Learning to live together. The contribution of school

The paper we present is a biographical qualitative study on the school experience and its repercussions on the lives of young people. The paper has two aims: (1) to understand the repercussions of school experiences on the construction of personal identity, and (2) to incorporate the voices of alumni into a reflection on the present and future challenges facing primary education. The study is framed by the movement known as student voice. For this purpose, the interpretations ex-students were collected through in-depth interviews. The conclusions reveal the persistent effects of the school experience over the years as young people establish a sense of identity. The young people explain the attitudes and abilities that make up their way of living, and they relate this to what they learned in their early childhood and primary education.     

A dynamic approach to school improvement: main features and impact

This paper refers to the dynamic approach to school improvement (DASI) which attempts to contribute to the merging of educational effectiveness research and school improvement. The main underlying assumptions and the implementation phases of DASI are discussed. Moreover, a study aiming to compare the impact of DASI in helping schools to reduce bullying is presented. The results reveal that DASI has a stronger impact on improving school factors and reducing bullying than other approaches to school improvement. Suggestions for further research investigating the sustainability of DASI on school effectiveness are provided and policy implications are drawn.     

A whole-school approach to positive behaviour in a girls' secondary school

This article discusses the first cycle of a whole-school behaviour initiative at a girls' secondary school in Malta. The aim of the project was to develop, implement and evaluate a whole-school plan of action which promoted good behaviour and effectively responded to challenging behaviour. A three-day in-service programme at the school led to the development of a plan reached by consensus amongst the whole staff. Once it was negotiated with the students, it was put into practice, with regular and continuous monitoring by the staff and students. An evaluation half-way through the scholastic year, showed a decline in the number of exclusions from school and an overall improvement in students' behaviour. Feedback from staff, senior management and students suggested that there was more positive behaviour at the school following the introduction of the behaviour project. The article examines both the process and the outcome of the first phase of the project and concludes with at attempt to delineate the key processes which made this initiative work.     

Masculinity and violence: Gender,poverty and culture in a rural primary school in South Africa

This qualitative study draws from focus group discussions with primary school boys,girls and their teachers to examine how violence is experienced at a rural school in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The study draws attention to ‘amaphara' masculinity’ as conceptualized by Hunter (2021) and stick fighting as key to understanding the local expressions of violence and its problematic relationship with girls and 'other' boys.Examining these practices, and the wider sociocultural contexts in which they are embedded, we argue is vital for gender violence prevention in rural schools.     

Developing student voice and participatory pedagogy: a case study in a Spanish primary school

This article describes a case study that is part of a broader research project in which schools set up processes of school improvement inspired by the proposals put forward by students. The project furthers the initiatives of the student voice movement and seeks to implement more participative pedagogical models. This as a whole represents a novel opportunity in the context of Spanish schools. Specifically, in the text we describe an experience in which students work as researchers (SAR) and in which we describe and discuss this process carried out in a primary school through ethnographic tools. The findings allow us to discover in this experience a learning opportunity for the members of the school community and for the school itself. Likewise, the research permits us to verify the existence of certain changes in the preexisting practice architectures that affect the cultural–discursive dimension, the material–economic dimension and the social–political dimension of schools.     

Intervention research productivity from 2005 to 2014: Faculty and university representation in school psychology journals

The purpose of this study was to identify authors and training programs making the most frequent contributions to intervention research published in six school psychology journals (School Psychology Review, School Psychology Quarterly, Journal of School Psychology, Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology International, and Journal of Applied School Psychology) over the 10‐year period from 2005 to 2014. A total of 310 articles were identified as intervention articles; 919 unique authors, representing 289 universities or organizations, contributed to these publications. Top‐ranked authors and universities were identified based on authorship rating and total publications, respectively. This evaluation highlights key contributors to the primary intervention research in school psychology, as well as themes of the publications of top‐ranked individuals and programs.     

Professional primary school teacher identity development: a pursuit in line with an unexpressed image

The results presented in this article are taken from a case study of novice primary school mathematics teachers’ professional identity development from the perspective of the teachers themselves. The empirical material was collected through self-recordings, observations and interviews. The results show how the professional identity development of these novice teachers becomes a pursuit in line with their image of a primary school teacher. To develop a sense of themselves as primary school teachers they need to establish their own criteria - individual (including graduation and personal knowledge) and social (the ability to work in one school, have colleagues and have a class of their own for which they do the planning and teaching). These criteria are shown to be both a precondition for and a part of professional identity development. The novice teachers’ image of what it means to be a primary school teacher directs their actions and becomes the goal of their professional identity development. Because of its high impact, student and novice teachers’ image of primary school teachers ought to be made visible in both teacher education and teacher induction.     

