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This paper presents a novel conceptualisation of the school context by examining the 'personal' (emotional wellbeing), the 'political' (everyday political actions and power relations) and the 'Political' (the Political system, including electoral politics and governmental policy) and how these interrelate. Informed by literatures from a range of disciplines, the authors use this conceptual lens to consider data from two projects which explored the impact of austerity on schools. In their qualitative analysis of data from interviews with 82 participants they illustrate connections between the personal, the political and the Political. They conceptualise the work schools are doing in response to the impacts of the Political as quiet political activism, which appears to have knock-on effects for staff wellbeing. They consider the implications of this, concluding that the 'quiet politics' occurring in schools may bring a sense of control and create opportunities for community activism, but also has potentially worrying consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts from the propositions that (a) pedagogy is central to the achievement of socially just education and (b) there are existing pedagogical approaches that can contribute to more socially just outcomes. Given the ostensible commitments of the current English Government to reducing educational inequality and to the importance of teaching, we set out to explore the conditions that would need to be put in place to enable these approaches to be developed and sustained consistently in disadvantaged schools in England. We start by analysing classroom observation and interview data from four primary schools with contrasting socio-economic composition, highlighting the different pedagogical practices that emerge in working- and middle-class schools and also in working-class schools in different circumstances. Interviews with pupils show the impact of these practices on learner identities. We then draw on a variety of literatures on school composition, markets, leadership and teacher identities to present an account of the ways in which these different pedagogies are consciously or unconsciously produced. We point to systemic constraints: a mismatch between student demands and organisational capacity; teachers’ attitudes and professional identities and performative pressures on school leaders. All of these suggest the need for fundamental reforms to educational purposes and system architecture, rather than the naïve reliance on teacher agency to transform educational outcomes. Nevertheless, the current policy environment in England does offer some possibilities for action and we close the paper with some suggestions about ways in which capacity for more socially just pedagogy could be built within English schools. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article reviews Bernard Barker's claims that ‘the pendulum is swinging’, in relation to school markets and competition. Barker's arguments are complex in this regard. He rejects markets and competition as a means of improving outcomes and equity, but supports some of the system features that are often associated with marketisation, such as school autonomy and differentiation. With this in mind, the article reviews the underpinning ideology and design of market and competition policies in England under different governments since 1988, as well as the evidence on the impact of these policies. It argues that the pendulum is not swinging away from markets and competition, although ideological shifts are discernible in the policies of the new Coalition government. One reason for this is that the evidence for the damaging effects of marketisation is not nearly as conclusive as Barker suggests. The pendulum is, however, swinging away from central regulation, including from regulatory mechanisms to protect against the worst effects of market policies on social justice. This may accelerate demands for a progressive post-market alternative, although the article concludes by pointing to the difficulties in practice of reconciling the values of equity, opportunity, social mobility, choice and community within system design. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Multiple contexts interact to position any school on a spectrum from cumulatively advantaged to cumulatively disadvantaged. This article discusses a study of the contextual advantages and disadvantages experienced by primary schools in the south east of England, concentrating especially on schools in the least deprived 5% of schools nationally. The research highlights the central influence of advantaged socioeconomic contexts on day-to-day school processes and on the related perspectives and beliefs of head teachers as well as variations on this theme related to other external and internal contextual variables. It illustrates that England's most socially advantaged primary schools are likely to have much in common including a high level of parent involvement, a strong focus on student learning and progress, considerable ability to raise funds, very good reputations and only a handful of students with serious learning or behavioural problems. They also have in common middle class forms of transience and profiles of special needs. The article concludes that while contextual variations amongst socially advantaged schools do exist and are talked up by head teachers, they usually have an impact that can be managed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines variations in the extent of special education needs (SEN) in different socio-economic contexts, drawing on data from 46 English primary schools. It examines the implications of variations in SEN for individual pupils and for school organisation and processes. It reviews funding allocations for SEN and what they mean for the provision of support in different settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social justice in education demands, at the very least, that all students should have access to the same quality of educational processes, even if their outcomes turn out to be unequal. Yet schools in the poorest neighbourhoods are consistently adjudged to provide a lower quality of education than those in more advantaged areas. Based on a qualitative study of four such schools, this article explores links between the contexts in which they were operating and the quality of education provided. It concludes that high–poverty contexts exert downward pressures on quality, and that consistently high levels of quality in schools in the poorest neighbourhoods need to be assured by policy measures that alter their context or, through greater funding, improve their organisational capacity to respond. Social justice will not be achieved by managerialist policies that seek to improve schools by addressing the performance of managers and staff, without a recognition of the context in which this performance takes place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]