Dividing Classes / Edition 1

by Ellen Brantlinger

Overview

When Ellen Brantlinger interviewed administrators, principals, teachers, and middle-class mothers in her small Indiana town, she discovered the considerable power the middle class wields in determining policies that secure educational advantages for their children. With the insight gained from this perspective, Brantlinger examines the roots of increasingly conservative educational policy and the category of class in education. Uniquely grounded in a first-hand, ethnographic account, Dividing Classes examines the relationship between social class and educational success. Instead of studying the historically marginalized lower classes to explain the reproduction of social class, this book asserts the need to look beyond poor people's values and aspirations and to consider the values of dominant groups.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900415932980
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis, Inc.
Publication date:	07/28/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	vii
	Preface	ix
1	Class Position, Social Life, and School Outcomes	1
2	Examining Social Class Reproduction at Micro and Emic Levels: A Critical, Interpretive Study	22
3	Affluent Mothers Narrate Their Own and Other People's Children	35
4	Conflicted Pedagogical and Curricular Perspectives of Middle-Class Mothers	61
5	Positions and Outlooks of Teachers at Different Schools	79
6	Impact of Teacher Position on Divided Classes	120
7	Succumbing to Demands: Administrators under Pressure	138
8	School Board Perceptions of Policy and Power	170
9	Conclusion: Choosing a Democratic, Communitarian Ethic for Schools and Society	188
	Notes	200
	References	211
	Subject Index	235
	Author Index	245