Education and social class : How did we get to this and what needs to change?
- Authors: Simmons, Robin , Smyth, John
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Education and Working-Class Youth: Reshaping the Politics of Inclusion Chapter 10 p. 233-259
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- Description: This chapter locates the classed nature of education within a critical socio-historical framework, and considers how questions of social class are played out not only in the classroom but also at the institutional and the systemic level. Historical and contemporary debates about the nature and purpose of education are used to challenge the status quo, and present an agenda for change. The chapter argues that re-engaging with social class as a key organising concept is necessary in order to understand the nature of contemporary schooling in western neoliberal societies such as the UK, and to re-imagine young people’s relationship with education. This, it is argued, is necessary to re-engage working-class youth in ways that are not only meaningful but also socially and economically just.
Education and working-class youth : Reshaping the politics of inclusion
- Authors: Simmons, Robin , Smyth, John
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book
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- Description: This book provides an inclusive and incisive analysis of the experiences of working-class young people in education. While there is an established literature on education and the working class stretching back decades, comparatively there has been something of a neglect of class-based inequality – with questions of gender, ‘race’ and other forms of identity attracting significant attention. However, events including Britain's 2016 decision to leave the European Union, have thrown social class into sharp focus, both in the UK and elsewhere. Featuring leading thinkers in the sociology of education, this book examines the different ways in which young people relate to various parts of the education system, including different forms of schooling, post-compulsory and university education. They maintain that the issue of social class goes beyond the walls of specific institutions to affect young people in a variety of ways: not only in the UK, but across the globe. This book will be of great value and interest to students and scholars of the sociology of education, working-class youth, and equality of opportunity.
Where is class in the analysis of working-class education?
- Authors: Smyth, John , Simmons, Robin
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Education and Working-Class Youth: Reshaping the Politics of Inclusion Chapter 1 p. 1-28
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- Description: This chapter provides the backdrop and sets the tone for the book. It begins by scoping out some of the challenges and injustices facing working-class youth, and by highlighting some of the mismatches between the structures and processes of education and the lives of many working-class young people. It then goes on to develop an alternative agenda which, it is argued, is necessary to engage working-class youth in relevant and meaningful ways, and to challenge the dominant structures of schooling and education which systematically disadvantage so many young people. The chapter finishes by proving a brief overview of the chapters which follow, and by highlighting some of the key themes explored in the rest of the book.`
Jacinta's story : challenging neoliberal practices and creating democratic spaces in public high schools
- Authors: Robinson, Janean , Down, Barry , Smyth, John
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Re-Imagining Education for Democracy p. 156-173
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Critical social science as a research methodology in universities in times of crisis
- Authors: Smyth, John
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Qualitative Research Journal Vol. 20, no. 4 (2020), p. 351-360
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- Description: Purpose: To consider what a criticalist qualitative research methodology might look like for universities in the context of the contemporary COVID-19 crisis. Design/methodology/approach: This polemical paper explores the rationale for a dramatic recasting of the approach needed in qualitative research methodology to address the challenges of the crisis-ridden times we live in. Broadly conceived of as an “evolving criticality”, to borrow from Kincheloe, the paper addresses the kind of disposition, orientation or state of mind required that provides the space and opportunities in universities within which this strategic methodological reinvention might occur. After explaining what a research methodology committed to the notion of “criticality” might look like, the paper argues that to enact this we need to start with the immediacy of our own academic work and then emanate to other public spheres. Findings: The polemical exchange engaged in by this paper presents the underpinnings of how critical social science might be deployed in both reconceiving how we understand the purpose of research in universities and changing the nature of academic work. Research limitations/implications: These exist only in so far as university academics are prepared to embrace what is being argued for to change the status quo. Practical implications: The broader critical social science methodology being argued for in this paper is using a wider framing to a form of critical ethnography that has the potential to enable academic workers to extricate themselves from the ruinous situation brought on by the neoliberal paradigm that has been so drastically exacerbated by COVID-19. Originality/value: While the paper rehearses some existing ideas of critical social science, the novelty of the papers lies in the way these are applied to the COVID-19 crisis within which universities have become embroiled. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.
Student voices 'echo' from the ethnographic field
- Authors: Robinson, Janean , Down, Barry , Smyth, John
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Leaving the field : methodological insights from ethnographic exits Chapter 8 p. 126-138
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