Showing papers in "British Journal of Sociology of Education in 2011"
TL;DR: Hargreaves and Shirley as mentioned in this paper published a joint publication with Ontario Principals Council and National Staff Development Council, 2009, £16.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-412...
Abstract: by Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley, Thousand Oaks, CA, Corwin, joint publication with Ontario Principals’ Council and National Staff Development Council, 2009, £16.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-412...
237 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, Choi et al. conducted in-depth interviews with 50 Korean graduate students who were enrolled in a research-centered US university at the time of the interview to understand how their motivations are connected with their family, school, and occupational backgrounds, and with the stratification of global higher education.
Abstract: This study aims to understand Korean students’ motivations for studying in US graduate schools. For this purpose, I conducted in‐depth interviews with 50 Korean graduate students who were enrolled in a research‐centered US university at the time of the interview. In these interviews, I sought to understand how their motivations are connected not only with their family, school, and occupational backgrounds, but also with the stratification of global higher education. Theoretically, this paper attempts to combine the concept of global positional competition with Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital in the field of global education. By critically examining a push–pull model of transnational higher education choice‐making, this study situates Korean students’ aspirations in the contexts of global power and the hierarchy of knowledge‐degree production and consumption. After analyzing the students’ qualitative interviews, I classify their motivations for earning US degrees within four categories: enhanc...
163 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors express serious reservations regarding the increasingly popular Bourdieu-inspired notions of institutional habitus and family habitus in education research, arguing that they threaten not only to overstretch and reduce the explanatory power of the French thinker's concepts but also stifle analysis of the kinds of struggles and complexities that both he and the researchers in question spotlight.
Abstract: This paper expresses serious reservations regarding the increasingly popular Bourdieu‐inspired notions of ‘institutional habitus’ and ‘family habitus’ in education research. Although sympathetic to the overall theoretical approach and persuaded of the veracity and importance of the empirical findings they are used to illuminate, it argues that, from a Bourdieusian point of view, they actually present several difficulties that threaten not only to overstretch and reduce the explanatory power of the French thinker’s concepts but to stifle analysis of the kinds of struggles and complexities that both he and, somewhat contradictorily, the researchers in question spotlight. Bourdieu had his own ways of making sense of the themes raised, and although there is indeed a need to push him further than he went, to say what he did not and to emphasise what he would not, this has to be guided by consistent logic and not simply pragmatic empiricism.
159 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue for greater attention to agency, and community and familial capital, in conceptualizing the resilience of those from less privileged backgrounds, arguing that a curriculum that acknowledges the context independence of knowledge is essential if these students are not to be further disadvantaged.
Abstract: This paper explores some of the unresolved tensions in higher education systems and the contradiction between widening participation and the consolidation of social position. It shows how concepts of capital derived from Bourdieu, Coleman and Putnam provide a powerful basis for critique, but risk a deficit view of students from less privileged backgrounds. These students are more likely to attend lower‐status institutions and engage with an externally focused curriculum. The paper argues for greater attention to agency, and community and familial capital, in conceptualising the resilience of those from less privileged backgrounds. While the recognition of ‘voice’ is important, a curriculum that acknowledges the context independence of knowledge is essential if these students are not to be further disadvantaged.
116 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present glimpses of the way education is described as an experience and possibility "from below" by pupils who grow up and study in schools in the most segregated and territorially stigmatized suburbs on the outskirts of our major cities.
Abstract: In this article, using data from ethnographic research, we try to present some glimpses of the way education is described as an experience and possibility ‘from below’, by pupils who grow up and study in schools in the most segregated and territorially stigmatized suburbs on the outskirts of our major cities. What we feel they describe is an experience of schooling for surviving the social and economic consequences of curtailed citizenship in a post‐industrial society rather than one of schooling that offers possibilities of integration and full citizenship or social transformation. Our findings have significant policy implications in this respect. Sweden has historically pursued projects aimed at educational inclusion but has recently taken a significant turn toward neo‐liberalism and educational consumerism, since which time various disadvantaged groups have become increasingly concentrated compared with others in under‐achieving schools in an economically threatened public sector. The article discusses...
