The Differential Political Socialization of English Secondary School Students

English secondary education involves early selection of children into academic and non-academic type schools. Interviews with 331 English schoolboys as well as a panel study of 1800 British youth suggest that selection to academic schools may contribute to a belief that class barriers are breaking down and to a tendency to identify oneself as middle class. Such selection does not contribute to changes in party identification. Nonselection may contribute to a low sense of political effectiveness, but it contributes little to disaffection toward the political system. Non-selected boys are less deferential toward political leaders than selected boys.