerning this the Apostle showeth
'unto us a more excellent way.' [Footnote 225] He calleth charity a more
excellent way, because she is above all virtues: and whoever
possesseth her possesseth all virtues. This is the short word that the
Lord speaketh over the earth: which is so short that it only saith,
'Have charity, and do whatsoever thou wilt. For from these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets.' [Footnote 226]

[Footnote 223: Canticles viii, 7.]

[Footnote 224: I Corinth xii, 31.]

[Footnote 225: S. Matthew xxii, 40.]

[Footnote 226: See Appendix I.]

13. Or by the altar we understand the soul of every man, which is by

the Lord built up of various living stones, which are various and
different virtues.

14. Furthermore, the white cloths wherewith the altar is covered

signify the flesh of the Saviour, that is, His humanity: because it was
made white with many toils, as also the flesh of Christ born of earth,
that is, of Mary, {40} which attained through many tribulations to
the glory of the Resurrection, and the purity and joy of immortality.
[Concerning which the Son exulteth, saying to the Father, 'Thou hast
girded me with gladness, and exalted Me on every side.' [Footnote 227]
When, therefore, the altar is covered, it signifieth the joining of the
soul to an immortal and incorruptible body.] [Footnote 228] Again, the
altar is covered with white and clean cloths, because the pure heart
is adorned with good works. Whence the Apocalypse: 'And put on
white garments, that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.'
[Footnote 229] And Solomon: 'Let thy garments be always white,'
[Footnote 230] that is, let thy works be clean. [But it little profiteth him
that approacheth to the altar to have high dignity, and a life sunk
low in sins. Whence Benedict: It is a monstrous thing, exalted faith,
and abandoned life. The highest step and the lowest state, is mighty
authority joined with instability of soul. [Footnote 231]] The silken
coverings placed over the altar are the ornaments of divers virtues
wherewith the soul is adorned. The hanging wherewith the altar is
beautified setteth forth the saints, as below shall be said. [The
beginning and the end of the Mass take place at the right side of the
altar: the middle portion at the left: as shall be said when we treat
of the changes of the priest. The ancients made their altars concave;
as it is written in Ezekiel, that in the altar of God was a trench. And
this, according to Gregory, lest the wind should scatter the sacrifices
laid upon it. Also he saith in Ezekiel that the inner part of the altar
was bent downwards in all its circumference. [Footnote 232]

[Footnote 227: Psalm lxxi (Juste, Domine), 21. ]

[Footnote 228: This passage does not appear in the

edition of Durandus published at Venice, in 1609.]

[Footnote 229: Apocalypse iii, 18.]

[Footnote 230: Ecclesiastes ix, 8.]

[Footnote 231: This passage also is not found in the

Venetian edition.]

[Footnote 232: This passage also is not found in the

Venetian edition.]

{41}

15. But the steps to the altar [spiritually set forth the apostles and
martyrs of Christ, who for His love poured out their blood. The bride
in the Canticles of Love calleth it a purple ascent. Also, the fifteen
virtues are set forth by them: which were also typified by the fifteen
steps by which they went up to the temple of Solomon:] [Footnote 233]
and by the prophet in fifteen Psalms of degrees, therein setting forth
that he is blest who maketh ascents in his heart. This was the ladder
that Jacob beheld: 'And his top reached to the heavens.' By these
steps the ascent of virtues is sufficiently made manifest, by which
we go up to the altar, that is, to Christ: according to that saying of
the Psalmist, 'They go from virtue to virtue.' [Footnote 234] And Job, 'I
will seek him through all my steps.' Yet it is said in Exodus, 'Neither
shalt thou go up by steps to my altar, that thy nakedness be not
discovered thereon.' [Footnote 235] For perhaps the ancients did not as
yet use trousers. In the Council of Toledo, it is decreed that the
priest, who for the sake of grief at the misfortune of another,
strippeth the altar or any image of its garments, [or girdeth himself
with a mourning vest, or with thorns, [Footnote 236]] or extinguisheth
the lights of the church, shall be deposed. But if his church be
undeservedly spoiled, he is allowed to do this for grief: or, according
to some, he may on the day of the Passion of our Lord make bare
the altars as a sign of grief. Which is, however, reprobated by the
Council of Lyons. Lastly, altars which have been built at the
instigation of dreams, or the empty revelations of men, are
altogether reprobated.

[Footnote 233: This passage also is not found in the

Venetian edition.]

[Footnote 234: Psalm lxxxiv (Quam dilecta), 7]

[Footnote 235: Exodus xx, 26.]

[Footnote 236: This passage also is not found in the

Venetian edition.]

{42}
 CHAPTER III

OF PICTURES, AND IMAGES, AND CURTAINS,

AND THE ORNAMENTS OF CHURCHES

Use of Pictures and Curtains—Objections against the Use, answered

— Place of Pictures—The Saviour, how Represented—The Angels—
The Evangelists—The Apostles—The Patriarchs—S. John Baptist—
Martyrs—Confessors—Institution of Pictures—Of Crowns—Of
Paradise—Of the General Ornament of Churches—Of Pyxes—Of
Relicaries—Of Candlesticks—Of Cups—Of the Cross—Of Altar Cloths
and Veils—The Treasures of the Church, when Displayed, and why—
Of Ostrich Eggs—Of Vessels for the Holy Mysteries—Of Chalices—
General Observations on the Respect due to Church Ornaments.

