Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs
by Paul Willis
In Learning to Labor, Paul Willis investigates how working-class adolescents in a British school develop attitudes and practices that lead them into working-class employment. Through detailed ethnography, the book uncovers the ironic ways their cultural resistance to education sustains class hierarchies, offering insights into the mechanisms of social reproduction.
About This Book
Learning to Labor examines the experiences of working-class kids in a British secondary school, highlighting how their cultural practices and attitudes influence their entry into working-class jobs.
The book draws on ethnographic research to illustrate the ways in which these youth engage with schooling, often countering official educational goals through informal group dynamics and oppositional behaviors.
Willis argues that such resistance, while empowering in the short term, ultimately reinforces class structures by preparing students for manual labor rather than upward mobility.
This work contributes to understanding the reproduction of social inequality through everyday interactions in educational settings.
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