DOI•
Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs
01 Dec 2011-Iss: 32, pp 5-8
About: The article was published on 2011-12-01 and is currently open access. It has received 1252 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Working class.
Citations
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors present insights from a social constructivist perspective, built on the application of collectivist interpretations of the zone of proximal development, situated learning and activity theory.
Abstract: After several years of political agendas focused on social inclusion, career guidance practice needs to return to its roots of promoting equality and social justice. This conceptual article argues that for many years there has been an overreliance on theories focused on the individual, and examines the relationship between social structures and individual agency. It presents insights from a social constructivist perspective, built on the application of collectivist interpretations of the zone of proximal development, situated learning and activity theory. Social constructivism asserts that individuals cannot be separated from their social context, and that social context is dynamic and constantly changing. The article concludes with the identification of the zone of proximal development as a useful overarching construct to support progress towards emancipatory career guidance practice.
16 citations
Cites background from "Learning to Labour: How Working Cla..."
...Like Willis (1977), Hodkinson and colleagues found that young people made choices within their social context and generally conformed to—even actively reproduced—society’s norms....
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...But in the UK, theories about career remained predominantly psychological in nature until the 1970s, when UK-based sociologists became interested in how people make their career decisions within social structures (Roberts, 1977; Willis, 1977)....
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01 Jan 2018
16 citations
03 Oct 2014
TL;DR: The authors argue that the crisis of masculinity is somewhat overstated and argue that men from working-class and middle-class backgrounds can present a veneer of inclusivity attuned to being a modern liberal man but this masks a refashioning not the reforming of traditional male power relations.
Abstract: Exploring the current perceived ‘crisis of masculinity’ and what might be seen as its opposing stance, that society now facilitates more inclusive forms of masculinity, this chapter considers research with young undergraduate men from working-class and middle-class backgrounds. We argue that the crisis of masculinity is somewhat overstated. Middle-class men in particular can present a veneer of inclusivity attuned to being a modern liberal man but this masks a refashioning not the reforming of traditional male power relations. Meanwhile our study’s working-class men demonstrate elements of tension with constructions of masculinity seemingly resolved in the emergence of more positive identifications. We therefore conclude that masculinity is neither in crisis nor radically reformed.
16 citations
Cites background from "Learning to Labour: How Working Cla..."
...The Lads of Willis’s 1977 iconic Learning to Labour study are quite likely to be unemployed now, or certainly their sons will be today if they too left school without a qualification to their name. In a manner akin to an inversion of Willmott and Young’s (1973) principal of ‘stratified...
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12 Mar 2012
TL;DR: The authors analyzed school socioeconomic composition effects by decomposing them into contagion and frog-pond effects and analyzed how the strength of these composition effects varies according to the way schools and school systems organize themselves by promoting cross-status relationships, differentiating opportunities to learn and providing information about students' possibilities of greater educational attainment.
Abstract: Research in the sociology of education has
long identified that school socioeconomic composition is the most
important school-level attribute in explaining student outcomes,
and that the strength of this effect varies across schools and
countries. Yet research has not fully explained how and why these
effects vary across schools and countries. This dissertation
analyses school socioeconomic composition effects by decomposing
them into contagion and frog-pond effects and analyzes how the
strength of these composition effects varies according to the way
schools and school systems organize themselves by promoting
cross-status relationships, differentiating opportunities to learn
and providing information about students’ possibilities of greater
educational attainment. I find that the
decomposition of socioeconomic composition effects is a useful way
to understand the dynamics of composition effects: a student
benefits from attending an advantaged school, but is simultaneously
hurt by his lower relative status position. The positive effect of
attending an advantaged school is generally greater than the
negative effect of the relative disadvantage for outcomes such as
reading performance and status expectations; yet the negative
effect is greater for academic self-concept. In other words, for
status expectations and achievement, it is better to be a smaller
frog in a high-status pond than a big frog in a low-status pond.
I also find that organizational attributes that
promote cross-status relationships within the school promote
positive contagion effects, that the differentiation of
opportunities to learn and practices that increase the saliency of
socioeconomic status strengthen frog-pond effects for all three
educational outcomes. I use these results to
explore the contexts of successful socioeconomic integration in
schools and find that no organizational attribute in the study
unequivocally helps produce successfully integrated learning
environments. However, there are a handful of national contexts
where socioeconomic integration is successful in promoting
disadvantaged students’ achievement while not harming advantaged
students’ achievement. These results speak to
the importance of socioeconomic composition in shaping students’
educational experience and outcomes, and suggests that this
dimension of schooling may be more effective in reducing
educational inequality and, if developed and implemented correctly,
in promoting overall achievement in the school system.
16 citations
01 Apr 2016
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the overachievement of UK Bangladeshi-heritage pupils in the National Curriculum Standard Assessment Tests (SATS) at Key Stage (KS) 2 (year 6; ages 10-======11) in schools in an inner-city borough.
Abstract: This thesis examines the ‘over-achievement’1
of UK Bangladeshi-heritage pupils in the
National Curriculum Standard Assessment Tests (SATS) at Key Stage (KS) 2 (year 6; ages 10-
11) in schools in an inner-city borough.
The research involved four schools in one of the poorest urban areas of the country.2 The initial
attraction for choosing these schools was due to my experience working as a teacher in one and
noticing that it consistently attained results above the national average in KS2 SATS while
nationally pupils of Bangladeshi-heritage attained below the average. This over-achievement
had been noted by Ofsted and generated media attention.3
The aims of this research were to identify and investigate the factors underlying this relative
over-achievement of primary-school pupils from a Bangladeshi ethnic background and
heritage. My experience as a teacher provided me with insight into the value that education
held within Bangladeshi-heritage communities. It was unsurprising, therefore, to find this overachievement.
