Session Information
04 SES 03 B, Identity
Paper Session
Contribution
This paper is based upon a case study of young people from an isolated rural community which has significant social and economic difficulties. The project sets out to investigate the role school plays in the lives of these young people, in particular issues around inclusion. The research focuses on the lived experience of schooling, set in the geographical, cultural and economic context of isolation and deprivation; similar contexts are recorded across the UK (Shucksmith, 2000) and Europe (Hargreaves, 1997). This paper is offered as a contribution to the call for more European research on education, using ‘local voices’, in and outside of school (Kvalsund & Hargreaves, 2009).
The study uses the perspective of a group of young people from a marginalised community to illuminate and investigate the central structures and systems of their school. The view from those with least power offers many benefits (Apple, 1990) but researchers must be aware of associated risks. The paper engages with the role of risk in offering opportunities to break out of the cycle of certainty (Lather, 1994) and counter dominant readings (Fulcher, 1995).
Inclusion is considered as an aspiration for democratic education (Slee, 2001) and a political practice (Gunter & Thompson, 2006) with students engaged as active agents through research and enquiry in their schools. It is argued that increased student participation and agency can disturb dividing, exclusionary practices in schools. Unless actions to increase student agency are taken, with their potential to rupture the power relations of the status quo, schools will remain inherently exclusionary places and disconnection from school and its associated resources will continue to be a reality for many young people.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Allan, J. (2005) Inclusion as an Ethical Project, in: S. Tremain (Ed) Foucault and the Government of Disability. (Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press). Apple, M. (1990) Ideology and Curriculum (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul). Clough, P. (2002) Narratives and Fictions in Educational Research (Buckingham, Open University Press). Fielding, M. (2007) The Human cost and Intellectual Poverty of High Performance schooling: radical philosophy, John Macmurray and the re-making of person-centred education., Journal of Educational Policy, 22(4), pp. 389-409. Fulcher, G. (1995) Excommunicating the Severely Disabled: struggles, policy and researching, in: P. Clough & L. Barton (Eds) Making Difficulties: Research and the Construction of SEN (London, Paul Chapman Publishing). Gunter, H. & Thompson, P. (2006) The Makeover: a new logic of practice in policy making? European Conference for Educational Research (Geneva, September). Hargreaves, L. (1997) Issues in Rural Education in Europe: a summary of a symposium on issues in rural education at the Conference of Educational Research. Conference of Educational Research (Seville Spain, 25-29 Sept 1996). Kvalsund, R. & Hargreaves, L. (2009) Reviews of Research in Rural Schools and Their Communities: analytical perspectives and a new agenda, International Journal of Educational Research, 48(2), pp. 140-149. Lather, P. (1994) Textuality as Praxis. Annual Meeting of Educational Research Association (New Orleans) Macmurray, J. (1958) Learning to be Human.(University of Edinburgh, Moray House Annual Public Lecture 5th May). Shucksmith, M. (2000) Exclusive Countryside? Social inclusion and regeneration in rural areas (York, Joseph Rowntree Foundation). Slee, R. (2001) Social Justice and the Changing Directions in Educational Research: the case of inclusive education, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 5(2/3), pp. 167-177. Warren, M. (1988) Nietzsche and Political Thought (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press).
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.