Power relations within division of labor – the key to empowering learners from marginalized backgrounds in mathematics classrooms

ABSTRACT

Bringing Bourdieu and Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) together, I present, here, a methodology for pedagogic interventions that are developmental for non-dominant learners. Drawing on a Year 8 mathematics classroom (UK), I demonstrate how learners’ positioning, and position-takings in the division of labor of a teaching-learning activity (following CHAT) are mediated by objective power relations that perpetuate an inequitable educational system (following Bourdieu). Here, teachers recognizing and valuing learners’ non-dominant forms of capital, and peer relations is key to non-dominant learners’ enactment of agency and empowerment of their voices, and this can create opportunities of resistance, development, and change.

Introduction

The aim of this paper is to challenge ethnic, gender and social class inequalities in classrooms by (i) respecting learners’ and their peer groups’ agency and their identifications with, in this paper, mathematics, and (ii) showing that when teachers see and value such relations, development for learners from disadvantaged backgrounds become possible. Substantively, the aim is to demonstrate instances whereby opportunities for the co-construction of knowledge and learning in a classroom can lead to development and, thereby, challenge and transform oppressive forces at play.

The focus in this paper is on understanding, developing, and co-producing a pedagogy that has the potential to empower marginalized groups of learners and, in doing so, to also understand the barriers to transformation that exist within and between such groups. Ultimately, the aim is to unpack how solidarity can be developed through collective action in order to address issues of racism, prejudice, and all sorts of experiences of irrational marginalization from dominant society (Gaztambide Fernàndez et al., 2022). Having said this, one could argue that the neo-liberal education system¹ (see Ball, 1993) is completely defunct in terms of countering anti-othering narratives (of racism, sexism, capitalism, etc.) and needs to be abolished (Black et al., 2021). But here I present an alternative paradigm: instances of opportunities within classrooms in schools can be identified to create spaces (Gutiérrez, 2008) where marginalized, non-dominant learners can exert some agency (Stetsenko, 2019) and autonomy over how they want to learn and with who, whilst also being engaged in the curricular activity. Additionally, the challenge also lies in overcoming assumptions that diverse ethnic, gendered and classed communities and learners facing inequality experience it in similar ways. To build solidarity and actively address how inequalities are experienced in classrooms effectively, it is crucial to explore both the differences and similarities in the experiences of such marginalized groups. For this reason, I present in the analysis two differential teaching-learning experiences of non-dominant learners from the same class and lesson, where in one case non-dominant learners feel empowered and in the other it leads to missed opportunities. Identifying and analyzing such differential experiences of oppression can then foster social change. I argue we² can achieve this by bringing into dialogue neo-Vygotskian and Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) concepts with Bourdieu’s tools in order to unpack the complexity and barriers present in empowering distinct ethnic, gendered, and classed groups of learners (more below). It is also to be noted that in this paper I describe learners in different ways to acknowledge and recognize that people are whole, complicated, complex beings and represented in a myriad of ways: non-dominant also signifies to mean marginalized, oppressed, disadvantaged, vulnerable, alienated, oppressed, underprivileged and vice versa.

Indeed, classroom interactions have been shown to be “distinctly gendered… [and] powerfully differentiated by social class” (Reay, 2006, p. 342) based on notions of competitiveness, classroom settings and ability groupings (Black & Radovic, 2018). And peer relations remain one of the key factors in understanding learning in classrooms as they appear to play a significant role in shaping learners’ social, i.e., ethnic, gender, class identities and dispositions (Arnot & Reay, 2007, Choudry et al., 2017) toward learning mathematics (Radovic et al., 2017). Peer relations are also found to partially mediate attainment outcomes, especially in adolescence (Rossem et al., 2013). This study examines the role such peer relations/friendships play in mediating differential learning experiences for learners from oppressed ethnic, gender and class backgrounds, i.e., non-dominant learners, in a secondary school mathematics classroom in the UK.

This topic is timely, given that recent onslaught of pandemics such as coronavirus worldwide has exposed and led to a perpetuation of racial/ethnic, gender and class inequalities in all areas of day to day lived experiences, even in educational contexts. The UK Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) reported a 2.27% increase in the attainment gap between learners from poorer³ and affluent homes from 2019 to 2021 (DfE, 2020, Lee, 2021). The issue, i.e., inequalities as experienced by those from oppressed backgrounds, doesn’t just lie with examinations and attainment, but also exists within classroom cultural practices such as ability grouping and setting which perpetuate disadvantage. Setting within classrooms and within-class groupings are a key case in point, since they have been shown to lead to an accumulation of educational capital or power which advantages learners from privileged backgrounds but disadvantages others (Francis et al., 2017). Thus, existing educational “structures, systems, policies and attitudes of society” (Dowling & Dolan, 2001, p. 22) are already geared toward favoring the dominant within society and oppressing the vulnerable. Furthermore, there is very little mention of racial disparities⁴ within UK government commissioned reports on attainment gaps and inequalities for those from disadvantaged communities (see Lee, 2021 and Sewell et al. 2021 as examples of such reports). Evidently, there appears to be a denial of historical institutional racism and its impact on learning. Thus, this calls for an urgent need for activist research that continues to fight for empowering the oppressed (Freire, 1970).

In this paper, I draw on Bourdieu’s tools along with Neo-Vygotskian and modern Activity Theory’s concepts to identify and analyze barriers and opportunities to building solidarity in the form of maintaining peer group relations and friendships whilst also learning in ways that has the potential to lead to development and change for non-dominant learners, thus, challenging structural inequalities. I will first state why we need Bourdieu followed by two ways in which Bourdieu adds to CHAT:

1. Power, capital mediating positioning and position takings in activities: Bourdieu and Passeron (1990) argued that we need to unpack how schooling perpetuates inequality through reinforcing dominant forms of education, affording power onto those who appear more attuned to such forms of learning (e.g., dominant middle classes). I add to this by arguing that the (dis-) engagement and identifications that lead children from non-dominant backgrounds to rule themselves out of education are instantiations of being dominated (see Willis 1997/2017 as an example of why working-class boys rule themselves out of education, as it does not fit with their laddish culture). Hence, the local structure of schooling, if unchallenged, ensures class reproduction (Choudry & Williams, 2017). Thus any pedagogic intervention at a local level, such as within classrooms, that aims to realign non-dominant learners to dominant forms of education, i.e., capital, perpetuates an inequitable educational system (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990, Williams and Choudry, 2016). Here, I define capital, especially mathematics capital, as the embodiment of “a combination of mathematics qualifications, skills, understandings, dispositions and so forth” (Choudry et al., 2017, p. 1039) perceived by the dominant as symbolic (Bourdieu, 1977). On the contrary, I define educational skills, know-hows, dispositions, etc. acquired outside of formal schooling, as non-dominant forms of capital as they lack symbolic value in the dominant education system. Here, Bourdieu (1977) described symbolic value as the “collectively recognized credit” (p 121) that reinforces and re-produces differential power relations within society under the disguise of what is perceived as worthy of pursuit by those in power. By bringing Bourdieu and CHAT into dialogue, I argue that for any pedagogic activity to build solidarity with and between non-dominant-learners, one must, first, examine how power relations and positions of power mediate communities, rules, norms, positioning/position-takings in the division of labor in a teaching-learning activity (following Engeström, 1987). Specifically, I demonstrate in the analysis that positioning and position-takings in the division of labor of a teaching-learning activity, e.g., teachers assigning roles in a learning task in a classroom, is mediated by objective power relations, i.e., capital, bearing consequences to oppressed learners’ learning experiences. Next, I add to this by arguing that these structural inequalities can be challenged by taking learners’ voices⁵ into account.

2. Alienation as understood through use and exchange value following CHAT – I add to the above by bringing CHAT into the forefront: further argue that any forms of pedagogic re-alignment, attempts or interventions that do not consider non-dominant learners’ own interests, cultural resources, experiences and peer relations/friendships lead to experiences of alienation. Such instances of “subjective alienation” (Williams, 2016, p. 61), e.g., present themselves, at times, in classrooms in forms of learner disengagement, disruptions, and lack of interest (Choudry et al., 2017). On the other hand, “objective alienation” (Williams, 2016, p. 61) refers to the process of othering non-dominant learners experience as a result of a teaching-learning activity that focuses only on exchange value. Such an activity, from a Bourdieusian perspective, signifies a process where capital is exchanged for more capital (i.e., investing power for more power) serving the purpose of appearing to more likely enriching the experiences of the privileged and dominant, e.g., middle class learners in higher setting groups potentially achieving higher attainment results – effects of streaming and setting. Next, I demonstrate how challenging these power dynamics by examining non-dominant learners’ subjective experiences of alienation in classroom teaching-learning activities, e.g., where friendships are not at the expense of learning (and vice versa), can be seen as acts of solidarity.

3. Contradictions within and between activities, development and change drawing on Engestrom’s third generation activity theory (1990): finally, I argue that a closer examination of non-dominant learners’ experience of alienation, which as I stated before presents itself, at times, in the form of disengagement, disruption, etc., through the lens of multiple activities can reveal contradictions between the goals/objects (Leontiev, 1981, Vygotsky, 1978) of dominant activities in schools and classrooms. Examining these contradictions, e.g., where the goal of the socialization activity (i.e., friendship formation) is at the expense of the goal of the learning activity, can lead to the identification of instances of opportunities for development and change. Thus, to conceptualize change and development for non-dominant learners, we need to identify such moments and instances of opportunities for empowering learners’ voices. In other words, disruptions and disengagement when understood as experiences of subjective alienation can reveal contradictions within and between activities (Engeström, 1990). Negating these contradictions can be empowering for non-dominant learners leading to new transformative teaching and learning activities (Engeström & Sannino, 2017). Fundamentally, key to this is teachers recognizing and valuing such instances of subjective alienation that are rooted in contradictions as having developmental potential. As stated earlier, in this paper, use value can be seen in the ways that learners make choices about learning with their peers. Thus, I define, specifically, a teaching-learning activity as developmental for non-dominant learners, if it has both: use and exchange value. And in this study, valuing and recognizing learners’ choices to be with their peers whilst engaging in the curricular task, where one is not at the expense of the other, are presented as acts of solidarity.

Thus, in this paper I provide a theoretical framework to regenerate CHAT through Bourdieu. In the next sections, I will elaborate the various theoretical tools and concepts mentioned above as operationalized in key texts that are exemplary for the need of the arguments that I am developing here. Consequently, the work presented in this paper is benefitting to researchers and practitioners who wish to challenge and contribute to the transformation of inequitable education systems, with significant implications for sociocultural theory but also educational research and practice.

Empowering learners’ voices through dialogue between Bourdieu and CHAT

In the next sub-sections, I focus on expanding on two concerns pertaining to the analysis later: (1) I discuss how a teaching-learning activity can be perceived as being developmental for non-dominant learners and (2) how this is operationalized through negating contradictions within and between such activities.

What makes a teaching-learning activity developmental for non-dominant learners?

Roth and Radford (2011) draw on Vygotsky’s concept of Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, 1962) and obuchenie, i.e., a joint teaching-learning activity, to demonstrate how a student named Mario was initially overcome with emotions, nearly giving up, but eventually managed to calmly complete a mathematics task, i.e., a multiplication worksheet, with the intervention of the teacher. This joint teaching-learning activity was perceived as developmental by the authors. The authors did not reveal Mario’s background. Nevertheless, the focus of the experiment was to get learners to complete a curricular task. Thus, what we are seeing here is a re-alignment to a curricular task that inevitably reinforces dominant forms of learning, i.e., exchanging capital for more capital, absent of non-dominant learners’ own autonomy over how they want to learn and with who and, thus, has no use value. Williams (2016) critiques Roth and Radford’s (2011) presentation of the pedagogical activity in the mathematics classroom as developmental stating that it is quite the opposite to development and can be seen as perpetuating inequality as the curriculum, and pedagogy itself focuses only on exchange value, thereby, only appears to serve the dominant classes. Mario’s emotional outburst could be seen as an experience of subjective alienation. I agree with Williams and Choudry’s (2016) critique by adding that for the teaching-learning activity to be developmental, it also has to serve the purpose of empowering non-dominant learners through seeing and valuing how they want to learn and with who (not just focussing on the process of exchange). What remains unclear is if Mario’s emotional outbursts (i.e., experiences of subjective alienation) were rooted in any contradictions within the teaching-learning activity or between any other dominant forms of activity in that classroom. Identifying, and negating any such contradictions could have opened up possibility for change and development that has the potential to challenge and transform structural inequalities.

