Disposed to Learn: Schooling, Ethnicity and the Scholarly Habitus

By: Megan Watkins and Greg Noble

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Synopsis: Disposed to Learn explores the relationship between ethnicity and dispositions towards learning, with a focus on primary school students of Chinese, Pasifika and Anglo Australian backgrounds. The authors challenge the tendency towards the essentializing of ethnicity within multiculturalism to argue for a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between culture and academic performance. Drawing on the work of Bourdieu, they examine how home and school practices produce particular attributes that are embodied as dispositions towards learning - the scholarly habitus. These home and school practices entail different modes of discipline which help or hinder student engagement. The book underlies the need for a better understanding of cultural diversity in schooling to address issues of educational inclusion.