An Elite Education: How Privilege Is Produced in a Private School / Emma Taylor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Taylor, Emma, Author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ Princeton University Press, [2026]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

An examination of the making of privilege at one of Britain's top boys' schoolsAlumni of Britain's elite schools are consistently overrepresented in positions of power and influence. It is no surprise, then, that elite schools play a pivotal role in reproducing inequality. In An Elite Education, Emma Taylor draws on years of immersive ethnographic research and teaching experience at one of Britain's leading private boys' schools to highlight how these institutions cultivate the dispositions that propel students into elite universities and professions. Taylor finds that elite schools provide a forgiving, flexible and exclusive training ground, enabling students to push boundaries, bend rules and negotiate with those in authority. She argues that this ability to navigate elite spaces with confidence-which she conceptualises as "audacity"-is a carefully cultivated form of privilege that is frequently mistaken for merit. Behind the formal facade of architecture, traditions and rituals lies a messy web of everyday interactions through which students learn to assert themselves without fear of consequence. An Elite Education ultimately calls for a deeper interrogation of the taken-for-granted dispositions that continue to shape access to opportunity in Britain.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

Setting the Scene

1. Home Away from Home

2. Flat Hierarchies

3. In Loco Parentis

4. The Invisible Whiteness of Being

Futures

Methodological Appendix

Notes

References

Index

A NOTE ON THE TYPE

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed April 14 2026)

ISBN:

9780691264271