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Aspirational ambivalence of middle-class secondary students in Hong Kong
Tsao, Jack Hardy, Ian Lingard, Bob
Tsao, Jack
Hardy, Ian
Lingard, Bob
Author
Abstract
The research explores Hong Kong students’ dispositions towards higher education and employment in relation to understandings of their schooling experiences in English Medium of Instruction (EMI) schools in Hong Kong. The research draws upon Bourdieu’s theory of practice, Appadurai’s notion of the ‘capacity to aspire’, and Taylor’s concept of ‘social imaginary’, to help make sense of students’ aspirations for the future. Data included observation notes and interview transcripts with members of six focus groups across three distinctive schools in Hong Kong. Analytically, the research shows how aspirational dispositions and logics formed through specific configurations of the broader cultural and social milieu of Hong Kong, middle-class familial practices, non-elite EMI schooling experiences, and the place of English in Hong Kong, were complicit in fostering a sense of ambivalence about the future for these students.
Keywords
Aspirations, future imaginary, capacity to aspire, Bourdieu, English as Medium of Instruction (EMI) Schooling
Date
2018
Type
Journal article
Journal
British Journal of Sociology of Education
Book
Volume
39
Issue
8
Page Range
1094-1110
Article Number
ACU Department
Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education (ILSTE)
Faculty of Education and Arts
Faculty of Education and Arts
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
File Access
Controlled