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
More filters
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
Cites background or result from "Learning to Labour: How Working Cla..."
...In some of these studies, such differences result in student disengagement from school (e.g., Willis, 1977)....
[...]
...Over time, these competing allegiances may severely constrain student engagement in school, heighten ambivalence, and increase disidentification (Eckert, 1989; Fordham & Ogbu, 1986; McLeod & Yates, 2006; Willis, 1977)....
[...]
...These forms are manifest in mismatches between students’ individual and/ or collective identities and the habits and norms privileged by schools (Barron, 2006; Fordham & Ogbu, 1986; Ogbu, 1995; Willis, 1977)....
[...]
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
Cites background from "Learning to Labour: How Working Cla..."
...…intense segregation by race and poverty (Orfield, 1998) tend to have schools that are overcrowded and understaffed, face high teacher and staff turnover, and are plagued by violence and hostile peer cultures (García-Coll & Magnuson, 1997; Mehan, Villanueva, Hubbard, & Lintz, 1996; Willis, 1977)....
[...]
References
More filters
Abstract: This afterword is an attempt to reframe questions about vocational education through a theory of practice concerned with the lived realities and everyday potentialities for worker/learners’ learning at and through work. We briefly analyze the currents of thought in the articles in this special issue running between the critiques of the crisis in the Australian VET system and its rootedness in the structural dynamics of neoliberal economies. Following this, we offer a discussion of relations between learning and labor from the perspective of social practice theory. We suggest that reform of vocational education should start from close attention to workers learning and their collective engagements in learning/working. We argue that a theoretical perspective starting with this commitment necessarily makes very different assumptions than the behaviorist underpinnings of CBT. Much of the paper is dedicated to laying out the difference.
9 citations
30 Apr 2009
TL;DR: Rojo et al. as mentioned in this paper studied how students of immigrant backgrounds narrate conflictive situations they have experienced within a multicultural secondary school in the Community of Madrid, and how they understand and explain their resistance/confrontational behaviour.
Abstract: How do students of immigrant backgrounds narrate conflictive situations they have experienced within a multicultural secondary school in the Community of Madrid? How do narrators understand and explain their resistance/confrontational behaviour? What does the analysis of these narrations reveal about the situation of school failure in this educational centre? The approach to such questions will be made through the study of narratives gathered in interviews with “penas” (“circles”): groups of peers organised to challenge the order of the school (Gibson, et. al, 2004). This study is part of a research carried out in multicultural classrooms in Madrid, following an ethnographic, sociolinguistics and discursive approach from a critical perspective (Martin Rojo, in press.). From this perspective, narratives, as an interactional genre, are collaborative situated discursive practices that “both reflect social beliefs and relationships and contribute to negotiating and modifying them” (Fairclough, De Fina, 2003a: 369). These characteristics allow us to observe the ways narratives follow and generate social rules, ways of understanding and elaborating our personal experience, social relationships and the roles participants play (as much within the world narrated as in that of the reality from which the events are narrated). Resumen ?Como narran alumnos y alumnas de origen inmigrante situaciones de conflicto que han experimentado en un centro escolar multicultural de la Comunidad de Madrid?, ?De que manera comprenden y explican los alumnos-narradores sus comportamientos de resistencia/confrontacion? ?Que nos permite el analisis de estas narraciones comprender sobre la situacion de fracaso escolar en este centro escolar? Estas preguntas seran respondidas dentro del analisis de relatos cotidianos recogidos en entrevistas a diferentes “penas”, grupos de iguales que se organizan para resistir el orden de la escuela (Gibson et al, 2004). Este estudio es parte de un trabajo de investigacion sobre aulas multiculturales en Madrid siguiendo el marco de la Etnografia, la Sociolinguistica y el Analisis del Discurso desde una perspectiva critica (Martin Rojo, en prensa). De acuerdo con esta perspectiva, las narrativas se entienden como practicas discursivas/interaccionales co-construidas de manera situada, las cuales reflejan tanto las creencias sociales como las relaciones, a las cuales contribuye a negociar y modificar (Fairclough, 1989; De Fina, 2003a: 369). Ello nos lleva a atender a las formas en las que las narrativas siguen y generan reglas sociales, formas de comprender y elaborar la experiencia, relaciones sociales y roles entre los participantes (tanto del mundo narrado como del de la realidad desde la cual se narra). This study is part of a research carried out in multicultural classrooms in Madrid, following an ethnographic, sociolinguistics and discursive approach from a critical perspective (Martin Rojo, in press.). From this perspective, narratives, as an interactional genre, are collaborative situated discursive practices that “both reflect social beliefs and relationships and contribute to negotiating and modifying them” (Fairclough, De Fina, 2003a: 369). These characteristics allow us to observe the ways narratives follow and generate social rules, ways of understanding and elaborating our personal experience, social relationships and the roles participants play (as much within the world narrated as in that of the reality from which the events are narrated).
9 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on boys' strategies for managing schools conflicting demands, using data from a recently completed Swedish ethnographic study of the discourses of gender and pupil achievement at school in various local settings.
Abstract: Boys’ (under) achievement is frequently on the agenda in the Nordic countries, like in other parts of the Western world. Theoretical explanations for their lower achievement than girls typically emphasise the dissociation between hegemonic young masculinities and school work. In this paper, we focus on boys’ strategies for managing schools conflicting demands, using data from a recently completed Swedish ethnographic study of the discourses of gender and pupil achievement at school in various local settings. The analyses show that boys engage in a strategy of complex parallel positioning to master school demands and peer-group expectations; they appear to distance themselves from swotting yet, at the same time, devote themselves to schoolwork. This dual positioning needs to be accomplished over a short period of time at the beginning of the semester. The analyses point to the critical time sequencing, and reveal what seemed to be a carefully self-monitored process where boys’ academic participation had to appear convincing to teachers but neither too long nor too intense to interfere with their peer-group interactions and positioning. The analyses also show teachers’ appreciation of the boys who manage to position themselves well academically. Keywords : gender, achievement, peer group, secondary education, Sweden (Published: 11 June 2015) Citation: Education Inquiry (EDUI) 2015, 6 , 25466, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/edui.v6.25466
9 citations
01 Jan 2014
TL;DR: Patel et al. as mentioned in this paper examined teachers' beliefs and practices to investigate how digital literacies were being used in the classroom, as well as why they were not being used.
Abstract: Complex People, Actions, and Contexts: How Transformative Practices Do (and Do Not) Get Taken up in a Comprehensive High School Storey Mecoli Leigh Patel, Chair Digital literacies have become central in today’s society, used in various personal and public incarnations (Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2008), occupying prominent space in social and professional worlds (boyd, 2014; Leu et al., 2011). Despite digital literacies’ centrality in society, schools have a notoriously difficult time integrating these into curriculum and instruction (O’Brien & Scharber, 2008). Accordingly, I asked: How do teachers in a large, public comprehensive secondary school navigate the challenges and benefits of digital literacies within the structure of Washington High, the curriculum, and their pedagogy? Using a case study design both ethnographic and collaborative in nature, I examined teachers’ beliefs and practices to investigate how digital literacies were being used in the classroom, as well as why. Data included a school-wide survey, participant interviews and observations with six teachers, and informal meetings with school staff, most notably the vice-principal. Data was analyzed through the lens of theories of literacy curricular design (New London Group, 1996) and an eye toward New Literacies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006). Notable results include the finding that technology at Washington often plays out in fairly traditional, teacher-directed, “old wine in new bottles” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006, p. 55) sorts of ways. However, this study also concludes that why this is so moves far beyond these teachers’ individual beliefs and practices. Their contexts (unreliable technology, control of uses imposed by the administration), their cultures (narratives of adolescents needing protection from themselves and others), and compulsory schooling itself (traditional conceptions of time and space, narrow definitions of success, highstakes testing and teacher evaluations) all play dynamic and complicated parts in how digital literacies get taken up, along with teachers’ own beliefs and practices. As such, I draw upon theories of complex personhood (Gordon, 1997) and complexity thinking (Davis & Sumara, 2008) in positing ways digital literacies may be utilized in relationship to schools. Implications address these practices’ collaborative, creative potentials to transform schools. COMPLEX PEOPLE, ACTIONS, AND CONTEXTS i
9 citations
01 Jan 2012
TL;DR: In this article, a secondary school in St. Lucia was studied and it was found that students engaged in different forms of both quiet and disruptive disengagement, either on an individual basis or as collective acts, and the demands made on them by teachers, home concerns, as well as peer-related and other institutional factors.
Abstract: Previous research on disengagement has usually treated it as 'disorderly', 'disruptive' or 'deviant' behaviour. As a result, the varied and subtle ways in which disengagement may be manifested at school have been overlooked. This thesis seeks to draw on insights from the interactionist tradition to explain how forms of disengagement are displayed within various situations and the diverse factors that may engender it. These issues are explored in the distinctive context of the Caribbean.
The research was undertaken at a secondary school in St. Lucia and ethnographic methods were used to understand students' actions, along with their interpretations, explanations and evaluations of themselves and their circumstances. Hence, the research relied on a range of data sources including lesson observations, informal interviews, and questionnaires. Personal and official documents were also analysed. Moreover, the perspectives of teachers and parents were used to enhance and corroborate students' experiences.
The research revealed that students engaged in different forms of both quiet and disruptive disengagement, either on an individual basis or as collective acts. In order to explain these, I examined the demands made on them by teachers, home concerns, as well as peer-related and other institutional factors. A major finding of this research is that while many students expressed a positive orientation to school, they engaged in diverse behaviours which amounted to forms of quiet disengagement. This is important because of its likely consequences for their educational development and subsequent life chances.
9 citations