Markets,schools and the convertibility of economic capital: the complex dynamics of class choice

While economic capital is not synonymous with cultural, social or symbolic capital in either its constitutional or organizational form, it nevertheless remains the more flexible and convertible form of capital. The convertibility of economic capital has particular resonance within ‘Celtic Tiger’ Ireland. The state’s reluctance to fully endorse an internal market between schools has resulted in middle‐class parents using their private wealth to create an educational market in the private sector to help secure the class futures of their children. Using data from recent studies of second‐level education in Ireland, and data compiled on the newly emerging ‘grind’ schools (private tuition centres), we outline how the availability of economic capital allows middle‐class parents to choose fee‐paying schooling or to opt out of the formal school sector entirely to employ market solutions to their class ambitions. The data also show that schools actively collude in the class project to their own survival advantage.     

Elementary teaming: Learning improvement or administrative ploy

Trends suggest that homeschooling continues to increase among black families. Yet, research on contemporary Black homeschooling remains scarce. Given black educational history, the phenomena of Black families choosing homeschooling over public and private schools in the post-Desegregation era is worthy of investigation. Further, documenting the ways in which black homeschool families engage their children in learning will inform the needs of black education in conventional schools, public and private. The phenomenon of increasing black home education represents a radical transformative act of self-determination, the likes of which have not been witnessed since the 1960s and ‘70s. This work highlights the primacy of agency among black homeschooling families. Thus, contrary to the negative depictions of black families as disengaged from the educational pursuits of their children, we evoke hooks's (1990) notion of homeplace to argue that black home education represents a vehicle of resistance to institutionalized racism and ideological mismatches between black families and their children's educational needs.     

Making ‘right’ choices? An ethnographic account of creativity,performativity and personalised learning policy,concepts and practices

This article uses ethnographic research from two Year 8 classes in two middle‐sized secondary schools about a kilometre apart in a Swedish west‐coast town to examine how new policies for personalised learning have developed in practice, in the performative cultures of modern schools in a commodity society. One school stands in a predominantly middle‐class area of privately owned ‘low‐rise’ houses. The other is in an area of ‘high‐rise’ rented accommodation, where the first language of many homes is not Swedish. The differences are important. According to the article, personalised learning mobilises material and social resources in these schools that support new forms of individualistic, selfish and private accumulations of education goods from public provision and a valorisation of self‐interest and private value as the common basis for educational culture. The article describes this cultural production in school and links it to processes of cultural and social reproduction.     

Saving Democratic Education from Itself: Why We Need Homeschooling

We need homeschooling to save education in a liberal democracy from taking a religious form—what I call Democratic Education. Democratic Education emerges when the democratic identity and narrative become elevated to the highest priority when thinking about educating human beings. This elevation becomes particularly dangerous when other nonpolitical ends and aspects of our humanity are ignored, downplayed, or, worse, delegitimized. This article argues that three signs of this danger currently exist in educational theory and practice. First, Democratic Educators are offering a reductive view of human persons in which undue focus is placed upon those skills or educational justifications that relate to students’ political identity and capacities. Second, the liberal tradition of education that seeks to show justice to the diversity of narratives or comprehensive reasonable worldviews that exist in America is being undermined. Third, educational alternatives outside the public system are attacked by Democratic Educators and even considered politically problematic. If we want to recover more human forms of education, we need to reinvigorate more pluralistic forms of humanistic education, such as homeschooling, that nurture philosophies and practices of education that allow for a wider focus upon human flourishing. Ultimately, this is why liberal democracies need homeschooling.     

Migrant teachers: how American schools import labour

This article considers the growth of ‘family literacy programmes’ in the UK and the implications this has for the relationship between the home and the school. We argue that most programmes are informed by a view of educational deficit, itself influenced by a marketised view of education which regards families as consumers’ of education. We contend that this ‘family’ is constructed in a way that privileges the patriarchal, nuclear, middle‐class family and makes a clear distinction between the public and the private sphere. This leads, we suggest, to a model of family literacy which imposes school‐based literacies on subordinated cultures and non‐nuclear families in ways that are culturally reproductive. We discuss an alternative, culturally productive, approach which focuses on home‐based literacies in ways which genuinely reflect the lived experiences of children and their families. Only in these types of programmes, we argue, will the values and practices of the home and community environment affect schooling in ways which give all families, however constructed, a genuine ‘voice’ in their children's education.     

