The transfer of local authority school support services to external social enterprises

This paper explores an emerging and largely unresearched sector of the school education market, the transfer of local authority support services to external social enterprises. It locates these new social enterprises as a consequence of government strategies to reduce public spending, shrink local government and create competitive markets in public service provision. Non-profit social enterprises create and occupy a sector of a differentiated market in school support services which is not sufficiently commercially attractive to for-profit companies. The government discourse of these social enterprises as employee-led mutuals is contradicted by their user-led ownership and governance regimes. The analysis offered by this paper is substantiated by a case study, based on interviews and policy documents, of the transfer of the Birmingham local authority's Music and Health Education Services to a social enterprise independent from the city council.     

Places,spaces and local customs: honouring the private worlds of out‐of‐school text creation

This paper examines the nature of the out‐of‐school writing practices of three primary‐aged children aged 9–10. In particular, it explores the writing these children chose to undertake at home including ‘for school’ writing, completed at home. The study's findings reveal the ways in which these three, developing young writers engage and interact with writing and how this differs to writing for school, completed at home. To better understand the implications of national surveys that reveal a causal relationship between writing for enjoyment and positive writing attainment this research sought to expose the range and versatility of the children's home and volitional writing practices. The children in this case study were not selected because they were writers but merely that they engaged with writing away from school. The study employs an ecological paradigm (Bronfenbrenner, 1979 ) to explore the participation and interaction of the children with their writing practices within the complex environment of home. The paper makes the case for teachers to be more curious about the private worlds of out‐of‐school text creation to better appreciate the provenance of home writing events and artefacts.     

‘Nothing to do’: The impact of poverty on pupils' learning identities within out‐of‐school activities

This article reports the findings of a project funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which explored the participation of children in out‐of‐school recreational activities. The experiences of children living in poverty were compared and contrasted with their more affluent peers. The aim of the project was to explore these out‐of‐school activities as sites of learning and to identify the impact of the children's experiences on the development of individual ‘learning identities’. Through in‐depth interviews with 55 children it was concluded that there were substantial differences in levels of participation and in the learning gained from these activities by two different groups of children, and stages in the development of their different dispositions towards the activities were shown. Attempts to identify the roles occupied by the children within a community of practice led the authors to question the extent to which the terms ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ can adequately account for the activity within such a community.     

An exploration of teachers’ agency and social relationships within dyslexia‐support provision in an English secondary school

This article explores teachers’ experiences of dyslexia and classroom interventions via lesson observations and semi‐structured interviews. These experiences were analysed through a Bourdieusien lens, based on Jenkins's ‘levels of interaction’, to delineate power relationships inherent in classroom interactions, teachers’ interactions with professionals and institutions, and mechanisms present in teachers’ conceptualisation of ‘self’. Through their conceptualisation of ‘self’ as ‘teachers of dyslexic young people’, it was found that teachers’ classroom interactions acted to reduce social distance between themselves and students. Internally and interactionally, teachers enacted agency and constructed their own social space, through their framing of young people with dyslexia and use of inclusive language with students. Institutionally, teachers were found to be subject to other professions and Government policy, lacking autonomy and capacity to distribute resources, despite their ‘symbolic capital’ as teachers. The ‘level of interaction’ determined teachers’ capacity to act autonomously and freely navigate their own social space.     

Managed moves: school and local authority staff perceptions of processes,success and challenges

The current research aimed to increase understanding of the processes of managed moves for children at risk of exclusion from school, particularly exploring what contributed to success and the nature of the challenges experienced. The study was conducted in one English local authority where 11 school staff and 5 local authority staff were interviewed. Two superordinate themes emerged from the interviews. Superordinate theme 1 was concerned with factors contributing to success and included subthemes relating to fresh start/clean slate, home–school communication, early intervention, pastoral support (transition work, relationships with staff and relationships with peers) and involvement of young person. Superordinate theme 2 was concerned with the challenges associated with managed moves and included inter-school tensions (honesty and information sharing, the results agenda and moving a problem), narratives around young people, objectifying language and accurate diagnosis.     

Estimating the “Impact” of Out‐of‐Home Placement on Child Well‐Being: Approaching the Problem of Selection Bias

This study used data on 2,453 children aged 4–17 from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well‐Being and 5 analytic methods that adjust for selection factors to estimate the impact of out‐of‐home placement on children’s cognitive skills and behavior problems. Methods included ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions and residualized change, simple change, difference‐in‐difference, and fixed effects models. Models were estimated using the full sample and a matched sample generated by propensity scoring. Although results from the unmatched OLS and residualized change models suggested that out‐of‐home placement is associated with increased child behavior problems, estimates from models that more rigorously adjust for selection bias indicated that placement has little effect on children’s cognitive skills or behavior problems.     

Not just ‘sunny days’: Aboriginal students connect out‐of‐school literacy resources with school literacy practices

In this paper, I report on a school‐university collaborative research project that investigated which practices and knowledges of Canadian Aboriginal students not acknowledged in school may provide these students with access to school literacy practices. The study, which took place in a small city in Western Canada, examined ways to merge the out‐of‐school literacy resources with school literacy practices for minority language learners who struggle with academic literacies. Drawing on the third space theory, in conjunction with the concept of “funds of knowledge,” I explain how students' linguistic and cultural resources from home and community networks were utilised to reshape school literacy practices through their involvement in the Heritage Fair programme. I analyse a representative case study of Darius, a 10‐year‐old boy who explored his familial hunting practices for his Heritage Fair project. This illustrative exemplar, “Not just sunny days,” highlights the ways in which children's out‐of‐school lives can be used as a scaffold for literacy learning. In conclusion, I discuss implications for educators and researchers working to improve literacy learning for minority students by connecting school learning to children's out‐of‐school learning.     

学校教育权威面临的挑战及对策

学校自其产生之日起一直被人们推崇为知识的殿堂、培育人才的场所,并因此而享有"至高无上"的教育权威地位。然而,在科技迅猛发展、社会日益进步的今天,学校的教育权威却受到了来自理论领域和社会实践领域等多方面的冲击,面临着严峻的挑战。为此,学校教育要从理念和操作这两个方面努力增强自身的感召权威,谋求制度性权威与感召权威的完美结合。     

School demographic variables and out‐of‐school suspension rates: A quantitative and qualitative analysis of a large,ethnically diverse school district

This study examined out‐of‐school suspensions (OSS) in a large, ethnically diverse school district using both quantitative and qualitative procedures. Pearson product moment correlations and semi‐partial correlations were used to identify those school‐level variables that showed the strongest relationships to the duplicated OSS rate among elementary schools (n = 97) and secondary schools (n = 45). Additionally, interviews were conducted with administrators and student support personnel from the 24 schools in the district with the highest suspension rates and 24 demographically matched schools with significantly lower suspension rates. The majority of these schools served a high percentage of children from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Although the correlational analyses indicated that student demographic variables (e.g., percentage of White students, percentage of Black students, percentage of students receiving free or reduced price lunch) were strongly related to a school's suspension rate, the school comparisons showed that not all schools serving a high percentage of children placed at risk have high suspension rates. Implications of the findings for school discipline reform are discussed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Bridging the Cultural Divide: The role of the home‐school support worker

A three‐year Home Office funded project placed social work trained home‐school support workers on the staff of secondary schools with the aim of reducing school exclusions. Data from the project evaluation enabled an analysis of the possibilities and limitations of social work in school settings. A qualitative evaluation methodology was adopted with extended periods of fieldwork in the seven project schools and the use of a variety of qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques. It is argued that, if schools are to be successful sites for social work, the tensions arising from the different cultures of teachers and social workers must be recognised and addressed. A number of factors were found to be crucial for assisting social work trained support workers to become accepted in schools. The support worker role resulted in a variety of benefits for teachers, thus enabling the project to act as a bridge between social work and educational cultures.     

Everyday teaching and outdoor learning: developing an integrated approach to support school-based provision

In the UK, teachers are increasingly being encouraged to support and undertake outdoor learning. Despite such support there is a paucity of research that has considered how outdoor learning can be implemented and offered on a regular basis by teachers. The lack of empirical research that has centralised the role of the teacher is at odds with the interest in this topic and the need for theory-driven guidance suited to teachers. Research is reported that aimed to support the provision of outdoor learning opportunities for children aged between three and eleven at nine settings (pre- or primary schools) in Scotland and England. A set of flexible guidelines that link theory and practice were used by 14 teachers. This article focuses on teachers’ reports of their activity. The incorporation of outdoor learning within conventional teaching and learning approaches is found to be feasible and the implications for practice and future research are explored.     

Three‐year results of the Friendly Schools whole‐of‐school intervention on children's bullying behaviour

A group randomized controlled trial tested the efficacy of the Friendly Schools program to reduce student bullying behaviour. This socio‐ecological intervention targeted the whole school, classroom, family, and individual students to reduce bullying behaviour. Self‐report data were collected in 29 schools over three years from a cohort of 1968 eight to nine‐year‐olds. Surveys measured frequency of being bullied, bullying others, telling if bullied and observing bullying. Results indicate that intervention students were significantly less likely to observe bullying at 12, 24 and 36 months and be bullied after 12 and 36 months, and significantly more likely to tell if bullied after 12 months than comparison students. No differences were found for self‐reported perpetration of bullying. The findings suggest whole‐of‐school programs that engage students in their different social contexts appear to reduce their experiences of being bullied and increase their likelihood of telling someone if they are bullied.     

Ideal versus school learning: Analyzing Israeli secondary school students’ conceptions of learning

This study explored 130 secondary school students’ conceptions of learning using an open-ended task, analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Students’ reality of learning comprised two separate spheres, ideal learning and school learning, which rarely interacted. Generally, students commented more about school than ideal learning. Factor analysis of learning conception categories revealed separate “grand” categories for each sphere and some shared ones. Strikingly, students held complex, deeper conceptions of ideal learning (as self-interest/curiosity, understanding, and knowledge acquisition), but these were separate from their conceptions of school learning as merely the minimal, surface compliance necessary to survive the system by “satisficing” [Simon, H. A. (1955). A behavioral model of rational choice. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 69(1), 99–118] – satisfying and sufficing – the teachers (grades, task completion, and active class participation). Theoretical and educational implications were discussed regarding classroom instruction to heighten educators’ awareness of students’ thinking about learning.     

Holy Lemons! Learning from children's uses of the Internet in out‐of‐school contexts

The Internet offers new possibilities for engaging with information and is associated with a wide range of literacy practices. National guidance in the United Kingdom on ‘reading the web’, however, has focused largely on the different skills children may need to learn in school to navigate web‐based texts successfully. Here it is argued that much can be learned both about the potential of the web and of the kinds of reading associated with it by examining children's use of the Internet outside school. This article therefore begins with an overview of particular features of on‐screen reading and the different practices and orientations towards knowledge associated with this. It then reports on the use of the Internet out of school by a group of Year 6 children. It explores the purposes for which these children access the Internet, the attitudes and orientations they demonstrate in their approach to web‐based texts, and their own perceptions of what has enabled them to develop as Internet users. This exploration highlights the way that children may experiment and innovate in their use of the Internet out of school, and in doing so demonstrate considerable autonomy. These findings are used to make suggestions for framing and supporting children's Internet use in school.