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Educational Failure and Working Class White Children in Britain
 
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Educational Failure and Working Class White Children in Britain (Paperback)

by Gillian Evans (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
RRP: £16.99
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'I was educated by this' - Dame Marilyn Strathern, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge 'A wonderfully enlightening and entertaining book. An anthropologist delivers an insider's account of life in inner London, and makes sense of the educational failure of working class white boys' - Adam Kuper, Professor of Social Anthropology, Brunel University 'A brilliant and highly entertaining study of a neglected subject' - Andrew Gimson, Daily Telegraph 'A compelling, often uncomfortable journey of self-discovery, as well as a fascinating insight into class and education in Britain. Educational Failure!stands out for its honesty, its bravery and its originality' - Patrick Butler, Editor, Society Guardian 'This book should be read by teachers, parents, academics and policy makers, and by Bermondsey people. If they do, this book can be a catalyst for change' - Michael Holland, ex-Bermondsey playwright and film maker 'Gillian Evans provides some new, useful and challenging insights in her book.' - Bill Greenshields, The Teacher


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What does it mean to be working class in Britain at the beginning of the 21st century? Why, despite over 50 years of compulsory education in Britain, are many working class children still likely to end up in the same kind of low-paid, routine occupations as their parents? Either schools are failing working class children or working class life presents alternative means for gaining social status that conflict with what it means to do well at school. Or perhaps both factors are relevant. Taking the reader on a journey of self-discovery in Bermondsey, Southeast London and making the process of learning how to become a certain kind of British person its central focus, this book provides a window onto another world. This is a world where middle class values are challenged and the complex cultural politics of white working class pride is revealed.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars I was so impressed with this book I thought it deserved a wider audience, 5 Aug 2008
This is what all anthropology books should be like. I couldn't put it down. Highly entertaining and deeply personal, yet also an astute and brilliant account tackling and analysing some of the most fundamental issues affecting society today. Like a twenty-first century parallel to Jack London's searing East End memoir People of the Abyss, it takes us deep into one of the few remaining working-class enclaves of central London. (though this time the author doesn't go under cover!).

Accessible to a large audience, far transcending the boundaries of academia, this book is essential for anyone interested in working-class London life, children, schooling, youth culture and Bermondsey in general. Don't be put off by the plain title (which perhaps aims at attracting the attention of policy-makers and education professionals) for the book's content has the capacity to revolutionise the plight of Britain's schools and education system. As such, it needs to be noticed. For the general reader, moreover, it has an energy, insight, depth and wit that make it shine.

Through her eloquent prose, engaging narrative and deeply personal approach the reader accompanies Evans on a journey of self-discovery that takes her deeper and deeper into the heart and soul of what it means to be white and working class - an often-overlooked, if not despised, demographic - in Bermondsey today. With her vivid descriptions and engaging, often amusing dialogues written in colloquial tongue (`I can't believe I've got this posh cow (the author) leavin messages on my phone') charting the experiences of herself and her characters, a cross-section of Bermondsey folk, Evans' account is honest and unflinching. The reader not only understands but feels the transformation taking place in Evans as she begins to be accepted and learn what it means to be working class (`common') and `born and bred' in Bermondsey.

Jumping in at the deep end, Evans immerses herself utterly in the life of her protagonists, sometimes to the horror of her husband and children. There is a very amusing and revealing scene at an Ann Summers party and later at a karate competition in which one of Evan's children has been badly winded in a fight against an older boy (`Determined to copy the other Bermondsey mum, however, I harden my face, set my jaw and leap down to get closer to the fighting area. Shouting as loudly and fiercely as I can, not caring now who is watching, I scream at her, `Kill him Fola!'). Such amusing descriptions and real-life dialogues are interwoven with serious and in-depth anthropological and social analysis which fit seamlessly into her constantly engaging narrative prose.

Evans has an astute and discerning eye. Through her own patience, openness, participation and humanity, she manages to transcend and interrogate the class boundaries that structure our society. In doing so, she uncovers the real factors behind educational failure in inner-city areas such as Bermondsey. Through her long-term, close observation and participation in children's social worlds - at home, at school and on the street - Evans highlights the challenges facing working-class white kids in Bermondsey today as they struggle for acceptance and prestige in their locality (through whatever means possible and often in conflict with the requirements of school, because society at large offers them little hope of anything better).
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