TY - JOUR

T1 - Elite girls' 21st century schooling in Scotland

T2 - Habitus clivé in a shifting landscape

AU - Forbes, Joan

AU - Maxwell, Claire

AU - McCartney, Elspeth

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Our paper analyses data from four Heads of elite fee-charging girls’ schools in Scotland, focusing on how two social landscape changes–changing pupil demographics and pressures on schools’ charitable status–may have reshaped the schools’ institutional habitus. Following Bourdieu, we examine this question through the concept of habitus clivé. Shifting national-scale demographics and institutional pressures to fill expensive pupil places has generated a more diverse student population both in terms of academic ability and cultural background. Maintaining charitable status has, in turn, involved opening their space to non-school others, and developing interactions with the broader community. Insights are offered on how, despite these significant changes, schools’ current habitus commitments continue to align with their founding principles, while also adapting to these new contextual realities, as they seek to ensure their girl pupil subjects can succeed in the 21stcentury.

AB - Our paper analyses data from four Heads of elite fee-charging girls’ schools in Scotland, focusing on how two social landscape changes–changing pupil demographics and pressures on schools’ charitable status–may have reshaped the schools’ institutional habitus. Following Bourdieu, we examine this question through the concept of habitus clivé. Shifting national-scale demographics and institutional pressures to fill expensive pupil places has generated a more diverse student population both in terms of academic ability and cultural background. Maintaining charitable status has, in turn, involved opening their space to non-school others, and developing interactions with the broader community. Insights are offered on how, despite these significant changes, schools’ current habitus commitments continue to align with their founding principles, while also adapting to these new contextual realities, as they seek to ensure their girl pupil subjects can succeed in the 21stcentury.

KW - elite fee-charging girls’ schools

KW - habitus

KW - habitus clivé

KW - institutional habitus

U2 - 10.1080/00071005.2020.1812509

DO - 10.1080/00071005.2020.1812509

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85090307278

VL - 69

SP - 287

EP - 306

JO - British Journal of Educational Studies

JF - British Journal of Educational Studies

SN - 0007-1005

IS - 3

ER -