48 results
Search Results
2. Schools that Make a Difference: a sociological perspective on effective schooling.
- Author
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Proudford, Christine and Baker, Robert
- Subjects
EFFECTIVE teaching ,EVALUATION of schools ,SOCIOLOGY ,LEARNING ,ACADEMIC achievement ,TEACHERS ,SCHOOL administration - Abstract
A recent review essay of three books on effective schooling stated that the literature on school effectiveness largely adopts a functionalist view of society and schooling and the field of inquiry is dominated by a positivist paradigm. The review argued for a sociological analysis of effective schooling. This paper examines from a sociological perspective the nature of effective schooling. The paper draws on case studies of four high schools to analyze their relationship with the social, cultural and policy dimensions oft heir context. A major focus of the paper is on the dilemmas, tensions and issues arising from the interrelationship between each school and its context, and the implications of these for an understanding of effective practices in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1995
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
3. Cultural Themes in Educational Debates: the nature culture opposition in accounts of unequal educational performance.
- Author
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Carrier, James G.
- Subjects
CULTURE ,EDUCATIONAL sociology ,ACADEMIC achievement ,EDUCATION ,SOCIOLOGY - Abstract
This paper investigates certain aspects of the debate about the causes of unequal educational performance By analyzing two illustrative explanations of performance. It shows that the debate appears to be shaped by a fundamental theme in modern Western culture, the nature-culture opposition. This suggests that the knowledge that we have concerning educational performance is influenced not only by the social and political interests and positions of educators and researchers, but also by more basic cultural concerns, and if we want to understand both educational performance and the debate surrounding it, we need to be aware of this broad influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1984
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
4. Bernstein and the explanation of social disparities in education: a realist critique of the socio‐linguistic thesis.
- Author
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Nash, Roy
- Subjects
EDUCATIONAL sociology ,ACADEMIC achievement ,SOCIAL psychology ,PHENOMENOLOGICAL sociology ,EFFECTIVE teaching ,EDUCATION ,SOCIOLOGY ,STRUCTURALISM ,SOCIOLINGUISTICS ,LANGUAGE & culture - Abstract
Can an explanation of the origins of social disparities in educational achievement be assisted by a critical examination of Bernstein’s sociology? This central question is approached by a consideration of the status of Bernstein’s socio‐linguistic thesis. The focus is on the nature of the explanations provided. The paper asks: What is the explanatory force of Bernstein’s structuralism? What is the relationship between Bernstein’s sociological explanations and Vygotskian psychological explanations? What are the effects for pedagogy of cognitive socialization mediated by language‐use consistent with Bernstein’s theory? The answers to these questions may pose a challenge for sociologists of education engaged with Bernstein’s sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2006
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
5. ‘There's a war against our children’: black educational underachievement revisited.
- Author
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Crozier, Gill
- Subjects
ACADEMIC achievement ,HIGHER education of minorities ,EDUCATION of minorities ,EDUCATIONAL sociology ,EDUCATION ,SOCIOLOGY - Abstract
This paper focuses on the educational experiences of a group of African Caribbean and mixed ‘race’ young people from the perspectives of their parents. The discussion is set within a national context where children of African Caribbean origin are one of the lowest achieving minority ethnic groups in the UK and are disproportionately one of the highest ethnic groups of children excluded from school. The parents recount a pattern of cumulative negative experiences which for many of the children results in academic underachievement and becoming demotivated to learn, by a system that they feel has rejected them, or imposed exclusion. The story is hardly new but it provides important further evidence that schools need to tackle head-on factors such as low teacher expectations and negative stereotyping of young black people and their contribution to black underachievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
6. Education as a ‘risky business’: Theorising student and teacher learning in complex times
- Author
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Ian Hardy
- Subjects
Sociology and Political Science ,Commodification ,business.industry ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Corporate governance ,education ,Context (language use) ,Standardized test ,Academic achievement ,Literacy ,Education ,Numeracy ,Mathematics education ,Sociology ,Faculty development ,business ,Social psychology ,media_common - Abstract
This paper employs sociological literature on risk and the commodification of education to explain current schooling practices in a context of increased concerns about students’ behaviour and results on standardised tests of achievement. Drawing upon teacher and student learning practices in three school sites in south-east Queensland, Australia, the article reveals how specific tests, packages and programmes have been employed as technologies of governance to minimise the risk of adverse student behaviour, maximise student outcomes on standardised tests, and provide teachers with discrete learning experiences construed as improving such outcomes. The sum total of these foci is the construction of education as an increasingly ‘risky business’ which employs a myriad of products and tests to manage perceived and actual risks. The paper also reveals how these products and processes constitute student misbehaviour and inadequate teacher and student learning as ‘risk objects’ requiring constant interve...
- Published
- 2013
7. Interrupted trajectories: the impact of academic failure on the social mobility of working-class students
- Author
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T Byrom and Nic Lightfoot
- Subjects
Sociology and Political Science ,Higher education ,business.industry ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Academic achievement ,Social mobility ,Educational attainment ,Education ,Working class ,Habitus ,The Internet ,Sociology ,Social science ,business ,Social psychology ,Social capital ,media_common - Abstract
Higher education (HE) is often viewed as a conduit for social mobility through which working-class students can secure improved life-chances. However, the link between HE and social mobility is largely viewed as unproblematic. Little research has explored the possible impact of academic failure (in HE) on the trajectories of working-class students or the ways in which working-class students may re-construct their career aspirations as a result of such academic failure. This paper seeks to fill this apparent gap by focusing on a group of non-traditional students enrolled on a BA undergraduate programme in a post-1992 university. Utilising Bourdieu’s notion of habitus, the paper identifies how academic failure contributes to possible trajectory interruptions and whether these are temporary or possibly permanent. It specifically focuses on how working-class students interpret and respond to their academic failure and the possible impact this has on their social mobility.