1. Pictures and ornaments in churches are the lessons and the

Scriptures of the laity. Whence Gregory: It is one thing to adore a
picture, and another by means of a picture historically to learn what
should be adored. For what writing supplieth to him which can read,
that doth a picture supply to him which is unlearned, and can only
look. Because they who are uninstructed thus see what they ought
to follow: and things are read, though letters be unknown. True is it
that the Chaldeans, which worship fire, compel others to do the
same, and burn other idols. But Paynim adore images, as icons, and
idols; which Saracens do not, who neither will possess nor look on
images, grounding themselves on that saying, 'Thou shalt not make
to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of anything that is in
heaven above, nor in the earth beneath, nor in the waters {43}
under the earth,' [Footnote 237] and on other the like authorities: these
they follow incontinently, casting the same in our teeth. But we
worship not images, nor account them to be gods, nor put any hope
of salvation in them: for that were idolatry. Yet we adore them for
the memory and remembrance of things done long agone.
[Footnote 238] Whence the verse, [Footnote 239]

What time thou passest by the rood, bow humbly evermore;

Yet not the rood, but Him which there was crucified, adore.

And again: [Footnote 240]

That thing, which hath his being given, 'tis fond for God to own:
A form material, carved out by cunning hands, in stone.

And again: [Footnote 241]

The form is neither God nor man, which here thou dost behold:
He very God and Man, of whom thou by that form art told.

[Footnote 237: Exodus xx, 4.]

[Footnote 238: Veneramur.—We here use the word

adore in the sense given to it by the great and good
Bishop Montague, in his 'Just Treatise of Invocation':
where he says, speaking of the Saints, 'I do admire,
reverence, adore them in their kind.']

[Footnote 239:

Effigiem Christi, quum transis, pronus honora:

Non tamen effigiem, sed quem designat, adora.]

[Footnote 240:

Esse Deum, ratione caret, cui consulit esse:

Materiale lapis, effigale manus.]

[Footnote 241:
 Nec Deus est, nec homo, quam praesens cernis imago;
Sed Deus est et Homo, quem sacra figurat imago.

The later editions add—

Nam Deus est, quod imago docet, sed non Deus ipse;
Hunc videas, sed mente colas, quod noscis in ipsa.]

2. The Greeks, moreover, employ painted representations, painting,

it is said, only from the navel upwards, that all occasion of vain
thoughts may be removed. But they make no carved image, as it is
written, 'Thou shalt not make a graven image.' [Footnote 242] And
again: 'Thou shalt not make an idol, nor a graven image.'
[Footnote 243] And again, 'Lest ye be deceived, and make a graven
image.' [Footnote 244] And again: 'Ye shall not make unto you gods of
silver: [Footnote 245] {44} neither shall ye make with Me gods of gold.'
So also the Prophet, 'Their idols are silver and gold, the work of
man's hand. They that make them are like unto them: and so are all
they that put their trust in them.' [Footnote 246] And again:
'Confounded be all they that worship graven images: and that put
their glory in their idols.' [Footnote 247]

[Footnote 242: Deut. v, 8.]

[Footnote 243: Lev. xxvi. 1.]

[Footnote 244: Deut. iv, 16.]

[Footnote 245: Exodus xx, 20.]

[Footnote 246: Psalm cxv, 4.]

[Footnote 247: Psalm xcvii, 7.]

3. Also, Moses saith to the children of Israel, 'Lest perchance thou
shouldest be deceived, and shouldest worship that which the Lord
thy God hath created.' [Footnote 248] Hence also was it that Hezekiah
King of Judah brake in pieces the brazen serpent which Moses set
up: because the people, contrary to the precepts of the law, burnt
incense to it.

[Footnote 248: Deut. iv, 19.]

4. From these forementioned and other authorities, the excessive

use of images is forbidden. The Apostle saith also to the Corinthians,
'We know that an idol is nothing in the world: and there is no god
but One.' [Footnote 249] For they who are simple and infirm may easily
by an excessive and indiscreet use of images, be perverted to
idolatry. Whence he saith in Wisdom, 'There shall be no respect of
the idols of the nations, which have made the creatures of God
hateful, and temptations for the souls of men, and snares for the
feet of the unwise.' [Footnote 250] [Footnote 251] But blame there is none
in a moderate use of pictures, to teach how ill is to be avoided, and
good followed.

[Footnote 249: I Corinth, viii, 4.]

[Footnote 250: Wisdom xiv, 11.]

[Footnote 251: A more solemn protest against the sin of

idolatry can hardly be found than the above passage: and
they who brand every return to, and every wish for the
restoration of, Catholic practices, by so hateful a name,
would do well to bear it in mind.]

{45}

Whence saith the Lord to Ezekiel, 'Go in, and behold the
abominations which these men do. And he went in, and saw the
likeness of reptiles and beasts, and the abominations, and all the
idols of the house of Israel portrayed on the wall.' [Footnote 252]
Whence saith Pope Gregory in his Pastorale, When the forms of
external objects are drawn into the heart, they are as it were
painted there, because the thoughts of them are their images.
Again, He saith to the same Ezekiel, 'Take a tile, and lay it before
thee, and describe in it the city Jerusalem.' [Footnote 253] But that
which is said above, that pictures are the letters of the laity
explaineth that saying in the Gospel, 'He saith. They have Moses and
the prophets: let them hear them.' [Footnote 254] Of this, more
hereafter. The Agathensian [Footnote 255] Council forbids pictures in
churches: and also that that which is worshipped and adored should
be painted on the walls. But Gregory saith, that pictures are not to
be put away because they are not to be worshipped: for paintings
appear to move the mind more than descriptions; for deeds are
placed before the eyes in paintings, and so appear to be actually
carrying on. But in description, the deed is done as it were by
hearsay: which affecteth the mind less when recalled to memory.
Hence, also, is it that in churches we pay less reverence to books
than to images and pictures.

[Footnote 252: Ezekiel viii, 10.]

[Footnote 253: Ezekiel iv, 1.]

[Footnote 254: S. Luke xvi, 29.]

[Footnote 255: A.D. 605]

5. Of pictures and images some are above the church, as the cock
and the eagle: some without the church, namely, in the air in front
of the church, as the ox and the cow: others within, as images, and
statues, and various kinds of painting and sculpture: and these be
represented either in garments, or on walls, or in stained glass.
Concerning some of which we have spoken in treating of the church:
and how they are taken from the tabernacle of Moses and the
temple of Solomon. For Moses made carved work, and Solomon
made carved work, and pictures, and adorned the walls with
paintings and frescoes.

{46}

6. The image of the Saviour is more commonly represented in

churches three ways: as sitting on [Footnote 256] His throne, or
hanging on His cross, or lying on the bosom of His Mother.

[Footnote 256: Durandus had doubtless in his mind the

ancient mosaic over the apsides of the earliest churches
in Rome. The extremely beautiful one in San Clemente
represents our Lord as crucified. The frescoes with which
the walls of our own churches were anciently adorned,
seem usually to have represented the Saviour as seated
on the Throne of His Majesty. In the chancel of Widford,
Herts, is, or was till lately, a fresco of the Saviour seated
on a rainbow, a sword proceeding from His mouth, His
feet and His hands pierced. In Alfriston, Sussex, there
was, we believe, before it was whitewashed over by
Bishop Buckner's order, a painting of a similar kind. There
is a singular, and, we believe, undescribed painting over
the altar in Llandanwg church, Merion. The Saviour is
seated in judgment, as before: at His side is His Blessed
Mother in a kneeling posture: around Him are angels
blowing trumpets, and S. Peter in eucharistical vestments.
There is a representation of the souls under the altar.
Below are devils torturing souls in cauldrons of brimstone.
The evangelistic symbols are also represented.

In a fresco at Beverstone, Gloucestershire, our Saviour is

represented on the Cross, with blood flowing from His
side into a chalice. (See App. I.) There are remains also
of a crucifixion in fresco, in the exquisite, but desecrated
chapel of Prior Crauden, in the Deanery, Ely. On the
Iconostasis of the Greco-Russian Church, all the three
 positions are to be found.

In stained glass, the Crucifixion generally supplies the

place of any other representation of the Saviour. Brasses
occasionally, as a very curious one in Cobham, Surrey,
represent His nativity or epiphany: but most commonly
the Crucifixion, or a Trinity.

There can be no doubt, that many of the most graphic

pictures in our old poets owed their origin to the then
undestroyed fresco paintings of churches. Some painting,
like that above described, of hell, very probably
suggested the noble lines of Spenser (i. ix. 50. 6):

He showed him painted in a table plaine.

The damned ghosts that doe in torments waile.
And thousand feends that doe them endless paine
With fire and brimstone, which for ever shall remaine.

Who can estimate the effect of such pictorial

representations on the minds of our ancestors? or the
good which might be the result, if our churches were
again frescoed with similar subjects, wrought with the
genius and Catholic feeling of an Overbeck or Cornelius?]
[End footnote]

And because John Baptist pointed to Him, saying, 'Behold the Lamb
of God,' [Footnote 257] therefore some represented Christ under the
form of a lamb.

[Footnote 257: S. John i, 29.]

{47}

But because the light passeth away, and because Christ is very man,
therefore, saith Adrian, Pope, He must be represented in the form of
a man. A holy lamb must not be depicted on the cross, as a principal
object: but there is no let when Christ hath been represented as a
man, to paint a lamb in a lower or less prominent part of the picture:
since He is the true Lamb which 'taketh away the sins of the world.'
In these and divers other manners is the image of the Saviour
painted, on account of diversity of significations.

7. Represented in the cradle, the artist commemorateth His nativity:

on the bosom of His Mother, His childhood: the painting or carving
His cross signifieth His Passion (and sometimes the sun and moon
are represented on the cross itself, as suffering an eclipse): when
depicted on a flight of steps, His ascension is signified: when on a
state or lofty throne, we be taught His present power: as if He said,
'All things are given to Me in heaven and in earth:' [Footnote 258]
according to that saying, 'I saw the Lord sitting upon His throne:'
[Footnote 259] that is, reigning over the angels: as the text, 'Which
sitteth upon the cherubim.' [Footnote 260] Sometimes He is represented
as He was seen of Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, on the
mountain: when 'under His feet was as it were a paved work of
sapphire stones, and as the body of heaven in His clearness:'
[Footnote 261] and as 'they shall see,' as saith S. Luke, 'the Son of Man
coming in the clouds with power and great glory. [Footnote 262]
Wherefore sometimes He is represented surrounded by the seven
angels that serve Him, and stand by His throne, each being
portrayed with six wings, according to the vision of Isaiah, 'And by it
stood the seraphim: each one had six wings: with twain he covered
his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did
fly.' [Footnote 263]

[Footnote 258: S. Matt, xxviii, 18.]

[Footnote 259: Isaiah vi, 1.]

[Footnote 260: Psalm lxxx, 1.]

[Footnote 261: Exodus xxiv, 10.]

 [Footnote 262: S. Matthew xxiv, 30.]

[Footnote 263: Isaiah vi, 2.]

