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Cultural capital, curriculum policy and teaching Latin

Jane Gatley

British Educational Research Journal, Volume: 49, Issue: 1

Swansea University Author: Jane Gatley

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DOI (Published version): 10.1002/berj.3836

Abstract

Latin is currently being trialled as a subject in 40 state secondary schools in England. This paper focuses on one of the justifications of this trial: that teaching Latin in state secondary schools provides students with cultural capital which in turn counters social injustice. By taking the exampl...

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Published in: British Educational Research Journal
ISSN: 0141-1926 1469-3518
Published: Wiley 2022
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60962
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first_indexed 2022-08-30T08:25:52Z
last_indexed 2023-01-27T04:14:30Z
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spelling v2 60962 2022-08-30 Cultural capital, curriculum policy and teaching Latin c4e96c9e3ef14ef3fc4f926397d9ff48 Jane Gatley Jane Gatley true false 2022-08-30 EDUC Latin is currently being trialled as a subject in 40 state secondary schools in England. This paper focuses on one of the justifications of this trial: that teaching Latin in state secondary schools provides students with cultural capital which in turn counters social injustice. By taking the example of Latin as a starting point, I reach two conclusions about cultural capital. The first is that providing students with cultural capital can be good for some individuals, and so justified on a case-by-case basis depending on context. However, this justification does not hold for curriculum policy making. My second conclusion is that in the long term, pursuing cultural capital as part of curriculum policy exacerbates the social injustices it purports to address. Wherever an activity is introduced for the sake of cultural capital rather than its educational value, educationally valuable activities risk being pushed off the curriculum, potentially degrading the educational value of the curriculum. In the case of teaching Latin, it may provide benefits to particular students, but as part of curriculum policy it risks exacerbating social injustices and undermining the educational value of school curricula. Going beyond the place of Latin on the curriculum, I argue that all appeals to cultural capital provide a poor basis for curriculum policy making. Journal Article British Educational Research Journal 49 1 Wiley 0141-1926 1469-3518 curriculum, inequity and social justice, philosophy of education, social and cultural capital 19 9 2022 2022-09-19 10.1002/berj.3836 COLLEGE NANME Education COLLEGE CODE EDUC Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) Economic and Social Research Council (GrantNumber(s): ES/W006146/1; Society for Applied Philosophy 2023-06-12T17:06:51.2286124 2022-08-30T09:22:59.6460338 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Social Sciences - Education and Childhood Studies Jane Gatley 1 60962__25178__f8eaa5cb6ea1403093b4bcd934d1fa47.pdf 60962_VoR.pdf 2022-09-21T13:09:34.1326767 Output 218584 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2022 The Author. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Cultural capital, curriculum policy and teaching Latin
spellingShingle Cultural capital, curriculum policy and teaching Latin
Jane Gatley
title_short Cultural capital, curriculum policy and teaching Latin
title_full Cultural capital, curriculum policy and teaching Latin
title_fullStr Cultural capital, curriculum policy and teaching Latin
title_full_unstemmed Cultural capital, curriculum policy and teaching Latin
title_sort Cultural capital, curriculum policy and teaching Latin
author_id_str_mv c4e96c9e3ef14ef3fc4f926397d9ff48
author_id_fullname_str_mv c4e96c9e3ef14ef3fc4f926397d9ff48_***_Jane Gatley
author Jane Gatley
author2 Jane Gatley
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description Latin is currently being trialled as a subject in 40 state secondary schools in England. This paper focuses on one of the justifications of this trial: that teaching Latin in state secondary schools provides students with cultural capital which in turn counters social injustice. By taking the example of Latin as a starting point, I reach two conclusions about cultural capital. The first is that providing students with cultural capital can be good for some individuals, and so justified on a case-by-case basis depending on context. However, this justification does not hold for curriculum policy making. My second conclusion is that in the long term, pursuing cultural capital as part of curriculum policy exacerbates the social injustices it purports to address. Wherever an activity is introduced for the sake of cultural capital rather than its educational value, educationally valuable activities risk being pushed off the curriculum, potentially degrading the educational value of the curriculum. In the case of teaching Latin, it may provide benefits to particular students, but as part of curriculum policy it risks exacerbating social injustices and undermining the educational value of school curricula. Going beyond the place of Latin on the curriculum, I argue that all appeals to cultural capital provide a poor basis for curriculum policy making.
published_date 2022-09-19T17:06:49Z
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