- Published
- 2013
8. Cultivating self-worth among dislocated Tibetan undergraduate students in a Chinese Han-dominated national key university
- Author
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Lili Wang and Lin Yi
- Subjects
Coping (psychology) ,Sociology and Political Science ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Self-concept ,Academic achievement ,Education ,Cultural diversity ,Pedagogy ,The Symbolic ,Sociology ,Self worth ,Social science ,Chinese han ,Citizenship ,media_common - Abstract
Drawing upon fieldwork conducted with a group of dislocated Tibetan undergraduate students of the neidi ban program in a Han-predominated university, this paper examines the ways in which these students make sense of their worlds. To achieve this, they have actively and engagingly organized a series of symbolically meaningful activities that draw on the symbolic resources from their cultural traditions, their specific educational trajectory, and their anticipation for the future. The paper, nonetheless, also questions in the conclusion how the program can sustain a promising future that is inseparable from the sense of self-worth among the Tibetan students.
- Published
- 2012
9. 'Go, go on and go higher an' higher': Second generation Turks' understanding of the role of education and their struggle through the Dutch school system
- Author
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Adél Pásztor and IMES (FMG)
- Subjects
Sociology and Political Science ,Inequality ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Immigration ,Ethnic group ,Rational choice theory ,Gender studies ,Academic achievement ,Social class ,Education ,Capital (economics) ,Sociology ,media_common ,Qualitative research - Abstract
With reference to capital theories and rational choice theory, this paper aims to understand how abilities and schooling ambitions are intertwined with social class, gender and ethnicity. By drawing on 16 in-depth interviews carried out with highly educated second-generation Turks in the Netherlands, the paper discusses the resources, opportunities and educational attitudes of young people, together with the role of the school system and that of teachers in perpetuating ethnic inequalities in schooling, with special emphasis on gender differences in schooling ambitions.
- Published
- 2010
10. Exploring the boundary between school science and everyday knowledge in primary school pedagogic practices
- Author
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Leah Namarome Sikoyo and Heather Jacklin
- Subjects
Sociology of scientific knowledge ,Sociology and Political Science ,Subject (philosophy) ,Context (language use) ,Academic achievement ,Science education ,Learning sciences ,Education ,Resource (project management) ,Pedagogy ,ComputingMilieux_COMPUTERSANDEDUCATION ,Sociology ,Social science ,Curriculum - Abstract
This paper explores the different ways that primary school teachers in Uganda navigate the boundary between school science and everyday knowledge in the context of a centrally mandated curriculum innovation. The paper is based on a study of the pedagogic practices of 16 teachers in eight Ugandan primary schools that were selected on the basis of having a track record of either high or low academic achievement in the public primary school‐leaving examination. The official primary school curriculum in Uganda prescribes that science be taught in an integrated form, including integration between science subject knowledge and everyday knowledge. The strategies that teachers in the study adopted in relating science to everyday knowledge was a key feature that differentiated between pedagogic practices in the high‐performing and low‐performing schools. In high‐performing schools, teachers recruited everyday knowledge as a resource for learning science as a specialised discourse; whereas in the low‐performing sch...
- Published
- 2009
11. The construction of the ‘ideal pupil’ and pupils’ perceptions of ‘misbehaviour’ and discipline: contrasting experiences from a low‐socio‐economic and a high‐socio‐economic primary school
- Author
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Hempel-Jorgensen, Amelia
- Subjects
Middle class ,Sociology and Political Science ,Education theory ,Teaching method ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Self-concept ,Academic achievement ,Social class ,Education ,Working class ,Pedagogy ,Sociology ,Education policy ,Social science ,media_common - Abstract
This paper examines the effect of school social class composition on pupil learner identities in British primary schools. In the current British education system, high stakes testing has a pervasive effect on the pedagogical relationship between teachers and pupils. The data in this paper, from ethnographic research in a working class school and a middle-class school, indicate that the effect of the ‘testing culture’ is much greater in the working-class school. Using Bernsteinian theory and the concept of the ‘ideal pupil’, it is shown that these pupils’ learner identities are more passive and dominated by issues of discipline and behaviour rather than academic performance, in contrast to those in the middle-class school. While this study includes only two schools, it indicates a potentially significant issue for neo-liberal education policy where education is marketised and characterised by high-stakes testing, and schools are polarised in terms of social class.
- Published
- 2009
12. ‘They never go off the rails like other ethnic groups’: teachers’ constructions of British Chinese pupils’ gender identities and approaches to learning
- Author
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Louise Archer and Becky Francis
- Subjects
Sexual identity ,Sociology and Political Science ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Ethnic group ,Identity (social science) ,Peer group ,Gender studies ,Academic achievement ,Social constructionism ,Femininity ,Education ,Masculinity ,Sociology ,media_common - Abstract
This paper examines the ways in which British Chinese pupils are positioned and represented within the popular/dominant discourse of teachers working in London schools. Drawing on individual interviews from a study conducted with 30 teachers, 80 British Chinese pupils and 30Chinese parents, we explore some of the racialised, gendered and classed assumptions upon which dominant discourses around British Chinese boys and girls are based. Consideration is given, for example, to teachers’ dichotomous constructions of British Chinese masculinity, in which British Chinese boys were regarded as ‘naturally’ ‘good’ and ‘not laddish’, compared with a minority of ‘bad’ British Chinese boys, whose laddishness was attributed to membership of a multiethnic peer group. We also explore teachers’ constructions of British Chinese femininity, which centred around remarkably homogenised representations of British Chinese girls as ‘passive’ and quiet, ‘repressed’, hard‐working pupils. The paper discusses a range of alternativ...
- Published
- 2005
13. Learning the 'Hard' Way: Boys, hegemonic masculinity and the negotiation of learner identities in the primary school
- Author
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Emma Renold
- Subjects
Negotiation ,Sociology and Political Science ,Carve out ,Masculinity ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Ethnography ,Psychological intervention ,Gender studies ,Sociology ,Academic achievement ,Hegemonic masculinity ,Education ,media_common - Abstract
The ways in which young boys, masculinity and academic achievement intersect to impact upon boys' disposition to and experience of schooling is relatively under-researched. Drawing on data from an ethnographic exploration into children's gender and sexual identities in their final year of primary school (aged 10/11), this paper sets out to illustrate how the discourses of hegemonic masculinity operate to shape and form boys' learner identities. The first half of the paper explores the processes and strategies by which different boys' negotiate the tensions between the perceived feminisation of academic success and/or 'studiousness', and the need to project a coherent and stable hegemonic masculinity. The remainder of the paper examines the increasing pressures of hegemonic masculinity upon high-achieving boys, and the extent to which some boys managed to carve out and maintain alternative masculinities. The implications for current and future interventions and initiatives, directed at boys' attitudes and ...