101 citations
TL;DR: This article examined new structured attempts to address and manage emotions in the classroom, focusing on the broad emotional literacy agenda operating within schools, and more specifically the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) programme.
Abstract: This paper examines new structured attempts to address and manage emotions in the classroom. Critical analysis focuses on the broad emotional literacy agenda operating within schools, and more specifically the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) programme. Data are drawn on from an ethnographic study located in Behaviour Support Units in three mainstream, inner‐city comprehensives to highlight the gap between the ‘rational emotionality’ being promoted and the fraught, and often uncontainable, emotions that drive everyday school life. It is also argued that the therapeutic model underpinning SEAL activities in schools risks individualising and thereby misinterpreting socially and culturally embedded difference, pathologising particular pupils in the process.
94 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze qualitative interviews conducted with Norwegian middle-class parents to explore how a particular type of intimacy -an enriching intimacy -is produced as part of everyday parent-child interactions and consider the notion of the social self that spurs middle class parents to seek this kind of intimacy with their children.
Abstract: This paper analyses qualitative interviews conducted with Norwegian middle‐class parents. It explores how a particular type of intimacy – an enriching intimacy – is produced as part of everyday parent–child interactions and considers the notion of the social self that spurs middle‐class parents to seek this very type of intimacy with their child. By so doing it adds to the growing field of research on middle‐class parents’ child‐rearing strategies and the role these strategies play in the ‘resourcing’ of middle‐class children. The relevance of the dimension of intimacy for studies on the parental effect on children’s school achievement is discussed.
80 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored the social class-differentiated behaviours of access and traditional-entry students, based on a three-year constructivist grounded theory study with 45 undergraduates at an Irish university.
Abstract: This paper explores the social class‐differentiated behaviours of access and traditional‐entry students, based on a three‐year constructivist grounded theory study with 45 undergraduates at an Irish university. The participant groups behaved significantly differently within the socio‐relational realm, engaging in various forms of distancing behaviours motivated by a desire to self‐protect and based on perceived relative social positioning. The paper illustrates some ways in which both disadvantage and privilege are performed at the post‐entry stage in a widening participation context. It is argued that the ‘closure’ behaviours of class‐based groups constrain the building of social capital by working‐class students, thus potentially limiting the ability of widening participation policies in achieving equality goals.
59 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the complexities involved in the construction of a sample of "ordinary" schools and explore two theoretical tools, fabrication and rhetoric, that are deployed in an analysis of some key artefacts of fabrication from schools in England.
Abstract: In this paper we describe some of the complexities involved in the construction of a sample of ‘ordinary’ schools. We outline the policy context in England that produces pressures to resist ‘ordinariness’. The paper then explores two theoretical tools, fabrication and rhetoric, that are deployed in an analysis of some key artefacts of fabrication from schools in England. Through an examination of artefacts such as school brochures and websites, this paper asks whether there are any ‘ordinary’ schools in these performative times?
56 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that marketisation, through its constituent concepts of commodification, image and exchange, seduces as an education "spectacle" and ultimately shapes individuals' value positions. But they argue that learning outcomes are a simulacrum: like other signifiers of commodities, they appear meaningful.
Abstract: If managerialism points to the ideological foundations and bureaucratisation of contemporary education, marketisation signals its commodification, image and exchange. This paper brings to bear the prevailing influence of marketisation on education. It begins with a brief description of the European context and development of learning outcomes, and outlines the (economic) rationale for their existence. It then sets out to explore the logic of learning outcomes, asking: what is lost in the process of education being exchanged as a commodity? We argue that marketisation, through its constituent concepts of commodification, image and exchange, seduces as an education ‘spectacle’ and ultimately shapes individuals’ value positions. In essence, marketisation, grounded in contemporary neoliberal economics, privileges quantitative, at the expense of genuinely qualitative, educational substance. Further, we argue that learning outcomes are a simulacrum: like other signifiers of commodities, they appear meaningful (...
