Books by Stephen J. Ball

This important account of the experiences of schooling of the pupils in a single comprehensive school is based on three years' field work which Stephen J. Ball spent as participant observer at 'Beachside Comprehensive'.

This book considers Foucault as educator in three main ways. That is, education as a form of what Allen (2014) calls benign violence - which operates through mundane, quotidian disciplinary technologies and expert knowledges which together construct a 'pedagogical machine'.

The middle classes skilfully, assiduously and strategically use the sphere of education to their advantage in processes of class formation and maintenance. Ball asks what are the skills, attitudes, perspectives and aspirations at work here.