In my speech, I would like to present the results of my research on school regulations concerning students’ appearance. It is an important issue not only from the perspective of respecting children’s rights in educational institutions but also from the perspective of shaping critically thinking and acting individuals in school environment. Both perspectives are significant for the development of individual subjects and should be implemented in their education into everyday decision-making and its consequences, which is key to the development of critical consciousness.

Body and appearance are tools of one’s self-expression and they are a powerful tool of resistance (Bobel and Kwan 2011, Raby 2005, 2009, McLaren 1988, McLaren 2002). That is why representatives of the dominant school culture try to control the individual’s appearance and expression so that they do not undermine the arbitrarily imposed rules creating the school system. As highlighted by Margaret McLaren (2002: 116): ‘it is bodies that resist’. In this aspect, student’s body, appearance and clothes may constitute a real threat to the dominant culture. For this reason, schools introduce different restrictions concerning students’ appearance under the banner of safety as well as mental and emotional comfort of other students and teachers. They are intended to counter any potential risks, e.g. breach of public decency or causing other members of the school environment to feel bad, offended, disgusted, distracted, etc. It is an example of a typical safety organization that M. Foucault (2007) wrote about. 

In accordance with Article 12, 13 and 14 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children have the right to freely express their thoughts and views in any way they choose, as long as it does not violate the rights of others and does not threaten national security. Freedom of self-expression mostly includes child’s clothing and appearance. External presentation of oneself plays an especially important role in adolescence (Erikson 1994), which falls within the period of primary school in Poland and secondary school in the UK. During this time, expressing oneself through an outfit is incredibly important for shaping one’s own image of oneself and one’s identity. Assuming, in accordance with the discourse created by the dominant culture, that school is a student-friendly place that meets students’ needs, I decided to take a closer look at school regulations in the aspect of students’ clothing and analyze them with regard to respecting children’s right to freedom of expression. For this purpose, I have initiated a qualitative study of school documents in the aspect of the requirements for children’s appearance. 

The theoretical framework of the research project is formed by critical pedagogy, especially Peter McLaren’s concept of body suppression by the dominant culture. This perspective is complemented by Michel Foucault’s concept of organizing safety which, unlike external suppression practices, has decentralist tendencies. However, safety organization intertwines with disciplinary practices which trigger it. In the case of the part of the research project discussed in my speech, I will present practices disciplining student’s body that are included in the documents regulating the functioning of the school environment in primary schools in Poland and secondary schools in the UK. Focusing on two levels of education in these countries is caused by changes in the structure of the education system in Poland. The Act on the Education System in Poland from 2018 changed the existing system by introducing an 8-year primary school (ages 7-15). That is why, while choosing schools for my analysis, I had to take into consideration the level of secondary school in the UK, which matches grades 4-8 in the Polish system.

The subject of my research is a diagnosis of the state of school regulations concerning students’ appearance in the aspect of respecting children’s right to self-expression in Poland and in the UK. It is an important issue which shows the actual state of respecting children’s rights in everyday school practice. The research presented in my speech is a starting point for further cognitive explorations of the significance of student’s body for everyday resistance acts. I assume that body is a space where dominance and resistance clash. Therefore, school regulations and practices are of great importance for shaping a passive and subjugated or an active and opposing body that autonomously determines the terms of its subjugation and emancipation. The aim of my study was to identify the actual state of respecting children’s right to freedom of expression in the aspect of appearance and clothing as well as to capture the mechanisms which suppress student’s body in the school environment. It is also important for me to identify the similarities and differences between school policies in the UK and in Poland in this matter. The choice of these two countries was dictated by the cultural differences between them, especially a greater racial and cultural diversity of the British society. Poland is much more homogenous in this aspect. In the ongoing research, I conduct a qualitative analysis of the contents of the documents regulating school functioning in Poland and in the UK. Data sources are websites of Polish and British schools, where regulations concerning students’ clothing and appearance are published. The gathered data are subject to a coding procedure. At first, I use initial coding and then I use axial coding (Charmaz 2006, Strauss 1987, Corbin 1998) which helps me determine the properties and dimensions of categories and link them together again, which makes the analysis more coherent.

Currently, I am at the first stage of analyzing the gathered empirical material. So far, I have encoded 15 school documents (10 Polish, 5 British). All of them include regulations on managing students’ appearance and oppressing their free expression in this matter. The initial analysis shows tendencies to subjugate students’ appearance to the commonly prevailing standards of dressing in Polish and British schools. Girls are subjects to significant oppression in this matter in both countries. Their appearance should be modest and non-provocative. In many schools, they are forbidden from wearing any kid of jewelry. This ban is usually justified by the need to guarantee students’ safety. In many Polish schools, there are restrictions regarding girls’ hairstyles. They often have to tie their hair. It is also forbidden to dye it. These types of disciplinary actions cause bottom-up mechanisms of safety organization, described by Raby (2009) in her article on appearance. It should be emphasized that restrictions concerning hairstyles are not justified at all or their justifications are very laconic. Since childhood, woman’s body is subject to oppression and an attempt to tame its sexuality (hooks 2008, Casanowa and Jafar 2016). Thus, freedom of its expression is enslaved. As one of the most important tools of expressing oneself, it is subject to intense taming acts from the representatives of the dominant culture. Being institutions which mostly reproduce the dominant social norms and values, schools have a significant part in this practice. By doing this, they violate one of the most fundamental rights of human beings, which is freedom to expression.

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