Session Information
10 SES 14 C, Research on Professional Knowledge and Identity in Teacher Education
Paper Session
Contribution
This paper focuses upon the identity related dimensions of the classed experiences of middle class novice teachers who were educated in England. It builds upon previous work which tells us that the class experiences (and values) of novice teachers are not only diverse but are likely to pre-dispose them to having affinities to some teaching contexts whilst distancing them from others (Hall et al., 2005; Ash et al., 2006; Raffo and Hall, 2006).
Education and social class in affluent societies are inextricably linked in a range of complex and dynamic ways (Raffo et al., 2010). It has long been argued that schooling in affluent capitalist societies has been active in (re)producing class inequalities in wider society (Bowles and Gintis, 1976; Bourdieu and Passeron, 1990) and it is in urban contexts that the effects of such inequalities are often most evident. In England, for example, working class children in general do less well than their middle class counterparts in an education system that can act to exclude them whilst simultaneously systematically advantaging middle class children. (Ball, 2006)
Education, and in particular schooling, is not a neutral space but instead may be seen as ‘classed’. The ways in which education and schooling can be viewed as classed are multifaceted, but due to its compulsory nature in many European and other contexts all members of society experience a significant period of time within the education system. This is likely to be experienced differently by middle class and working class young people on account of those factors described above. The classed nature of schooling is therefore likely to impact on those who have experienced the schooling system, whether they recognise this or not.
All novice teachers share in common, at least in part, a relatively ‘successful’ experience of the education system. This stems from having gained at the very least, an undergraduate degree, a compulsory prerequisite to become a teacher in England. Therefore, the act of entering into teaching itself cannot be interpreted as a class-neutral act especially since novice teachers have prior class and educational experiences. However, the classed nature of education (and society) is all too often hidden. As a result, many novice teachers (and many teachers generally) have little or no understanding of the ways in which the education system they have entered is inequitable on the grounds of class .
This paper argues that exploring the classed identities of teachers, and in particular, novice teachers, is critical in further understanding how ongoing educational processes may simultaneously cause and are caused by class inequities. This study therefore works actively with Van Galen’s (2004) argument that teaching and understating the identities of teachers should, at least in part, be seen as ‘class work’.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Ash, A., Hall, D., Raffo, C., Diamantopoulou, S & Jones, L. (2006) Urban Initial Teacher Education - Working with Urban Schools in Challenging Contexts. London: TTA. Ball, S.J. (2006) Education policy and social class: the selected works of Stephen J. Ball. Abingdon: Routledge. Bartolome, L. (2002) Creating an Equal Playing Field: Teachers as Advocates, Border Crossers and Cultural Brokers, in: Z.F. Beykont (Ed) The Power of Culture: Teaching Across Language Difference. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Publishing Group. Bourdieu, P. & Passeron, J.C. (1977) Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. London: Sage. Bowles, S. & Gintis, H. (1976) Schooling in Capitalist America. New York: Basic Books. Hall, D., Raffo, C., Ash, A, Diamantopoulou, S, Jones, L. (2005) Training teachers to work in urban schools. London: TTA. Raffo, C. and Hall, D. (2006) Transitions to becoming a teacher on an initial teacher education and training programme. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 27(1), 53–66. Raffo, C., Dyson, A., Gunter, H., Hall, D., Jones, L. & Kalambouka, A. (2010) Education and Poverty in Affluent Countries. Abingdon: Routledge. Van Galen, J. (2004) School reform and class work: teachers as mediators of social class. Journal of Educational Change, 5, 111-139.
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