Learning And Leaving: Education and Depopulation in an Island Community

Author(s):

Donald Gillies(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

14 SES 04 A, Schooling in Rural/Urban Context I

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-19

09:00-10:30

Room:

ESI 2 - Aula 4

Chair:

Silvie Kucerova

Contribution

This study, funded by the British Academy and the Economic and Social Research Council (UK), aimed to explore the extent to which the state education system can be seen as contributing to the depopulation of one island in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland. The study examined this issue in relation to government policy around both the location of school premises and the nature of the curriculum and ethos of the school. The study aimed to plot the post-school destinations of all Raasay school pupils 1901-2000 and to survey a sample of former Raasay school pupils 1941-2000 to probe their decision-making after school and the factors involved in their decisions to leave/stay.

The study used some of the work of Pierre Bourdieu (1990, 2004) to frame its enquiry, making use of the concepts of habitus and capital, in particular, as well as drawing on other developments of Bourdieu’s work by Hodkinson (1998) and by Corbett (2007). The study explored the extent to which moving away from home was conditioned to some extent by the prevailing habitus, influenced by both family and school attitudes, and the extent to which young people could be seen to possess differential levels of mobility capital and the extent to which such an analysis was revelatory in relation to the phenomena under examination.

The study was also shaped by three further theoretical positions: a positive and supportive attitude towards the island and its continued sustainability; a generally positive attitude towards schooling and education; and, finally, a view which sees genuine choice as a good thing, as opposed to young people’s futures being determined, prescribed, or constrained.

The study was also contextualised as being part of a global development where increased urbanization and uniform government policy contribute to the enfeebling of rural, maritime, and insular communities.

Method

The study comprised of three main parts: the first was document analysis, exploring school records to identify the post-school destinations of all pupils at Raasay school 1901-2000 (N=620). This was done by reference to folk memory (Withers, 1996) so that local residents’ memories of former pupils were drawn on, supplemented by census and other data. In an area rich in tradition, this seemed a very apt methodological approach. The second element was a questionnaire (drawing on Stockdale 2002) which was aimed at pupils who had attended school in the period 1941-2000 (N=303). These were sent to ten pupils chosen at random from each decade. Wartime evacuees were discounted as not being part of the community per se. Thus 60 questionnaires were distributed (representing about 28% of the total). 32 were returned (about 15% of the total school population). The third element was a public meeting which was held on the island to present preliminary findings and to glean local responses. This was attended by 33 islanders (representing about 25% of the current population). School roll data was analysed by descriptive statistics while the questionnaire returns (mostly Likert scale with some open-ended responses) were subjected to inferential analysis.

Expected Outcomes

The study found that of the 620 pupils plotted, 533 (86%) left the island completely. At the margins there was also some fluidity of movement: some who left and returned, or some who stayed and later left. Of those who completed the survey, 57% cited education as being the main reason for leaving; 29% citing employment. Of those respondents who returned to live on the island, however, 67% did so for employment reasons, 22% for lifestyle reasons. The survey data and the public meeting both point to employment (including education for employment) as the key factor in inducing emigration, with other issues around infrastructure also significant ( ferry transport; housing). The project concluded that while education (secondary and tertiary) might draw young people away, it was lack of suitable employment which kept them away, compounded by inadequate infrastructure to support commuting for work. The study suggests that an emigratory habitus and differential levels of cultural capital can be helpful ways of understanding the phenomena and that Corbett’s mobility capital is of some use in exploring the data.

References

Bourdieu, P. (1990). The logic of practice. Cambridge: Polity Press. Bourdieu, P. (2004). Forms of capital. In S.Ball (Ed.), The RoutledgeFalmer reader in sociology of education (pp. 15-29). London: RoutledgeFalmer. Corbett, M. (2007). Learning to leave: the irony of schooling in a coastal community. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing. Hodkinson, P. (1998). Career decision-making and the school to work transition. In M. Grenfell & D. James (Eds.), Bourdieu and education: acts of practical theory (pp. 89-103), Abingdon: RoutledgeFalmer. Stockdale, A. (2002). Towards a typology of out-migration from peripheral areas: A Scottish case-study. International Journal of Population Geography, 8, 345-64. Withers, C. (1996). Place, memory, monument: memorializing the past in contemporary Highland Scotland. Cultural Geographies, 3, 325-344.

Author Information

Donald Gillies (presenting / submitting)

York St John University

Faculty of Education & Theology

York

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