Living on the edge

1. Living on the edge Terry Wrigley Newcastle 2017

2. The myths about poverty Not caused by laziness, fecklessness, stupidity, “a lifestyle choice” to be a “skiver” not a “striver”. It is caused by ‘poor work’ i.e. low wages, uncertain hours, insecure contracts, interspersed with periods of unemployment. Not a separate ‘Underclass’ but the most vulnerable of the working class, especially in times of Austerity. nor are their children a feral unteachable Underclass ! It is a struggle bringing up a family in these conditions – but 1/3 of England’s children are growing up in poverty.

3. Poverty is an economic category, not a ‘lifestyle choice’ BUT experienced emotionally and socially. Children are affected by the stigma of being poor, especially in a consumer culture. Child poverty affects health and nutrition but also self-esteem and friendships. No research as yet on impact of Austerity politics and its abusive discourse of ‘benefit scroungers’ Don’t be fooled by media stereotypes! TV directors choose the most sensational examples.

4. Class / poverty and underachievement Long history of ‘blame the victim’ explanations: • genetically incapable (Burt) • language deficit (Bernstein) • lacking in aspirations (Murray etc) based on flawed research.

5. Class / poverty and underachievement Long history of ‘blame the victim’ explanations: • genetically incapable (Burt) • language deficit (Bernstein) • lacking in aspirations (Murray etc) based on flawed research. Each has an afterlife and now ‘effectiveness’.

6. Aspirations Low aspirations … or thwarted ambitions, disappointments Aspirations cannot be sustained without opportunities A “play without a script”, a “road without a map” (Bok)

7. Ethnography: Robert MacDonald et al (Teesside) Gillian Evans (Bermondsey) Lisa McKenzie (Nottingham) Gabrielle Ivinson (South Wales) Polly Toynbee Simon Charlesworth (2000) (Rotherham) A phenomenology of working class experience. shame futility

8. Rotherham’s like a prison without any walls, like people can feel these walls holding them in but they can’t just walk out of it. It’s like a... big desert which nobody has the energy to walk out of. (p115) My son, they’ve made him go on these training schemes and it’s just cheap labour. They had him training to be a welder, and then he was back on the dole; then they had him doing joinery on ET [Employment Training] and then he was back on the dole again; now they’ve got him doing fork-lift truck driving, so I guess next he’ll be an unemployed fork-lift truck driver. (p96)

9. * Shame (current identity) * Futility (future plans) Do schools reinforce these, or counter them?

10. The power to learn (Wrigley 2000) • Empowerment in: • Curriculum and pedagogy • Ethos and wider community • Change process

11. “Pedagogies of poverty” (Anyon, Haberman, Delpit) ... and if so, what drives some teachers towards them? Routine ‘busywork’, tasks which children find meaningless, decontextualised exercises, closed low-level questions ...

12. More rewarding teaching and learning:

15. Culture “Symbolic interactionism” (esp Goffman) culture gap > interactive trouble Bourdieu ‘School culture’

16. School culture and social justice (Wrigley 2003) • exploring the differences between authoritarian and cooperative cultures • examining the cultural significance of alienated forms of learning • questioning the culture of target setting and surveillance • examining the cultural messages of classrooms dominated by teacher’s voice, closed questions and rituals of transmission of superior wisdom • developing a better understanding of cultural difference, to avoid exclusion • understanding how assumptions about ability and intelligence work through • uncovering assumptions about single parents and ‘dysfunctional’ working class families

17. Missing research • Pedagogies of poverty – cf more advantaged schools • ‘Scrounger’ discourse – teachers and students • Interactive trouble (using Goffman) • Success against the odds – outlier case studies … curric, pedagogy, ethos, community, school development • Curriculum policy: standardisation, neolib, neocon • ‘Funds of knowledge’ – in urban contexts • Impact of new tests – secondary transfer etc

18. How to develop a richer understanding of family assets and potential support? Positive questions revealing complex mix of opportunity and deprivation – potential ‘funds of knowledge’: My uncle has an interesting job, he works on a boat and travels all around the world... something to do with oil. Once when I was getting something for my mate’s birthday I thought, why not go past Asda, so I went past Asda and it was just the same. I’ve got a cousin at Manchester University but I’m not sure what he’s doing.

19. Research Interviews: positive questions to identify social and cultural assets – potential capital, but only if recognised Who do you know who’s got an interesting job? Do you know anybody who reads a lot? Do you know anybody who makes or grows things? Have you travelled anywhere interesting? Do you know anybody who has? Is there anybody older than you that you talk to a lot?

20. Grandad Ian walks a lot. I go with him all the time, just rings up and we’re off. Once we went to Scotland and we were walking an’ he asked me what I’d do if a bear came and I said run. My mum used to grow vegetables, she’s going to grow tomatoes... I play piano for church and the drums, I play for choice, it’s good. Far from the uniform desert of opportunity often imagined

21. Contentious issues Social mobility The gap Precariat or ‘poor work’ Data-entities: ‘white British working-class boys’ etc. ‘Disadvantaged’

22. What would make a difference • Material needs • Flexibility (carers, etc.) • Support through exams, interviews, transitions • HW centre • Parents – children’s centres in EY etc. • Teachers’ understanding (deficit discourse ?) • Poverty proofing • ‘The power to learn’ (ped, curr, ethos, parents, devel) • Curriculum: play, arts, practical • Authentic learning (real, simulated) + decisions • Products, performance, presentation • Key skills in meaningful contexts