Identity, class and girls achievement

• symbolical violence- Bourdieu 


  • describes a type of non-physical violence/harm done by denying someones symbolic capital for example by defining their culture as worthless
• overview

  • Even though girls achieve better than before, it doesn't mean all girls are successful,
  • in particular there's a social class difference in girls' achievement
  • for example in 2013, only 40.6% of girls eligible for FSM (free school meals) achieved 5 A-C GCSEs, compared to 67.5% of girls who did and weren't on FSM
• symbolic capital

  • Status, recognition and sense of worth we get from others
• Archer et al 2010 - symbolic capital

  • found that the girls gained symbolic capital from their peers by performing their working-class feminine identities
  • however this brought them into conflict with the school, stopping them from gaining educational capital (qualifications) & economic capital (good careers)
  • Archer found strategies girls followed to create a valued sense of self: adopting hyper-heterosexual female identity, being loud & having a boyfriend
• hyper-heterosexual feminine identities

  • many of the grls invested considerable time, effort and money in constructing 'desirable' and 'glamorous' hyper-heterosexual feminine identities
  • e.g. one girl spent £40 a week on her appearance
  • they constructed identities that combines black urban American styles with unisex sportswear and 'sexy' clothes, make up and hairstyles
  • this brought them status from their female peer group and avoided them being ridiculed or called a 'tramp' for wearing the wrong brand
  • however it brought them into conflict with the school as they were often punished for jewellery etc
  • teachers saw the girls preoccupation with appearance stopped them from engaging in their learning
• Boyfriends

  • while having a boyfriend gave working-class girls symbolic capital, it got in the way of education and lowered their aspirations such as higher education and masculine subjects like science
  • instead these girls aspired to settle down, have children and work local jobs like childcare
• being 'loud'

  • Some working-class girls adapted loud identities - being outspoken, independent and assertive
  • e.g. questioning teachers authority
  • this failed to conform to the schools stereotype of the ideal girl pupil who is passive and submissive to authority and brought conflict with teachers who interpreted their behaviour as aggressive instead of assertive
• Working class girls dilemma - Archer et al 2010

  • working class girls are thus faced with a dilemma
  • either gaining symbolic capital from peers by conforming to the hyper-heterosexual feminine identity
  • or gaining educational capital by rejecting their working class identity and conforming to the schools middle class notions of a respectable ideal feminine pupil
  • some girls tried to cope with this dilemma by defining themselves as 'good underneath'
  • this reflects the girls sturggle to achieve a sense of worth within the education system that devalues their working class feminine identities
  • argues that working class feminine identities and educational success conflict with one another and is a major cause for girls underachieving
• successful working class girls

  • although working class girls are likely to underachieve, some working-class girls still do succeed and go onto higher education
  • however they're still disadvantaged by their gender and class identity
• Evans 2005 - successful working class girls

  • found working-class girls wanted to go to university to increase earning power, but to give back to their families instead of for themselves
  • economic necessity was another reason for staying at home, as cost/year of debt were worries of working-class pupils when applying to university
  • Archer et all shows that it wasn't just an economic choice, but one that reflects their working-class feminine identity and habitus by remaining local