This edited book presents a range of chapters written by new and established authors, drawing on a range of different perspectives and traditions to critically analyse education, work and social change in the former coalfields. Historically, coal was one of Britain’s major industries, employing over a million men at its peak. But mining was more than an occupation - it was a way of life for those living and working in coalfield communities. Work, leisure, family relations and other dimensions of social life were centred upon the coal industry and its related institutions such as trade unions, working-men’s clubs and welfare institutes. These communities have, however, undergone significant social and economic change over time, not least in terms of the pain and suffering associated with the Great Strike of 1984–85, the successive waves of pit closures which took place thereafter and the eventual demise of the coal industry. The book will be of interest to academics drawing on sociology, social policy, history, geography and other subject disciplines.
Author(s): Robin Simmons, Kat Simpson
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 277
City: Cham
Foreword
Reference
Contents
Notes on Contributors
Abbreviations
List of Figures
List of Tables
Introduction: Education, Work and Social Change in Britain’s Former Coalfield Communities
The Coalfields in Context
Structure and Organisation of the Book
References
Contextualising the Coalfields: Mapping the Socio-Economic and Cultural Loss of the Coal Industry
Introduction
The Tale of Two Billys
The Half-Life of Coal and the Half-Life of Deindustrialisation
Discussion
References
Growing-Up in the Interregnum: Accounts from the South Yorkshire Coalfield
Introduction
State Management of Economic Change
An Economic Interregnum
A New Form of Social Rule?
References
A Conflictual Legacy: Being a Coalminer’s Daughter
Introduction
Hard Lives: Four Generations of a Coalmining Family
Challenging Over-Simplified Narratives: Unravelling the Lived Complexities of Mining Communities
Conclusion
References
How Education and Training Developed the Mining Workforce: Oral Recollection and Testimonies
Introduction
Education and Training for the Coal Industry: Early Beginnings
Nationalisation of the Coal Industry: Expansion and Growth of Provision
Miners’ Recollections of Their Education and Training
The Mining Surveyor
Area Mining Manager
Mining Apprentice to Author
From Miners to Librarians
From Miner to Ornithologist
Conclusion
References
‘Dirty, Dirty Job. Not Good for Your Health’: Working-Class Men and Their Experiences and Relationships with Employment
Introduction
Literature Review
Post-World War Two Studies
Experience of Work
The Shift from Manual to Service Sector Work
Contemporary Studies
Contextual Information and Methodology
Findings
‘Most Men I Know Are in Construction and That Stuff’
‘I’m Just an Active Guy and Want to Keep Moving’
‘Dirty, Dirty Job Like. Not Good for Your Health’
Discussion and Conclusion
References
Education, Social Haunting, and Deindustrialisation: Attuning to Ghosts in the Hidden Curriculum
Introduction
Lillydown and Lillydown Primary School
Spectrality, Marxism, and Education
The Social Relations of Schooling: Tracing Ghosts
The Way of the Ghost
The Paradox of Social Haunting
Conclusion: The ‘Something-To-Be-Done’
References
Teaching Industrial History After Deindustrialisation: ‘Tracks of the Past’ in the Scottish Coalfields
Introduction
A Coalfield Heritage
TOTP 1: Background and Lesson Observations
TOTP 2: Outcomes
Conclusion
References
‘I Was Never Very Clever, but I Always Survived!’: Educational Experiences of Women in Britain’s Coalfield Communities, 1944–1990
Introduction
Class
Gender
Imagined Futures
Experiences of School and the Making of the Self
Conclusion
References
Are We Expecting Too Much? Aspirations and Expectations of Girls Living in an Ex-Mining Community
Introduction
Disadvantage and Underachievement
Girls and Vulnerability to Underachievement
Expecting Too Much?
Community Context
School Context
Interviews
Aspirations and Expectations: Primary Schoolgirls
Aspirations and Expectations: Secondary Schoolgirls
Achieving Aspirations?
The Primary Schoolgirls Who Progressed to SS1
The Primary Schoolgirls Who Progressed to SS2
The Primary Schoolgirls Who Progressed to SS3 and SS4
The Secondary Schoolgirls: SS1
The Secondary Schoolgirls: SS2
What Can Schools Do?
Confidence and Trust
Achievement and Resilience
Understanding Successful Learning Behaviour
Conclusion
References
Practices and Negotiations of Belonging in the Deindustrialising Coalfields: Navigating School, Education and Memory Through a Time of Transformation
Introduction
Remembering Collaboratively
Belonging and the Coalfields
Belonging, Place and Class
School and Education: Senses and Practices of Belonging
Legacies and Reflection
References
Conclusion: The Ghost of Coal
Neoliberalism, Dispossession and the Ghost of Coal
Life After Coal
Revisiting the Ghost of Coal
References
Epilogue
References
Index
