Ceri Brown

Special Educational Needs: a Contextualised Perspective

Abstract The paper examines variations in the extent of special education needs (SEN) in different socio-economic contexts, drawing on data from 46 English primary schools. It examines the implications of variations in SEN for individual pupils and for school organisation and processes. It reviews funding allocations for SEN and what they mean for the provision of support in different settings.

The political economy of international schools and social class formation

1. Introduction Richard Bates 2. Global Networking and the World of International Education Michael Wylie 3. The Political Economy of International Schools and Social Class Formation Ceri Brown and Hugh Lauder 4. International Schools and Micropolitics: Fear, Vulnerability and Identity in Fragmented Space Richard Caffyn 5. Teachers for International Schools of the Future Mary Hayden and Jeff Thompson 6. Teaching and Learning in International Schools: A Consideration of Stakeholders and their Expectations Helen Fail 7. International Curriculum James Cambridge 8. Assessment in International Schools Richard Bates 9. The International Baccalaureate: Its Growth and Complexity of Challenges Tristan Bunnell 10. Education for Global Citizenship: Reflecting on the Instrumentalist Agendas at Play Harriet Marshall

Exploring how social capital works for children who have experienced school turbulence: what is the role of friendship and trust for children in poverty?

This paper is concerned with the role of friendship in the construction of social capital within schools for students in poverty. It undertakes an analysis of friendship through the lens of students who have experienced turbulence. ‘Turbulence’ refers to a type of pupil mobility between schools (not to be confused with social mobility) understood as when a child enters or leaves school at a non-standard time. An examination of the ways in which ‘turbulent’ children seek to make friendships provides an opportunity to consider the ways in which different types of friendships affect the construction of social capital in school. This paper examines these processes for six ‘turbulent’ children from low-income families, and explores the different orientations to the construction of social capital between these children and their non-‘turbulent’ friends. This study extends our understanding of the role of friendship in the construction of social capital and may help to develop an agenda for considering the importance of friendship, social capital and education for children in poverty.

‘Favourite places in school’ for lower-set ‘ability’ pupils: school groupings practices and children’s spatial orientations

ABSTRACT This paper contributes to the recent turn within Children’s Geographies concerned with understanding and illuminating educational inequalities. The focus is upon pupils assigned to lower ‘ability’ groupings, in a school under pressure to raise attainment. The objective of the paper is twofold, firstly to consider how school grouping practices affect children’s sense of belonging in lessons, and secondly, to contextualise these findings against children’s spatial orientations within the broader school environment. It is argued that a spatial focus may shed light upon the educational policy drivers that contribute to the exclusion of disadvantaged children. Neo-liberal imperatives of accountability and performance can be seen to shape hierarchies of belonging, where pupils’ positioning in ‘ability’ groupings enables/limits the spatial agency that they can exert. Macro policy concerns are mapped onto micro school processes concerning the construction and governance of school spaces, using theoretical insights from Michel Foucault and R.D Sack.

‘I just can’t bear these procedures, I just want to be out there working with children’: an autoethnography on neoliberalism and youth sports charities in the UK

ABSTRACT This paper uses an autoethnography to recount my experiences with SportHelp, a UK youth sports charity. Using a layered account format, which jumps through time and space, I demonstrate the extent to which neoliberal values have influenced the continuity and change of SportHelp. This paper does not constitute an attack on the charity, its staff, nor the charity sector. The focus is on how the wider neoliberal context shapes how SportHelp operates. The findings are analysed in terms of Foucault’s (2008, The birth of biopolitics. Lectures at the Collége de France, 1978–79. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan) notion of governmentality by examining SportHelp’s monitoring and reporting practices, as well as the managers’ use of New Public Management discourse. The conclusion reflects on the extent to which neoliberal governmentality, though in some instances beneficial for SportHelp, ultimately does more harm than good. This paper, by offering an ‘insider’s view’, adds to the literature calling for a change in how policy makers and funders shape the current hypercompetitive socio-political landscape. Charities should be supported, not discouraged, to develop holistic programmes that move beyond ‘economic rationales’ and are capable of addressing the multifaceted needs of their service users.

Education Policy and mental weakness: a response to a mental health crisis

Abstract Educationalists have been concerned with the labelling and treatment of children with mental health difficulties in the education system in England for some time. These concerns have centred on the role of policy in ‘othering’ such students as deviant learners. The unprecedented number of children suffering from mental illnesses, has forced policymakers to address children’s mental health difficulties. This has involved the identification of a sub-set of the school population experiencing ‘less-severe’ mental health issues, to be addressed through a suite of policy interventions delivered by whole-school approaches, but targeted towards children situated as mentally ‘weak’. Drawing upon a Foucauldian theory of governmentality that addresses children’s behavioural motivations, an in-depth analysis of a number of educational policy initiatives related to mental health is conducted, that it is argued are fundamentally flawed. This analysis is followed by a discussion of the performative culture of High Stakes Testing in contributing to children’s mental health difficulties. Here it is argued that a narrative of mental weakness serves to justify a neoliberal rationality towards the treatment of children for whom the performative logic assumed to motivate all learners, fails.