Other significant theorizations, such as the Funds of Knowledge approach (see Esteban-Guitart & Moll, 2014, Moll et al., 1992) that center around examining how to functionalize learning so that it is developmental for the oppressed, have called for the identification of rich resources and repertoires by teachers, i.e. funds, embedded within the homes and communities of non-dominant learners to see how these can be operationalized in schools. Black et al. (2021) argue that this is a defunct exercise as repositioning non-dominant learners’ rich lived experiences, know-hows, and skills to align with existing curricular knowledge or capital ignores the very fact that the educational system is disconnected from the oppressed in the first place, i.e. it has no use value in their day to day lives. I argue that for any such pedagogic intervention to be equitable and socially just, it has to be led by non-dominant learners (rather than teachers). And teachers recognizing and valuing learners’ voices can be seen as developing solidarity with and between non-dominant learner communities/groups.

I also argue that teachers’ perceptions, such as recognizing and valuing learners’ voices, is mediated by objective power relations. In fact, the community, norms and rules, and the division of labor in an activity are all subject to these power relations. In this paper, I, specifically, unpack how such notions of power mediate positions and position-takings in the division of labor in the teaching-learning activity. However, positions, positionings and position-takings are not interchangeable in different theorizations.⁶ Bourdieu argues that, e.g., a classroom space is constituted as a set of power relationships between positions that can be occupied by learners with the right kind of capital, i.e., as dominant or dominated (Bourdieu, 1990). In contrast, CHAT assumes that learners’ positions determine one’s place in the division of labor for an activity, and these position takings then mediate an individual subjects’ actions, goals and consciousnesses and contradictions between them (Engeström, 2015). In this paper, I argue that the position-takings that define one’s role in an activity are mediated by the inequitable structural relations of power at play (Gutiérrez & Jurow, 2016) in that given space. It is only after one addresses the local structural relations of power at play within the community (e.g., teachers) who define these roles that one can start to understand why some non-dominant learners may or may not supersede contradictions between activities, leading to differential development opportunities. In other words, we need to unpack how complex power relations at play guide (at times subconsciously) one’s understanding and perceptions of non-dominant learners’ experiences of subjective alienation as disruptions rather than opportunities for development. These understandings and experiences underpin our pedagogical choices (consciously or unconsciously) and mediate the differential roles non-dominant learners take up in the teaching-learning activity as demonstrated later in the analysis of the data.

Where are the contradictions and how and why would you negate them?

Through CHAT I am providing an exploration of this struggle. Indeed, a classroom is a site of multiple activities that are at times driven by contradictory goals/objects (Leontiev, 1981). For example, for some learners schooling represents a site for romanticism, and/or socialization, e.g. to build solidarity in order to survive poverty (Willis, 2017), dominated by the process of making friends; whereas, others find themselves aligned with the school demands, sometimes one comes at the expense of the other. These goals/objects do not necessarily have to be at the expense of each other, but in certain contexts contradictions can become prevalent. Engeström (2015) has argued that contradictions within the activity system appear “when representatives of culture (e.g., teachers) introduce the object and motive of a culturally more advanced form of central activity into the dominant form of the central activity. For example, the primary student goes to school to play with their friends (dominant motive), but the teacher and parents try to make him study more seriously (culturally more advanced form of activity)” (Engeström, 2015, p. 54). Engeström (1999) have argued that for any teaching-learning activity to be developmental one has to focus on such contradictions that arise within and between activities (Ilyenkov, 1977). For example, learning can appear at the expense of socialization/friendship formations, leading non-dominant learners to disengage, experiencing subjective alienation, in the teaching-learning activity. I am drawing on Engeström (1999) notion of multiple representation of voices and layers “of historically accumulated artifacts, rules, and patterns of division of labor … [which become] both a resource for collective achievement and a source of compartmentalization and conflict” (Cole et al., 1997, p. 4) within and between activities (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Engeström’s (2015) general model of an activity system.

I argue that contradictions between goals/object of two dominant activities can be superseded by marginalized and alienated learners if mediated appropriately by the community, i.e. teachers, school, etc. by recognizing and valuing learners’ voices. And learning with friends, even if it doesn’t align with classroom norms and rules, has use and exchange value for such learners and can be seen as an enactment of their agency.⁷ Arguably, only then can a new joint teaching-learning activity with a “culturally more advanced motive” (Engeström, 2015, p. 54) have both: exchange and use value.

Next, I present data from a Year 8 mathematics classroom of an inner-city school in England with diverse ethnic minority backgrounds (i.e. Somali, Arab, African Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi) from impoverished backgrounds. In the classroom under investigation, I observed two dominant forms of activities: the first activity is what we would call the teaching-learning activity with the goal/object to learn mathematical skills, and the second activity has a different goal/object of socialization/friendship formation. At times, maintaining friendships or wanting to be popular amongst friends comes at the expense of engaging in the teaching-learning activity and vice versa. The teacher’s role in shaping the learning environment and their perceptions of the learners’ capital were also evaluated. Thus, I ask:

How can identifying moments of subjective alienation rooted in contradictions between goals of dominant activities in classrooms be of value to those interested in change/transforming pedagogies in ways that are developmental for non-dominant learners and what role does uncovering hidden structural relations of power play in mediating such transformations?

