pupil subcultures

hargreaves- conformists and delinquents

• he observed that there were two main subcultures in schools : a conformist subculture consisting of boys who worked hard, followed school rules and tried to achieve success

• and a delinquent subculture where boys rejected the values of the school

• for these boys, status wasn’t achieved through academic success but through rebelling against school through smoking fighting and defiance

• he argued that the labelling process had helped to create the delinquent subculture which was more prevalent in the lower streams than the upper streams

mac an hail

• academic achievers - pro school group who manly followed the rules and were keen to achieve success in terms of qualifications

• they tended to be placed in top sets and came from skilled working class backgrounds

• macho. lads - they were similar to willis lads in outlook

• they rejected authority of the teachers and school and developed an anti- school subculture based on acting tough having a laugh and looking after your mates

new enterprisers

• they wished to achieve success at school but only in subjects which they saw as having vocational relevance such as business studies and computing which were less keen on academic subject which they saw as less relevant to the world of work

• real englishmen- these boys came from more middle class backgrounds and tried to cultivate an attitude of effortless superiority

• they felt it was uncool to take advice from teachers and although may of the. eventually acheived good results that tried to appear as if they did little work towards this

• therefore mixed attitudes towards schooling

woods

• other studies have suggested that pupils attitudes are more complex than suggested by the idea of two opposing subcultures

• he notes that some students move between rebellion and conformity depending on which lesson they are in

• pupils conform and rebel in a variety of ways using different strategies to survive schools

• eg some conformists are ritualised who behave well but have little motivation to succeed while some rebellious students are not particularly confrontational but may reject school tasks in favour of gossiping or doing their hair