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SS-1065D
Social Divisions and ChangeWeek 11
Final lecture
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This week Social divisions and educational achievement
Individuals have multiple aspects to their social
identities. E.g. class, gender and ethnicity, e.g. awhite working class male.
He/she may be affected by all of these identities.
Gender and intersection with other aspects of
identity in education Class and life chances
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Explanations for achievement Biological
Biological (19th C) intelligence or natural differences between thesexes (although see more recent 20th C work on race and IQ tests
(e.g. The Bell Curve- critiqued as inaccurate and racist):
Sociological
Schooling:
the formal curriculum and hidden curriculum which pupils aretaught what?
Teaching approaches and teacher attitudes
The school environment and structure
Peer cultures
Wider social inequalities in society, cultural and material capital
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Gender: Patterns up to 1980s/90s Main question was why girls did not achieve as well
as boys in school?
Up to 1960s girls outperformed boys in primary andearly secondary years before boys caught up and
overtook them in post-16 education.
Subject choices: boys maths and science. Girls
arts, languages, home economics etc.
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Gender: 1990s onwards Main question: why are boys underachieving? Or rather
why are particular groups of boys underachieving?
Boys are more likely to get the highest and the lowest grades
polarisation. White working class: Wendy Bottero focus on their ethnicity
is hiding structural socio-economic causes, David Gillbornconstruction of white racial victimhood in the media talkabout race, but not class war.
Subject choices: more girls doing chemistry, medicine etc butstill some gender divide across other subjects
However, increase in education achievements of girls incomparison to boys disguises the role of class andethnicity. There are still differences here. Middle-class
white girls. (See Walkerdine et al (2001) Growing Up Girl)
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Failing boys: moral panic Epstein et al.s (1998) Failing Boys - argue that in the media
and educational policy there is a moral panic around boysunderachievement This:
a) masks the continuing problems faced by girls in schools;
b) reinforces male privilege by justifying a greater focus andresources on meeting boys needs (at the expense of girls); and
c) deflects attention from the larger achievement gaps accordingto race and social class.
Francis (2006)Heroes or Zeros? alongside poor boysdiscourse, the neo-liberal focus of failure on individuals ratherthan social structures means certain groups of boys beginningto be demonised for their apparent wastefulness ofresourcesand failure to take responsibility for their own achievement(p.187)
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Gender - definition The social identity that has become historically and
culturally attached to being male or female.
Masculinity and femininity used to describe the
social roles, expectations and behaviours linked to
each gender. (see Ann Oakley Sex, Gender and
Society [1974])
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The social construction of gender Doing gendermasculinities and femininities do not
exist prior to social behaviour, either as bodily states or
fixed personalities (Connell 1996: 210). They come into
existence as people act in everyday interactions and inorganisational life (the way social practices are structured
and organised)
The role of school:
School as a setting the site in which interactions takeplace (remember there are other sites in society through
which social construction of gender takes place)
School as an agent (structures and practices of school)
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How success and failure is
explained -Abbot (2006) Pamela Abbott : when boys are failing it is often
explained through extrinsic factors (through factors
external to them) such as the feminisation of school
environment. Whereas success is intrinsic when
they succeed its seen as because they naturally
have a higher ability.
When girls succeed it is explained by extrinsicfactors such as more girl friendly teaching
environment, use of coursework etc and low status
intrinsic factors (e.g. neatness, conformity)
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Sex-role theory Sex-role theory schools transmit society wide norms
and children receive these
Sue Sharpe (1976) Just like a girl: how girls learn to bewomenthe hidden curriculum, also how gendersocialisation outside school affects education outcomes
READ Sharpes extract School and the HiddenCurriculum
What does the hidden curriculum mean?
Dale Spender ed. (1980) Learning to Lose: Sexism andeducationeducation as indoctrination, cult of the apron
BUT what about the ways in which boys and girls usefemininities and masculinities to resist control. The role ofagency and how does power circulate and how is power
used?
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Interactionist approaches Small scale, qualitative research based primarily on
observation in schools - ethnographic Look at the effects of within-school factors on pupil
achievement, especially pupil-teacher interaction. Importance of streams/sets and mixed ability
teaching. Positive and negative labelling + their effects - Self-
fulfilling prophecies Gender and labelling: which forms of behaviour are
coded masculine and feminine and which forms ofmasculine and feminine identities are valued andassociated with success?
Also working class and some ethic minority students= most likely to be negatively labelled.
