Education and the Family

Leon Feinstein is Professor of Education Social Policy and Director, Kathryn Duckworth is Research Officer and Ricardo Sabates is Senior Research Officer, all at the Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning, Institute of Education, University of London, UK.

• 1. Introduction Part 1: Understanding and Conceptualising the Importance of Education 2. Understanding the Importance of Education 3. Conceptualising the Influence of Parents’ Education: A Framework for Analysis Part 2: The Influence of Parents’ Education: A Review of the Evidence 4. The Importance of WhatGgoes on in the Family 5. Internal Features of the Family Environment 6. Distal Family Factors 7. The Importance of other Developmental Contexts Part 3: Policy and the Wider Responsibilities of Education: Early Preventive Action 8. A Framework for Supporting Resilience in Childhood 9. Implications of the Ecological Model of Home/School Interaction for Policy Development

"…A clear and simple theoretical framework is the book’s strength. Applying human ecological theory (which addresses human development and the interaction of individuals with their social environments) Feinstein et al. have thought carefully about many factors that could link parents’ education to children’s outcomes and the various pathways through which these factors may have their effects... sociologists interested in educational attainment and/or intergenerational mobility (especially class reproduction) would likely profit from this short book. The book is also intended for members of the public policy community, who will welcome the authors’ sensitivity to their concerns."--Mark McKerrow, Canadian Journal of Sociology (2009), 34(2).