Middle-Class Boys’ Schools in England and Japan

Robert W. Aspinall is a professor at the Center for Global Education and Japanese Studies at Doshisha University, Japan.

"In this highly readable and at times very amusing account that draws heavily on his own experiences as a pupil and teacher in England and Japan over the past fifty years, Robert Aspinall provides a series of fascinating insights into the role of class and gender in contemporary education that brings in to sharp relief the question of just how meritocratic either education system really is even today."Roger Goodman, University of Oxford"Robert Aspinall has illuminated an important and under-researched subject with this vivid comparative study. Through the lens of boys' schools for the aspiring middle-class in Japan and England, readers will learn much about social class, inequality, gender socialization, and more."Peter Cave, University of Manchester "This is a fascinating study of middle-class boys' schools in England and Japan which throws analytical light on the education systems of which they are a part. The book should interest a wide audience of readers interested in comparative education, as well as those interested in the two nations in question."Akito Okada, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies"[Robert Aspinall] offers us a remarkably comprehensive view of this interesting topic, enlivened by his insider knowledge as both student and teacher in middle-class boys’ schools coupled with his deep and intimate knowledge of the education systems of both England and Japan." Michelle Henault Morrone, Nagoya University of Arts and Sciences"Overall, for Compare’s readership in comparative and international education, the book is written in a richly detailed and engaging manner and–drawing on the author’s recollections–offers a vivid portrait of middle-class boys’ school cultures and processes of class reproduction in England and Japan, particularly in the period around the 1980s. Methodologically, the volume offers a notably clear and carefully executed example of comparative auto-ethnography, bringing the author’s positional stance–and the strengths as well as the constraints of experience-based evidence–into sharp view."Humphrey Kaiyi Yang & Jason Cong Lin, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education

• 1. Theoretical Approaches to the Study of Social Class and Education 2. The History of Boys’ Schools and Secondary Education for the Middle Classes in England and Japan 3. The Three Schools that are the Focus of this Study 4. Comparing the Three Schools with a Focus on Cultural Capital, Social Capital and Class Reproduction 5. The Three Schools, Masculinity and the Education of Boys 6. Language, Class and Education 7. The Impact of Education Reform and Social Change on Boys’ Schools and the Middle Classes