S3 EP4 - Sharon Jones talks to us about the role secondary school plays in contributing to the lived inequalities of working-class people

The FE Research Podcast with Jo and Alistair

In this episode, we meet Sharon Jones, FE lecturer and researcher, and former librarian at The Bedford College Group shares her research about the role secondary school plays in contributing to the lived inequalities of working-class people. The findings in her research uncovers relations of power and illustrates how schooling has reduced individual agency and sustained lived inequalities. By creating space for a visual intervention alongside her analysis of class and society, Sharon successfully illuminates that working-class struggles are not permanent, and that agency can be activated. Sharon completed her PhD whilst running classes in her local community to build the self-esteem of children through to adults and at the same time raising her own 6 children. Sharon recently wrote her PhD into a book titled 'State schooling and the reproduction of social inequalities: Contesting lived inequalities through participatory methods' and it is available to buy directly from Routledge https://www.routledge.com/State-Schooling-and-the-Reproduction-of-Social-Inequalities-Contesting/Jones/p/book/9781032192222 or from your preferred bookseller.