The voices of pupils excluded from school for disciplinary reasons are infrequently heard. This article draws together the views of a small sample of pupils, gathered over three separate projects, and identifies common themes. The pupils' voices are reported in the more general context of the role of schools in promoting social inclusion and in a review of patterns of disciplinary exclusion in Scotland. The article concludes that, while many individual schools and teachers try hard to sustain difficult and challenging pupils in mainstream school, the problems faced by both are intractable. The focus on school policy and practice distracts attention from broader social and economic problems requiring solutions.
Behaviour in schools is an emotive topic and one of enduring political interest and sensitivity. The media often portrays schools as violent and dangerous places and young people as ever more unruly. This paper explores findings from a recent large‐scale national study on behaviour and focuses on the data from primary and secondary school students within this study. The comments and suggestions offered by students move beyond a discussion of behaviour to focus on the broader questions of participation, engagement and meanings of active citizenship in school.
This presidential address argues that there is a pressing need in the UK to build educational research capacity at system level and to do so collaboratively. It advances three main arguments for doing so. These are (i) the increasing concentration of research resources; (ii) the dangers of increasing separation of research and initial teacher education; and (iii) the complexity of the links between research, policy and practice. Drawing on evidence about research quality and on demographic trends of academic staff in education departments, it illustrates one approach to collaborative capacity building in Scotland, the Applied Educational Research Scheme. It concludes by drawing attention to the nascent Strategic Forum for Research in Education as an important forum for monitoring the health of educational research.
In the past 10 years, violence taking place in schools has entered both popular and academic discourse. Frequently, the term 'school violence' is used as a catch-all concept to refer to disorder and disruption in schools, as well as the unruliness of contemporary youth. This is apparent not only in the North American context, but in highly politicised debates regarding standards of pupil behaviour in countries across Europe. A related and significant development is the emergence of the study of violence in schools as a specialist area of enquiry. Drawing on sociological theories of the emergence of social problems, and social constructionist approaches in particular, this paper addresses the rising concern with 'school violence' as a social phenomenon. First it addresses the rise of the problem, emphasising connections with wider agendas, particularly anxieties about dangerous youth. The role of the media and academics is also considered. Moreover, this paper explores the emergence of the specialist field and related debates about meaning. It is argued that the present disquiet about 'school violence' requires to be understood in the context of modernity and accompanying concerns about social cohesion.
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