Resignation to the Inevitable: “Just get on with it”

Pupils identified disruptive behaviour as a stressful element of school life. Ruth from Greenhill N.S. described witnessing pupils being quite aggressive and damaging school property:

“People just go down and rip them (coat hangers) off the wall…If they are angry at one of

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to be well mannered and stuff and some people don’t do that so they get given out to and

then they just get mad…Its kind of stressful because then the teacher is off trying to get

them to calm down or punish them or something and then we are left and we get time taken

off learning and we can’t learn anymore so its just upsetting and stressful at the same time”

(Ruth, Greenhill N.S.).

This not only causes a tense classroom environment but can also unfairly take from pupils’ own learning. Interesting to note the majority of pupils who discussed misbehaviour seemed to “other" the offender, by blaming them and distancing themselves from them. In juxtaposition they seemed to favour the side of the teacher:

“Well I mean they are doing all they can. They are doing the best they can to help everyone

to make sure they are getting a good education but it is their decision to not listen”

(Heather, Greenhill N.S.).

Kayleigh (Greenhill N.S.) identifies the reason for them lashing out as them being “messed up” and “they should learn that they have to be good”. There is little sympathy for the pupils who are acting out, instead they are seen as a burden who really should “just get on with it” and “deal with it” (Laura, Greenhill N.S.). In a Bourdieusian sense, they should learn the rules of the game and do not question them. The pupils very much feel that complying to the institutional habitus is in short, a “resignation of the inevitable” (Bourdieu 1984:372). It is just a necessary part of school life and the best strategy to employ to successfully navigate the school field.

One child in particular that a number of pupils in Greenhill N.S. identified in regards to misbehaviour was Lee (name changed). Lee was unfortunately not part of this study. They

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indicated Lee has dropped out of school. According to them he is now working in his Uncle’s “Whippy Van” (ice-cream van). Lee’s story, as told by the pupils in his class, illustrates the cycle of misbehaviour, disengagement and eventual drop out. It presents an example of re- confirmed habitus whereby he fought and resisted the institutional habitus he was presented with in school. By refusing to resign his habitus, Lee rebelled, lashed out and eventually left. There is an “othering” of Lee as the pupils question why he does not just “get on with it” like everyone else. Chelsea (Greenhill N.S.) also highlighted how the other boys in the class had learned to self-manage their habitus and “wouldn’t act like that in school but they would act like that outside of school”. This checking in and checking out of their different identities is a form of self-management and self-regulation which Lee clearly resisted against and unfortunately by portraying the one habitus that was misaligned to the school, it led to his inevitable disengagement.

The power of the school only leaves the pupils with two viable options- to conform or to resist, which in the case of Lee has detrimental impact on school engagement with lifelong consequences. Bourdieu’s hysteresis effect (1977, 2000) helped me to understand the emotional impact of this misalignment between habitus and field and helped me analyse pupil engagement and in particular dissent from and compliance with the school field. For some working class pupils the added emotional and psychological impact of “identity mutation” (Friedman 2016:117) in complying with the school was a cost too much and hence their resistance to this mutation is the only viable option left to safeguard their sense of self. In the case of Lee, the pupils themselves are so encultured with the institutional habitus that they could not understand why Lee would not just take the easy option, comply and “get on with it” (Laura, Greenhill N.S.). The power of doxa and symbolic violence is

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manifested here whereby there is no one questioning the impact of Lee’s identity mutation to ensure compliance. It is an assumed taken for granted practice that his identity mutation and compliance is for the best. However, I would argue in whose best interest? The constant need to alter working class habitus to mould into middle class institutions does not challenge social class inequalities but further maintains educational homeostasis that best serves middle class interests and advancement.

Figure 11 below shows the impact of habitus on engagement in the case of Kayleigh and Lee and borrows from my nursery rhyme metaphor of the see-saw as seen in chapter one. Kayleigh’s resignation of habitus led to positive feedback from teachers and a perceived engagement, whether this is simply compliant engagement or a deeper level of engagement is hard to measure but Kayleigh is successfully navigating school life. As seen earlier, she is skilled at playing the game, resigning her habitus at school to appease the institutional habitus. Lee on the other side of the see-saw portrayed a habitus of recalcitrance and resisted against the school rules and as a result became disengaged. Pupils such as Denis presented earlier is tethering somewhere in the middle between ambivalent engagement, conformity and small acts of resistance (see table 3). It is clear that the process of disengagement starts very early in pupils’ school life. This is of increased importance in our DEIS primary schools as a critical site of intervention. For pupils to feel affectively engaged and attached to the school it is clear they need to feel valued, respected and free to express their authentic self.

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Figure 11: The See-Saw Trajectory of Pupil Engagement

The resignation of habitus by the pupils who have conformed to the school rules and learned how to play the game more successfully does not necessarily imply they are fully engaged with school, and I would question if this form of compliant engagement is sufficient enough for lifelong learning. Through my exploration of the See-Saw Trajectory of

Engagement and my Three Way Engagement Framework, I was able to plot the multiple

forms of habitus interruptions along an engagement trajectory and illustrate the difficulty for working class pupils to succeed in school when they do not manifest their working class

habitus. Those most successful in the current educational system are the ones that alter their identities to fit within the school. I would argue strongly here for the need of the field to be altered rather than placing that emotional burden on the shoulders of young children.

6.5 Conclusion

In conclusion, by presenting pupils’ images and words I hope to add a more nuanced understanding to the experience of working class pupils attending DEIS primary schools. This chapter highlights the extra psychological demands placed on their habitus on a daily basis

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and the consequential effects on pupil wellbeing and affective engagement. Pupils demonstrated the many ways performativity was emphasised over the affective dimension of schooling with detrimental consequences on pupil wellbeing. The data draws out many examples illustrating the power of the school and individual teachers to shape pupils’ habitus and trajectories (Ingram 2018) and in doing so generates practices that ensure conformity to the institutional habitus. Pupils’ self-management skills were forced to monitor their habitus as they navigated between their school self and authentic self, ultimately leading to tales of anxiety and insecurity. This chapter also presented the worrying finding of the invisibility of Traveller culture in DEIS primary schools where numbers of Traveller pupils are at their highest. This raises the question how affective engagement can be achieved for these pupils who are evidently tolerated more so than embraced as an active member of the school community. The impact of habitus on engagement trajectories was illustrated through the metaphor of the see-saw, with those willing to resign or alter their habitus most likely to successfully navigate school life, while any resistance to the institutional habitus only serves to alienate pupils further and fuel disengagement. This identity mutation is more dramatic for working class pupils facing greater disconnect between home and the school field, and hence pupil wellbeing needs to be at the forefront of DEIS schools.

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