Pupil subcultures

Pupil subculture

• Group of pupils who share similar

  • values

  • behaviour patterns

• These often emerge as a response to the way pupils have been labelled and in particular, a reaction to streaming

Lacey (1970) - pro-school subculture

• Students remain committed to the values of the school

• Gain and approve this status through academic success

  • Higher stream students, usually M/C

Lacey (1970) - anti-school subculture

• Low self-esteem due to undermining of self-worth by school by placing them in position of inferior status

  • Low stream students, usually W/C

• Label of failure pushes them to gain status in other ways

  • Invert school’s value of hard work/obedience/punctuality

    • Cheek teachers/truant/smoke/don't do homework

      • They become S – FP of educational failure

Willis (1974) - lads

• Group of w/c boys who rejected the school system and its values, often engaging in anti-school behaviour

  • See selves as ‘real men’ due to background in manual labour

Willis (1974) - earoles

• Boys who conformed to school expectations and aimed for academic success, often seen as less rebellious

  • Viewed by lads as effeminate and gay

Wilis (1974) - interactions between lads and earoles

• Earoles bullied and excluded by lads

  • Lads more dominant

• Clear divide between groups

Archer - impact of symbolic violence

• Leads to alternative ways of creating self-worth/status/value

  • Construction of meaningful class identities by investing in styles

    • E.g. branded clothing like Nike

• Appearance = symbolic capital (from peers)

Archer - Nike identities

• Appearance = symbolic capital (from peers)

  • Not conforming viewed as social suicide

    • Conforming gives safety from bullying

      • Wearing brands seen as way of being true to oneself without feeling inauthentic

        • Identities heavily gendered

          • Girls dress hyper-femininely

Archer - Nike identites and the school

• ‘Street styles’ conflict with m/c habitus

  • Seen as ‘bad taste’ and ‘threatening’

    • Leads to labelling by teachers

Archer - Nike identites and higher education

• W/c pupils see higher education as unrealistic and undesirable

  • Living on a student loan would make them unable to afford street styles

    • Then further alienating them from their peers who embrace these aesthetics

Ingram (2009) - two groups studied

• Two groups of w/c Catholic boys from deprived area of Belfast

  1. Passed 11+ and went to grammar school (m/c habitus)

  2. Failed and went to local secondary modern (low expectations habitus)

Ingram (2009) - W/C identity and W/C locality

• Inseparable

• Network of family and friends key part of boy’s habitus, as were street culture and branded sportswear

• Group 1 (W/C in a M/C environment) had extra pressure to fit in, more emphasis on conformity

  • Tension between school’s m/c habitus and their w/c habitus

  • Callum

    • Ridiculed for wearing a tracksuit on non-uniform day

Ingram (2009) - symbolic violence towards W/C students in M/C places

• W/C students forced to abandon w/c identity if want to succeed

Maguire (1997) - grammar schools and W/C cultural capital

• Grammar schools rendered W/C CC useless