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Gender regimes in school
(Connell 1996) Power relations teacher-teacher, teacher-pupil, pupil-
pupil
Division of labour
Patterns of emotion Symbolization
Taking up the offer - Connell points out that the terms onwhich people participate are not predetermined theymay adjust to these patterns, rebel against them or try to
modify them There may be differences within the school and gender
regimes can also change over time because SOCIALLYCONSTRUCTED
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Sexuality and engagement
with school 1970s onwards feminists have looked at WC girls and sub-
cultural forms of resistance to education through performancesof femininity. Hyper-heterosexual femininity althoughmore recent studies shown MC girls doing gender in this way
also, but different outcomes (Archer et al. 2007). Also laddettes
Archer et al. (2007) while the young women useheterosexual femininities as a means to generate capital,it is ultimately paradoxical because these constructionssimultaneously play into other oppressive powerrelations.
Heterosexuality and masculinity Mac an Ghail: machoboys who label boys who achieve academically as beingeffeminate or gay. Sexual harassment of girls. Attempts toassert power and dominance.
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Statistics: ethnicity Lower levels of attainment among Black Caribbean, Pakistani,
and Bangladeshi groups than whites. Indians, Chinese andBlack Africans are more likely to have higher qualifications.(Modood, 2005, Parekh, 2000, Gallagher, 2004).
Some ethnic groups (e.g. Pakistanis and Bangladeshis) =internally polarized, with both high and low qualifications. In40% of LAs, Pakistanis more likely than whites to attain 5grade A-C GCSEs (Modood, 2005).
By 1990s attainment among Bangladeshi rising considerably &in some areas outperform white pupils (DES, 2006).
While Black Caribbean children begin school at the same
standard as the national average, by the age of 16, thenumber of students who have five GCSE passes is less thanhalf the national average (DES, 2006)
What is happening in school/wider society to producethis? Not intrinsic to persons ethnicity.
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Statistics: ethnicity All ethnic minorities, with the exception of Black Caribbean
males, increasing representation in further education andsome groups now exceed the governments target of 50%participation (Modood, 2005).
Black Caribbean pupils are considerably more likely to facedisciplinary action and exclusion from school; there has alsobeen a recent increase in exclusions of Bangladeshi,Pakistani, and Somali pupils (DfES, 2006).
Black Caribbean pupils are one and a half times more likelythan white pupils to be identified as having behavioural,emotional and social needs (DfES, 2006).
Gypsy/Roma and Traveller pupils experience the mostsevere educational exclusion of any minority ethnic group inthe UK with levels of attainment being roughly of thenational average.
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Cultures and essentialismAs well as variations within a culture, cultures are
also not static. They change over time and
locations. James Clifford (1986: 10) : Cultures do not hold
still for their portraits. Attempts to make them do
so always involve simplification and exclusion,
selection of a temporal focus, the construction ofa particular self-other relationship.
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Black masculinities and schooling: how Black boys
survive modern schooling (Tony Sewell 1997)
Ethnographic study in 2 London high schools
These categories are not held to be rigid or homogenous,
but used by Sewell to build explanations.
Teacher attitudes: Supportive
Irritated
Antagonistic
Student responses (attitudes to means and goals ofschool):
Rebels
Conformist
Innovatorscompares to Fullers (1990) pro-ed, anti-school girls
Retreaters
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Routes into education and employment for young Pakistani
and Bangladeshi women in the UK (Dale et al. 2010)
Young people interviewed in Manchester and Oldham
Found high aspirations and motivations to do well in
education
. . . if they (girls) want to be independent, you know, then
they should carry on (with their education). I think most of
them do carry on, because of their independence, they
dont rely on the partneror anything like that. (Pakistani
girl)
In my family, right, . . . my family expects me to go out,get a degree, do this, do that, and everyones always
expecting me to do this, do that, and sometimes, Im
getting wound up by the pressure. (Pakistani boy)
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Differing perspectives on izzat (1) Parents izzat is extremely important and they
(children) need to know that. Im not saying that theycant study away from home. I say they can even go
abroad as far as America if they want to and myhusband and I agree on this. They can studywherever they want but the condition is that theyremember the door of their parents home and thatthey will be returning through that door the way theyleft. And if they follow this advice, then I dont thinktheyll lose out in life, ever. The world will respectthem and parents will also respect them.
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Differing perspectives on izzat (2) Around here, theres a young girl, about 20 years
old and she recently got married and people didnteven know they had a daughter of that age, because
she never went out anywhere and just stayed in thehome. She had younger sisters who wenteverywhere with their mum, but she never wentanywhere; she was that faithful she never wentanywhere. So as you see, in our Islam it is stronglyrecommended not to go out of the home, but thesedays, its become a custom wherever you look,everybody goes out and everybody works.
