Pupil class identities and the school

• habitus

  • habitus refers to the 'dispositions' or learned taken-for-granted ways of thinking being and acting that are shared by a particular social class
  • it includes their tastes and preferences about lifestyles and consumption, their outlook on life and their expectations about what is normal or realistic for 'people like us'
  • a groups habitus is formed as a response to its position in the class structure
  • although ones class habitus is not intrinsically better than another's the middle class has the power to define its habitus as superior ad to impose it on the education system
  • as a result the school puts a higher value on middle class tastes, preferences and so on
  • this is linked to Bourdieus concept of cultural capital
  • because the school has middle class habitus this gives middle class pupils an advantage while working class culture is regarded as inferior
• symbolic capital and symbolic violence

  • because schools have a middle class habitus pupils who have been socialised at home into middle class tastes and preferences gain 'symbolic capital' or status and recognition from the school and are deemed to have worth or value
  • by contrast the school devalues the working class habitus so that working class pupils tastes are deemed to be tasteless and worthless
  • Bourdieu calls this withholding of symbolic capital 'symbolic violence'
  • by defining the working class and tastes and lifestyles as inferior symbolic violence reproduces the class structure and keeps the lower classes 'in their place'
  • thus there is a clash between working class pupils and the schools middle class habitus
  • as a result working class students may experience the world of education as alien and unnatural
• 'Nike' identities pt1

  • many pupils were conscious that society and school looked down on them
  • this symbolic violence led to them to seek alternative ways of creating self-worth, status and value
  • they did this by constructing meaningful class identities for themselves by investing heavily in 'styles' especially through consuming branded clothing such as Nike
  • wearing brands was a way of 'being me' without them they would feel inauthentic
  • pupil identities were also strongly gendered e.g. girls having a hyper-heterosexual feminine style
  • however it led to conflict with the schools dress code as teachers opposed 'street' styles as they it was shown as 'bad taste' or even as a threat
  • led to them being labelled as rebels
  • Archer et al argues that the schools middle class habitus stigmatises working class pupils identities
• 'Nike' identities pt2

  • Nike styles also play a part in working class pupils rejection of high education which they saw as both unrealistic and undesirable
  • unrealistic because it as not for 'people like us' but for richer, posher and cleverer people and they would not fit in
  • unaffordable and risky investment
  • undesirable because it would not 'suit' their preferred lifestyle of habitus
  • according to Archer et al, working class pupils investment in 'Nike' identities is not only a cause of the educational marginalisation by the school it also expresses their positive preference for a particular lifestyle
  • as a result working class pupils may choose self-elimination or self-exclusion from education
• working class identity and educational success - Ingram 2009 study overview

  • did a study on 2 working class groups of boys from the same highly deprived neighbourhood in Belfast
  • one group has passed their 11+ and gone to grammar school while the other group had failed and gone to a local secondary school
  • the grammar school had strong middle class habitus of high expectations and academic achievement while the secondary school had a habitus of low expectations and underachieving pupils
• Ingram 2009 study found...

  • found that having a working class identity was inseparable from belonging to a working class locality
  • the neighbourhoods dense networks of family and friends were a key part of the boys habitus as it gave them a sense of belonging
  • however Ingram notes that working class communities place greater emphasis on conformity
  • the boys experienced a great pressure to 'fit in' and this was a particular problem for the working lcass boys in the grammar school who experienced tension between the habitus of their working class neighbourhood and that of their middle class school
• class identity and self-exclusion

  • despite the class inequalities in education many more working class people go to university
  • this is partly due to a process of self-exclusion
  • Evans 2009 studied a group of 21 working class girls from south London who were doing their A-levels
  • she found that they were reluctant to apply for elite universityies due to them having a sense of hidden barrier of 'not fitting in'
  • found that the girls have a strong attachment to their families and intended to remain at home to study
  • this shows how the middle class education system devalues the experiences and choices of working class people as worthless or inappropriate
  • as a result working class pupils are often forced to choose between maintaining their working class identities of abandoning them and conforming to the middle class habitus of education in order to succeed