Methodology

I use an exploratory case study approach with a single classroom to operationalize the theoretical synthesis presented above. A single case study design can help to evaluate or focus on one particular phenomenon and help to test the “critical state in a well-formulated theory” (Yin, 2003, p. 40). Hence, the case in this small-scale inquiry is this particular, occasioned mathematics classroom. The drawbacks of using a single case (as compared to multiple cases) are that it does not allow for comparisons (between several cases) in order to validate the findings across a diverse range of case conditions. However, I have addressed this issue by using an “embedded design” (Yin, 2003, p. 43), i.e. more than one sub unit embedded within the main case. I draw on two examples that exemplify the differential experiences of non-dominant learners within this class.

About the school and selected classroom

The school itself is an inner-city school in an urban area in England, with twice as many non-dominant learners using Free School Meals (FSM) as a proxy for poverty, and three times as many English as additional language speakers as the national average. According to the UK Census 2011, up to 40% of the population in the locality of the school are migrants. This is indicative of the fact that the school has a high migrant intake. The mathematics classroom under investigation has a total of 20 number of learners with 17 from an ethnic minority background.⁸ Out of these, 7 are from ethnic minority backgrounds and 15 are eligible for FSM. Interestingly there are only 5 girls⁹ in the classroom, which is indicative of a gender imbalance.

Status quo of the classroom

This particular class was recommended by the Head of Mathematics Department (HoD), who characterized the learners and the learning environment as sometimes chaotic, however, also crucial as it occupied a crucial borderline position¹⁰ i.e. average predicted General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE)¹¹ Maths grade C and D.¹² This class was already partaking in research by another university with the aim to improve learners’ learning outcomes through what the HoD described as an “equitable pedagogical learning” approach as it entailed grouping and selecting learners randomly to partake in the learning tasks. There were a total of five groups of four learners each labelled 1–4 to allow random selection. These groups were supposed to be re-mixed every half term randomly in order to achieve a mixed ability and gender setting. However, the teacher took liberty to be flexible in the group settings, as evident later. The class itself was set up to minimize interactions between groups and increase intragroup dialogue. Group performance was rated with points ranging from 1 to 5 or 10 for outstanding contribution. These points were accumulated by each group on a score sheet and the results were displayed every week on the leaderboard. Such a pedagogic setup seemed very appropriate for my investigation, since it marked the class out as a case distinct from the other classes in the school and provided opportunities to observe dissonance.

Data collection

The data presented in this paper is part of my larger study, including six formal lesson observations that were video-recorded. Prior to recording the lessons, I spent five weeks with this class in order to familiarize myself with the learners, the teacher, and the pedagogical practices, at times also acting as a teaching assistant. I also interviewed six learners and the teacher from this class. Classroom data such as prior mathematics attainment results and classroom policy documents were also collected.

In the next sections, I focus on two groups: B and C and their lived experiences within a particular mathematics lesson. The vignettes below provide the reader with a rich description of the learners’ and teacher’s behavior that were typical for these groups.

Disruptions, disengagement and dissonance or missed teaching-learning opportunities – a case of group B

Group B consists of 4 learners, namely, Majeed, Alia, Zara and Pierce. The vignette below accounts for the teacher’s and learners’ practices during a lesson observation.

Vignette I – an insight into group B –lesson 4

The dice rolls a 2. Pierce has been assigned the number 2 prior to the task, so he has been randomly chosen for it. He asks for more time but is told that he has only one second. He gets up from his seat, walks over to the board in order to complete the multiplication task and earn his group some points (see Figure 2). In fact, all number learners who are labelled 2 in the five groups are asked to solve the starter turn by turn by Mr. James. Whilst Pierce is writing away on the board, there is a distinctive rising noise level in the class. Some learners are trying to give the answers away by shouting them out loud. Others are actually walking up to the board knowing that they are next and not waiting for their turn. There is a sense of competition between the five groups and an attempt to show Mr. James that they have solved it first. It’s at this point when the noise level reaches the stage where it is impossible for Mr. James to even hear those standing next to him.

Figure 2. Multiplication starter Activity

Pierce’s group does not seem to be taking down any notes. Majeed is involved in a fight with a someone across the room. Zara and Alia (also members of Pierce’s group) are continuously chatting away completely oblivious to Majeed’s disruptions and Pierce’s attempt to solve the task. In this moment, Pierce looks over to Mr. James and sees him raising his hand right up in the air. Suddenly, the whole class goes quiet. Everyone has their hand up except Pierce’s group, as they are still chatting away. Mr. James takes a moment and then gives points to the groups that have quieted down first. Pierce’s group has missed an opportunity to collect points. Afterward, the learners carry on with their task. Mr. James turns to Majeed, who is still involved in the pretend fight, and sends him outside of the classroom. It’s only at this moment that Alia (one of the two girls in the group) looks over to Pierce, who is still struggling with the starter (as he has only got the first answer right so far):

Pierce [referring to 9 × 8]: Who knows this one? [Pause] Alia!

Alia [is giggling with Zara]: 74!…Bullshit [she shouts next]!

Pierce [writes it down and asks next]: −7 × 8!

Alia:I know … 54! [Pause] What about the first one? [Referring to 9 × 8again] 74 … I think! Is it? [Alia is asking Ahmed from Group D]

Ahmed (from Group D): 72!

Alia [addresses her answer to the teacher]: Sir, 72!

Zara: ha ha ha [giggling away].

The other groups are now keen to progress to the next stage of the lesson, as they have finished. Finally, Pierce returns to his group. Mr. James’ hand goes up again to silence a very loud classroom. Pierce is the only one in his group to raise his hand in response, presumably hoping to gain some points. But once again to no avail. Alia and Zara, totally uninterested at this point, start giggling much to Pierce’s annoyance. “Shut up!”, Pierce responds. Whilst every other group is checking their answers on the board with Mr. James, Pierce and the other two girls in his group (i.e. Alia and Zara) continue to exchange insults with him. Pierce gets 2 points for his starter activity as he has only obtained one right answer (the lowest score awarded). Alia notes down the marks on their group performance sheet.

The next tasks in this lesson involve explaining the concept of doubling two-digit numbers, multiplication through partitioning of two digit and three-digit numbers, halving numbers and inverses. Majeed is asked to re-join the class 20 minutes into the lesson. In each of the three tasks that follow, Pierce is chosen once and Majeed twice (both randomly) for participation; each time they score the lowest points. “Pierce … Pierce and Majeed … these two girls are letting you down,” says Mr. James immediately after another low point score. After noting down the total, Zara and Alia continue to talk loudly to each other and giggle away, which seems to be more important to them than complying with the rules of the task.

Analysis of group B vignette

The above vignette exemplifies how four non-dominant learners are either engaged or disengaged in the teaching-learning activity, where disengagement and disruptions are seen as experiences of subjective alienation. Furthermore, I will demonstrate in the analysis in this section how for three of the non-dominant learners, Majeed, Alia and Zara, the goal of friendship formation is at the expense of mathematics learning and for Pierce learning is at the expense of friendships. Hence, there are two dominant activities with contradictory goals/objects present in the classroom. Here, friendship formation can be seen as acts to build solidarity for non-dominant learners where surviving in and outside of schools is dependent on such relations. Finally, I will demonstrate how at least two non-dominant learners, Alia and Zara, try and negate these contradictions but to no avail as it doesn’t lead to developmental opportunities that have use and exchange value.

The behaviors observed and described above of the four learners with each other, the teacher and the rest of the class can be perceived as typical as that was also happening in other observations. Their behavior is varied ranging from chatting and laughing (as is the case with Alia and Zara), total disengagement (Majeed) to compliance (Pierce) with the mathematics tasks. Evidently, there is more than the teaching-learning activity going on in this classroom. This lesson began with all learners completing a multiplication starter activity. Part of the group’s responsibility was to help Pierce. But as the above vignette shows, this sense of responsibility was not shared amongst the group. For example, Majeed was completely dis-engaged, as illustrated through his actions of throwing around objects and talking non-stop with the goal to be loud or funny. In fact, throughout the weeks, Majeed was sent out of lessons multiple times, something he seemed to not mind as he was always smiling when this happened. His class always cheered every time Majeed received a punishment from the teacher. Thus, Majeed appeared to be involved in an activity with the goal/object to be a popular one or cool one who has a carefree attitude, as evident by his actions: the pretend fights, throwing around of paper, pencils, and rubbers, etc. In fact, there was at least one student disrupting the class in 3 out of the 5 groups. During lesson 4 and 5, Raheem (from Group C – discussed in Vignette II below) was continuously trying to out-do Majeed in a competition style in order to win recognition from his peers as the one with the most carefree attitude. This indicates that there were others engaged in this socializing/being popular activity. Majeed’s (and Raheem’s) disengagement and disruptions can be seen as experiences of subjective alienation, where engaging with learning mathematics didn’t afford him more popularity in this space. Hence, both goals/objects of the socializing activity and teaching-learning activity are in contradiction with each other. Neither Majeed or other non-dominant learners like Majeed nor the teacher or the space itself was set up to negate this contradiction.

Disruptions from Alia are different in nature, as she was participating in the mathematics tasks (e.g. the multiplication starter activity), although still appealing to the street crowd of the peer groups as a pack leader in similar ways to Majeed. For example, in the classroom extract in vignette 1, Pierce ignored Alia’s attempt to engage in the task because her behavior (along with Zara’s) seemed to be annoying him. Alia also preferred conferring with other groups, rather than helping Pierce, which is against the classroom rules. Such experiences of dissonance amongst the group were quite common, as evident below in another example:

Mr James [trying to explain the concept of halving]: The 2’s standing up, please. Ok, halve … halve. Ok, Pierce. Go on.

Pierce: [inaudible]

Alia and Zara: ha ha ha [giggling away, which leads to behaviour management by Mr. James].

Alia: It’s a … Sir! It’s a number what’s divided into equal parts.

Majeed: But that’s not halve Alia!

Alia: Yeah, it is!

Majeed: That’s not a halve!

Pierce: Halve … halve! (stressing the “v” sound to indicate the difference between half and halving)

Alia: Oh!

As before, the above shows Alia (and Zara) to be mostly distracted during the task and when she did engage, she directed her response to Mr James instead of helping Pierce. Alia also misunderstood the question (hence Majeed and Pierce’s prompting), resulting in another low score. When I asked Alia about her learning experience in this group, she said, “I don’t like it [being in Group B], because Sir always puts us in the wrong groups … because in our group they are always messing about … . like putting all the bad people in one group.” When asked if the composition of the group mattered to her, she responded: “Yeah, because it feels awkward to be sat in a table with boys.” Alia, in her own words, wanted to learn, but not with the boys in the assigned group. Throughout the formal and informal observations of this class, Alia was seen to mostly interact and confer mathematics problems with female peers within her assigned group (Zara) and outside of her own group, which was against the rules. So, she was faced with a contradiction of being with her female friends at the cost of learning, as her terms for learning were not supported by the rules and norms of the teaching-learning activity. Gender can be seen as being implicated here, since it can be deduced to some extent from the observations, peer to peer interactions, and the interview that Alia prefers to learn with her friends. Alia’s instances of disruptions, disengagement and outbursts can be seen as subjective alienation from the teaching-learning activity, especially, as it holds little use value to her without enabling her to interact with her friends.