The role of the school climate in high school students’ mental health and identity formation: A South Australian study

The well‐documented increase in student mental health issues in Australia and growing recognition of the need for education to play a part in students’ identity formation prompted this study. The research reported in this article sought to identify specific elements of the school climate that were likely to influence the interplay of adolescent health and development and students’ identity formation. The aim was two‐fold. First, the study examined the relationships between students’ perceptions of the school climate and self‐reports of wellbeing, resilience and moral identity; and, second, the interrelationships between the three outcome variables were explored. Two surveys, one to assess students’ perceptions of features of the school climate, and another to assess students’ wellbeing, resilience and moral identity, were administered to 618 Year 11 students from 15 independent schools in South Australia. Structural equation modelling was used to investigate hypothesised relationships between students’ perceptions of their school climate and self‐reports of wellbeing, resilience and moral identity. Our results indicated statistically significant and positive relationships between school‐climate factors and each of the three outcome variables. Further, indirect relationships (mediated largely by resilience) were found between school‐climate factors and students’ wellbeing. Our findings could be used to guide schools in building tangible, purposeful environments that engender well‐balanced, positive, resilient citizens with strong moral identities.     

Contorting identities: figuring literacy and identity in adolescent worlds

This paper explores connections and disconnects between identity and literacy for a group of adolescents in a second level classroom setting. We build on Mead and Vygotsky’s conceptualisations of identity formation as an intricate emergent happening constantly formed/reformed by people, in their interactions with others [Mead, G. H. 1999. Play, School, Society. Edited by M. J. Deegan. Oxford: Peter Lang; Vygotsky, L. 1978. Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, UK: Harvard University Press]. This paper will set to explore the impact of this on adolescent literacy practice, student choice and agency [Lewis, C., P. Ensico, and E. M. Moje. 2007. “Reframing Sociocultural Research on Literacy: Identity, Agency, and Power.” The Electronic Journal of English as a Second Language 12 (3): 1–205]. The concept of figured worlds plays a fundamental role in our theorisation of adolescent literacy and identity. Literacy and identity remain interwoven in very complex ways for adolescents as they attempt to make sense and meaning from in and out of school experiences [Burnett, C., J. Davies, G. Merchant, and J. Rowsell. 2014. New Literacies Around the Globe: Policy and Pedagogy. New York, NY: Routledge; Davies, J. 2013. “(I’m)Material Girls Living in (in)Material Worlds: Identity Curation Through Time and Space.” Presentation at UKLA Conference, Liverpool]. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research was used in carrying out this exploration with a thematic approach to data analysis. The findings of the exploration identify that there is a disconnect between identity in and out of school. We then see the struggle students have in coming to terms with their various figured worlds, and varying identities in given scenarios. There is an emphasis on the dated nature of some prescribed texts for study on the English course and the need for a review of these to bridge the scholastic and social divide evident from the findings. This paper explores the literacy and identity experiences of one group of adolescents alongside their opinions about the English literacy curriculum.     

A comparison between primary school principals’ and teachers’ perceptions of students’ online risk behaviours: the role of perceived self-efficacy

ABSTRACT

The present study aimed to investigate and compare school principals’ and teachers’ perceptions regarding online risk behaviours in school-aged children, examining simultaneously the predictive role of their perceived self-efficacy in their perceptions under study. The participants were 237 principals and 295 teachers, mainly from Central Macedonia and Attica, who completed a self-reported online questionnaire. According to the findings, participants declared awareness of students’ online risk behaviours. However, compared to teachers, principals to a greater extent felt confident to manage this issue and support school community involvement in the prevention of/intervention in it. Furthermore, principals’ self-efficacy in promoting students’ learning/ethical behaviours in school and teachers’ self-efficacy in managing students’ behavioural problems inside a classroom predicted positively their perceptions under study. The findings indicate the necessity of applying differentiated related training programmes for principals and teachers, highlighting simultaneously the importance of their perceived self-efficacy in how they approach the issue studied.     

Achievement goals and school achievement: The transition to different school tracks in secondary school

During the transition from elementary school to secondary school, in Germany, students are assigned to different school tracks, academic or non-academic, that differ markedly in compositional and institutional characteristics, e.g., the level of cognitive activation and performance standards are higher in academic tracks than in non-academic tracks. Currently, there is a lack of research examining the changes in achievement goals (mastery-approach, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals) and in the association between achievement goals and school achievement during the transition to these different school tracks. There were 1646 students who participated in a large-scale, three-wave longitudinal study from Grade 4 to Grade 6. While results revealed only slight differences between the two school tracks, the three types of achievement goals declined over time. In elementary school mastery-approach goals were positively and performance-approach goals negatively associated with school grades. After the transition to secondary school mastery-approach goals predicted school grades positively, whereas performance-approach goals negatively influenced achievement (academic track). Overall, the results indicate that between-school-tracking plays a minor role for the development of achievement goals and the relation between goals and achievement.     

Exclusion from school in Scotland and across the UK: Contrasts and questions

This article draws on findings from the first cross-national study of school exclusion in the four jurisdictions of the UK. It casts new light on the crucial aspects of children's education that lead to school exclusion. It investigates the reasons for the UK disparities, as well as the policy and practice in place. The focus of this article is on a detailed analysis of the policy context in Scotland, where official permanent exclusion reduced to an all-time low of just five cases in 2014/15. This is much lower than in Northern Ireland and Wales and in stark contrast to England, where exclusions have increased substantially since 2012. Our analysis seeks to understand Scotland's success in reducing exclusion and offers new insight into the ways in which national policies and local factors more generally shape schools and their practices and the consequent impacts for children and young people more broadly in the UK.     

