Literacy,poverty and schooling: what matters in young people's education?

This paper draws upon several decades of literacy research in schools in high‐poverty environments to explore what matters in young people's education. In dialogue with themes from Kevin Marjoribanks' work, such as student aspirations, family environments and teacher expectations, key insights are summarised. Referring to longitudinal case studies and a current ethnographic project, the interplay between literacy, poverty and schooling, and young people's aspirations and education outcomes is explored. Although the work of educators in high‐poverty communities continues to be highly demanding, there are some schools and teachers making a durable positive difference to learner dispositions and literate repertoires. Teacher expectations and discursive practices are crucial in this process.     

Tales of the 50‐somethings: selective schooling,gender and social class

Through a discourse of diversity, specialism, equality and choice, selective schooling is again on the UK education agenda. A previous selection policy operated between 1944 and 1964. The argument that some children are more suited to a vocational education and others to an academic one is evident now and then. This paper focuses on the life‐histories of four ‘50‐something’ women sent to ‘bilateral’ schools in Bristol, England. With children from the same primary school or street, they found themselves on differing sides of a divide between grammar and secondary‐modern education. The paper explores the practices through which White working class children received contrasting experiences of the same school, where different gendered‐classed identities, aspirations and expectations were constructed. The co‐existence of firmly separated grammar and modern streams within one school allows an analysis of everyday practices of selective schooling, of the means by which one was constantly constructed against the other.     

Information disclosure on MySpace – the what,the why and the implications

This paper reports the results of the first academic study of the use of a major social networking website, MySpace, by children. The study examined the degree of, and reasons for, information disclosure by children in high schools in Sydney, Australia. Social networking sites such as MySpace are a huge Internet phenomenon, some with hundreds of millions of users and often the most visited Internet sites on a daily basis. They are particularly attractive to, and used by, children, perhaps eclipsing email as a preferred communications medium. This study shows that, by and large, children are acting responsibly in embracing this new technology, however, there are a significant number potentially at risk, possibly due to their lacking individual personal privacy values. The paper concludes with a call for parents and teachers to become more familiar with social networking and to help their charges understand the implications of its use.     

Constructing and addressing differences in inclusive schooling – comparing cases from Germany,Norway and the United States

ABSTRACT

The central concern of this article is to compare the constructions of differences in inclusive school settings between countries with different school systems. The focus is to find out how constructions of differences generate participation and (dis)advantages and, thereafter, how the constructions are related to the structure of the school system and its formal rules. The aim is to contrast constructions produced by teachers who work in a multi-tracked school system with those from single-track ones. Grounded in Karl Mannheim’s [1980. Strukturen des Denkens. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp] theory on the sociology of knowledge, the analysis targets the practical expressions of constructing and addressing differences. The investigation is based on group discussions with teachers. The comparative results suggest that teachers construct differences between students in different ways, linked to the formal school-based context in which they work. While German teachers construct ‘total identities’ based on achievement and limit students’ participation in teaching settings, their colleagues from Norway and the US conceive of accomplishments built on trust with teachers and the need to feel participation in class. The outcomes indicate that the construction of differences and teaching are related to the structure of school which go along with expectations towards the students.     

Inequality,capabilities and poverty in four African countries: girls’ voice,schooling, and strategies for institutional change

Children’s adaptive preference and capabilities are considered in relation to literature on children’s voice, agency and adult adaptation. Data collected for projects on gender and schooling in South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria are analysed to show how adaptation and distinctions between absolute and relative poverty are helpful in interpreting why children in some locations identify particular obstacles and solutions while others are silent on these. Children comment on constraints on capabilities differently in areas of relative and absolute inequality. School conditions, earnings, and the implementation of legal frameworks on early marriage and pregnancy highlight forms of structural and relational coercion that constrain capabilities. The findings suggest a relationship between relative inequality and children’s capability to aspire and consider change. This points to the significance of improving learning materials, opportunities for travel and exchange, and teacher confidence and support in schools that serve the poorest children.     

‘Teachers should be like second parents’: affectivity,schooling and poverty in Mexico

The paper highlights the importance of affectivity in school retention in public secondary schools in Guadalajara, Mexico, in a socioeconomic context where the students themselves often decide whether to stay in school or to drop out. In such contexts, students' feelings towards the school and the teachers can become crucial in deciding whether to persist with school or not, especially when they are already under pressure due to economic difficulties and other family pressures. Yet currently, pressures to achieve efficiency in schools limit staff capacity to establish more personal contact with students. The article looks at how three key spaces within Mexican secondaries could potentially reinforce one another to help attend to students' emotional well‐being, but also points to obstacles that currently prevent these spaces from being used in a constructive way.     

