Showing papers in "British Journal of Sociology of Education in 1992"
TL;DR: This article argued that the dominant conceptions of structure and agency employed in the sociology of education are characterised by a dualism which makes it difficult to conceptualise adequately the processes involved in social change.
Abstract: Since the 1970s there has been considerable debate among sociologists of education about the macro‐micro gap in educational analyses. However, educational research remains divided largely into the study of large‐scale phenomena such as social systems and national policies on the one hand, and case‐studies of individual schools and social interaction on the other. This split has had a number of unfortunate consequences for the development of the field. Most importantly, the dominant conceptions of structure and agency employed in the sociology of education are characterised by a dualism which makes it difficult to conceptualise adequately the processes involved in social change. In this paper, I briefly describe this structure‐agency dualism before critically examining three attempts which have been made to address this problem. The ability of structuration theory to overcome this dualism is then examined, and I conclude by arguing that this approach offers an important new direction for the sociology of e...
148 citations
TL;DR: The Paradigm Wars: reports from the front. as discussed by the authors, 1992, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 131-143, is a seminal work in the field of sociology of education.
Abstract: (1992). The Paradigm Wars: reports from the front. British Journal of Sociology of Education: Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 131-143.
69 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the specificity of the institutional dialectical dynamics of how recent policy impacts on teacher cultures and in turn how teacher cultures impact on policy and suggest that within a profession in transition, a new teacher may be emerging for the 1990s.
Abstract: In recent years we have seen a rapid change in the nature and structure of teachers’ work At one level this has been most immediately experienced within the context of the restratification and restructuring of comprehensive schooling In the projected post‐Fordist era with its emphasis on small‐scale, flexible team work, within a differentiated market‐place, new school systems are being developed that are helping to shape new teaching cultures This case study critically examines the specificity of the institutional dialectical dynamics of how recent policy impacts on teacher cultures and in turn how teacher cultures impact on policy It is suggested that within a profession in transition, a new teacher may be emerging for the 1990s
61 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the difficulties students encounter in problem solving in the area of sciences and found that a strong relation between social class and specific coding orientation to problem solving was found for race and weaker for gender.
Abstract: This study investigates the difficulties students encounter in problem solving in the area of sciences. Contrary to usual approaches of a fundamental psychological basis, the research takes into account the sociological processes of learning and transmission in both the family and the school. The aim of the study is to see the extent to which the students have recognition and realisation rules in the micro‐context of problem solving (specific coding orientation) and to find out the reasons which may underlie their difficulties. Thus the data obtained are related to social class, race and gender and also to pedagogic practices (differing in power and control relations) and school science achievement in high level cognitive competencies. They are also related to children's cognitive level. The results show a strong relation between social class and specific coding orientation to problem solving. The relation is also strong for race and weaker for gender. Specific coding orientation is also strongly related ...
55 citations
TL;DR: This article explored the significance for citizenship education of claims that Western society is undergoing a major cultural reorientation, known by its protagonists as postmodernism, which is said to have wide-ranging implications for knowledge, morality, politics and individual identities.
Abstract: This paper explores the significance for citizenship education of claims that Western society is undergoing a major cultural reorientation, known by its protagonists as postmodernism, which is said to have wide‐ranging implications for knowledge, morality, politics and individual identities. In particular, the posited changes raise doubts about the future of citizenship, and the discussion reviews two responses to these questions: Heater's optimistic proposal for a return to the classical ideal, and Wexler's pessimistic assessment of the prospects for citizenship in a society dominated by television and the consumption of images. A third perspective is suggested, based on the expansion of the idea of citizenship from civil, political and welfare entitlements to greater participation in the cultural and economic dimensions of everyday life. It is argued that such a concept can inform a comprehensive and coherent approach to citizenship, and a successful curriculum in citizenship education.
43 citations
37 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored the ways in which student teachers position themselves as teachers in primary classrooms, and argued that it is mainly in terms of this that students come to understand "being a teacher".
Abstract: This paper explores the ways in which student teachers position themselves as teachers in primary classrooms. It focuses upon one discourse in primary teaching, which we have called the ‘real teacher’ discourse, and argues that it is mainly in terms of this that students come to understand ‘being a teacher’.
33 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the relationship between poverty and education in South Africa, and how its conceptualisation has changed historically by analysing two major inquiries into poverty conducted by the Carnegie Corporation (in 1929−32 and 1982−84).
Abstract: This article examines the relationship between poverty and education in South Africa, and how its conceptualisation has changed historically. By analysing two major inquiries into poverty conducted by the Carnegie Corporation (in 1929‐32 and 1982‐84), it highlights the political nature of poverty and also its racialisation in South Africa. Using material from a peri‐urban research study, it extends the analysis to include the underprovision of schooling, gender relationships of poverty and also child labour. The article illustrates how the relationship between poverty and education has been differently constructed in different discourses, and concludes by considering the challenges of developing policies to address the education/poverty nexus in the rural areas of post‐apartheid South Africa.
31 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the way in which policies in a local education authority actually worked to disadvantage a group of children already suffering gross disadvantages, and suggest that such a situation would never have been tolerated in a white, middle-class area.
Abstract: This article describes the way in which policies in a local education authority actually worked to disadvantage a group of children already suffering gross disadvantages. During the 1980's 1LEA was unable to provide sufficient school places for children in Tower Hamlets, 95% of the resulting ‘out‐of‐school’ children being of Bangladeshi origin. The article records the efforts of the Tower Hamlets Law Centre to register a complaint on behalf of the children, and the way in which the local and central education authorities avoided their responsibilities to these children. It is suggested that such a situation would never have been tolerated in a white, middle‐class area. The article represents a contribution to the sociology of disadvantage in that it indicates the tendency of policy‐makers to ignore the economic and social structures which create disadvantage, and to focus on individual or family ‘pathology’ as a major cause of disadvantage.
25 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors suggest a way forward for teacher educators through the application of post-positivist theorising to what has come to be understood as "proven" by past and current educational research.
Abstract: This paper seeks to draw attention to the extent to which liberatory pedagogical intentions can function as part of a technology of surveillance unless, as socially critical educators, we actively work against our own tendency to totalising educational discourse. It notes a number of folkloric traditions in pre‐service teacher education that derive from discursive practices which position students either as inevitably acting out a well‐documented scenario or as ‘victims’ of the dominant technocratic model of teacher education. This paper suggests a way forward for teacher educators through the application of post‐positivist theorising to what has come to be understood as ‘proven’ by past and current educational research. This process is exemplified in the discussion by the application of post‐structuralist deconstructive techniques to avant garde educational text in order to bring forward for scrutiny the binary oppositions in our own ‘transformative’ educational discourse. The implications of ‘a...
22 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider issues which affect the discussions relating to provisions of "education for all" to children in less developed or poor countries, and argue for a revised understanding of the concepts of quality and relevance as they are usually formulated in policy documents.
Abstract: This article considers issues which affect the discussions relating to provisions of ‘education for all’ to children in less developed or poor countries. It considers critically, on the basis of socialist theories in the tradition of Gramsci, Freire, Heller and Habermas, the meanings given to education for the poor in these contexts. The article argues for a revised understanding of the concepts of quality and relevance as they are usually formulated in policy documents, and for consideration to be given to wider participation of various groups in the development of educational policies and practices concerned with quality and relevance.
TL;DR: This paper analysed the most recent document on reform of teacher education in Australia (the Ebbeck Report) and showed how its policy formulation is influenced by the discourse of corporate federalism and also showed how microeconomic reform in this sector is related to reforms in other sectors of education.
Abstract: Debate on teacher quality and quality in teaching and teacher education has been as vigorous in Australia as it has been in the UK and the USA. In Australia, however, reform in teacher education has been subsumed within a national metapolicy of corporate federalism which is an amalgam of beliefs or discourses including neo‐corporatism, economic rationalism, corporate managerialism and human capital. The paper analyses the most recent document on reform of teacher education in Australia (the Ebbeck Report) and shows how its policy formulation is influenced by the discourse of corporate federalism. It also shows how micro‐economic reform in this sector is related to reforms in other sectors of education.
TL;DR: In this paper, the Disadvantaged Schools Program and the question of poverty are discussed. But they do not consider the role of race and gender in the program's success. And they focus only on minority students.
Abstract: (1992). An Experiment in Justice: the Disadvantaged Schools Program and the question of poverty, 1974‐1990. British Journal of Sociology of Education: Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 447-464.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore how the culture of teaching mediated the implementation of the government-sponsored teacher internship and find that teachers' active support for it influenced the administration of internship in the first year.
Abstract: Japan's teacher internship was a hotly debated political issue for three decades until the legislature finally approved its implementation in 1988. The aim of this paper is to explore how the culture of teaching mediated the implementation of the government‐sponsored teacher internship. The data presented in this paper come from ethnographic research conducted in 1989 with a focus on three elementary public schools in Tokyo. Our findings suggest that the culture of teaching measurably influenced the administration of internship in the first year. As a result, internship became ineffective if measured by the Government's expectations. This paper argues that the Government's reform, of teaching is bound to be ineffectual without classroom teachers’ active support for it.
TL;DR: In this paper, an ethnographic study of vocational students in a tertiary college in England who intend entering a service industry which expanded in the 1980s and is predicted to expand into the next decade is presented.
Abstract: This is an ethnographic study of vocational students in a tertiary college in England who intend entering a service industry which expanded in the 1980s and is predicted to expand into the next decade. The students are outwardly highly conformist with upward mobility aspirations. They are ‘labour market‐wise’ and know the importance of educational qualifications. At this level they are highly committed to the course. However, they are also very critical of the college provision. In such a situation they are highly instrumental, they want the Diploma without ‘the education’. The students are obsessed with getting good grades and passing the examinations. Paradoxically, although college is ‘boring’ and ‘a waste of time’, the students do not reject education/training/credentials and the majority go on to higher education. This overall lived experience is an ideal preparation for work in their chosen industry and life.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors studied 43 careers teachers from 12 comprehensive schools in one Midlands local authority and found that most became involved in "careers" by chance, as a way of advancing their own career or because they had been delegated the responsibility.
Abstract: Careers teachers have at no time in their history enjoyed a high status in schools. This is surprising given the current demands for schools to equip youngsters with the social and work skills required for their future lives. The data drawn on derive from an in‐depth study of 43 careers teachers from 12 comprehensive schools in one Midlands local authority. The paper shows that the careers teachers studied are not a homogeneous group; they come from different subject backgrounds and include teachers, both male and female, from predominantly the bottom and middle rungs of the hierarchy. A common characteristic of those studied is that most are non‐graduate and have no significant specialist training in careers education. They became involved in ‘careers’ by chance, as a way of advancing their own career or because they had been delegated the responsibility, rather than for more ‘altruistic’ reasons. Their routes into careers work were largely unplanned. Most careers teachers worked on their own an...
TL;DR: This paper investigated the extent to which the school has supplanted parental responsibilities for the sex education of their children through a series of interviews with parents of adolescent children and found that although parents admit to a degree of anxiety, through the family routine parents were able to "normalise" sex talk within the home and gain insights into their children's sexual awareness.
Abstract: This paper addresses public concern over the extent to which the school has supplanted parental responsibilities for the sex education of their children. This concern is investigated through a series of interviews with parents of adolescent children. I argue that rather than focus on an opposition between the intrusive school and the private domestic unit, the problem with sex education is located within the domestic unit as parents had difficulties in initiating discussion on sexual matters. Far from being intrusive, most parents saw the school as a crucial source of information and support. Parents operated confidently at a more informal level of sex talk within the home. Findings suggest that although parents admit to a degree of anxiety, through the family routine parents were able to ‘normalise’ sex talk within the home and gain insights into their children's sexual awareness.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report evidence from an ethnographic study of two primary schools in a large town in Northern France, where one is in an affluent area near the centre and the other is situated on a run down municipal housing estate on the outskirts.
Abstract: This paper reports evidence from an ethnographic study of two primary schools in a large town in Northern France. The schools are located in markedly different socio‐economic settings. One is in an affluent area near the centre while the other is situated on a run down municipal housing estate on the outskirts in an officially designated educational priority zone. Despite their widely divergent social situations the two schools are strikingly similar and can be seen to be providing homogeneous educational experience for two socially heterogeneous populations. In the second half of the paper the notion of ‘national context’ is explored and its usefulness as an explanatory theoretical concept for analysing this educational homogeneity is suggested.
TL;DR: One aspect of the work that adolescent girls do in creating and maintaining friendship networks with each other, the process of including some girls and excluding others, is explored using an ethno...
Abstract: One aspect of the work that adolescent girls do in creating and maintaining friendship networks with each other, the process of including some girls and excluding others, is explored using an ethno...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compare economic restructuring and education reform in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and argue that there are powerful social and political forces which are making free market educational reforms, such as those being pursued in Britain, an increasingly attractive model of educational development in the CIS and Eastern Europe.