56 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a systematic experience survey of disabled students and non-disabled students within one higher education institution in the United Kingdom found that disabled students who have institutional disability support expressed more difficulties in their learning and assessment than students with no known disability.
Abstract: This article advocates for socially just pedagogies in higher education to challenge senses of normalcy that perpetuate elitist academic attitudes towards the inclusion of disabled students. Normalcy is equated here with an everyday eugenics, which heralds a non-disabled person without ‘defects’, or impairments, as the ideal norm. This article attempts to mark the pervasiveness of normalcy in higher education by presenting findings from a systematic experience survey of disabled students and non-disabled students within one higher education institution in the United Kingdom. The findings indicate that disabled students who have institutional disability support express more difficulties in their learning and assessment than students with no known disability. However, it was found that there was no significant difference in academic achievement between the two cohorts of students. In relation to the latter point, the evidence also shows that disabled students who do not receive institutional disability supp...
TL;DR: Critical Theory, a model of theorizing in the field of the political sociology of education, has been proposed in this paper to herald an empowering, liberatory education that fosters curiosity and critical thinking, and a means for successful bottom-up, top-down political engagement.
Abstract: This paper discusses Critical Theory, a model of theorizing in the field of the political sociology of education. We argue for a reimagined Critical Theory to herald an empowering, liberatory education that fosters curiosity and critical thinking, and a means for successful bottom-up, top-down political engagement. We present arguments at a theoretical and meta-theoretical level, leaving empirical analysis to a future writing. We hold it impossible: to fully dissociate normative from the analytical in constructing scientific thought, thus showing the importance of the notion of a good society to guide varied intellectual explorations; to deny the political role of education; and to detach from historicity of thought and policy prescriptions emerging from such theorizing, as not all social constructions are equal in terms of logical configuration, methodological rigor, or solid empirical proof. What follows are snapshots of how we can reimagine the historical present, and how Critical Theory can impact the...
TL;DR: This article examined whether women and men publish journal articles at a level comparable with their representation within the social sciences and explored sex differences in patterns of single authorship and co-authorship.
Abstract: This paper examines whether women and men publish journal articles at a level comparable with their representation within the social sciences. The paper also explores sex differences in patterns of single authorship and co-authorship. To do so, demographic data of the UK social sciences is compared with a sample of UK-authored journal articles. The findings of the study show that, overall, female academics contribute to a lower proportion of journal articles than the proportion of academic staff that they constitute. However, within certain disciplines (social policy and psychology) women publish articles at a level comparable with the proportion of the discipline that they constitute. These findings, it is argued, can be helpfully understood as both cause and consequence of the gendered academy.
TL;DR: This article explored the prospective transition of immigrant and native students in France from lower to upper secondary school and found that immigrants are more likely to be tracked to less prestigious (vocational) tracks, and are significantly disadvantaged at this key academic stage in comparison with the children of native families.
Abstract: This paper explores the prospective transition of immigrant and native students in France from lower to upper secondary school. Because they are more likely to be tracked to less prestigious (vocational) tracks, immigrant and immigrant‐origin students are significantly disadvantaged at this key academic stage in comparison with the children of native families. Primary and secondary sources of educational disadvantage are explored to explain this phenomenon. Primary effects appear to account for the entire initial disadvantage, while secondary effects could have a positive impact for immigrant‐origin students. Nonetheless, immigrant families appear to be more conservative than native families and may need stronger evidence that their children will succeed in upper secondary school.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated gendered identities and interactions of high-achieving students in Year Eight in England (12-13 years old), particularly in relation to students' "popularity" amongst their peers.
Abstract: This paper draws on data from a research project investigating gendered identities and interactions of high‐achieving students in Year Eight in England (12–13 years old), particularly in relation to students’ ‘popularity’ amongst their peers. As part of this study 71 students were interviewed from nine different schools in urban, rural and small town locations. From an analysis of participants’ conceptions of the characteristics of ‘popular’ and ‘unpopular’ students, this paper looks in depth at notions of in/authenticity and how it is perceived and judged in relation to the self and others. In particular, the paper focuses on the genderedness of such discourses of in/authenticity as constructed by these students, and relates such concerns to theorizations of ‘impossible’ femininity.
TL;DR: Youdell et al. as mentioned in this paper published a book called Scho... by Deborah Youdell, London, Routledge, 2010, 163 pp., £24.99 (paperback), £75.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-415-47988-2 (Paperback), 978- 0-415+47987-5 (Hardback)
Abstract: by Deborah Youdell, London, Routledge, 2010, 163 pp., £24.99 (paperback), £75.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-415-47988-2 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-415-47987-5 (hardback) Deborah Youdell’s recent book Scho...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the parent partnership rhetoric that has dominated UK government policy and directives for nearly three decades and yet research suggests parents and more often mothers have to battle to be recognised as legitimate experts.
Abstract: This paper is about mothering an intellectually disabled child identified with special educational needs. It specifically looks at the parent partnership rhetoric that has dominated UK government policy and directives for nearly three decades and yet research suggests parents and more often mothers have to battle to be recognised as legitimate experts. This paper engages with sociological analysis as it highlights via qualitative narratives that mothers are weighed down by the sheer number of professionals involved in their day-to-day life. Moreover, mothers whose children are not identified in the early years are often blamed in the first instance for playing a part in their child’s difficult behaviour. This research ultimately suggests that partnership work is important and necessary for practice within health, education and social work professions, not least of all because the emotional roller-coaster that mothers experience during the assessment and statementing process is disabling.
TL;DR: The authors examine the experiences of three Muslim refugee girls recently settled in Australia and examine issues of schooling and empowerment, and argue for a reflexive approach to empowerment that is informed by an understanding of the framing discourses shaping minority student identity and critical reflection on educator and school positionality.
Abstract: Referring to the experiences of three Muslim refugee girls recently settled in Australia, this paper examines issues of schooling and empowerment. The paper draws on teacher and student interview data from a study that investigated inclusive approaches to addressing issues of cultural diversity in a secondary state high school in Queensland. The paper foregrounds the girls’ highly positive views of their experiences at the school; views that reflect the girls’ access to spaces of empowerment but belie the complexity and tensions involved in how empowerment was understood and approached by educators at the school. Theorising empowerment through poststructural understandings of agency, the paper examines conditions and ways of understanding that make possible spaces of empowerment for the girls. In particular, the paper argues for a reflexive approach to empowerment that is informed by an understanding of the framing discourses shaping minority student identity and a critical reflection on educator and school positionality.
TL;DR: In this article, the existence and use of different forms of capital, including social, cultural and physical capital, in three independent schools in Scotland were investigated. But they did not consider the role of sport in the production of symbolic capital in the form of branding.
Abstract: This paper draws on a research study into the existence and use of different forms of capital – including social, cultural and physical capital – in three independent schools in Scotland. We were interested in understanding how these forms of capital work to produce and reproduce advantage and privilege. Analysis is framed by a multiple capitals approach drawing on and developing the work of Putnam and especially Bourdieu. We suggest that sport plays a role with important effects for strong bonding and for the production of symbolic capital in the form of branding by each school.
TL;DR: This paper examined the psychic and social dynamics reported by student teachers when learning to embody their teacher persona in the secondary school environment and argued for a consideration of gender and body politics in the practice and training of teachers, thus challenging the assumption that professional occupations are essentially 'disembodied' and gender neutral.
Abstract: This paper considers the psychic and social dynamics reported by student teachers when learning to embody their teacher persona in the secondary school environment. Focusing on gender dimensions of embodiment and drawing on qualitative interview data from a UK study of postgraduate teacher‐training students, teaching is examined as a physical experience. The paper conceptualises findings under two related headings: the appropriately gendered body, signified by heteronormative readings of gender and sexuality; and the gendered authoritative body, conceptualised as male. The ‘teacher body’ emerges as an important element of student teachers’ stories of trying to fit with the new professional environment and the paper concludes by arguing for a consideration of gender and body politics in the practice and training of teachers, thus challenging the assumption that professional occupations are essentially ‘disembodied’ and gender neutral.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw attention to context as a complementary explanation, particularly regarding achievement differences between students from different socio-economic backgrounds, and use data from one Australian secondary school located in an economically depressed rural community.
Abstract: One popular view of student achievement is that the quality of teaching students receive plays an important part in whether or not they do well at school. In this article we draw attention to ‘context’ as a complementary explanation, particularly regarding achievement differences between students from different socio‐economic backgrounds. In making these observations, we utilise data from one Australian secondary school located in an economically depressed rural community. Drawing on the insights of Bourdieu, our focus is on the broader social and economic influences that can adversely position students and schools, as well as work to inform the institutional stance that schools take in relation to their students.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the relationship that the performance in key academic subjects and aiming for higher education have with political socialization at home, and argued that a widened concept of "home background" is needed in the sociology of education.
Abstract: Using data from a large‐scale survey of Norwegian youth, the study examines the relationships that the performance in key academic subjects and aiming for higher education have with political socialization at home. The more often adolescents aged 13–16 talk with parents about politics and social issues, the better their performance is and the more often they aim for higher education. These relationships survive controls for, inter alia, parental level of education and other socio‐economic status indicators. The findings fit longstanding ideals in the philosophy of education. It is argued that a widened concept of ‘home background’ is needed in the sociology of education.
TL;DR: This article examined the ways that indigenous children in an urban school environment in New Zealand position themselves in relation to school science and argued that although the interplay between emergent cultural identity narratives and the formation of "science selves" is not as yet fully understood, it carries the potential to open a rich seam of learning for indigenous children.
Abstract: The perspectives of indigenous science learners in developed nations offer an important but frequently overlooked dimension to debates about the nature of science, the science curriculum, and calls from educators to make school science more culturally responsive or ‘relevant’ to students from indigenous or minority groups. In this paper the findings of a study conducted with indigenous Maori children between the ages of 10 and 12 years are discussed. The purpose of the study was to examine the ways that indigenous children in an urban school environment in New Zealand position themselves in relation to school science. Drawing on the work of Basil Bernstein, we argue that although the interplay between emergent cultural identity narratives and the formation of ‘science selves’ is not as yet fully understood, it carries the potential to open a rich seam of learning for indigenous children.
TL;DR: The authors used reports from 13,000 Grade Nine pupils in five countries to examine issues such as whether they were treated fairly at school, trust their teachers and adults in wider society, are willing to sacrifice teacher attention to help others, and support the cultural integration of recent immigrants.
Abstract: This paper uses reports from 13,000 Grade Nine pupils in five countries to examine issues such as whether they were treated fairly at school, trust their teachers and adults in wider society, are willing to sacrifice teacher attention to help others, and support the cultural integration of recent immigrants. Using such reports as ‘outcomes’ in a multi‐stage regression model, it is clear that they are largely unrelated to school‐level pupil mix variables. To some extent, these outcomes are stratified by pupil and family background in the same way for all countries. However, the largest association is with pupil‐reported experience of interactions with their teachers. Teachers appear to be a major influence on young people's sense of justice and the principles they apply in deciding whether something is fair. The paper concludes by suggesting ways in which schools and teachers could take advantage of this finding.
TL;DR: The authors used the spatial theories of Lefebvre and Foucault to argue that critical reflective practice can be used to create Soja's thirdspace for reconstructing future practice.
Abstract: Pre-service teacher education is a spatialised enterprise. It operates across a number of spaces that may or may not be linked ideologically and/or physically. These spaces can include daily practices, locations, infrastructure, relationships and representations of power and ideology. The interrelationships between and within these (sometimes competing) spaces for pre-service teachers will influence their identities as teachers and learners across time and space. Pre-service teachers are expected to make the connections between these often-contradictory spaces with little or no guidance on how to negotiate such complex relationships. These are difficult spaces, yet the slippages and gaps between these spaces offer generative possibilities. This paper explores these spaces of possibility for pre-service teacher education, and uses the spatial theories of Lefebvre and Foucault to argue that critical reflective practice can be used to create Soja’s ‘thirdspace’ for reconstructing future practice.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine how students from the "loser" sections of the middle class dealt with the game of secondary schooling in a "good" state school in the city of Buenos Aires (Argentina).
Abstract: This article examines how students from the ‘loser’ sections of the middle class dealt with the game of secondary schooling in a ‘good’ state school in the city of Buenos Aires (Argentina). It engages with Bourdieu’s theory of social practice and, in particular, with its concepts of game, habitus and cultural capital. It argues that middle‐class students embody a school habitus, which I call zafar. Zafar (a Spanish slang word) refers to students’ dispositions, practices and strategies towards social and educational demands of teachers and their school. Zafar propels middle‐class students to be just ‘good enough’ students, and promote an instrumental approach to schooling and learning. Although this paper offers an account within which the reproduction of relative educational advantage of a group of middle‐class students takes place, it also poses questions about their future educational and occupational opportunities.
TL;DR: The authors conducted a qualitative study with two groups of 12-year-old children from contrasting socio-economic groups over the period of one school year and found specific practices where the linguistic expectations and demands within school-space create different implications and outcomes for middle-class and working-class children as a result of their linguistic experiences in non-school space.
Abstract: The prestige accorded to standard language varieties, particularly within the field of education, together with language management role of schools with respect to the variety and the extent to which linguistic differences construct discontinuous relationships between the school and specific social groups provide the rationale for this paper This qualitative study, based on a friendship focus group design, was conducted with two groups of 12-year-old children from contrasting ‘ideal type’, socio-economic groups over the period of one school year Findings outline specific practices where the linguistic expectations and demands within school-space create different implications and outcomes for middle-class and working-class children as a result of their linguistic experiences in non-school space The implications of these linguistic interactions on patterns of engagement with the school among the children in the sample are also considered
TL;DR: In this paper, the impact of dominant discourses and values on schooling choices and the related concerns to explore issues linked to girls' education among Pakistani diaspora in England, drawing on relevant literature and the evidence from a recent study of single-sex schooling.
Abstract: The South Asian diaspora and its impact on the lives of dispersed communities is a complex phenomenon finding expression in a range of issues and debates. However, the nature and scale of the challenges and issues vary in each case and context, and even over generations. These issues become more sensitive and poignant when underpinned by cultural and belief systems. This paper debates the impact of dominant discourses and values on schooling choices and the related concerns to explore issues linked to girls’ education among Pakistani diaspora in England, drawing on relevant literature and the evidence from a recent study of single-sex schooling. It argues that multiple emotional, social, cultural, historical, political, economic and other affiliations influence the patterns of behaviour and the terms of civic engagement in the adopted country leading to a struggle over meanings and competing positions over values and practices that are fluid and dynamic.
TL;DR: The authors examine the reconfiguration of social class within state schools and historical and contemporary shifting images of white working-class males within the education literature and suggest the need to engage with a multi-dimensional explanatory frame in order to understand how working class young men now inhabit a new cultural condition in the post-colonial urban space of inner-city schools.
Abstract: The retreat from social class within the sociology of education has been accompanied by the intensification of socio-economic and cultural inequalities. This paper seeks to draw upon cultural analyses of social class by addressing a classificatory shift of white English working-class males, who have moved from an ascribed primary socio-economic status to an embodied aesthetic performance. We examine the reconfiguration of social class within state schools and historical and contemporary shifting images of white working-class males within the education literature. We suggest the need to engage with a multi-dimensional explanatory frame in order to understand how working-class young men now inhabit a new cultural condition in the post-colonial urban space of inner-city schools. This shift is best captured by exploring the simultaneous articulations of multiple categories of difference – including class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and generation – in relation to contemporary representations of social class.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that one cannot take away integrity in the search for evidence and honesty in declaring one's truthfulness in the declaration of one's personal information in a tax declaration.
Abstract: by Steve Fuller, London, Sage, 2009, 178 pp., £60.00 (hardback), ISBN 978‐1‐41‐292838‐0 On the other hand, one cannot take away integrity in the search for evidence and honesty in declaring one’s r...