Feminism and ‘the schooling scandal’

In this paper I outline an approach towards policy analysis that takes governmentality as its point of theoretical orientation and begin to apply this approach to my research into the recently raised compulsory school‐leaving age in Western Australia. I aim to demonstrate the methodological potentials of this approach by giving examples of the thinking and practices that shape and condition the policy. I commence by situating the school‐leaving age policy within a broader field of reforms occurring under the general banner of neoliberalism and argue that the policy is primarily concerned with the conduct of students classified at ‘educational risk’, and with transforming these students to become more visible, participative and engaged in their schooling. By focusing on the policy rationalities and technologies, and drawing on Foucault’s notion of governmentality, I explore the forms of knowledge and practical strategies that are deployed in this policy field. I contend that this particular deployment narrowly constructs young people’s experiences of schooling in ways that do not allow for a broader debate about their declining school attendance and what should be done to address it     

Relative‐change theory: examining the impact of patriarchy,paternalism, and poverty on the education of women in Kenya

Forty‐five years have passed since Kenya gained independence and almost 30 years since the feminist revolution ushered in a global gender and development agenda. While Kenya’s development agenda had a functionalist orientation aimed at modernisation, the outcome of efforts to promote education development cannot be understood without an examination of the context of women. Although development agencies acknowledge the need for empowerment of women, the interests of change agencies are accommodated within the bounds of patriarchy, poverty, and paternalism. This situation is best explained by examining the education experience of women through a relative‐change theory prism. From this perspective, change is actively pursued within limits, that is, options for change in the social, cultural, and political context are acknowledged but limited. As a result, whatever education development efforts have been put into place to benefit women in marginalised situations, the outcome has fallen short for the majority of women.     

Who cares about the psycho‐social? Masculinities,schooling and the unconscious

This brief article argues for the development of a stronger psycho‐social perspective in the broad field of the sociology of education and, in particular, in studies of masculinities and schooling. The article suggests that such studies have much to gain from an understanding of unconscious fantasy and the mutually constitutive nature of the unconscious and the social. By the same token, it also argues that a psycho‐social perspective has much to gain from ethnographies of the school.     

Multiplying the origins of mass schooling: an analysis of the preconditions common to schooling and the school building process in Sweden, 1840–1900

The emergence of mass schooling is undoubtedly one of the most significant transformations that took place during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This article takes a new approach to this fundamental issue by analysing the historical conditions required for the construction of school buildings and the advent of mass schooling, in the 1840–1900 period. Using the school building process as a point of departure, the growth of schooling is tied not only to well-known factors such as industrialisation, state formation processes and the decentralisation of school systems, but also to the expansion of the market economy, modernisation of the credit market, liberalisation of the real property market, changes in local tax systems, and the expansion of the building materials market. Thus, a broader and largely novel explanation of the emergence of mass schooling is accomplished.     

Widening the discussion on HE leadership – leader dispositions and talents

What inherent personal leader qualities or dispositions do senior staff in universities say are necessary? What assumptions do we make about leadership in our universities and are they helpful? Are university staff surveys useful in giving both the leadership and staff a clear understanding of staff satisfaction levels related to how they are managed and led? This article looks at these important aspects of university leadership, gathering together HE leader/academic views, study findings and survey pointers to suggest dispositions and talents those in leadership positions should demonstrate in providing the right environment for staff.     

Supersurveillance,democracy, and co-operation – the challenge for teachers

The paper explores pedagogies of surveillance and counter pedagogies of radical democracy and co-operative practice and their implications for continuing professional development (CPD). Teachers have had to respond to an increasing naturalisation of surveillance in schools. However, this naturalisation can be countered by drawing upon the emergent development of the co-operative education movement in the UK. I argue that critical to developing effective pedagogies of radical democracy and co-operation is the formation of a “public space” of discussion and debate about courses of action. This will be illustrated through research drawn from a co-operative school and its use of information technologies. Although the intentions are to improve standards of learning, the hidden curriculum implicit in the use of the technologies can lead to “supersurveillance.” Teachers, I argue, have a critical role in the deconstruction of the naturalisation of supersurveillance and both pre-service and CPD urgently need to address this.