Edward Sellman

Peer mediation services for conflict resolution in schools: what transformations in activity characterise successful implementation?

This article presents the findings from research conducted at nine schools (seven primary, two secondary) in England, which had previously implemented a peer mediation service for students experiencing interpersonal conflict. This analysis was informed by themes from a previous stage of research conducted at one additional primary school, where the process from pre‐ to post‐intervention had been observed in greater detail. The article utilises activity theory as a conceptual framework for understanding and describing these processes for a number of reasons that will be briefly explained. The findings of this research highlight the need for realistic anticipation of the degree of cultural transformation required to fully support such pupil empowerment initiatives in schools. Peer mediation was most successful in schools where there was a considerable shift in the division of labour, accompanied by the production of new cultural tools that promoted new ways of thinking, speaking and acting with regard to co...

A Sociocultural Approach to Exclusion

This essay review presents an overview of the issues surrounding young people and exclusion, with a focus on the formal procedure of permanent exclusion from school. In so doing, recent literature on the issues is critiqued amongst wider reading. It is suggested that theorisation of the processes of exclusion cannot be done at any one level of analysis. A sociocultural approach requires attention to analysis at individual, cultural, historical and institutional levels.

Building Bridges: Preparing Children for Secondary School

This paper firstly outlines some of the problems children can experience as a result of transferring from primary to secondary school. It then goes on to describe an initiative by the West Midlands Quaker Peace Education Project, Blessed William Howard Roman Catholic School in Stafford and its feeder schools to coordinate a secondary school preparation project. This involved special training for all primary pupils about to enter the school and a group of sixth formers.

Protocol Evaluating the effectiveness of a school-based group programme for parents of children at risk of ADHD: the ‘PArents, Teachers and CHildren WORKing Together (PATCHWORK)’ cluster RCT protocol

Introduction Early intervention for childhood behavioural problems may help improve health and educational outcomes in affected children and reduce the likelihood of developing additional difficulties. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a common childhood behavioural disorder, recommend a stepped care approach for the identification and management of these problems. Parents of children with high levels of hyperactivity and inattention may benefit from intervention programmes involving behavioural management and educational approaches. Such interventions may be further enhanced by providing training and feedback to teachers about the strategies discussed with parents. In relation to children with high levels of hyperactivity, impulsiveness and inattention, we aim to test the feasibility and effectiveness of a parenting programme (with and without an accompanying teacher session) in primary schools. Methods and analysis This clustered (at the level of school) randomised controlled trial (RCT) focuses on children in their first four school years (ages 4–8 years) in the East Midlands area of England. Parents will complete a screening measure, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, to identify children with high levels of hyperactivity/inattention. Three approaches to reducing hyperactivity and attention problems will be compared: a group programme for parents (parent-only intervention); group programme for parents combined with feedback to teachers (combined intervention); and waiting list control (no intervention). Differences between arms on the short version of Conners’ Parent and Teacher Rating Scales Revised will be compared and also used to inform the sample size required for a future definitive cluster RCT. A preliminary cost-effectiveness analysis will also be conducted. Ethics and dissemination The outcomes of this study will inform policy makers about the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of delivering targeted behavioural interventions within a school setting. The study has received ethical approval from the University of Nottingham Medical School Ethics Committee. Trial registration ISRCTN87634685

Peer Mediation, School Culture and Sustainability

This paper outlines the characteristics of peer mediation in schools and its potential, evident in the literature, for reducing pupil–pupil conflicts referred to teachers. Then, drawing on personal experience, research and a review of literature, the author argues that for peer mediation projects to be effective they need to be in synergy with the culture of the school, including its approach and vision to the management of conflict. Making this argument requires a means of modelling school culture, which will be outlined. Finally, the author argues that attention also needs to be given to how the service will be sustained.

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Restorative Justice: Developing Insights for Education.

ABSTRACT This article takes restorative justice as an example of an initiative that crosses disciplinary boundaries, and that has been usefully applied within educational contexts. Grounded in criminology, restorative justice also has roots in psychology, education, sociology, peace studies, philosophy and law. The article draws on an ESRC funded seminar series which investigated interdisciplinary perspectives on restorative justice and their applicability to education. The series found that the ways in which restorative justice is conceptualised and applied varies according to disciplinary norms and assumptions. It is this creative tension that the current article explores.

A qualitative process evaluation of a randomised controlled trial of a parenting intervention in community (school) settings for children at risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

BackgroundInterventions for parents of children experiencing emotional and/or behavioural difficulties can help to improve their children’s health, educational and social outcomes. However, the desirability and acceptability of screening and offering such interventions for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-type problems are currently unclear. This article is a qualitative process evaluation of a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial (Trial registration: ISRCTN87634685; reported elsewhere) to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a school-based parenting intervention programme for parents and teachers of children with high levels of ADHD symptoms.MethodsParents (n = 22) and teaching staff (n = 29) took part in semi-structured group or individual interviews, either by telephone or face-to-face, following the main trial. Interviews were digitally-recorded, transcribed verbatim and subjected to thematic analysis.ResultsThe parenting intervention was acceptable to parents and teachers, and they were enthusiastic about the need for parenting groups in the school environment and stressed the importance of parent-school collaboration. Parents generally stated a preference for universal recruitment approaches to such programmes whilst teachers described the need to target specific parents.Most parents who took part in the parenting intervention described it favourably and many saw benefits, at least in the short-term. Parents differed in their preferred group size, with some desiring one-to-one sessions and others favouring a larger group. Non-attending parents reported barriers to attendance such as fear of attending in a group, previous use of the programme, work and other commitments. Suggestions to improve the programme included: clearer communication; offering booster sessions; and greater collaboration with teachers.ConclusionsIt is feasible to deliver parenting intervention programmes within or near schools. The intervention was acceptable to the majority of parents, thus retention was high, but recruitment was difficult and reaching the parents with the most need was challenging. The findings of the process evaluation identified greater benefits to families than were apparent in the main trial. Recommendations identified by parents and teaching staff may be used to inform service delivery and future research to enhance recruitment to parenting interventions in the school environment.

Spirituality and educational concern

In this special issue, the third edition of Pastoral Care in Education for 2016, we bring together five articles and a thematic book review on the subject of spirituality and educational concern. There has been widespread international concern about the impact of aggressive neoliberal educational policies over the past two decades upon the breadth of educational experience and student health and well-being. These concerns have been expressed at numerous editorial board meetings and have featured as the context and/or theme of many articles in this journal over recent years. In the UK and other westernised education systems we have witnessed the introduction of state-sanctioned curriculum, where both what is taught and how something is taught has become tightly controlled and scrutinised. In a drive to raise standards within core subjects, many other key aspects of learning such as creativity, spirituality and interpersonal skills, all themes within this issue, have been squeezed and denigrated. At the same time, we have witnessed greater testing taking place in schools in several countries and greater kudos being given to what these tests mean. Both teachers and students have become identified with results and these have become indicative of personal and professional worth. There has been much debate concerning whether such educational policies are actually effective and the impact they have on curriculum, pedagogy and inclusion. There has perhaps been less open debate about the moral and ethical basis of such policies and the impact they have on students’ opportunities to understand and relate to themselves and one another. This special issue, and future issues, seek to open up a space where both the impact of such policies on ‘spirituality’ might be discussed and indeed how spirituality may speak to some of these concerns. A broad notion of ‘spirituality’ is adopted in this issue, neither confined nor divorced from any religious, spiritual or secular movement. Articles in this edition explore spirituality by addressing such broad questions as ‘who are we’ and ‘what kind of schools do we wish for this and future generations?’ What kind of relationships do we want to foster within our educational communities and what kind of values, attributes and skills ought to be promoted amongst students living in a world fraught with conflict and uncertainty? We have been fortunate to receive a number of high-quality submissions in response to a call for papers given last year, some published here, with a few others held over for future issues or still under review. Issues and debates raised here will continue. In the first article, Trotman offers some direction towards a spiritual pedagogy of pastoral care and is hence apt to open the special issue. It sets this agenda against the educational

Approaching disability: critical issues and perspectives. By Rebecca Mallett and Katherine Runswick-Cole

attempts to maintain their lives. Allen shows through Foucault that both forms of power can operate at the same time and that both were complicit in the operation of eugenic examination in Nazi Germany, as well as in the examination inherent to modern welfare programmes. For Allen these forms of power are not good or evil but rather tools with which to understand the operation of the social. These first two collections set the scene for the last, ‘Meritocracies’, which is by far the longest and also the most clearly related to the condition of examination in contemporary society. Meritocracy is described here as a means by which the illusion of individual success can be presented to all, while inequality continues to grow. In this collection Allen provides searing critiques of formative assessment, the benevolent violence of educators, and attempts at various forms of meritocratic schooling and examination systems. While traditional meritocracy afforded those of different examinable abilities a job which was deemed equivalent, ‘fluid meritocracy’ is fuelled by contemporary aspirational rhetoric which offers the possibility of success to the individually responsible subject, whose success is not based on ability alone but on ability and effort. The duty is then removed from the state in locating and facilitating those with ability, from whatever social background. This change of perception means that lack of success can be put down to lack of effort. For Allen this contemporary predicament in education and society can be seen as both futile and absurd but because it is now so ingrained in our social relations, the entire system must be rejected to rid ourselves of it. This is a brave and important book which sets forth an intensely claustrophobic analysis of the operation of power in society, creating new precedents for future critiques of education, examination and meritocracy. It provides terms and means with which to better understand contemporary issues and debates, without ever stooping to offer naïve, cheap and easy solutions. It is a provocative and compelling text which demands to be read and responded to. For example, while this is an outstanding example of Foucauldian genealogy, other philosophical approaches might put some of Allen’s more general conclusions into question or offer a less resigned outlook. One typical post-Foucauldian criticism might be that, in presenting conditions which supposedly affect everyone, Allen obscures the existence of relatively unaffected outliers (whether individuals or institutions), for whom other conditions might be significantly more affecting. However, even if the genealogical approach of Benign Violence might run the risk of only providing one part of the story, it is a part that should not be ignored.

Waiting Room: Exploring the impact of medical and educational discourse on identity through painting

ABSTRACT This article offers a presentation and deconstruction of a piece of research-informed art that synthesize my practice as both an educational researcher and an artist, and as a painter specifically. The argument that painting, or other forms of artistic and creative activity, can meet the academic requirements of producing and disseminating knowledge with comparable authority to text is presented first, followed by an elucidation of how one such painting, Waiting Room (Figure 1), can serve as an illustration of this endeavour, being embedded in research, synthesis of ideas and construction of argument.