Waves of activity in British workers' education include (1) initiation (1899-1920), with the establishment of the Workers' Education Association; (2) consolidation (1920-1940), with the formation of the National Council of Labour Colleges; (3) growth (1940-1964); (4) increased union training (1964-1979); and (5) current attempts to broaden the…

Interviews with 58 parents (71% working class) and 15 teachers in a British secondary school suggested that working-class parents were committed to children's education but view school as separate from their everyday culture. Parents and teachers viewed their roles as a division of labor, reinforcing parents' view of teachers as professional…

Examines the educational history of a black woman teacher in an African-Canadian, low-income setting in southern Ontario. Discusses the interactions and influences of race, gender, and class in her formative years as a schoolgirl of African descent and in her teaching practice. (MMU)

Assumptions about learner identity are often based on a deficit view of the working classes. This chapter illustrates an alternative discourse that shows how one family literacy program in Scotland generated useful knowledge.

This research note aims to address concerns about schools as sites where students wrestle, materially and subjectively, with classed based notions of femininity, the promotion of heterosexuality, and the support of heteronormative, middle class families against and in contrast with their own working class families, identities and experiences. Two…

The transition to secondary school is rarely conceptualised as an important influence in maintaining and contributing to wider processes of social exclusion in the inner city. This article argues that the seeds of social exclusion are sown in under-resourced, struggling inner-city schooling, and their germination is found in class practices,…

A case of community-based service learning in the School of Theology at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa is analyzed for what it means to teach biblical studies in an African context where biblical scholarship is partially constituted by ordinary African readers of the Bible and where context is a central pedagogical…

This article aims to address concerns about schools as locations where students grapple, materially and subjectively, with class-based notions of femininity, the promotion of heterosexuality and the support of hetero-normative, middle-class families against, and in contrast with, their own working-class families, identities and experiences. Two…

This article reports on case study research of seven- and eight-year-old children's discourse about reading. The case studies were selected to provide classrooms in contrasting neighbourhoods within a white "working class" town in the North of England. Mixed methods were employed, but primarily the case studies were ethnographic in…

This paper draws on an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded research project on men (aged 18-54) participating in pre-university access and foundation programs in four London further and higher education colleges. Men's educational choices and decisions are analysed and discussed within current policy debates about widening…

From 1952 onwards, following the approval of the "Second Five-year Plan," a series of profound changes took place in the Argentinean national curriculum and in its schoolbooks. Some authors have pointed out that such changes implied the use of the educational system as an "agency for indoctrination." Other authors have…

This paper considers how urban, ethnically diverse working class girls' constructions of femininities mediate and shape their dis/engagement with education and schooling. We discuss how girls generated a sense of identity value/worth through practices such as "speaking my mind"--which prioritized notions of agency and visibility and…

The most central issue facing educational managers is the redefinition of equal opportunity based on disdvantaged groups' own perceptions of their needs and their analysis of why existing measures have failed. Late twentieth century policies must provide for power sharing at all levels among all groups. Consultation and broader recruitment…

Analysis of narratives constructed in 61 group and individual interviews with mature, working-class adults returning to education showed that, although access programs targeted disaffected learners, many still felt alienated or marginalized or received minimal support and encouragement. They believed that education had to be perceived as…

Examines differences in how working class and middle class New Zealand parents handle sexuality issues with their adolescents, noting that the age of sexual activity is falling, and increasing numbers of students are sexually active. Middle class girls are asserting their right to sexual activity, while working class girls are separating their…