Sumi Hollingworth

I specialise in education research with a focus on equal opportunities. As a sociologist of education, my overarching focus is with inequalities of class, ethnicity and gender in contemporary compulsory schooling. Much of the work I have been involved in has explored these dynamics with a particular focus on youth identities. I am interested in the relationships between social class and education and have been involved in research exploring these relationships, such as research on young working class Londoners who drop out of education, and the white urban middle classes and school choice.

 

My interest in the urban in rooted in a concern for the growing social and economic inequalities in cities. My current research aims to explore the role of education, or more specifically schooling, in this pattern of inequality. I am concerned by the evidence of both social class and ethnic segregation in urban schools and am interested in the lived experience of social mixing and community cohesion.

 

I am also interested in the role of popular culture in young people’s lives and learning, and have been involved in various research on young people, families, popular culture and new media/ digital technologies.

 

 

My research interests include: