This thesis centres on the relations between Gypsies and Travellers and school, and seeks to explore how these relationships encourage or discourage participation in mainstream education. School is an arena where conflicts can reflect wider tensions between marginalised groups and those who are dominant in society. The thesis reveals how policies aimed at increasing the educational inclusion of minorities like Gypsies and Travellers can in fact be undermined by core procedures and processes in the education system which promote certain forms of cultural capital and are culturally closed and inflexible. This, combined with institutional and overt racism, has marginalised Gypsies and Travellers in schools. This thesis demonstrates that racist and assimilatory policies have been met with resistance by some Gypsies and Travellers. This resistance has in some cases manifested itself in a counter-culture which contains rigid notions of cultural identity that encourage distance towards, and mistrust of, the wider community, including school. Others are attempting to acculturate and are embracing formal schooling. Both strategies have profound effects upon identity and relations with the wider community An ethnographic approach was adopted, which included participant observation, roletaking and interaction in schools and on Traveller sites. Much previous educational research has been normative. That is, there has been a focus on input variables such as intelligence measurement and social class, and a comparison of them with attainment. What happens between input and output has tended to be ignored. This is especially true for Gypsies and Travellers and explains why I adopted an ethnographic approach, and why this thesis adds new insights to the existing literature. I would also classify myself as a critical researcher. I have played an active role in the campaign for Travellers' rights and hope this thesis will impact on existing policies that affect this minority and promote positive change as well as raising important questions as to what educational and social inclusion mean in British society.

No description available.

This study investigates the situation of Black male students in Further Education Colleges in the UK and in Jamaica, from a Black male perspective. It was undertaken with a view to exploring, personal, social, cultural and other factors relating to the decisions of Black males to enter FE, and their experience of FE. The purpose of the study was twofold. Firstly, it sought to achieve a better understanding of their perceptions of the Black male in society and of any particular pressures he might be under in embarking on FE. Secondly, it sought to explore how the Black male saw the response of FE colleges to his presence, with a view to determining what lessons might be learnt by the colleges in recruiting Black male students, and retaining them. A comparative approach, collecting data from both the UK and Jamaican settings, was used to try and assess the extent to which there were differences in the perceptions of Black males regarding how they were perceived in those two societies and, in particular, by the colleges that they attended. Any differences in perception might be attributable in part to how they were 'received' and could have implications for the way in which colleges sought to cater for this section of the population. Using a survey approach, questionnaire data were gathered from samples of Black male students in four FE colleges in the East and West Midlands of England (n=96) and of ones from three FE colleges in East and West Jamaica (n= 160), and interview data from Black male FE staff in the UK colleges (n=20), and in the Jamaican ones (n=20). The student questionnaire sought information on the respondents' experience of and feelings about FE, and those influential in their decision to enrol, how they find out about the college and so on. A particular emphasis was on how respondents considered that the Black male was perceived both within the college community and in the wider society. Semi-structured interviews with Black male FE staff were designed to shed light on how they viewed the situation and experience of Black male students in college and the wider society, as well as how their colleges approached making provision for them, how their colleges approached the marketing and recruitment of this sector of the population, and the measures that were in place to retain such students. The earlier chapters of the study establish the context of the study, analysing the experience of the Black male, from both a historical and a contemporary perspective, and considering the implications for his education (Chapters 1-3). Having considered the research design and the fieldwork objectives and research questions (in Chapter 4), the questionnaire and interview findings are presented (Chapters 5-7). Chapter 8 discusses the fieldwork findings and seeks through them to address the research questions underpinning the study. Chapter 9 draws conclusions from the study, considers its implications, especially for UK FE colleges and their approach to Black male student recruitment and retention, and offers some suggestions for further-related research. Unsurprisingly, it was found that Black male students in UK FE Colleges were unhappy because of negative perceptions of their masculinity in the education system and in society at large. These were perceived as contributing to their low motivation, low selfesteem, factors which, in turn, adversely affected their educational experience. Those in Jamaican colleges, on the other hand, found a more supportive climate, which encouraged them in their study and increased their self-belief.