I approached the phenomenon from a different perspective: why weren’t
Bangladeshi-heritage communities in other areas doing as well, given their sub-cultural
emphasis on education – an asset of their ethnic capital.
Using qualitative methodology – thematic analysis – I interviewed pupils, parents and many
other significant actors involved in the education of primary pupils in the four over-achieving
schools. I had no preconceived thesis. My theoretical conclusions emerged from the data.
While gender, ethnicity and social class all influence educational outcomes, it was the schools’
inclusive ethos that seemed to exert the greatest positive influence.
1
‘Overachievement’ refers to the above the national average results in Key Stage 2 Standard Assessment Tests
received by Bangladeshi-heritage pupils in the four schools studied (see Appendix 1 for the Key Stage 2 SAT
results).
2 Yet the borough values education. In 2010-11, the guaranteed funding per pupil was £6,792 compared to the
national average which was at least £2,500 lower (see Appendix 2 for the Index of Multiple of Deprivation 2010).
3 See BBC Race UK survey 2005, Mike Baker ‘Educational Achievement’.
16 citations
References
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01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: The concept of community of practice was not born in the systems theory tradition as discussed by the authors, but it has its roots in attempts to develop accounts of the social nature of human learning inspired by anthropology and social theory.
Abstract: The concept of community of practice was not born in the systems theory tradition. It has its roots in attempts to develop accounts of the social nature of human learning inspired by anthropology and social theory (Lave, 1988; Bourdieu, 1977; Giddens, 1984; Foucault, 1980; Vygotsky, 1978). But the concept of community of practice is well aligned with the perspective of systems traditions. A community of practice itself can be viewed as a simple social system. And a complex social system can be viewed as constituted by interrelated communities of practice. In this essay I first explore the systemic nature of the concept at these two levels. Then I use this foundation to look at the applications of the concept, some of its main critiques, and its potential for developing a social discipline of learning.
1,082 citations
Book•
27 Jun 2011
TL;DR: In this article, the Flatlands of Oakland and the Youth Control Complex are discussed. But the focus is on the role of black youth in the criminal justice system and community institutions.
Abstract: Preface Acknowledgments Part I Hypercriminalization 1 Dreams Deferred: The Patterns of Punishment in Oakland 2 The Flatlands of Oakland and the Youth Control Complex 3 The Labeling Hype: Coming of Age in the Era of Mass Incarceration 4 The Coupling of Criminal Justice and Community Institutions Part II Consequences 5 "Dummy Smart": Misrecognition, Acting Out, and "Going Dumb" 6 Proving Manhood: Masculinity as a Rehabilitative Tool 7 Guilty by Association: Acting White or Acting Lawful? Conclusion: Toward a Youth Support Complex Appendix: Beyond Jungle-Book Tropes Notes References Index About the Author
909 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the transition to adulthood among 1.5-generation undocumented Latino young adults and finds that for them, the transition from K to adulthood involves exiting the legally protected status of K to...
Abstract: This article examines the transition to adulthood among 1.5-generation undocumented Latino young adults. For them, the transition to adulthood involves exiting the legally protected status of K to ...
663 citations
TL;DR: In this article, student engagement research, policy, and practice must become more nuanced and less formulaic, and the ensuing review is structured accordingly, guided in part by social-ecological analysis and social-cultural theory.
Abstract: Student engagement research, policy, and practice are even more important in today’s race-to-the top policy environment. With a priority goal of postsecondary completion with advanced competence, today’s students must be engaged longer and more deeply. This need is especially salient for students attending schools located in segregated, high-poverty neighborhoods and isolated rural communities. Here, engagement research, policy, and practice must become more nuanced and less formulaic, and the ensuing review is structured accordingly. Guided in part by social-ecological analysis and social-cultural theory, engagement is conceptualized as a dynamic system of social and psychological constructs as well as a synergistic process. This conceptualization invites researchers, policymakers, and school-community leaders to develop improvement models that provide a more expansive, engagement-focused reach into students’ family, peer, and neighborhood ecologies.
528 citations
TL;DR: The Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adaptation Study (LISA) as discussed by the authors used a mixed-methods approach, combining longitudinal, interdisciplinary, qualitative, and quantitative approaches to document adaptation patterns of 407 recently arrived immigrant youth from Central America, China, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico over the course of five years.
Abstract: Background/Context: Newcomer immigrant students are entering schools in the United States in unprecedented numbers. As they enter new school contexts, they face a number of challenges in their adjustment. Previous literature suggested that relationships in school play a particularly crucial role in promoting socially competent behavior in the classroom and in fostering academic engagement and school performance. Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the role of school-based relationships in engagement and achievement in a population of newcomer immigrant students. Research Design: The Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adaptation Study (LISA) used a mixed-methods approach, combining longitudinal, interdisciplinary, qualitative, and quantitative approaches to document adaptation patterns of 407 recently arrived immigrant youth from Central America, China, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico over the course of five years. Based on data from the last year of the study, we examine how the role of relationships mediates newcomers’ challenges with academic engagement and performance. We identify factors that account for patterns of academic engagement and achievement, including country of origin, gender, maternal education, English language proficiency, and school-based relationships. Findings: Multiple regression analyses suggest that supportive school-based relationships strongly contribute to both the academic engagement and the school performance of the par
356 citations