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This paper argues that processes of marginalisation experienced by white working-class students provide insight into systemic problems with the English education system. White British students eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) are a low attaining group. This research investigates factors affecting their engagement and achievement. Fieldwork in three comprehensive secondary schools in a London borough used qualitative methods to gather data on the perspectives of staff, students and parents. Using Bourdieu's conceptual tools to guide the analysis, the study found that performance pressure and funding cuts can result in an institutional habitus which privileges academic attainment, side-lines the social and emotional aspects of learning and misrecognises working-class capitals. Such habitus fosters pedagogic practices which reduce levels of felt safety and limit opportunities to actively engage and exercise agency in the classroom. These conditions often make fragile the learner identity of white working-class students (and others) and prompt disengagement from school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schools are critical spaces for young men from refugee backgrounds. They play an integral role in literacy development, educational attainment, and providing a sense of belonging. Inclusive education practices for this group are largely absent in Australian schools. Research shows focusing on these young men from a non-deficit position assists with inclusivity. There is a lack of research exploring the agentic practices of young men from refugee backgrounds within schools. This paper explores the symbolic value of swagger for a group of young men from refugee backgrounds at a high school in Australia. A Bourdieusian theoretical framework guided critical awareness of power in schools. This research shows how a group of young men found a meaningful way to acquire social and cultural capital. Despite the school's constraints, this group developed a group identity reflected in their clothing and embodied dispositions referred to here as swagger. Our findings demonstrate the complex power relations at work, including the opportunity for the young men to resist and be included. In the spirit of Bourdieu's concern for reflexivity our findings point to the need for schools, teachers, and education policy makers to consider the workings of power in schools in more considered ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western liberal media theories often neglect to recognize “news translation” as one of the journalistic practices. This paper problematizes this dominant understanding of journalistic practice and expands the Bourdieusian media sociology project beyond western media systems by applying it to Indian agency journalism. A case study of the United News of India Urdu (UNIU) serves as the basis for this examination, drawing on an ethnography of news production practices, and supplemented with in-depth interviews conducted with Muslim journalists from 2018 to 2020 across four major Indian cities. Through this investigation, the paper asserts that “news translation” is indeed a vital but contested component of media work within the sphere of Indian-language journalism. The paper uses “media work” as a key concept to demonstrate that UNIU’s journalists are anchored in the field of journalism, as is evidenced by their institutional-cum-organizational location and their application of the elements of journalistic practice to their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

French law 2004-228 and Quebec's Bill 21 has prohibited wearing conspicuous religious symbols while discharging public duty, especially as teachers in public school. This has aroused robust public debate because it disproportionately affects Muslim women wearing hijabs. This paper investigates the philosophical/ethical argument on both sides of the debate. The key research question is whether liberal feminists have the justification to support the hijab ban. The paper outlines different types of liberal feminism and their views on just social arrangements. The paper uses Gheaus's concept of gender justice and Kabeer's definition of gender empowerment to structure the debate, stating that feminists will support the ban if it enhances empowerment and makes society more gender-just or internal working of social arrangements, at least procedurally just. The paper draws on the utilitarian argument, Nussbaum's and Sen's articulation of the Capability Approach and the importance of identity, and Bourdieu's concept of Habitus, Doxa, and Symbolic Violence. The paper argues that there are strong arguments on both sides. Still, liberal feminists concerned about structural inequalities, economic empowerment, and individual freedom may not be convinced that the Hijab ban makes society more gender-just or improves individual empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of transgender individuals often focus on the transgressive nature of their identities and practices or on experiences of transphobia, rejection and violence. Rather than focusing on transgression or marginalization, this paper offers insight into practical knowledge, presenting a feel for the game that young nonbinary individuals develop out of social necessity, as the social world, with its gender binary social structures, remains resistant to nonbinary identities and practices. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 12 nonbinary participants in Slovenia and Bourdieu's concept of practical knowledge, this paper analyses skilful practical strategies for coping with anticipated and experienced misrecognition. These strategies encompass tactful playing along with the binary rules of the game, pushing the rules into a state of limbo and directly engaging and confronting the rules of the game. Moreover, a differentiated domain of strategies emerges, according to the parameters of safety, anticipation of achieving recognition and affective investment in the relations. Overall, the data show that nonbinary individuals are skilful agents who apply a range of practical strategies to manoeuvre through a gender binary world. The article enables insight into young people as actively engaging with objective conditions that are not of their making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2019 Ofsted introduced cultural capital (CC) into the Early Years Inspection Handbook and defined it as 'essential knowledge' related to 'educated citizenship'. This paper investigates Ofsted's use of CC to critically examine the potential implications for early years work. Due to the feminised nature of early years work, a critical feminist approach is engaged to explore the potential impact of introducing CC into the regulation of the sector. This paper examines the differences between Ofsted's use of CC, CC's theoretical origins, and analyses sector responses. Our contention is that how Ofsted have employed CC may represent 'symbolic violence' against the working-class women working in the early years, by further devaluing their habitus and sustaining the stratification of society through forms of capital. This paper is the first to interrogate CC in Ofsted's early years documentation, and will have an international impact for any countries following UK education practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the persistent, growing popularity of Canadian French immersion (FI) programmes. Critics charge that FI programmes are elitist, diverting already limited resources from other areas of the education system. We begin with a brief overview of the benefits of FI in Canada and enrolment trends. Next, sources of FI-related inequality – lack of access, transportation costs, funding issues and types of learners most likely to enrol in FI – are scrutinised. Then, available evidence is weighed for and against the charges of FI elitism. Lastly, demand for FI is viewed through a Bourdieusian social reproduction lens to understand the persistence of socio-economic status (SES) inequalities. The paper concludes that higher SES parents are more likely to have the inclination (parentocratic habitus) and resources (economic, social, and cultural capital) to enrol their children in, and benefit from, FI. The paradox of publicly funded FI education in Canada is that as long as demand outstrips supply the benefits will continue to be unequally distributed. The result is a stalemate between proponents and critics, with each camp's solution – whether it be making FI universally available or removing it completely from the public purse – bound to meet with stiff opposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The provision of sports opportunities for youths in schools has expanded beyond traditional competitive offerings, with activities such as skateboarding and surfing now considered important avenues for youth development. This trend follows the recent expansion of action or ‘lifestyle’ sports provision into various community and educational contexts. This paper concomitantly explores how surfing, in particular, is now being formally utilised by schools as a viable sporting opportunity for both boys and girls. Research is lacking in terms of understanding how activities such as surfing may promote specific gender relations. This line of research is critical given that surfing in its unstructured format typically privileges masculine ideals and codes of practice, with women being considered secondary participants. In this paper, then, we highlight data findings about gender relations based on a study of boys’ and girls’ surfing programmes located in coastal regions of California and France. Through our interrogation of semi-structured interview and field observation data, we illustrate how school-based programmes that incorporate surfing served to reproduce gendered hierarchies and power relationships during training sessions and competitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractGlobal education policy discourse is based on an unshakable belief that more and improved skills will promote economic prosperity, global competitiveness and social inclusion. In England, the Further Education and Skills sector (FES) has emerged as the vehicle to deliver these skills. However, the portrayal of FES as focusing primarily on vocational education for people often adjudged to be ‘not academic’ positions the sector at the bottom of the educational hierarchy, with negative ramifications for those who teach and study in it. This paper applies a case study approach to explore the lived experiences of five trainee FES teachers completing their initial teacher education (ITE). Drawing on contemporary interpretations of Bourdieu’s theory of habitus, I develop Morrin’s notion of hauntings to explain the psycho-social, historical and spatial influences on the trainees’ responses as they re-enter the field of education as teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates alcohol consumption within cultures of football fandom through the innovative combination of theories of the carnivalesque and Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, field, and capital. Focus groups (n = 79) were conducted with football supporters in England and Scotland. Semi-structured interviews (n = 15) were also conducted with key organizational stakeholders. Research explored the importance and role of alcohol consumption for supporters when watching or attending matches.. Participants confirmed the cultural significance, perceived normalcy and historical links between football and alcohol consumption. Supporters highlighted the importance of the sociability, friendship, and social capital aspects of alcohol consumption. Participants believed football supporters are perceived differently in comparison with supporters of other sports, arguing that legislation surrounding alcohol consumption at other sports allowed supporters to enhance the carnivalesque by drinking alcohol, whereas football fans were more restricted. Participants agreed the habitus of excessive drinking and violence associated with football supporters led to a bad reputation, however, this view was outdated. Participants also recognized a growing drug culture in football. The findings draw attention to the alcohol-sport relationship and the contested relations, and diverging interests and influences, within the social field of football. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much research has investigated international graduate employability in home or host countries. However, limited studies have accounted for such employability across the home and the host. Drawing on Bourdieu's relational and reflexive sociology, this paper critically examined the first author's narrative of his employment experiences as a doctoral graduate navigating across Chinese and Australian academic fields after completing ten years of higher education and research training in Australia. While he encountered various challenges due to capital deficiency and habitus-field mismatch, he also reflexively learned to capitalise on his transnational academic dispositions and decode different logics of practice across different academic fields. Thus, he underwent constant changes of identity, agency, and belonging in his cross-field employment journey, which potentially shaped his transnational habitus. This Bourdieusian reflexive narrative contributes to research and practice on graduate employability and reflexivity from a sociological perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper approaches Transnistria ghettos from a social perspective looking to recuperate the networks accessed by those ghettoized. My hypothesis is that networking was instrumental for survival and it was conditioned by local conditions, pre-dispositions inherited from pre-war times and the capacity of those ghettoized to adapt the latter to the former. The approach is both historical and sociological with the emphasis put on Cole’s argument for a spatial dimension of Holocaust survival and Bourdieu’s conceptualization of the ‘social space.’ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers in Lady Agatha's Boarding School (Lady Agatha's) find teaching Sex and Relationships Education (RSE) uncomfortable. This paper investigates one aspect of the discomfort that they feel, namely the impact RSE has on their professional status as teachers. I use focus group data to reflect on the professional and personal location of teachers at Lady Agatha's and to explore their understanding of RSE through the recurring themes of professionalism and professional reputation as symbolic capital; deprofessionalisation and risk as symbolic violence; and the connects and disconnects between the doxa and illusio of the school. Findings suggest that by interrogating the sites of symbolic violence which generate RSE discomfort, we can start to unpick the fabric which creates discomfort about RSE, allowing both for a deeper understanding of RSE discomfort in teachers and an opportunity to address this discomfort as a barrier to RSE delivery at Lady Agatha's. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precarity of journalistic labour has received significant scholarly attention globally, leading to a plethora of studies that attempt to theorise changing journalistic roles, practices, and norms. Whereas precarity in newswork is formulated as the "new normal" in the Global North, the precarious situation of marginal(ised) newsworkers in the Global South has been simply normal. Based on ethnographic research in two small-town formations in South India, this article presents how stringers working in Indian-language newspapers have developed a complex professional identity and shared norms through journalistic and extra-journalistic practices to survive in the field. In doing so, we develop, in a novel way, Bourdieu's concept of illusio to understand the formation of a professional identity that spans adjacent fields. This paper's critical engagement with the difficult working lives of stringers and their invisible labour has learnings for analysis of precarity in journalism across the Global North and South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mobilisation of assets from one national field to another is a topic that has attracted significant sociological attention. In this paper, we investigate migrant physicians who obtained their medical degrees outside the EU/EEA and trace the process of validating their degrees in Sweden. The study is inscribed in Bourdieu’s sociological tradition and is based on a questionnaire and interviews with physicians. Analysing the mobilisation of cultural capital across national borders, we emphasise the importance of distinguishing its different states in the context of migration. Based on our case, we argue that the time physicians spend in the ‘waiting room’ challenges their ability to maintain and perform their medical craft. We show that the time it takes to institutionalise assets and accumulate capital in another national context can lead to the risk of losing its embodied state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an on-going study of grassroots language-planning engagement in the Chinese transnational communities in the UK. It explores how a group of Chinese mothers organise playgroups for their children to socialise with each other in linguistic and non-linguistic plays to enrich their children’s cultural and linguistic environment. Guided by Bourdieu’s signature concepts of habitus and capital, this study attempts to understand grassroots organisations in the Chinese communities