- Published
- 2001
14. The Gender Gap and Classroom Interactions: Reality and rhetoric?
- Author
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Molly Warrington, Mike Younger, and Jacquetta Williams
- Subjects
Sociology and Political Science ,Teaching staff ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Context (language use) ,Academic achievement ,Focus group ,Social relation ,Education ,Rhetoric ,Pedagogy ,Gender gap ,Sociology ,Sociology of Education ,Social psychology ,media_common - Abstract
This paper examines the gender gap at GCSE in eight contrasting English secondary schools, and discusses the reality and rhetoric of classroom interactions, focusing on the views of teaching staff, the perspectives of Year 11 students, and observations of teacher-student interactions in the classroom. In an earlier paper (British Journal of Sociology of Education, 17 (3)), the authors examined the extent to which there was less positive teacher-support for the learning of boys than for the learning of girls, and this issue is reviewed in differing school contexts. Research in this broader context suggests that most teachers believe that they give equal treatment to girls and to boys, particularly in support of their learning, but focus group interviews with students and classroom observation suggest that this is rarely achieved; in most schools, boys appear to dominate certain classroom interactions, while girls participate more in teacher-student interactions which support learning. If the underachieveme...
- Published
- 1999
15. Empowering the Powerful: a discussion of the interrelation of government policies and consumerism with social class factors and the impact of this upon parent interventions in their children's schooling
- Author
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Gill Crozier
- Subjects
Government ,Sociology and Political Science ,Consumerism ,media_common.quotation_subject ,education ,Academic achievement ,Social class ,Education ,Promotion (rank) ,Accountability ,Spite ,Sociology ,Social psychology ,Socioeconomic status ,media_common - Abstract
This paper focuses on parents’ involvement with their child's schooling and the possible influences upon this. At a time when parental involvement is regarded as being highly important to a child's school achievement and given the Government's promotion of the role of parents in education, the conditions should be particularly conducive to involving all parents in this significant role. It will be argued, however, that in spite of increased statutory rights and a changing attitude towards parents by teachers and schools, parents’ social class location continues to have a direct impact upon their ability to intervene in their child's schooling. The paper concludes that increased parental involvement is probably desirable but the nature of this and its operationalisation needs to be carefully thought out.
- Published
- 1997
16. The barriers to achievement for White/Black Caribbean pupils in English schools.
- Author
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Haynes, Jo, Tikly, Leon, and Caballero, Chamion
- Subjects
SCHOOL children ,ACHIEVEMENT gap ,CARIBBEAN Americans ,EDUCATIONAL sociology ,BLACK students ,SOCIAL pressure ,SOCIOLOGY ,ACADEMIC achievement - Abstract
Pupils of White and Black Caribbean descent make up the largest category of mixed heritage pupils in the United Kingdom. As a group they are at risk of underachieving and are proportionally over‐represented in school exclusions. Yet little is known to date about the barriers to their achievement. The common‐sense explanation for their underachievement is often in relation to the perception that mixed‐heritage people are more likely to have ‘identity problems’ and low self‐esteem because of their mixed backgrounds. In some cases, this view is further compounded by low teacher expectations associated with the socio‐economic background and household structure of some mixed heritage pupils. By drawing on qualitative data from recent research,1 this article will explore the barriers to achievement faced by White/Black Caribbean pupils in English schools. We argue that although White/Black Caribbean pupils are likely to experience a similar set of barriers to achievement as Black Caribbean pupils, there are important distinctions to be made. The specific barriers to achievement identified for White/Black Caribbean pupils derive from socio‐economic disadvantage, low teacher expectation linked to misunderstandings of mixed heritage identities and backgrounds, and the behavioural issues and attitudes towards achievement linked to peer group pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2006
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
17. The cognitive habitus : its place in a realist account of inequality/difference.
- Author
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Nash, Roy
- Subjects
ACADEMIC achievement ,EQUALITY ,HABITUS (Sociology) ,SOCIALIZATION ,EDUCATIONAL sociology ,EDUCATION ,SOCIOLOGY - Abstract
The existence of social differences in educational achievement as a social fact presents the sociology of education with a challenge to which it has responded with indifferent success. It is argued that contemporary explanations that dismiss the existence and relevance of differences in cognitive performance arising as a consequence of class variation in socialisation are likely to misrepresent the real causes of inequality/difference. The substantive discussion, organised around six questions dealing with the explanatory capacity of this concept, suggests that a satisfactory theory of inequality of educational opportunity will need to concern itself with the effects of socialisation on cognition. Some implications for educational practice and policy-making are briefly noted in conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
18. Student Engagement and the Social Relations of Pedagogy.
- Author
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McFadden, Mark and Munns, Geoff
- Subjects
EDUCATIONAL sociology ,INTERPERSONAL relations ,SOCIOLOGY ,EDUCATION ,ACADEMIC achievement - Abstract
Drawing on the 'sociology of pedagogy', the present article addresses a continuing challenge for teachers and policy-makers. The challenge is how to encourage disengaged learners to take up offers of educational success. The article brings important theoretical frames from the sociology of pedagogy into current research debates about 'productive pedagogies'. Focusing on the social relations of pedagogy, the article promotes a theoretical and empirical imperative to look keenly to the insights provided by students to construct clearer solutions to the challenge of providing engaging pedagogies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2002
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
19. Ethnicity and Educational Opportunity: case studies of West Indian male‐white teacher relationships
- Author
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David Gillborn
- Subjects
Ethnocentrism ,White (horse) ,Sociology and Political Science ,Pedagogy ,Ethnography ,Ethnic group ,Face (sociological concept) ,Sociology ,Academic achievement ,West indian ,Social psychology ,Education - Abstract
The paper examines the complexity of West Indian pupils’ adaptations to school. Their situation is such that ability, hard work and a commitment to academic achievement may not be sufficient in the struggle for academic success. West Indian pupils face the additional barrier of staff ethnocentrism, which must be handled without reinforcing the widespread belief that they represent a challenge to teachers’ authority. The size of this task is examined through the use of detailed case studies of pupils drawn from ethnographic research in a single multi‐ethnic inner‐city Comprehensive. The paper describes the strategies which allowed one West Indian pupil to succeed academically, whilst a group of his peers experienced increasingly conflictual teacher‐pupil relations which culminated in academic failure and, in one case, expulsion from the school.
