Education pupil subcultures

Question 1

According to Hargreaves (1967), how are anti-school working-class subcultures formed?

Answer 1

• They are formed when the children need status, support and belonging from their peers who are similarly disenfranchised by a school system.
• Anti-school working class subcultures are predominantly found in lower streams in schools.

Question 2

What are Peter Woods’ (1983) “eight ways of adapting to school”?

Answer 2

• Ingratiation, compliance, opportunism, ritualism, retreatism, colonisation, intransigence and rebellion.

Question 3

What has happened to the complexity of male sub-cultures since the 1970s?

Answer 3

→ Hollingworth and Williams (2009)

• Working class peer groups with anti-school sentiments still exist but they are now seen as “chavs” instead of “lads” by their middle class peers.
• There is a far greater diversity of middle class subcultures within schools.
• Studies of sub-cultures have increasingly shown more complexity and matters to do with sexuality as well.

Question 4

How do female subcultures differ from male subcultures?

Answer 4

→ Griffin (1985)

• Female deviance is more readily identified through sexual behaviour than trouble making.

→ Mirza (1992)

• Female subcultures have a positive attitude to school even when it is felt teachers are institutionally racist / a barrier to success.

Question 5

What do ethnic subcultures formed in schools suggest?

Answer 5

• Some black boys reject school in favour of a culture of conspicuous consumption and credibility. This may be because as research by Sewell suggests, some black boys feel that school does not value aspects of their culture.
• Some subcultures borrow aspects of one another’s culture. This is called appropriation.
• All groups have conformists who are often forgotten in the research.