Creating Positive Spaces of Learning: DJers and MCers Identity Work with New Literacies

Success on the decks: working-class boys, education and turning the tables on perceptions of failure

“…However, bad-boy masculinities, though potent, are not the only identity discourse drawn upon by boys (128) as their identity is always 'in process, multi-placed and shifting' (Martino and PallottaChiarolli 2003, 9). Instead, the data suggests that the boys consciously desired social positioning(s) beyond what, for them, is a facile identity as bad boys and music became a route to their exploration of other forms of masculinity (Stahl and Dale 2012). We recognise that identity work is more complex and contextual than simple expressions or manifestations of protest masculinities or explained in terms of embracing laddish or bad-boy masculinities.…”

Critical Reflections on the Use of Bourdieu’s Tools ‘In Concert’ to Understand the Practices of Learning in Three Musical Sites

“…Complete details of how the learning cultures functioned in relation to the boys’ identity work (and vice versa) are presented in Stahl and Dale (2012, 2013) but can be summarised into three points: (1) When formal education that is hierarchical and focused on high-stakes testing is not a part of the learning culture of music, the ‘bad boy’ identity enacted in the formal schooling loses much of its potency, as the peer-led learning culture of MCing and DJing was a cathartic and caring social process. (2) Throughout the research, it was clear that the boys worked to improve their craft and persevere in the face of failures and frustrations, often teaching each other certain skills.…”

“…In arriving at these key findings, there were certain conceptual challenges, as peer-led learning cultures are complex social spaces of practices through which people learn, and such learning is constructed upon a complex interconnection of field, capital, and habitus. In observing the boys as MCs and DJs, Stahl and Dale (2012, 2013) were witness to a variety of behaviours and identities; elements of the peer group were conflated with the learning environment where the boys taught each other demarcated skills.…”

“…Thinking relationally using the concepts of habitus, field, and capital, the research illustrates how the tools reveal the ways in which individuals become agentic within fields where they feel they have value (Stahl and Dale, 2012, 2013). Within the formal institution of the school, the participants completely shut down when they had no interest in a particular aspect of the curriculum.…”