Discipline and school ethos: exploring students’ reflections upon values, rules and the Bible in a Christian City Technology College

Abstract

This paper examines the way students reflect upon discipline in a City Technology College which has a Bible-based Christian ethos. This ethos is formally operationalised within college pastoral care and academic structures through a set of seven Core Values. Using ethnographic data and theoretical perspectives derived from Bourdieu this paper concludes that Core Values allow for different interpretations of the nature of discipline and morality to co-exist. Students’ responses indicate that they are persuaded that the status and reputation of the college has a high-symbolic value and thus, the majority try to incorporate a defence of the discipline structure into their discourse even if they believe that some of the rules are too strict. Students also see some kind of connection between the Christian ethos and the discipline structures suggesting that they experience Core Values as a symbolic power.

Keywords:

• City Technology College
• Bourdieu
• ethos
• faith schools
• school culture

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number PTA-031-2006-00381). In addition, I would like to thank Geoffrey Walford, my colleagues at the Oxford Ethnography Conference and the anonymous reviewers of this article for their encouragement and insightful comments.

Notes

1. GCSEs (General Certificate of Secondary Education) are the public examinations taken by students aged 16 in England. The number of students achieving a grade C or above is used as an indicator by the government of the academic success of the school as well as of the individual because C is generally considered to be a good pass grade.

2. George Whitfield 1714–1770, Oxford graduate, friend of John Wesley and contemporary of Jonathan Edwards; Whitfield preached in both England and America.

3. The assembly was based on a passage in Matthew's gospel in which Jesus asks ‘which of you, if his son asks for bread will give him a stone? Or if he asks for fish, will give him a snake?’ Jesus then compares earthly parents to God of whom he says ‘how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him’ Matthew 7: 7–11, New International Version.