This research is concerned with looking at how girls experience their primary education. The aim is to try and discover how the girls perceive themselves as primary school pupils and linked to this to evaluate the contribution made by their mothers. The data was gained by interviewing girls and their mothers from two suburban primary schools and one rural primary school. There are two distinct but interwoven themes: a) the girls' lives at primary school; b) the mothers' perceptions of their daughters' education and how they relate to their daughters' own schools within the education system. The main focus is on the part played by social class in determining both the attitudes of the girls and their mothers. This is linked to Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of 'cultural capital', 'habitus' and 'field'. These contextualise the social and cultural actions of the individual which are not seen in isolation and both the social groups' or social institutions' roles are balanced with that of the individual. The research argues that social class still plays a major determining role in the educational expectations for girls and affects the tensions between home and school cultures. The girls' mothers play a significant part in their daughters' perceptions and attitudes towards schooling and education - notably via the expectations they have for them. These, too, are affected by the educational background and the social class of the mothers whose views and attitudes, to a great extent, are a direct result of their own experiences.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:269389 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Roberts, Janet Anne |
| Publisher | University of Warwick |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/88434/ |
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