Education as Cultural Innovation - Cross-Cultural Observations on Social Mobility via Education

Author(s):

Nicolle Pfaff(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

05. Children and Youth at Risk and Urban Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

05 SES 06, Papers on Social Mobility via Education, Ethnic Segregation and Life Strategies of Families

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-11

15:30-17:00

Room:

D-313

Chair:

Mark Hadfield

Contribution

In most countries children and youth from lower social class as well as from migrant families face disadvantages and institutional discrimination in educational organisations, such as school (i.e. ). Furthermore, their own decisions on educational transitions, their attitudes towards formal education as well as their habits and practices of learning prevent successful educational careers (i.e. Willis 1968; Bourdieu/Passeron 1990).

Based on assumptions from a theory of practice (i.e. Reckwitz 2005) and sociology of knowledge (i.e. Mannheim 1980) educational practices are understood as contextual, relating to ones social position in relation to class, gender, ethnicity, generation and so on. As patterns of behaviour they evolve from individual history of socialisation. Young people growing up in social worlds where formal education and educational certificates are not valued, where distrust is directed to school as a public institution and where no cultural practices exist supporting institutional academic education have significant problems to carry out a successful educational career and to reach higher qualifications than ones parents. Therefore, in relation to underprivileged families social mobility via education can be understood as innovation to biographical planning as well as living together: new educational practices emerge. How is this going on?

Method

The paper presents results of a cross-cultural empirical study on educational careers of young people in diverse social contexts. Based on interviews with young people from diverse social background (educational elites, underprivileged and low educated parents, migrant families) and in different educational contexts (i.e. high vs. low qualifying, public and private schools) the presentation will focus on those students, who carry out educational advancement in relation to their parents. The data, consisting of narrative biographical interviews are analysed with the documentary method (i.e. Bohnsack/Pfaff/Weller 2009), which is directed towards the reconstruction of habitual and practical knowledge. The presentation will include overall six case studies. The study was carried out in Germany and Brazil not primarily intending cultural comparisons but to gain higher sample variability to educational pathways. Investigated were two very different educational systems, thereof one with very low and one with currently very high social mobility via education. This sample construction allows to differ between the system related, the institutional and the individual level of the shape of school careers.

Expected Outcomes

The paper presents three patterns of social and educational practices which make social mobility via education possible. All patterns could be found among both, Brazilian as well as German students, some are strongly connected to experiences of migration or social class, other practices develop independently from social positions. The first pattern could be called ‘entailed success’ and includes cases of mostly middle class students who’s parents encourage and support their school careers in a rigid and directive way. The students themselves are strongly oriented on being successful and invest much time and effort in reaching their (parents) aims. Educational practices are not newly established but continued in these families where most parents themselves have reached higher social positions. Contrasting and surprising are two different patterns in which educational practices are generating from biographical changes in students lifes (1) or based on the influence of significant others supporting unusual educational aspirations (2).

References

Bohnsack, Ralf/Pfaff, Nicolle/Weller, Wivian (Hrsg.) (2009): Qualitative Research and Documentary Method in Educational Science – Results from Brazilian-German Cooperations. Leverkusen Thousand Oaks: Barbara Budrich Bourdieu, P./Passeron, J.-C. (1990): Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Mannheim, K. (1952): The problem of generations. In: Mannheim, K.: Essays on the Sociology of Knowlegde. London: RKP Reckwitz, A. (2005): Toward a Theory of Social Practices. A Development in Culturalist Theorizing, in: Gabrielle M. Spiegel (Hg.): Practicing History. New directions in historical writing after the linguistic turn, London/ New York, S. 245- 263 Willis, P.E. (1977): ‪Learning to labour‬: ‪how working class kids get working class jobs. Westmead, Farnborough: Saxon House‬

Author Information

Nicolle Pfaff (presenting / submitting)

University of Duisburg-Essen

Faculty of Educational Science

Essen

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