Heather Piper

Seeing Voices and Hearing Pictures: Image as discourse and the framing of image-based research

This paper addresses an increasingly popular technique for eliciting student “voice” through the analysis of young peoples images as a medium of expression, focusing in particular on photography. Of course, there has been considerable critical interrogation of student voice activities in the recent past and the complexities and challenges associated with the analysis of images is longstanding. Where critical scrutiny is less apparent, however, is in the interpretation of children and young peoples visual “statements”. We argue that young peoples images should be subject to the same processes of deconstruction as other texts produced under the aegis of voice activities and conclude by suggesting that the crisis of representation familiar in most interpretive genres is sometimes absent from what tends to be an uncritical celebration of representation in this particular context.

Reflexivity, the Picturing of Selves, the Forging of Method

This article addresses alternative models for a reflexive methodology and examines the ways in which doctoral students have appropriated these texts in their theses. It then considers the indeterminate qualities of those appropriations. The paper offers a new account of reflexivity as “picturing,” drawing analogies from the interpretation of two very different pictures, by Velázquez and Tshibumba. It concludes with a more open and fluid account of reflexivity, offering the notion of “signature,” and drawing on the work of Gell and also Deleuze and Guattari in relation to the inherently specific nature of “concepts” situated in space and time.

Sports coaching in risk society: No touch! No trust!

This paper is informed by a UK based Economic and Social Research Council funded research project which developed and deployed a case-study approach to issues of touch between children and professionals in schools and childcare. Outcomes from these settings are referred to, but the focus here is shifted to touch in sports coaching and its distinctive contextual and institutional characteristics. We consider the broader context of no touch coaching practice, including relevant theoretical accounts, review policy which impacts on coaching activity and report on preliminary enquiries.1 We argue that the disembodiment of practice has undermined the conception and experience of sports coaching and its contribution to educating and socialising young people.

Ethical research, academic freedom and the role of ethics committees and review procedures in educational research

Our aim is to re‐present and reflect educational researchers’ lived experiences of ethical review committees and procedures. We decided to put together this collection as a result of what happened ...

Parents, Professionals, and Paranoia The Touching of Children in a Culture of Fear

Summary: In this paper, we appeal to professionals and others to take a more considered approach to the increasing panic relating to the touching of children of all ages. We attempt to disrupt the current trend by drawing attention to that which is currently being deferred in professional practice, yet which is evident in many formal and informal guidelines. We suggest that the contradictions we identify throughout the paper result more from a culture of fear than one of caring. We draw on our own small-scale earlier research experiences, and relevant and related literature in the area, but also note a scarcity of both in the UK context. We conclude that touching, at least in anglicized societies, has become an area that now requires fine judgements dependent on the interactive processes between all parties and that a broad-based analysis is clearly required. But we consider hesitation and ambiguity to be unavoidable in ethical decision making, something to be encouraged and not avoided by the search for blueprints, in our attempts to manage the perceived ‘risks’. Findings: Current practice is more dependent on fears of accusation and litigation than any concern for a child. Most child care workers ‘know’ this on the one hand, but nevertheless still attempt to justify their actions as sensible decision making. For example, a play group leader will claim he or she can’t put a plaster on a child because of a potential allergy: this is in spite of completed forms requesting information relating to allergies for each child, and allergies cease to be an issue anyway when a child is taken to the medical box and instructed from a distance on how to apply a plaster themselves. Contradictory accounts such as this are abundant in this area, and we suggest that many workers are behaving more like ‘victims’ than professionals. Applications: This paper is concerned with drawing attention to the need for all professionals working with children and young people of all ages to question their current and future decision making in relation to the wide range of touching practices that occur on a daily basis. Professionals should make their own mind up in relation to ethical matters, remembering that the ‘radicals’ of today become the ‘liberals’ of tomorrow.

Can Liberal Education Make a Comeback? The Case of “Relational Touch” at Summerhill School

This article draws on data from a single element of a larger project1 which focused on the issue of “touching” between education and child care professionals and children in a number of settings. This case study looks at a school once internationally renowned as the exemplar of “free” schooling. The authors consider how the school works as a community, how it impacts on its students, and how it copes with the strictures of the audit culture in relation to “risk” and “safety.” The authors’ experiences led them to the realization that physical “touch” was an irrelevant focus in this school, and they developed the notion of “relational touch.” Summerhill works in ways that approximate an inversion of the audit culture. The authors argue that progressive and critical conceptions of education continue to have much to learn from concrete examples like Summerhill and conclude that a revival of such values in education is long overdue.

IDENTITY AND CITIZENSHIP: SOME CONTRADICTIONS IN PRACTICE

ABSTRACT:  We argue that many current forms of anti-racist and multicultural teaching, whilst well-intentioned, nevertheless serve to ‘fix’ identities on children in ways which inhibit their agency and reinforce stereotypes. In our exploration of the issues we employ a wide range of theoretical ideas.

‘Disaffected’ Young People: problems for mentoring

abstract Among the increasingly variable contexts in which mentoring is being deployed are a growing number of projects focused on young people characterised as disaffected. Drawing on research, theory and policy, the article argues that there are both practical and conceptual problems attached to such a development, which are further compounded by a lack of clarity in definition and intention. As a result, those involved in mentoring projects may do so on the basis of contrasting but unexplored ideological assumptions and intentions. As mentoring is frequently deployed in complex and contested situations, the need for caution and evaluative research is indicated.

Safeguarding sports coaching: Foucault, genealogy and critique

This paper offers a genealogical account of safeguarding in sport. Drawing specifically on Foucaults work, it examines the ‘politics of touch’ in relation to the social and historical formation of child protection policy in sports coaching. While the analysis has some resonance with the context of coaching as a whole, for illustrative purposes it focuses principally upon the sport of swimming. Our analysis demonstrates how the linked signifiers of ‘abuse’, ‘protection’ and ‘safeguarding’ produce both continuity and change in the philosophy and meaning around coaching practice, giving rise to particular notions of ‘government’ and regulation, risk aversion and prohibitions, and values. Within a culture of fear in sports coaching and society, the analysis traces the development of swimming policy following the exposure of select high-profile cases or critical incidents, where such historical events prompted a series of authoritative statements about the nature of child protection discourse in sport and education, and practice.

Heterotopian cosmopolitan citizenship education

This article examines the on-going saga of citizenship education in the UK against a backdrop of conceptual confusions and contradictions around the question of what it means to share a civic identity. Noting calls to grasp the social and political realities of an emerging cosmopolitanism, and move towards a more identity-based conception of citizenship, the article questions whether in fact nationhood is a socially just concept worthy of pursuit? It suggests that the teaching of citizenship in schools is perhaps the wrong place to start, and that this is likely at best to lead to confusion, and at worst perpetuate binary and/or discriminatory thinking. In the absence of a realignment and reprioritization of teacher education, it seems unlikely that most teachers will be au fait with the complexity surrounding concepts such as identity, nationhood, and citizenship, and consequently pupils are likely to experience relatively crude and simplistic coverage of the topic.