PAUL WILLIS

•Willis argues that the education system is not particularly successful agency of socialisation.
• Rejects the idea that working class children just passively adapt the culture forwarded by school and capitalist society.

12 WORKING CLASS BOYS.

• An anti school‟ subculture, (the lads).
• The lads‟ tended to be working class and rebelled by “having a laff”
• "having a laff" was a coping strategy for the boredom of school.
• Willis said this prepared them for coping with boring routine jobs in adult life.
• It was their very rebellion, (not passivity) which reproduced the capitalist workforce.

THE "EAR 'OLES"

• A "pro school" subculture (the ear 'oles).
• The “ear 'oles” tended to be middle class and conformed.
• Students are rewarded with success for their conformity not their intellectual ability.
• Students who conform do better than those who challenge the system.

•Today such strategies as „having a laff‟ tend to lead to unemployment not routine jobs.
• Willis' study is too small to generalise the whole working class.
•He doesn't take into consideration ethnicity or gender.

Untitled Slide