{48}

8. The angels are also represented as in the flower of youthful age:

for they never grow old. [Footnote 264] Sometimes S. Michael is
represented trampling the dragon, according to that of John, 'There
was war in heaven: Michael fought with the dragon.' Which was to
represent the dissensions of the angels: the confirmation of them
that were good, and the ruin of them that were bad: or the
persecution of the faithful in the Church Militant. Sometimes the
twenty-four elders are painted around the Saviour, according to the
vision of the said John, with 'white garments, and they have on their
heads crowns of gold.' [Footnote 265]By which are signified the doctors
of the Old and New Testament; which are twelve, on account of faith
in the Holy Trinity preached through the four quarters of the world:
or twenty-four, on account of good works, and the keeping of the
gospels. [Footnote 266] If the seven lamps be added, the gifts of the
Holy Spirit are represented: if the sea of glass, baptism. [Footnote 267]

[Footnote 264: Many of our readers will call to mind the

peculiar expression always given to the countenances of
angels in Catholic illuminations or paintings, a
conventional propriety uniformly neglected by modern
artists. The same character was beautifully given in the
relieved figures of angels upon the shrine of S. Henry
lately exhibiting in London.]

[Footnote 265: Apocalypse xii, 7.]

[Footnote 266: Apocalypse iv, 4.]

[Footnote 267: This very obscure passage is an instance

of the symbolism in the combination of numbers. It
 seems to mean that faith in the Holy Trinity preached
through the four quarters of the world, may be
represented by three multiplied into four or twelve: and
again, this symbolical fact multiplied by general good
works and keeping of the Gospels, may be set forth in
twenty-four. It is to be remarked that the princeps edition
alone gives Evangeliorum: the later have
Evangelistarum, which with observantia is scarcely
intelligible. Compare S. August, Expos. in Psalm lxxxvi.
Non solum ergo illi duodecim (sc. Apostoli) et Apostolus
Paulus, sed quotquot judicaturi sunt, propter
significationem universitatis ad sedes duodenas pertinent
. . . partes enim mundi quatuor sunt, Oriens, Occidens,
Aquilo, et Meridies. Istae quatuor partes assidue
inveniuntur in Scripturis. Ab istis quatuor ventus, sicut
dixit Dominus in Evangelio vocatur Ecclesia. Quomodo
vocatur? Undique in Trinitate vocatur. Quatuor ergo ter
ducta duodecim inveniuntur. See also S. Isidore, Alleg. in
S. S. folio 353, C. D.]

9. Sometimes also representation is made of the four living creatures

spoken of in the visions of Ezekiel and the aforesaid John: the face
of a man and the face of a {49} lion on the right,—the face of an ox
on the left, and the face of an eagle above the four. These be the
Four Evangelists. Whence they be painted with books by their feet,
because by their words and writings they have instructed the minds
of the faithful, and accomplished their own works. Matthew hath the
figure of a man, Mark of a lion. These be painted on the right hand:
because the nativity and the resurrection of Christ were the general
joy of all: whence in the Psalms: 'And gladness at the morning.'
[Footnote 268] But Luke is the ox: because he beginneth from Zachary
the priest, and treateth more specially of the Passion and Sacrifice of
Christ: now the ox is an animal fitted for sacrifice. He is also
compared to the ox, because of the two horns,—as containing the
two testaments; and the four hoofs, as having the sentences of the
four Evangelists. [Footnote 269]By this also Christ is figured, who was
the sacrifice for us: and therefore the ox is painted on the left side,
because the death of Christ was the trouble of the apostles.
Concerning this, and how blessed Mark [Footnote 270] is depicted, in
the seventh part. But John hath the figure of the eagle: because,
soaring to the utmost height, he saith, 'In the beginning was the
word.' [Footnote 271]

[Footnote 268: Psalm xxx (Exaltabo Te), 5. These

symbols, however, were not at first definitely settled, and
as we are informed by S. Austin, the lion was sometimes
given to S. Matthew and the angel and or man, to S.
Mark. The reasons of the appropriation of the various
symbols are beautifully expressed in a hymn quoted in
the Camden's Society's 'Illustrations of Monumental
Brasses,' Part I, p. 30.]

[Footnote 269: This passage is very obscure. Durandus's

words are, quasi quatuor evangelistorum
sententias. We cannot but think that the two sentences
have been misplaced. The sense is then plain. Christ is
also signified by the ox—as containing in Himself the Law
and the Gospel—and accomplishing that which is written
of Him by the four Evangelists, e.g. His promises of the
descent of the Holy Ghost, of being always with His
Church, etc. S. Peter Chrysologus, Sermo v. de Christo,
Hic est Vitulus, qui in Epulam nostram quotidie, et
jugiter immolatur.]

[Footnote 270: S. Mark is painted with a contracted brow,

a large nose, fair eyes, bald, a long beard, fair
complexion, of middle age, with a few grey hairs. Durand.
vii, 44, 4.]

[Footnote 271: S. John i, 1.]

{50}
This also representeth Christ, 'Whose youth is renewed like the
eagle's': [Footnote 272] because, rising from the dead, He ascendeth
into heaven. Here, however, it is not portrayed as by the side, but as
above, since it denoteth the ascension, and the word pronounced of
God. But how, since each of the living creatures hath four faces and
four wings, they can be depicted, shall be said hereafter. [Footnote 273]

[Footnote 272: Psalm ciii (Benedic, anima mea), 5.]

