This book uses an ethnographic, cross cultural approach to study everyday life in secondary schools in London and Helsinki. Employing a metaphor of dance, it explores the relationship between the official school (correct steps), the informal school (improvised steps) and the physical school (the ballroom). Practices and processes of differentiation, marginalisation and cooperation are explored in relation to gender and its intersections with social class and ethnicity. The concluding question "who are the wallflowers?" is ...
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This book uses an ethnographic, cross cultural approach to study everyday life in secondary schools in London and Helsinki. Employing a metaphor of dance, it explores the relationship between the official school (correct steps), the informal school (improvised steps) and the physical school (the ballroom). Practices and processes of differentiation, marginalisation and cooperation are explored in relation to gender and its intersections with social class and ethnicity. The concluding question "who are the wallflowers?" is addressed through a critique of New Right politics and policies in education. The work is of interest to those studying sociology, women's studies and education.
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