Class,gender, (hetero)sexuality and schooling: paradoxes within working‐class girls’ engagement with education and post‐16 aspirations

This paper discusses the ways in which inner‐city, ethnically diverse, working‐class girls’ constructions of hetero‐femininities mediate and shape their dis/engagement with education and schooling. Drawing on data from a study conducted with 89 urban, working‐class young people in London, attention is drawn to three main ways through which young women used heterosexual femininities to construct capital and generate identity value and worth; namely, investment in appearance through ‘glamorous’ hetero‐femininities, heterosexual relationships with boyfriends, and the ‘ladettte’ discourse. We discuss how and why young women’s investments in particular forms of heterosexual working‐class femininity can play into their disengagement from education and schooling, drawing particular attention to the paradoxes that arise when these constructions play into other oppressive power relations.     

“Homeschooling Is Our Protest:” Educational Liberation for African American Homeschooling Families in Philadelphia,PA

As increasing numbers of researchers, parents, and youth are rethinking the traditional school system as the default educational option in the United States, homeschooling is not only growing in size but also in philosophical scope and demographic diversity. African Americans particularly have been one of the steadiest-growing homeschooling demographics. Among the few ethnographic accounts of black homeschooling families, youth perceptions tend to be overlooked. This article builds upon scholarship exploring racial injustices in education with new qualitative research: observations and interviews with 15 African American homeschooling families living in Philadelphia. This research reveals a variety of motivations undergirding African American families’ homeschooling decisions and perspectives, including commentary from youth homeschoolers. Previous research has critiqued homeschooling as a neoliberal exercise in privatization that entrenches the social reproduction of inequality, or operates as a destabilizing threat to public interest. Yet, findings from this study complicate these assessments by examining the ways African American homeschoolers enmesh themselves within educational reform conversations, some viewing homeschooling as a form of political protest.     

Social capitalism and educational policy: democracy,professionalism and social justice under New Labour

Here we examine New Labour’s education policy concerning social justice and the organisation of educational provision with reference to social capital as policy vocabulary. The central focus is on policy discourses and practices in relation to networking between schools and other partners. We identify three policy phases for reducing inequalities and social exclusion, while supporting human capital formation: (1) EAZs in the late 1990s; (2) refocusing on specialisation and beaconisation, 2000–2003; and (3) transformations signalled by the diversity and choice agenda of the White Paper 2005, academies and trusts. We detect a drift in policy targets and aspirations from the early idealised ‘new and exciting’ kinds of educational participation and democracy, returning to more traditional professionalist arrangements in specialisation/beaconisation, and currently moving in the direction of post‐democratic governance in the academies programme, while doing little to challenge processes of stratification of educational institutions or outcomes. We develop the argument concerning the ‘post‐democratic’ turn in education policy by exploring the possibilities and limitations of policy‐making which deploys social capital vocabulary and mechanisms, ending with the paradox of social capital as a theory of democracy articulating with ‘post‐democratic’ educational structures.     

A good education: girls' extracurricular pursuits and school choice

This paper draws on the case studies of six girls between the ages of 10 and 13 and considers their transition to secondary school and involvement in extracurricular sports. Within it, I explore how the girls' understandings of ‘a good education’ affects both their academic and extracurricular/sporting choices. Despite government educational targets which seem to value ‘performative’ academic results, I argue that ideas about a ‘well‐rounded student’ continue to hold particular resonance for middle‐class parents and students. Conversely, I suggest that models of excellence and achievement within education are increasingly echoed in students' sporting participation and that this has specific consequences for working‐class and middle‐class students. I draw particular attention to the girls' experiences of these systems with a view to their ability to convert physical capital accrued in physical activity into other forms of social or cultural capital.     

When negotiation fails: private education as a disciplinary strategy

This articles deals with the question why Dutch upper‐middle‐class parents resort to fee‐paying private education, a tiny, recently developed sector of the Dutch educational system. The research is based on interviews with 37 parents and 20 students attending private schools, and on a survey among 376 parents involved in private schooling. From the data is concluded that ‘lack of discipline’ is the main reason for parents and students alike to choose a private school. Failing to succeed in secondary school lessens the chances of reproduction of parental class position. Analysis of the interviews shows that the parental style of upbringing, marked by negotiation and mutual consent, can make it difficult to acquire the discipline that is needed to follow a successful educational career. Moreover, parents criticize the regular schools for their lack of discipline on the one hand, attention to individual needs on the other. The private schools, characterized by strict rules, permanent supervision, and intense engagement with students, take over the discipline neither parents nor regular schools can provide. In that way, students are able to qualify for tertiary education, needed to ward off future downward mobility.     

