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Working class parents' attitudes to their sons' education and future occupa- tions are examined to see if there are variations in line with the embourgeoisement thesis. Parents' aspirations for their sons are higher and their involvement in their sons' education stronger amongst those with a high expenditure on housing, the home and consumer durables, holding constant the 'middle classness' of their own backgrounds. Those with higher expenditure of this kind are also more likely to be socially isolated and home-centred in their leisure activities and to evidence greater overlapping of conjugal roles. The more socially isolated and home-centred parents have higher aspirations for their children and greater involvement in their children's education; the involvement of the father in his children's education appears to be particularly important. The more socially isolated, home-centred parents are also more likely to vote Conservative. The scholastic achievement of the child is the most influential determinant of parental aspirations. The evidence is that the above patterns are not the result of the middle-classness of the parents' home backgrounds, education or work histories. Two interpretations are considered: firstly that these middle class patterns of behaviour are the result of the influ- ence of middle class people, such as the boys' teachers; and secondly that they result from the advantageous effects upon the boys' scholastic achievement of the home environments to be found amongst home-centred families. The two explanations are not regarded as mutually exclusive. This paper reports a study of working class parents' aspirations for their children and their attitudes towards and involvement in their children's education. Its central concern is with those differences between working class families which have been the subject of the controversy surrounding the embourgeoisement thesis. The paper identifies a body of affluent, home-centred and socially isolated working class parents who have distinctive attitudes towards their children's education and future careers which are similar to those of middle class people. It is argued that these distinctive attitudes cannot be explained by the middle-classness of the parents' social backgrounds, their education or their previous work experience. The proponents of the embourgeoisement thesis have argued that important changes in working class life in the post-war years, have led to many working class people becoming in some sense middle class, and particular emphasis has been laid upon the influence of increases in affluence in bringing about these changes; special attention has been drawn to increases in income, and increases in expenditure on

This paper reports social class differences in the emphasis placed upon the use of language in two areas of the socialization of the child: inter-person relationships and the acquisition of basic skills. The sample of 100 mothers is a sub-sample of 120 mothers who live in a middle class area and 192 mothers who live in a working class area. (The correlation between area and the social class position of the family is 0.74.) The results obtained from the use of a closed schedule show that the middle class mothers, relative to the working class mothers, place a much greater emphasis upon the use of language in the person area; whereas the working class mothers, relative to the middle class mothers, place a greater emphasis upon the use of language in the transmission of basic skills. The results are consonant with the prediction derived from the theory of restricted and elaborated linguistic codes which has also been used to generate a model for the understanding of social learning and forms of cultural discontinuity between the home and the school.