ERIC Number: EJ1474655
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0142-5692
EISSN: EISSN-1465-3346
Available Date: 0000-00-00
The Making of a Chorister: Class, Family and Choir Schools
Elizabeth Preece1; Will Atkinson1
British Journal of Sociology of Education, v46 n5 p594-609 2025
Choir schools in the UK are educational institutions that, alongside standard education provision, train young choristers to provide music for an attached religious institution, usually a cathedral. Mostly fee-paying and known to be socioeconomically exclusive, up to now they have received almost no attention in the sociological literature. Through interviews with 22 former choristers, and developing the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, we explore the interrelation of class and family in producing dispositions and tastes making entry to a choir school possible. More specifically, we show how immersion within a certain field of intimate relations, where particular class-based tastes and interests were taken for granted and laced with affect, (re)produces not only a class habitus but a habitus specifically inclined toward the Anglican choral tradition. That does not mean, however, that reproduction is necessarily smooth and harmonious, as one case in particular shows.
Descriptors: Singing, Music Education, Music Activities, Sociology, Religious Factors, Churches, Fees, Institutional Characteristics, Advantaged, Alumni, Correlation, Social Class, Social Capital, Protestants, Foreign Countries, Cultural Capital, Educational Experience, Family Relationship
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom (England)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK