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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 barriers to admission, it is entry grades rather than social characteristics that may most strongly influence eventual academic success. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper uses Bourdieu’s concept of ‘field’ as a tool to examine higher education participation in England in the context of diversified and differentiated provision. Admissions practices for courses in two institutions offering tertiary and higher education demonstrate how the official rules of the game shape the experience of students moving into and through HE on vocational and alternative routes. These examples suggest that rules created for the ‘selective’ part of the HE field can have perverse effects on other parts of the field, creating barriers rather than bridges for students seeking to participate in HE via alternative routes. The paper concludes by considering the strengths and limitations of using Bourdieu’s tools for understanding diversification in HE. Does using Bourdieu lead to the inevitable conclusion that diversity is a form of diversion, directing a proportion of the population through an easily accessible, but ultimately less rewarding path, or can Bourdieu’s tools suggest possibilities for transformation and change? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a first attempt in an ongoing research study of the policy environments in four UK secondary schools to examine policy enactment, where 'enactment' refers to an understanding that policies are interpreted and 'translated' by diverse policy actors in the school environment, rather than simply implemented. The paper is divided into two parts. The first part presents an audit of the policies encountered in four case study schools in the south-east of England. The second part looks at one current English government policy, namely personal learning and thinking skills, and how this is taken up in two of the case study schools. In this way, the paper not just explores why a policy is adopted but also illustrates the capacity for school-based policy elaboration, where schools produce their own 'take' on policy, drawing on aspects of their culture or ethos, as well as on the situated necessities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the changing nature of professional practice in English further education. At a time when neo–liberal reform has significantly impacted on this under–researched and over–market–tested sector, little is known about who its practitioners are and how they construct meaning in their work. Sociological interest in the field has tended to focus on further education practitioners as either the subjects of market and managerial reform or as creative agents operating within the contradictions of audit and inspection cultures. In challenging such dualism, which is reflective of wider sociological thinking, the paper examines the ways in which agency and structure combine to produce a more transformative conception of the further education professional. The approach contrasts with a prevailing policy discourse that seeks to re–professionalise and modernise further education practice without interrogating either the terms of its professionalism or the neo–liberal practices in which it resides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper raises questions regarding the ability of new qualifications frameworks and assessment systems to promote innovation and social inclusion. Of interest in this paper is the centrality of tacit skill in promoting innovation. Tacit skill is central to innovation, although its positional character is not well understood by policy-makers. It is argued that the relationship between tacit skill and innovation throws doubt on the relationship between assessment led change, and on the social and economic objectives of New Labour (in the UK) and the Labour-led Coalition (in New Zealand). This paper also reviews recent changes in the funding of higher education in New Zealand and in the UK, and explores the impact of economic change on the competition for advancement through education. This paper concludes by arguing that innovation and social inclusion are not compatible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The enduring inequities experienced by African-Caribbean students in UK schools has been well documented. This paper aims to better understand how these inequities have come to be so enduring. Through detailed analyses of data generated through a school ethnography, this paper demonstrates the processes through which African-Caribbean students are identified as undesirable, or even intolerable, learners. The paper builds on the insights offered by earlier school ethnographies while deploying and developing a new theoretica1 framework. This framework suggests that the discursive practices of students and teachers contribute to the performative constitution of intelligible selves and others. Drawing on this framework, the paper demonstrates how African-Caribbean race and sub-cultural identities, and further intersecting biographical identities including gender and sexuality, are deployed within organisational discourse as evidence of these students' undesirable learner identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins by noting the centrality of the issue of working-class school failure within the sociology of education in Britain. It argues that recent government policies have taken insufficient account of sociological work on the impact of social class on educational success and failure. It also suggests that sociologists should pay more attention to middle-class education. The importance of this is illustrated through reference to research on the trajectories of pupils receiving different forms of secondary education. The paper then argues that social inclusion policies need to address a variety of forms of middle-class self-exclusion from mainstream public provision as well as working-class social exclusion. It concludes that education policy needs to be located within a broader social policy framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper it will be argued that we are entering a 'third wave' in the socio-historical development of British education and that similar trends are also evident in the USA, Australia and, New Zealand. The 'first wave' can be characterised by the rise of mass schooling for the working classes in the late nineteenth century. The 'second wave' involved a shift from the provision of education based upon what Dewey called the "feudal dogma of social predestination" to one organised on the basis of individual merit and achievement. What is distinct about the 'third wave' is the move towards a system whereby the education a child receives must conform to the wealth and wishes of parents rather than the abilities and efforts of pupils. In other words, we have witnessed a shift away from the 'ideology of meritocracy' to what I will call the 'ideology of parentocracy'. This paper will consider the evidence to support this conclusion and examine its sociological significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While it is generally acknowledged that being ‘historically informed’ lies at the heart of critical accounts of education policy-making, the use of historically focused retrospective research methods within the field is rare. This paper makes the case for retrospective research at a time when some of the most significant episodes of post-war educational policy-making are fast passing into the realms of not-so-recent history. In particular, it is argued that current policy scholars now have an opportunity to revisit the issues and concerns regarding the formation of the ‘New Right’ education policy reforms 30 years ago. Drawing on the experiences of a recently completed study of educational policy-making during the 1979–1983 Thatcher administration, it is argued that retrospective methods offer a surprisingly rich opportunity to collect primary data from the policy elites of the 1980s. It is concluded that the time is right for the production of a useful addendum to the founding studies of educational policy sociology that were conducted at the time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Contemporary art is a popular feature of the cultural landscape in the United Kingdom, and recent research has recommended introducing its practices into state education. Yet these practices are still rare in schools, and this paper argues that the many difficulties that arise from attempts to introduce them are indicative of their socially contingent character, which threatens to disrupt the ideological underpinnings of orthodox school practices. The school art projects 'Room 13' and 'Teaching through contemporary art' are used as prominent examples of contemporary art practices that support a relatively high degree of learner autonomy within state education, yet are situated outside of government initiatives. Through these projects the paper explores the dilemmas that the participants face, which include questions of learner agency, choice and creative risk, and the effects of regulatory assessment systems upon collaboration, experiment, play and ephemeral learning outcomes. The paper concludes by examining the possibilities of encouraging these more 'risky' contemporary practices in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper argues that university quality assurance (QA) promotes a masculinist culture leading to systemic discrimination against female academics. The analysis relates to the question of what it is about academic life that results in persistent gender inequality. Based on an ethnographically informed comparative study, textual/discourse analysis of 30 interviewee transcripts reveals disguised messages about QA. The interpretation argued draws on a theoretical scrutiny of the covert power of a masculinist QA movement to disproportionately disadvantage female academics. The paper suggests that this has been made possible by a QA presentation discourse harnessed by male academics to manage identities. It argues that dominant definitions of the 'competent academic' that discriminate against females are normalised and cemented within a societal conscience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The understanding of feminist pasts has been largely ignored in the history of education. This paper suggests that the historical sociology of Olive Banks provides fresh starting points for future research exploring the relationship between the history of social and political movements and a reassessment of contemporary and historical forms of 'radical education.' The article proceeds to use group biography to explore a municipal socialism that has been over-ridden in historical memory by the classic political histories that take the view from Westminster and Whitehall. In so doing it seeks to show the contribution of six educator activists who were participants in the making of a metropolitan political elite emerging from the association between feminism, socialism and the labour and trade union movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy-makers in the UK and Europe have become concerned with the successful management of transitions in learning as a means of increasing the competitiveness of their economies. Transitions relating to informal as well as formal learning have also been an important focus for the sociology of education. In this paper, I review alternative ways in which transitions are conceptualised as a process of change over time; but argue that the dimension of change has been overemphasised, while the dimension of time has been neglected. Much of the literature on transitions takes for granted a 'common sense' view of time as a 'natural flow' and assumes that learning can enable us to forge our own futures agentically from lessons of the past and goals in the present. Feminist research, however, challenges such a theory as androcentric, and reveals the many ways in which women's time is used and experienced differently. Drawing on critical sociological thinking about time, these ideas are illustrated through a re-interpretation of data from Mojab's (2006) study of Kurdish women refugees in Sweden. This explores the ways in which time is engendered and enacted in social practices marked by gender, race and class, and the impact of these times upon the women's learning. The potential of such an analysis points to the need for further study of these themes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social exclusion is a key policy theme for the New Labour government, and has been closely associated with education policy. The emphasis is on the need to combat social exclusion by creating a globally competitive economy through the education system, and through responsible individual attitudes. However, this dominant discourse is interpreted differently at various levels of policy making that provide alternative conceptualizations of the problem, and suggest different roles for education. This paper draws upon a research project that explored the links between education governance and social exclusion, and seeks to illustrate different approaches to social exclusion and education, as these are articulated by politicians and civil servants involved in policy making, or policy implementation in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the emerging consensus around post-compulsory education and training. It argues the notion of settlement needs to be developed to incorporate concepts of race and gender. It suggests a settlement is developing amongst the major political parties and other constituents who have a stake in post-compulsory education and training. These constituents share a common analysis of the problem facing education and training. Whilst these different groups have varying strategies to address the problem these are held under the sway of a capitalist logic. Post-Fordist arguments celebrate the progressive possibilities that inhere in a high skill, high trust economy; however, such optimism is easily co-opted and colonised by capitalist interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK is typical of many industrialised countries at the present time in searching for new kinds of assessment procedure which will be appropriate on the one hand to the goals of the more vocational curricula currently being developed and, on the other, be relevant to the whole range of pupil needs and achievement. The paper explores the impetus behind such changes and argues that the policies so generated embody a number of political and educational contradictions. Using recent developments in England and Scotland as a case study, the paper argues that, despite their egalitarian potential in educational terms, the underlying political climate of cost-efficiency and laissez-faire individualism which in turn inhibits any substantial change in traditional educational values is likely to result in reinforced, rather than reduced social divisions being associated with such initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines changes in stale policies and ideologies about women's education in Britain for the period 1944-1980 It links policies and shifting ideologies about women to the development of the stale, dominant political ideology, the economy and general social policy, tracing the gradual evolution of policies and ideologies encouraging women`s education and their participation in paid work through the period of social democracy which spanned the late 1950s, the 1960s and early 1970s The twin consequences for women, of the collapse of social democratic ideology and a decline in the consensus about education, in the period since the early 1970s are also considered, and an attempt made to explain the limited impact of legislation on sex discrimination The paper concludes by arguing that although some aspects of women educational inequalities have been remedied, many still remain, in a political, economic and ideological climate that increasingly emphasises women's place in the home, and that educational inequalities can only be effectively tackled by women's development of an alternative set of coherent social and economic policies which challenge both capitalist and patriarchal social relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses recent policy and discourse in the UK lifelong learning sector to identify a tension in discourse which positions teacher educators as essential to the knowledge economy while simultaneously insisting on the deficits they represent. Drawing on critical analyses from Friedrich Nietzsche, Maurizio Lazzarato and Gilles Deleuze, I challenge altruistic views of professional motivation and situate individual professionalism under a construction of an indebted subject. Examining recent attempts to redefine professional standards in the sector, I argue that teachers are positioned as subject to homogenisation and ethically indebted to a higher ideal. Ethical commitments to adult learning, I suggest, are a cost-effective instrument of social control because of their imbrication in this discourse of irredeemable moral debt to the sector. Responses to this situation, I argue, are likely to include forms of professional mobility which undermine it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the 1980s, state schools in England have been required to ensure transparency and accountability through the use of indicators and templates derived from the private sector and, more recently, globally circulating discourses of ‘good governance’ (an appeal to professional standards, technical expertise, and performance evaluation as mechanisms for improving public service delivery). The rise of academies and free schools (‘state-funded independent schools’) has increased demand for good governance, notably as a means by which to discipline schools,in particular school governors– those tasked with the legal responsibility of holding senior leadership to account for the financial and educational performance of schools. A condition and effect of school autonomy, therefore, is increased monitoring and surveillance of all school governing bodies. In this paper, I demonstrate how these twin processes combine to produce a new modality of state power and intervention; a dominant or organizing principle by which government steer the performance of governors through disciplinary tools of professionalization and inspection, with the aim of achieving the ‘control of control’. To explain these trends, I explore how various established and emerging school governing bodies are (re)constituting themselves to meet demands for good governance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Michael Young’s work is central to debates about knowledge and the school curriculum. In recent years he has renounced his early argument that school subjects represent the ‘knowledge of the powerful’, arguing instead that access and equality for all students are dependent on ensuring that all get access to ‘powerful knowledge’. This paper provides an interpretation of Young’s work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the mid-1990s computer industry commentators have suggested that a very different generation of young people has begun to enter universities in the UK. Born between 1980 and the late 1990s, these young people have been labelled the ‘Net Generation’ to draw attention to their extensive use of computers and the internet. In response to these alleged changes, government ministers, higher education managers, publishers, learning technologists and university librarians have developed a variety of their own analyses and prescriptions. What has been less evident have been analyses by sociologists of education. This paper seeks to redress the balance. Drawing insights from the work of Karl Mannheim, accounts of this new generation by different occupational groups are analysed, before comparing them with a survey of 513 students and in-depth interviews with a further 20. This analysis and comparison indicates that although higher education students make extensive use of computers and the internet, their wealth and occupational status have a greater influence on their proficiency with these technologies than their age. Furthermore, while many occupational groups have a vested interest in portraying students as requiring support to access this technology, most students wanted these consumer goods sufficiently to buy them for themselves, even if they did not all yet possess the skills to use these technologies effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The growing incidence of withdrawal of Muslim girls from physical education prompted this study into tensions between religious freedom and educational practices. It was located in a city in the West Midlands of England. Data on experiences, issues, concerns and solutions related to participation of Muslim girls in physical education were collected by a team of eight researchers including Islamic studies and physical education subject specialists, city advisors and teachers. Methods used were: eight in-depth case studies across primary, secondary and Muslim state schools including interviews with 19 head teachers and teachers (two were Muslim), focus-group interviews with 109 pupils and 32 parents. In addition, four focus-group interviews were held with 36 young people in community/supplementary schools for Muslim communities. All city schools (402) and 12 community providers received questionnaires, 50 were returned. Consultations were held with key national associations including the Muslim Council of Britain and the National Subject Association for Physical Education. Empirical analysis is reported elsewhere. During the experience of conducting the study four problem areas emerged that required attention to effectively address tensions between religious freedom and educational practices in physical education: bridging the gap between research and educational practice; the concept of embodied faith; the significance of context-physical education and religion in England; and finally widening researchers' frames of reference to include intersectionality and interdisciplinary approaches. The discussion exposes the complexity of pursuing social justice in a democratic society that embraces people of multiple ethnicities and religions. The paper concludes by exploring ways in which theoretical constructs increase understanding and can influence policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of levels of participation in post-compulsory education has been emphasised by the current policy initiatives to increase the age to which some form of participation is compulsory. One of the acknowledged weaknesses of research in the field of children's intentions with regard to participation is the lack of longitudinal data. This paper offers a longitudinal analysis using the Youth Survey from the British Household Panel Survey. The results show that most children can express intentions with regard to future participation very early in their secondary school careers and that these intentions are good predictors of actual behaviour five years later. Intentions to stay on are more consistent than intentions to leave and most children who finally leave at 16 have at some point said they want to remain in education post-16. The strongest association with participation levels is attainment at GCSE. However, there are also influences of gender and parental background and these remain, even after attainment is held constant. The results show the value of focusing on intentions for participation at a very early stage of children's school careers and also the importance of current attempts to reform curriculum and assessment for the 14–19 age group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Workplace learning is identified by UK and Scottish governments as an important means of achieving social mobility, and therefore producing a more equal society. However, there appears to be a patchwork of provision and funding arrangements, making it difficult for employers and employees to identify suitable routes. Analysis of large scale survey data at European and Scottish levels shows that existing inequalities are further entrenched by differential access to and participation in workplace learning, where those with existing high levels of qualification have far greater opportunities. This paper draws on data drawn from an EU Sixth Framework funded study of lifelong learning, focusing in particular on case studies of six Scottish SMEs which are used to identify some of the reasons underlying inequalities in access to workplace learning. Whilst all of the SMEs had a positive approach to employee development, they differed in the type of work they undertook and the composition of the workforce. Employees in knowledge intensive organisations were immersed in a culture where on-going learning was an expected part of working life, and was driven by both