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AQA A-Level Sociology: Class Differences in Achievement - Pupils' Class Identities & the School
- Sociologists are interested in how
pupils' class identities formed
outside school interact with the
school and it's values to produce
educational success and failure.
- Louise Archer et al (2010) focus on the interaction between
working-class pupils' identities and school, and how this produces
underachievement.
- Louise Archer et al (2010) focus on the interaction between
working-class pupils' identities and school, and how this produces
underachievement.
- Pierre Bourdieu: Habitus
- Habitus refers to the 'dispositions'
or learned, taken-for-granted ways
of thinking, being and acting that
are shared by a particular social
class.
- It includes their tastes and preferences
about lifestyles and consumption, their
outlook on life and their expectations
of what is normal or realistic for
'people like us'.
- A group's habitus is formed as a response to
its position in the class structure.
- A group's habitus is formed as a response to
its position in the class structure.
- It includes their tastes and preferences
about lifestyles and consumption, their
outlook on life and their expectations
of what is normal or realistic for
'people like us'.
- Although one class' habitus is not
intrinsically better than another's,
the middle-class has the power to
define its habitus as superior and
to impose it on the education
system.
- As a result, the school puts a
higher value on middle-class
tastes, preferences and so
on.
- Because the school has a
middle-class habitus, this
gives middle-class pupils an
advantage, while
working-class culture is
regarded as inferior.
- Because the school has a
middle-class habitus, this
gives middle-class pupils an
advantage, while
working-class culture is
regarded as inferior.
- As a result, the school puts a
higher value on middle-class
tastes, preferences and so
on.
- Habitus refers to the 'dispositions'
or learned, taken-for-granted ways
of thinking, being and acting that
are shared by a particular social
class.
- Symbolic Capital & Symbolic
Violence
- Because schools have a
middle-class habitus, pupils who
have been socialised at home into
middle-class tastes and
preferences gain 'symbolic capital'
or status and recognition from
the school and are deemed to
have worth or value.
- By contrast, the school devalues
the working-class habitus, so that
working-class pupils' tastes are
deemed tasteless and worthless.
- Bourdieu calls this withholding of
symbolic capital 'symbolic violence'.
- By defining the working-class and their
tastes and lifestyles as inferior,
symbolic violence reproduces the class
structure and keeps the lower class in
their place.
- Therefore, there is a clash
between working-class pupils'
habitus and the schools'
middle-class habitus.
- Consequently,
working-class students
may experience the
world of education as
alien and unnatural.
- Consequently,
working-class students
may experience the
world of education as
alien and unnatural.
- Therefore, there is a clash
between working-class pupils'
habitus and the schools'
middle-class habitus.
- By defining the working-class and their
tastes and lifestyles as inferior,
symbolic violence reproduces the class
structure and keeps the lower class in
their place.
- Bourdieu calls this withholding of
symbolic capital 'symbolic violence'.
- By contrast, the school devalues
the working-class habitus, so that
working-class pupils' tastes are
deemed tasteless and worthless.
- Louise Archer found
that working-class
pupils felt that to be
educationally
successful, they would
have to change how
they talked and
presented themselves.
- Thus, for working-class students,
educational success is often
experienced as a process of 'losing
yourself'. They felt unable to access
middle-class spaces such as
university and professional
careers.
- These middle-class spaces
are seen as 'not for the
likes of us'.
- These middle-class spaces
are seen as 'not for the
likes of us'.
- Thus, for working-class students,
educational success is often
experienced as a process of 'losing
yourself'. They felt unable to access
middle-class spaces such as
university and professional
careers.
- Because schools have a
middle-class habitus, pupils who
have been socialised at home into
middle-class tastes and
preferences gain 'symbolic capital'
or status and recognition from
the school and are deemed to
have worth or value.
- 'Nike' identities
- Many pupils were conscious that
society and school looked down on
them. This symbolic violence led them
to seek alternative ways of creating
self-worth, status and value.
- They did this by
constructing meaningful
class identities for
themselves by investing in
'styles', especially through
consuming branded clothing
such as 'Nike'.
- Style performances were heavily
policed by peer groups and not
conforming was 'social suicide'. The
right appearance earned symbolic
capital and approval from peer
groups.
- However, it led to conflict with
the school's dress code. Reflecting
the school's middle-class habitus,
teachers opposed 'street' styles
as showing 'bad taste' or as a
threat.
- Pupils who adopted street styles
also risked being labelled as rebels.
- Pupils who adopted street styles
also risked being labelled as rebels.
- However, it led to conflict with
the school's dress code. Reflecting
the school's middle-class habitus,
teachers opposed 'street' styles
as showing 'bad taste' or as a
threat.
- Style performances were heavily
policed by peer groups and not
conforming was 'social suicide'. The
right appearance earned symbolic
capital and approval from peer
groups.
- They did this by
constructing meaningful
class identities for
themselves by investing in
'styles', especially through
consuming branded clothing
such as 'Nike'.
- Archer argues that the schools'
middle-class habitus stigmatises
working-class pupils' identities
- The pupils' performances of
style are a struggle for
recognition: while the
middle-class see their Nike
identities as tasteless, to
the young people they are a
means of generating
symbolic capital and
self-worth.
- According to Archer et al,
working-class pupils' investment in
Nike identities is not only a cause of
their educational marginalisation by
the school; it also expresses their
positive preference for a particular
lifestyle.
- Consequently,
working-class pupils
may choose
self-elimination or
self-exclusion from
education.
- Consequently,
working-class pupils
may choose
self-elimination or
self-exclusion from
education.
- The pupils' performances of
style are a struggle for
recognition: while the
middle-class see their Nike
identities as tasteless, to
the young people they are a
means of generating
symbolic capital and
self-worth.
- Nike styles also play a
part in working-class
pupils' rejection of higher
education, which they saw
as both unrealistic and
undesirable.
- It was undesirable
because they would
have to live on a
student loan and
this would make it
hard to afford their
street styles that
gave them their
identity.
- It was undesirable
because they would
have to live on a
student loan and
this would make it
hard to afford their
street styles that
gave them their
identity.
- Many pupils were conscious that
society and school looked down on
them. This symbolic violence led them
to seek alternative ways of creating
self-worth, status and value.
- Working-class identity and educational success
- Nicola Ingram (2009) did a
study of two groups of
working-class Catholic boys
from the same deprived
neighbourhood.
- One group had passed their 11+ and
had gone to grammar schools, while
the other group had failed and gone
to a local secondary school.
- The grammar school had a
strong middle-class habitus of
high expectations and academic
achievement, while the secondary
school had a habitus of low
expectations.
- Ingram found that having a working-class
identity was inseparable from belonging to a
working-class locality. The neighbourhood's
dense networks of family and friends were a
key part of the boys' habitus. It gave them an
intense feeling of belonging.
- The boys experienced a great
pressure to fit it and this was
particularly a problem for the
grammar school boys, who
experienced a tension between the
habitus of their working-class
neighbourhood and that of the
middle-class school.
- One boy was ridiculed by his peers
for coming to school in a tracksuit on
non-uniform day. By opting to fit in
with his neighbourhood habitus by
wearing a tracksuit, he was made to
feel worthless by the schools'
middle-class habitus.
- Ingram states that the
choice is between
'unworthiness at school for
wearing certain clothes and
worthlessness at home for
not'.
- The boy being ridiculed is an example of
symbolic violence, in which pupils are
forced to abandon their 'worthless'
(according to the school) working-class
identity if they want to succeed.
- Meg Maguire (1997) notes that
when she went to grammar
school, "the working-class
cultural capital of my childhood
counted for nothing in this new
setting."
- Meg Maguire (1997) notes that
when she went to grammar
school, "the working-class
cultural capital of my childhood
counted for nothing in this new
setting."
- The boy being ridiculed is an example of
symbolic violence, in which pupils are
forced to abandon their 'worthless'
(according to the school) working-class
identity if they want to succeed.
- Ingram states that the
choice is between
'unworthiness at school for
wearing certain clothes and
worthlessness at home for
not'.
- One boy was ridiculed by his peers
for coming to school in a tracksuit on
non-uniform day. By opting to fit in
with his neighbourhood habitus by
wearing a tracksuit, he was made to
feel worthless by the schools'
middle-class habitus.
- The boys experienced a great
pressure to fit it and this was
particularly a problem for the
grammar school boys, who
experienced a tension between the
habitus of their working-class
neighbourhood and that of the
middle-class school.
- Ingram found that having a working-class
identity was inseparable from belonging to a
working-class locality. The neighbourhood's
dense networks of family and friends were a
key part of the boys' habitus. It gave them an
intense feeling of belonging.
- The grammar school had a
strong middle-class habitus of
high expectations and academic
achievement, while the secondary
school had a habitus of low
expectations.
- One group had passed their 11+ and
had gone to grammar schools, while
the other group had failed and gone
to a local secondary school.
- Nicola Ingram (2009) did a
study of two groups of
working-class Catholic boys
from the same deprived
neighbourhood.
- Class identity and self-exclusion
- Despite the class inequalities in
education, many more
working-class young people now
go on to university.
- However, the clash between
working-class identity and
the habitus of higher
education is a barrier to
success.
- This is partly due to a process of self-exclusion.
- Sarah Evans (2009) studied a group of 21
working-class girls studying for A-Levels
and found that they were reluctant to
apply to elite universities such as Oxford
and Cambridge.
- The few that did apply felt a sense of hidden barriers and of not fitting in.
- Sarah Evans also found that the girls had a
strong attachment to their locality. Only four of
the 21 intended to move away from home to
study.
- Sarah Evans also found that the girls had a
strong attachment to their locality. Only four of
the 21 intended to move away from home to
study.
- The few that did apply felt a sense of hidden barriers and of not fitting in.
- Bourdieu (1984) states that many
working-class people think of places
like Oxbridge as being 'not for the
likes of us'.
- This feeling comes from their habitus,
which includes beliefs about what
opportunities really exist for them and
whether they would fit in.
- Such thinking becomes a part of their
identity and leads working-class
students to exclude themselves from
elite universities.
- Such thinking becomes a part of their
identity and leads working-class
students to exclude themselves from
elite universities.
- This feeling comes from their habitus,
which includes beliefs about what
opportunities really exist for them and
whether they would fit in.
- Reay et al (2005) point out
that self-exclusion from
elite or distant universities
narrows the options of
many working-class pupils
and limits their success.
- Sarah Evans (2009) studied a group of 21
working-class girls studying for A-Levels
and found that they were reluctant to
apply to elite universities such as Oxford
and Cambridge.
- This is partly due to a process of self-exclusion.
- However, the clash between
working-class identity and
the habitus of higher
education is a barrier to
success.
- Despite the class inequalities in
education, many more
working-class young people now
go on to university.
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