scholarly journals Achievement Ideology and Alienation in School: Precarious Worth, Impossible Dreams, and Living Another’s Life

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Drake ◽  
Jeffrey Guhin

Drawing on over two years of the first author’s ethnographic fieldwork in two suburban high schools, the authors show how alienation is inextricably linked to an achievement ideology common in many forms of American schooling. In contrast to previous work that either no longer studies alienation or emphasizes alienation as a cause or result of student’ lack of achievement, the authors develop a theoretical defense of alienation to show how achieving students can still feel alienated. They describe three forms of alienation using the first author’s fieldwork: precarious worth, impossible dreams, and living another’s life. They close with the research’s political and sociological implications, especially the relationship between the achievement ideology and the study of schools itself.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8184
Author(s):  
Chia-Ming Chang ◽  
Huey-Hong Hsieh ◽  
Yu-Hui Chou ◽  
Hsiu-Chin Huang

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between a principal’s transformational leadership and creative teaching behavior of physical education teachers at junior and senior high schools in Taiwan (at the individual level) and the cross-level effect on creative teaching behaviors of physical education teachers in an innovative school climate (at the school level) and the moderator effect of an innovative school climate on the relationship between a principal’s transformational leadership and creative teaching behaviors of physical education teachers. A total of 800 questionnaires were distributed to physical education teachers at 59 junior and senior high schools and 477 valid surveys were collected for data analysis. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we found that at the individual level, a principal’s transformational leadership has a positive impact on creative teaching behaviors of physical education teachers, and at the school level, an innovative school climate has a positive impact on creative teaching behaviors (at the person level) of physical education teachers. An innovative school climate at the school level has no moderating effects on the relationship between a principal’s transformational leadership and creative teaching behaviors of physical education teachers. This study provides implications and applications for cross-level studies, and builds the foundation for future multilevel research.


2021 ◽  
pp. 089124162110569
Author(s):  
Hakan Kalkan

“Street culture” is often considered a response to structural factors. However, the relationship between culture and structure has rarely been empirically analyzed. This article analyzes the role of three media representations of American street culture and gangsters—two films and the music of a rap artist—in the street culture of a disadvantaged part of Copenhagen. Based on years of ethnographic fieldwork, this article demonstrates that these media representations are highly valuable to and influential among young men because of their perceived similarity between their intersectional structural positions and those represented in the media. Thus, the article illuminates the interaction between structural and cultural factors in street culture. It further offers a local explanation of the scarcely studied phenomenon of the influence of mass media on street culture, and a novel, media-based, local explanation of global similarities in different street cultures.


Author(s):  
Yanwar Pribadi

Abstract This article discusses the relationship between Sekolah Islam (Salafism-influenced Islamic schools) and urban middle-class Muslims. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the City of Serang (Kota Serang), near Jakarta, this paper argues that these conservative and puritan Muslims demonstrate their Islamic identity politics through their engagement with Sekolah Islam. The analysis of in-depth interviews with and close observations of parents of students and school custodians (preachers or occasionally spiritual trainers) at several Sekolah Islam reveals that they have attempted to pursue ‘true’ Islamic identity and have claimed recognition of their identity as the most appropriate. The pursuit of a ‘true’ Islamic identity has infused Islamic identity politics, and there is an oppositional relationship between local Islamic traditions and Salafism, as seen in Sekolah Islam. The relationship between Islam and identity politics becomes intricate when it is transformed into public symbols, discourses, and practices at many Sekolah Islam. This paper shows that through their understanding and activities at Sekolah Islam, these Muslims are avid actors in the contemporary landscape of Islamic identity politics in Indonesia. By taking examples from Sekolah Islam in Indonesia, this article unveils social transformations that may also take place in the larger Muslim world.


2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 304-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pessy J. Sloan

This study examined the relationship between attending one of the nine New York City (NYC) selective specialized public high schools and graduating from an honors college with a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degree, compared with honors college graduates who attended any other high school. A causal-comparative study design was applied. The participants consisted of 1,647 graduates from seven honors colleges, from 2011 to 2015, in the northeastern United States. Of the 1,647 graduates, 482 students graduated from NYC selective specialized public high schools and 1,165 students graduated from other high schools. The study found a significant difference ( p < .05) between the two groups. A larger percentage of NYC selective specialized public high schools graduated with a STEM degree from an honors college than students from other high schools. These results support the positive relationship between attending a NYC selective specialized public high school and graduating with a STEM degree from an honors college. Results and implications are discussed.


Author(s):  
Julie Edmunds ◽  
Nina Arshavsky ◽  
Elizabeth Glennie ◽  
Karen Charles ◽  
Olivia Rice

Sociologija ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-83
Author(s):  
Laura Lapinske

This paper presents challenges and life strategies of highly educated single mothers in Lithuania. My ethnography traces the impact on strategies of remaining in a country where exit strategies - alcoholism, suicide, emigration - prevail and seem as an ?easier? option. It is a study concerned with the relationship between precarity, single motherhood, social reproduction and everyday living. I focus on precarious living conditions, social isolation and stigmatization, unappreciated and highly gendered care-work. Based on collaborative ethnographic fieldwork material, the paper presents the micro-level attempts to negotiate what it means to be a lone care-taker, to revalorize and challenge the hegemonic narratives of individual strength and success.


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