Diane Reay

‘It's all becoming a habitus’: beyond the habitual use of habitus in educational research

The concept of habitus lies at the heart of Bourdieus theoretical framework. It is a complex concept that takes many shapes and forms in Bourdieus own writing, even more so in the wider sociological work of other academics. In the first part of this paper I develop an understanding of habitus, based on Bourdieus many writings on the concept, that recognizes both its permeability and its ability to capture continuity and change. I also map its relationship to Bourdieus other concepts, in particular field and cultural capital. In the second part of the paper I examine attempts to operationalize habitus in empirical research in education. I critique the contemporary fashion of overlaying research analyses with Bourdieus concepts, including habitus, rather than making the concepts work in the context of the data and the research settings. In the final part of the paper I draw on a range of research examples that utilize habitus as a research tool to illustrate how habitus can be made to work in educational research.The concept of habitus lies at the heart of Bourdieus theoretical framework. It is a complex concept that takes many shapes and forms in Bourdieus own writing, even more so in the wider sociological work of other academics. In the first part of this paper I develop an understanding of habitus, based on Bourdieus many writings on the concept, that recognizes both its permeability and its ability to capture continuity and change. I also map its relationship to Bourdieus other concepts, in particular field and cultural capital. In the second part of the paper I examine attempts to operationalize habitus in empirical research in education. I critique the contemporary fashion of overlaying research analyses with Bourdieus concepts, including habitus, rather than making the concepts work in the context of the data and the research settings. In the final part of the paper I draw on a range of research examples that utilize habitus as a research tool to illustrate how habitus can be made to work in education...

‘Strangers in Paradise’? Working-class Students in Elite Universities

This article draws on case studies of nine working-class students at Southern, an elite university. 1 It attempts to understand the complexities of identities in flux through Bourdieu’s notions of habitus and field. Bourdieu (1990a) argues that when an individual encounters an unfamiliar field, habitus is transformed. He also writes of how the movement of habitus across new, unfamiliar fields results in ‘a habitus divided against itself ’ (Bourdieu, 1999a). Our data suggest more nuanced understandings in which the challenge of the unfamiliar results in a range of creative adaptations and multi-faceted responses. They display dispositions of self-scrutiny and self-improvement — almost ‘a constant fashioning and re-fashioning of the self ’ but one that still retains key valued aspects of a working-class self. Inevitably, however, there are tensions and ambivalences, and the article explores these, as well as the very evident gains for working-class students of academic success in an elite HE institution.

Finding or losing yourself?: working-class relationships to education

Working-class relationships to education have always been deeply problematic and emotionally charged, inscribing academic failure rather than success. In this paper I briefly explore both the history of those relationships and representations of the working classes within dominant discourses, before moving on to outline some of the consequences of contemporary educational policy for working-class subjectivities. I do this by drawing on data from three research projects: one on higher education choice; one on transitions to secondary schooling; and a third on assessment in primary schools. However, working-class relationships to education cannot be understood in isolation from middle-class subjectivities so I also try to begin to map out some of the unconscious aspects of class that implicate both middle- and working-class subjectivities.

Beyond Consciousness? The Psychic Landscape of Social Class

Emotional and psychic responses to class and class inequalities are routinely relegated to the realm of individual psychology if they are addressed at all. All too often in sociological research such psychic responses are individualized, pushed out of the wider social picture. However, in this article, I argue that there is a powerful dynamic between emotions, the psyche and class inequalities that is as much about the makings of class as it is about its consequences. In contemporary British society social class is not only etched into our culture, it is still deeply etched into our psyches, despite class awareness and class consciousness being seen as ‘a thing of the past’. In the article I draw on educational case studies to demonstrate some of the ways in which affective aspects of class – feelings of ambivalence, inferiority and superiority, visceral aversions, recognition, abjection and the markings of taste constitute a psychic economy of social class. This psychic economy, despite being largely ignored in both everyday commonsense understandings and academic theories, contributes powerfully to the ways we are, feel and act.

