Class Identity

Question 1

What is social class identity

Answer 1

• Cultural background of an individual shapes their identity
• Schools reinforce or reject the identity of different social classes
• Schools shape identity of students in their own image - W/C identity is rejected in favour of M/C identity

Question 2

How do schools shape identity

Answer 2

• Archer - W/C students develop own identity through branded sportwear and hyper-heterosexual identities
• Schools reject the working-class habitus which is seen as an act of symbolic violence
• Symbolic capital awarded for conforming to habitus of W/C students reject education in favour of collectivist nature of peers

Question 3

Teacher interactions and identity

Answer 3

• Teacher reactions to students either reinforce or reject students identity
• W/C habitus rejected or altered - anti school subcultures
• M/C habitus reinforced - pro-school subcultures
• In both cases the identity of subculture forms part of student identity

Question 4

Selection Policies and Social Class

Answer 4

External Sleection - working class rejected from top schools
- Internal selection - lower class more likely to be in lower sets and streams
- Reay - students see school as a mirror of themselves
- Boaler - lower sets a form of psychological prison

Question 5

The curriculum and identity

Answer 5

• Curriculum based upon habitus of dominant social class
• Working class students tastes and attitudes rejected
• Reay - working class see university as not for the likes of them

Question 6

Contemporary applications

Answer 6

• Appearance in schools - uniform policies
• Extra-curricular activities
• Ofsted - cultural capital and cultural literacy
• Changes to curriculum in 2015 - more focus on middle-class habitus

Question 7

Evaluations

Answer 7

• Working-Class underachievement
• Formation of anti-school subcultures
• Deterministic - identity is multi-faceted and school is one aspect of students identity
• internal and external interplay - how much of identity is shaped by home and how much does the school react