Pupils' Class Identities and the School (Internal) Flashcards
What is habitus?
- The learned ways of thinking, being and acting that are shared by a social class.
- It’s the shared framework of behaviour within a group. It’s made up of social, cultural, economic and educational factors.
- A group’s habitus is formed as a response to its position on the class structure
How is the MC habitus valued more?
- Although one habitus isn’t better than another, the MC has the power to define its habitus as superior and to impose it on the education system.
- As a result, the school puts a higher value on MC tastes, preferences and so on
How does habitus link to cultural capital?
The school has a MC habitus, giving MC pupils an advantage, while WC culture is regarded as inferior
Describe symbolic capital
- As schools have a MC habitus, pupils who’ve been socialised at home into MC preferences gain ‘symbolic capital’ (status) and recognition from the school and are deemed to have worth
- The school devalues the WC habitus so they’re deemed to be tasteless
Describe symbolic violence
- Bourdieu calls withholding of symbolic capital ‘symbolic violence’. By defining the WC and their lifestyles as inferior, symbolic violence reproduces class structure and keeps the lower class ‘in their place’
- So there’s a clash between WC pupils’ habitus and the schools MC habitus. Then, WC students may experience the world of education as alien and unnatural
Describe the procedure of the study on WC symbolic violence
- Archer did a study on WC identity by drawing on data from interviews from individuals and discussion group with more pupils
Describe the finding of the study on WC symbolic violence
- Archer highlights how WC pupils feel they would need to change to fit to the education. Meaning changing the way they talk and present themselves. They felt like they ‘lost themselves’ in the system and didn’t feel they could access ‘posh’ MC spaces which weren’t for the ‘likes of us’ (university etc.)
- Young people found their own solution to symbolic violence and seek to generate worth through their investments in style. However, they play into oppressive social relations by rejecting MC habitus
What are disadvantages of Archer’s study
- As it’s a longitudinal study, it requires more resources and time
- There’s a small sample size, it’s unrepresentative
What is a Nike identity?
Those who can’t access the MC school habitus, wearing brands (Nike) becomes a part of the WC identity, it not conform it would be ‘social suicide’ and wouldn’t earn symbolic capital from peers.
How does a Nike identity go against MC habitus?
- It leads to conflict with the school’s dress code, reflecting the schools’ MC habitus, teachers opposed ‘street’ styles as showing ‘bad taste’.
- Pupils who adopted street styles risked being labelled as rebels
What does Archer argue about Nike identities?
- The school’s MC habitus stigmatises WC pupils’ identities
- Style is a struggle for recognition and self worth while MC see their Nike identity as tasteless
How do Nike identities play a part in WC pupil’s rejection of higher education?
- They saw HE has unrealistic and undesirable
- Unrealistic: it wasn’t for ‘people like us’ but for rich, posh and clever people. It was seen as an unaffordable and risky investment
- Undesirable: it wouldn’t ‘suit’ their habitus. e.g. they didn’t want to live on a student loan as they would be unable to afford the street styles that gave them their identity
What does Archer et al argue about investment in Nike identities?
- It causes their educational marginalisation by the school, but also expresses their positive preference for a lifestyle.
- So, WC pupils may choose self-exclusion from education. As they ‘get the message’ education isn’t for them, and they choose to reject it as it doesn’t fit in with their identity
Describe the procedure of a study on the relationship between educational success and WC identity
- Ingram studied two groups of WC Catholic boys from the same deprived area
- One group went to a grammar school, while the other went to a local secondary.
- The grammar school had a MC habitus of high expectations, while the secondary school had a WC habitus of low expectations
Describe the findings of a study on the relationship between educational success and WC indentity
- Ingram found having a WC identity was inseparable from being from a WC locality. The area’s networks and street style was a part of the boys’ habitus, giving them a sense of identity.
- However, WC communities place great emphasis on conformity. The boys experienced pressure to ‘fit in’, which was a problem for the grammar school boys who had tension between the habitus of their WC area nd their MC school