Throughout the six lessons I formally observed, Alia was continuously trying to get Mr. James’ attention by shouting out the answers at him whilst also competing for attention from her female friends. Evidently, she was trying to negate the contradiction of learning at the expense of who you want to learn with, her peer relations. She positioned herself as the helper (when asked about her role in the group): “sometimes I help others and I collect the points”, Alia responds. However, her disruptions in the form of continuous shouting, which can be seen as instances of subjective alienation from the dominant teaching-learning activity, were seen by the teacher as just that and not as having developmental potential. “Because they are disruptive really. We’ve not had that level of disruption with other groups”, Mr. James said whilst continuing to reflect on the learners’ performance in the tests. Thus, she is not positioned in the division of labor of the teaching-learning activity by the teacher as the helper. Reflecting on Alia’s test grades, Mr. James further adds, “she has been doing well [surprised looking at the results], but she dipped in the last [referring to the test results] … since she joined in this group. Look at her scores there [pointing at the grade sheet – slightly surprised again], starts off very well. … Really on target there. But her last test in this group it’s … It’s a massive dip really. And that’s because she is in that group. It’s no twist about it. She’s not been focused at all”.

In both extracts of the classroom talk, evidently, the interactions between and within the assigned groups and the teacher appear to be mediated by the teacher’s perception of the learners’ capital, impacting positionings and position-takings in the roles that the learners take up in the teaching-learning activity. For example, when Mr James shouted out at Alia and Zara to say that they are letting Pierce down, his perception was shaped by his own understanding of their disengagement, which subsequently shaped his understanding of their mathematics capital. When questioned by me, Mr. James appeared surprised to see that Alia’s prior attainment in mathematics was high to begin with. This was also the case for Zara, as Mr James stated: “ … but she is consistent [looking surprised] … 3A … . did 4C there [one of the higher scores in this class] … but she should be improving her score really … .it’s not … [pause]. I think she has held back a little bit … She will benefit by being in the other groups without a doubt … ”. Alia, too, recognizes that disruptive learners have been placed in one group, thus, for Alia (and Zara) learning and socializing with their female friends is at the expense of each other creating a contradiction between the goals of the corresponding activities. Alia tried to negate these two contradictory goals/objects: to socialize with her female friends and to learn mathematics, but not at the expense of her friendships leading to subjective alienation. The pedagogy itself, the rules of the teaching-learning activity focusing on exchange value only imposed on the learners, seem to contribute toward the alienation Alia is experiencing. Thus, here, I argue we see instances of hidden power relations at play in classrooms disguising itself as learners’ disruptive behaviors and in doing so putting the blame on non-dominant learners, but, instead, could be argued are missed opportunities for development.

The next vignette presents a shorter counter example from the same lesson where the teacher is recognizing and valuing learners’ voices, providing a space where these learners can enact their agency (Gutiérrez, 2008), thus leading to developmental and transformative opportunities (Stetsenko, 2019).

Co-construction of knowledge through equitable learning processes in classroom activities – the role of power in local cultural educational fields – a case of group C

This particular assigned group consists of four male learners, namely: Abdul, Mohammed, Raheem and Amin. All four learners are first generation migrants from impoverished, ethnic minority backgrounds, Somali, Arab and Pakistani respectively. Note that the vignette below is from the same lesson as vignette I. In this vignette, I will demonstrate a differential experience to, e.g., Alia where the teacher recognizing and valuing non-dominant learners’ voices positions some of the boys as helpers, thereby negating the contradiction in goals/objectives shown previously.

Vignette II – an insight into group C – lesson 4

It is Group C’s turn and the student selected (through the random generator) is Mohammed, who has remained quiet throughout the lesson so far. He is given the task of explaining the concept of multiplication through “partitioning” of two- and three-digit numbers using a worked example, which is as follows:

59 × 99

Mohammed does not say anything but starts to write on the board. He has written the following so far:

59 × 100

5900

At this stage, Mr. James asks Abdul (another student from Mohammed’s group) to assist him. Abdul’s role in this situation is to not only assist Mohammed but to also act as a translator so that Mr. James can communicate with him with regards to this task (as Mohammed is not a fluent English speaker). Therefore, Mohammed tells Abdul what he is doing and adds the following to the board (additions/changes made are in bold):

59

This leads to further confusion. Prompted by Mr. James’ request for clarification, Abdul takes the marker and makes the following changes in his attempt to convey Mohammed’s communication. He completes the task as Mohammed is telling him to do in Arabic (additions/changes made are in bold - Figure 3):

Figure 3. Abdul’s working out.

Having understood what Mohammed is trying to do, Mr. James then says to Abdul, “ask him to partition 59.” Mohammed writes a 50 and a 9 on the board. Mr. James then says, “Mohammed, what have you partitioned there?” Abdul, who immediately starts to give his own explanation, interrupts him. So, Mr. James responds, “I know … I know you know how to do it but I want Mohammed to. What’s that number?” At this point, Abdul steps back. Mohammed struggles to respond. Therefore, Mr. James asks Abdul again, “Do you want to help him?” But before Abdul can do so, Mohammed points to the number 50 and says, “Tens.” “Ok! He knows it in English,” says Mr. James patting Mohammed on the back and giving 5 marks to both boys. This means that Group C have earned a total of 10 marks during this task, more than any of the other groups. A smiling Mohammed walks back to his seat.

There are other instances observed in the lesson where Abdul continues to help his friends (even those outside his group) by translating even when it is against classrooms norms (such as work independently). And, at times, this transpires by Abdul getting out of his chair and moving around the tables, talking loudly. Interestingly, Mr. James does not sanction these kinds of disruptions.

Analysis of group C vignette

In this section, I will show how when the teacher recognizes and values learners’ voices, e.g. Abdul wanting to help his friends with learning mathematics by acting as the translator, creates spaces where non-dominant learners can take up positions, as helpers, in a culturally more advanced activity with use and exchange value, where non-dominant learners can supersede the contradiction in goals/objects experienced otherwise (as seen in the previous analysis). Furthermore, I will demonstrate how by seeing and valuing mathematics know-how, linguistic skills, methods, acquired outside of dominant forms of schooling, i.e., non dominant forms of mathematics and linguistic capital, as well as cultural lived experiences positions such learners in ways that builds solidarity with them and not just between them allowing for collective action of a community that can potentially challenge structural inequality, which I perceive as an activist stance (Stetsenko, 2019).

