'Classification' and 'Judgement': Social class and the 'cognitive structures' of choice of Higher Education

The issue of social-class-related patterns of access to Higher Education (HE) has become a matter of public debate in the UK recently, but is on the whole portrayed one-sidedly in terms of issues of selection (elitism), and the social dimensions of choice are neglected. Here, drawing on an Economic and Social Research Council research study, choice of HE is examined using Bourdieu's concepts of 'classification' and 'judgement'. HE is viewed in terms of its internal status differentiations. Students' positive and negative choices are addressed using qualitative and quantitative data, and the 'accuracy' of status perceptions are also tested. It is argued that choices are infused with class and ethnic meanings and that choice-making plays a crucial role in the reproduction of divisions and hierarchies in HE, but also that the very idea of choice assumes a kind of formal equality that obscures 'the effects of real inequality'. HE choices are embedded in different kinds of biographies and institutional habituses, and different 'opportunity structures'.     

Early employment outcomes of home and foreign educated graduates – the Malaysian Experience

This paper compares early employment outcomes(in terms of income levels and jobsatisfaction) of Malaysian graduates educatedlocally with those educated abroad(specifically in US and UK).Factors likely to be related to these outcomeswere identified by a comprehensive literaturestudy. A regression model was developedcontaining the factors identified above. Questionnaire responses from over 400 recentMalaysian graduates were incorporated into themodel.Model results show a significant relationshipbetween income levels and gender, duration ofemployment, self-esteem, ownership, academicmajor and English proficiency. Surprisingly,location of study was not statisticallysignificant. Furthermore, location of studywas not significantly related to jobsatisfaction either. However job-fit index,self esteem, income and satisfaction with theUniversity were found to bear significantrelationships with job satisfaction. The policyimplication of these findings were explored.     

Engaging Probability Students in Playing and Analysing a Simple Card Game

We present a simple card game whose payout depends on a player's strategy, as well as on chance. Solutions require the use of conditional analysis and the computation of expected values.     

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.     

The reluctant state and the beginning of the end of state education

This paper argues that English education policy has come full-circle – from the first constitution of a state system of education in 1870 to the beginning of the end of state education in 2010 – and that this circularity can be understood in relation to the reluctant state. That is, in the nineteenth century, the English state hesitantly and slowly moved from a patchwork education system of many providers to a national system locally provided. In the twenty-first century, the English state is moving back towards a patchwork of many providers with enhanced institutional autonomies and marginalising the role of local delivery and coordination.     

Values and Ethics in the Education Market Place: the case of Northwark Park [1]

ABSTRACT

The 1988 Education Reform Act introduced into England and Wales a market structure of secondary school provision. It is argued here that the education market functions as a system of rewards and punishments, a disciplinary mechanism, fostering particular cultural forms and socio‐psychological dispositions and marginalising others. The paper considers the case of one school in particular, Northwark Park, an undersubscribed, predominantly working‐class school, whose staff and governors find themselves having to confront the issue of institutional survival in the market context. The value conflicts and ethical dilemmas in which the staff and governors are becoming enmeshed are discussed, and the implications of the education market for patterns of educational opportunity considered.

     

The Moroccan educational context: Evolving multilingualism

This article begins an investigation of the educational system of Morocco and its context of language diversity. It examines the Moroccan cultural environment and the ways the multilingualism and education of its people has been and continues to be influenced by geography, colonization periods, religion, and history. The effects of the Educational Charter are presented as the linguistic panorama that delimits biliteracy development in Morocco and serves to highlight issues faced by nations such as the United States and the Netherlands. The development of an educational model that acknowledges and validates linguistic complexity and local goals and circumstances is recommended.