In this paper, we explore the methodological implications of conducting qualitative interviews when researchers and participants come from different social classes. Singling out class on its own terms, rather than considering it as an auxiliary structural factor, we examine the unique challenges that arise during cross-class interviews. Such…

To illustrate how theoretical studies should blend with empirical research, this article describes how scholars changed the ways they thought about schools and poverty. It begins with a historical review of the perspective of educational theorists and public policy prior to the 1970s. Taking a Marxist perspective, Bowles and Gintis (1976)…

This study uses large-scale survey data and a multiple group, multilevel latent growth curve model to examine differential school effects between low, middle, and high social class composition public schools. The results show that the effects of school inputs and school practices on learning differ across the 3 subpopulations. Moreover, student…

Presents a study investigating Eysenck's paradox of socialism: the tendency of working class individuals to hold conservative social and radical economic attitudes and that of middle class individuals to hold conservative economic and radical social beliefs. Reports no evidence supporting economic belief predictions, but some evidence that middle…

Explores the Accelerated Christian Education Curriculum used in a working class, fundamentalist Baptist school in upstate New York. This school blends behaviorism and Calvinism, using rules to regulate students' behavior and cubicle "offices" to isolate students. Speculates on the congruency of this social reproduction approach with…

Describes a group of seniors at a Montreal high school, the offspring of working class Southern European immigrants, whose socialization is confined to school because most work part time. Suggests the importance of balancing the focus on leisure youth groups with school-based cultures such as this. (DM)

Reports a British study that explores relationship between social class and personality among 11-year-olds, using the Junior Eysenck Personality Inventory-Short Form. Social class was determined by the father's occupation, and alternatively, by neighborhood. No correlation was found between father's occupation and any of the four personality…

Discusses a study of the effects of material incentives and institutionalized values upon the expansion of secondary school systems in France. Reports that class was more important than gender in determining expansion because state policies placed greater emphasis on emphasized class in determining supply. Concludes that state policy reinforced…

Examines the changing social character of upper secondary schools (noncompulsory education, generally regarded as a stepping stone to university) in England. Previously, upper secondary students tended to be academic high achievers, however, a shrinking job market has created an influx of working class youth. (MJP)

Explores the tension felt by young Canadian women between the desire for domesticity and the aspiration for economic independence. This tension is exacerbated by the dual messages sent by societal institutions (primarily school and the media) as well as economic and social change. (MJP)

Maintains that working class elementary schools in England enjoyed popular support due to their subordination to the needs of wartime national efficiency. Argues that this led directly to a postwar increase in vocational education. Disputes the claim that the 1918 Educational Act produced no discernible results. (MJP)

Criticizes the conservative movement's dismissal of class inequities in the British school system. Maintains that any critical analysis of social democratic alternatives to the current system must address the ways that class identities and social destinies are reproduced through state schooling. Doubts the efficacy of managerialist technically…

Provides a thorough and comprehensive look at the role played by socialists and anarchists in the adoption of a militant program of popular education in Spain between 1868 and 1939. Their efforts spanned a broad range of issues including vocational training, cultural and artistic activities, and educating workers' children. (MJP)

Calls for an expansion of the objectives of vocational education to include consideration of the nature, value, and purpose of work. Finds justification for this in the changing job market and John Dewey's original conception of vocational education. Suggests that some form of this approach become part of all students' curriculum. (MJP)

Considers the reaction to anti-racist change among white British secondary school students. Efforts to include the students in this process have included the conceptualization of white ethnicity. Discusses the development of this concept and efforts to keep it free of racist and nationalist sentiments. (MJP)