Class in the lecture room: Equitable initiations of knowledges

Johnston, Craig

Abstract

This article investigates higher education (HE) lecturers’ understandings of their own and others’ social class positioning and its impact on redistributing knowledge in the lecture-room. The literature on class and HE underscores the subtle processes of exclusion and exclusivity that permeate the social domain through activities and relations formed in these settings. The study examined the extent to which lecturers were not only attuned to their own students’ class background but how lecturers position themselves to enhance different forms of knowledge. Contemporary English (or post-92) universities, which are becoming increasingly performance driven and focused on social knowledge, risk lodging pedagogy at the level of experience linked to certain identities. The article draws on data from a quantitative and qualitative study of the agency of HE lecturers, from different disciplines and class heritages, to locate (working-class) students in what Bernstein described as the ‘discursive gap’. This suggests a need to teach and speak about class and its consequences but in ways that are educationally important to growing numbers of working-class students attending university. In doing this, the article contributes to developing the existing literature on the significance of social class in HE and emphasises the professional responsibilities of academics in lecture-rooms.

• Presentation Conference Type: Presentation / Talk
• Conference Name: The National Centre for Reconciliation, Truth, & Justice (NCRTJ) in partnership with The Alliance of Working- Class Academics (AWCA) present the 2024 (online) Conference: ‘Class, Race, Place: Exploring Intersectionality for Access to Higher Education Gl
• Start Date: Dec 6, 2024
• End Date: Dec 6, 2024
• Acceptance Date: Nov 21, 2024
• Deposit Date: Dec 6, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 6, 2024
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: pedagogy
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/13512151