Premium
Pupil Identity and Differentiation in British Public Schools
Author(s) -
Tovey Philip
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/0141192930190205
Subject(s) - sociology , attendance , identity (music) , context (archaeology) , social category , pupil , closure (psychology) , social psychology , social class , social environment , gender studies , social science , psychology , political science , aesthetics , law , geography , philosophy , archaeology , neuroscience
A considerable amount of social research has addressed the issue of ‘working class’ pupil sub‐cultures. This paper shifts the focus to consider the nature and significance of patterns of differentiation within contemporary public schools. The analysis draws on the life‐histories of a number of people who attended a range of public schools in the 1980s. A context specific understanding of the concept ‘sub‐culture’ is shown to provide a means of reaching beyond the impression of a homogeneous entity to reveal the importance of group distinction and closure. Membership of, or exclusion from, sub‐groups is seen to be bound up with background and cultural priorities. It is argued that an awareness of internal differentiation and its social origins offers a route to understanding the varying experiences and (social and occupational) consequences of public school attendance.