"Dropping Out," Drifting off, Being Excluded : Becoming Somebody Without School

by Smyth, John; Hattam, Robert; Cannon, Jenny; Edwards, Jan; Wilson, Noel; Wurst, Shirley

• ISBN13: 9780820455075
• ISBN10: 0820455075
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-01-01
• Publisher: Peter Lang Pub Inc

Author Biography

John Smyth is Emeritus Professor of Education at Flinders University of South Australia.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
PART I INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1 Capturing the Voices of Early School Leavers	3	(34)
Getting Oriented	3	(9)
Interrupting Habitual Readings	12	(5)
Naming the Problem-Perspective Is Everything	17	(2)
Developing a Research Orientation	19	(8)
Dialectical Theory-Building	27	(2)
Representing Lives in Portraits	29	(3)
Organization of the Book	32	(5)
PART II CONSTELLATION OF ORIENTING CONCEPTS
Chapter 2 Contextualizing Early School Leaving: Globalization, the State and Schools	37	(30)
Navigating a Transition	37	(1)
Mapping Context-Globalization	38	(2)
The Process of Economic Globalization	40	(7)
Socio-cultural and Technological Globalization	47	(1)
"Going for a Job"	48	(6)
"Getting Training"	54	(1)
"Going to University"	54	(2)
The Nature of the Contemporary Secondary School	56	(10)
What Does All of This Mean?	66	(1)
Chapter 3 Becoming Somebody with or without School	67	(30)
Youth Identity Formation	68	(5)
Interferences	73	(1)
The Impact of Media Culture	74	(2)
Children Are Now Seen and Want to Be Heard	76	(4)
Thinking about Suicide	80	(1)
The Use and Abuse of Illegal Substances	81	(1)
Friendships	82	(10)
Becoming Economically Independent: Learning about Work without School	92	(5)
PART III INDIVIDUAL, INSTITUTIONAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITIES
Chapter 4 Doing Identity Work: Class, Race and Gender	97	(38)
Class/Gender/Race in Constellation	98	(2)
Class as a Site of Identity Formation	100	(13)
Gendered School Leaving	113	(1)
Gender Difference and Schooling	114	(4)
The Wage-Labor Identity of Young Women	118	(2)
Post-school Options: Aspirations for Their Future	120	(3)
Harassment: Disciplining Gender Identities	123	(5)
Dealing with Racism	128	(3)
Interactive Trouble in Post-compulsory Schooling	131	(4)
Chapter 5 The Making of Young Lives with/against the School Credential	135	(20)
How Did the Credential Construct Young People?	138	(5)
How Did Young People Contest and Negotiate the Credential?	143	(5)
How Did the Credential Constitute an Impediment to Completion?	148	(4)
Whose Knowledge and Skills Were Celebrated, and Whose Excluded?	152	(3)
Chapter 6 School Culture and Student Voices in Early School Leaving	155	(36)
School Culture as an Orienting Theory	156	(5)
Cultural Geography of the School around Early School Leaving	161	(6)
Voices of Students on School Culture	167	(17)
Cultural Geography and the Crossing of School Boundaries	184	(2)
School Culture and Youth Identity Formation	186
PART IV CONCLUSION
Chapter 7 Grappling with the Mis-matches: Themes, Questions, Action	191	(6)
Notes	197	(2)
References	199	(14)
Index	213