Educational Failure And Working Class White Children In Britain

Are schools failing working class children or does working class life present alternative means for gaining social status that conflict with what it means to do well at school? Focusing on Southeast London, this book provides insight into class values and reveals the complex cultural politics of white working class pride.

Are schools failing working class children or does working class life present alternative means for gaining social status that conflict with what it means to do well at school? Focusing on Southeast London, this book provides insight into class values and reveals the complex cultural politics of white working class pride.

50th Anniversary Expanded 5th edition: "Back in 1971 when this booklet was first published, the principal Weapons of Mass Suppression, or WMS, of Black Caribbean children's educational and life prospects were the ESN school, ESN streams and 'Remedial' classes in regular schools. New versions of WMS appeared over the ensuing decades, as the original model, and each replacement, met with Black Caribbean resistance and even open protest. In each case, the objective of these 'new' iterations was not to concentrate more resources and more experienced and skilled teachers to meet the needs of the children designated as 'in Special Educational Need (SEN)', but rather to assign less of these resources, and less experienced teachers to their care. It was a dustbin solution, not a lifting-the-child-up operation. It was a life sentence, not a life-line to greater opportunities. The last 50 years has taught us not to rely on pleas to or the goodwill of those running the system to effect the changes our children need. Just as we did a half-century ago and since, we have to accept that future progress for our children on all fronts depends on our actions, our initiatives..." - Bernard Coard (Extract from the Preface) This Edition also includes: INTRODUCTION by Paul Mackney, Former General Secretary, University & Colleges Union (UK) FOREWORD by Jeremy Corbyn, MP, former Leader of the Opposition, Britain Parliament PART TWO: Republished article written by the Author in 2004 on "Why I Wrote the 'ESN Book' 30 Years On" - PART THREE: "50 Years On" Essay by Hubert Devonish, Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, The University of The West Indies, Mona, Jamaica Bernard Coard taught at his secondary school in Grenada on leaving at 18 and at Brandeis University's 'Upward Bound' Summer Programme at 20 and 21. He studied at Brandeis University (Massachusetts, USA) and then Sussex University (UK). During the late 1960s and early '70s, Bernard ran youth clubs in Southeast London for children attending seven so-called ESN schools and taught at two others in East London. He subsequently taught at The University of The West Indies and at the Institute of Higher Studies, Netherlands Antilles. For 20 years, Coard set up and ran the Richmond Hill Prison Education Programme, Grenada (basic literacy to London University postgraduate degrees). He continues to teach at university level as a guest lecturer, in person and online.

Based on a critical Marxist ethnography, conducted at a state primary school in a former coalmining community in the north of England, this book provides insight into teachers’ perceptions of the effects of deindustrialisation on education for the working class. The book draws on the notion of social haunting to help understand the complex ways in which historical relations and performances, reflective of the community’s industrial past, continue to shape experiences and processes of schooling. The arguments presented enable us to engage with the ‘goodness’ of the past as well as the pain and suffering associated with deindustrialisation. This, it is argued, enables teachers and pupils to engage with rhythms, relations, and performances that recognise the heritage and complexities of working-class culture. Reckoning and harnessing with the fullness of ghosts is essential if schooling is to be refashioned in more encouraging and relational ways, with and for the working class. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in the sociology of education, and social class and education in particular. Those interested in schooling, ethnography, and qualitative social research will also benefit from the book

This book explores how working-class writers in the 1960s and 1970s significantly reshaped British children’s literature through their representations of working-class life and culture. Aidan Chambers, Alan Garner and Robert Westall were examples of what Richard Hoggart termed ‘scholarship boys’: working-class individuals who were educated out of their class through grammar school education. This book highlights the role these writers played in changing the publishing and reviewing practices of the British children's literature industry while offering new readings of their novels featuring scholarship boys. As well as drawing on the work of Raymond Williams and Pierre Bourdieu, and referring to studies of scholarship boys in the fields of social science and education, this book also explores personal interviews and previously-unseen archival materials. Yielding significant insights on British children’s literature of the period, this book will be of particular interest to scholars and students in the fields of children’s and working-class literature and of British popular culture.

Barnaby Lenon, a former schoolmaster and headmaster who is chair of the Independent Schools Council, takes an in-depth look at the elements that make up a successful school. He examines leading and latest research on school leadership and management; looks at how teachers, pupils, parents and governors can achieve results; and puts the spotlight on subjects, exam systems and social mobility. For his research, he visited a number of schools that are achieving outstanding results: John Perryn Primary School, Acton; Tollgate Primary School, Newham; King Solomon Academy, Marylebone; Burlington Danes Academy, Hammersmith; West London Free School, Hammersmith; Michaela Community School, Wembley; St Mary Magdalene Academy, Islington; Dixons Kings Academy, Bradford; Tauheedul Boys' School, Blackburn; London Academy of Excellence, Newham; and Brighton College. His analysis of their innovations and achievements provides an insight into some of England's most successful schools.

In this book Diane Reay, herself working-class-turned-Cambridge-professor, presents a 21st-century view of education and the working classes. Drawing on over 500 interviews, the book includes vivid stories from working-class children and young people. It looks at class identity, and the effects of wider economic and social class relationships on working-class educational experiences. The book reveals how we have ended up with an educational system that still educates the different social classes in fundamentally different ways and, vitally, what we can do to achieve a fairer system. Book jacket.

In 2017 Barnaby Lenon, previously the head master of Harrow School, wrote a best-selling book about high-achieving state schools in England (Much Promise). Later that year he went on a tour of Further Education colleges and started to research the fortunes of those who do less well at school. In Other People's Children he writes about the state of vocational education in England and the implications of his findings for a post-Brexit economy.

What does it mean to think of children as social subjects and how should we go about studying childhood in society? Childhood is a key site where children come to understand themselves as particular kinds of people, not only as individuals but also as members of social and cultural groups. This compelling and accessible book explores how immature humans enter into political, economic, social and cultural life. Integrating key theories from a range of disciplines, Karen Wells provides a set of analytical tools to explore how culture, society, politics and economics shape childhood and children's lives. She explains how childhood is not only culturally shaped, but also formed at the intersection of politics and economics. At this intersection between governing practices and the affordances of children's bodies, young subjects are made. Childhood Studies will be essential reading for students and scholars in childhood and youth studies and related disciplines, and for anyone who wants to understand the impacts of social inequality on children and what it means to be a child in the contemporary world.

This book examines the complex relationship between working-class masculinities and educational success. Drawing on a small sample of young men attending either a selective grammar or a secondary school in the same urban area of Belfast, the author demonstrates that contrary to popular belief, some working-class boys are engaged with education, are motivated to succeed and have high aspirations. However, the structures of schooling in a society where working class-ness is seen as feckless, tasteless and cultureless make the processes of becoming successful more challenging than they need to be. This volume reveals the unique processes of reconciling success and identities for individual working-class boys, and the important role schools have to play in this negotiation. Highly relevant to those engaged in teacher training in socially unequal societies, this book will also appeal to practitioners, sociologists of education, scholars of social justice and Bourdieusian theorists.