Counternarratives to neoliberal aspirations: White working-class boys' practices of value-constitution in formal education
Date
2018
Authors
Stahl, G.
Editors
Simmons, R.
Smyth, J.
Smyth, J.
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Book chapter
Citation
Source details - Title: Education and working-class youth: Reshaping the politics of inclusion, 2018 / Simmons, R., Smyth, J. (ed./s), Ch.3, pp.55-77
Statement of Responsibility
Conference Name
Abstract
This chapter considers how white working-class boys negotiate neoliberal learner identities through historically-constituted solidarist and communal values. Recent academic scholarship on social marginalisation in UK schooling has critiqued the rhetoric of 'raising aspiration' which exalts a definitive conception of neoliberal personhood-the capital-accruing, socially mobile, entrepreneurial self. This pervasive neoliberal logic structures normative schooling practices by codifying both ability and aspiration, and shaping working-class experiences of schooling. Set against a discourse of social mobility and entrepreneurialism which permeates schooling and the wider social imaginary of the UK, this chapter reflects on a study of white working-class boys in South London who construct counternarratives to neoliberal conceptions of personhood by constituting themselves as subjects of value in schools which devalue them and their aspirations
School/Discipline
Dissertation Note
Provenance
Description
Access Status
Rights
Copyright 2018 Te Editor(s) (if applicable) and Te Author(s)