The Influence of Social Class on Education: Interpretation of Documentary The Up SeriesThe Influence of Social Class on Education: Interpretation of Documentary The Up SeriesAbstractSo far, the documentary The Up Series directed by Michael Apted in 1964 has recorded the lives of 14 seven-year-old children from different classes in Britain with the purpose of recording their lives and exploring the influence of class differences on themselves through the documentary.Nowadays, education is extremely significant for individual’s growth and the prosperity of a country. In the United States and Britain, class differentiation is still obvious although there are policies to ensure relative equality in education. The fairest system in Japan and the compulsory education in China, in contrast, make it possible for the mobility of social strata. The social hierarchy of various countries seems seemingly unbreakable, yet in fact, people can still find a way out through their efforts. This paper attempts to analyze the documentary series and utilizes some related theory, such as social reproduction, to compare the institution of China, Britain, the United States, and Japan horizontally in order to find out common factors that lead to unequal educational opportunities, and also to observe the educational development process of various countries through vertical comparison of different periods, to find out measures suitable for our country to perfect educational opportunities.Keywords: class differentiation, education, social reproduction, system, equal educational opportunities I社会阶层对教育的影响：纪录片《人生七年》解读摘 要由 Michael Apted 导演于 1964 年拍摄的原版《人生七年》到目前为止总共记录 14 位来自英国不同阶层的七岁儿童的生活，拍摄的目...