Site selection in school district research: a measure of effectiveness using hierarchical longitudinal growth models of performance

School districts in the USA are an active area of study in education research as findings have shown that some districts find success in certain contexts while others struggle. However, the research domain has had few actionable methods for site selection for in-depth qualitative studies. This study analyses all districts in the state of Ohio (n = 610) from 2005–2006 through 2012–2013 using a two-level hierarchical linear growth model to identify districts that significantly outperform or underperform background and demographic variables in the Ohio Performance Index (PI) Score, factors outside the influence of the district administration. The aim of the study is to provide a framework for selecting comparison and contrast sites for district effectiveness research (DER). Additionally, the model captures school-level variance within districts controlling for average district performance. Fifteen outperforming districts are named as potential sites for in-depth qualitative studies of district effects in comparison to similar districts at the norm.     

Researching literacy in context: using video analysis to explore school literacies

This article addresses how methodological approaches relying on video can be included in literacy research to capture changing literacies. In addition to arguing why literacy is best studied in context, we provide empirical examples of how small, head‐mounted video cameras have been used in two different research projects that share a common aim: understanding the complex ways in which literacy is a part of school practices. The complexity of literacy practices taking place in classrooms, where students draw on a number of texts for a variety of purposes and different literacy discourses co‐exist in the same setting, poses a serious challenge for those who wish to study literacy in educational settings. The methodology presented in this article is our attempt to meet this challenge. Our approach relies on using video equipment in innovative ways to capture multiple perspectives, involving research participants in the data collection process and the early stages of analysis, and analysing video data with digital coding software. These methods are combined to obtain a more systematic and detailed insight into the contexts in which literacy takes place.     

Young people and high school in Mexico: subjectivisation,others and reflexivity

This article is based on the finding that for many students, high school is a place for young people's life and living together, a place for subjectivisation. The process of subjectivisation is approached through a discussion that questions conceptions of students as strategists of their school trajectory, as well as conceptions of youth life as the excitement of vibrating together. The claim is made that young people's life at school is a process of finding meaningful Others: other styles, other friends, and the other gender. Faced with options and risks, students also develop reflexivity. These topics are examined in three different scenarios: a general high school that is part of the university system in Mexico City, a technical high school in the metropolitan area, and community intercultural high schools in an indigenous rural zone.     

Enabling positive change in primary school: learner-led research in a Scottish context

The relevance and value of increased learner participation in effect change research is increasing in its significance and importance across the education sector, guided by current national governance and the move of local authorities to implement action research models to drive improvement. This paper reports on a study led by primary seven pupils in a remote rural Scottish primary school, working collaboratively towards planning, developing, implementing and evaluating learner-led research. The pupil researchers created their own initiative, introducing dogs to the classroom, which was designed to increase self-esteem and self-efficacy for all learners in their school. Through the implementation of the initiative, they were observed to develop their own social and emotional well-being as they engaged in the process of interviewing, results analysis and subsequent resource dissemination. This article discusses the collaborative and supportive relationship alongside the desire to bring about positive change that must underpin genuine collaboration.     

Grade retention and its association with school misconduct in adolescence: a multilevel approach

Few studies with respect to grade retention and school-disruptive behavior have focused on adolescence. Moreover, previous retention research has ignored multilevel issues. This study aims to fill these research lacunae by addressing the role of grade retention in adolescent students' school misconduct. Furthermore, we explore the role of the percentage of retained students at school in individual-level school misconduct and in moderating the relationship between retention and misconduct. Multilevel analyses of data (2004–2005) from 11,872 students in 85 Flemish secondary schools suggest that, while students retained in primary education exhibited less school misconduct in adolescence, those retained in secondary schools were more likely to break rules. Furthermore, students attending schools with a higher percentage of retainees were found to be more deviant. However, schools' retention composition moderated the relationship between grade retention and school misconduct. Implications are discussed.     

Education and school in the United States: Identity,culture and ecology

Abstract

In this article the special issue dedicated to cultural historical approach and education in the United States is presented, along with a brief review of some of the most relevant matters in the study of education and cultural diversity in that country. Moreover, a mise en scène of the works that make up this special issue is provided, relating them to some of the ideas on education and school behind the sociohistorical or sociocultural approach. Also, an overview is included of the study of immigration from the standpoint of cultural design, and lastly a reflection is made on the importance of an ecological approach to human activity in education.     

The experience of male adolescent refugees during their transfer and adaptation to a UK secondary school

This paper outlines a study which investigated the experience of six male adolescent refugees during their transfer and adaptation to a secondary school in the UK. The research used a qualitative design. The approach adopted was Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The data generated three superordinate themes which reflected the participants’ sense of being in need of help during the early stages of their transfer, their process of adapting to school and developing a sense of belonging in this context, and their overriding need for safety. These themes are explored in relation to existing research and implications for practice are offered.