Class talk: habitus and class in parental narratives of school choice

ABSTRACT

This article explores how social class is linguistically negotiated and contested in parental narratives of school choice in the British education marketplace. Our study reveals prevalent yet obscured vestiges of ‘class talk’, and in doing so, unmasks ‘micro-political’ acts of status claiming. Using interactional narrative interviewing with 30 parents, we explore how inter- and intra-class differences are emotionally expressed, thus exposing the embodied dispositions of parents’ habitus and its’ subtle influence on school choice. The parental narratives also unveil a moral and political tension between the neoliberal ideal of entrepreneurial self-advancement and an egalitarian sentiment for social equality. Our study therefore challenges the neoliberal educational policy of market choice in closing the attainment gap.

KEYWORDS:

• Social class
• language
• habitus
• Bourdieu
• school choice
• neoliberalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The latest report by Oxford University (2015) found that ‘bright’ children from deprived areas are half as likely to achieve three A ‘Levels (35%) compared to their better-off peers (60%) since they are less likely to take or be offered ‘facilitating’ subjects (such as languages and sciences) that are crucial for securing a place at a good university (Weale, 2015).

2. According to Atkinson (2010, p. 69) the erosion of overt class differences are prompted by a series of political and cultural shifts, such as the decline in manufacturing, the weakening of trade unions, the democratisation of consumption, the postmodern blurring of high/low cultures and the increased access to education.

3. All children aged 5–16 are eligible for a free place at a state school in the UK. State school options include local community schools, faith schools, academies and grammar schools, which vary according to admissions criteria and extent of central government control. While pupils can apply to schools in other areas, oversubscribed schools may prioritise applications from pupils in the local geographic area (catchment area). Private schools, also known as independent or fee-paying schools, charge fees to attend (see www.gov.uk/types-of-school/private-schools). Some older, more elite, prestigious fee-paying establishments are called public schools, although this is not the case in Scotland where the term refers to a state-run school.

4. According to Ball (2007) and Reay et al. (2008), the futures of middle-class offspring are progressively threatened by the downsizing of middle-management positions, breakdown of career security and the overproduction of professional graduates as a result of expansion in higher education.

5. Choice of secondary school was not the focus of this study as the child at age 11 plays an increasing role in the decision-making process of school selection, thereby obfuscating the exploration of parental choice.

6. Savage et al. (2013) propose a seven-tier British social class classification based on economic, social and cultural capitals: elite, established middle class, technical middle class, new affluent workers, traditional working class, emergent service workers and precariat.

7. Preparatory schools are fee-paying schools for children aged 8–13 set up to prepare children for their entry into public or independent schools.

8. Academies are state-funded schools that are backed by sponsors, first introduced to overcome the budgetary constraints and bureaucracy of local authorities by reallocating the funding and governance of schools to central government.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Beverley Hill

Beverley Hill is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Bristol Business School. Her research and teaching interests combine language and communication with critical marketing and consumer culture. Her research focuses on persuasion in public discourse, critiquing the influence of promotion on society, the pervasive spread of the language of the market and rhetorical function of organisational talk.

Ai-Ling Lai

Ai-Ling Lai is a Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Leicester, School of Management. Her research focuses on hermeneutics and language, the body and consumer culture and the experience of singles in the marketplace. Her research has been published in the Journal of Marketing Management, Advances in Consumer Research, European Advances in Consumer Research and more recently in Death in Consumer Culture, a Routledge Interpretive Marketing Research series edited by Prof. Susan Dobscha.