Abstract: This paper offers a number of comparative observations on economic restructuring and education reform in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). It will be argued that there are powerful social and political forces which are making free market’ educational reforms, such as those being pursued in Britain, an increasingly attractive model of educational development in the CIS and Eastern Europe. It will be suggested that such a basis for reform not only leaves the tension between political and economic change unresolved, but threatens to undermine the process of post‐communist reconstruction.
TL;DR: In this article, the career concerns experienced by some comprehensive school headteachers when promotion ladders in teaching in schools apparently come to an end are examined. But what happens to the minority who do achieve such headteacher posts? Do their promotions continue or is the headship the final career position?
Abstract: This paper considers the career concerns experienced by some comprehensive school headteachers when promotion ladders in teaching in schools apparently come to an end. Using career history data from 20 headteachers, 10 men and 10 women, the age and gender differences in the experience of career concern are illustrated. The concept of career in sociological analysis is examined and the linking of actions and structures in the formation of career patterns is demonstrated. It is then argued that, in a time of rapid educational change, new positions will be created and the rules defining who gets particular positions might be altered. In this way, the career expectations of, and new career structures for, headteachers could be developed. Promotion in teaching usually involves movement out of classroom teaching into positions of management and administration. In secondary schools there are complex structures of senior and middle management which give career and promotion opportunities to many teachers. The headteacher position is currently the peak, the top management post in schools. The chances of achieving a headship position are low since there are few such posts available. In 1987, 3.2% of men secondary teachers and 0.7% of women secondary teachers were heads (DES, 1987; Acker, 1989, p. 11). But what happens to the minority who do achieve such headteacher posts? Do their promotions continue or is the headship the final career position? Ambitious men teachers can achieve headships when they are in their thirties (Hilsum & Start, 1974) although the modal age for women is probably in their forties. So having reached a career peak, how do individual men and women heads view the remainder of their careers? For some,
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider models of the core curriculum, which they argue are inadequate as their understanding of social difference is truncated, and argue that the effect is to normalise the white, male middle class subject and to ignore social antagonism.
Abstract: The paper considers models of the core curriculum, which it argues are inadequate as their understanding of social difference is truncated. Although these models recognise difference this is located within a pluralist framework and is implicitly viewed as an impediment that hinders equal opportunities. The effect is to normalise the white, male middle class subject and to ignore social antagonism. Skill in the core curriculum becomes technicised, and a differentiated and segmented curriculum is left in place.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a review and analysis of the perceptions of a specific group of teachers in South Africa, white English-speaking teachers, based on research conducted during 1986-1987.
Abstract: This paper reviews and explains the perceptions of a specific group of teachers in South Africa—white English‐speaking teachers. The analysis, based on research conducted during 1986‐1987, investigates the context in which these teachers perceive their subordination and articulate their interests. The discursive approach which is used here poses the notion of white English‐speaking teacher as a construction of social identity which is contingent in the historical sense and is a product of discursive articulation. The article analyses the historical and the material conditions in which the teachers’ work is situated. It explains the nature of the teachers’ perceived subordination and social identity. Finally, the paper offers a short note of conclusion about the implication of this analysis for the possibility of a pluralist notion of teachers’ unity.
TL;DR: In this paper, the present secondary school assessment system in Queensland by presenting comparable material for Victoria from 1856 to 1979 is analysed. But particular attention is paid to Offe's concept of economic connections and to operation-alising it by the use of the financial accounts of examination boards.
Abstract: This paper builds on Lingard's paper (1990a, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 11, pp. 171‐188) analysing the present secondary school assessment system in Queensland by presenting comparable material for Victoria from 1856 to 1979. All Lingard's tools of analysis are used, but particular attention is paid to Offe's concept of “economic connections” and to operation‐alising it by the use of the financial accounts of examination boards. Only by employing such tools in the service of sociological theory will an approach be made to theories about assessment systems.
TL;DR: The Social Life of Plants as discussed by the authors is a seminal work in the field of education that explores the social life of plants and its relationship with education. British Journal of Sociology of Education: Vol. 13, No. 3, No 3, pp. 383-386.
Abstract: (1992). The Social Life of Plants. British Journal of Sociology of Education: Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 383-386.