This thesis presents qualitative research on the construction of choice biographies of a group of Somali young people in London. It highlights the nature of intergenerational and community relationships in the Somali community and how this relates to the ways in which Somali young people engage with educational opportunities. It also discusses the role of the young people in mediating the resettlement process of their families in the diaspora, arguing in particular that they are the critical agents regarding the process of their parents' resettlement in the UK. Using semi-structured qualitative interviews, I have collected data from thirty young people and thirteen informants from this community's organisations. Through an exploration of the Somali community context of the young people's choices, it has emerged that while there has been a shift in orientation more towards permanent residency than a return to the country of origin, there are increasing concerns related to intergenerational social mobility. My data show that young people's aspirations, expectations and choices involve more than 'rational' decision-making, for they are entangled with three interlinked phenomena: individual biographies; family and community processes and the prevailing structures of the host society. The thesis shows that it is the interaction of these dynamics that define choice/outcome discrepancies. I argue that the establishment of the Somali community in the UK is bound up with the re-enactment of pre-migration narratives and I show how community processes mediate the ways in which the younger generation of this community engage with the opportunity structures, and define their identities and sense of belonging in the host society. My data suggests that, despite concerns around intergenerational mobility, there is among these young people much optimism towards educational opportunities, and that education is widely considered as the only available avenue for social mobility. Moreover, it is argued that young people show strong agency in trying to write their choice biographies, but that their outcomes are ultimately governed by the hegemonic context of employment opportunities. The thesis argues that with maturation young people settle for a 'getting by' strategy and that to a large extent the agentic attitudes shown by them are an expression of a combination of immigrant optimism, adolescent optimism and strategies for managing the uncertainties that characterise contemporary youth transitions. I also suggest that through critical engagement with hegemonic structures these young people can find their niche between their own capabilities and probabilities in the labour market.

No description available.

This research study investigates the identities of a group of adolescent Turkish Cypriot (TC) students in their final year of secondary education in northern Cyprus, which it is argued, lies on the periphery of Europe. The main aim is to explore the linguistic construction of TC youth identities within school contexts but primarily the classroom in a political context in which the uniquely ambiguous status of Turkish Cypriots within the European Union (EU) continues, and where Turkish Cypriots are considered to be Europeans as individuals but not as a separate political entity. A secondary focus is upon the students’ investment in learning the English language. Identity is defined as a lifelong process of 'the social positioning of self and the other' (Bucholtz and Hall, 2005:586) which is endlessly re-created (Tabouret-Keller, 1997) and the distinction between the terms 'identity' and 'identities' is discussed. The study explores the social construction of TC students' identities using an ethnomethodological case study. By using Conversation Analysis of selected extracts from the data collected through observations of classroom interactions, focus group discussions and interviews, the thesis shows that TC students perceive and enact 'in-betweener identities' in terms of their ethnicity, societal values, age, religion, languages and Europeanness. Being on the periphery of the EU, it is argued that the Turkish Cypriots of northern Cyprus are the ‘peripheral members of the EU, remaining present yet absent. They are personally EU citizens but not as a society and cannot be represented within EU institutions. But will they ever acquire full membership, as any peripheral member would aspire to have or will they remain in between occident and orient? The possible answers to this question and the resulting ideological associations will shape how and to what extent these TC students perceive and enact their identities.

Despite ‘race’ equality legislation in England, Whiteness – a political and ideological system of power that maintains ‘White’ raced hegemony, is reproduced everyday in its educational institutions in and through a Eurocentric National Curriculum that implicitly valorizes ‘White’ raced subjects in subtle ways that often appear neutral or invisible. The persistent and repeated patterning of Whiteness in and through these educational systems and structures is seen to represent a form of tacit intentionality on the part of powerholders and state education policymakers in postcolonial England. However, these institutionalized practices of Whiteness, and the processes of racialization that have historically maintained them, have not yet been critically analysed, which serves to further facilitate and secure their hegemonic power and structured invisibility by enabling them to remain concealed. This thesis critically historicizes how Whiteness, and its structured invisibility, has been socially produced in educational institutions in postcolonial England in and through the curriculum, unconsciously or otherwise. This is a subversive move that intends to critically expose and analyse how Whiteness has tenaciously secured its hegemony, and structured invisibility, over time, in ways that intend to suggest strategies for deconstructing it to make curricular knowledges and practices equitable. Empirical data is drawn from four sources – curricular texts, including English state curriculum policies, examination syllabi and pedagogical resources, teacher participant interview data, classroom observations and a research diary, which are all framed within a qualitative methodological approach. This data is critically analysed using a range of theoretical frameworks – critical Whiteness studies, racialization, Foucauldian, Lacanian and Butlerian theory. Key research findings indicate that the processes of racialization that enable Whiteness to maintain itself, and its structured invisibility, are complex and multi-faceted involving structural, historical, political, discursive, visual, unconscious, affective, micro-social and embodied configurations. This research has implications for state curriculum policymakers, educational institutions, teacher educators and teachers.

This thesis explores the complexity of identities and the everyday negotiations, as well as struggles that shape the lives of British Chinese pupils in England. It focuses on the links between heritage language education, ‘cultures’ and ethnicity. It analyses the ways in which values related to identities, bi/multilingualism and British Chinese pupils’ positions in multicultural British society, are accommodated, negotiated or resisted. In particular, this research looks at British Chinese pupils with limited Chinese language skills, most of whom are from the ‘second/third generation’ within the British Chinese ‘community’. A qualitative approach is employed to understand the experiences of these pupils by exploring their accounts of experiences in mainstream schooling and in (not) learning Chinese, and their perceptions of their positioning as British Chinese in relational, contextual and socially constructed terms. Identity will be understood as a fluid process involving multiple identifications in line with a poststructuralist view, but also as an active process negotiated by social actors under structural forces. Thus, this conception of identity will move away from essentialist accounts of fixed Chinese/British identities and conceive of the individual as having an active and reflexive role in identity construction. The concepts of ‘hybridity’ (Bhabha, 1994) and ‘Orientalism’ (Said, 1978) are used to highlight how the British Chinese pupils are both able to negotiate flexibly their identities but also are confined by certain essentialised, dominant discourses. This thesis argues that there is an emergent British Chinese identity in which young people recognise their flexible and complex, hybridised British Chinese identities, including the possibility of being both British and Chinese. The research contributes to on-going debates on British Chinese young people. The thesis highlights how the new visibility of the British Chinese population brings both risks and opportunities when creating new spaces to allow for the complex and flexible nature of their diverse and shifting identities.

Over the past twenty years, parental choice has become the favoured Government policy governing school allocation and the dominant legislative approach for improving educational attainment. The existing sociological research on school choice has primarily focused on the ways in which families of different socioeconomic backgrounds have engaged with the process of listing preferences for secondary schools; while class has been emphasised, the choice processes of ethnic minorities have received little attention. Yet the persistent educational challenges faced by Afro-Caribbean students across class boundaries since the early years of migration to England raise questions about whether choice policies’ promise of improved academic performance extends to all ethnic groups. This study focuses on Afro-Caribbean families and their engagement with the process of selecting secondary schools in Birmingham. Twenty individual families in semi-structured interviews and ten additional mothers in two focus groups shared their experiences of listing school preferences. To develop a fuller understanding of how these Afro-Caribbean families made their school choices, this study draws upon Courtney Bell’s (2005) application of ‘choice sets’ to education. Families’ choice sets – the schools which they perceived to be available options – were shaped by various factors, including past school experiences, the schools available in the local authority, and Birmingham’s school allocation criteria. Additionally, geographic considerations, the ethnic mix of a schools’ student population, and families’ access to social networks also influenced which schools families saw as possibilities. Ultimately, while there was no single ‘Afro-Caribbean’ way of selecting schools, this study highlights the circumstances and structures faced by many Afro-Caribbean families which constrained their choice sets, and consequently, the schools to which their children were allocated. Though this thesis is limited in its generalisability, its conclusions lay the foundations for future research into the ways in which ethnic identity is lived in the educational context.

This research study explores how future educational and occupational aspirations are constructed by young Sikh adults. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten young Sikh adults, both their parents, and their teachers at one school in West London to investigate how future aspirations are constructed, which resources are employed, and why certain resources are used over others. In some previous research on aspirations and future choices, Sikhs have either been ignored or, instead, subsumed under the umbrella category of 'Asian' and this study seeks to address this. Furthermore, the study seeks to shed light on how British-Sikh identities are constructed and intersected by social class, caste and gender. This is important to explore since it can have an impact upon how young adults are structured by educational policy. A 'syncretic' social constructionist framework which predominantly draws upon Pierre Bourdieu's notions of habitus, capital and field, along with the cultural identity theories of Avtar Brah and Stuart Hall, is employed to investigate the construction of identities and aspirations. In addition, the study contains ethnographical elements as it is conducted on my 'own' Sikh group and at my former secondary school. Consequently, I brought a set of assumptions to the research which, rather than disregard, I acknowledge since they highlight how I come to form certain interpretations of phenomena over others.