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Talking back to power: Snowballs in hell and the imperative of insisting on structural explanations
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 19:51 authored by Becky Francis, Valerie HeyThis viewpoint explores and shares our experience of 'doing' feminism in the context of its apparent 'demise'. We were recently invited to attend an event at the Cabinet Office, to 'discuss the impact aspirations and expectations within the community have on the educational achievement of young people in deprived areas'. The seminar was entitled, 'Expert Seminar with the Minister for the Cabinet Office: Community Aspirations and Educational Attainment'. Appalled, both at the grammar (!), and the deficit account implications underpinning the Cabinet Office Invitation, we made contact with one another, and agreed that we would attend the seminar with the specific intention of challenging this discursive premise. We seek to use this Viewpoint to reflect on the experience in relation to academic activism and 'speaking back', as well as to take the opportunity to re-state a few of the key points that detonate the deficit discourse in relation to the educational attainment of working-class pupils.
History
Publication status
- Published
Journal
Gender and EducationISSN
0954-0253Publisher
RoutledgeExternal DOI
Issue
2Volume
21Page range
225-232Pages
8.0Department affiliated with
- Education Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes