The Social Practice of School Secretaries in public schools: What do they do at schools?

Abdullah Bayat PhD candidate

PhD by articles
Four/five articles/chapters Intro 1-The spatial practices of school administrative clerks: making space for contributive justice 2-Engendering rhetorical spaces to counter epistemic injustice: the voicing practices of school administrative clerks 3-The counterstories of school secretaries in South African Public schools 4-Spatial Resistance: The Counterspaces of School Administrative Clerks

Introduction to thesis 2
Social Practice Practice, for Bourdieu, is an effect of actions and interactions which are shaped, simultaneously and in equal measure, by the habitus and capital of agents, as well as the context and dynamism constituted by their shared participation in a common game (Crossley, 2003: 44). Bourdieu (1984) argued that everyday life consists of the struggle over power and society's resources. Dominant groups are committed to maintain their power over these resources and distinguish themselves from subordinate groups that attempt to increase their capital and opportunities. Habitus, Fields and Capitals

Introduction to thesis 1
Investigating Social Practice work practices of school administrative clerks Theoretical lens
Bourdieu Theory of Practice de Certeau- Resistance Lefebvre- Social Space Foucault-Power and Resistance

Intro Habitus Bourdieu (1977) used the term habitus to refer to the dispositions and attitudes that people develop through social interactions. The habitus is not inborn, but an acquired product of history, social experience, and education (Bourdieu, 1977, 2005). The habitus is a long-lasting structure of "perception, conceptions and actions" (Bourdieu 2005, p. 43). The habitus unconsciously steers people's practices, behaviours, and feelings and reflects their social history and location and equips social actors with competence, i.e. knowledge and skills, to play the social game and increase their capital assets (Bourdieu, 1977, 1984, 1988).

Intro-habitus 2
Habitus is durable, but analysis suggests that gendered habitus is more easily transformed, since part of womens oppression is their need and their consequent ability to adapt to the emotional demands of others, given their lesser economic, social and cultural capital. Habitus is the way society becomes deposited in persons in the form of lasting dispositions, or trained capacities and structured propensities to think, feel and act in determinant ways, which then guide them From their family backgrounds and previous experiences of the home, education and work, suitable girls bring essential cultural, social and emotional resources to the specific sector of the labour market they will enter. multiple, interacting and evolving provides substantial scope for individual agency

Habitus and space

According to Bourdieu, the habitus is the cultural, social, and spatial environment in which an individual lives. de Certeau acknowledges that Bourdieus conception of habitus does demonstrate how day to day practices do autonomously adapt themselves to social discipline inherent within spaces, but he criticizes Bourdieus own claim that such adaptations constitute only slight variations from the genres of action and response imposed by systems of power. In one example, Bourdieu likens the habitus to a home in which the experience of space shapes the individuals outlook on his or her place in the world. See Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice, (1977), pp. 90 92.

Intro-continued
Capital
Cultural capital Cultural capital and the means by which it is created or transferred from other forms of capital plays a central role in societal power relations, as this provides the means for a non-economic form of domination and hierarchy, as classes distinguish themselves through taste (Gaventa 2003: 6).

Intro 4
Field -a given social order, a network, or a configuration, of objective relations between positions
School

The field demands that these resources are further worked upon and developed. But at the same time, it only allows these resources to count as capital that is to circulate, accumulate and be exchanged for other forms of capital within highly restricted parameters

1-The spatial practices of school administrative clerks: making space for contributive justice
Argument
Social space provides room for agency

Theoretical lens Lefebvre production of space, de Certeaus resistance and contributive justice Major contribution of article
Spatial practices of admin clerks
Practices of Surrogacy Practices of Sway Practices of Care

2-Engendering rhetorical spaces to counter epistemic injustice: the voicing practices of school administrative clerks
Argument
Admin clerks engender rhetorical spaces through enhanced credibility to counter epistemic injustice they encounter

Theoretical lens
Codes Rhetorical Space, Frickers Epistemic injustice

Major contribution of article

Admin clerks suffer epistemic injustice They counter this through credibility exercises/actions to enhance their local epistemic credibility

3-The counterstories of school secretaries in South African Public schools

Argument Existing literature on school secretaries only promotes the management perspective Theoretical lens Counterstorytelling ,counter narrative Major contribution of article
The secretaries stories

4-Spatial Resistance: The Counterspaces of School Administrative Clerks

Argument Resistance by admin clerks because of their marginalised position leads them to establish counterspaces at school Theoretical lens Foucault power and resistance, counterspaces Major contribution of article
Resistance is creative