PUPILS' CLASS IDENTITIES AND THE SCHOOL

Question 1

Define habitus:

Answer 1

a. Habitus refers to the ‘dispositions’ or learned, taken-for-granted ways of thinking, being and acting that are shared by a particular social class

Question 2

What does habitus include?

Answer 2

a. It includes their tastes and preferences about lifestyles and consumptions
b. Their outlook on life and their expectations about what is normal or realistic for ‘people like us’

Question 3

How is a group’s habitus formed?

Answer 3

As a response to its position in the class structure

Question 4

How does habitus link to the concept of cultural capital?

Answer 4

Because schools and the education system have a middle-class habitus, this gives middle-class pupils an advantage but is disadvantageous for working-class pupils

Question 5

Define ‘symbolic capital’:

Answer 5

Where pupils who have been socialised at home into middle-class values gain status and recognition from the school and are deemed to have worth or value

Question 6

Define ‘symbolic violence’:

Answer 6

a. The withholding of symbolic capital
b. Working-class values are deemed worthless, symbolic violence reproduces the class structure and keeps the lower classes ‘in their place’

Question 7

How did Archer’s findings show the effects of symbolic violence?

Answer 7

a. Archer found that in order to be educationally successful, working-class students would have to change how they talked and presented themselves
b. Working-class students felt unable to access posh, middle-class spaces such as university and professional careers