- Published
- 1988
20. Can higher education compensate for society? Modelling the determinants of academic success at university
- Author
-
Emma Smith
- Subjects
Occupational group ,Social characteristics ,Sociology and Political Science ,Higher education ,business.industry ,education ,05 social sciences ,Prior learning ,Equity (finance) ,050301 education ,Academic achievement ,Education ,Management ,0502 economics and business ,Demographic economics ,Sociology ,business ,0503 education ,050203 business & management ,Cohort study - Abstract
This paper examines the role that social characteristics play in determining the academic success of students who begin university with roughly similar entry grades. The data used were drawn from the administrative records of over 38,000 UK-domiciled undergraduate students from one British university between 1998 and 2009. Results show that the characteristics of entrants have varied only slightly over this period and intake is still largely in favour of ‘traditional’ entrants: namely those from professional occupational backgrounds, the privately educated and those of traditional age. The relationship between background characteristics and eventual academic success also reflects patterns seen at earlier education stages. However, when prior attainment was taken into account, the link between degree outcome and many social characteristics does diminish – notably for students who were privately educated and who came from professional occupational groups. This suggests that once students have overcome barri...
- Published
- 2015
21. Young people and school General Certificate of Secondary Education attainment: looking for the ‘missing middle’
- Author
-
Vernon Gayle, Susan Murray, and Roxanne Connelly
- Subjects
Secondary education ,Sociology and Political Science ,05 social sciences ,Ethnic group ,youth transitions ,050301 education ,Academic achievement ,General Certificate of Secondary Education ,Certificate ,Educational attainment ,0506 political science ,Education ,Developmental psychology ,Youth Cohort Study of England and Wales ,educational attainment ,050602 political science & public administration ,sociology of youth ,Sociology ,0503 education ,missing middle ,Cohort study - Abstract
In Britain, educational qualifications gained at school continue to play an important and central role in young people’s educational and employment pathways. Recently there has been growing interest in documenting the lives of ‘ordinary’ young people. In this paper we analyse the Youth Cohort Study of England and Wales in order to better document the experiences of those with ‘middle’ levels of school General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) attainment. The overall pattern of school GCSE attainment is one of increasing levels of performance. GCSE attainment is still highly stratified. Girls performed better than boys, and there were some marked differences in attainment for pupils from the main minority ethnic groups. Most notably, parental socio-economic positions are the most important factor. The analyses fail to persuade us that there are clear boundaries that demark a ‘middle’ category of school GCSE attainment. We conclude that sociologists should study ‘ordinary’ young people; however, school GCSE attainment is best understood as a continuum, and measures such as the number of GCSEs or point scores are preferable.
- Published
- 2014
22. Counter-narratives of educational excellence: free schools, success, and community-based schooling
- Author
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Jessica Gerrard
- Subjects
Community education ,Sociology and Political Science ,Community engagement ,business.industry ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Cornerstone ,Resistance (psychoanalysis) ,Academic achievement ,Public relations ,Education ,Excellence ,Meritocracy ,Sociology ,Social science ,business ,Empowerment ,media_common - Abstract
The notion of ‘competitive excellence’ is an enduring cornerstone of UK educational policy. Most recently, expanding and adapting New Labour’s Academy project with the introduction of free schools, the Coalition’s approach advances and embeds competitive market-based forms of community engagement in education. Responding to this policy paradigm, this paper draws upon history in order to open up the notion of excellence. Through examining alternative practices of achievement and success in histories of community education, I aim to disturb the unquestioned attachment of educational excellence to the ideals of competitive meritocracy. Comparing across two community educational movements – Socialist Sunday Schools (established 1892) and Black Saturday Schools (established 1968) – I explore how achievement and excellence have been mobilised to very different educational aims. In distinct times and circumstances, both of these community initiatives practiced versions of educational achievement that challenged ...
- Published
- 2013
23. Being strategic, being watchful, being determined: Black middle-class parents and schooling
- Author
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Nicola Rollock, Carol Vincent, Stephen J. Ball, and David Gillborn
- Subjects
Middle class ,Sociology and Political Science ,Field (Bourdieu) ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Academic achievement ,Possession (law) ,Education ,Developmental psychology ,Respondent ,Habitus ,Sociology ,Social psychology ,Qualitative research ,media_common ,Social capital - 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.
- Published
- 2012
24. Primary and secondary effects in the explanation of disadvantage in education: the children of immigrant families in France
- Author
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Héctor Cebolla Boado
- Subjects
Sociology and Political Science ,Cost effectiveness ,media_common.quotation_subject ,education ,Immigration ,Academic achievement ,Educational inequality ,Education ,Disadvantaged ,Vocational education ,Demographic economics ,Sociology ,Sociology of Education ,Disadvantage ,media_common - 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.
- Published
- 2011
25. Enriching intimacy: the role of the emotional in the ‘resourcing’ of middle‐class children
- Author
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Kari Stefansen and Helene Aarseth
- Subjects
Middle class ,Sociology and Political Science ,Child rearing ,Concerted cultivation ,Context effect ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Socialization ,Academic achievement ,Social class ,Education ,Sociology ,Social psychology ,Qualitative research ,media_common - 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.
- Published
- 2011
26. Zafar, so good: middle‐class students, school habitus and secondary schooling in the city of Buenos Aires (Argentina)
- Author
-
Analía Inés Meo
- Subjects
Middle class ,Sociology and Political Science ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Teaching method ,Academic achievement ,Cultural capital ,Social practice ,Social class ,Education ,Pedagogy ,Habitus ,Sociology ,Social science ,media_common ,Social theory - 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.
