The name is absent

no representation in the current concern about changing and improving
methods of selection. The research showed that the intake into the
five university departments that were the subject of the research
consisted largely of ’’the sons and daughters of the middle class”
(1973 Ch4 P5). This group was more narrowly defined by its limited
age range and similar findings were repeated ten years later by
Patrick et al. Interestingly in 1973 it was found that in the Sussex
PGCE course compared with that university's general undergraduate
population, "the PGCE students exaggerate an already existing tendency"
(Ch4 P5).

When this information is combined with that on selection the conclu-
sions appear reasonable (although the study of the selection process
was confined to Sussex). "It would seem likely, therefore, that
in the main, both the 'select* and 'the selected’ parts of the recruit-
ment process work in the same direction to produce groups of students

they possess some of the character-

istics of the university departments to which they are recruited

(1973 Ch4 P6). Given the findings that regional origins, educational

backgrounds and educational achievements all show differences it

becomes quite clear that prospective teachers are, before they begin

their professional education, differentiated according to factors

institutional separation of relatively homogeneous populations is

important not only for the professional educator but more generally

for the profession implying the possibility of stratification whose

effects may be far reaching.

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