'We don't need no education'? Exploring the educational experiences of young footballers

PLATTS, Chris and SMITH, Andy (2018). 'We don't need no education'? Exploring the educational experiences of young footballers. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 39 (7), 925-941.

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Abstract

Drawing upon data generated by 303 young male footballers employed in 21 professional clubs in England and Wales, this paper explores some key aspects of players’ masculinities, identities and engagement with education. Although many players described their educational experiences in largely negative terms, some aspired towards average-ness, or middling, which are often central to working-class identifications with education. Other players found education ‘easy’, engaged in effortless achievement and had begun to internalize elements of the neo-liberal achievement ideology. The propensity for players to engage in copying and pasting from the work of others, and to regard their courses as being almost impossible to fail, were consistent with neo-liberal ideologies of credentialism and performativity. The findings suggest that a more nuanced understanding of young footballers’ education is warranted, and their aspirations and experiences can at least be partly understood as responses to the prevailing neoliberal learning environments which they inhabit

Item Type:	Article
Research Institute, Centre or Group - Does NOT include content added after October 2018:	Sport Industry Research Centre
Departments - Does NOT include content added after October 2018:	Health and Well-being > Department of Sport
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2018.14
Page Range:	925-941
Depositing User:	Chris Platts
Date Deposited:	16 Feb 2018 11:55
Last Modified:	18 Mar 2021 01:15
URI:	https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/18670

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