- Published
- 2011
27. The ‘collateral impact’ of pupil behaviour and geographically concentrated socio‐economic disadvantage
- Author
-
Alex Hugh David
- Subjects
Sociology and Political Science ,Concentrated Disadvantage ,Collateral ,Academic achievement ,Educational attainment ,Education ,Argument ,Learning disability ,medicine ,Demographic economics ,Sociology ,medicine.symptom ,Socioeconomic status ,Social psychology ,Disadvantage - Abstract
Schools in areas of concentrated disadvantage tend to have below‐average attainment, but there is no consensus on why. Mental and behavioural disorders in children are correlated with socio‐economic disadvantage. This paper puts forward the hypothesis that the first phenomenon can at least partly be accounted for by the second phenomenon through the concept of ‘collateral impact’ – collateral impact refers to the effect of externalising or internalising behaviour by a pupil on other pupils' learning and attainment. The argument developing the hypothesis is presented. An analysis of where evidence to support the hypothesis is most likely to be found identifies primary schools in areas of concentrated disadvantage, although testing of the proposed hypothesis would best be conducted by independent researchers to pre‐empt questions of confirmability. Potential implications for policy and practice are discussed, particularly managing difficult group behaviour in primary schools.
- Published
- 2010
28. The ‘spirit of education’ in IndonesianPesantren
- Author
-
Pam Nilan
- Subjects
Sociology and Political Science ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Islam ,Passion ,Human sexuality ,Academic achievement ,language.human_language ,Education ,Pleasure ,Indonesian ,Embodied cognition ,language ,Charisma ,Sociology ,Social science ,media_common - Abstract
This paper employs Foucauldian theory to consider Islamic boarding school experiences in Indonesia. For some pupils ‘the spirit of education’ – a dimension of pleasure – comes to be highly valued, creating a lifelong passion for the pursuit of knowledge. Two school principals (both pesantren [Islamic boarding school] graduates themselves) articulated strong commitment to the ‘spirit of education’. Yet their respective boarding schools were very poor, not only by western standards but compared with Indonesian public schools, and conditions were austere. The embodiment of pesantren discourse as high academic achievement is illustrated by the example of Khadija – a young female pesantren graduate now studying at doctoral level in the United Kingdom. Explaining the embodied production of the ‘spirit of education’ demands looking at charismatic pedagogy, strict rules, austere conditions and sparse provision of learning resources as regimes of truth and power–knowledge relations that inhere in pesantren as live...
- Published
- 2009
29. University as vocational education: working‐class students’ expectations for university
- Author
-
Wolfgang Lehmann
- Subjects
Sociology and Political Science ,Higher education ,business.industry ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Knowledge economy ,Organizational culture ,Academic achievement ,Education ,Working class ,Vocational education ,Pedagogy ,Habitus ,Sociology ,Social science ,business ,Sociology of Education ,media_common - Abstract
Labor market conditions, a pervasive public discourse about the benefits of higher education, and parental hopes push many young working‐class people into university. The institutional culture and demands of university, however, often remain elusive and fraught with uncertainty. In this paper, I draw on qualitative interviews with first‐generation, working‐class students at a Canadian university to analyze the ways in which these students discuss their reasons to attend and their expectations for university, and the implications of their attitudes for their future success at university. Analysis of the interview data shows how the relatively high and risky investment of working‐class youth in education leads to strong utilitarian and vocational orientations toward university. Although a narrow focus on the career potential of university is generally perceived as problematic, I argue that it may also help working‐class students in their transition to university. Nonetheless, a critical educational process ...
- Published
- 2009
30. (Mis)Understanding underachievement: a response to Connolly
- Author
-
Emma Smith and Stephen Gorard
- Subjects
Sociology and Political Science ,Inequality ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Academic achievement ,Education ,Epistemology ,Work (electrical) ,Scientific controversy ,Criticism ,Sociology ,Social science ,Sociology of Education ,Female students ,L Education (General) ,media_common ,Equity (law) - Abstract
In British Journal of Sociology of Education Volume 29 number 3, 2008, Connolly presented what he termed a 'critical review' of some of our previous work on the relative attainment of male and female students in UK schools. He proposed three general areas for criticism - our use of attainment gaps, our consideration of outcomes other than at specific thresholds, and our querying of the idea of student 'underachievement'. These problems, he claimed, have 'given rise to a number of misleading conclusions that have questionable implications for practice'. However, those of his 'criticisms' with any merit are actually the same as our own conclusions, transmuted by Connolly from our papers that he cites, while his remaining 'criticisms' are based on faulty elementary logic. In case readers have not read our work and were somehow misled by Connolly, we give here a brief reply to each criticism in turn. This matters, because a greater understanding of patterns of attainment and of the nature of underachievement is a precursor to the design of successful initiatives to overcome inequalities in educational opportunity and reward. This is both a practical and an ethical issue.
- Published
- 2008
31. Leading multi‐ethnic schools: adjustments in concepts and practices for engaging with diversity
- Author
-
Saeeda Shah
- Subjects
Sociology and Political Science ,business.industry ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Ethnic group ,Identity (social science) ,Context (language use) ,Academic achievement ,Public relations ,Education ,Educational leadership ,Cultural diversity ,Sociology ,Social science ,business ,Cultural pluralism ,Diversity (politics) ,media_common - Abstract
The student population across world is increasingly reflective of diverse cultures, religions and ethnicities. This rich diversity may become a challenge for educational leaders, teachers, and policy‐makers in the absence of an understanding of diverse sources of knowledge people draw on for directing their beliefs and daily practices. This paper explores the multi‐ethnic context in Britain with a focus on Muslim students in English secondary schools, and argues for drawing on diverse ethnic knowledge sources to inform and enrich approaches towards managing diversity. It discusses the concept of Adab derived from Muslim ethics and philosophy, and debates possible contributions of such conceptual adaptations towards improving educational engagement and performance.