The Private Voice: Homeschooling,Hannah Arendt,and Political Education

What becomes of the political orientation of American education when children are educated in the home rather than in public schools? Homeschooling critics raise concerns over the larger consequences: political exit and even indoctrination. Drawing on a recent study of 62 interviews with 35 homeschooling families in 11 states in the USA, we offer a theoretical argument grounded in empirical observations and perceptions of homeschoolers themselves. Using the work of political theorist Hannah Arendt as a guide, we suggest that, contrary to critics’ claims of political exit over voice, homeschooling may provide the opportunity for some families to respond with a “private voice” that is politically robust because it is intentionally subversive to a (perceived) homogenous dominant culture. We thus argue that some homeschoolers offer an understanding of private life that is political without being “public,” and that they reconcile this irony by attempting to cultivate reflexive “thinking” in their children regarding questions of conformity, materialism, and plurality.     

Turning to teaching: gender and career choice

As the largest public sector institution in the United Kingdom, education is a key site for studying the context of ‘choice’ and changes in the identities of professional workers in contemporary society. Recruitment and retention problems in education have led to the creation of new routes into teaching to attract career changers from other professions and occupations. In this paper we focus on career changers within the Economic and Social Research Council project ‘Primary Teacher Identity, Commitment and Career in Performative School Cultures’ who have entered teaching from other private sector occupations. We analyse these career changes in terms of ‘turning points’ in the participants’ lives in order to assess the extent to which choices are ‘self‐initiated’, ‘forced’ or ‘structural’. We are interested in the basis on which these choices were made and the impact of gender on career decisions.     

Transnational academic capitalism in the Arab Gulf: balancing global and local,and public and private,capitals

This article contributes to the emerging theoretical construct of what has been called ‘transnational academic capitalism’, characterised by the blurring of traditional boundaries between public, private, local, regional and international, and between market-driven and critically transformative higher education visions. Here we examine how these issues are reflected in higher education policy in the Arab Gulf, asking: what kinds of capital are being constructed and traded? By and for whom? What is the relationship between higher education competition, governance and the public good? We find contradictory trends, which we see as strategic ambivalence pointing to country-specific readings of similar regional markets and attempts to hedge bets between rival forms of apparent capital. The exploration offers a counterpoint to more widely cited examples, hereby helping to shape new paradigmatic ‘glocalised’ understandings of this field.     

The Private Sector of Education in Britain: a review of past research and recommendations for future work

The paper reviews research and debate on the private sector of education in Britain. Research undertaken to date is described as having taken place at three main levels, referred to as the ‘political’, ‘outcomes’ and ‘individual‐psychological’ levels. Following the review of research at these three levels, a number of neglected areas are identified, the investigation of which would contribute significantly to a greater understanding of the private/ state school debate. These areas are: a focus on girls and young women in private schools; the experiences of Assisted Place Scheme pupils; the study of the attitudes and values of private school pupils; the investigation of private school ethos and culture; exploring how private school pupils gain the ‘edge’ over state school pupils; and the isolation of school effects from social class and family background effects.     

Private higher education: challenges for Australia and beyond

Among the chief characteristics of the post‐industrial society are ambiguity and paradox. In Australian higher education, as in other sectors of Australian Society, these have found expression in individualism, private initiative and entrepreneuship.

The ‘privatization’ of higher education now includes the imposition on enrolment charges, the re‐introduction of ‘full cost’ fees, especially for private overseas students, moves towards the deregulation of salaries and conditions of employment of academic staff and the establishment of new ‘self‐contained’ and ‘hybrid’ private higher education institutions.

In response to these developments, debate has tended to centre upon a number of mythologies which inter alia assert that private higher education is new to Australia, that it is foreign to the Western academic tradition and that such education avoids the employment of public funds. Moreover, it is claimed that while private higher education is ipso facto elitist, it will, through competition, result in a more effective and efficient public sector.

