http://hdl.handle.net/10142/12443 Wed, 22 May 2013 18:42:03 GMT 2013-05-22T18:42:03Z http://hdl.handle.net/10142/197810 Title: Push and pull in the classroom: competition, gender and the neoliberal subject Authors: Wilkins, Andrew Abstract: In this paper I explore how learning strategies based on competition and zero-sum thinking are inscribed into the dynamics of classroom interaction shaping relations between high-achieving pupils, and link elements of these practices to market trends in British education policy discourse. A detour through the politico-historical negotiations shaping relations between neo-liberal governance and education is initially sketched out, bringing into focus how the proliferation of policy discourses of consumerism and marketisation aim to facilitate and shape the conduct of persons in classroom settings. Drawing on ethnographic observation data taken from a study of two London comprehensive secondary schools, I then outline how pupils are incited to behave as competitive strategists in the classroom and reflect on the gender constructions underpinning these performances and their slippery dynamics. Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10142/197810 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10142/197809 Title: School choice and the commodification of education: a visual approach to school brochures and websites Authors: Wilkins, A. Abstract: As subjects of the parental right to choose (DES, 1988), parents are called upon to fulfil certain duties and responsibilities when choosing a secondary school for their child, with the expectation that they might navigate the school system ‘successfully’ and become ‘better informed consumers’ (DCSF, 2008). To comply with these rules of citizenship parents are encouraged to make use of a variety of information on schools as part of a realistic and informed choice, one that is consummate with their role as consumer-citizens. Such ‘cognitive mapping’ is evident in school brochures and websites where choice is assembled on the basis of visual iconography and narrative terrains. This leads to a consideration of how choice is visually mediated and communicated through the circulation of symbols and the structure of narratives. To explain these phenomena, I analyse and compare the ways in which two all-girls faith secondary schools attempt to (further) define themselves, culturally, historically and pedagogically, in a crowded field of choice. I conclude the paper with a discussion of the benefits and insights generated through a visually orientated approach to the study of school choice. Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10142/197809 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10142/135870 Title: Community and school choice: Geographies of care and responsibility Authors: Wilkins, Andrew Abstract: This paper draws on elements of critical discursive psychology in order to explore some of the issues and concerns raised by parents' responses to the policy and practice of school choice. Drawing on data from a group of mothers of diverse social class and racial backgrounds, this paper examines the dilemmas some mothers engage with in their role as chooser—reconciling competing rationalities for choosing or trying to manage contradictions. A central argument of this paper is that the policy and political context shaping the emergence of school choice in Britain has provisionally secured the development of certain trends in education—consumerism, individualism and competition. Alongside and coupled with this has been the veneration of a narrow utilitarian conception of parents as consumers of education services, defined as people who share the capacity and willingness to maximize the utility of their decisions in a rationally self-interested way. This paper questions the value of this approach as a framing for understanding the aspirations, motivations and fantasies informing parents' school choice and highlights instead the ways in which some mothers articulate the importance of community in their decision-making practices. Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10142/135870 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10142/135869 Title: Citizens and/or Consumers: Mutations in the Construction of Meanings and Practices of School Choice Authors: Wilkins, Andrew Abstract: Recent research on school choice highlights the tendency among some White, middle‐class parents to engage with discourses of community responsibility and ethnic diversity as part of their responsibility and duty as choosers and who therefore exercise choice in ways that undercut the individualistic and self‐interested character framing governmental discourses and rationalities around choice. This article contributes to these debates through making visible the ways in which some mothers articulate and combine meanings and practices of choice that register contrasting and sometimes contradictory notions of active and responsible parenting. Drawing on data from a group of mothers of diverse social class and racial backgrounds, I explore how some mothers negotiate their school choice around a number of intersecting positions and relations that work across, as well as within, formulations of public–private, collective–individual, citizen–consumer, political–commercial. Through a consideration of the relationships in practice between these diverse elements, this article questions the analytic value of distinctions between citizen and consumer, community and individual as framings for understanding the motivations and aspirations shaping some mothers' school choices. Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10142/135869 2010-04-01T00:00:00Z