Valerie Harwood

Based on the author's in-depth research with children diagnosed with behavioural difficulties, this book provides a thorough critique of today's practices, examining: the traditional analyses of behavioural disorders and the making of disorderly children the influence of the 'expert knowledge' on behavioural disorders and its influence on schools, communities and new generations of teachers the effect of discourses of mental disorder on children and young people the increasing medicalisation of young children with drugs such as Ritalin. This book offers an innovative and accessible analysis of a critical issue facing schools and society today, using Foucaultian notions to pose critical questions of the practices that make children disorderly. Rich in case studies and interviews with children and young people, it will make fascinating reading for students, academics and researchers working in the field of education, inclusion, educational psychology, sociology and youth studies.

A critique of behaviour disorder discourses

Diagnosing 'Disorderly' Children

Julie Allan

This book examines the emergence of psychologised discourses of the self in education and considers their effects on children and young people, on relationships both in and out of school and on educational practices. It undertakes a Foucauldian genealogy of the discourses of the self in education in order to scrutinise the ‘focal points of experience’ for children and young people. Part One of the book offers a critical analysis of the discourses of the self that operate within interventions of self esteem, self concept, self efficacy and self regulation and their incursions into education. Part Two provides counter-narratives of the self, drawn principally from the arts and politics and providing alternative, and potentially radical, ways of when and how the self might speak. It also articulates how teachers may support children and young people in giving voice to these counter-narratives as they move through school.

On the Self: Discourses of Mental Health and Education

Nyssa Murray

This book introduces critical cultural social marketing and adapts these techniques for use in the promotion of educational futures in communities and places where there is educational disadvantage. An approach that builds on the discipline of social marketing, the authors describe the promotion of education as underpinned by a commitment to understanding the effects of difficult experiences with institutions such as schools, as well as the diversity of learning. Involving the critical in promoting education means it is possible to be alert to the impacts of institutional education, while involving the cultural means we are forced to appreciate and connect with learning in all its diversity. The authors draw upon examples from Lead My Learning, an education promotion campaign produced using a critical cultural social marketing approach. In doing so, they provide a detailed account of new ways to promote education.

A Critical Cultural Social Marketing Approach

The Promotion of Education

Psychopathology at School provides a timely response to concerns about the rising numbers of children whose behaviour is recognised and understood as a medicalised condition, rather than simply as poor behaviour caused by other factors. It is the first scholarly analysis of psychopathology which draws on the philosophers Foucault, Deleuze, Guattari and Arendt to examine the processes whereby children’s behaviour is pathologised. The heightened attention to mental disorders is contrasted with education practices in the early and mid-to-late twentieth century, and the emergence of a new conceptualization of childhood is explored. Taking education as a central component to the contemporary experience of growing up, the book charts the ways in which mental disorders have become commonplace in childhood and youth, from birth through to college and university, but also offers examples of where professionals have refused to pathologise children’s behaviour. The book examines the extent of the influence of psychopathology on the lives of children and young people, as well as the practices that infiltrate education and the possibilities for alternative educational responses that negate the diagnosis of mental disorder. Psychopathology at School is a must read for anyone concerned about the growing influence of psychopathology in education and will be of particular interest to educated readers and to scholars, students and professionals in education, psychiatry, psychology, child studies, youth studies, nursing, social work and sociology.

Theorizing mental disorders in education

Psychopathology at School

Anna Hickey-Moody

Samantha McMahon

Sarah O'Shea

Young people with tenuous relationships to schooling and education are an enduring challenge when it comes to addressing social inclusion, yet their experiences remain overlooked in efforts to widen participation in higher education. The Politics of Widening Participation and University Access for Young People examines the existing knowledges and feelings these young people have about higher education, and, through the authors’ empirical research, demonstrates how sustained connections to educational futures can be created for them. Drawing from an empirical study with nearly three hundred young people who have precarious relationships to schooling and live in disadvantaged communities, this book offers new insights into their subjects’ experiences of educational disadvantages. It explains the different ways the university is constructed as impossible, undesirable, or even risky, by young people experiencing educational disadvantage. The book brings their stories into focus to offer new ways of thinking about the educational consequences of alienation from school. It shows how our understanding of the politics of experience of these young people has an important impact on our ability to develop appropriate means through which to engage them in higher education. This book challenges and significantly advances the popular frames for international debate on widening participation and the ethical right to educational participation in contemporary society. As such, it will be of be of key interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of higher education, sociology of education, anthropology of education, cultural studies of education, sociology as well as to those concerned by the impact of disadvantage on young people’s understandings of, and aspirations towards, education and attending university.

Making educational futures

The Politics of Widening Participation and University Access for Young People

Clara Rübner Jørgensen

A timely contribution to the debate on educational governance and equality, the World Yearbook of Education 2020 documents the significant changes that have occurred in the last 20 years reflecting a widespread shift from government to governance. Considering school context as well as specific school responses around the emergence of particular forms of governance, this book presents and contextualises a clear historical account of governance and accountability within schooling. Organised into three sections covering: Changing contexts of school governance; stakeholders and ‘responsibilisation’; and radical governance, carefully chosen contributors provide global insights from around the world. They consider educational outcomes and closing the inequality gap and they document radical forms of governance, at local level, which have sought to create more equitable governance, intelligent accountability and greater involvement of key stakeholders such as students. Providing a series of provocations and reminders of the possibilities that remain open to us, the World Yearbook of Education 2020 will be of interest to academics, professionals and policymakers in education and school governance, and any scholars who engage in historical studies of education and debates about educational governance and equality.

Valerie Harwood

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