Teach First is an educational charity that places graduates to teach in "challenging" schools for two years. It is marketed as an opportunity to develop employability while "making a difference". In this paper, I examine the process of class reproduction occurring in this graduate employment scheme through examining the…

Much has been written on the effects of Mexican immigration in the U.S., but little exists regarding the ways in which transnationals, who have returned to Mexico, have adapted to and/or transformed Mexican society and the education system. This article is based on a descriptive qualitative study of five transnational teachers of English in Mexico…

Human resource development (HRD) professionals have an obligation to provide programs/products with the highest probability of success. The exclusion of workers' perspectives, from "their" standpoint, would seem to produce suboptimal results. Therefore, consulting workers' literature, labor and working class histories, management histories, and…

The substantial contributions of Marx to the study of contemporary society and, particularly, to the changing conditions of labor in the United States are evaluated. As Marx correctly foresaw, U.S. labor has suffered a steady degradation and displacement. (RM)

The dominance of English in particular domains of language use in South Africa, such as higher education and the economy, has led to the fear that other languages may be threatened by an increasing shift to English in all domains, especially among the young. However, this paper reveals the strong vitality of the mother tongues in the intimate…

When they graduate I want them to feel, "I went through a real thing, not an approximation of college, but I went through college and that means something!" (Adjunct Instructor) This article explores the complexity of providing an academically rigorous college education to adult students enrolled in a union-supported worker education program…

Faculty members take pride in the great diversity of students attending LaGuardia Community College. Their students self-identify with various nationalities, races, religions, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. Not only do students adopt diverse identity markers, but they also come to their classroom with variant skill levels. It is difficult…

The United States experienced a tremendous expansion of higher education after the Second World War. However, this expansion has not led to a substantial reduction to class inequalities at elite universities, where the admissions process is growing even more selective. In his classic studies of French education and society, Pierre Bourdieu…

The escalating crisis in capitalist relations around the world demands a variety of responses that unmask the confusing structures that perpetuate asymmetrical power relations, while reframing what is truly in the interests of the majority of people. Industrial unions in the U.S. have at times aspired to such an advocacy role, but currently offer…

The question of access to French-immersion programs has become a timely subject in Canada as a result of shifting political priorities, cutbacks, and growing concern around finding the most efficient way to teach French as a second language (FSL). While drawing on social selection and identity perspectives on school choice, this article presents…

This article contributes to the theory of institutional habitus by exploring the differing ways in which the institutional habitus of two schools in Belfast, Northern Ireland mediates the local habitus of working-class boys. All of the boys in this qualitative case study live in the same disadvantaged working-class community but attend two…

This year-long ethnographic study analyzed three California charter middle schools: one served mostly low-income, urban African American students; the second served students from working class Latino families; and the third served a middle class, predominantly White suburb. The study illustrates how socioeconomic context of a charter school's…

Introducing critical pedagogies into undergraduate early childhood teacher education programs may enable working class teachers who work with working class children to better examine assumptions of developmentally and culturally appropriate practices. This study focuses on a Latino assistant teacher who, after having returned from a semester of…

Access to higher education in America is increasingly becoming a privilege for upper-class youth. On the other hand, youth in lower socioeconomic groups have less access and are increasingly marginalized and less able to compete in the college choice arena. While parental involvement is one way to fight against this unfortunate trend, parents of…

Union-management relationships have been filled with fear since the rise of capitalism; public education is no different. Workers fear exploitation by owners (profits depend on it) and capitalist/management has always worried that the working classes will organize and either take over the firm or strike and bring production to a screeching halt.…