The UK study drawn on here focused on Year 11 students (age 15-16) and was carried
out during the1997/8 school year in a south London secondary school, ‘Taylor
Comprehensive’. The school is co-educational, multi-ethnic, with a large working class
population alongside a notable middle class minority. The Australian study focused on
Year 9 students (age 14-15) and was conducted during the 2001 school year in a western
Sydney high school, ‘Plains High’. The school is co-educational, multi-ethnic, and
located in a working class community with relatively high levels of poverty and low
social and geographic mobility. In an attempt to best illuminate the students’ discursive
practices, data are presented here as ‘Episodes’ that combine the conventions of
sociological transcription and scriptwriting. This makes evident the complex, contextual,
interactive and ongoing nature of discursive practice; facilitates detailed analyses of the
deployment of multiple discourses; and leaves the data open, as far as possible, to further,
alternative analyses. The Episodes discussed focus on two boys - Scott, from Taylor
Comprehensive, and Ian, from Plains High.
Scott, South London
Scott is 16 years old, White and from a middle class background. The head of year
identifies Scott as being in danger of ‘underachieving’ academicallyiii, however, he
publicly celebrates Scott’s significant achievement in ballet outside school. Scott is tall
with a slender muscular body, his posture and gait are erect and elegant. Like many of his
peers, Scott regularly deviates from formal school uniform. The nature of these
deviations, however, is unusual - he replaces grey trousers with metallic hi-tech fabric
track pants and obscures his regulation blue school sweatshirt with a contrasting white
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