- Published
- 2008
32. Underperformance or ‘getting it right’? Constructions of gender and achievement in the Australian inquiry into boys’ education
- Author
-
Katherine Hodgetts and Hodgetts, Katherine Susan
- Subjects
feminism ,Sexual identity ,Sociology and Political Science ,Discourse analysis ,media_common.quotation_subject ,achievement ,Naturalisation ,Gender studies ,Academic achievement ,Femininity ,Feminism ,Education ,Masculinity ,gender ,masculinity ,discourse ,Sociology ,Association (psychology) ,Social psychology ,media_common - Abstract
The underachievement of boys has been a focus of intense concern in Australia for over 15 years. Historical analyses suggest that male students’ poor performance has traditionally been attributed to factors external to boys themselves (methods, teachers, texts), deflecting attention from the relationship between masculinity construction and successful engagement with school. This paper turns the focus back, addressing the ways in which gender itself was constructed within hearings held for the Australian Parliamentary Inquiry into Boys’ Education. Discursive analysis demonstrates that witnesses to the Inquiry drew upon a series of gender binaries in representing male and female students, and accounting for their relative attainment. These binaries worked to associate masculinity with ‘authentic’ learning, such that the success of male students was naturalised even in the absence of achievement. Conversely, the association of femininity and ‘inauthentic learning’ worked to undermine female students’ demons...
- Published
- 2008
33. Bernstein and the explanation of social disparities in education: a realist critique of the socio‐linguistic thesis
- Author
-
Roy Nash
- Subjects
Phenomenology (philosophy) ,Social psychology (sociology) ,Sociology and Political Science ,Structuralism ,Socialization ,Rhetorical criticism ,Sociology ,Academic achievement ,Social class ,Social psychology ,Sociolinguistics ,Education ,Epistemology - Abstract
Can an explanation of the origins of social disparities in educational achievement be assisted by a critical examination of Bernstein’s sociology? This central question is approached by a consideration of the status of Bernstein’s socio‐linguistic thesis. The focus is on the nature of the explanations provided. The paper asks: What is the explanatory force of Bernstein’s structuralism? What is the relationship between Bernstein’s sociological explanations and Vygotskian psychological explanations? What are the effects for pedagogy of cognitive socialization mediated by language‐use consistent with Bernstein’s theory? The answers to these questions may pose a challenge for sociologists of education engaged with Bernstein’s sociology.
- Published
- 2006
34. Strategic encounters: choosing school subcultures that facilitate imagined futures
- Author
-
Georgina Tsolidis
- Subjects
Government ,Sociology and Political Science ,business.industry ,Flexibility (personality) ,Rhetorical modes ,Context (language use) ,Academic achievement ,Public relations ,School choice ,Education ,Ethnography ,Elite ,Sociology ,Social science ,business - Abstract
In the Australian state of Victoria, students from elite independent and Catholic schools dominate entry into elite universities. Nonetheless, there are a small number of schools within the government sector whose students succeed in these terms. Such schools are considered highly academic and entry is very difficult. This paper is based on initial findings from an ethnographic study of one such school. Interview material is used to explore how students understand their school culture, their place within it and its role in facilitating their aspirations. Various student subcultures are introduced, to shed light on how these may facilitate success. It is argued that successful students understand but remain sceptical about the uncomplicated definitions of success and the narrowing forms of schooling that both create and respond to such definitions. Within the context of marketisation, a Government school that creates an academic niche for itself, has little flexibility and, because of this, students learn ...
- Published
- 2006
35. An assessment of the extent to which subject variation between the Arts and Sciences in relation to the award of a First Class degree can explain the ‘gender gap’ in UK universities
- Author
-
Sarah Earl-Novell and Ruth Woodfield
- Subjects
Sociology and Political Science ,Higher education ,business.industry ,Subject (philosophy) ,Academic achievement ,Compulsory education ,First class ,Education ,Variation (linguistics) ,Phenomenon ,Sociology ,Big Five personality traits ,business ,Social psychology - Abstract
There is a widely recognised national trend for girls to outperform boys at all levels of compulsory schooling. With few exceptions, however, most recent research has reported that, in relation to academic performance at university, men are proportionately over-represented at the First Class level. A number of general hypotheses have been put forward to explain this phenomenon, including those that assume gender-linked differences in cognitive and/or personality traits. A smaller proportion of research has given explanatory primacy to the broad subject area studied. More specifically, it has been alleged that the over-representation of men within the First bracket is largely a function of a 'compositional effect' whereby men achieve proportionately more Firsts as there are more of them within the First-rich Sciences. Based upon analysis of 1,707,408 students graduating between 1995 and 2002, this paper seeks to provide the most comprehensive exploration, to date, of this effect. It confirms that a substantial proportion of the 'gender gap' can be explained with reference to the male propensity to take degrees in first-rich disciplines.
- Published
- 2006
36. Pedagogic practices in the family socializing context and children's school achievement
- Author
-
Ana Maria Morais and Isabel Pestana Neves
- Subjects
Social group ,Sociology and Political Science ,Discourse analysis ,Socialization ,Pedagogy ,Social environment ,Context (language use) ,Academic achievement ,Sociology ,Social psychology ,Code (semiotics) ,Education ,Qualitative research - Abstract
This paper describes a qualitative study about pedagogic practices in the family. The pedagogic code underlying family practices is characterized and related to specific social groups. Students' achievement is discussed in relation to family and school pedagogic practices. The analysis of family pedagogic practice was based on a model derived from Bernstein's theory. The model considers two main dimensions, the coding orientation and its specific realizations in both the instructional and regulative contexts. It provided indicators of the family discursive context and the form in which knowledges and values are transmitted. The model developed allowed a deep and delicate analysis of the family socializing context. The study showed that families differ in their coding orientation and pedagogic practices, and suggested that there are factors other than social groups to determine family's pedagogic practice. It also suggested that specific familial practices may explain children's differential achievement at...
- Published
- 2005
37. The role of the family and the school in the reproduction of educational inequalities in the post‐Communist Czech Republic
- Author
-
Jana Straková and Petr Matěakejů
- Subjects
Czech ,Economic growth ,Sociology and Political Science ,Inequality ,Reproduction (economics) ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Academic achievement ,Compulsory education ,Educational inequality ,language.human_language ,Education ,Social reproduction ,Educational research ,language ,Sociology ,media_common - Abstract
Among the more relevant questions in educational research is how the governments and policy‐makers in transition countries address the high educational inequality inherited from the past and what policies they develop in order to reduce the strong effects of the background family and the type of school on students' achievements, their aspirations and their chances of succeeding in the most important educational transitions. This paper addresses one of the most topical issues in this area, namely the social selectivity of Czech basic and secondary education. Special attention is paid to the role of ‘multi‐year’ gymnasia. The results of analyses carried out on data from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2000 study corroborate the initial hypothesis according to which multi‐year gymnasia, introduced into the Czech educational system after 1989, represent one of the main sources of the variation in students' achievements at the end of compulsory education. However, this variation can be almos...
