98
Throughout the year the School Group was highly
valued by the students. They found its size conge-
ix of students
supportive and Sitmulating,
its function as a bridge between school and Institute
necessary and effective. For them it
working atmosphere, responsive
to
the:
as
had a good
individuals ,
while at the same time providing a place where new
ideas could be introduced and thought through. They
were inclined to feel that work in the Core could
be more effectively located in the smaller groups
..... A substantial part of the rationale here was
that subject tutorial groups provided a forum for
the concerns of the different schools .....
School Groups were obviously operating differently but
students were quite happy about this. The capacity
of the group to respond and change during the year
was approved of, and individuals took considerable
responsibility here. Continuity throughout the year
is understandably a key factor, for within the frag-
mentation, of which students were very aware, the
School Group remained as it began, the base of the
Alternative Course. (Jones 1981 pɜl)
The School Group facilitated the formation of sub-cultural groupings
that were wider than those of subject
although these could also have
It is likely that much of the
their place within the School Group.
work of professional socialisation is
accomplished
informally within
the
networks that
the
PGCE
makes
available .
Too often it is the
case that these networks are mutually subvervise thus institutional-
given other networks, might
ising Contradicitons and conflicts that
be worked with.
The emphasis
in the Sussex Research upon the exist-
ence of diverse social strategies provieded an example of how this
occurs .
They pointed to the collectivist strategies of the university compared
with the privatised strategies employed within the school. Further
that
they emphasised/for Sussex students the tension between the two set-
tings "cannot easily be resolved by internalised adjustment" and
therefore
learning to get by for many Sussex
students therefore