Showing papers in "British Journal of Sociology of Education in 2012"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the dual role of global university rankings in the creation of a new, knowledge-identified, transnational capitalist class and in facilitating new forms of social exclusion, and examine how and why the practice of ranking universities has become widely defined by national and international organisations as an important instrument of political and economic policy.
Abstract: In this article we explore the dual role of global university rankings in the creation of a new, knowledge-identified, transnational capitalist class and in facilitating new forms of social exclusion. We examine how and why the practice of ranking universities has become widely defined by national and international organisations as an important instrument of political and economic policy. We consider the development of university rankings into a global business combining social research, marketing and public relations, as a tangible policy tool that narrowly redefines the social purposes of higher education itself. Finally, it looks at how the influence of rankings on national funding for teaching and research constrains wider public debate about the meaning of ‘good' and meaningful education in the United Kingdom and other national contexts, particularly by shifting the debate away from democratic publics upward into the elite networked institutions of global capital. We conclude by arguing that, rather ...
191 citations
TL;DR: This article investigated the differences that are apparent between respondent parents in their levels of involvement with regard to schools and concluded that, within a broadly similar paradigm of active involvement with and monitoring of schools, nuanced differences in parental strategising reflect whether academic achievement is given absolute priority within the home.
Abstract: This paper reports on qualitative data that focus on the educational strategies of middle-class parents of Black Caribbean heritage. Drawing on Bourdieu’s key concepts of habitus, capital and field, our focus is an investigation of the differences that are apparent between respondent parents in their levels of involvement with regard to schools. We conclude that, within a broadly similar paradigm of active involvement with and monitoring of schools, nuanced differences in parental strategising reflect whether academic achievement is given absolute priority within the home. This, in turn, reflects differential family habitus, and differential possession and activation of capitals.
114 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a new conceptual framework was developed for understanding the bullying that takes place between children in schools and a new definition of bullying was proposed, which reflected a shift in focus from individual characteristics to the social processes that may lead to bullying.
Abstract: In this article, I develop a new conceptual framework, a new thinking technology, for understanding the bullying that takes place between children in schools. In addition, I propose a new definition of bullying. This new thinking technology reflects a shift in focus from individual characteristics to the social processes that may lead to bullying. The social approach theorises bullying as one of many reactions to particular kinds of social insecurity. The concepts I develop include the necessity of belonging, social exclusion anxiety and the production of contempt and dignity by both children and adults. I also draw on Judith Butler’s concept of abjection. In the last part of the article, I employ Karen Barad’s theory of agential realism, focusing specifically on her concept of intra-acting enacting forces. The entry to the theoretical development is based on empirical data generated in Denmark during a comprehensive five-year study of bullying.
111 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the key influences that shape young people's choices and found that decisions about whether to go on to higher education are reflected three sets of processes: individual habitus; the institutional habitus of the school, as reflected in the amount and type of guidance provided; and young people own agency.
Abstract: International research into educational decision-making has been extensive, focusing on the way in which young people and their families assess the different options open to them. However, to what extent can we assume that different groups of young people have equal access to the information needed to make such an assessment? And what role, if any, do schools play in this process? Using in-depth qualitative interviews from two schools with very different student intakes, this paper examines the key influences that shape young people's choices. Decisions about whether to go on to higher education are found to reflect three sets of processes: individual habitus; the institutional habitus of the school, as reflected in the amount and type of guidance provided; and young people's own agency – namely, the conscious process whereby students seek out information on different options and evaluate these alternatives.
90 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the educational goals of migrant families in Beijing and found that even migrant children who aspire to attain higher education are still blocked by discriminatory examination laws and limited resources, and that a realistic assessment of their chances of achieving their aspirations leads them to have lower expectations.
Abstract: In China, there is a growing group of ‘migrant children’, who reside in the city but do not have full rights to access education. Many have been granted a chance to study in public schools after the policy change, but they continue to have lower educational outcomes than the local students. To understand the inequality, this paper examines the educational goals of migrant families in Beijing. Based on the field interviews, it shows that even migrant children who aspire to attain higher education are nonetheless ‘blocked’ by discriminatory examination laws and limited resources. Their subjective outlook is derived from objective conditions and concrete experiences. Their family of origin determines the types of resources available to them, and thus plays an important role in the formation and justification of their educational goals. A realistic assessment of their chances of achieving their aspirations leads them to have lower expectations.
73 citations
TL;DR: This paper found that despite similar working-class backgrounds, study participants' reaction to university was anything but predictable, and that prior socialization, clear and realistic career goals, and chance encounters at university played an importan...
Abstract: As their numbers at university grow, we need to gain a better understanding of the different ways in which working-class students negotiate their potential outsider status in what is often considered an essential middle-class institution. Based on data from a four-year longitudinal, qualitative study of working-class students at a Canadian university, I argue that their acceptance of the ends and means of both the academic and social demands of university contributes to the development of different student roles, which in turn affects their likelihood to succeed academically. Drawing on works by Bourdieu and Bernstein, I present four case studies of students who lived through university committed, alienated or in transition toward either commitment or alienation. I show that despite similar working-class backgrounds, study participants’ reaction to university was anything but predictable. Instead, prior socialization, clear and realistic career goals, and chance encounters at university played an importan...
61 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored how the body is implicated in pedagogic practice and leaning, and used choreographic pedagogy to illuminate the complex and multimodal features of instructional discourse and suggest how the moving body could be enlisted to enhance students' access to formal academic discourses and better understand why some young people fail to achieve in schools.
Abstract: Following the corporeal turn in social theory, this paper explores how the body is implicated in pedagogic practice and leaning. Focusing on the body has usually been recognised as part of the regulative rather than instructional discourse in schools. Work has begun to redress the mind–body imbalance through the ‘corporeal device’ developed from Bernstein’s ‘pedagogic device’, the fundamental relay through which social inequalities are reproduced in schools. To properly recognise the way bodies act as pedagogic relays requires a robust understanding of persons as multi-sensorial acting beings. Examples for choreographic pedagogy are used to illuminate the complex and multimodal features of instructional discourse and to suggest how the moving body could be enlisted to enhance students’ access to formal academic discourses and better understand why some young people fail to achieve in schools.
55 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that apparently equal outcomes in the tenure review process may be obscuring differential experiences of evaluation that need further examination, especially as the faculty complement slowly grows more ethnically diverse and more gender balanced.
Abstract: The focus of this article is the tenure review process in Canadian universities, a rigorous and high-stakes evaluation of junior academics that serves as a prime exemplar of ‘disciplining academics', our project's title. In-depth interviews in seven Ontario universities with 30 knowledgeable informants such as senior managers and faculty association personnel provide the data. Literature on tenure and the persistence of equity issues suggests that we might expect some concern on those grounds to be raised by participants, especially as the faculty complement slowly grows more ethnically diverse and more gender balanced. Although not usually raised without direct questions, some discourses around equity did appear in the interviews. We argue that apparently equal outcomes in the tenure review process may be obscuring differential experiences of evaluation that need further examination.
50 citations
TL;DR: Dillabough and Kennelly as mentioned in this paper, 2010, vii + 239 pp, £100 (hardcover), £27.99 (paperback), £26.99(eBook), ISBN 10: 0-415-99557-4 (hardback), ISBN 0: 415-99558-2 (eBook).
Abstract: by Jo-Anne Dillabough and Jacqueline Kennelly, London, Routledge, 2010, vii + 239 pp., £100 (hardback), £27.99 (paperback), £26.99 (eBook), ISBN 10: 0-415-99557-4 (hardback), ISBN 10: 0-415-99558-2...
47 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors build a capability-based framework, drawing upon the strengths of other approaches, which is applicable to the complexity of the urban-rural divide in education in China.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to build a capability-based framework, drawing upon the strengths of other approaches, which is applicable to the complexity of the urban–rural divide in education in China. It starts with a brief introduction to the capability approach. This is followed by a discussion of how the rights-based approach and resource-based approach can supplement the capability model; this framework is then employed to draw out new insights regarding the case of urban–rural inequality in China. It concludes by highlighting the contribution of this framework in terms of mapping out the interlocked processes that create the urban–rural divide in education by taking account of children growing up under the influence of a wider socio-economic context. In doing so, it sheds light on issues which tend to be otherwise overlooked.
42 citations
TL;DR: The authors considers the construct of teacher resilience from critical discourse and labour process perspectives in order to cast new light on what has been traditionally viewed from a psychological perspective, and argues that any conceptualisations of teacher resiliency should be critically appraised and not simply taken for granted.
Abstract: This article considers the construct of ‘teacher resilience’ from critical discourse and labour process perspectives in order to cast new light on what has been traditionally viewed from a psychological perspective. In this respect, the construct of resilience is placed in the broad political landscape of teachers’ work and the labour process of teaching, within a neoliberal globalised economic paradigm. Importantly, this article argues that any conceptualisations of teacher resilience should be critically appraised and not simply ‘taken for granted’. While the concept of developing ‘teacher resilience’ as a means, for example, of addressing alarmingly high rates of early career teacher attrition may sound like a good idea, it is important to consider the way such constructs can be used to shape and potentially control teacher identity and the nature of teachers’ work.
TL;DR: This paper argued that the concept of reflexivity is central to our understanding of the relationships between agency, structure and social change, and concurred with Archer's view that reflexivity can be used to understand how people navigate their education and career pathways.
Abstract: This paper provides a critical appraisal of approaches to reflexivity in sociology. It uses data from social network research to argue that Archer's approach to reflexivity provides a valuable lens with which to understand how people navigate their education and career pathways. The paper is also critical of Archer's methodology and typology of reflexivity as "types"; it is argued that social network research suggests people reveal different approaches to reflexivity in different situations. It concurs with Archer that the concept reflexivity is central to our understanding of the relationships between agency, structure and social change.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors look at the association of a set of common risk indicators with students' supportive resources and school experiences upon the transition to post-secondary vocational education in the Netherlands.
Abstract: Many students drop out in the first year after a school transition. Most commonly used indicators of an increased risk for dropout reveal little of the mechanisms that push or pull students out of school. In this study, we look at the association of a set of common risk indicators with students’ supportive resources and school experiences upon the transition to post-secondary vocational education in the Netherlands. Multilevel regression analyses on a diverse sample of 1438 students indicate that most sociodemographic risk indicators relate to less access to supportive resources for school, whereas personal circumstances outside school that are associated with an increased risk for dropout correlate with negative school experiences. Students from lower educated or poor families and students who use drugs, have debts, or are delinquent score negative in both domains, suggesting that those students make the transition with one foot out the school door.
TL;DR: The authors presented data from a qualitative study of young men's school-to-work transitions to illustrate a distinctive middle-ground, defying typically conceived dualisms of resistance or engagement.
Abstract: In the 1980s, researchers established the need to document and analyse the educational attitudes, behaviours and outcomes of ‘ordinary kids' as a means of developing a holistic account of school experience. Yet, while significant attention is given to extremes in educational attitudes and behaviours, ‘ordinariness' tends to remain overlooked in contemporary research and policy discourses. This article contributes to this void by presenting data from a qualitative study of young men's school-to-work transitions. Their educational experiences at both compulsory and post-compulsory levels illustrate a distinctive middle-ground, defying typically conceived dualisms of resistance or engagement. Alongside research interest in the extremes of ‘success' and ‘failure', such ordinary experiences can enable us to reinvigorate and refine our conceptual repertoire.
TL;DR: Green as mentioned in this paper argues that critics of the control of public services via performance targets and audits are not hard to find, both at the levy level and at the level of the auditors.
Abstract: , by Jane Green, London, Routledge, 2011, 268 pp., £85.00, ISBN 978-0-41-587925-5. Critics of the control of public services via performance targets and audits are not hard to find, both at the lev...
TL;DR: The authors reconstructs prevalent academic discourses of student plagiarism: moralism, proceduralism, development, and writing/intertextuality, and concludes that radical re-conceptualization of plagiarism may only be discovered in the discourse of inter-textuality where intention, interpretation and the academic community are construed as social practices concerning the negotiation of various identities and values.
Abstract: This paper reconstructs prevalent academic discourses of student plagiarism: moralism, proceduralism, development, and writing/inter-textuality. It approaches the discourses from three aspects: intention, interpretation and the nature of the academic community. It argues that the assumptions of the moralistic approach regarding suspect intention, the transparency of interpretation, and the homogeneous nature of the academic community are in effect sustained by discourses of proceduralism and development. This results, first, in the simplistic rendition of student identities as honest/dishonest, and, second, in the proposal of or acquiescence to the triad of prevention, detection and punishment. The paper concludes that radical re-conceptualization of plagiarism may only be discovered in the discourse of inter-textuality where intention, interpretation and the academic community are construed as social practices concerning the negotiation of various identities and values – those of students as well as thos...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the relationship between social background, choice of university program and academic culture among Danish university students and found that there is a significant variation in social selectivity from programme to programme, and that these different social profiles correspond with distinctively different cultural practices in the programmes.
Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between social background, choice of university programme and academic culture among Danish university students. Statistically and sociologically, university students are often treated as a homogeneous group, but the ever-increasing number of students in higher education demands a closer examination of the hidden heterogeneity in the students’ social origin and educational strategies. Using a mixed-method approach (register data and ethnographic observations and interviews) the paper focuses on the students’ class origins and on different cultural practices in three Danish university programmes. It is shown that the Danish university field is characterized by a significant variation in social selectivity from programme to programme, and it is argued that these different social profiles correspond with distinctively different cultural practices in the programmes. Correspondingly, the students have distinctively different strategies towards education and future work life.
TL;DR: The authors identified six strategies consistently used by schools to this end: identification, juxtapositioning, bolstering or self-promotion, partial reporting, selfexpansion, and reframing or reversal.
Abstract: The way in which private schools use rhetoric in their communications offers important insights into how these organizational sites persuade audiences and leverage marketplace advantage in the context of contemporary educational platforms. Through systemic analysis of rhetorical strategies employed in 65 ‘elite’ school prospectuses in Australia, this paper contributes to understandings of the ways schools’ communications draw on broader cultural politics in order to shape meanings and interactions among organizational actors. We identify six strategies consistently used by schools to this end: identification, juxtapositioning, bolstering or self-promotion, partial reporting, self-expansion, and reframing or reversal. We argue that, in the context of marketization and privatization discourses in twenty-first-century western education, these strategies attempt to subvert potentially threatening discourses, in the process actively reproducing broader economic and social privilege and inequalities.
TL;DR: The authors examined the relationship between teacher gender and boys' and girls' respective school performance in a sample of 146,315 elementary school students from 21 countries and found that boys do not benefit from being taught by male teachers, neither in mathematics nor in reading.
Abstract: The prevalence of women in the teaching profession has been claimed by various scholars to be responsible for the low school performance among boys. Based on this claim there have been widespread calls for increasing the share of male teachers as a means of improving boys' school performance. There is, however, very little empirical evidence supporting the claim that boys do in fact benefit from being taught by male teachers. Drawing on data from the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and the 2006 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, this paper examines the relationship between teacher gender and boys' and girls' respective school performance in a sample of 146,315 elementary school students from 21 countries. It finds that boys do not benefit from being taught by male teachers, neither in mathematics nor in reading. In some countries, however, girls seem to profit from being taught by female teachers.
TL;DR: In this article, an ethnographic field study of students and teachers in a Danish vocational education and training school explores the social dynamics of engagement perceptions, finding that teachers and students held diverging perceptions of student engagement that rested on educational goals as well as goals related to the perceived future work settings.
Abstract: In extant research, the concept of student engagement refers to individual behavioural patterns and traits. Recent research indicates that engagement not only should be related to the individual but also should be anchored in the social context. This ethnographic field study of students and teachers in a Danish vocational education and training school responds to the need for more knowledge on this theme by exploring the social dynamics of engagement perceptions. Results show that teachers and students held diverging perceptions of student engagement that rested on educational goals as well as goals related to the perceived future work settings. The misrecognition of the students' perception of engagement had direct negative consequences for student performance and school attachment. The implications of the findings are discussed in detail.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore how science outreach programs for young women represent a form of gender re-education, reconfiguring and redefining gender identities in science, and consider how an informal, experiential learning programme scaffolds female learners in discovering the confidence to negotiate multiple iterations of STEM, and in developing an ability to celebrate gender difference and the multiple roles of women to science.
Abstract: This paper offers a study of a Saturday science-activity club for young secondary school aged girls, in Cardiff, UK. It provides a critical analysis of interactions between group participants and their mentors in building an equitable and experiential learning zone for the promotion of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) as subject and occupational choices. This study explores how science outreach programmes for young women represent a form of gender re-education, reconfiguring and redefining gender identities in science. We consider how an informal, experiential learning programme scaffolds female learners in discovering the confidence to negotiate multiple iterations of STEM, and in developing an ability to celebrate gender difference and the multiple roles of women to science.
TL;DR: In this article, the role of English state primary schools in promoting positive attitudes towards disabled people is explored. But, the authors consider progress made by schools against particular aspects of the Disability Equality Duty 2006.
Abstract: This article outlines the findings of an Economic and Social Research Council-funded study exploring the role of English state primary schools in promoting positive attitudes towards disabled people. Data emerging from a survey of schools and interviews with teachers are presented. The article considers progress made by schools against particular aspects of the Disability Equality Duty 2006. The project was underpinned by a working model of anti-disablist education resulting from a ‘conversation’ between various models of anti-oppressive education and disability politics. It explores the rationale for a ‘courageous’ form of anti-disablist education, definition of this, schools’ engagement in this type of practice and challenges to promoting such an ideal.
TL;DR: Devine and Luttrell as mentioned in this paper focused on the perspectives of white middle-class parents who make "against-the-grain" school choices for their children in urban England and explored the contradictions and psychic dilemmas that arise in trying to combine ethics and principles around social justice and egalitarianism with the best interests of their children.
Abstract: This book focuses on the perspectives of white middle-class parents who make ‘against’-the-grain school choices for their children in urban England. It provides key insights into the dynamics of class practising that are played out in these choices and the multiple narratives and contexts that influence them. Drawing on a rich blend of social theories, the authors explore whether these ‘atypical’ parents have found new strategies to reproduce their classed and cultural locations or whether they are genuinely engaging with a more equitable cosmopolitanism that requires a restructuring of their children’s white middle-class identities. Their in-depth analysis ‘troubles’ both the practices and positioning of these parents, exploring the contradictions and psychic dilemmas that arise in trying to combine ethics and principles around social justice and egalitarianism with the ‘best interests’ of their children. Of course ‘best’ interest, like school choices itself, is not a neutral phenomenon – but is deeply embedded in perspectives and perceptions of ‘what counts’ and what is valued in the education and well-being of children and of society (Devine and Luttrell forthcoming). It becomes especially anxiety laden with the attendant riskiness, uncertainty, change and flexibility that is part of an increasingly individualized and competitive social order. Class strategies and the preservation of middle-class identities ‘under siege’ are then an important backdrop to the analysis of the motivations, contradictions and aspirations of the parents in this study. Situated within the broader framework of globalization, neoliberalism and increasing class polarization, the authors signal their intention to move the analysis of inequality from the margins to the centre, to the ‘normative’ white middle classes as they struggle to maintain familial advantage within an overarching ethical framework that is pro-welfare and left leaning. While they note their sample is not large enough to provide a comprehensive theory of ‘class’, they specifically focus on ‘urban seeking’ middle classes – who chose to send their kids to schools that ‘encapsulate the rich diversity of the cities they live in’ (6). In so doing, their choices appear to signal the generation British Journal of Sociology of Education Vol. 33, No. 2, March 2012, 303–314
TL;DR: The authors examined the experience of migrants in navigating the education system, and in particular in choosing secondary schools for their children, and explored the importance put on education by the migrants who were interviewed and the active labour they engage in to try and achieve the best results.
Abstract: This article, based on qualitative research in Greater Manchester, examines the experience of migrants in navigating the education system, and in particular in choosing secondary schools for their children. There has been extensive research on the process of choosing schools since the policy reforms of the 1980s, but none has examined how the process of choosing a secondary school is impacted by the material and affective impact of migration. The article argues that migrants’ experience is embedded in gendered, classed and racialised processes and that, despite the heterogeneity of the category, migrants often face particular barriers in negotiating the school system. Nonetheless it also explores the importance put on education by the migrants who were interviewed and the active labour they engage in to try and achieve the best results for their children.
TL;DR: It is argued that more critical approaches to medical learning are sorely needed and some directions for medical education that would help support the personal and professional development of more critically aware practitioners are suggested.
Abstract: In the last two decades, undergraduate medical education in the United Kingdom has undergone several important changes. Many of these have revolved around a paradigmatic shift from ‘paternalistic’ to ‘patient-centred’ approaches to healthcare. Adopting a Foucauldian understanding of power and borrowing from Freire’s critical pedagogy, in this paper I draw upon ethnographic data from one UK medical school to illustrate the recurrence among medical students of narrow and uncritical understandings of patient-centred practices. These understandings highlight a tension between the ideals and frameworks of medical education policy and students’ conceptualisations of professional learning and practice. I explore this tension by tracing some possible links between students’ views of patient-centredness and the teaching practices at the medical school. I argue that more critical approaches to medical learning are sorely needed and suggest some directions for medical education that would help support the personal a...
TL;DR: The authors argue that the school and parents are engaged in the production, display, and consumption of cultural capital through Bourdieu's notion of "doxa" and gain an understanding of how the schools and parents negotiate a very particular classed practice.
Abstract: Especially in research on the ‘classed practice’ of educational decision-making, it is striking how the Bourdieuian concepts of habitus and capital have dominated. With a tendency to focus on the middle-classes’ ability to accumulate and deploy cultural capital, less attention has been given to the role of the educational institution and its place in the field. This article draws from interviews and field notes taken from time spent within a fee-paying school in the south of England. I argue that the school and parents are engaged in the production, display and consumption of cultural capital. Through Bourdieu’s notion of ‘doxa’ we gain an understanding of how the school and parents negotiate a very particular classed practice.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the role of social networks and attitudes within social networks in influencing educational expectations of mothers for their children and find that both attitudes towards education and embedded resources seem to mediate the effect of social ties on educational expectations.
Abstract: Previous international research has shown that educational goals are fundamental for explaining differences in the educational attainment between individuals. For a better understanding of educational inequality, it is therefore crucial to know more about the mechanisms leading to different expectations. Our paper contributes to this field of research by empirically testing how social networks affect educational expectations of mothers for their children. Furthermore, we try to disentangle the underlying mechanisms by investigating which role resources and attitudes within social networks play in influencing educational expectations. We use quantitative data gathered in three federal states in Germany. The key results indicate that network composition not only has an effect on educational expectations but also on general attitudes towards education. Both attitudes towards education and embedded resources seem to mediate the effect of social ties on educational expectations.
TL;DR: The Material Child as discussed by the authors is a comprehensive book about the development of the material child from birth to adolescence, focusing on three stages: infancy, childhood, and childhood development, and adolescence.
Abstract: by David Buckingham, Cambridge/Malden, MA, Polity Press, 2011, 256 pp., £55.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-74-564770-8, £15.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-74-564771-5 The Material Child is a comprehensive a...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the types of concerns and pressures that families experience when choosing a school for their child and identify three unequal positions in which families find themselves when negotiating the field of school choice: "maximising", "guaranteeing" and "displaced".
Abstract: This article deals with the discourses and practices employed by families involved in school choice processes in the city of Barcelona (Spain). It draws upon a study conducted by the authors in 2008/09, and it is based on surveys completed by a representative sample made up of 3245 families, as well as 60 in-depth interviews with families with children at the age of commencing universal pre-primary education (three years old). Firstly, the article focuses on the types of concerns and pressures that families experience when choosing a school for their child. Secondly, we analyse the level and type of knowledge that parents have at their disposal about the field of school choice, as well as how they use and benefit from available information channels. Finally, we identify three unequal positions in which families find themselves when negotiating the field of school choice: ‘maximising’, ‘guaranteeing’ and ‘displaced’. These positions are, in turn, directly related to families’ locations in the social struct...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that children negotiate this through various forms of play, circumscribed by, but also playing with, adult supervision, and that children became accustomed to the demands of frequent emotional and behavioural transitions and to the rhythms of the school's organisation of time.
Abstract: This article offers interpretations of play, in a school playground, where adult regulation and surveillance framed its enactment. Children, well aware of being watched, negotiated this through various forms of play, circumscribed by, but also playing with, adult supervision. The children were also subject to the rules governing particular age cohorts and both age and gender figured significantly in the patterns of play observed. The article argues further that, with a strong institutional emphasis on the divisions of the school day and of playtime itself, children also learnt the habits of shifting – from participation to non-participation and between modes of self-conduct. They thus became accustomed to the demands of frequent emotional and behavioural transitions and to the rhythms of the school’s organisation of time.