employers' and employees' expectations. By way of contrast, more traditional manufacturing and training organisations had a more restricted approach to learning, encouraging employees to undertake courses which would give them the skills to do their jobs more effectively, but with less focus on their wider growth and development. All firms treated lifelong learning with some degree of scepticism, ultimately prioritising company profitability over individual employee development and seeing the two as sometimes at variance. Given the Scottish government's desire to promote the demand side of skill development, the barriers posed by employers' attitudes need to be addressed, particularly in relation to lower-skilled workers in manufacturing firms, who might have less intrinsic motivation, but are also less likely to receive encouragement and support from their employer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forty years ago, sociology, psychology, philosophy and history had a secure position in the academic study of education in the UK but that is no longer the case. The policy context that has increasingly come to influence our teaching and the funding of our research, with its pressure on the production of knowledge which stresses use value, has, we argue, increasingly marginalised the potential of disciplinary contributions to the study of education. In this introductory paper to this special issue, we begin by examining competing definitions of what a discipline actually is and then chart the rise and fall of the influence of the different disciplines in education over the last 40 years. Following Barnet (1990), we do that through examining both their 'sociological' undermining (changes in their mechanisms and sites of production) and their 'epistemological' undermining with the growing public and self doubt about their contribution. The result, we suggest, is that now we have a large number of professionals working together but, when compared with other social science disciplines, lacking in intellectual autonomy and coherence. But, we ask, does that matter? Do sociology, psychology, philosophy and history—and indeed the whole range of disciplinary based perspectives—economics, geography—have anything to offer research, scholarship and university teaching in education now and in the future? We suggest that this is the challenge that the disciplines of education now face in the UK and it is the challenge we posed to the contributors to this special issue of the Oxford Review of Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years geographical concepts and the geography lexicon have been used in different disciplines to explore the diffusion and circulation of ideas and it is increasingly commonplace for academics to speak of a “geography of knowledge”. Little systematic work has been undertaken by historians of education using spatialised approaches to consider the emergence and circulation of educational knowledge. The circulation of knowledge, and an examination of whether spatial thinking can enable historians to gain insights and understand relationships not otherwise obtainable, are the key issues considered in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents new evidence obtained from an empirical study which used three distinct groups of professionals engaged in the attempt to “brainstorm” reasons for pupils' non-attendance. The evidence suggests that the “causes” of pupils' non-attendance can be sub-divided into three main fields: pupils who dislike coming to school; those who experience home difficulties; and, those with psychological problems. The roles of society and of the government are considered. Key issues which need to be resolved in order to improve school attendance are examined and ideas for further research postulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the Second World War, education in advanced capitalist societies has been perceived as the main 'saviour' of the meritocratic ideal. In this paper I will investigate some of the implications of the lasting emphasis that has been placed upon education in Britain, in the pursuit of a more just and equal society. Initially, I will present two main strands of thought vis-a-vis meritocracy. I will then show how these different approaches have shaped the pertinent debate. The main line of reasoning will be that the 'meritocracy through education' discourse can potentially conceal inequalities and injustices in contemporary market-driven British society. This contention will be supported by evidence from social mobility research, which clearly indicates that the expansion of educational provision and the increase in educational qualifications of the past 60 years has done little to eliminate social class differences and associated privileges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers Olive Banks' work on charting the history and development of British feminism, and particularly her use of collective biography as a research and analytic tool. It is argued that while this has been seen as the least 'fashionable' aspect of her work, it took forward C. Wright Mills' contention for one definition of sociology as the interaction between biography and history, and predated by a decade or so similar work on prosopography by Bourdieu from the 1990s onwards. More recently other sociologists and educationists have taken up this methodological approach, including Jane Martin and Bronwyn Davies and Susanne Gannon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Olive Banks' study of the sharp contrasts of 'parity and prestige' in English secondary education was published when sociological study of education was only beginning in Britain. It fitted neatly into that study's preoccupation with the interactions of social class, educational opportunity and social mobility. This paper is not an updating of her analysis, but an application of her perspective to some later manifestations of those interactions. It considers in particular the continuing market value of traditional academic schooling, the continued segregation of educational routes, and the 'waste' of ability through 'modernised' forms of social selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops previous analyses of data from an