Anti-school Subcultures

Question 1

Mac and Ghaill (1994)

Answer 1

there are a number of ‘fluid’ groups with different responses to school:

1) ‘ordinary lads’ who weren’t academic
2) ‘academic achievers’ who were pro-school
3) ‘macho lads’ formed anti-school subcultures

Question 2

Brown (1987)

Answer 2

identified three possible reasons among working class youths:

1) ‘getting in’: low achievers wanting manual jobs
2) ‘getting out’: high achievers using education to improve their social status
3) ‘getting on’: ordinary working class youths just getting on with school

Question 3

MacDonald and Marsh (2005)

Answer 3

young working class people still reject academic success and believed that teachers weren’t bothered about them and so saw it as not good to be seen trying at school

Question 4

Reay (2009)

Answer 4

argues that it’s understandable that when confronted with a high risk of academic failure, anti-school and oppositional attitudes develop within white working class peer groups because education is seen as a competition that can’t be won