ABSTRACT
The sociology of the schools of the urban working class is inextricably associated with conflict - of class and culture, of ideologies and social processes. The very architecture and physical structure of elementary and Board schools proclaimed their function as citadels of a dominant order and culture set in the midst of hostile and barbarous territory. For both teachers and pupils the ‘real’ world was external and constraining and characterized by hierarchy and order. Strategies of adaptation consisted in meeting the system on its own terms, achieving ‘good results’ in a formally defined sense and on the strength of the reputation thus acquired, subsequently introducing some variations of curriculum and pedagogy. The missionaries of progressive pedagogy in urban working-class schools were concerned to bring dignity, self-confidence, creativity, beauty and enrichment into the lives of working-class children as an antidote to the perceived lack of these things in their general environment.
