Contrasting what is required of children at school with what is expected of them at home and on the street, Gillian Evans provides an ethnographic analysis of educational failure in white working class neighbourhoods. The reasons for individual children's failure to learn and to behave at school are not, however, explored solely in terms of factors relevant to life outside school. Following the trajectory of particular children's failure at school and explaining the difference between the experiences of girls and boys, the book demonstrates how social class position tends to be reproduced as a function of childhood experience.
Author(s): Gillian Evans
Edition: First Edition
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 224
Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 8
List of Figures......Page 12
Acknowledgements......Page 13
1 Introduction: Social Class and Education......Page 14
Social, educational and economic inequality......Page 15
The significance of mothers/principal carers......Page 16
Situated learning......Page 17
The social structure of intelligence......Page 18
Learning as participation......Page 19
Education as a particular form of learning......Page 20
How to be ‘clever’......Page 21
How do people come to be unequally valued in Britain?......Page 22
Resisting education and middle class values......Page 23
Failing schools......Page 26
Part I: Common Knowledge......Page 28
2 Sharon: Common-as-Shit......Page 30
The manor......Page 31
Bermondsey......Page 33
Bermondsey girls......Page 35
Common-as-shit......Page 36
Posh cow......Page 37
Coming out of myself......Page 39
Being upper: talking proper......Page 40
Making good......Page 42
The secret of being working class......Page 44
3 Common Women: Working Class Values......Page 46
Having nice things and being upper......Page 47
Common-as-muck......Page 49
Common decency and old-fashioned values......Page 50
Gettin’ it......Page 52
Teenage rebellion......Page 53
Emma: becoming common: learning how to swear......Page 54
‘Do as you please’......Page 55
School work......Page 56
Family values, education and disposable income......Page 57
Rules and regulations......Page 60
Becoming dependable at home and dropping out of school......Page 61
4 Trouble on the Estates......Page 65
'I’m not racialist, but…’......Page 68
'Our culture’: ‘our ways’......Page 69
Breaking taboos......Page 72
Can’t black and Asian people be common too?......Page 73
Multiculturalism......Page 75
Cultures of resistance......Page 76
Part II: Classroom Versus Street Culture......Page 78
5 Tom at Tenter Ground......Page 80
The street......Page 81
The difference between boys and girls......Page 83
Learning and caring......Page 85
Parental expectations......Page 87
Gender, school and the street......Page 88
Tenter Ground Primary School: its reputation, Tom’s teacher and fellow pupils......Page 89
6 The Classroom and School......Page 94
Disruptive boys......Page 95
Children’s comportment......Page 97
The pecking order of disruption......Page 98
September 1999: preparing for SATs......Page 100
Acceptable levels of distraction......Page 102
Self-control......Page 103
Special educational needs......Page 105
'Good enough parenting’......Page 107
Good enough schooling......Page 108
Accountability......Page 110
23 September 1999: wet play......Page 112
28 September 1999: supply teacher......Page 114
Literacy......Page 116
PE......Page 117
Imaginative boys......Page 118
10 February 2000: supply teacher......Page 120
Literacy......Page 123
Who rules the school?......Page 124
Disrupted mothers......Page 125
Understanding trouble-making and violence as forms of social good......Page 127
Part III: Creating and Transforming Value......Page 130
16 December 1999: Pikachu......Page 132
Subjects and objects: popularity and friendship......Page 136
The emotional significance of social transformation......Page 138
Commonality and conflict......Page 141
Participation as exchange......Page 143
Girls, games boys play and football......Page 145
Objects of desire......Page 149
9 Place and Prestige......Page 152
Learning how to stick up for yourself......Page 154
Territoriality......Page 155
Learning to trade......Page 157
How is value established in practice?......Page 161
Earning respect: space, age and gender......Page 162
Raising the stakes......Page 164
Prestige system......Page 165
Mobile phones: ring-tones and face-offs......Page 166
Space and race......Page 169
Gender, space and developmental cycle......Page 171
10 Notes from an Armed Robber – Gone Straight......Page 173
New horizons......Page 175
Pilferin’......Page 176
Resisting social change: lamenting the death of the community......Page 177
Ways to get money......Page 178
Puff......Page 180
One of the lads: on the gear: cocaine......Page 184
Notes......Page 189
References......Page 210
C......Page 212
E......Page 213
I......Page 214
P......Page 215
S......Page 216
W......Page 218
