Education - Student Subcultures

What is a Subculture

A cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variances with those of the larger culture.

What did Colin Lacey (1970) discovered?

He discovered that the way in which a school is structured can lead to the emergence of student subcultures.

What two concepts did he use to explain his findings?

Differentiation - this is the process of teachers categorising students according to how they perceive their ability, attitude and/or behaviour. Setting is a form of differentiation, since it categorises students into separate classes. Those that the school deems 'more able' are given high status by being placed in a high set, whereas those deemed 'less able' and placed in low sets are given an inferior status.

Polarisation - it is the process in which student respond to setting by moving towards one or two opposite 'poles' or extremes. Lacy found that setting polarised students into pro-school and anti-school subcultures.

What effects does this have?

- Students placed in high sets (who are largely middle-class) tend to remain committed to the values of the schools. They gain their status in the approved manner, through academic success. Their values are those of the school: they tend to form a pro-school subculture.

- Those placed ion low sets (tend to be working-class) suffer a loss of self-esteem and this feeling of failure pushes them to search for an alternative way of gaining status, therefore creating an anti-school subculture with its own set of delinquent values.

What does Stephen Ball (1981) say about School setting as a reason for subcultures?

- He takes the analysis a step further in his study of Beachside, a comprehensive school that was in the process of abolishing setting in favour of mixed-ability groups.

- Ball found that when school abolished setting, the basis to polarise into subcultures was largely removed and the influence of the anti-school subculture declined.

- However, differentiation remained because teachers continued to categorise students differently and were more likely to label middle-class as cooperative and able.

What is an evaluation of class setting being a reason for school subcultures?

- Both Lacey and Ball's description of schools being divided into 2 coherent groups, sharing their own uniform code and set of values is too simplistic. It is now recognised that how students respond to school life varies considerably between the different categorises of students & in different school situations. The picture is far more complex, with students being divided by class, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation.

- Peter Woods (1979) found that were more than just two responses to being labelled and placed into a set:

+ Integration: being the 'teachers pet'.

+ Ritualism: going through the motions and staying out of trouble.

+ Retreatism: daydreaming and mucking about

+ Rebellion: outright rejection of everything the school stands for

- Furthermore, many students are not committed permanently to any one response, but may move between different types of response, acting differently with different teachers.

How the clash between Middle- & Working-Class Cultures help form student subcultures?

- Closely related to the creation of pro and anti-school subcultures, it is argued that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds use their working-class identity as a way of coping with hostile middle-class culture that predominate in schools.

- They feel that the education system devalues the experience and choices of working-class people and are often forced to choose between maintaining their working-class identities or abandoning them and conforming to the middle-class values of the school in order to succeed.

What does Louise Archer (2010) argue about this?

- Drawing on Bourdieu's concept of habitus, she argues that there is a clash between working-class pupils habitus (outlook on life) and the school's middle-class habitus. As a result, working class students may experience the world of education as alien and unnatural.

- Archer found working-class pupil felt to be educational successful, they would need to how they talked and presented themselves. Thus, for working-class students, educational success is often experienced as a process of 'losing yourself'. They felt unable to access 'posh', middle-class spaces such as university and professional careers, which were seen as 'not for the likes of us'.

How did the Working-class pupils presented themselves?

- Many were conscious that society and school looked down on them. This symbolic violence led them to seek alternative ways of creating self-worth, status and value. They did so by constructing meaningful class identities for themselves by investing in 'styles', especially through consuming branded clothing such as Nike. Wearing brands was a way of 'being me'; without them they would feel inauthentic.

- Style performances were heavily policed by peer groups and not conforming was 'social suicide'. The right appearance earned symbolic capital and approval with school's dress code. Reflecting the school's middle-class habitus, teachers opposed 'street' styles as showing 'bad taste' or even as a threat. Pupil who adopted street styles risked being labelled as rebels.

What did Archer say that student working-class subculture signify?

According to Archer, working-class pupils' investment in 'Nike' identities is not only a cause of their educational marginalisation by the school; it also expresses their positive reference for a particular lifestyle. As a result, they may choose self-elimination or self-exclusion from education i.e. they actively choose to reject school because it does not fit in with their identity o

What is an evaluation of Class reasons - The Clash between Middle- & Working-Class cultures?

