The Best Years of Their Lives?: Pupil's Experiences of School

Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 2
Dedication......Page 3
Copyright......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
Preface......Page 9
The idea of a school......Page 12
Concepts of childhood......Page 14
Policies or practice......Page 15
The ethos of policy......Page 18
What children bring to school......Page 19
Complexities of real experience......Page 20
School as societies?......Page 22
The sample and method......Page 25
Ethical issues with pupils......Page 27
Informed consent?......Page 28
Listening to children......Page 30
Institutionalizing ethics......Page 31
Prescriptive versus descriptive approaches......Page 32
Real consent......Page 34
The role of the researcher......Page 35
The boundaries of confidentiality......Page 36
Responsibility, accountability and democratic control......Page 37
Conclusions......Page 39
Formative stages?......Page 47
Finding the positives......Page 48
Rites of passage of a kind......Page 49
The demands of school......Page 50
Control and disorder......Page 53
The routine of school......Page 55
What purpose?......Page 59
The social context......Page 61
Outcomes or judgements?......Page 63
Reasons for being in school?......Page 65
From work in school to paid work......Page 69
The past is another country?......Page 73
Looking back on experiences......Page 75
Regrets, personal and institutional......Page 80
The central part of life......Page 83
Happier days?......Page 85
The National Curriculum as a necessity......Page 88
The given core......Page 90
Subjects and knowledge......Page 93
Usefulness and utility......Page 95
The monument of knowledge......Page 97
What should be learnt?......Page 99
Formal and personal skills......Page 101
What are ‘key’ skills?......Page 103
Skills of schools and skills of living......Page 105
The most essential skill......Page 108
The essential learning......Page 112
The anti-social undercurrents of schools......Page 114
The social atmosphere of learning......Page 116
Waiting for something to happen......Page 118
All that remains unnoticed......Page 120
The seeking of challenges......Page 122
The half-hidden malaise of school......Page 124
Culpable witness......Page 126
The role of teachers......Page 130
The dominance of being taught......Page 134
The psychological absence of teachers......Page 136
Fairness and unfairness......Page 138
The inner curriculum of teaching......Page 141
Teacher dependency......Page 144
Teachers as roles, teachers as people......Page 146
Teaching styles and learning styles......Page 149
Groups, gangs and tribes......Page 152
Learning to survive......Page 154
Working together or in competition......Page 156
The temptations of groups......Page 159
Avoiding routines......Page 160
The pleasures of collaboration......Page 162
Conclusions......Page 166
Rites of passage......Page 168
Do schools connect?......Page 172
School as employment......Page 174
The ambivalent security of school......Page 176
The exposure to the job market......Page 178
Conclusions......Page 182
11 The social context of school......Page 183
Conclusions......Page 203
References......Page 218
Index......Page 225