The Road to Oxbridge: Schools and Elite University Choices

This paper explores hidden messages sent out by schools about Oxbridge, using Basil Bernstein’s concepts of classification and framing. Research in three case-study schools captured these messages from their everyday practices and processes, including their events and activities, sorting mechanisms, interactions and resources. Whilst all of the schools sent out strong classificatory messages, marking out Oxbridge as special, they differed in their strength of framing, making explicit to differing degrees which students are ‘Oxbridge material’.