Mark McFadden

Resistance to Schooling and Educational Outcomes: questions of structure and agency

Abstract Resistance theory approaches questions of structure and agency as a divide. Resistance crosses boundaries of class, race and gender, but does not point to actions likely to lead to change in present social relations. There is a need to move beyond limited resistance perspectives to focus on individuals and groups as creative agents able to effect change in social structures. A more dynamic theory of individual, social and cultural change is needed to enable an understanding of how educational settings–including curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment practices–can help bring about just social outcomes for all students. This article draws, in particular, on the work of Willis, Walker, Giddens, and Bernstein to address questions of agency and structure in accounting for educational and social change.

‘Second Chance’ Education: accessing opportunity or recycling disadvantage?

ABSTRACT This article reports on ethnographic field work carried out in Australia in a programme of ‘second chance’ education aimed at giving people, considered previous failures in mainstream education and with a background of homelessness, access to tertiary education. The article focuses on the relationships between groups of students within the programme of ‘second chance’ education being studied and explores the way that education can either reinforce disadvantage or offer access to opportunity. The article illustrates the way that individuals within groups can become constrained by the cultural resources available to them and also the way in which cultural options for individuals might be expanded through education.