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Community monitoring of behaviour Some people, like, they talk about you . . . Oh, your
daughter is doing this or . . .they say hows your
daughter . . . and they say theyve gone to college
and they are studying this . . . and then they say:
why do you do that? . . . why dont you just get them
married? (Focus group of Pakistani and Bangladeshi
girls aged 1415)
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Activity It is often argued that the curriculum has been
feminised, or that it only reflects white and/or middle
class values. These arguments are sometimes given
as reasons for inequalities between students of
different genders, and class or ethnic backgrounds.
Think about your school or college or university
curriculum
In small groups, consider gender, class or ethnicity
and think about a) whether you agree with the
argument and b) the ways in which the curriculum
might be biased towards one particular group.
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Race and Class (Mirza et al. 2000) There is evidence that the inequality of attainment between social
classes has grown since the late 1980s (Mirza et al. )
Even when controlling for social class, there remain significant
inequalities of attainment between different ethnic groups. For example,
only white pupils improved year on year regardless of their classbackground.
However, pupils from non-manual backgrounds still have significantly higher
attainments, as a group, than their peers of the same ethnic origin but from
manual households.
Although for Black Caribbean pupils the social class difference is much lesspronounced
The gender gap is considerably smaller than the inequalities of
attainment associated with ethnic origin and social class background
although does still exist and significant in its effects when
intersecting with particular ethnicity and class.
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IQ Theory E.g. Charles Murray. The key assumptions of IQ theory
are:
Intelligence can be defined clearly
It can be measured accurately via IQ tests Data indicate clear social class differences in intelligence
Research on identical twins suggests that up to 80% ofthe variation in intelligence among individuals can beexplained by genetic factors
Environmental factors , therefore, are less important thaninherited IQ as determinants of intelligence
Walkerdine et al case study where MC girl and WC girlgetting low grades teachers perspective: MC girl nottrying, WC girl low ability.
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Criticism of IQ theory Intelligence cannot be defined clearly or accurately measured by IQ
tests.
IQ tests may be culturally biased
Student IQ test scores can improve with practice, suggesting that theydo not measure fundamental intelligence
Some studies suggest working class students with high IQ scores are
still more likely to leave school at an early age - suggesting
environmental factors are important
Douglas found that upper middle class pupils obtained twice as many OLevel passes as lower working class children with the same measured
IQ.
Some groups have improved their performance, e.g. girls and black
pupils. IQ theories cannot explain how this happens.
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Cultural deprivation theory Relevant theorists: e.g Douglas, Bernstein.
The relative educational underachievement of working class students
is explained by their cultural deprivation.
This explanation argued that the working class lacked the
necessary attitudes for educational success. A number of factors
were cited, but particularly a lack of parental interest in their
childrens education.
Key elements of cultural deprivation: fatalism, strong present
time orientation, unwillingness to plan for the future,
unwillingness to defer gratification, linguistic deprivation.
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Criticism of cultural deprivation theory (1)
Douglas work has been criticised because of the way hemeasured parental interest: i.e. whether parents visited the school.
Walkerdine et al.what is seen as culture and how is certain
behaviour interpreted?
Parents experiences of school: in their study most WC parents
had left school early, many had not enjoyed it, a priority for some
was that children would be happier at school than they had been,
Advocacy: WC parents seen as aggressive, trouble makers or if
deferring to teachers assumed knowledge about education seen
as uninterested. MC parents as assertive advocates for theirchildren.
Parents evenings: Power in teacher-parent interactions: MC
parents seen as equal professionals or even see teachers as
providing service to them.
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Criticism of cultural deprivation
theory (2) Material deprivation (lack of money, poor health or housing)
may disadvantage certain groups.
Educational Maintenance Awards (EMAs) were introduced to attempt
to counter this
Working class parental ambitions may have declined as a result of
inaccurate and/or unfair setting processes and/or inaccurate negative
school reports.
It may be lack of material resources which force working class
parents and pupils to be oriented to the present and make themunable to defer gratification
In any case many working class parents are keen to give their
children a better chance than they had.
What about material circumstances and also the organisation of
schools?
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Material circumstances Working class students may experience a range of adverse material
circumstances such as:
Fewer pre-school play groups and nurseries in working class areas
Greater risk of poor diet, under-nourishment, tiredness, sickness
and absence from school W/C pupils may feel forced to take part-time paid work which
interferes with studies: for M/C pupils this is optional rather than
necessary.
No quiet room for study
Parents unable to afford relevant books, trips or personal computers Parents unable to afford part-time private tuition or full time private
education
Parents unable to afford housing in catchment areas of top schools
Parents and students anxiety over debts associated with higher
education
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The role of education How and why did education systems arise? Looking
back to 19th Century
Normalisation of the working-class to fit middle-
class aspirations and values.
Liberation or containment and pacification?
An instructed and intelligent people besides are
always more decent and orderly than an ignorantoneless apt to be misled into any wanton or
unnecessary opposition to the measures of the
government (Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations)
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Structural explanation: producing
a labour force Functionalists and Marxists have both argued that
working class children are bound to do less well inschool. This is a preparation for their future role in anunequal society.
Functionalists: this is inevitable and meritocratic.Schools select the best people for the most important
jobs.
Marxists: this is essential to the capitalist system: failureat school justifies a role at the bottom of the social class
structure. Bowles and Gintis argued that the schooling you get
corresponds to your future role in production.
In Learning to LabourWillis however argued that workingclass boys see through all of this.
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Paul Willis Learning to Labour: how working class kids
get working class jobs (1977) (1) Willis study focused mainly on 12 male working class
non-examination students in a secondary modern school
in the 1970s (where students who failed 11+ exam went to
instead of grammar school)
The study looked at the interaction of structure and
agency
Willis: main reason for the relative educational under-
achievement of these pupils was that they actively chose
a future involving hard , unskilled manual work as a
means of confirming their masculinity. This is the agency
aspect of Willis theory.
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Paul Willis Learning to Labour: how working
class kids get working class jobs (1977) (2) The boys have realised that their exam grades would not
improve their employment prospects substantially, but
they have not realised the long term disadvantages of
unskilled manual work. Here their behaviour is influencedby the structure of society.
The lads preparing for the factory floor
The earoles seen by the lads as being effeminate.School as a pathway to a career
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De-industrialisation In the mid 1970s ,unskilled manual work was widely
available but the mass unemployment of the 1980s and
early 1990s and the decline of manufacturing industry
have changed attitudes to employment for many working-class boys.
Mac an Ghail (1994) - with reduced potential for
achieving in terms of traditional working class trades, the
macho lads no longer have instrumental attitude toschool. Instead they seek alternative anti-school values
and adopt laddish attitudes and behaviour
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Cultural capital Some sociologists argue that working class students
may be at an educational disadvantage not because
their culture is deprived or inferior but because it is
different and values and knowledge associated withtheir culture have less status in society.
Cultural analysis of class expose the
unacknowledged normality of the middle classes
(Ball, 2003; Reay et al. 2007; Savage et al. 2001) +
the pathologisation of the working classes (Lawler,
2005; Reay, 2004; Skeggs, 2004).
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Pierre Bourdieu (1)
French sociologist (1930-2002)
Class distinctions and class cultures- cultural dimensions
of class stratification Habitus - refers to a set of patterns of thought,
behaviour and taste that are acquired through the
internalisation of culture and social structures, and
through individuals experiences (Bourdieu and Waquant1992: 54).
Class cultures are different and working class children even if
culturally different from middle and upper class children are
culturally different rather than culturally deprived.
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Pierre Bourdieu (2) Concerned not only with inequality of educational opportunity but
with the overall functions of education systems .
Capitalist societies are class societies where the dominant classes
use their power to maintain their class advantages
Dominant class have the social power to ensure that their culture is
defined as the culture which is superior to other class cultures
The dominant classes have the power also to ensure that schools
and colleges evaluate students in terms of the culture [knowledge,
attitudes and skills] possessed by most of the dominant classchildren, but only rarely by working class children
The dominant class culture can be learned only in dominant class
families because schools and colleges do not teach this culture
although they do assess students in terms of it.
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Bourdieu (3) Working class students are put at an educational disadvantage
because they are assessed in terms of a dominant culture
which they cannot learn at home or at school
Bourdieu calls the knowledge attitudes and skills
available to the dominant class children cultural capitalbecause its transmission from parents to children helps
to perpetuate class advantages across the generations in
the same way as the transmission of wealth does
(economic capital) and useful social connections (social
capital)
Capitalist education systems may be seen as fair and
meritocratic but for Bourdieu this is merely a convenient myth
which hides the roles of education systems in the reproduction
of capitalist class structures.
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Identity transformation Reay (2009): Influenced by Bourdieus class analysis
Reay argues that working-class students need to
transform their identity in order to succeed.
Shaun: In the classroom I am not myselfIn the
playground, yeah Im back to my normal selfjust
being normal
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Beyond the school gate The Zombie Stalking English Schools: Social
Class and Educational Inequalityby Dianne
Reay [2006].
within education policy the prevailing focus has
been on within-school processes; a focus that
has often been at the expense of understanding
the influence of the wider economic and socialcontext on schooling. (p. 289)
Good article if looking at social mobility and class
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Hidden curriculum: labelling, class
and self-fulfilling prophecies Interactionist studies found that teachers stereotyped
(labelled) pupils in lower streams/sets/bands in schools.