Abdul is a first-generation migrant student who entered the UK during Year 6. Abdul didn’t attend school in Somalia, and, thus, his mathematics know-how, prior knowledge and skills was either self-taught at home or through his mum: “my mum know a bit maths. She is good at maths. She teach me”. In this interview, Abdul emphasized that his mum, who also hadn’t been to school, taught him her method of multiplication. Arguably, Abdul’s prior mathematics skills emerged from his lived experiences in Somalia with his family outside of traditional schooling, thus, had use value and can be seen as non-dominant forms of mathematics capital. Interestingly, from the above vignette, it appears that Mr. James’ perception of Abdul’s non-dominant mathematics capital, as well as native language proficiency, i.e., non-dominant linguistic capital, lead him to be positioned as the translator for Mohammed in the teaching-learning activity. This is particularly evident in the classroom talk in Vignette II, where Mr. James stated he knows Abdul knows “how to do it” but wanted him to facilitate Mohammed’s learning. In fact, throughout my observations, Abdul was taking up positions of the helper in the division of labor of the teaching-learning activity: very eager to participate, mostly volunteering, in the teaching-learning activity to assist his male peers with their learning by offering translation support. His disruptions, e.g., walking around the table to help even when not asked to use his own mathematics methods that are not necessarily sanctioned by the curriculum or pedagogy of the class, were not perceived as such. Instead, they were perceived as instances of opportunities for development. These disruptions were not reprimanded by the teacher in the ways that Alia’s were (in Vignette I). The example above was indeed a regular occurrence throughout the lessons where Abdul was giving help to his male peers, and they were frequently coming to him only for help. Not only was he positioned by the teacher, but also positioned by his peers, as well as positioning himself as the helper or translator. Typically, the help would be in the form of translating the maths from English into Arabic and vice versa where Abdul would be huddled together with one or two group members intensely working on the tasks in their own native language using their own methods.

Not only does the above Vignette demonstrate Group C to be engaged in a joint teaching-learning activity, where the teacher is seen to trace and understand the working out of the problem and learn with this group, but it also shows Mr. James’s valuing their efforts – as they were openly praised and given 10 points and the task was acknowledged to be “more difficult”. When Mr James was prompted about the differential pedagogic approach toward Group C, he stressed that this is something he had adopted for this group. “It’s something that I have brought … that I am interested in to make sure…. And I have learned as well actually these new techniques. It is about giving them a chance and opportunity to show their skills actually. I think they quite like to show something different as they can teach me or their friends … I think it’s a good thing. I try to encourage as much of that as possible”. In doing so, here, the teacher provides non-dominant learners a third space (Gutiérrez, 2008) for their enactment of agency and attributing symbolic value to their non-dominant forms of capital. By working together in the way that they did, Abdul and his group appear to not only acquire mathematical knowledge, goal/object of the teaching-learning activity that has possible exchange value for them, but also use value in terms of learning with their male friends mediated by their non-dominant forms of capital.

Even more so, the teaching-learning activity appears to be part of an activity system that has a culturally more advanced motive (Figure 4), where learning is not at the expense of friendship formations and is also led by the non-dominant learners within this group. The motive has both exchange (in terms of increasing possibilities of academic success) and use value for the non-dominant learners (in the form of learning with friends mediated by non-dominant forms of capital and engaging in socializing). The teachers’ perception of these learners’ non-dominant capital positioned them differentially as opposed to Group B’s experiences within this activity system, allowing opportunities of development for Group C learners. Again, as with Vignette I, gender appears to be implicated as the interactions are limited to male peers only, but also ethnicity. They all speak Arabic and are first generation migrants.

Figure 4. Expansive learning system: learning with friends as mediated by non-dominant forms of capital.

In summary, the analysis of Vignettes I and II demonstrates how experiences of subjective alienation of non-dominant learners from both assigned groups are perceived differentially by the teacher. For Group B, the goal/object of being popular/maintaining friendships is at the expense of learning mathematics for Alia and Zara. Abdul, from Group C, does not experience this contradiction in the way that, e.g., Alia does. For Alia learning with her friends leads her to be positioned and perceived as disruptive, and not the helper, as it breaks classroom norms, alienating her further from the teaching-learning activity. Her trying to negate this contradiction doesn’t lead to any opportunities for development. But with Abdul and his group, the rules of the game appear different. His misalignment with the dominant forms of schooling, i.e., walking around when required to be quiet, working in pairs or groups when required to be independent, even cross group conferring and helping, i.e., continuous disruptions, are perceived as having developmental potential for him and his peers by his teacher. He manages to help his peers who are struggling with the mathematics tasks, as well as translate for those who are struggling to communicate with the teacher. This partly happened because Mr. James recognized the significance of the learners speaking in their own shared language in facilitating learning. As he states in the interview: “And if you got the groups right … because they can speak their own language to help each other out. So, it could have great repercussions throughout the school using this method”. Thus, being able to translate for his peers and knowing how to use his non-dominant forms of linguistic capital to work out the mathematics problems using his own methods acquired outside of traditional schooling, confers more power to Abdul’s position within this classroom field in relation to others allowing him to take up positions in the division of labor of the teaching-learning activity that do not align with the dominant structure of schooling. Arguably, Abdul does not have much prior legitimately recognized mathematical knowledge (capital) as shown in his lower performance in tests (compared to his peers), but he is perceived as high ability in certain mathematics topics by the teacher. “Abdul is very good at algebra, but he might not be a high achiever and he then helps everybody else actually”, said Mr James. Evidently, Group C learners’ assigned roles and resulting actions in this joint teaching-learning activity are mediated by the teacher’s perception of their cultural commodities. In fact, Abdul was regularly seen to volunteer to help other groups in the class, again this was against the classroom rules and norms (due to the strict pedagogic rules of this particular classroom i.e., collaboration was only allowed amongst the individuals in an assigned group in order to maximize competition between groups). However, Mr. James did not always reprimand such transgressions by Abdul. Thus, Abdul’s experience in the classroom along with his peers appears to be potentially developmental. Here, the inequitable structure of schooling is experienced in different ways by both Abdul and Alia, as examples, and key is the struggle over what is defined as symbolic in this space.

