Pupils Class Identities & The School

Question 1

Habits

Answer 1

Refers to the taken for granted thinking and behaviour of a social class. It also includes a preference for a particular lifestyle and consumption pattern.

IT CAN AFFECT EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT!

Question 2

SYMBOLIC CAPITAL & SYMBOLIC VIOLENCE

Answer 2

M/C children have ‘symbolic capital’ because they are socialised into middle class tastes and preferences.

By contrast, schools devalue W/C habitus. Bourdieu describes this as ‘symbolic violence’.

Archer (2010) found that in order to be seen as successful, W/C children changed their accents and the way they presented themselves!

Question 3

Nike identifies

Answer 3

Symbolic violence often led students to seek their own ways of creating self-worth, status and value!

“You wouldn’t really expect [upper class] people to come out in Nike tracksuits and stuff, we expect them to have that Gucci designer stuff. But people like us, they’re just: we’re Nike.’ (Sean, Littleton School)

Question 4

THE A-C ECONOMY & EDUCATIONAL TRIAGE

Answer 4

GILLBOURN & YOUDELL (2001):

The policy of publishing league tables creates the A-C economy whereby schools ration their time, efforts and resources on those pupils they perceive to have the potential to get 5 grade C’s at GCSE’s.

They call this process ‘educational triage’- a process of sorting individuals with the most need.