How does your social class affect your political socialisation?
Well it starts at home
The beginning of your political journey is immediately impacted by socialisation in the family.
This is because the family has a significant effect between education and the social reproduction of class. The education system is based on the use of middle class communication and language. This overall, makes school more complicated and challenging for many young people from working class backgrounds (Hoskins and Janmaat, 2019).
This means that children from working class backgrounds could potentially miss out on discussions that could introduce them into politics. It could even discourage them from wanting to learn more as they may view it as to complex.
Time for some figures
Figure 1 : Turnout by social class over time
(IPSOS, 2019)
The lighter colour shows the higher the social class and the darker the colour shows the lower the social class on the graph.
The graphs helps to show us that the upper class over the years continually made up the majority of voters compared to the lower classes, who while the percentage of voters increased slightly it remained the lowest throughout.
This supports the idea that individuals from working class backgrounds are not as Involved in voting and other political issues as there the education system is catered to the middle class this could affect peoples understanding and ability to vote .
Figure 2: Turnout by education
(IPSOS, 2019)
The second graph highlights the voter turnout based on the individual’s level of education.
The graphs shows us that people with high level qualifications make up the majority of those who end up voting.
It has also shown that people with some qualifications and people with no qualifications make up an equal amount of the voting turnout.
This really proves the importance education has on introducing politics to a younger generation and how being in higher education encourages students to become more politically engaged.
So how is higher education influencing us?
A study showed that young people, aged 18, who engaged in political courses and additional optional lessons ended up becoming more politically engaged. The students who participated had notable changes in aspects such as their political perspective and their participation in politics such as voting. The study also showed that this behaviour and participation in politics carried on into the students future lives (Pontes, Henn and Griffiths, 2019).
This continues to show the importance and major effect higher education has on students, and how it is able to teach students the importance of being politically engaged for your future benefit and how their vote matters.
As a student myself I have noticed that my awareness and involvement surrounding politics has increased. I find that the lessons at university compared to sixth form and high school, have really focused on and explained different aspects of politics by providing informative resources and implementing these discussions into lectures. This has helped me become more engaged with current issues.
Why we need higher education!
As previously mentioned students educational success is closely linked to their social background.
Due to this many young people from disadvantaged backgrounds may pick vocational courses while others from privileged backgrounds choose academic choices. This causes issues as students from both backgrounds are unable to interact. This will limit their ability to learn about other political perspectives. This will then mean that there separate values and norms will remain separate as they grow up (Janmaat, Mostafa and Hoskins, 2014).
This reproduces class inequality in the real world!
Luckily university classes are mixed with students from all backgrounds and the degrees themselves are deemed to be extremely academic. This means that interactions can occur which will in turn lower the reproduction of class inequality and allow all perspectives to be shared amongst students.
Higher education is also beneficial for increasing young people’s political knowledge. Universities have large populations of young people this means it can help many individuals engage politically. It helps people understand and practise dealing with authority, and teaches the importance of politics and the opportunities provided for you when you are involved (Solan, Kisby, henn and Oldfield, 2021).
This shows the large amount of young people universities educate and influence to become politically engaged. It also shows us that university is showing young people that their votes and participation in protests matter as it will impact their future.
In my experience, I have felt that university is a space other than at home where I can have political discussions and see other people points of view. In fact listing to some of my peers in class has helped me change my perspective on many topics and issues.
(Swain, 2017)
This image shows university students handing out information cards to other students to remind them to make sure they vote.
I choose this image as it is a good representation of how universities are actively encouraging young people to be politically engaged. It also highlights how university’s provided information for students so that they can make a fully informed decision when they vote. It also shows how passionate other students as they are as they are using their free time to encourage others to vote.
So how can we improve ?
One way to improve is by encouraging people from working class backgrounds to engage in politics by having political parties reach out to them. For example, Politicians such as Angela Rayner who is very open about her working class background, has argued that it is up to her and her party to ensure that the public know that she is advocating for them and that she is on their side (Elgot, 2021).
This could encourage more people form working class backgrounds to get involved as people can relate to her and see that her party is reflecting their values and needs. It could even inspire some individuals to pursue politics as a career.
Another way is for there to be more classes in schools dedicated to teaching politics in earlier education. This ensures more people are exposed to this knowledge before they enter higher education and it will help people understand the importance of factors such as registering to vote.
To conclude…
Overall I hope this was helpful in showing that social class and political socialisation are linked and how education can either be used to encourage or discourage political engagement. I hope it highlighted the importance of higher education and how necessary it is for everyone to be politically active.
I would love to know what your opinions are on this topic.
Bibliography
Elgot, J. (2021) Angela Rayner vows to reconnect labour with working class voters. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/may/10/labour-has-talked-down-to-voters-for-too-long-says-angela-rayner (Accessed: April 1, 2023).
Hoskins, B. and Janmaat, J.G. (2019) Education, democracy and inequality: Political engagement and citizenship education in Europe. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
IPSOS (2019) IPSOS MORI How the voters voted in the 2019 election. Available At: https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2019-12/general-election-2019-poll-aggregate-v8.pdf (Accessed: March 30, 2023).
Janmaat, J.G., Mostafa, T. and Hoskins, B. (2014) ‘Widening the participation gap: The effect of educational track on reported voting in England’, Journal of adolescence, 37(4), pp. 473-482.
Pontes, A.I., Henn, M. and Griffiths, M.D. (2019) ‘Youth political (dis) engagement and the need for citizenship education: Encouraging young people’s civic and political participation through the curriculum’, Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, 14(1), pp. 3-21.
Sloam, J., Kisby, B., Henn, M. and Oldfield, B. (2021) ‘Voice, equality and education: The role of higher education in defining the political participation of young Europeans’, Comparative European Politics, 19(3), pp. 296-322.
Swain, H. (2017) Roll up! universities embark on big push to boost student vote. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/may/09/universities-boost-student-vote-general-election (Accessed: April 1, 2023).