[Footnote 273: Durandus, book vii, 44, 'S. Matthew is

signified by a man, because his Gospel is principally
occupied concerning the humanity of Christ: whence his
history beginneth from his human pedigree. S. Mark by a
lion, which roareth in the desert: for he chiefly describeth
the Resurrection: whence his Gospel is read on Easter
day. But the lion is said to rouse his whelps on the third
day after their birth. His Gospel beginneth, 'The voice of
one crying in the wilderness.' S. Luke by the ox, an
animal fit for sacrifice: because he dwelleth on the
Passion of Christ. S. John by the eagle, because he
soareth to the Divinity of Christ, while the others walk
with their Lord on earth. The Evangelists be likewise set
forth by the four rivers of Paradise: John by Pison;
Matthew by Gihon; Luke by Euphrates; Mark by Tigris:—
as is clearly proved by Innocent III, in a certain sermon
on the Evangelists.'—We may add, that the finest
representation of the evangelistic symbols with which we
are acquainted in this country', occurs in the chancel of
Oxted church, Surrey.]

10. Sometimes there are painted around, or rather beneath, the

Apostles; who were His witnesses by deed and word to the ends of
the earth: and they are portrayed with long hair, as Nazarenes, that
is, holy persons. For the law of the Nazarenes was this: from the
time of their separation from the ordinary life of man, no razor
passed upon their heads. They are also sometimes painted under
the form of twelve sheep: because they were slain like sheep for the
Lord's sake: and sometimes the twelve tribes of Israel are so
represented. When, however, more or less sheep than twelve are
painted, then another thing is signified, according to that saying of
Matthew, 'When the Son of Man shall come in His glory—then shall
He sit on the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered
all nations, and He shall separate them one from the other, as a
{51} shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats.' [Footnote 274] How
the Apostles Bartholomew and Andrew are to be painted, shall be
said hereafter. [Footnote 275]

[Footnote 274: S. Matthew xxv, 1.]

[Footnote 275: S. Bartholomew is represented with black

and grizzled hair, fair complexion, large eyes, straight
nose, long beard, few grey hairs, moderate height, with a
high white neck, clothed in purple, with a white pall,
having purple gems at each angle. Durand. vii, 25, 2.

S. Andrew had a dark complexion, long beard, moderate

height. This is therefore said, that ye may know how he
ought to be painted: which should be known of the other
apostles and saints. Durand. vii, 38, i.]

11. And note that the patriarchs and prophets are painted with
wheels in their hands. Some of the apostles with books and some
with wheels: namely, because before the advent of Christ the faith
was set forth under figures, and many things were not yet made
clear; to represent this, the patriarchs and prophets are painted with
wheels, to signify that imperfect knowledge. But because the
apostles were perfectly taught of Christ, therefore the books, which
are the emblems of this perfect knowledge, are open. But because
some of them reduced their knowledge in writing, to the instruction
of others, therefore fittingly they are represented with books in their
hands like doctors. So Paul, and the Evangelists, Peter, James, and
Jude. But others, who wrote nothing which has lasted, or been
received into the canon by the Church, are not portrayed with books
but with wheels, as a type of their preaching. Whence the Apostle to
the Ephesians, 'And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and
some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the work of
the ministry.' [Footnote 276]

[Footnote 276: Ephes. iv, 11.]

12. But the Divine Majesty is also portrayed with a closed book in
the hands: 'which no man was found worthy to open but the Lion of
the tribe of Juda.' [Footnote 277] And sometimes with an open book:
that in it every one may read that 'He is the Light of the world':
[Footnote 278] and the Way, the Truth, and the Life': [Footnote 279] and
the Book of Life [is also portrayed]. But why Paul is represented at
the right, and Peter at the left of the Saviour, we shall show
hereafter.

[Footnote 277: Apocalypse v, 2.]

[Footnote 278: S. John viii, 12.]

[Footnote 279: S. John xiv, 6.]

{52}

13. John Baptist is painted as a hermit.

14. Martyrs with the instruments of their torture: as S. Laurence with

the gridiron: S. Stephen with stones: and sometimes with palms,
which signify victory, according to that saying, 'The righteous shall
flourish like a palm-tree: [Footnote 280] as a palm-tree [Footnote 281]
flourishes, so his memory is preserved. Hence is it that palmers, they
who come from Jerusalem, bear palms in their hands in token that
they have been the soldiers of that King Who was gloriously received
in the earthly Jerusalem with palms: and Who afterwards, having in
the same city subdued the devil in battle, entered the palace of
heaven in triumph with His angels, where the just shall flourish like a
palm-tree, and shall shine like stars.

[Footnote 280: Psalm xcii, 12.]

[Footnote 281: This explanation differs from that usually

received: namely, that the righteous flourishes best in
adversity: as the palm-tree grows fasteth when loaded
with weights.]

15. Confessors are painted with their insignia, as bishops with their
mitres, abbots with their hoods: and some with lilies, [Footnote 282]
which denote chastity. Doctors with books in their hands: virgins,
according to the Gospel, [Footnote 283] with lamps.

[Footnote 282: So in the beautiful hymn at Lauds in the

commemoration of a virgin martyr, of the Parisian
Breviary:

Liliis Sponsus recubat, rosisque;

Tu, tuo semper bene fida Sponso
Et rosas Martyr, simul et dedisti
Lilia Virgo.]

[Footnote 283: S. Matthew xxv, 1.]

16. Paul with a book and a sword: with a book, as a doctor, or with
reference to his conversion: with a sword as [Footnote 284] a soldier.
Whence the verse:

The sword denotes the ire of Saul,

The book, the power converting Paul.

[Footnote 284: This is undoubtedly a mistake: the sword

represents in this case, as in others, the instrument of
martyrdom.]
{53}

17. Generally the effigies of the holy fathers are portrayed on the
walls of the church, or on the back panels of the altar, or on
vestments, or in other various places, so that we may meditate
perpetually, not indiscreetly or uselessly, on their holiness. Whence
in Exodus it is commanded by the divine law, that in the breast of
Aaron, the breastplate of judgment should be bound [Footnote 285]
with strings: because fleeting thoughts should not occupy the mind
of a priest, which should be girt by reason alone. In this breastplate
also, according to Gregory, the names of the twelve patriarchs are
commanded to be carefully inscribed.

[Footnote 285: Exodus xxviii, 22.]

18. To bear the fathers thus imprinted on the breast, is to meditate

on the lives of ancient saints without intermission. But then doth the
priest walk blamelessly when he gazeth continually on the example
of the fathers which have gone before, when he considereth without
ceasing the footsteps of the saints, and represseth unholy thoughts,
lest he wander beyond the limits of right reason.

19. It is to be noted that the Saviour is always represented as

crowned, as if he said, 'Come forth, children of Jerusalem, and
behold King Solomon in the diadem with which his mother crowned
him.' [Footnote 286] But Christ was triply crowned. First by His Mother
on the day of His conception, with crown of pity: which was a double
crown: on account of what He had by nature, and what was given
Him: therefore also it is called a diadem, which is a double crown.
Secondly, by His step-mother in the day of His Passion, with the
crown of misery. Thirdly, by His Father in the day of His
Resurrection, with the crown of glory: whence it is written, 'O Lord,
{54} Thou hast crowned Him with glory and honour.' [Footnote 287]
Lastly, He shall be crowned by His whole family, in the last day of
Revelation, with the crown of power. For He shall come with the
judges of the earth to judge the world in righteousness. So also all
saints are portrayed as crowned, as if they said: Ye children of
Jerusalem, behold the martyrs with the golden crowns wherewith
the Lord hath crowned them. And in the book of Wisdom: 'The just
shall receive a kingdom of glory, and a beautiful diadem from the
hand of their God.' [Footnote 288]

[Footnote 286: Canticles iii, 11.]

[Footnote 287: Psalm viii (Domine Dominus), 5.]

[Footnote 288: Wisdom v, 16.]

20. But their crown is made in the fashion of a round shield:

because the saints enjoy the divine protection. Whence they sing
with joy: 'Lord, Thou hast crowned us with the shield of Thy favour.'
[Footnote 289] But the crown of Christ is represented under the figure
of a cross: [Footnote 290] and is thereby distinguished from that of the
saints: because by the banner of His cross He gained for Himself the
glorification of His humanity, and for us freedom from our captivity,
and the enjoyment of everlasting life. But when any living
[Footnote 291] prelate or saint is portrayed, the glory is not fashioned in
the shape of a shield, but four-square: that he may be shown to
flourish in the four cardinal virtues: as it is contained in [Footnote 292]
the legend of blessed Gregory.

[Footnote 289: Psalm v (Verba mea), 12.]

[Footnote 290: See Appendix I.]

[Footnote 291: This does not appear to have prevailed in

England. The nearest contemporary effigy of a saint
which we have observed in stained glass, is that of S.
Thomas, of Hereford, in the church of Cothelstone,
Somersetshire. Here the glory is, as usual, of the circular
form. As also in the fresco of the martyrdom of S.
Thomas of Canterbury, in Preston church. Sussex, which
 is nearly contemporary. (See Appendix 1.)]

[Footnote 292: This refers to the account given by Paulus

Diaconus of the visible effulgence which surrounded the
head of this great doctor when he was dictating his
works.]

{55}

21. Again, sometimes Paradise is painted in churches, that it may

attract the beholders to a following after its rewards: sometimes hell,
that it may terrify them by the fear of punishment.' [Footnote 293]
Sometimes flowers [Footnote 294] are portrayed, and trees: to
represent the fruits of good works springing from the roots of
virtues.

[Footnote 293: A monk named Constantine set before the

prince those judgments of God which are in all the world,
and the retribution of the life to come: his discourse
powerfully affected the heathen monarch (Vladimir,
afterwards S. Vladimir); and this was particularly the case
when the monk pointed out to him on an icon, which
represented the Last Judgment, the different lot of the
good and the wicked. "Good to those on the right hand—
woe to those on the left," exclaimed Vladimir, deeply
affected.'—Mouravieff's 'Hist, of the Russian Church,' p.
11, On which his translator, the Rev. R. W. Blackmore,
sensibly remarks, 'Whatever may be the right view of the
abstract question respecting icons, and the showing
outward respect to them, the Russians at least cannot
reasonably be blamed for revering a usage which was
made the means, in part at least, of so blessed a result
as the conversion of the great Prince Vladimir, the
Constantine of their church and nation.']

[Footnote 294: This flower work is excessively common in

 Norman churches: that of S. Sepulchre's, at Cambridge,
was a notable example of it. ]

22. Now the variety of pictures denoteth the diversity of virtues. For
'to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom: to another the
word of knowledge,' etc. [Footnote 295] But virtues are represented
under the forms of women: because they soothe and nourish. Again,
by the ceilings or vaultings, which are for the beauty of the house,
the more unlearned servants of Christ are set forth, who adorn the
Church, not by their learning, but by their virtues alone.

[Footnote 295: I Corinth, xii, 8. ]

The carved images which project from the walls, appear as it were
to be coming out of it: because when by reiterated custom virtues so
pertain to the faithful, that they seem naturally implanted in them,
they are exercised in all their various operations. How a synagogue
is depicted, shall be said hereafter: as also how the pall of the
Roman Pontiff: and the year [Footnote 296]and the zodiacal signs and
its months. But the diverse histories of the Old and New Testaments
may be represented after the fancy of the painter. For

Pictoribus atque poetis

Quod libet [Footnote 297] addendi semper fuit seque potestas.

