Paul Willis's Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs (2007) is based on an ethnographic research on a group of working class high school students in a British industrial town. In Learning to Labour, Willis’ questions come from his Marxist influence, mostly coming from Antonio Gramsci; he asks how the working class constantly socially reproduces on an individual level, and how can one justify for the subordinates' agreement with their condition (The cultural reader, 2011)? Willis’ study focuses on the underachievement of 12 non-academic, working class boys, or ‘Lads’ as they are called in the text. He used a number of research methods to gather data for his ethnographical study. He combined observations with discussions,
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It not only addresses the classes but also highlight how one specific class is trapped in a cycle that seem to never end. Also, Willis’ work still shows great importance today, even though his book was published in 1981, his research are still relevant in our educational era. Classroom rebels, truants and troublemakers still exist in schools today: “The truancy rate in English schools rose last year to a record high…” (Education Guardian, 2006), and “…truancy figures remain stubbornly high, despite millions of pounds being spent on programmes to cut the number of children missing classes…” (Telegraph, 2007), which indicates there are still serious issues to be addressed in our education system. In his article Stroppy Individuals or Oppositional Cultures in Schools Today?, (Rikowski, 2006) raises the issue of whether there are different types of classroom cultures today or just some badly behaved students. He highlights that although single disruptive pupils in classrooms are a problem, predominantly head teachers are still worried about gangs and therefore ‘cultures’ rather than individuals. Rikowski supports the view that Willis’ study is relevant to modern education. He advocates using the methods and insights of Willis to make sense of what is going on in our schools today (Rikowski, 2006). This idea would be backed by educational writers Holroyd and
It not only addresses the classes but also highlight how one specific class is trapped in a cycle that seem to never end. Also, Willis’ work still shows great importance today, even though his book was published in 1981, his research are still relevant in our educational era. Classroom rebels, truants and troublemakers still exist in schools today: “The truancy rate in English schools rose last year to a record high…” (Education Guardian, 2006), and “…truancy figures remain stubbornly high, despite millions of pounds being spent on programmes to cut the number of children missing classes…” (Telegraph, 2007), which indicates there are still serious issues to be addressed in our education system. In his article Stroppy Individuals or Oppositional Cultures in Schools Today?, (Rikowski, 2006) raises the issue of whether there are different types of classroom cultures today or just some badly behaved students. He highlights that although single disruptive pupils in classrooms are a problem, predominantly head teachers are still worried about gangs and therefore ‘cultures’ rather than individuals. Rikowski supports the view that Willis’ study is relevant to modern education. He advocates using the methods and insights of Willis to make sense of what is going on in our schools today (Rikowski, 2006). This idea would be backed by educational writers Holroyd and