The text is an attempt to use of Richard Borowicz research as inspiration. The aim is to broaden the perspective of research on the problem of social selection in the education system by adding a psychosocial aspect. The article contains a theoretical reference in order to allow for an explanation of the effectiveness of the mechanism of auto-selection and placement of it in the social practices of everyday life. Interactional perspective makes the problem of social inequalities present in the experience and consciousness of man. On the other hand individualistic tendencies in society are the conditions under which self-selection mechanism can both be forced out from public awareness, as well as subject to deregulation. The latter phenomenon may lead to equal opportunities.

On the basis of these analyses, we cannot say that cultural and social resources have no role to play at all in the process of individual educational decision-making. What this study shows is that these do not enable us to explain the effect of parental SES on educational choice. In the absence of such evidence and in the light of the patterns found in the pupils’ accounts, we think to find some support for a view of educational decision-making as being the result of rational calculation. In this calculation parents take their own situation as a point of reference, considering the (educational) resources on which they can rely

Poland of the last two decades has faced a rapid increase in the number of higher schools and their graduates. As a result, five-fold rise of the schooling rate was noticed. The main reasons for this phenomenon were: abolition of the state’s education monopoly and growing aspirations of society. The state educational organizations were not able to meet this vast demand, thus a new educational offer emerged: paid university extra-mural studies in (primarily) economics and social sciences and numerous private higher schools whose offer included, among others, vocational training. Although the new schools, had to follow accepted standards of schooling, the teaching process was subject to diversification as for its quality. In spite of such broad access to higher education, the social structure of student population has not dramatically changed.