Abstract
The division of students into social categories is a phenomenon that invites inquiry. Historically, students have tended to migrate towards one of two groups: the preps who embrace all aspects of school life and the punks who reject all aspects of school life. These two groups are reproductions of the social order. This paper inquires into three elements of the discourse of schooling that influence the categorization of students; normalization, the hidden curriculum and the social contract.
Highlights
Preps and PunksEckert (1989) defines the preps and the punks as the adolescent embodiments of the middle and working class, respectively; their separate cultures are class cultures
The division of students into social categories is a phenomenon that invites inquiry
The preps are characterized by an interest in their schools; they enthusiastically participate in academic, athletic, and social activities. They are rewarded for this participation by reaping the assumed rewards of academic success; access to higher education, better jobs, and a better life
Summary
Eckert (1989) defines the preps and the punks as the adolescent embodiments of the middle and working class, respectively; their separate cultures are class cultures. In a study designed to investigate this assumption, Bowles and Gintis (1976) (as cited in Eckert, 1989, p.7) found that the implicit and explicit educational practices in our schools inculcates students into hierarchical social forms They found that through inequities in resources and practices in different schools and the unequal treatment of children of varying backgrounds in the same schools, schooling teaches students their place in society. Schooling reproduces rather than improves the inequality of a capitalist society It seems that our educational system, driven by an ideology that views the purpose of education as creating trained and skilled workers who will perpetuate our place in the global economy is responsible for the streaming of students into different social states. It implies a hidden curriculum that reinforces inequities for students of diverse backgrounds
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