Description
This paper presents data exploring the attitudes towards, and experiences of, education for working-class lads from the former coalfields of Barnsley. Initial findings suggest a relationality between the industrial past and the ways in which these interact and shape the lads’ values, orientations and experiences. Intertwined with these historical modes of being and doing is another dynamic – un/diagnosed neurodivergence. Many of the lads – already disadvantaged by their social class and geographical locale – experienced further tensions and ‘discomforts’ (Doherty & de St Croix, 2024), exclusion and marginalisation within education.This paper draws on the notion of social haunting to examine the ways in which the lads’ contemporary orientations towards, and experiences of, education are shaped by the locale’s industrial past. Social haunting helps understand the ruptures, tensions and continuities within historical ways of being and doing towards education for those at the ‘chalkface’. Through understanding the ways in which the past-present shapes youth experiences towards education, we can then begin opening up possibilities for transforming youth conditions, experiences, and futures.
| Period | 11 Sept 2025 |
|---|---|
| Event title | Cultivating Change: Boys’ Impact Conference 2025 |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Manchester, United KingdomShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | National |