The underachievement of White British pupils eligible for Free School Meals is a
persistent local and national issue. Using data collected in three comprehensive
schools, this research explores the factors that affect the engagement and
achievement of this group in an inner London borough I call Burrington. It took a
case study approach, involving a range of qualitative research tools: individual and
focus group interviews with students, teachers and parents; student observation; and
teachers’ notes.
The research engages with Bourdieu’s (1977) ideas of social reproduction and uses
concepts such as capital, habitus and field. It builds on the work of others (Ball,
2008; Reay, 2017; Warin, 2010) to explore how performance pressure and funding
cuts have led schools to privilege academic attainment and side-line the social and
emotional aspects of learning, even whilst official ethos claims to value diversity and
well-being. My findings suggest that a narrow academic ethos pathologises working class culture and marginalises students who are not intelligible as learners, and
some working-class families.
I suggest that learner identity is affected by what happens in the classroom, the
impact of students’ social identities, and the interaction between home and
institutional habitus, and that many white working-class students have what I term
‘fragile’ learner identities. The current educational climate undermines teachers’
abilities to implement socially just pedagogies, exacerbates conflict between
students’ learner and social identities and delegitimates working-class aspirations,
prompting disengagement.
To explore why the attainment of white British students is more adversely affected by
poverty than that of other ethnicities, I take an intersectional approach to argue that
class and race intersect with a particular socio-historical position which results in
missed opportunities and suffering. I also suggest that other groups may face similar
difficulties, such that my findings have the potential to be applied more widely.