ESRC-funded study of middle-class parents' choices of childcare in two London locations (Battersea and Stoke Newington). It tentatively explores differences between the educational choices made in the two localities and connections which occur between educational and spatial preferences and practices. These connections within the two class fraction samples are presented using Basil Bernstein's arguments concerning the relations between pedagogical practices and social class. The argument is that the class fractions identified here use space differently and concomitantly engage in different kinds of social relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This paper focuses upon relationships barely explored in the sociology of education either in the UK or elsewhere that lie between the practices and processes of formal education and the aetiology (the 'causations') and development of eating disorders, specifically, anorexia nervosa (AN) in young women and girls. In so doing, it also touches on other relationships relatively under explored in the sociology of education, between formal education and 'the middle class'. Our analyses point to the ways in which social trends outside schools relating to 'the body' and health generate and intersect with what we refer to as performance and perfection codes following Bernstein (2000) and Evans and Davies (2004) . These create conditions of school work that, while increasingly difficult for many students, may be deeply damaging to the identities and health of the vulnerable few, especially if they coincide with other problematic features of their lives. Our request, as articulated through the voices of the young people in our study, is for greater understanding of the ways in which formal education and schooling may be implicated in the production of disordered eating and ill-health. Such understanding might better equip teachers and others to help young people, irrespective of their class and cultural background, avoid falling prey to conditions that may damage or even potentially destroy their young lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Literacy Strategy with its accompanying daily Literacy Hour was introduced into all primary schools in England in 1999 and aims to enhance literacy standards. This paper is about the nature of interaction in the Literacy Hour. It is based on a collaborative micro-analysis of observational data from two poetry lessons conducted within the LH in two Year 6 classrooms in two different suburban schools in a city in the north of England. Taking a sociocultural perspective on literacy we attempt to make explicit the subject positions available to pupils and teachers in both settings, to show what is available to be learned, and inter alia to demonstrate what counts as valuable knowledge. We begin by providing a brief background to the theoretical and policy context of our empirical work, we present a slice of life from both classrooms which we then analyse. We conclude by speculating on the reasons for the deeply entrenched nature of recitation as a predominant interactional style in these lessons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on findings of two recent surveys on the language(s) used as the primary medium for the teaching and assessment of cultural modules. They were conducted between March 1999 and March 2000 in language departments in UK universities: the first among staff (146 replies), the second among language students (704 replies). Comparing the staff perception of the language used in class and the class experience as reported by students pointed to a major disparity with much higher percentages of students than staff reporting English being used. In contrast students' stated preferences were closer to what staff thought they delivered. Students' attitudes to the use of English or TL in teaching and assessment are analysed in terms of the advantages and drawbacks quoted by the respondents and in relation to perceptions of depth of study achievable. Factors such as the type of cultural options taken and whether the teacher is a native speaker of the language of study are considered as to their impact on perceptions and attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is controversy about whether inequalities and educational outcomes are increasing or decreasing. Using longitudinal data collected in two birth cohort studies started in 1970 and 1958 respectively, the paper examines the evidence in relation to two outcomes, probability of leaving school at 16 and highest qualification achieved. Multi-variate analysis (logistic and OLS regression) was used to model the relationships of these educational outcomes to family social class, taking account of a wide range of early life variables, including living in an urban as opposed to rural location. It is concluded that the impact of social class on educational achievement has not changed across the 12 years covered by the two studies, a result that applies in both rural and urban areas of Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the issue of overeducation and undereducation using for the first time a British dataset which contains explicit information on the level of required education to enter a job across the generality of occupations. Three key issues within the overeducation literature are addressed. First, what determines the existence of over and undereducation and to what extent are over and undereducation substitutes for experience, tenure and training? Second, to what extent are over and undereducation temporary or permanent phenomena? Third, what are the returns to over and undereducation and do certain stylized facts discovered for the US and a number of European countries hold for Britain? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With reference to the 'meritocratic' and 'equal opportunities' (EO) paradigms, the paper discusses the problem of explaining the relationship between changing differentials in educational attainment and changes in social opportunities more generally It is argued that, for the farmer, progressive changes expected to follow from social democratic educational reforms failed to occur and, for the latter, unanticipated improvements in the relative attainments of girls and blacks have occurred In both cases, the paradigms fail to provide systematically-convincing explanations of these events Essentially, there is a conflict between accounts of the ideological positioning of categories of pupils within education and their positions within the system of relative attainment It is argued that this situation relates to the manner in which the sociology of education in Britain has been, to a significant degree, relocated within the educational field through its association with teacher training and functions more as a sociology for education than as a sociology of education [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I take issue with the claim of Ozga (1992) that because of the poor quality of many recent texts on education management, and their lack of a sociological perspective, they are not proper material for analysis in the British Journal of Sociology of Education. I argue that sociological analysis of such texts is an urgent priority because they have gained credibility among education practitioners and provide a spurious legitimacy to new right policy directions. This general argument is illustrated by focussing on four specific limitations of one of the most popular current texts on education management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women constitute a very small minority of the full time academic staff in British universities and are concentrated in the lower grades. Statistical evidence points to the fact that an important reason for this is that discrimination exists within the academic profession. However, there is very little empirical information on the nature of this discrimination and the institutional processes that serve to maintain it. The study reported here seeks to identify and illuminate these processes through the experiences and perceptions of women academies themselves. A total of 43 women were interviewed at length using a semi-structured interview schedule, exploring issues such as recruitment and selection, probation, career development, appraisal, positions of power and the roles of women academics. It is suggested, in this paper, that we can begin to understand some of the factors which limit women's access to and success within the profession by examining the evidence of women who have survived within the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for the theoretical and practical possibilities of applying a `critical theory' of education to British primary schools It traces the series of misconceptions and misinterpretations of progressive education which, coupled with the neglect of its own emancipatory potential, has allowed it to be discredited by right-wing and left-wing politics Re-establishing a fairer reading of its central tenets and coupling this with the developing concept of a `socially critical primary school' provides for an emancipatory primary education which embraces critical theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the assessment and evaluation of teachers in state provided schooling in Britain has never been simply a matter of technical competence. Judging teachers has always involved social, ideological and political considerations which have varied in different historical periods. An analysis is made of attempts to apply principles and procedures of assessment especially to teachers in urban working class schools. It is shown that these attempts have historically moved from a 'visible' strategy of direct imposition and surveillance to an 'invisible' strategy through the ethic of legitimated professionalism. Current developments in British schooling suggest, however, a possible return to more direct and visible procedures as 'teacher incompetence' is placed at the center of the education problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section presents several articles offering sociologists' views on cuts in British higher education as of 1984. John Brennan contributes a nation-wide view of the cuts in the public sector, outlines institutional policies and prejudices and suggests strategies for survival. His paper also shows that the distinctive ecology of public sector higher education poses both threats and opportunities for sociology. Meanwhile, Alan Waton provides a macro-view of the UGC action. Rosemary Deem writers of her experience as a County Councilor involved in working for the retention of courses in a public sector college and provides the only contribution with a happy ending. Also Ivan Reid discussed the problems and potentials of strategies for survival. According to Brennan, there never was a golden age for the polytechnics. He further said that they have experienced cuts and financial stringency over a long period of time. He also said that the effects have been gradual and have become almost taken for granted. Ivan Reid stated that it is difficult to establish whether sociology and sociology of education face threats over and above that posed to higher education in general. The intimate relationship of sociology of education with teacher education has meant that it has shared the fate of closures and cut-backs with the other disciplines of education and faced many of these well before the present situation.

This article discusses the intervention of the Norwood Committee's Report of 1943 in the debate over secondary school examinations in Great Britain. It emphasizes the role of the report in supporting the active involvement of teachers in internal examinations, as opposed to external examinations administered by examination boards. Sociologists of education have long recognized the importance of assessment as a social and ideological construct. They identify three principal contestants for control and influence over secondary school examinations, the state, university examining boards and teachers. In 1917, the Secondary Schools Examinations Council (SSEC) was set up to co-ordinate secondary school examinations. It provided an important forum for debate among rival interests over secondary school examinations. It was when Sir Cyril Norwood, as chairman of the SSEC, chose to support rights of teachers in this sphere that the contestation between the three parties involved became explicit and acute. Norwood argued in favor of teachers asserting greater control over secondary school examinations by setting and marking them within schools. The Norwood Report involved a key struggle for control over secondary school examinations. It seems to suggest a stronger notion of teacher professionalism in which assessment is brought more fully into the domain and control of the teacher. Norwood had argued for a framework within which assessment would be part of the natural domain of teachers' control, together with the school curriculum. He linked this proposal explicitly to an enhancement in the professional authority of school teachers.

This article describes a pilot study where consultancy supervision was introduced into a primary school for pupils with SEBD in England. School staff engaged with supervision and evaluated their experience through a quantitative and qualitative methodology. The paper explores the nature of supervision, the qualities of the supervisory relationship and the areas of school staff lives to which supervision can be relevant. The project is set in context through reviewing current literature and professional guidelines on supervision. The positive results of the project are described and recommendations and conclusions drawn from the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes staff perceptions of the implementation of an alternative curriculum, Skill Force, for disaffected pupils in the UK. The perceptions of Skill Force and school staff were compared based on data from questionnaires completed by 62 Skill Force and 84 school staff, and interviews with representative samples of each. While the data indicated that the programme had been successful in re-engaging the students with education, the improvement was more marked in relation to the Skill Force programme than the wider school context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has been produced from the work of a research project conducted in the context of a city-wide education service in the United Kingdom. This was the Liverpool Learning Networks Research Project, which began in July 2005. The researchers carried out semi-structured interviews with education practitioners - learning network coordinators - who have strategic responsibility for the development of school networks in Liverpool. The role of these practitioners represents a confluence of two significant agendas. The first is that of social inclusion, with 'the school' being seen as a key vehicle of policy delivery. The second is that of a shift towards the model of 'the school network', aimed at improving pupil learning. What emerges from the interviews is that social inclusion is central to these key practitioners' understanding of the learning networks for which they are responsible. Despite a strong local emphasis on 'learning', then, in the presentation of the learning networks, within the city the focus on what happens in the classroom has become blurred by a far wider, social notion of how learning should be understood. The authors argue that this represents a significant tension for how learning networks will actually develop. Whilst in a perfect world a focus upon pupil learning in the classroom on the one hand, and on child social welfare on the other, may complement one another, in reality this is not the case. In the real world of government priority, resource commitment and time-bound policy delivery, one or other focus will win out. The emphasis placed upon social inclusion by these senior education officers suggests that this is what will ultimately shape the direction and destination of these 'learning' networks. If so, the legacy of such networks may prove to be government-driven social reform rather than the pioneering of 'networked learning' that was their original promise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation is crucial to both individual and organisational performance and even a very able and well-trained member of staff will not perform effectively unless they are motivated to do so. Despite this fact, research into the motivation of teachers is limited both internationally and, more specifically, in relation to the English system of education which has undergone a series of rapid, multiple and systemic changes since the 1988 Education Act which are likely to have affected teachers' motivation and morale. This article reports on research in six primary schools in England which attempted to determine the nature of the issues impacting upon motivation and demotivation at the start of the twenty-first century. The study provides additional insight about how these factors might be affected by ethnographic and demographic characteristics. Findings suggest that the principal motivators for teachers in primary schools are extrinsic motivators, such as positive responses from children and that, conversely, demotivators are poor responses from children and workload factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National styles of 'doing sociology' exist, all celebrating respective 'founding fathers'. Timid, British pragmatism has tended to misrecognise Durkheim ever since our barely transcended early 20th century origins. In relatively low-status teacher education, even when sociology of education was popularly taught from the late sixties through the seventies, Durkheim was presented as a conservative anti-hero. The only important exception to this condition was the teaching and research of Basil Bernstein, unfortunately buried by the excesses both of 'New Directions' and the neo-Marxisms which recoiled from it in the seventies. HIS always numerous and active group of research students became the main carriers of his voice. There are now some signs that failure strewn, maligned and substantially dispersed sociology of education is evincing fresh interest in his and Durkheim's work. Bernstein's interest, since the middle 1950s, has been the study of symbolic systems which function as pedagogic relays. He alone in modem sociology has attempted to move from the seconds that make up the classroom moment, through institutional to societal power structures, in a way that not only insists on conceptual consistency but thinks it not worth having unless it produces both models and empirical markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]