This research focuses on social relationships within a school context and explores how social relationships within that context contribute to the production and reproduction of inequalities. The research draws on Bourdieu's work and examines the key role of schools in reproducing social and cultural inequalities (Bourdieu 1998). The research explores the process of producing and reproducing inequalities from the perspective of the young people. The study uses the lens of social capital to investigate how social relationships in the form of social capital practices operate within the classroom and the wider school context. While acknowledging structural and cultural dimensions highlighted by Bowles and Gintis (1977) and Willis (1981), I seek to explore how the social relationships between young people in a school context contribute to well documented educational inequalities. I argue that Bourdieu's theoretical framework offers the opportunity to explore relationships by placing social capital in relation to other capitals (economic and cultural) and to locate practices of everyday life, thus linking micro-social and macro-social structural factors. The starting position of this research focuses on the micro, i.e., the individual pupils as active agents in relation to social capital within the school context, before locating it within a wider macro context. The research uses a sequential mixed method design collecting data on the participant's social networks and exploring social practices with semi structured interviews. The research highlights how education and schooling produce and reproduce inequalities in and through the two case study sites.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:698850 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Stelfox, Kevin |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=230768 |
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