Discussion and conclusion: co-construction of knowledge through equitable learning processes in classrooms

In this paper, I set out to investigate: 1) how identifying moments of subjective alienation rooted in contradictions between goals of dominant activities in classrooms can be of value to those interested in change, and subsequently 2) how to transform pedagogies in ways that are developmental for non-dominant learners, and 3) how such transformations are subject to hidden structural relations of power at play. By bringing Bourdieu into dialogue with CHAT, I demonstrate that for a teaching-learning activity to be developmental for non-dominant learners, it must have a culturally advanced motive with both use and exchange value. I also demonstrate how learners’ enactment of agency is subject to their own positioning, and position-takings in the division of labor of a teaching-learning activity, and that these positions are mediated by objective power relations that perpetuate an inequitable educational system. Here, teachers recognizing and valuing learners’ non-dominant forms of capital, and preferred ways of learning, in other words, providing them with the space to enact their agency over their own learning, can create opportunities of resistance, development and change (Vianna & Stetsenko, 2019).

The findings exemplify the subjective alienation experienced by two non-dominant learners, Alia and Abdul. Whereas in Alia’s case, the disruptions are reprimanded by the teacher, Abdul’s disruptions are perceived differently. A closer analysis reveals that Alia’s experiences are rooted in the contradictions she experiences between two dominant activities: making/maintaining friendships is at the expense of learning as the pedagogy of the classroom does not allow for this contradiction to be negated or superseded. On the other hand, for Abdul, this contradiction is superseded by a new culturally advanced motive (Engeström, 2001) of giving/receiving mathematics help through peers, in a joint teaching-learning activity leading to developmental opportunities.

Both, Abdul and Alia position themselves as helpers. However, in Alia’s case, this leads to missed opportunities. Thus, we need to unpack the hidden power relations inherent within “positions” to explore position-takings and how these mediate the division of labor in classroom activities. In Alia’s example, that would have meant for the pedagogy to allow to redefine her disruptions and outbursts as opportunities for development and create space for her to continue to learn with her friends as that was more aligned with her interests and needs. Here, the teacher’s differential perceptions of the learners’ non-dominant form of capital, as well as peer group relations is key in mediating their positions in the division of labor in a joint teaching-learning activity system.

The findings in Vignette II adds to this by demonstrating when the pedagogy allows non-dominant learners, like Abdul, to take up position of being the helper, it is serving their friendship motive, too. And this motive is significant in that it builds solidarity in a system of being othered. Thus, there is the developmental dialectic at play here: the school activity is serving the non-dominant learner as much as the learner is serving the school in the form of expanded learning. Thus, a teaching-learning activity with a culturally more advanced motive builds collective solidarity (Gaztambide Fernàndez, 2012) with and between non-dominant learners, communities, and this is necessary for change and transformation to take place.

Thus, the contribution of knowledge here is twofold: I advance the debate of theories concerned with empowering marginalized learners by arguing that we need Bourdieu’s tools (capital, power, see Bourdieu, 1990) to understand how teaching-learning activities can be empowering to marginalized learners, thereby regenerating CHAT. Thus, here, I present the beginnings of a methodology for identifying and analyzing subjective experiences of alienations and how these are mediated by contradictions within and between activities. I then also provide two empirical classroom examples to demonstrate how the hidden power relations mediate positions and position-taking in the division of labor of an activity either sustaining or curtailing access to transformative learning opportunities for non-dominant learners. Thus, the findings are also pertinent to educational researchers and practitioners, especially within classrooms, that are concerned with activism research to counter an oppressive educational system, as well as to those who are interested in theorizing and developing a socially just pedagogy.

Acknowledgments

I would like to extent my deepest gratitude to the members of the Learner Voice Group that was formed during the Regenerating CHAT conference in 2019 hosted by University of Berkeley and funded by the Spencer Foundation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. An education system that is based on principles of competitiveness and driven by marketization.

2. In this paper, “we” denotes theorists, practitioners, and educationalists who are interested in the argument presented here.

3. Here, Free School Meal (FSM) eligibility is used as a proxy for poverty.

4. Ethnicity was included in the Ofqual equality analysis report (Lee, 2021) but grouped under, for example, a single category ASIA to represent Bangladeshi, Pakistani, and Indian learners. Such modeling is problematic on its own as it homogenizes diverse experiences, and, in this case, attainment results of learners from different backgrounds. However, this discussion is outside of the scope of this article.

5. Learners’ voices is used in this paper as a metaphor and not a concept to emphasize that it’s not about giving learners from marginalized backgrounds a voice. It is more about the system being rigged to favor those with symbolic capital (Bourdieu, 1977), learners from privileged backgrounds, hence their voices being favored over others.

6. This paper also does not review literature on positional theory, as the aim is to focus on the relation of field of power on position takings within communities and how that impacts division of labor. Such a review is outside of the scope of this article.

7. Here, agency refers to going beyond the development of the individual learner and emphasizing how learning can potentially be expansive with the potential to supersede oppressive forces at play for learners from marginalized ethnic, gender and class backgrounds (see Haapasaari et al., 2014, Kajamaa & Kumpulainen, 2019).

8. Somali, Arab, African Caribbean, Pakistani or Bangladeshi.

9. Gender, in this study, is referred to the binary male/female as identified by the learners’ parents.

10. Schools in England have their performance evaluated based on GCSE grades equal to and above C (as in the old system) or 4 (as in the new system) in subjects such as mathematics.

11. GCSE exams are the end of year 11 exams that take place in secondary schools within the UK.

12. Please note that the data was collected prior to the recent grade changes to the GCSE examination system from A*-U to 9–1 (with 9 being the highest attainable results – as a reference a 4 is denoted equal to a C grade).