An investigation into whether the 'iceberg' system of peer mediation training, and peer mediation, reduce levels of bullying, raise self-esteem, and increase pupil empowerment amongst upper primary age children

This thesis evaluates the effectiveness of peer mediation programmes in 3 primary schools in Birmingham. It investigates whether the ‘Iceberg’ system of peer mediation training, and the setting up of a peer mediation service, can reduce bullying, and have an effect on the self- concept of Year 5 pupils. The literature review section of the study reviews existing literature concerning peer mediation, humanism in education (humanistic values underpin the mediation process) behaviour management in schools and bullying. These are all areas that are revisited as part of the empirical research. The empirical research has a quasi-experimental research design which uses both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The experiment was set up to answer the main research questions as objectively as possible, given the author’s existing wider involvement in this area of work. Pre-test and post-test measures include pupil questionnaires and interviews with teachers and headteachers. The positivist framework of the main experiment, however, proved to be somewhat restrictive in answering some interesting new questions which emerged as a result of the programme not being implemented as planned in 2 of the experimental schools. The findings suggest that peer mediation can be used as a strategy to reduce bullying and improve pupil feelings of empowerment and self-esteem provided it forms part of a wider strategy to empower pupils and improve their personal and social skills. The difficulties of carrying out an experiment in a school setting, however, make the results inconclusive and more research is recommended in order to understand the links between peer mediation, humanistic practices in the classroom, and the apparently central role of the headteache

The complex ecology of young people’s community engagement and the call for civic pedagogues

This paper focuses upon the community engagement of young people growing up in socio-economically disadvantaged areas and the creation of apt civic learning spaces. It is in direct response to public policy within the UK, as in many other democratic countries, giving continued attention to how young people’s active citizenship can be best supported.  As a consequence of processes of globalisation, social change and technological advancement it is being increasingly recognised that young citizens face unprecedented challenges in the 21st century. At the same time young people growing up within areas of socio-economic disadvantage are commonly identified as being most at risk of social exclusion and discouragement with regard to their civic participation. This paper draws from the EngagED research project, a two-year study based in England that used a mixed methods approach to explore the civic action and learning of young people living in both inner city and rural areas of socio-economic disadvantage. It presents an eco-systemic model of the host of factors and agencies that influence young people’s civic identity and patterns of community engagement. It outlines two new civic learning spaces that were created in response to these complex ecologies and from these experiments in ‘pre-figurative practice’ proposes a set of key principles for the effective civic pedagogue. This radical notion of the civic educator moves away from educational strategies that seek to ‘transform’ young people into good future citizens, towards finding personalised ways of supporting young people ‘as’ citizens

An investigation into whether the 'iceberg' system of peer mediation training, and peer mediation, reduce levels of bullying, raise self-esteem, and increase pupil empowerment amongst upper primary age children

This thesis evaluates the effectiveness of peer mediation programmes in 3 primary schools in Birmingham. It investigates whether the ‘Iceberg’ system of peer mediation training, and the setting up of a peer mediation service, can reduce bullying, and have an effect on the self- concept of Year 5 pupils. The literature review section of the study reviews existing literature concerning peer mediation, humanism in education (humanistic values underpin the mediation process) behaviour management in schools and bullying. These are all areas that are revisited as part of the empirical research. The empirical research has a quasi-experimental research design which uses both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The experiment was set up to answer the main research questions as objectively as possible, given the author’s existing wider involvement in this area of work. Pre-test and post-test measures include pupil questionnaires and interviews with teachers and headteachers. The positivist framework of the main experiment, however, proved to be somewhat restrictive in answering some interesting new questions which emerged as a result of the programme not being implemented as planned in 2 of the experimental schools. The findings suggest that peer mediation can be used as a strategy to reduce bullying and improve pupil feelings of empowerment and self-esteem provided it forms part of a wider strategy to empower pupils and improve their personal and social skills. The difficulties of carrying out an experiment in a school setting, however, make the results inconclusive and more research is recommended in order to understand the links between peer mediation, humanistic practices in the classroom, and the apparently central role of the headteache

An investigation into whether the 'Iceberg' system of peer mediation training, and peer mediation, reduce levels of bullying, raise self-esteem, and increase pupil empowerment amongst upper primary age children

This thesis evaluates the effectiveness of peer mediation programmes in 3 primary schools in Birmingham. It investigates whether the 'Iceberg' system of peer mediation training, and the setting up of a peer mediation service, can reduce bullying, and have an effect on the self-concept of Year 5 pupils. The literature review section of the study reviews existing literature concerning peer mediation, humanism in education (humanistic values underpin the mediation process) behaviour management in schools and bullying. These are all areas that are revisited as part of the empirical research. The empirical research has a quasi-experimental research design which uses both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The experiment was set up to answer the main research questions as objectively as possible, given the author's existing wider involvement in this area of work. Pre test and post-test measures include pupil questionnaires and interviews with teachers and headteachers. The positivist framework of the main experiment, however, proved to be somewhat restrictive in answering some interesting new questions which emerged as a result of the programme not being implemented as planned in 2 of the experimental schools. The findings suggest that peer mediation can be used as a strategy to reduce bullying and improve pupil feelings of empowerment and self-esteem provided it forms part of a wider strategy to empower pupils and improve their personal and social skills. The difficulties of carrying out an experiment in a school setting, however, make the results inconclusive and more research is recommended in order to understand the links between peer mediation, humanistic practices in the classroom, and the apparently central role of the headteacher

The costs to students and teachers of trying to raise achievement through performative discourses.

From Introduction] Discourses of performativity are constructed within educational sites, such as schools, shape the perspectives of participants such as teachers and school students, and gatekeepers to sites, such as head teachers and senior staff, as well as researchers who are taking part in ethnographic studies. Many national governments, often for claimed economic reasons, construct and police schooling and teachers’ work using performative models of ‘technobureaucratic managerialism’ (Apple, 2000). In England, central government prescribe for state schools curriculum content, pedagogical approaches, student assessment and the assessment of teachers, all enforced through a punitive school inspection regime (Troman et al., 2007). Discourses of student voice (Flutter and Rudduck, 2004) and a recognition of the contribution students’ perspectives make to constructing successful schools (DfES, 2008) resonate with wider notions of choice and discipline in education to emphasise students’ needs as individual learners, parents’ vested interest in their children’s education, and to try to reduce student disengagement with schooling. These discourses influence how participants manage, resist, or perhaps act ambiguously to cope with them while struggling to assert their own values and interests and those of the people with or for whom they (claim to) work. These discourses also shape how researchers in educational settings, whose work is also shaped by these discourses, may design and carry out ethnographic studies on particular sites. This has implications for researchers’ relationships with other participants in a study, as well as for their own careers

Problematising pupil voice using visual methods: findings from a study of engaged and disaffected pupils in an urban secondary school

This article explores how pupils and teachers in an 11–16 mixed secondary school in an area of urban disadvantage in the UK experience pupil voice. It used visual methods to unpick some of the ways in which official and unofficial discourses of pupil voice, engagement, discipline and inclusion were played out in this school. A typology of pupils, based on analysis of school policy documentation was produced. Whilst these ‘types’ were expressed through pupil scrapbooks and interviews, they were not found to be related to individual pupils in the way that the school policy documentation suggests. Adults respond to pupil voice differently depending on how it is framed—the ‘types’ create discursive practices that determine the things that can be said, by whom and in what way. The visual methods used are reviewed here in the light of findings and are found to be useful in eliciting a range of pupil voices

Struggles in an educational prison: teachers’ and students’ constructions of self, others and schooling in performative times

This paper draws on the findings of a recent research project into how students and teachers construct their understandings of school to argue that school has many of the characteristics of a prison and that it is perceived as such, a house of discipline, control and correction, by student and teacher participants. The discussion draws on Foucault, Giddens, and Spivak, amongst others to conceptualise this. The study was carried out in one Secondary school in Middle England, UK, with 36 students in Year 9 (age 13-14 years), 3 of their class teachers, and some of the senior staff of the school. In addition to observation of students’ lessons, students and teachers took photographs of their environment to situate themselves in it and provide the bases for reflexive interviews with the academic researchers

Disputing dominant discourse: Students’ and teachers’ interpretations of schooling

Discourses of performativity are constructed within educational sites, such as schools, shape the perspectives of participants such as teachers and school students, and gatekeepers to sites, such as head teachers and senior staff, as well as researchers who are taking part in ethnographic studies. Many national governments, often for claimed economic reasons, construct and police schooling and teachers’ work using performative models of ‘techno-bureaucratic managerialism’ (Apple, 2000). In England, central government prescribes for state schools curriculum content, pedagogical approaches, student assessment and the assessment of teachers, all enforced through a punitive school inspection regime (Troman et al., 2007). Discourses of student voice (Flutter and Rudduck, 2004) and a recognition of the contribution students’ perspectives make to constructing successful schools (DCSF, 2008) resonate with wider notions of choice and discipline (DfE, 2010) in education. These discourses influence how participants manage, resist, or perhaps act ambiguously to cope with them while struggling to assert their own values and interests and those of the people with or for whom they (claim to) work. These discourses also shape how researchers in educational settings, whose work is also shaped by these discourses, may design and carry out ethnographic studies on particular sites. This has implications for researchers’ relationships with other participants in a study, as well as for their own careers