Attitudes to equality. This chapter opened by describing structural changes in Europe. Many would argue that there are cultural changes also, austerity driving a focus on protecting self-interest. If this is the case, the rhetorical commitment to equality in education which threads through most European policy documents, school missions and educators' discourse cannot be assumed to reflect a determination to enact such assertions. On the contrary, Kohl (2001, no p.n.) writes: One problem is that many people – children as well as adults – do not believe that justice is worth fighting for. One cannot assume an idea or cause will be embraced merely because it is just, fair, or compassionate. Contemporary society values self-interest and personal gain over compassion and the communal good. Evidence supports Kohl, in that children themselves may resist attention being given, as they see it, to the less able or less well behaved (Xxxxx & Xxxxxxxx, 2009). There is also overwhelming evidence that leaders and teachers, though often sincerely convinced of their commitment to equality, prioritise other aims, such as maintaining their subject, the school's prestige, their own daily professional survival. Since Xxxxxx (1932), research has repeatedly recognised the 'grammar and deep structure' (Xxxxx, 2012, p. 1187) of schools that, rather than move towards greater equality, supports a continuation of what is (Delpit, 2006; Xxxxxxx, 2001; Reay, 2001; Xxxxxxx & Xxxxx, 2008). Consequently, leaders require considerable preparatory and ongoing development in order to attempt to dismantle inequalities in education.
