Explaining educational differentials: towards a formal rational action theory

In this paper we seek to provide an explanation of three widely documented empirical phenomena. These are: (i) increasing educa¬≠ tional participation rates; (ii) little change in class differentials in these rates; and (iii) a recent and very rapid erosion of gender differentials in educational attainment levels. We develop a formal mathematical model, using a rational action approach and drawing on earlier work that seeks to explain these three trends as the product of individual decisions made in the light of the resources available to, and the constraints facing, individual pupils and their families. The model represents children and their families as acting rationally, i.e. as choosing among the different…