Making Modern Lives: Subjectivity, Schooling and Social Change.

Newman, Linda

Making Modern Lives: subjectivity, schooling and social change

Julie McLeod and Lyn Yates New York: State University of New York Press, 2006, ISBN 0 791 467 686

This book was a pleasure for me to read and review. Despite some minor publishing annoyances, the book is interesting and engaging. The authors have produced a reflective account of the experience of growing up in one state of Australia, and an analysis of the meanings we might make from these accounts.

The analysis is based on data collected from longitudinal interviews, spanning approximately seven years, with students in several secondary schools. Many of the authors' insights, and the documentation of experiences of the young people who took part in a series of interviews commencing in primary school and ending at the completion of their secondary schooling, are useful for others who work, live or are involved in research with young people and their families. The authors have skilfully integrated data analysis, reflection and methodological analysis. The book reinforces and makes explicit our knowledge about the importance of school in the lives of young people, but looks much more deeply than the measuring stick of final examinations to show how 'pathways and subjectivity are closely intertwined' (p. 11) within the complexities of growing up. Importantly, for contemporary Australia (and indeed anywhere else), the authors show how school cultures 'are also evident in how students articulate their political values' (p. 11), as they form opinions about race, unemployment and a myriad of other contemporary issues that are part of their landscape. Any contention that values are not evident in schools is strongly negated as we meet young people who are clearly in the process of forming 'personal and national identity, their sense of "who am I?" ... [in relation to] national belonging and identity... "nation", "migration", "colonisation" and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples ...' (p. 11). This is particularly timely in Australia as such questions and the issues that surround them gain complexity. One of the frightening revelations however, was the students' perceptions that the most important issue for their schools is consistently their personal appearance, and how this advertises the school in public.

One of the delights of the book for me was how effectively the authors intertwined philosophy and theoretical positions with the data and its analysis. One of the key questions raised is 'to what extent can "macro" or grand theories of social change and of modernity accommodate the challenges of "identity politics" or illuminate the more "micro" and local processes that sustain difference, inequality and power relations?' (p. 85). Such questions are addressed as we meet the students and learn about their lives and schools.

The authors are explicit in revealing that 'methodological reflection is a strong part of the account [they] offer in this book of young peoples' lives today' (p. 43). One of the primary stated purposes is 'investigating subjectivity--how it is formed--what it "means" ...' (p. 43). There is a seamless weaving of information about the research methodologies used along with their critique and presentation of data. A reader can learn about the methodology while they are also learning about the people the methodology is being used to help understand. While a poststructural approach is used, the authors also critique this approach and refer to other methodologies as 'we also felt that much poststructural work on the "discursive construction of identity" [is] glib and formulaic in its reference to the construction of "nonunitary subjects'" (p. 31). Some readers may find this a little off-putting if their primary purpose is to 'get to the point' of what has happened to these young people and what this means, but to me it is a strength of the book. Early chapters focus heavily on the methodology, with scant references to the subjects and at times this can be a touch frustrating as we wait patiently to hear more about the young people in the study. As an academic reader, I enjoyed this approach, but I fear that for some readers it may cause them to abandon the book, which would be a shame. Secondary teachers, and indeed parents, could benefit from the insights provided, but the academic jargon is likely to alienate them early into their reading. I must confess to skipping to the appendix early on to read the biographies of the participants.

As we read through the book, recounting the growing up years of the participants, national changes in Australia are reflected and highlighted. For example, the move in one school in particular where uniforms were not previously worn to mandating them reflects bigger trends in the reassertion of traditional forms of conformity and control.

The school, previously known for its focus on creativity aimed at producing the 'good students' headed for creative industries and knowledge and communication work futures so highly prized in the 1990s, embarked on a change process in response to increasing competition amid

 increased public competitiveness and comparison between schools,
 associated anxiety from parents about futures for their children
 and increased worries and social misbehaviour. Suburban High's
 reputation as a school that tolerated lack of discipline, symbolised
 in its lack of school uniform, placed its version of the good
 student under threat ... Its message was that, henceforth, it would
 maintain the distinctive options of its cultural directions, but
 within a more traditional, conventional and hegemonic sense of how a
 'good student' should look and behave. The campaign was successful
 in reversing the declining population. (p. 71)

The authors support their contention that such changes are not unique, or isolated to Australian schools, but reflect a broader global trend influenced by the ascendance of neoliberal philosophies.

This book has been published with an international audience in mind, however it is a little annoying as an Australian reader of an Australian book to encounter American spelling and explanations focused on an American, rather than a general global audience. In a similar vein, as a reader accustomed to APA Style, I found it frustrating to encounter footnotes that I needed to access chapter by chapter at the back of the book, without a header or footer indicating the chapter being currently read. These issues are minor however, and do not detract from the strengths of the book.

In conclusion, I think this book makes a very valuable contribution to the literature on growing up, schooling and schools. I think the primary audience will be academic teacher educators and their students interested in the deeper issues associated with growing up and schooling, as opposed to the technical aspects of teaching.

Linda Newman

University of Western Sydney