Gaby Weiner

Under-stated powerhouses: Scottish independent schools, their characteristics and their capitals

This paper presents a study from the Scottish Independent School Project (SISP). The first part of the paper provides an overview of the characteristics of Scottish independent schools (e.g. location, structure, fees) with the aim of distinguishing the different orientations of schools in the sector. The second and main part of the paper is a discourse-based analysis of the website texts of three case-study schools to show how schools discursively construct themselves and their ‘assumptive worlds’ (Ball, 2001). We explore what these schools take for granted by their use of language, and the nature of their communication with potential parents and pupils. The analytic of social capital (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992; Coleman, 1988; Putnam, 2000) and following Bourdieu, other capitals (e.g. cultural, national, emotional) are used to examine the discourses accepted, appropriated and deployed by the schools and the extent to which they advance the interests of specific social groups.

Young students as participants in school health promotion: an intervention study in a Swedish elementary school.

Abstract Objectives. The aim was to analyse if young students could be substantive participants in a healthpromoting school project. The specific aims were to analyse the changes the students proposed in their school environment, how these changes were prioritized by a school health committee and to discuss the students’ proposals and the changes from a health and gender perspective. Study design. An intervention project was carried out in an elementary school with students (about 150) in Grades 1 through 6. The intervention included small-group discussions about health promoting factors, following a health education model referred to as ‘It’s your decision.’ At the last of 6 discussions, the students made suggestions for health-promoting changes in their school environment. A health committee was established with students and staff for the purpose of initiating changes based on the proposals. Methods. A content analysis was used to analyse the proposals and the protocols developed by the health committee. Results. The analysis showed 6 categories of the students’ proposals: social climate, influence on schoolwork, structure and orderliness, security, physical environment and food for well-being. Their priorities corresponded to the students’ categories, but had an additional category regarding health education. Conclusions. Principles that guide promoting good health in schools can be put into action among students as young as those in Grades 1 through 6. Future challenges include how to convey experiences and knowledge to other schools and how to evaluate if inequalities in health because of gender, class and ethnicity can be reduced through the focus on empowerment and participation.

School Health Promotion to Increase Empowerment, Gender Equality and Pupil Participation: A Focus Group Study of a Swedish Elementary School Initiative

A school health promotion project was carried out in an elementary school in Sweden where active participation, gender equality, and empowerment were leading principles. The objective of the study was to understand challenges and to identify social processes of importance for such a project. Focus group interviews were conducted with 6 single-sex groups (7–12 year olds) in grade 1–2, grade 3–4, and grade 5–6 on 2 occasions. The analysis used a grounded theory approach. The analysis identified the core category “normalization processes of violence and harassment.” It is argued that school health promotion initiatives need to be aware of normalization processes of violence and, which may be counter-productive to the increase of empowerment and participation among all pupils.

‘Capitalizing on sport’: sport, physical education and multiple capitals in Scottish independent schools

This paper draws on a research study into the existence and use of different forms of capital – including social, cultural and physical capital – in three independent schools in Scotland. We were interested in understanding how these forms of capital work to produce and reproduce advantage and privilege. Analysis is framed by a multiple capitals approach drawing on and developing the work of Putnam and especially Bourdieu. We suggest that sport plays a role with important effects for strong bonding and for the production of symbolic capital in the form of branding by each school.

Slippage and/or symbolism: gender, policy and educational governance in Scotland and Sweden

This article provides an overview and analysis of the relationship between gender, educational policy, and governance in Scotland and Sweden and the two countries’ response to European Union and global legislative and policy change. In Scotland, gender is mainly invisible in recent policies on inclusion, achievement beyond academic attainment, and the idealisation of the child. Gender is thus marginalised within a range of factors contributing to social in/equality. In Sweden, in contrast, gender has higher visibility in policy and governance as both an indicator of democracy and a means of preserving social democratic consensus and prosperity. However, recently its privileged position has come under attack. We draw on social capital, gender, and policy theory to analyse the range of influences on gender and educational governance in the two countries including that of the social capital of organised feminism.

The sound of silence! Reflections on inclusion and exclusion in the field of gender and education

The aim of this article is to start a debate about the inclusiveness/exclusiveness of the field of gender and education, and what change might be possible. While we focus on the field of gender and education as a whole (including its journals and academic practices), our main sources of evidence are our own experiences as gender researchers on different sides of the Anglophone divide, and a small survey of articles in this journal, Gender and Education, chosen because it is the main journal of choice for those hoping to make a contribution to the field. We examined articles published in three years, 1990, 1998 and 2007, in order to identify if and how the journal (and hence the field) has changed in orientation over time. Following a discussion of the survey outcomes, we draw attention in particular to the journal’s Anglophone orientation and the implications this has for the field as a whole. We further argue for greater reflexivity about our and other’s practices as feminist academics, and propose some strategies for action with the aim of making the field more inclusive.

Gendering/ed research spaces: insights from a study of independent schooling

This paper draws on a research study into multiple capitals in independent schooling in Scotland. We examine gender discourses and practices in the specific inter/institutional space created within school and research group relations. A three-level conceptual framing of physical, social and intellectual space is used together with theorizations of power/knowledge and social capital theory, to analyse instances of gender discourse and practice within research relations, where gender is understood as produced in and through social power and knowledge relations. Findings from the study include the usefulness of scalar analysis for gender and that school and researcher relations are affected by the coherence or otherwise of power/knowledge value systems. Following this, it is suggested that researchers incorporate gender sensitivity as a feature of their work, particularly methodology. The paper draws on school case studies involving observation, interviews, student focus groups and researcher accounts.

Spatial Paradox: Educational and Social In/Exclusion at St Giles.

This paper draws on case study data from a study of independent schools in Scotland, to examine school space as a site of mediation of educational dis/advantage and in/exclusion. A threefold and scalar conceptualisation of space is used together with social capital theory to analyse staff and student identifications with relations within and beyond school space. The analysis indicates the existence of specific territorial bonding and prevailing spatio-temporal boundaries, both of which produce educational advantage of benefit to students and the institution but can also, for some, lead to alienation and frustration. The conclusion reached is that strong in-school bonding is central to the reproduction of educational advantage, but that possibilities exist for its interruption which may offer key messages for schools more generally. The approach to analysis is discourse-based and draws on spatial and social and multiple capitals theory.

Gender power in elite schools: methodological insights from researcher reflexive accounts

The main task of this paper is to understand the methodological insights from researchers’ reflexive accounts about the production of gender in the specific practices of three Scottish elite schools. Accordingly, the paper poses three questions: How is gender re/constructed through the specific practices of these elite schools? What insights into these specific school gender regimes are offered in researchers’ reflexive accounts? What methodological insights are gained for future such studies? The paper opens with a discussion of gender policy in Scotland which suggests that the country’s policy and governance take little account of gender, equality and in/exclusion issues, in particular their intersectional nature. The methodology for the wider study from which this paper emerges is then outlined followed by the methodology for this researcher reflexive sub-study. Then, the data relating to the three schools’ gender practices’ regimes and the researchers’ reflexive data are presented and analysed. The paper concludes by delineating a number of important gender power issues which the researcher reflexive accounts highlight and argues that the insights thus gained will aid the development of gender and power sensitive methodology.

Urban Education in the Nordic Countries: Section Editors’ Introduction

This section explores issues of urban education in the five North European countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden), referred to here and elsewhere as the Nordic countries. The Nordic countries are geographically close and have a shared historical, political and langugage background and are recognised as similar not least with respect to their welfare policies. In this regard, the ‘Nordic’ has come to mean both an identity and a model, where the Nordic countries could be seen as having made the most of their marginal position in Europe. Education has been central to the development of the Nordic welfare systems. There has been a strong emphasis on providing equal educational opportunities, with state funding for educational provision and attendance, and stress on education as vital for social cohesion. However, more recently with restructuring and moves towards deregulation, decentralisation and marketisation there is a shift away from past commitments to ‘equality for all’. There are considerable similarities in the restructuring of education in the different Nordic countries, but also differences. In particular, Sweden lies at one extreme with its promotion of school choice and marketisation that allows for extracting profit. In the section, we discuss what this and other contemporary conditions imply for urban schooling, and conclude that although the concept of urban education is rarely used in the Nordic countries, there is ample research to offer insights into education in Nordic urban and suburban areas. Shared themes in relation to Nordic urban education include gender; ethnicity, migration and racism; identity, disaffection and critique; social class; democracy, and educational restructuring and marketisation. These themes are discussed in some detail in the section introduction and are exemplified in the chapters that follow.