‘Take more time to actually listen’: students' reflections on participation and negotiation in school

This study explored how children of lower primary school grades perceive due process in schools’ disciplinary procedures. While many studies have explored how adolescents perceive school discipline, only a few studies have examined the perceptions of primary school pupils, and no study has investigated lower primary school grades. The qualitative research design was based on semi‐structured interviews and focus groups with 70 children, aged 7 to 10, recruited from 19 public schools in Israel. In addition, we recruited a children's advisory group that participated in the research process. The findings revealed that while many of the study participants had internalised a formalistic approach to due process (i.e. meting out uniform punishments in similar cases, in accordance with a closed system of rules), others objected to this approach, providing various reasons for their concerns. Participants’ criticisms of a formalistic due process policy included lack of compassion and lack of understanding of pupils’ social, academic or other difficulties, disregard of pupils’ voice, the complex task of discerning the truth, apprehension over a uniform punitive system and low efficacy of punishments. We argue that the right to due process in schools lies at the intersection of legal and educational narratives. Even young children are able to recognise the inherent incongruity of these narratives, as they constitute a significant part of their daily routine in school. We also argue that this incongruity engenders a distorted due process, thus imparting faulty lessons about the right to due process and its justifications.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Pupils’ Perceptions Of School Disciplinementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Pupils' Perceptions Of School Disciplinementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Pupils' Perceptions Of School Disciplinementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Pupils' Perceptions Of School Disciplinementioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Young children's perceptions of due process in schools’ disciplinary procedures

Perry‐Hazan

Lambrozo

2018

The identity game: constructing and enabling multicultural identities in a Finland–Swedish school setting

Forsman

Hummelstedt-Djedou²

2013

This study, building on previous studies stressing the bond between positive sense of ethnic identity and school belonging, puts at its center the very process of ethnic identity construction. Thus, identity is viewed as co-constructed, within a social-constructionist perspective on learning. The study is two-folded. It starts out by describing how participants in a Finland-Swedish preschool setting orient to ethnic identity in everyday interactions. Video recordings are analyzed using conversation analysis, a relatively recent approach to the exploration of how ethnicity is accomplished in interaction. It shows that the different ethnic backgrounds of the children were considerably more prominent in the informal self-initiated interactions between themselves than in situations where adults were present. The children mainly used ethnicity as a resource to investigate themselves in relation to others to negotiate status and construct in-and out-groups. The second part focuses on how to create a more inclusive school-setting by more actively supporting students' ethnic identity construction. It discusses the experiences from a teacher-researcher collaboration, where the way children constructed ethnic identity in the first part of the study was taken as the starting-point for the development of new practices. The study suggests the ongoing ethnic identity construction in everyday educational settings to be a fertile area for further research. We need to know more about how these processes can be supported in a manner that is sensitive to the students' needs to decide for themselves whether, and how, they wish to orient to their own ethnic backgrounds.

Staying on‐track despite the odds: Factors that assist young people facing adversity to continue with their education

Sanders

Munford

Thimasarn‐Anwar

2015

This article draws on the findings from a mixed‐methods New Zealand study of the experience of service use of 605 vulnerable young people (aged 13–17 years). Drawing on the survey data, it focuses on the factors that assisted young people to stay on‐track with their education. Key findings include: being able to stay at mainstream school was the strongest predictor of capacity to stay on‐track. Additional educational services did not appear to contribute directly to positive educational outcomes. There was a direct relationship between involvement with mental health services and the capacity of these vulnerable youths to stay on‐track. Better integration between educational, welfare, and justice providers may yield better educational outcomes for these youths. Relational resources from domains such as friendship, family and community activities enhance young people's capacities to stay engaged and achieving in education. However, not every positive relational resource produces a positive educational gain. For this reason, it is important that educational and other professionals carefully examine these domains (friends, family and community) to identify which of these has the potential to assist with educational engagement and then work to maximise the benefits for youths.