This tended to produce low expectations of pupils.
They argued that pupils accepted these labels and
developed anti-school cultures.
This explanation pointed out that pupils were affected by
what went on in school and not just at home.
Marxists criticised these explanations for not explaining
why the working class were in lower streams and why
they were the group which was labelled.
They argued that interactionists ignored power.
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Classroom interactions Streaming and assessment procedures (Reay 2009):
produces and reaffirms some as academic stars
while producing sense of worthlessness among
others.
Ill be a nothing and do badly very badly.
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Some classic studies on streaming and teacher-
pupil interactions Hargreaves (1967): streaming in a boys secondary modern
school led to the development of academic and delinquent
subcultures
Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) self-fulfilling prophecy: whenteachers were provided with intentionally inaccurate
assessments of pupils abilities this had a significant impact on
pupil- teacher interactions. V unethical methodology!
Nell Keddie (1970) Classroom Knowledge: Streaming/banding.
Important information withheld from lower band pupils becauseteachers believe they will not understand it
Ball (1981) Beachside Comprehensive: Informal ability grouping
within mixed ability classes is also likely so that mixed ability
teaching does not remove the problem of negative labelling.
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Activity In your group, design a new curriculum that would
better cater for the needs of all groups. For this
activity you should consider:
The national curriculum subjects
Teaching methods and delivery
New or alternative forms of learning
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Ball, S. J. (1981). Beachside comprehensive. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.
BALL, S.J. (2003) Class Strategies and the Educational Market: the MiddleClasses and Social Advantage (London, RoutledgeFalmer).
Bernstein, B. (1971) Class, Codes and Control: Theoretical Studies Towards aSociology of Language. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Bowles, Samuel, and Herbert Gintis. 1976. Schooling in Capitalist America:Education Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life. New York: BasicBooks Inc
CLIFFORD, J. 1986. Partial Truths. In: J. Clifford, and G. Marcus, eds. WritingCulture:the poetics and politics of ethnography. Berkley/Los Angeles: Universityof California Press, pp. 1-26.
Connell, R. (1996) Teaching the Boys: New Research on Masculinities andGender Strategy for Schools, Teaching College, 98(2)
Dale, A., Nusrat Shaheen, Virinder Kalra & Edward Fieldhouse (2010) Routesinto education and employment for young Pakistani and Bangladeshi women in
the UK, Ethnic and Racial Studies DfES (Department for Education and Skills). 2006. Ethnicity and Education: The
Evidence on Minority Ethnic Pupils Aged 5-16. London: DfES.
Douglas ,J. W. B. (1964), The Home and the School, MacGibbon and Kee,London.
Epstein et al. (1998) Failing boys: Issues in gender and achievement, OpenUniversity Press.
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Francis, B. (2006)Heros or Zeros? The discursive of underachieving boys inEnglish neo-liberal education policy Journal of Education Policy, 21 (2) 187-200.
Hargreaves, D. (1967). Social Relations in a Secondary School. London: Routledge &Kegan Paul.
Keddie, N. (1970) Classroom Knowledge. In Young (Ed.) Knowledge and Control ,London: Collier-Macmillan.
LAWLER, S. (2005) Disgusted subjects: the making of middle-class identities, TheSociological Review, 3 (3), 429446.
Mac an Ghail, M. (1994) The Making of Men: Masculinities, Sexulaities and Schooling,Buckingham: Open University Press.
Modood, Tariq. 2005. Multicultural Politics. Routledge. London
Murphy, P. & Elwood, J. (1998) Gendered experiences , choices and avhievementsexploring the links, Journal of Inclusive Education, 2(2): 95-118.
Parekh, Bhiku. 2000. The Parekh Report. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
REAY, D. ( 2004) Mostly Roughs and Toughs : Social class, race and representationin inner city schooling, Sociology, 35 (4), 10051023.
REAY, D. et al. (2007) A darker shade of pale? Whiteness, the middle classes andmulti-ethnic inner city schooling, Sociology.
Rosenthal , L. & Jacobson, L. (1968) Pygmalion in the Classroom: Teacher expectationand pupils intellectual development , Holt, Rinehart and Winston
Savage, M. et al. (2001) Ordinary, ambivalent and defensive: class identities in theNorthwest of England, Sociology, 35 (4), 875892.
Walkerdine et al. (2001) Growing up Girl: Psychosocial explorations of gender andclass, Basingstoke: Palgrave.