Thousands waiting at our gates’

Moral character, legitimacy and social justice in Irish elite schools

Bibliographic Data

ID11166178
AuthorsAline Courtois (0000-0003-0777-5100, Centre Européen de Sociologie et de Science Politique, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume36
Issue1
Pages53-70
Publication date2015-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueBritish Journal of Sociology of Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0142-5692 • E-ISSN: 1465-3346
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01425692.2014.967840
OpenAlexW2092745520
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited40

This paper examines how Irish elite schools negotiate change and maintain their legitimacy in times of economic turmoil and rising social inequality. The paper argues that they have not bowed before the demands of democratisation or economic globalisation. Instead they continue to maintain a high level of social closure and control diversity rather than adapt to it. Moral character acts as a principle of distinction and legitimation as these schools pose as the moral vanguards of the nation, in a national context where the economic crisis is commonly blamed on ‘greed’ and moral corruption. Their discourse is based on the defence of a certain social and moral order, somehow at odds with the dominant neoliberal ideology, but consistent with a static view of society and an aristocratic conception of leadership, which their students internalise

Democracy · Democratization · Elite · Ideology · Irish · Legitimacy · Legitimation · Moral character · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social order · Sociology · Global Education and Multiculturalism · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Law · Religious Education and Schools

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub