The explanatory power of examining race and class in educational settings

This special issue aims to drive fresh conversations around the intersection of race and social class within the global sociology of education and beyond. In recent years, post-racial ideologies that deny the existence of structural racism and colonial legacies have gathered pace across societies in the global north. At the same time, in countries such as the UK, race and class-based inequalities have been pitted against each other by invoking the educational performance of ‘white working-class boys’ solely through the lens of class. These discourses not only fail to grasp the complexities of the issues in hand but actively deflect attention away from the way racial and classed inequalities within education, health, and job markets are interlocked and co-constituted.