- Published
- 2005
38. Understanding Underachievement: an investigation into the differential attainment of secondary school pupils
- Author
-
Emma Smith
- Subjects
Secondary education ,Sociology and Political Science ,Mental ability ,Psychological research ,Mathematics education ,Differential (mechanical device) ,Academic achievement ,Sociology ,Social science ,Social class ,Sociology of Education ,Education ,Test (assessment) - Abstract
This article considers the notion of ‘underachievement’ as it is applied to pupil performance in school. It argues that rather than being a straightforward concept, underachievement is one where little consensus exists over its definition and measurement. Previous work on underachievement has tended to cluster around two manifestations of the issue. On the one hand, there is the comparative notion of differential achievement—often specifically low achievement—as used in media commentaries and, on the other, there is its definition in psychological research as the discrepancy between an individual's performance on a test of mental ability a subsequent school examination. Using a stricter definition of underachievement that takes into account a range of background as well as academic variables when predicting examination performance, this paper describes the construction of a model for predicting individual performance in future Key Stage 3 examinations. Individuals whose examination performance was then si...
- Published
- 2003
39. Bernstein and the Middle Class
- Author
-
Sally Power and Geoff Whitty
- Subjects
Middle class ,Sociology and Political Science ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Gender studies ,Biography ,Academic achievement ,Social class ,Education ,Relevance (law) ,Sociology ,Social science ,Social identity theory ,Sociology of Education ,Social status ,media_common - Abstract
This paper explores Basil Bernstein's insights into education and social class, and in particular the relevance of his work for understanding the British middle class. Bernstein is one of the few sociologists of education to recognise and explore differences and tensions within the middle class. We begin by exploring some of the influences of Bernstein's theorisation of social class in general, and outline his main ideas on the relationship between the middle class and education in particular. We then examine the relevance of his work for research on education and middle-class differentiation through drawing on data from our 'Destined for Success' project. This project traced the educational biographies of 300 young men and women from the beginning of their promising educational secondary school career to their mid-twenties. We argue that the distinctive dispositions and orientations of the 'new' and 'old' middle class proposed by Bernstein are evident within parental preferences for types of school, proc...
- Published
- 2002
40. Socioeconomic background, education, and labor force outcomes: evidence from a regional US sample
- Author
-
Jacquelynne S. Eccles, Daniel H. Caro, and Kai S. Cortina
- Subjects
Sociology and Political Science ,Occupational prestige ,education ,Academic achievement ,Family income ,Educational attainment ,Education ,socioeconomic status ,work ,Demographic economics ,Sociology ,Tracking (education) ,Cognitive skill ,transitions ,Social psychology ,Socioeconomic status ,School-to-work transition - Abstract
This paper examines the long-term association of family socioeconomic status (SES), educational, and labor force outcomes in a regional US longitudinal sample (N = 2264). The results offer insights into the mechanisms underlying the role of family SES in transitions from secondary schooling to early work experiences. It was found that the academic achievement gap associated with SES widens during secondary schooling due in part to course-level tracking. Family SES relates to college enrollment mainly via its association with academic gains in school, but also through family income and father's occupational status. Family SES is weakly but significantly related to adult offspring's earnings but more strongly related to occupational status. Educational qualifications and cognitive skills make independent contributions to the explanation of labor force outcomes. © 2014 © 2014 Taylor and Francis.
- Published
- 2014
41. One of Us Cannot Be Wrong: The paradox of achievement gaps
- Author
-
Stephen Gorard
- Subjects
Sociology and Political Science ,Higher education ,business.industry ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Public policy ,Academic achievement ,Social class ,Social mobility ,Educational inequality ,Education ,Educational research ,Contradiction ,Sociology ,Social science ,Positive economics ,business ,media_common - Abstract
There are two general groups of methods of calculating achievement gaps (between groups of students in education) in common current usage, similar to those used to calculate social segregation in space and social mobility over time. Each type of method clearly seems valid to its proponents, yet their results in practice are radically different, and often contradictory. This brief paper considers both of these methods and some related problems in the calculation of achievement gaps, in an attempt to resolve the contradiction. The issue is a relatively simple one, but one with significant implications for social researchers as well as commentators in many areas of public policy using similar indicators of performance.
- Published
- 2000
42. Achievement, Gender and the Single-Sex/Coed Debate
- Author
-
Richard Harker
- Subjects
Single sex ,Longitudinal study ,Sociology and Political Science ,education ,Academic achievement ,Educational institution ,Science education ,Education ,Developmental psychology ,Educational research ,Christian ministry ,National database ,Sociology ,Social science - Abstract
This paper explores the gender differences in achievements at a variety of levels in secondary schools in New Zealand. Gender differences are shown in relation to English, mathematics and science, but the pattern is not consistent across year levels in the senior school. The relative achievements of girls in single-sex and coeducational schools are explored in detail, with careful controls for the student population differences at the two types of school. When such controls are exercised, the apparent differences between the two types of school reduce to non-significance. Data from a longitudinal study of 37 schools and from the Ministry of Education national database are used.
- Published
- 2000
43. Racism in Schools and Ethnic Differentials in Educational Achievement: A brief comment on a recent debate
- Author
-
Andrew Pilkington
- Subjects
Sociology and Political Science ,Differential treatment ,Higher education ,business.industry ,media_common.quotation_subject ,education ,Subject (philosophy) ,Ethnic group ,Gender studies ,Academic achievement ,Racism ,Education ,Educational research ,Law ,Sociology ,Educational achievement ,business ,media_common - Abstract
Whether schools are racist continues to be the subject of intense debate in Britain. Those writing from an avowedly anti-racist stance argue that schools are responsible for the differential treatment of African-Caribbean pupils and that it is incumbent on them to reflect on their existing practices, while their critics writing from an expressed apolitical stance argue that perfectly appropriate professional practices result in badly behaved pupils receiving differential treatment, that African-Caribbean pupils only receive such treatment because they are more likely to misbehave and that there is no need therefore for schools to re-examine their practices. It is suggested that a way out of this impasse is to recognise that differential treatment and bad behaviour are part of a vicious cycle. While accepting that the evidence for racial discrimination in schools is stronger than the critics maintain, this paper argues, however, that we should be cautious in seeing such discrimination as the major factor a...
