Classrooms and Staffrooms : The Sociology of Teachers and Teaching

Originally published in 1984, the articles presented here explore such matters as how teachers maintain order, how they treat their pupils and how they cope with pressure; they examine the ways in which teachers relate to their colleagues, what goes on in staffrooms, how they engage in educational debate, and what their ambitions are. The contributors get to grips with what it is really like to be a teacher, to make sense of the everyday rewards and penalties, opportunities and problems. This is the hallmark of the ethnographic method of educational inquiry. It brings to life (by close observation and/or in-depth interview) the internal workings of an institution or culture, revealing the perspectives of its members, their roles and adaptations and making explicit the routine or taken-for-granted features of institutional life. All the papers in the volume are to one degree or another located within this methodological tradition – they all begin with what life is actually like for teachers in schools. Though they draw on a range of theoretical perspectives, from interactionism and ethnomethodology, to Marxism and the ‘New Sociology of Education’; and more besides. In this volume the editors bring together examples of some of the most important and influential pieces of work which illustrate the range of material, and which have hitherto been spread widely among different research reports, academic journals, and collections of conference papers. Classrooms and Staffrooms provides a fund of quality source materials for initial and in-service teachers. Contents 8 Acknowledgements 10 Introduction 12 Part I: Teachers and Classroom Management 24 1 The Organization of Pupil Participation • Martyn Hammersley 25 2 Rules in Play • David H. Hargreaves, S.K. Hestor and F.J. Mellor 36 3 Mock-ups and Cock-ups: The Stage-Management of Guided Discovery Instruction • Paul Atkinson and Sara Delamont 47 4 Teaching for Survival • Peter Woods 59 5 The Significance of Classroom Coping Strategies • Andy Hargreaves 75 6 Teaching and Learning in English Primary Schools • Ann Berlak, Harold Berlak, Naida Tushnet Bagenstos and E.R. Mikel 97 Part II: Teachers as Differentiators 108 7 Social-class Variations in the Teacher–Pupil Relationship • Howard S. Becker 109 8 Classroom Knowledge • Nell Keddie 119 9 Social Stratification in the Classroom • Rachel Sharp and Anthony Green 134 10 One Spell of Ten Minutes or Five Spells of Two...? Teacher–Pupil Encounters in Art and Design Education • Les Tickle 142 11 Girls on the Margins: A Study of Gender Divisions in the Classroom • Michelle Stanworth 158 Part III: Teacher Cultures and Careers 170 1 2 What Teaching does to Teachers: Determinants of the Occupational Type • Willard Waller 171 13 Teacher Career and Work Rewards • Dan Lortie 185 14 The Meaning of Staffroom Humour • Peter Woods 201 15 Staffroom News • Martyn Hammersley 214 16 Contrastive Rhetoric and Extremist Talk • Andy Hargreaves 226 17 Subject Disciplines as the Opportunity for Group Action: A Measured Critique of Subject Sub-Cultures • Stephen J. Ball and Colin Lacey 243 18 Teacher Careers and Comprehensive Schooling: An Empirical Study • George F. Riseborough 256 Index 269