The major theories explored are those concerned with social mobility and those which derive from a relativist position in Sociology, both of which see education as a selection mechanism for a stratified society. Social class, family, sociolinguistics and schools are among the topics discussed. In this analysis the author:

This thoroughgoing Marxist critique of widely prevalent notions in the sociology of education provides a compass by which place and direction in this area of education may be found by students, teachers and parents.