‘Fitting in’ or ‘standing out’: Working-class students in UK higher education

Drawing on case studies of 27 working-class students across four UK higher education institutions, this article attempts to develop a multilayered, sociological understanding of student identities that draws together social and academic aspects. Working with a concept of student identity that combines the more specific notion of learner identity with more general understandings of how students are positioned in relation to their discipline, their peer group and the wider university, the article examines the influence of widely differing academic places and spaces on student identities. Differences between institutions are conceptualised in terms of institutional habitus, and the article explores how the four different institutional habituses result in a range of experiences of fitting in and standing out in higher education. For some this involves combining a sense of belonging in both middle-class higher education and working-class homes, while others only partially absorb a sense of themselves as students.

’Always knowing’ and ‘never being sure’: familial and institutional habituses and higher education choice

The last 25 years have seen a transition from an ‘elite’ to a ‘mass’ system of higher education. This expansion fuelled by mature as well as younger students has made the field of higher education far more complex and unstable than it was even ten years ago. This paper attempts, through the case studies of a group of ten higher education applicants, to develop a preliminary theoretical analysis of the processes of contemporary higher education choice which works both with the growing diversity of the client group and the continuing inequalities in access. It is argued that intersections of gender, ‘race’ and social class are key to understanding students’ experiences of higher education choice. Higher education policy, in widening access, could be seen to be promoting social justice. However, it is argued that the experience of these ten students points to a more complex, less optimistic conclusion.

THE ZOMBIE STALKING ENGLISH SCHOOLS: SOCIAL CLASS AND EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITY

ABSTRACT:  The aim of this article is to reclaim social class as a central concern within education, not in the traditional sense as a dimension of educational stratification, but as a powerful and vital aspect of both learner and wider social identities. Drawing on historical and present evidence, a case is made that social inequalities arising from social class have never been adequately addressed within schooling. Recent qualitative research is used to indicate some of the ways in which class is lived in classrooms. The article also raises concerns about the ability of the education system to positively address social class in the classroom when contemporary initial teacher training rarely engages with it as a relevant concern within schooling.

’I’ ll be a nothing’: structure, agency and the construction of identity through assessment

Drawing on data from focus group and individual interviews with Year 6 pupils in the term leading up to Key Stage 2 National Curriculum tests, this article explores the extent to which childrens perceptions of the tests contribute to their understandings of themselves as learners. The tension between agency and structure becomes apparent in childrens differential dispositions to view the testing process as a definitive statement about the sort of learner they are. Although childrens responses are varied, what most share is a sense of an event which reveals something intrinsic about them as individuals. The article also explores the emotions, in particular the anxiety and fear, which permeate such understandings of the National Curriculum assessment process.

Gendering Bourdieu's concepts of capitals? Emotional capital, women and social class

Although Bourdieu deals extensively with gender differences in his work, far less space is given to the emotions. This chapter attempts to address this lacuna by extending Bourdieu’s concept of capitals to the realm of emotions. While Bourdieu never refers explicitly to emotional capital in his own work, he does describe practical and symbolic work which generates devotion, generosity and solidarity, arguing that ‘this work falls more particularly to women, who are responsible for maintaining relationships’ (Bourdieu, 1998:68). This chapter takes on-going research into mothers’ involvement in their children’s education as a case study for developing the concept of emotional capital. It describes the intense emotional engagement the vast majority of mothers had with their children’s education. The chapter also explores the extent to which emotional capital may be understood as a specifically gendered capital, in particular, by examining the impact of social class on gendered notions of emotional capital.

Making a Difference?: Institutional Habituses and Higher Education Choice

Few studies have focussed on the impact made by individual institutions on the attainment of prospective university applicants and their subsequent destinations within higher education. In this paper we deploy the concept of institutional habitus in order to explore such influences. In spite of an inevitable degree of overlap and blurring of boundaries between peer group, family and institution we argue that there are specific effects from attending a particular educational institution. And these become most evident when examining the choices of similar kinds of students across the private-state divide. We conclude by arguing that, despite the gaps and rough edges in the seams of the concept of institutional habitus, these do not vitiate its value but, rather, suggest the need for further work. This paper then is the beginning of our efforts to try and develop institutional habitus at both the conceptual and empirical levels as a method for understanding the ways in which educational institutions make a difference in higher education choices.