Whilst the 'Nike' identities that Archer refers to may be evident in more inner-city schools, they are less obvious in the majority of rural and suburban schools. Despite the class inequalities in education, many more working-class young people identity and the habitus of higher education can be a barrier to success, with a higher percentage of working-class students failing to complete their degree courses.

What did Debbie Epstein (1998) comment on the Crisis of Masculinity in school subcultures?

- She examined the way masculinity is contrasted within school. She found that working-class boys are likely to be harassed, labelled as sissies and subjected to homophobic verbal abuse if they appear to be 'swots'. This is because in working-class culture, masculinity is equated with being tough and doing manual work. Non-manual work and by extension schoolwork is seen as effeminate and inferior.

- Laddish culture is becoming increasing widespread. She argues that this is because, as girls move into traditional masculine areas and careers, boys respond by 'becoming increasingly laddish in their effort to construct themselves as non-feminine'.

What is an evaluation for Gender reasons - The Crises of Masculinity?

- Mairtin Mac an Ghaill (1994) illustrates the complexity of subcultural responses by examining the relationship between schooling, work, masculinity and sexuality. He identified a range of male subcultures that he observed in the comprehensive school that he visited:

+ The 'Macho' Lad: This Group was hostile to school authority and learning, not unlike the lads in Willis' study. They tended to be from a working-class background.

+ The 'New Enterprisers': This group rejected traditional academic curriculum, which they saw as a waste of time, but accepted the new vocational ethos.

+ The Academic Achievers: This group, who were from mostly skilled manual working-class backgrounds, adopted a more traditional upwardly mobile route via academic success.

+ The 'Real Englishmen': This was a small group of middle-class students who regarded themselves as being superior to teachers. They aspired to go to university but wanted to get there by displaying the least amount of effort as possible.

+ The Gay Students: The most hidden and neglected group in most schools. By their very nature, schools are incredibly homophobic institutions. Homosexual students feel that it is 'safer' to keep their sexuality secret.

How do Hyper-heterosexual Feminine identities emerge?

- Whilst girls often join the existing male subcultures in schools.

- Chris Griffin (1985) found that there were some subtle differences between male and female friendship groups. Rather than forming large anti-authority groups, girls tend to create small friendship groups. Although boys may 'associate' with one another, girls put far more emphasis onto friendships. Subsequently, female subcultures tend to be focused around friendship groups. Having a boyfriend is an important status symbol for many female subcultures, as is being 'sexually experienced', whilst avoiding being labelled a 'slag'.

What does Lousie Archer argue about Feminine identities?

- She argues that girls (especially those form a working-class background) invest considerable time and effort in constructing 'desirable' & 'glamorous' hyper-heterosexual feminine identities,

- According to Archer, from the school's point of view, the 'ideal female pupil' is a de-sexualised and middle-class appearance is seen as a distraction that prevents them from engaging with education.

- Some working-class girls adopt 'loud' feminine identities that often lead them to be outspoken, independent and assertive - often questioning teachers' authority. By failing to conform to the school's stereotype of the ideal of the ideal female pupil identity of being passive and submissive to authority, they are often in conflict with teachers, who interpret their behaviour as aggressive rather than assertive.

- Some girls try to cope with this dilemma by defining themselves as 'good underneath' (despite the teachers' negative views of them). This 'good underneath' self-image reflects the girls' struggle to achieve a sense of self-worth within an education system that devalues their working-class feminine identities.

What does Mike O'Donnell (1991) suggest about Ethnic Reasons - A response to Labelling & Racism?

- He showed how various ethnic subcultures have distinctive reactions to racism, prejudice and discrimination, which may have different effects of educational performance.

- African-Caribbean males often react angrily to and reject white-dominated education system, gaining status and recognition through other means. Indian show their anger, but do not tend to reject the education system. Instead, they succeed because they use the education system to their advantage.

What is an evaluation to the Ethnic Reasons - A response to Labelling & Racism?

- Other studies (e.g. Heidi Mirza) point out that African-Caribbean females resent negative labelling and racism in schools. They particularly resent the fact that many teachers expect them to fail, but unlike boys they do not form anti-school subcultures, but adopt strategies that enable them to get what they want from the system.

- This allows them to maintain a positive self-image, obtain the qualifications they desire, and above all prove their teachers wrong.