ERIC Number: EJ1464008
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0142-5692
EISSN: EISSN-1465-3346
Available Date: 0000-00-00
A Designed 'Lack of Design': How Autonomy Enables the Mobilisation of Capital at Elite Schools
British Journal of Sociology of Education, v46 n2 p276-291 2025
There has been a recent burgeoning of interest in the power of elite private schools in the UK. However, little attention has been paid to the propulsive power of the mechanisms in place within such schools that enable and support the mobilisation of valued forms of cultural capital such as 'ease'. Here, we draw upon unprecedented access to two elite private boys' secondary schools in England to show how what we conceptualise as a designed 'lack of design' within the elite school curriculum contributes to the formation of an elite habitus which is valued in the context of recruitment to elite higher educational and professional institutions. Ultimately, we argue that the practices described are misrecognised by stakeholders as taking place within an autonomous system, when this so-called autonomy or independence is very much informed by the signifiers of distinction upon which these schools sell themselves.
Descriptors: Private Schools, Cultural Capital, Secondary Schools, Foreign Countries, Curriculum Design, Institutional Autonomy, Selective Admission
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom (England)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1King’s Academy, King’s College London, London, UK; 2Education, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK