It is changed beyond all recognition: exploring the evolving habitus of assistants in special schools

The assistant workforce is a constituent presence in all schools. Progressive reconfiguration of the role has resulted in a hybrid position, with assistants customarily navigating power relationships in the hierarchy of the school. This paper employs Bourdieu’s theory of social fields, in particular, his system of relations, as a means to consider the intersection of habitus and capital amongst assistants in special schools in Northern Ireland. Using this analytic approach, focus group interviews with Classroom Assistants and Health Assistants explored their current deployment, their interaction with each other and with teachers. Data was collected from 47 participants across 7 special schools, with interviews transcribed and thematically analysed. Findings revealed assistants as a workforce in transition, whose conventional habitus has been steadily disrupted by a supply and demand culture often at variance with the origins of the post. Whilst such divergence has the potential to create a site of struggle, the burgeoning social and cultural capital held by assistants has, instead, re-configured their perceived position within the special school environment, creating more porous professional boundaries and an increasingly fluid professional identity. These explanatory insights offer a fresh perspective for further research into this pivotal yet under-researched group in Northern Ireland.     

Bourdieu,Practice and Change: Beyond the criticism of determinism

This article sets out to go beyond those criticisms that claim Bourdieu’s theory is structuralist determinism and identifies how change can be realized within a Bourdieusian framework. Starting with Bourdieu’s theory of practice, the first part of this article aims to develop an understanding of the interlocking relationship between capital, habitus and field. The review shows that the inability to anticipate change is arguably the most crucial weakness of the Bourdieusian framework. The second part examines Bourdieu’s attempts that seemingly challenge the determinist criticism: ‘reproduction strategy’, ‘reflexivity’ and ‘hysteresis effect’. By relocating these concepts in Bourdieu's grand social theory, it then becomes clear that change is attainable in Bourdieusian theory if we can successfully identify the ‘mismatch’ between the field and habitus that can trigger the awakening of consciousness, fully recognize the neglected, but equally important, methodical mode of habitus formation, which is ‘explicit pedagogy’, and strategically engage with an open system that provides new possibilities. By scrutinizing Bourdieu in his original texts, with an eye to finding the ‘hidden essence’, this article hopes to show the need to take a certain theoretical innovation, one that is clearly outside the habitual use of Bourdieu’s theory.     

Bourdieu,Department Chairs and the Reform of Science Education

Using the insights of the French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, this article considers the role of the science department chair in the reform of school science education. Using Bourdieu’s ‘thinking tools’ of ‘field’, ‘habitus’ and ‘capital’, we case study the work of two teachers who both actively pursue the teaching and learning of science as inquiry. One teacher, Dan, has been a department chair since 2000, and has actively encouraged his department to embrace science as inquiry. The other teacher, Leslie, worked for one year in Dan’s department before being transferred to another school where science teaching continues to be more traditional. Our work suggests that there are three crucial considerations for chairs seeking to lead the reform of science teaching within their department. The first of these is the development of a reform-minded habitus, as this appears to be foundational to the capital that can be expended in the leadership of reform. The second is an understanding of how to wield power and position in the promotion of reform. The third is the capacity to operate simultaneously and strategically within, and across, two fields; the departmental field and the larger science education field. This involves downplaying administrative logics, and foregrounding more inquiry-focused logics as a vehicle to challenge traditional science-teaching dispositions—the latter being typically dominated by concerns about curriculum ‘coverage’.     

Why social capital is important for mentoring capacity building of mentors: a case study in Hong Kong

Most studies of school-based mentoring practice have put their key focus on discussions of the professional growth of novice teachers rather than of their mentors. Mentoring practice, however, is also a platform from which mentors can build or enhance their professional competency and capitalize their leadership role as they interact with novice teachers and their colleagues. This is an area which deserves further research attention. Drawing on the concept of social capital, this small-scale qualitative study investigates how mentors can develop or revise their mentoring skills and knowledge while they engage in school-based mentoring practice. Semi-structured interviews and documents were collected from 31 mentors from primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong from 2014 to 2015. Findings of this study firstly show that both bonding social capital and bridging social capital can help mentors develop their mentoring knowledge in different ways. Secondly, bridging social capital can help mentors act as boundary brokers who develop transformative learning by interacting with outside experts. Providing more off-site or cluster-based mentor training programs and mentoring partnership schemes with outside experts could be the way forward to maximize the professional competency of mentors aiming at improving school capacity.     

Rural dispositions of floating children within the field of Beijing schools: can disadvantaged rural habitus turn into recognised cultural capital?

The rapid pace of urbanisation in China has seen a massive increase in the movement of the rural population to work and live in urban regions. In this large-scale migration context, the educational, health, and psychological problems of floating children are becoming increasingly visible. Different from extant studies, we focus our investigation on the rural dispositions of floating children through interviews with leaders, teachers, and students in four schools in Beijing. Drawing on Bourdieu’s key notions of habitus, capital, and field, our study indicates that the rural habitus of floating children can differentiate these children from their urban peers. This habitus can be marginalised and stigmatised in certain fields but can be recognised and valued as capital in other fields. Our paper offers some implications for research and practice in relation to the schooling of floating children.     

Practices of conformity and resistance in the marketisation of the academy: Bourdieu,professionalism and academic capitalism

The paper reports on an empirical study based on qualitative interviews with staff from four Australian universities. These universities are shown to be undergoing significant social change as processes of marketisation impact on the everyday practices of academic workers. The universities are analysed as sites of contestation between the new professional managers and the established academic profession over the control of the conditions of work, the production of expert knowledge and the worksite itself. The theory of academic capitalism is examined, and the relevance of Bourdieu’s work for the analysis of a university sector in a context of marketisation is assessed. Bourdieu’s interlinked concepts of capital, habitus and the field are employed to investigate the nature of the contestation, revealing a dynamic process in which academics innovatively respond to threats to reduce their autonomy, to increased levels of surveillance and other constraints on practice. In addition, the study illustrates the processes through which actors within the sector, through acts of both conformity and resistance, contribute collectively to the growth of academic capitalism in the neoliberal university.     

Employability,managerialism, and performativity in higher education: a relational perspective

This article combines Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus and cultural capital with Lyotard’s account of performativity to construct a three-tiered framework in order to explore how managerialism has affected the academic habitus. Specifically, this article examines the adoption of group assignments as a means of developing teamwork skills in one Australian case study organisation. On a macrolevel, by viewing the employability imperative as one manifestation of managerialism in the higher education field, we argue that managerialism has created a performative culture in the case study organisation evidenced by an increasing emphasis on performance indicators. On a mesolevel, by examining how academics use group assessments to respond to demands made by governments and employers for ‘employable graduates’, we highlight the continuity of academic habitus. Finally, on a microlevel by drawing on alumni reflections regarding their experiences of group assessments at university, we are able to shed some light on their evaluation of this pedagogical tool.     

Transitions to becoming a teacher on an initial teacher education and training programme

This article is based on research with a group of one‐year Postgraduate Certificate in Education secondary trainee teachers during their initial teacher education and training in England. It considers tensions between trainees’ prior experiences and conceptions of teaching and their training programme. In doing so, it seeks to examine how a trainee’s dispositions as revealed through practice in various contexts are reflective of Bourdieu’s ‘habitus’. Associated with this, the paper also examines how particular forms of pre‐existing cultural capital and manifestations of biographical identity also pre‐dispose trainees to form affinities and disaffinities within particular fields. Lacanian concepts of the symbolic, imaginary and real are used to help explain how trainee teachers articulate resonance and dissonance during their field experiences, particularly in relation to ontological concerns of securing a professional stable sense of self.     

Intended Consequences: Challenging White Teachers’ Habitus and Its Influence in Urban Schools Implementing an Arts-Based Educational Reform

Reform efforts like the urban, arts-based initiative Project ARTS are designed to provide intentional, equitable methods of improving students’ learning, yet few urban educators have been sufficiently trained to recognize differences in habitus between themselves and their students. For equitable reform to occur teachers must understand their own habitus and the habitus-forming experiences of their students. In this paper, we analyze qualitative project data using Bourdieu’s theoretical concepts of cultural capital, field, habitus, symbolic violence and misrecognition to explore teachers’ and students’ experiences in order to determine the extent to which power and privilege begin to be challenged within participating schools. We explore the ways in which teacher habitus has shifted to recognize, include or become empathetic to student habitus as a result of Project ARTS curricula, co-teaching and professional development while also considering the possibility the program produces unintended consequences at odds with the project’s mission: reproducing the status quo by advancing the cultural capital of teachers rather than that of students. Finding markedly fewer teacher narratives confirming the social reproduction of inequitable power relationships than when the project began, we conclude by discussing the transformation of teacher habitus, student outcomes, and school climate after 5 years of Project ARTS participation, proposing implications for urban teachers and leaders, their communities, and policymakers intent upon implementing equitable educational reform and the social transformation reform intends.     

