Paul Willis: Counter-school culture - Education

Question 1

What experiment did Paul Willis carry out?

Answer 1

An ethnographic case study of 12 working-class boys in a single-sex secondary modern school on a council estate in the Midlands.

Question 2

What methods did Paul Willis use?

Answer 2

Several qualitative methods including observation and participant observation in the school, group discussions, informal interviews and diaries.

Question 3

What did Paul Willis explore?

Answer 3

The counter-school culture of the 12 ‘lads’ during their last 18 months at school.

Question 4

What does ‘counter-school’ culture involve?

Answer 4

It involved resisting the school, it’s teachers and their authority. The lads focussed on ‘dossing’ and ‘having a laff’. They saw the more conformist boys at school as ‘cissies’.

Question 5

What does Paul Willis argue about counter-school culture?

Answer 5

That counter-school culture prepares them for working-class jobs and the shop-floor culture. Willis shows how working-class jobs in a capitalist economy. The boys’ counter-school practices contribute towards them getting working-class jobs. In this way, the class structure is reproduced over time.

Question 6

What are some criticisms of Willis?

Answer 6

• Feminists argues hat Willis ignores that experiences of girls in schools and celebrates lad culture.
• Other critics argue that Willis does not explore the conformist boys’ experiences of education or their views on the lads.
• Functionalists see education as teaching knowledge and skills and as linked to role allocation based on equality of opportunity and meritocracy.
• Given the small sample size, it is not possible to generalise from the findings.
• Willis’s ideas may not be relevant today because there are far fewer manual working-class jobs available for school leavers.