My take on this article:
Schools de-emphasise the advantages of middle class zones and schools and could do a lot to help critical debate and remediation if this issue.
Teachers and principals can advantage the middle class in lots of ways in the
day to day life of schools: in their use of language, in what they choose to teach
about and assess, in their support for segregated and stratified school
programmes, in their assumptions about student behaviours and world views,
the so-called ‘hidden curriculum’ and so on.
A key issue is simply where teachers and principals choose to work and hence take their own human resources.
Teachers tend to move to higher socio-economic schools in the first few years of their teaching lives and except when they are getting close to retirement, their subsequent moves are also more likely to be to higher than lower socio-economic schools.
principals get paid more by size of school and the large schools tend to be high decile schools.
by failing to raise middle class advantage in education as an issue, politicians and policymakers help it to be hegemonic, that is to appear natural and how the world should be.
one key strategy for school improvement and leadership is to develop contextualised frameworks that highlight the differences and inequalities between schools rather than downplay them
the government could carefully open up public debate about the social costs of such a segregated education system and also be more honest with teachers and the public about the limits of school- based interventions.
However tight funding is getting across the schools sector as a whole, it is disturbing to see principals of high decile schools complaining in the media about the unfairness of extra funding going to low socio-economic schools. This shows a complete disregard for the myriad of ways their own schools gain advantage from the nature of their intakes,
A key issue is simply where teachers and principals choose to work and hence take their own human resources.
Teachers tend to move to higher socio-economic schools in the first few years of their teaching lives and except when they are getting close to retirement, their subsequent moves are also more likely to be to higher than lower socio-economic schools.
principals get paid more by size of school and the large schools tend to be high decile schools.
by failing to raise middle class advantage in education as an issue, politicians and policymakers help it to be hegemonic, that is to appear natural and how the world should be.
one key strategy for school improvement and leadership is to develop contextualised frameworks that highlight the differences and inequalities between schools rather than downplay them
the government could carefully open up public debate about the social costs of such a segregated education system and also be more honest with teachers and the public about the limits of school- based interventions.
However tight funding is getting across the schools sector as a whole, it is disturbing to see principals of high decile schools complaining in the media about the unfairness of extra funding going to low socio-economic schools. This shows a complete disregard for the myriad of ways their own schools gain advantage from the nature of their intakes,
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