The above mythologies are examined in the light of past, present and proposed developments in Australian higher education, with particular note being taken of the establishment of the Bond University in Queensland.     

Social Class,Ability and Choice of Subject in Secondary and Tertiary Education in Britain

This article examines the impact of family background (social class, cultural and economic capital) and ability on the choice of subjects in secondary and tertiary education in Britain. Using a framework that integrates rational choice perspectives and cultural reproduction theory, we assume that children take their parents' social position as a reference for their own choices, and are guided mainly by the amount of economic and cultural capital that is available within the family. Using longitudinal data from the 1958 British birth cohort (N =13,245), the empirical analysis shows that children from higher social class backgrounds achieved a higher standard in both humanities and scientific subjects in primary and secondary school. Furthermore, children of the professional class were relatively likely to choose the prestigious subjects of medicine and law in university, independent of ability. Both absolute and relative levels of ability were relevant to the choice of subject at degree level, as it was found that people chose subjects that they were relatively good at compared to other subjects. This concept of ‘comparative advantage’ gives additional insight into field‐of‐study choices, but does not explain the gender segregation across disciplines.     

White middle‐class parents,identities, educational choice and the urban comprehensive school: dilemmas,ambivalence and moral ambiguity

At a time when the public sector and state education (in the United Kingdom) is under threat from the encroaching marketisation policy and private finance initiatives, our research reveals white middle‐class parents who in spite of having the financial opportunity to turn their backs on the state system are choosing to assert their commitment to the urban state‐run comprehensive school. Our analysis examines the processes of ‘thinking and acting otherwise’, and demonstrates the nature of the commitment the parents make to the local comprehensive school. However, it also shows the parents’ perceptions of the risk involved and their anxieties that these give rise to. The middle‐class parents are thus caught in a web of moral ambiguity, dilemmas and ambivalence, trying to perform ‘the good/ethical self’ while ensuring the ‘best’ for their children.     

Searching for Missing Links: neo‐Marxist theories of education

Since the appearance of Bowles & Gintis’ (1976) ‘correspondence thesis’, neo‐Marxist theorizing about educational change has gone in several directions. Different approaches have emphasized capitalist reproduction requirements, contradictions between these requirements and the democratic state, hegemony theory and processes of class formation. While studies with affinity to a Marxist problematic of subordination and oppression have become more theoretically open and empirically grounded, some of the core explanatory ideas of the historical materialist perspective tend to have been ignored or dismissed. In consequence, the main conceptual, empirical and theoretical limitations of the correspondence thesis are being repeated, notably in arguments about a ‘post‐Fordist’ form of education. After a discussion of the contemporary relevance of historical materialism's core ideas for explaining educational change, the limited foci of neo‐Marxist theories of education are critically reviewed. Some suggestions are then made for overcoming these persistent limitations—most notably a hyper‐rationalistic image of education and a lack of direct attention to both production relations and educational relations per se.     

Homeschool background,time use and academic performance at a private religious college

We study the effects of homeschool background and time use on academic performance among students at Patrick Henry College, a private religious institution with a 63-credit core classical liberal arts curriculum. Using ordinary least squares regression analysis, we examine four research questions: (1) Does time use influence academic performance? (2) Do homeschooled students perform differently than traditionally schooled students? (3) Does parental education moderate the impact of homeschooling on academic performance? (4) Does homeschooling moderate the impact of ACT scores on academic performance?     

Accidental achievers? International higher education,class reproduction and privilege in the experiences of UK students overseas

To date, scholarship on international students has generally focused on flows from non‐western economies to the main English‐speaking destination countries (such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia). In contrast, we draw on a qualitative study of 85 UK students who have either completed or are considering undertaking a degree programme overseas. We found that, in opposition to a common image of ‘international students’, UK students are not overtly motivated by ‘strategic’ concerns. Instead, they are seeking ‘excitement’ and ‘adventure’ from overseas study and often use the opportunity to delay the onset of a career and prolong a relatively carefree student lifestyle. Despite these ostensibly ‘disinterested’ objectives, however, UK students remain a highly privileged group and their experiences serve only to facilitate the reproduction of their privilege. The paper calls for a more critical analysis of the spatially uneven and socially exclusive nature of international higher education.