The School Bus: A Facilitator And Barrier To School Attendance.

Author(s):

Cath Gristy(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2011

Network:

14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

14 SES 01 A, Eductional Apects of Rural Schooling – Possibilities, Challenges and Changes

Paper Session

Time:

2011-09-13

13:15-14:45

Room:

KL 25/134,G, 70

Chair:

Rune Kvalsund

Contribution

In the UK, the 1996 Education Act bestows upon Local Authorities a duty on to ensure that suitable travel arrangements are made, where necessary to facilitate a child’s attendance at school. This study presents a student view of school transport arrangements and investigates the dilemma of school transport as both a facilitator and barrier to schooling.

International research on school transport in urban and rural contexts, explores a range of issues including sustainability (eg Toor and Havlick, 2004), its place in school choice (eg Ball, 2003), young people’s safety, health and well being (eg Faulkner et al, 2009) and young people’s behaviour on school transport (eg deLara, 2009, Putnam et al 2003). In studies of rural communities, the focus on school transport is heightened by physical location, where access to services can be a particular problem (Storey and Brannen, 2000)

This paper is based upon a case study of young people from an isolated rural village community in the South West of England which has significant social and economic difficulties. This geographical, cultural and economic context of isolation and deprivation is recorded across the UK (Shucksmith, 2000) and Europe (Hargreaves, 1997). The project set out to investigate the role school plays in the lives of these young people, in particular issues around inclusion.

The number of students in this particular community with poor school attendance is significantly higher than the average for all students at their secondary school. In a rural location like this, where the secondary school is miles from their homes, students who fail to attend school become disconnected from the school and other services and opportunities associated with the school and the town. This paper focuses on the students’ experience of school transport which was a recurring theme in the data.

Method

The research is framed as a case study and a grounded theory approach has been used, interpreted from a social justice perspective. The problematic nature of this approach and its advantages in social justice work are discussed. The primary data source, a series of interviews carried out with a group of students from the village, is contextualised by data from documents and interviews collected from members of their school and village communities. The content of interview transcripts were coded, key themes developed iteratively and anomalies and silences noted.

Expected Outcomes

From the data it is clear that one of the ‘barriers’ to attending school for the students from this study community, is the school bus. All the students interviewed mentioned the problems on the buses which took the students to and from school each day. The fights on the bus are graphically described. The bad behaviour on the school buses was often discussed at community meetings and the bus was frequently cited as a reason for students not going to school. This daily journey to school on the bus, is considered as a daily ‘petty cruelty’ (Foucault, 1991) and a ‘dividing practice’ (Foucault, 1982), that separates those young people who can manage it and those who cannot. From the data it is suggested that the motivation to get on the school bus may, for some students, be primarily linked to the promise of social activity when they arrive in school. For those not drawn by the promise of social or learning activity, the bus offers another reason not to go to school.

References

Ball, S. (2003) Class strategies and the education market: the middle classes and social advantage.London: RoutledgeFalmer. deLara, E (2009) Bullying and Aggression on the school bus: school bus driver’s observations and suggestions. Journal of School Violence 7(3) p48 Faulkner,G. , Buliung, R., Flora, P., Fusco, C (2009) Active school transport, physical acitivity and body weight of children and Youth: a systematic review. Preventitive Medicine 48(1) pp3–8 Foucault, M. (1982) The subject and power. In Michel Foucault: beyond structuralism and hermeneutics. edited by H. Dreyfus and P. Rabinov. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Foucault (1991) Discipline and punish. London: Penguin. Hargreaves, L. (1997) Issues in Rural Education in Europe: a summary of a symposium on issues in rural education. Conference of Educational Research (Seville, Spain, 25-29 Sept 1996) Putnam, R. Handler, M., Ramirez Platt, C., Luiselii, J.(2003) Improving bus riding behaviour through a whole school intervention Journal of Applied behaviour Analysis 36(4) pp583–509 Shucksmith, M. (2000) Exclusive Countryside? Social inclusion and regeneration in rural areas. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation Storey, P and Brannen, J (2000) Young people and transport in rural areas. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation Toor, W and Havlick, S (2004) Transportation and sustainable campus communities. Washington DC: Island Press

Author Information

Cath Gristy (presenting / submitting)

University of Plymouth

Education

PLYMOUTH

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