- Published
- 1999
44. Curriculum Hierarchy, Private Schooling, and the Segmentation of Australian Secondary Education, 1947—1985
- Author
-
Richard Teese
- Subjects
Sociology and Political Science ,Higher education ,Inequality ,business.industry ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Subsidy ,Academic achievement ,Cultural capital ,Public relations ,Modernization theory ,Education ,Politics ,ComputingMilieux_COMPUTERSANDEDUCATION ,Sociology ,Social science ,business ,Curriculum ,media_common - Abstract
Private schools in Australia are a large, influential and heavily subsidized sector of secondary education, offering academic and social advantages to their mainly professional and managerial clients. Their influence on patterns of inequality in higher education and career recruitment is usually seen as a function of their homogeneity of intakes and higher resource levels. This paper argues that these factors become important, not through the operation of networks and family allegiances, but because of the way in which private schools exploit the curriculum. Private schools enable families to exercise scholastic power, not only social and political power. But this depends on maintaining an academic curriculum and on the ability of private schools to exploit the cultural values embedded in this curriculum. Success reinforces the authority of the curriculum over all schools, not just private non‐Catholic establishments, and through this a wider influence is exerted over social structure. This argum...
- Published
- 1998
45. The Impact of Working‐class Mothers on the Educational Success of their Adolescent Daughters at a Time of Social Change
- Author
-
Chris Mann
- Subjects
Daughter ,Sociology and Political Science ,Single-Parent Family ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Social change ,Academic achievement ,Educational attainment ,Feminism ,Education ,Adult education ,Working class ,Sociology ,Social psychology ,media_common - Abstract
Current unprecedented levels of academic achievement among girls from all classes raise questions about the contemporary experience of girls in general and, in particular, working-class girls who, historically, perform less well. As the relatively low achievement of working-class girls has been associated with family culture and influence, this, in turn, raises questions about girls' experience in the contemporary family. This paper draws on findings from a recent research project and focuses on the contribution of working-class mothers to girls' achievement. Working-class families were defined as either traditional (retaining traditional gender relations) or transitional (challenging traditional gender relations). Factors which were identified as contributing to a 'transitional' life trajectory for a working-class mother might include: the impact of employment, adult education, the women's movement, and/or the experiences of divorce and lone parenting. The author concludes that while neither traditional nor transitional working-class mothers might become greatly involved informal aspects of schooling, it is clear that their relationships with their daughters strongly influence their academic experience. Mother-daughter relation- ship seemed to favour girls' educational achievement in three main and interconnected ways: (a) by emphasising independence, (b) by providing emotional support, and (c) by influencing girls' values in the light of current social change.
- Published
- 1998
46. Powerlessness in Professional and Parent Partnerships
- Author
-
Steven Higgins and Elizabeth S. Todd
- Subjects
Power (social and political) ,Grande bretagne ,Hierarchy ,Sociology and Political Science ,General partnership ,Power structure ,Sociology ,Academic achievement ,Structuring ,Social psychology ,Education - Abstract
Power is both implicit and explicit in relationships between parents and professional educators, even in situations where both parties have a common goal in supporting the education of a child or children. We feel that in much previous work the notion of power has either been absent or undertheorised. In this paper, we discuss some of the ways in which the structuring of home‐school relations around power leads to particular difficulties and complexities. Further, we suggest some implications (and limitations) for the notion of partnership itself. We look at the notion of powerlessness as a way of understanding much of what happens between school and parents. In particular, we challenge the easy dichotomy of parents as powerless and professionals as powerful. We suggest that understanding both the prominence of the dichotomy and the effects on home‐school relations can help to explain the failure of many attempts to improve parental involvement in schools. Influence of other hierarchies, such as ...
- Published
- 1998
47. The Influence of Education and Family Background on Women's Earnings in Midlife: evidence from a British national birth cohort study
- Author
-
Jenny Head, Rebecca Hardy, Michael Wadsworth, and Diana Kuh
- Subjects
Sociology and Political Science ,Earnings ,Full-time ,Occupational prestige ,education ,Gender studies ,Academic achievement ,Educational attainment ,Education ,Demographic economics ,Sociology ,Salary ,Socioeconomic status ,Cohort study - Abstract
Studies which have investigated the influence of education on adult earnings are almost exclusively concerned with men and take little account of family influences on either education or later earnings. Those studies which have information on women's earnings focus on gender differentials rather than differences between women in opportunities and outcomes. This paper which examines the influence of education and family background on the midlife earnings of a national cohort of British women born immediately after the Second World War is an attempt to redress this situation. It shows that the few women who were able to take full advantage of the expansion in educational opportunities and achieve high educational qualifications earned significantly more in adult life than less educated females. Family background played an important role, both through its effect on early educational achievement and attitude to school work, which in turn influenced the type of secondary school attended and the achiev...
- Published
- 1997
48. Cultural Themes in Educational Debates: the nature‐culture opposition in accounts of unequal educational performance
- Author
-
James G. Carrier
- Subjects
Sociology and Political Science ,Higher education ,business.industry ,Education theory ,Opposition (politics) ,Educational psychology ,Environmental ethics ,Academic achievement ,Education ,Politics ,Western culture ,Sociology ,Social science ,business ,Sociology of Education - Abstract
This paper investigates certain aspects of the debate about the causes of unequal educational performance. By analysing two illustrative explanations of performance, it shows that the debate appears to be shaped by a fundamental theme in modern Western culture, the nature‐culture opposition. This suggests that the knowledge that we have concerning educational performance is influenced not only by the social and political interests and positions of educators and researchers, but also by more basic cultural concerns; and if we want to understand both educational performance and the debate surrounding it, we need to be aware of this broad influence.
- Published
- 1984
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