Replacing the Misplaced: Power, Autobiography and Learner Identity

Abstract

This article is concerned with examining how social class as a key aspect of learner identity is modified, reinforced or transformed through educational progressions, whereupon relationships change, power is redistributed and different forms of capital are prized. The dynamics between structural and cultural influences on working-class relationships to education are explored by way of autobiographical writing, and analysed through the lens of habitus and field. In operationalising habitus, the indeterminacy of the concept rejects a close, unproblematic connection between class and education, questions the assumed homogeneity of class dispositions, and renders a more fluid and dynamic working of class and learner identity. Arguing against the synchronic view of language characterised by regularity and internal consistency, this methodological orientation of habitus chimes with a textual approach that values inferential enrichment and indeterminacy. Using critical discourse in genre analysis offers space for potentially subversive interpretations, or for playing with evaluative meanings, of an autobiographical account rooted in the local and particular, but also sets great store in understanding constraining and transformative courses of action. This modest inquiry illuminates the relevance of autobiographical reflection to the development of agency and educational capital, with an emphasis on temporality, continuity and change.

Using exploratory factor analysis and Bourdieu’s concept of the illusio to examine inequality in an English school

“…Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses – art for some and anathema for others – exposed how cultural values vary from one field to another (Fowler, 2000). Choi (2014: 56) gives a good example of how capital can construct gateways to privilege when describing English as the ‘official currency’ for public service careers in Hong Kong. Possession of the English language, in that context, provides power and enables domination.…”

Waiting in the wings: Power, narratives of transition, and self-reflexivity

“…(Goodson and Sikes, 2001: 77)In order to counteract the potential ‘dangers of narrowness and trivialisation’ (Goodson, 2003: xiv) through sociologising what might simply be differences in individual psychology rather than structural conditions, it is important to contextualise ‘the personal voice’ within ‘wider cultural imperatives’ to give life stories substance. As in the context of these two stories, ‘the hegemonic discourse of English suggests the values of social institutions, constructs subject positions and instructs the kind of social person one is assumed to be in larger institutional frameworks’ (Choi, 2014: 52). In capitalist societies such as Hong Kong, where technological change is rapid, the growth of the service economy is powerful and managerial functions are increasingly complex, the education system is subject to many pressures.…”

“…The distribution of respect and significance according to occupational achievement has a strong bearing on the instrumental and symbolic values of English, in both study and work contexts. The more utilitarian the schools, the more instrumental their relation to English and the stronger the public pride (or shame) which is shared by learners for being successful (or unsuccessful) in an education system that prizes success in English as educational capital for personal advancement (Choi, 2014). In addition, as Bernstein (1971: 54) stressed, the mode of language used 'involves the whole personality of the individual, the very character of his social relationships, his points of reference, emotional and logical, and his conception of himself'.…”

“…The acquisition of English as cultural capital shapes legitimated ways of thinking, relating and feeling. It carries the potential of the alienation of feeling from thought and of the self from others (Choi, 2014). There has been insufficient attention paid to these affective and social aspects of different study and work experiences, in which differing linguistic and cultural capitals are valued.…”

Growing up Poor: Early Family Life and Education

“…Recent studies highlight how students’ backgrounds circumscribed their life chances, thus reproducing existing inequalities within a stratified society. While navigating through the complex terrain of higher educational institutions, poor students experienced emotional turmoil and incapacity emanating from cultural differences of what they were socialised into at homes and what colleges expected from them (Choi, 2014; Lehmann, 2007; Radford, 2013; Salas et. al., 2014).…”