The Working Class Promise: A Communicative Account of Mobility-Based Ambivalences

In-depth interviews with 62 people with working class ties (blue-collar workers and adult sons and daughters of blue-collar workers) reveal a social construction of working class that imbues it with four core, positively valenced values: strong work ethic, provider orientation, the dignity of all work and workers, and humility. This constellation of values is communicated through a ubiquitous macrolevel discourse—which I coin the Working Class Promise—that elevates working class to the highest position in the social class hierarchy and fosters a strong commitment to maintain a working class value system and identity. However, this social construction is only a partial social construction. That is, these individuals do not question material, socioeconomic-based delineations of class boundaries (e.g., income, education level, occupational prestige). Consequently, their acceptance of structural class boundaries, combined with their high regard of working class values, positions social classes in ways that make the goals of the American Dream (i.e., class mobility) and the Working Class Promise (i.e., class maintenance) paradoxical. I argue that the paradox of social mobility that results from this partial social construction is the root of mobility-based ambivalences

Empowering student voice in a secondary school: Character Education through project-based learning with students as teachers

This project explores ‘meaningful’ student voice development in an evaluation of project-based Character lessons taught by teachers and students. In the context of a secondary school in a deprived urban ward, within a Multi-Academy Trust using value-based instruction, this evaluation is grounded in the notion that student empowerment is essential for student development. Challenging both consultative approaches to student voice and didactic values teaching, this project demonstrates that schools should create freer spaces for students to collaborate and develop their sense of agency. Based on a participatory action research model, the evaluation employs a combination of ‘students as teachers’ and project-based learning approaches. The findings demonstrate that delivering Character lessons in these ways can encourage students to develop their voices through increased engagement and active listening. Moreover, within a wider school culture valuing meaningful student voice development, these approaches to Character lessons hold the potential to empower students and enable them to become more community minded