[Footnote 296: These are often to be found round

Norman doors: as in that of S. Laurence, at York, and
Egleton, Rutland.]

[Footnote 297: A false reading, of course; yet not without

its appropriate sense—the power of adding any
ornamental circumstance to the main subject.]

{56}

23. Furthermore, the ornaments of the church consist of three

things:—the ornaments of the nave, [Footnote 298]the choir, and the
altar. The ornaments of the nave consist in dorsals, tapestry,
mattings, and cushions of silk, purple, and the like. The ornaments
of the choir consist in dorsals, tapestry, carpets, and cushions.
Dorsals are hangings of cloth at the back of the clergy. Mattings, for
their feet. Tapestry is likewise strewed under the feet, particularly
under the feet of bishops, who ought to trample worldly things
under their feet. Cushions are placed on the seats or benches of the
choir.

[Footnote 298: Ecclesiae: here undoubtedly the nave: as

often church is so used in our prayer-book.]

24. But the ornament of the altar consists in portfolios, altar cloths,
relicaries, candlesticks, crosses, an orfray, banners, missals,
coverings, and curtains.

25. And notice, that the portfolio in which the consecrated host is
kept, signifieth the frame of the blessed Virgin, concerning which it
is said in the Psalms, 'Arise, O Lord into Thy resting place.'
[Footnote 299] Which sometimes is of wood: sometimes of white ivory:
sometimes of silver: sometimes of gold: sometimes of crystal: and
according to the different substances of which it is made,
designateth the various dignities of the body of Christ. Again, the
pyx which containeth the host, whether consecrated or not
consecrated, typifieth the human memory. For a man ought to hold
in remembrance continually the benefits of God, as well temporal,
which are represented by the unconsecrated, as spiritual, which are
set forth by the consecrated host. {57} Which was also set forth by
the urn in which God commanded that the manna should be
deposited: which, albeit it was temporal, prefigured nevertheless this
our spiritual sacrifice, when the Lord commanded that it should be
laid up for an everlasting memorial unto future generations. But the
pyx, being placed on the altar, which is Christ, signifieth apostles and
martyrs. And the altar cloths and coverings are confessors and
virgins, or all saints: of whom saith the Prophet to the Lord, 'Thou
shalt be clothed with them as with a garment.' And of these we have
spoken above.

[Footnote 299: Psalm cxxxii (Domine, memento), 8.]

26. Now there is a difference between phylacterium and

phylacteria. Phylacterium is a scroll on which the ten
commandments were written: and this kind of scroll the Pharisees
used to wear on the front part of their garments, as a sign of
devotion. Whence in the Gospel, 'They make broad their
phylacteries.' [Footnote 300] And the word is derived from philare,
which is to keep, and teras, which is law. But phylacteria (a
relicary) is a vessel of silver or gold, or crystal, or ivory, or some
substance of the same kind, in which the ashes and relics of the
saints are kept. For when Vigilantius called the faithful Cinericii,
[Footnote 301] because they preserved the ashes themselves, to testify
contempt of his decision, it was ordered by the Church that they
should be honourably preserved in precious vessels. And the name is
derived from philare, which is to preserve, and teron, which is an
extremity, because in them some {58} portion of the extremities of
the bodies of saints is preserved: such as a tooth or a finger, or
somewhat of the like kind. Over the altar in some churches also is
placed a shrine: of which we have spoken in our section on the Altar.

[Footnote 300: S. Matthew xxiii, 5.]

[Footnote 301: Ais, Vigilantium, qui hoc

vocatur nomine (nam Dormitantius rectius diceretur), os
foetidum rursum aperire, et putorem spurcissimum contra
sanctorum martyrum proferre relliquias, et nos, qui eas
suscepimus, appellare cinerarios.—S. Hieron, in Epp.
See also the 'Church of the Fathers,' 2nd ed. chapter xv.]

27. At the horns of the altar [Footnote 302] two candlesticks are placed
to signify the joy of Jews and Gentiles at the nativity of Christ: which
candlesticks, by means of a flint, have their wicks lighted. For the
angel saith to the shepherds, 'I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all people: for to you is born this day the Saviour of
the world. [Footnote 303] He is the true Isaac, [Footnote 304] which being
interpreted, is laughter. Now the light of the candlestick is the faith
of the people. For to the Jewish people, saith the Prophet, 'Arise,
shine, for thy light is come: and the glory of the Lord is risen upon
thee.' [Footnote 305] But to the Gentiles the Apostle saith, 'Ye were
sometimes darkness, but are now light in the Lord.' [Footnote 306] For
before the birth of Christ a new star appeared to the wise men,
according to the prophecy of Balaam. 'There shall rise,' saith he, 'a
star out of Jacob, and a sceptre out of Israel.' [Footnote 307]
Concerning this we have also spoken in our section of the Altar.

[Footnote 302: This use of two candlesticks is very

remarkable: as giving fresh authority to the custom of the
English Church. ]

[Footnote 303: S. Luke ii, 10.]

[Footnote 304: Genesis xvii, 17, 19.]

[Footnote 305: Isaiah lx, 1. ]

[Footnote 306: Ephes. V, 8. ]

[Footnote 307: Numbers xxiv, 7.]

28. The snuffers or scissors for trimming the lamps are the divine
words by which men amputate the legal titles of the law, and reveal
the shining spirit, according to that saying, 'Ye shall eat old store,
and bring forth the old because of the new.' [Footnote 308] The vessels
in the which the wicks, when snuffed, are extinguished, are the
hearts of the faithful, which admit the legal observance to the letter.

[Footnote 308: Leviticus xxvi, 10.]

{59}

29. Again, the tongs, by the double tooth of which the fire is
arranged, are preachers; who instruct us by the accordant pages of
both Testaments, and by their behaviour setting us right, inflame us
to the practice of charity.

30. But the scuta, that is cups, of equal size at top and bottom,
made for warming water, are those doctors who do not conceal the
treasure of their hearts: but 'bring forth out of it things new and
old': [Footnote 309] as a 'candle which is not put under a bushel, but in
a candlestick,' [Footnote 310]that they who are in the house of the Lord
may receive the light and the heat of the Holy Ghost.

[Footnote 309: S. Matthew xiii, 52.]

[Footnote 310: S. Matthew v, 15.]

31. The cross also is to be placed on the altar that the cross-bearers
may thence raise it: in which action we commemorate how Simon
the Cyrenian took the cross from the shoulders of Christ and bore it.
Between the two candlesticks the cross is placed on the altar:
because Christ standeth in the church, the Mediator between two
peoples. For He is the Corner-stone, 'Who hath made both one':
[Footnote 311] to Whom the shepherds came from Judaea, and the
wise men from the East. Concerning this we shall hereafter speak in
another sense, when treating of the priest's approach to the altar.

[Footnote 311: Ephesians ii, 14.]

32. Again, the front of the altar is ornamented with an orfray. As it is

written: 'Thou shalt make Me an altar, and shalt make a crown in a
circle about it of four fingers' breadth.' [Footnote 312] The altar, ye
know, sometimes signifieth the heart: in which the sacrifice of true
faith must be offered by contrition: and then the orfray signifieth the
taking in hand of a good occupation: wherewith we ought to adorn
our foreheads, that we may give light to others. Sometimes the altar
signifieth Christ: and then by the orfray the ornament of charity {60}
is fitly represented. For as gold hath the superiority over all metals,
so hath charity over other virtues. Whence the Apostle, in the first to
the Corinthians: 'But the greatest of these is charity.' [Footnote 313] For
our faith ought to be adorned with the orfray of charity, that we may
be ready to lay down our lives for Christ's sake. Banners are also
suspended above the altars: that in the church that triumph of Christ
may evermore be held in mind, by which we also hope to triumph
over our enemy.

[Footnote 312: Exodus xxvii, 4.]

[Footnote 313: I Corinth, xiii, 13.]

33. The book of the Gospel is fixed on the altar, because the Gospel
hath Christ for its author, and beareth witness, to Him. Which book
is therefore adorned on his outside, for the cause that we shall make
mention of hereafter. Next, the vessels and utensils in the house of
the Lord had their origin from Moses and Solomon: which in the Old
Testament were many and diverse, as it is written in Exodus, and
having divers significations, concerning which, for the sake of
brevity, we will not in this place treat.

34. Now all things which pertain to the ornament of a church, must
be removed or covered over in the season of Lent: which according
to some taketh place on Passion Sunday, because after that time the
Divinity of Christ was hidden and concealed in Him. For He gave
Himself up to be betrayed and scourged, as if He were only man,
and had not in Him the virtue of divinity: whence in the Gospel of
this day it is written, 'But Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the
temple.' [Footnote 314]

[Footnote 314: S. John viii, 59.]

Then therefore the crosses are covered, that is, the virtue of His
divinity is hidden. Others do this from the first Sunday of Lent:
because after that time the Church beginneth to treat of His Passion.
Whence in that time the cross must not be borne in procession {61}
from the church, except it be covered; and, according to the use of
some places, two coverings or curtains are then only retained: of
which the one is hung all round the choir, the other is suspended
between the altar and the choir: that those things which be within
the Holy of Holies may not appear. In that the Sanctuary and Cross
are then veiled, we be taught the letter of the Law, that is, its carnal
observance, or that the understanding of Holy Scriptures before the
Passion of Christ was veiled, hidden, and obscure: and that in that
time there was a veil: that is, men had an obscurity before their
eyes. It signifieth also the sword which was set before the gate of
Paradise: because the carnal observance we have spoken of, and
this obscurity, and the sword at the gate of Paradise, were removed
by the Passion of Christ. Therefore the curtains and veils of this kind
are removed on Good Friday. But in that in the Old Testament, there
were beasts that chewed the cud, and cleft the hoof, as oxen used in
ploughing, that is discerning and spiritually perceiving the mysteries
of Scripture: therefore in Lent only a few priests, to whom 'it is given
to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God' [Footnote 315] go behind
the veil.

[Footnote 315: St. Matthew xiii, 11.]

35. Concerning this it is to be noted that there be three kinds of veils

which be hung in churches: that which concealeth the mysteries:
that which divideth the sanctuary from the clergy: that which
divideth the clergy from the laity. The first denoteth the law: the
second denoteth our unworthiness, in that we are unworthy, nay
unable to behold things celestial. The third is the coercion of our
carnal pleasures. The first, namely, the curtain that is hung from
each side of the altar, when the priest goeth into the holy place, is
typified by that which is written in Exodus. {62} 'Moses put a veil
over his face, for the children of Israel could not sustain the
brightness of His countenance.' [Footnote 316] And as the Apostle saith,
'Even to this day is this veil over the hearts of the Jews. [Footnote 317]
Welcome to our website – the perfect destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world,
offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth.
That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of
books, ranging from classic literature and specialized publications to
self-development guides and children's books.

More than just a book-buying platform, we strive to be a bridge

connecting you with timeless cultural and intellectual values. With an
elegant, user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can
quickly find the books that best suit your interests. Additionally,
our special promotions and home delivery services help you save time
and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Join us on a journey of knowledge exploration, passion nurturing, and

personal growth every day!

ebookbell.com