Social mobility prospects in the pandemic era

The Covid pandemic has exposed and exacerbated inequalities inside and outside education. On the one hand, it has confirmed the prominent role that wider societal divides play in shaping social mobility patterns; on the other it has revealed the escalating expectations placed on schools and universities to act as social levellers. In this lecture Lee Elliot Major will discuss findings from several research projects to document growing divides in life prospects for current generations, but also to point to promising policies and practices that have the potential to improve prospects for disadvantaged children and young people.

About the Speaker

Lee Elliot Major is Professor of Social Mobility at the University of Exeter. He was previously Chief Executive of the Sutton Trust and a trustee of the Education Endowment Foundation. His work is dedicated to improving the prospects of disadvantaged children and young people. He works closely with school leaders, universities, and employers and Government policy makers.

His award-winning books include: Social Mobility and Its Enemies; What Works? Research and evidence for teachers; and The Good Parent Educator. He commissioned and co-authored the Sutton Trust-EEF teaching and learning toolkit, used by 100,000s of teachers across the world. He is a Trustee of the Ted Wragg Multi Academy Trust and sits on the Exeter Place Board. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and serves on the ESRC’s Strategic Advisory Network.

He was awarded an OBE in the 2019 Queen’s Honours. He is the first in his family to go to university.

This lecture will take place in lecture theatre Baring Court 114 on the St Luke's Campus and delivered simultaneously online via Zoom.

Please register to reserve a place.

The event will be hosted by the GSE Director of Research, Professor Justin Dillon.

Professor Lee Elliot Major, Professor of Social Mobility, University of Exeter

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