through a socialisation lens. It examines how organisers’/mothers’ sociocultural disposition about, practical knowledge of, and cultural attitudes towards socialisation become unintended forms of social and cultural capital for heritage/community language development. Data sources include observations, recorded playing activities, and unstructured interviews. Using discourse analysis and narrative enquiry as analytical framework, the study focuses on the types of activities organised, language functions and forms in socialisation, and the sociocultural dispositions articulated by the parents. The study highlights how heritage languages can be developed despite symbolic structural constraints that are unfavourable for heritage language learning. The study contributes to the field of FLP by illustrating how parents use their social, cultural and economic capital in locating and using accessible resources to help their children build a transnational cultural capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of ethnographic approaches to study social settings has been steadily increasing over the last several decades. However, relatively few studies have been conducted with children, particularly in physical activity settings. This dearth of research may be due to the reported challenges of trying to 'fit in' in the world of children. This autoethnographic study provides insight into the approach utilised to conduct an ethnographic study with children and to become a 'friendly adult' in their world. The original six-month project focused on examining a cohort of 5–8year-old children to try and understand their engagement and relationship with physical culture. The project, conducted at a school in Victoria, utilised a range of ethnographic and child-centred methods to examine children's engagement in PE and on the playground. This autoethnographic exploration provided the primary author the ability to reflect on and unpack his ethnographic approach to gain a deeper insight into his role in the project. This study investigates the challenges and opportunities that the primary author faced in trying to study the lives of these children. These challenges and opportunities included, embracing and engaging with past experiences; balancing roles as a former teacher; and maintaining a 'friendly adult' role. Being accepted into the world of the children required navigating these challenges and using them as opportunities to engage with the children as the gatekeepers of the research. Exploring these challenges and opportunities provided significant insight into how to engage with children in ethnographic research and build trust and rapport. Unpacking this approach through autoethnography provides a guide for future researchers working with children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 7 October 2021, a controversial takeover of the English Premier League team Newcastle United Football Club saw an 80% stake acquired by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), the country's sovereign wealth fund. Public discussion and media coverage of the takeover has revolved almost entirely around the concept of 'sportswashing' – the practice of (usually) undemocratic regimes using sporting investments to 'cleanse' or enhance their reputation and deflect attention away from human rights abuses. This article examines the Newcastle takeover, interrogating the widespread portrayal of it as a clear-cut case of sportswashing, and explores alternative explanations for the purchase, and potentially other sports-related investments. Drawing broadly on scholarship by Bourdieu and scholars of the Arabian Peninsula, it argues that the concept of sportswashing as it is currently used limits discussion of wider, more complex social, political and economic entanglements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crisis of teacher shortages in Anglophone nation states can no longer be ignored as this long-term issue has been compounded by the pandemic. Growing evidence of the challenges of attracting and retaining a teaching workforce is now foregrounded in education policy internationally. This issue provides increased impetus for studying teacher motivations and principal dispositions particularly in relation to roles in hard-to-staff schools that tend to be in disadvantaged or rural communities in terms of how policies are received and enacted. This mixed methods study examined a teacher financial incentive (TFI) scheme aimed at facilitating the appointment of qualified teachers in hard-to-staff government schools in Victoria, Australia. Although evidence of TFI scheme's effects and effectiveness as a policy solution to teacher shortages is limited, TFI schemes are widespread internationally. Our study shows that while the Victorian TFI scheme resulted in successful appointments for most participating schools, a financial incentive was only one among many other policy settings, personal and professional factors and other motivations informing teachers' decisions to apply for a TFI position and the recruitment practices of principals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflexivity is not a new concept; however, the researcher's reflexivity on caste and gender preconception in the South Asian context is an understudied area in qualitative studies. We know less about how a researcher's prejudice can unconsciously exclude Dalits and females from their research. In this critical autoethnographic study, I extend the concept of reflexivity by illustrating first awareness of the subtle nuances of my own prejudiced disposition and belief against Dalit and female participants, and second how preconceptions can be disrupted by the researcher being conscious of everyday actions in the research field, and questioning moments of awkwardness or difficulties in and out of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]