Social class and streaming in contexts of educational disadvantage: what young people have to say

ABSTRACT

This article critically examines the everyday practices of streaming working-class students into vocational education and training pathways in public high schools in Western Australia. It challenges existing beliefs, assumptions and practices underpinning the ways in which students are artificially divided into academic and non-academic forms of school knowledge at a young age. In a country that prides itself on the myth of egalitarianism, we argue that streaming functions to legitimate existing power relations, social hierarchies, and educational inequalities. Drawing on the tradition of critical ethnography, the article examines the post school reflections of five young adults, now studying at Tertiary and Further Education (TAFE) institutions, as they reflect on their experience of high school and the processes around their decision to enrol in a vocational education and training programme at school and with what effects. The article identifies five emergent key themes organised around the narrative of each student.

KEYWORDS:

• Social class
• streaming
• inequality
• neoliberalism
• competition
• critical ethnography
• student narrative

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In Australia, public schools are government funded and provide free education to Australian citizens and permanent residents.