ABSTRACT
In recent years, the study of pupil perspectives and adaptations has been one of the growth points in the sociology of education. However, from Hargreaves to Willis, the focus has been predominantly on deviant or anti-school pupils. We can only speculate about the reasons for this, but two seem particularly plausible. The first is the overwhelming concern in the sociology of education since 1945 with the explanation of failure at school, and particularly the failure of working-class pupils. One of the consequences of this is that school success has not been treated as in need of explanation: ‘successful’ pupils simply have the personal characteristics, cultural backgrounds, material circumstances, etc., which ‘failures’ lack. Another possible explanation for the relative absence of studies of ‘conformist’ pupils is that researchers have taken over the preoccupation of teachers with problem behaviour. Paradoxically reinforcing this, perhaps, is the influence of the sociology of deviance with its celebration of the deviant and exotic. 1
