Scottish secondary education from a critical community psychological perspective: power, control and exclusion

Abstract

Abstract of Thesis Entitled: Scottish Secondary Education from a Critical Community Psychological Perspective: Power, Control and Exclusion
\nThis research examines problematic and taken for granted issues in Scottish
\nSecondary Education, from a critical community psychological perspective. Young
\npeople are positioned as central to the research, in particular young people
\nexperiencing exclusion being the most disempowered group in education, and to
\nfully understand problems they experience the thesis develops a standpoint with
\nyoung people. Methodologically the research is grounded in a particular approach
\nto praxis. Critical reflection, action and knowledge construction all influence one
\nanother cyclically in complex relationships, at times conflicting and at others
\ndeveloping together dialogically and these relationships are embraced and reflected
\nupon carefully. Power and knowledge are viewed as being inextricably linked and
\nknowledge, what is legitimated within a certain frame of reference as ‘truth’ or
\n‘reality’, is viewed as being constructed by dominant groups with the power to do
\nso.
\nEthnography was carried out in three educational settings: a mainstream High
\nSchool; a Special School in a city centre catering for young people experiencing
\nexclusion; and a Youth Project where permanently excluded young people were on
\nan alternative curriculum. Qualitative methods were used in a varied and tailored
\nway for each setting and group of people and included Participatory Action
\nResearch and group work with young people, interview and group work with
\nteachers, active participation in settings leading to fieldwork notes, and collection of
\ntextual information. Analysis involved careful examination of a wide variety of
\nmaterial, drawing on various methods of discourse analysis. The research material
\nwas analysed for the ways in which education made possible and placed limits on
\nlegislation, social practices, ways of speaking and ways of being.
\nThe assumption that adults must be in control of young people in education was
\nfound to be absolute and pervasive, stemming from societal ideas of young people,
\nbut also perpetuating them. This emerged throughout my research, from practices
\nin mainstream school to ways of speaking available to adults and young people.
\nInclusion, while often spoken of in relation to equality and social justice, in practice
\nis often conditional, and is re-positioned in this thesis as a form of control. School
\nexclusion is often described in education as being expelled or suspended, but is
\nrepositioned in this research more generally as being excluded from learning and
\npeers, and is argued as inherently problematic.
\nProblematic, institutional, educational discourse is constructed as often placing
\nlimits on ways of speaking, such that critical reflection and action within secondary
\neducation becomes very difficult for adults and young people. Ways of speaking
\navailable to young people are examined and demonstrate that while education
\nimposes particular ways of speaking and being, young people find opportunities to
\nresist and reconstruct. Ways of being are examined, between adults and young
\npeople in educational settings, and an account of performance of resistance and
\ncompliance between young people and adults is developed.
\nThis research draws on a complex and multi disciplinary use of theory, literature,
\nmethodology and methods, and in doing so constructs an account of young people’s
\nexperiences in education that is based on a standpoint with young people. By
\ngrounding the research in the interests of young people, particularly those
\nexperiencing school exclusion, it challenges assumptions of dominance and control
\nthat have implications for education as a whole and all those operating within.