Culture, Politics, and Irish School Dropouts - Constructing Political Identities

This book summarizes structural, reproduction, and resistance theories of education and provides a social research approach to problems of social inequity. It analyzes how these perspectives contribute to the political analysis of the production of early school departures and the consequent disadvantages and poverty. Fagan follows a deconstructive approach to research methodology that presents a text in which real characters and events are brought to life. Dublin working-class kids speak for themselves, tell their stories, and discuss their futures openly. They describe their schooling and their colorful responses to situations that seemed meaningless or demeaning when they were in school. They share their insecurities about the future and their experiences with poverty and unemployment outside the mainstream of middle-class society. As a unique contribution to cultural studies and a rare ethnographic glimpse of Irish urban society, this study establishes a model in educational and sociological research.

List of contents

Introduction
Identities-in-Culture, Conversations with Early School Leavers
Schooling
Early School Leaving
Work Experience
The Ties That Bind
Politicizing Academic Narratives
A Reproduction/Resistance Analysis
Beyond a Social Research Framework
New Political Spaces--a Project and Practice?
Transformative Politics
Cultural and Pedagogical Politics of Early School Leaving
Bibliography
Index

About the author

G. Honor Fagan

Product details

• Authors: G. Honor Fagan
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 06.11.1995
• EAN: 9780897894395
• ISBN: 978-0-89789-439-5
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Education > Education system; SOCIAL SCIENCE / General, EDUCATION / Philosophy, Theory & Social Aspects, Ireland, Social issues & processes, Secondary Schools, Philosophy & theory of education, Philosophy and theory of education, Social and ethical issues, EDUCATION / Schools / Levels / Secondary, Current Events and Issues: Education