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ERIC Number: EJ880733
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010-Mar
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0962-0214
EISSN: N/A
Teachers and the Re-Production of Middle-Class Culture in Australian Schools
Forsey, Martin
International Studies in Sociology of Education, v20 n1 p67-81 Mar 2010
Based mainly on my own ethnographic research, which is committed to uncovering the constructed or "practiced" nature of social life, I seek to demonstrate the ways in which Australian school teachers, administrators, students and parents are engaged in a re-productive process that simultaneously reinforces and reinvents schools and schooling. Set against a backdrop of concern bordering on panic among some groups about middle-class flow away from Australian government schools, this paper explores the practices of social class and its structurating effects. A sample is presented of the ways in which those working in Australian schools tend to direct their energies towards ensuring market share of middle-class students, a practice emerging out of beliefs and experiences that lead teachers to find middle-class schools "stimulating and encouraging places to teach in", in contrast to the "disruptive" and "wearing" working-class schools. The study raises important questions not just about how we want to organize our schools and education system, but ultimately about what sort of society are we seeking to re-produce right here, right now? (Contains 2 notes and 1 figure.)
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A