Bridging the gap: supporting student transitions into higher education

This research focused on the early experience of students entering an undergraduate course in a post‐1992 university that is committed to widening participation. Using Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital and habitus as a theoretical framework, data were collected from students using an online questionnaire and small‐group discussions during the critical first days and weeks when they need to fit in to their new environment. The research was designed to consider whether there is a ‘new student’ in higher education (HE) and to consider the possible influence of cultural capital and habitus on a student’s transition. Data were collected using an online questionnaire with a response rate of 52% (n=180), and this was followed up with five small‐group discussions with 25 of the respondents. Participants self‐selected to take part in the small‐group discussions but the sample did reflect the cohort in relation to ethnicity, age and gender. The data collected from the questionnaire provided a snapshot of the students’ early experience within the university, and data from the small‐group discussions were used to triangulate this and allow emerging themes to be explored in greater depth. The results showed that the majority of the students (70%) were combining work with study and most students spent a minimal amount of time on campus, perhaps supporting the concept that there is a ‘new student’ in HE. Perceptions about their transition varied, but most of the students expressed concern about the perceived need to be an independent learner. Students stated that they needed more structured activities on campus to encourage them to fit in, and more support from academic staff, with clear instructions about what was expected.     

Habitus and the psychosocial: Bourdieu with feelings

This paper explores the potential of habitus to provide a window on the psychosocial. The paper works with a notion of psychosocial study as inquiry into the mutual constitution of the individual and the social relations within which they are enmeshed. At the same time it attempts to deepen and enrich notions of habitus. Although the strong focus on agency and structure has overshadowed the role of emotions and the emotional life of individuals within conceptualisations of habitus in Bourdieu’s work, the paper argue that there are strong links between the psychosocial and Bourdieu’s concept of habitus. Drawing on empirical data on the affective aspects of living in an unequal society, the paper seeks to develop a psychosocial understanding of habitus that allows for a better and richer understanding of how the exterior – wider social structures – is experienced and mediated by the interior, the psyche.     

Being strategic,being watchful,being determined: Black middle-class parents and schooling

This paper reports on qualitative data that focus on the educational strategies of middle-class parents of Black Caribbean heritage. Drawing on Bourdieu’s key concepts of habitus, capital and field, our focus is an investigation of the differences that are apparent between respondent parents in their levels of involvement with regard to schools. We conclude that, within a broadly similar paradigm of active involvement with and monitoring of schools, nuanced differences in parental strategising reflect whether academic achievement is given absolute priority within the home. This, in turn, reflects differential family habitus, and differential possession and activation of capitals.     

On becoming a doctoral student: Chinese doctoral students’ socialization of capital and habitus in academia

Abstract

This study examines Chinese international doctoral students’ academic socialization into TESOL discourses and communities. Rooted in the academic discourse socialization theory, complemented by the notions of Lave and Wenger’s community of practice, and Bourdieu’s capital, habitus, and field, this longitudinal multiple-case study suggest the focal participants’ academic discourse socialization is mediated by their participation in communities of practice, different forms of capital, and habitus in exerting agency. The participants are socialized into academic discourses and communities through their interactions with more experienced colleagues. By participating in the communities of practice, the focal students gain different forms of capital and experience different degrees of competence and memberships. However, due to the inequitable power relations in the TESOL doctoral program field, each participant is socialized to varying levels of central, peripheral, and marginal participation. This study concludes by providing suggestions for action to be taken by university advisors, instructors, and administrators.     

The role of outside-school factors in science education: a two-stage theoretical model linking Bourdieu and Sen,with a case study

The literature in science education highlights the potentially significant role of outside-school factors such as parents, cultural contexts and role models in students’ formation of science attitudes and aspirations, and their attainment in science classes. In this paper, building on and linking Bourdieu’s key concepts of habitus, cultural and social capital, and field with Sen’s capability approach, we develop a model of students’ science-related capability development. Our model proposes that the role of outside-school factors is twofold, first, in providing an initial set of science-related resources (i.e. habitus, cultural and social capital), and then in conversion of these resources to science-related capabilities. The model also highlights the distinction between science-related functionings (outcomes achieved by individuals) and science-related capabilities (ability to achieve desired functionings), and argues that it is necessary to consider science-related capability development in evaluating the effectiveness of science education. We then test our theoretical model with an account of three Turkish immigrant students’ science-related capabilities and the role of outside-school factors in forming and extending these capabilities. We use student and parent interviews, student questionnaires and in-class observations to provide an analysis of how outside-school factors influence these students’ attitudes, aspirations and attainment in science.     

Playing the field(s): an exploration of change,conformity and conflict in girls’ understandings of gendered physicality in physical education

This paper draws on data from a year‐long ethnographic study of a group of 12‐ to 13‐year‐old girls that explored the processes through which they negotiated gendered physicality within the context of physical education. Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and social fields and McNay’s extension of his work underpin a discussion of three contexts where girls experience and process understandings of gendered physicality: football and curriculum; home/school; and (hetero)sexuality. Girls’ identification of inequitable practices, modifications of behaviours with regard to perceived norms, and reflections on inconsistencies within and across social fields indicated the susceptibility of the gendered habitus to subversions. The notion of regulated liberties rather than resistance captures girls’ more subtle negotiations of gendered power relations as well as the ambiguities most girls experienced. Implications for teaching include creating space for critical inquiry, incorporating inclusive practices, recognizing girls’ interests, and exploring the influence of peer groups and friends.     

The logic of equity practice in Queensland state education—2010

This paper reports on an interview‐based study which explored the implementation of a major policy initiative in Queensland, Australia, with particular attention to social justice issues. Interviews were conducted with key policy actors in three sections of the bureaucracy: strategic directions, performance and measurement; curriculum and assessment; workforce and professional development. We were interested in the ways in which the tensions between redistributive and recognitive approaches to social justice were being managed in the bureaucracy. We drew on Bourdieu’s concepts of field, logic of practice, political discourse, habitus, capital, and symbolic power struggles to theorize the politics of discourse associated with such policy implementation processes within bureaucracies. The interview data revealed differences in approach to equity issues and in the language used in the three sections of the bureaucracy. We argue that these differences, associated with the different priorities of the three sections and their differing roles in the implementation processes, reflect the different logics of practice operating within the different sections. The final section of the paper discusses the implications of the analysis for theorizing equity and difference in education policy in new times and considers the value of Bourdieu’s concepts for theorizing policy implementation processes.     

Conceptions of student talent in the context of talent development

This paper reports from a case study of a ‘talent class’, a special development programme for talented pupils, established in a Danish municipality. It analyses student backgrounds and motives for joining this talent class programme, which is seen in relation to ordinary schooling in Denmark. Drawing on Bourdieu, the paper links social background resources and success in school via the concepts of habitus and capital; it views talent as the product of an investment of time and cultural capital, which is easily accumulated by children of resourceful families. Based on the analysis and its discussion of school talent, the paper proposes a typology of talented students, encompassing the distinguished, the quiet, the versatile and the industrious students. For each type of talent, a student narrative illustrates the link between social backgrounds and student approaches and understandings of their own talents.     

Corporatising school leadership through hysteresis

This article builds on the established notion that schools are hierarchised through policy, accruing different amounts and types of symbolic capital, by examining how this is reflected in the habitus of the leaders of new, privileged school types. The article uses Bourdieu’s concept of hysteresis, or a dislocation between the habitus which formerly produced success in the field and the habitus currently necessary following changes in field conditions. Using crafted narrative accounts from two headteachers, I argue that rather than simply being an effect of change, hysteresis may be an actively sought outcome whereby the state intervenes in a field – education – to deprivilege welfarist leaders and privilege corporatised leaders through structurally facilitating their habitus and mandating its dispositions for the field. However, insofar as deprivileged actors may draw strength and an identity from rejecting corporatisation, the concept of hysteresis must be extended to include notions of agentic dissidence.     

Data,Numbers and Accountability: The Complexity,Nature and Effects of Data use in Schools

ABSTRACT

This article draws upon research in one school in Queensland, Australia, to explore how the push to data influences teacher work and subsequent student learning. This ‘rise of data’, often oriented towards ‘external’ and performative processes of accountability, exhibits itself in many ways, but is particularly evident in teachers’ engagement with various forms of regionally and centrally sanctioned, and often standardized, measures of attainment, typically expressed in numbers. Drawing upon the sociology of numbers, and Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of ‘field’, ‘habitus’ and ‘capital’, the research shows how the emphasis upon data collection reveals a ‘field of schooling practices’ characterized by concerns about collecting, analysing and improving numeric data; standardized and centrally sanctioned data as forms of capital of increasing value; and a teaching disposition/habitus characterized by constant monitoring of student performance through virtual and physical data bases. The research reveals how the ‘logics’ of schooling may be in danger of being dominated by more centralized, standardized forms of numeric data for performative accountability purposes, even as more educative logics are evident.