Circuits of Schooling: A Sociological Exploration of Parental Choice of School in Social Class Contexts

Ball, Stephen J.; Bowe, Richard; Gewirtz, Sharon

doi:10.1111/j.1467-954x.1995.tb02478.x

Cited by 373 publications

(257 citation statements)

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“…Although the means of organizing education has undergone dramatic change in the forty years or more that separated these two studies, what has not changed significantly is the way that these two class groups have experienced the education system. The middle classes have actively strategised a future for their children envisioning them in yet to be achieved positions, whereas the working classes have, for the most part, accommodated within existing social and geographical boundaries (Ball, Bowe et al 1995) 1 . This widely accepted binary division reflects the power of social class in contemporary society in which the middle class regard the educational system as one to be negotiated and if necessary challenged whereas the working class accept its abuse of opportunity with varying degrees of cynicism and resentment and as an introduction to a life to come (Willis 1977).…”

Section: : Estimating Peer Group Effects In Different School Environmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Classifying Pupils by Where They Live: How Well Does This Predict Variations in Their GCSE Results?

Webber

Butler

2007

Urban Studies

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This paper summarises key findings resulting from the appending of the neighbourhood classification system Mosaic to the records of the Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC) within the National Pupil Database (NPD) of the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). The most significant of these findings is that, other than the performance of the pupil at an earlier Key Stage test, the type of neighbourhood in which a pupil lives is a more reliable predictor of a pupil's GCSE performance than any other information held about that pupil on the PLASC database. Analysis then shows the extent to which the performance of pupils from any particular type of neighbourhood is also incrementally affected by the neighbourhoods from which the other pupils in the school they attend are drawn. It finds that whilst a pupil's exam performance is affected primarily by the social background of people he or she may encounter at home, the social background of fellow school pupils is of only marginally lower significance. These findings suggest that so long as pupils' GCSE performances are so strongly affected by the type of neighbourhood in which they live, a school's league position bears only indirect relationship to the quality of school management and teaching. A better measurement of the latter would be a league table system which took into account the geodemographic profile of each school's pupil intake. The paper concludes with discussion of the relevance of these findings to the sociology of education, to the debate on consumer choice in public services, to the general appropriateness of adjusting public-sector performance metrics to take into account the social mix of service users and to parental strategies in the educational sector in particular.

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Section: : Estimating Peer Group Effects In Different School Environmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Classifying Pupils by Where They Live: How Well Does This Predict Variations in Their GCSE Results?

Webber

Butler

2007

Urban Studies

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“…For instance, global policies such as school choice typically do for they will have very different spatial implications for families; not all families will have the financial resources, time, or conditions of work, to move children across the city so as to access a school that might be the best choice (Ball et al, 1995). Other families will face not having a choice as their village or town only has one school.…”

Section: Spatial Fetishismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing Policies in a Globalizing World: methodological reflections

Robertson

Dale

2017

Educ. Real.

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-Comparing Policies in a GlobalizingWorld: methodological reflections. This paper explores the methodological challenges in comparing education policies in a globalizing world. It will be developed in the following ways. We begin with sketching out the contours of the changes that have taken place in the governance of education systems as a result of global processes and the challenges to presents us with regarding how we study, and compare, education policies. We do this by way of four 'isms' which we problematise as litmusses of global educational change. We then raise the question of comparison, and point to two conflicting ways that it can be used in studying education policy. In the final section of the paper we offer three (not exhaustive) methodological reflections -each with a different dimension through which to explore global education processes -time, space, and logics of governing in education policymaking. Keywords: Comparative Education. Globalisation. Methodology. RESUMO -Comparando Políticas em um Mundo emGlobalização: reflexões metodológicas. Este artigo explora os desafios metodológicos quando políticas educacionais são comparadas em um mundo em globalização. Iniciará pelo esboço dos contornos das transformações que vêm ocorrendo na governança de sistemas educacionais como resultado de processos globais e os desafios enfrentados por nós no que se refere ao modo como estudamos e comparamos políticas educacionais. Fazemos isto por meio de quatro 'ismos' que problematizamos como prova definitiva da mudança educacional global. A seguir, questionamos a comparação e indicamos duas maneiras conflitantes que podem ser usadas ao estudar a política educacional. Na seção final do artigo, oferecemos três reflexões metodológicas (porém não exaustivas), cada uma contendo uma dimensão diferente para explorar os processos educacionais globais -tempo, espaço e lógica de governo em elaboração de política educacional. Palavras-chave: Educação comparada. Globalização. Metodologia.

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“…Even amongst those who are inclined to 'choose', social factors tend to restrict the choices available in significant ways. In their work in Greater London, Ball et al (1997) identified three main circuits of school (local community comprehensive schools; cosmopolitan elite maintained schools; and local independent schools) and argued that different class fractions tend to choose within one circuit only.…”

Section: Active Consumersmentioning

confidence: 99%

The social construction of young people within education policy: evidence from the UK's Coalition government

Brooks

2013

Journal of Youth Studies

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Since assuming power in May 2010, the UK's Coalition government has devoted considerable energy to formulating its policies with respect to young people. Evidence of this can be found in Positive for Youth: a new approach to cross-government policy for young people aged 13-19, a policy text that outlines a wide range of measures to be implemented across nine government departments. Nevertheless, we know little about the understandings of young people that underpin Coalition policy or the political ideology that informs them. This paper starts to redress this gap by exploring the ways in which young people have been constructed within education policy, specifically, and the extent to which such constructions constitute continuity or change with the understandings of previous governments. It argues that while some constructions of young people can be seen primarily as an extension of New Labour understandings, other constructions should be more accurately viewed as reconfigurations or, in some cases, as new understandings, initiated by the Coalition government.

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Circuits of Schooling: A Sociological Exploration of Parental Choice of School in Social Class Contexts

Cited by 373 publications

References 10 publications

Classifying Pupils by Where They Live: How Well Does This Predict Variations in Their GCSE Results?

Classifying Pupils by Where They Live: How Well Does This Predict Variations in Their GCSE Results?

Comparing Policies in a Globalizing World: methodological reflections

The social construction of young people within education policy: evidence from the UK's Coalition government

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