Education Theses

Though specific studies on the practice of reduced timetables are limited (Timpson, 2019), international literature on school exclusions generally points to ‘a multiplicity of inter-connected drivers’ (ibid.) underpinning these practices. Research consistently highlights how the intersection of social class, gender, and race/ethnicity, combined with the levels of adversity and disadvantage faced by the ‘hardest to reach’ young people is a strong predictor of school exclusion (OECD, 2016; Timpson, 2019; Cole, et al., 2019; Social Finance, 2020). Absent, however, is a detailed consideration of this practice in an Irish context. This research aims to address this gap by examining the nature and use of reduced timetables in post-primary schools in an inner-city community, and in doing so, add to our understanding of practices of school (dis)engagement and social reproduction in the education system for working-class youth. Drawing on an interpretive qualitative study design, this research provides rich data insights into how reduced timetables are operated procedurally, the rationale for their deployment, the supports available during the practice, and the impact on those affected. To ascertain these insights, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven school personnel from the five post-primary schools serving the study area, eleven young people, and ten parents/guardians, who have experience of the practice. Employing Bourdieu’s theories of Social and Cultural Reproduction (1977, 1986, 1990) and Symbolic Violence (1989), and Gramsci’s concept of Hegemony (1971), this study argues that the practice of reduced timetables is just one form of symbolic violence that working-class young people experience in schools, and part of what we term a tripartite of symbolic violence. The practice, it is also argued, may be acting as a mechanism for the ‘deferred elimination’ (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990) of working-class youth from school, subject to the rationale for the introduction of the reduced timetable and how it was operationalised procedurally. Additionally, this study proposes that Gramscian Marxism and Bourdieusian sociology are both mutually beneficial and complimentary in conceptualising and analysing the impact of the practice. Findings showed that the practice operated on a continuum, from a mechanism to retain students in school who were at risk of further suspensions or expulsion, and a support mechanism for students with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs or family issues, to a disciplinary sanction, or where a school felt unable to cater for the specific needs of a student within their existing resources. Moreover, when schools, or even individual staff, adopted more trauma-informed approaches (Perry & Daniels, 2016) as part of a ‘caring’ school environment, it positively affected the youth participant’s sense of self (Reay, 2010) and belonging in school, and also helped mitigate the impact of the structural intergenerational trauma in their lives. However, when deployed in the absence of broader systemic supports, or as a behaviour management tool, the practice not only resulted in the formation of damaged learner identities (Reay, 2017) and poorer educational outcomes for those students, but also adversely impacted their self-image and placed them at greater risk of environmental harm(s). Finally, despite the introduction of policy guidance for the practice in 2021, this study contends that this ‘hidden’ practice will remain as a mechanism for working-class social reproduction subject to the individual preferences and practices of school leaders in the absence of more robust monitoring and oversight; a situation this research demonstrates not only results in inequitable outcomes for those affected, but also results in considerable injurious repercussions to lives of working class youth and their families.

The rise of private market-led education is both widespread and normalised for many years in Ireland. Yet there has been limited research examining the interface between school-choice ideology, private or shadow education and education-based, extra-curricular activities (ECAs) in terms of class positioning, power relations and risk. This study examines instrumental music education (IME), in the form of Western art or classical music as an example of active, classed parenting outside of schooling. In Ireland, as a result of a lacuna in policy and provision, IME as an ECA is parent-led and is only accessible through the market. Access and success in IME presupposes the availability of considerable cultural, social and economic capital within a student’s family. Yet the Irish context provides a twist in that performance on a musical instrument can be assessed for public examinations where points can be accrued for entrance to, and course credits in, certain universities and for entry into publicly-funded performance-based courses in higher education music study. Drawing on existing studies of class taste, risk, class distinction, class reproduction, and middle-class parenting styles, the aim of this study is to explore the classed dimensions of parental engagement with IME. It investigates the connection between middle-class child-rearing strategies and mother’s role in managing the social class project in relation to children’s education both in and out of school. The study also examines the relationship between IME engagement, parental cultural tastes, acquired cultural capital and parental motivations in insuring against class risk. Integrating data from three sources, qualitative interviews with parents, together with a body of experiential and observational knowledge, and newly analysed quantitative data from Ireland and Europe, a major contribution of this study will lie in the use of primary research to explore why parents of children involved in IME act on their behalf in terms of cultural education and how this education is linked to social class positioning and risk. Working within this framework, the study has identified how middle-class parents who had field-specific cultural knowledge, time and finance, were favourably positioned to use their multiple capitals to advantage their children’s life choices through the medium of IME. By strategically equipping their children with extra IME skills and knowledge, parents and especially mothers, were acutely aware of both the intrinsic and extrinsic benefits that learning a musical instrument offered in terms of mitigating class risk in an increasingly competitive education market and in a precarious labour market. And although intrinsic, aesthetic and cultural benefits were acknowledged as motivators, the data suggests that parents also recognised and largely prioritised the potential of IME for its transfer value, a vehicle to control and deliver social class and occupational payoffs. Music professionals were also found to play a role in perpetuating this process of classed inequalities. By collectively not opposing the parental-support requirements for IME, professional interest groups of musicians and music educators played a significant role as gatekeepers in maintaining the structural conditions that create barriers to equal access and participation, especially in class terms. The study supports the work of Annette Lareau while providing a new perspective on her work through the lens of IME as an ECA. The research proposes to advance Lareau’s argument that the tools needed for the concerted cultivation of IME in Ireland are dependent on a correct blend of field-specific, middle class musical capitals. The study also found that subtle intra-class differences such as the availability of parental time can significantly impact on a child’s access to, and success in, IME in Ireland.