Abstract
Drawing on theorized notions of belonging and understandings of citizenship which stress the everyday and affective, I consider aspects of the relationship between educational institutions and belonging through a discussion of two recent research projects. One explores the educational strategies of Black middle-class parents, and the second teachers’ responses to the recent requirement that they promote government-identified national values (the ‘fundamental British values’) in the classroom. I argue that both projects shed light on the differentiated experience of belonging and non-belonging in England today. I conclude by arguing for an understanding of the school as a shared public institution. This understanding highlights the potential of developing in all members of a school community, including parents, a sense of both belonging to the institution and being perceived by others as belonging, as well as a recognition of the legitimacy of claims to belong from ‘other’ students and families. Fostering such mutual recognition can be seen as a ‘quiet’, but potentially powerful, politics.
Highlights
Drawing on theorized notions of belonging and understandings of citizenship which stress the everyday and affective, I consider aspects of the relationship between educational institutions and belonging through a discussion of two recent research projects
Like they don’t work hard [...] In a class where 70% of the kids were on free school meals[...] I was playing Devil’s advocate and I said ‘So do you think nobody in society should get any benefits?’ ... [I explained] why am I pro the benefits system. [...] Some of the kids got it but some of them were like ‘you should just be able to work hard’ [...] If the government is calling people scroungers and skivers, why are you not going to have that rhetoric and language [here]? [...] ‘They come into this country and they are on benefits’, like, the kids are obsessed with that. (RE teacher, Kenton school
This article’s contribution is to develop a fuller consideration of ‘belonging’, by identifying some examples from recent research of the ‘boundary maintenance’ signalling the limits of belonging for particular groups, and to consider the potential of schools to counter non-belonging through initiatives and practices that centre social relations, including those that reach outside the school buildings to students’ families
Summary
Drawing on theorized notions of belonging and understandings of citizenship which stress the everyday and affective, I consider aspects of the relationship between educational institutions and belonging through a discussion of two recent research projects. Drawing on two recent research projects – one exploring the educational strategies of Black middle-class parents, and the other how teachers promoted and engaged with government-defined ‘British values’, I discuss whether both projects indicate that full membership of the nation is offered only to those who assimilate into (an imagined) White British culture.
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