The weight of social inequalities in mathematics | Tangente

An analysis of educational and career paths reveals that the study and professional practice of mathematics are more unequal than in other disciplines and particularly disadvantage people from working-class backgrounds. By examining the social and gendered division of knowledge and the impact of social background on people's relationship to mathematics, sociology can help us better understand these inequalities.

"Working class," "disadvantaged background": understanding social class ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The concept of social class lets us distinguish between social groups and analyze their characteristics and the inequalities between them. One of the most common ways of defining classes is to consider people's occupations or those of their parents. To describe these classes, the Institut national de la statistique et des études économique (Insee) uses a classification comprising six socioprofessional groups: (1) farmers, (2) craftspeople, shopkeepers and business owners, (3) senior executives and higher intellectual professions, (4) intermediate occupations, (5) employees and (6) manual workers. These are often reduced to three broad categories: the working classes (employees and manual workers), the middle classes (intermediate occupations and some farmers, shopkeepers and business owners…) and the advantaged classes (senior executives and intellectual professions, along with some farmers, shopkeepers and business owners).

Other institutions use different definitions. The Direction de l’évaluation, de la prospective et de la performance of France's Ministry of Education (DEPP) categorizes students' social background according to the occupation of the parent who is their legal guardian: "disadvantaged" for manual workers, people not in employment and retired employees; "middle" for farmers, craftspeople, shopkeepers and employees; "advantaged" for intermediate occupations; and "highly advantaged" for executives, business owners, intellectual professions and primary-school teachers.

Finally, the PISA studies conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) describe students' socioeconomic status using a composite index of economic, social and cultural status that combines their parents' educational attainment and occupations with indicators of household resources (books, an Internet connection, a computer…).

An exclusionary world ---------------------

Social inequalities in mathematics begin at school. Throughout the world, students' social background has a greater impact on their mathematics results than any other factor—including their sex, class composition, teachers' profiles and education policies. International PISA studies of 15-year-olds find that, on average, the performance gap between the most disadvantaged 25% of students and the most advantaged 25% is equivalent to two years of schooling. France is one of the most unequal countries: social background accounts for 22% of the variation in mathematics performance there, compared with an OECD average of 15%.

Once students begin to specialize, these performance inequalities are compounded by inequalities in participation, with students from working-class backgrounds underrepresented in mathematics courses.