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Raymond Williams: The Working-Class Academic
Full text linkThis paper highlights the continued relevance of the working-class academic Raymond Williams (31 August 1921 – 26 January 1988) to today’s students and academics. It will do this by introducing Williams and his key ideas in the form of a short think piece. This overview can be used to compliment more in-depth studies for seeking to understand social phenomena. The key concepts introduced within this paper focus on, culture as a whole way of life, ‘structure of feeling’, Williams’ debate with Marxism, historical analysis and his approaches to methodology
Defining the Value of a School Subject
Full text linkOne consequence of school performance measures is the prioritisation of some school subjects above others. The English Baccalaureate (EBacc), introduced in England in 2011, measures pupils’ progress in five subjects only (English, mathematics, science, a humanities subject and a language), and excludes creative subjects such as design and technology (D&T). This suggests that some subjects have greater value than others but the justification for some subjects\u27 inclusion and others’ exclusion has been based on a perspective that draws on ideas from Hirsch (2006) and Young (2008). Counter arguments to this perspective have tended to focus on the economic and intrinsic value of the excluded subjects. This suggests that school subjects do have multiple values. The aim of this research is to establish a framework that could be used to explore and define the value of a school subject.Once the subject-value framework was established it was tested using data gathered from interviews with people who had an interest in education and specifically, D&T. The values they attributed to D&T, such as how it might benefit pupils whilst at school and in later life, were explored and analysed using the framework. The results suggest that the constructed subject-value framework can be used to analyse the values individuals attribute to a school subject. A range of goals and benefits related to the subject can be determined, although distinguishing between the different types of goals needs further research.Most values identified focused on how D&T helped individuals prepare for life beyond school. Additionally, the values reflected the economic justification for education, inasmuch that pupils learn skills in D&T they can use in future careers.This constructed subject-value framework could be used as a means of analysing curriculum policy as it influences the values different people attribute to a subject. Further work could assess if this paper’s findings are replicable or similar by testing the framework against other non-Ebacc subjects
Who is Valued and What is of Value?
Full text linkThe subject of values is complex; this short paper will consider the values held by teachers, and who is valued within teaching. The first area to be examined will be the way in which values are expressed in the mechanisms that drive the assessment of classroom practice in Initial Teacher Education. Inevitably, such an examination cannot avoid engaging with a debate around attainment and achievement, through a consideration of what we value in teachers both as professionals and in the way that they meet the learning needs of the children and young people with whom they come into contact in their daily work. This leads to a second area, focussing on the degree to which these values are instrumental in producing and supporting a differentially weighted schooling system, where some pupils are valued more than others
Defining Design and Technology in an Age of Uncertainty: The View of the Expert Practitioner
Full text linkLong standing debate surrounds the position that Design and Technology holds in the English and Welsh national curriculum. Some commentators espouse alignment with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) as its natural home, whilst others argue that this stifles creativity and takes no account of the ‘designerly’ nature they consider to be a central tenet of the subject. Against this backdrop, the subject has undergone changes in both prescribed subject knowledge content and examination and assessment arrangements by which pupil progress and attainment are measured. Set against this background, the work presented here summarises a Delphi study which sought to canvass established and experienced Design and Technology teachers about how they perceive the attributes, values and unique features of the subject. The results are analysed to give a view of the subject from within the classroom. Analysis reveals that participants in the study consider the ‘uniqueness’ of the subject to prevail over the values and attributes they collectively define it by. The study moves on to discuss the findings in relation to the values and direction which underpin the policy documentation that drives and shapes the subject from a national perspective. Finally, the work concludes by highlighting several important areas worthy of further research which have emerged and could be seen as contributory to understanding the nature and essence of Design and Technology
Beyond the Curriculum and the Classroom: A Case Study of a Curriculum Enhancement Programme in an English Secondary School
Full text linkThis paper reports on findings from the author’s Masters of Education project in which Classics as an after-school curriculum enhancement programme was offered to Year 9 pupils (aged 13-14) in a maintained school in Salford. The programme also incorporated excursions to supplement the extracurricular lessons delivered by the researcher (a qualified English and Classics teacher) whilst working as a teacher of English at the secondary school. Qualitative and quantitative data from a questionnaire (n=14), a focus group (n=5) and observations are presented here as a case study into the perceived impact of this curriculum enhancement programme on the participants, half of whom were identified by the school as ‘disadvantaged’
Class, Education and Mindset
Full text linkIn this think piece, I discuss the implications of class in relation to mindset and educational opportunities. I wish to illustrate how attitudes – particularly those influenced by social positionality – can be a significant contributor to education, employment, and social status. This interest stems from my previous research in educational disaffection and student marginalisation
Containment and Division: Evaluating Class-Based Metaphors in Higher Education
Full text linkLanguage matters. It’s as much about the words we use, as it is about what those words reveal about how we think. This is because a language is a culturally transmitted system (Tomasello, 2014). No speaker can ever possess, or even know, the entire code that makes up the system. Instead, speakers have access to the parts that they use the most. Even then, there can be a lot of variation between speakers. There is a good deal of variation between languages, too. Different languages conceptualise the world in different ways. For an English speaker, time moves horizontally from left to right; for a Chinese speaker, time moves vertically from the top down (Boroditsky, 2000). Wherever we look, time is always associated with space. It seems we can’t even think about time without also thinking about space
Class, Opportunity and the Lesser Minds Problem: A Ragged University Response
Full text linkIn this paper psychological research is used to develop a framework in which we can place notions of class in terms of relative dehumanisation as ingroups and outgroups to understand how opportunities are afforded to some and not to others, with categorical identities set up on the basis of inclusion or exclusion from cultural production. It draws upon political economy as a Social Science to examine how resulting culture reinforces relative advantage and disadvantage through finance as a mechanism which dispossesses the most disadvantaged from their inherent human capital as wealth appropriated by the advantaged. It introduces education as necessarily a project of social justice, with the Ragged University as a model in education consistent with human development and designed to function for the least advantaged under the hostile sociology of artificial scarcity
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