Learning, differentiation and strategic action in secondary education

Analyses from the Identity and Learning Programme

Bibliographic Data

ID11166902
AuthorsAndrew J Pollard (0000-0001-7361-719X, University of London, corresponding author), Andrew Pollard (0000-0002-2355-2241), Ann Filer (University of London)
Year2007
Volume28
Issue4
Pages441-458
Publication date2007-07-01
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)
DOI10.1080/01425690701369400
OpenAlexW2058476664
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited14

This paper reports on the social factors influencing the learning of two cohorts of school students and their experience of compulsory secondary education in a city in southern England—the secondary schooling phase of a 12‐year, longitudinal ethnographic study that also tracked the same children’s experiences through primary schooling. We embed our report of secondary school findings within the theoretical models and understandings generated by the Identity and Learning Programme as a whole. The paper addresses three key issues. First, we trace how social influences on learning broaden as young people develop through adolescence, and illustrate why viewing learning as social activity is so important. Second, we discuss evolving processes of social differentiation in relation to gender and social class. We draw particular attention to the dangers of over‐simplified models of social reproduction. Finally, we review an analysis of strategic action and identities, contrasting the differentiated experience of young people attending independent and selective schools compared with those attending non‐selective comprehensive schools. Overall, this analysis seeks to complement studies of differentiated educational outcomes by suggesting possible social processes that could help to account for them. The Identity and Learning Programme, both in its secondary phase and as a whole, shows clearly how individual agency enables young people to cope with their circumstances. However, in so doing, they both reproduce elements of constraint/opportunity and construct others anew. This has significant implications for policy and practice

Action (physics · Agency (philosophy · Construct (python library · Ethnography · Identity (music · Pedagogy · Social learning · Social science · Sociology · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Parental Involvement in Education · Psychology · Social Psychology · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub