The industrial past as a tool of possibility: Schooling and social class in a former coalfield community

Abstract

This article presents data from ethnographic research carried out at Lillydown Primary, a local authority school in a former coalmining community in South Yorkshire. Complicating Avery Gordon’s concept of haunting, it argues that in order to begin refashioning typical accounts of schooling for the working class, we must reckon with the fullness of ghosts that remain to haunt the fabric of the present. The central argument of the article is that historical, place-based pedagogies and performances work to deliver a more relevant curriculum and experience of schooling that begin to ‘fit’ with pupils’ histories, culture and lived realities. It illustrates how phantomic rhythms of Lillydown’s industrial past have profound social and cultural effects on schooling which can, at least sometimes, encouragingly shape pupils’ experiences of education. It begins to demonstrate how Lillydown Primary is a place of unsettledness, where the something-to-be-done is seething into the present, but ghostly matters still conjure as they are not yet complete. The article argues that there are further spectral potentialities to be reckoned with that could go some way towards forging more critical spaces and pedagogies.

Learning Sciences from the Past: Recovery, Study, and Cataloging of a Historical Natural History School Museum

“…Finally, the last three showcases display the most scientifically interesting rock samples. In this regard, diverse specimens from Roman and Latium mines are noteworthy since they represent helpful nature-based objects to teach local mining history starting from primary schools, thus helping to develop a sense of place between pupils and students [155][156][157]. The activities mentioned above and the compilation of new cataloging records on the stored specimens can be the topic of the brief essay students have to prepare for their high school graduation exams.…”