Berry Mayall

Children's Health In Primary Schools

Combining anecdotal accounts, inter-professional experiences, critical debate and practical pointers to being a good observer, this book explores issues surrounding observation in social science-orientated research.

Childhood with Bourdieu

About the book This book breaks new ground in its theorizing of childhood within sociological concepts. Over the course of nine chapters, authors give detailed accounts of the lives of children in a range of societies, including England, sub-Saharan Africa, Northern Ireland, France, Andhra Pradesh and Finland. They describe their studies in the light of Bourdieus key concepts field, habitus and capital to consider the social status of childhood, the tensions between schooling and work in the lives of children, childrens relations with adults, and the pressures on childhood resulting from globalization and from the professional discourse of those adults who aim to help them. The authors are all established researchers who are committed to improving the social status and well-being of childhood, in social, economic and political worlds that too often fail to accord children respect for their human rights.

Children's emotional learning in primary schools

Using insights gleaned from the sociology of childhood to challenge prevailing conceptualizations of children as emotionally ‘incomplete’ or ‘immature’ in relation to adults, this study demonstrates the interactive nature of the social order within primary schools and the centrality of emotional learning to childrens everyday lives and relationships. Analysis of the qualitative data shows how children recognize the role of emotional learning in sustaining a balanced and ‘healthy’ lifestyle in relation to their self-identity, particularly through the importance of enlisting and sustaining friendships as protection across the public/private divide and the institutional order of school life. Furthermore, the data show that children understand their subordination to adults and the role of ‘emotion work’ in the negotiation of these hierarchical relationships.

Understanding inter-generational relations: the case of health maintenance by children

This paper aims to consider the sociology of childhood in relation to child health maintenance, restoration and promotion, through discussion of three intersecting themes: children as a minority social group; children as embodied social actors and children as agents in the inter-generational division of labour. I build on my previous work on childrens negotiations of their health status, at home and at school and review some important developments and research studies over the last 15 years or so. This period has seen the expansion of research on childhood, linguistically and geographically; and has focused attention on how childrens health and well-being relate to social expectations of them as paid workers and as schoolchildren.