Diane Reay

Diane Reay grew up as a free school meal pupil on a large council estate and was the first in her family to go to university. She became an inner city, primary school teacher for 20 years, trying to make education a more positive experience for working class children than it had been for her.

It was her failure to achieve this that led to a change in direction and a research career in order to understand working class educational experiences. She is now a Visiting Professor at the LSE and Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge.

Her latest book Miseducation: Inequality, Education and the Working Classes, was published by Policy Press in 2017. She continues to research and write extensively about inequalities in education.