Education policies in England: exploring the relationship between the focus on attainment/achievement in the school-environment and adolescents’ mental health

This study investigated the influence of the secondary school-environment on adolescent mental health (MH). Late adolescents (16-18-years-old) experience multiple contributors to their MH, particularly the pressure of high-stakes examinations engendering an emotionally charged, performance-based learning environment. These pressures. associated with transitioning and the greater responsibility for the future, reflect prevailing neoliberal values of competition, responsibilization and individualism. I studied the school-environment using a Critical Theory approach and ethnographic and participatory methods. Student-participants from a sixth-form college co-researched the study topic alongside teachers, parents and college-leaders. In this way, different ‘roles’ and lived experiences came together in a democratic platform to critically explore the relationship between education and MH. The study shows that late adolescents are grappling with introspection (e.g., self-esteem, self-doubt) and therefore managing different layers of recognition which include an ‘intimate estrangement’ that influence their well-being, their subjectivity, and MH. Subjectivity, and modes of subjectivation, helped explain a complex relationship with the self, revealing the influence of compulsory education environments on MH. Co-produced findings provided reflexive opportunities for participants to reconsider their status as service-users and stakeholders in school and mitigate a pervasive sense of ‘crisis’ through participatory action for change. The study’s findings can help policymakers to: (i) inform education policy for more precise definitions and inclusive approaches to define MH; (ii) monitor how schools and colleges engage with young people’s MH in the face of school environment and policy demands; (iii) assess through participatory consultations how students perceive MH related policy to adjust in implementation. The impact of educational policy on MH is critical as policy is often ideological and polyvalent and intersects with educational life during adolescents’ transition to adulthood. Policies constitute modalities of being (subjectivities) by imagining the ‘good life’ for all; they should thus also recognise students as stakeholders to be involved in their development, as people able to make authentic choices and hold critical views about educational success and failure

Policy ‘Meandering’: The Influence of Mental Health and Well-being in Educational Policies

This article contextualizes, and contests, the use of the terms mental health (MH) and well-being in ideologically driven educational policies and practices, market oriented, individualistic and measurable. Alongside an unprecedented worldwide trend to establish an educational ‘turn’, so called ‘therapeutic education’, it is argued that educational policies in the UK have arbitrarily merged, or ‘yoked’, the terms MH and well-being with ethical implication for policy implementation. Through ethnographic and participative methodologies, involving the main social actors to mobilize expert knowledge in two educational settings, the ‘yoking’ of MH with well-being becomes apparent and catalyst for further yoking. Hence, more policies and new concepts emerge as manipulations of school/colleges’ initiatives, such as achieving good results or promoting ‘character’ to engineer next generation citizenry. Juxtaposing the terms MH and well-being to education calls for clearer re-definitions of the aims of education. Every effort should be made by policy makers to keep the two terms independent from each other and well-articulated with performance indicators such as resilience that do not undermine the value of vulnerability. New definitions of MH and well-being should guide policy making and implementation in schools/colleges, to avoid lumping up together heterogeneous and multilayered terms that deserve distinct attention and application

Hydraulic conductivity and swelling pressure of GCLs using polymer treated clays to high concentration CaCl(2) solutions

A Geosynthetic Clay Liner (GCL) is a frequently used h ydraulic barrier system designed to impede the flow of contaminated leachate into the environment. The main objective of this barrier system is to maintain a low hydraulic conductivity that is determined by the bentonite fraction. In this study, calcium bentonite, natural sodium bentonites, and sodium activated bentonite were treated with the HYPER clay technique. This involves the adsorption of an anionic polymer, Sodium CarboxyMethylCellulose (Na-CMC) onto the surface of the clay material. The purpose of this research was to show the beneficial effect of the HYPER clay treatment on the swelling and hydraulic performance, while the bentonite is permeated with high concentration CaCl2 solutions. The test results showed that swelling and hydraulic performance increased with Na-CMC treatment, regardless of the type of bentonite that was used. Additionally, a powdered Na CMC configuration provided higher swelling and hydraulic performance compared to a granular configuration

Preliminary test on modified clays for seawater resistant drilling fluids

The quality of a drilling fluid declines in salt water conditions. An engineered clay (HYPER clay) was developed for geosynthetic clay liners with enhanced resistance to aggressive conditions. This study investigates the potential of this superior clay for drilling fluids applied in salt water conditions. A sodium bentonite was treated with a carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) polymer following the HYPER clay process method. Preliminary tests were performed to investigate suitability of HYPER clay for seawater resistant drilling fluids. Fluid performance was characterized by its thixotropic behavior, rheological properties (gel strength, yield point and viscosity), swell and bleeding behavior. Drilling fluid performance was analyzed at various polymer dosages and electrolyte concentrations. Polymer treatment improved the gel strength and swelling ability of the fluid, especially in electrolyte solutions. Moreover, filter press tests (API 13B-1, 76% seawater) showed that filtrate loss decreased due to polymer treatment

Social cognition in people with schizophrenia: A cluster-analytic approach

Background The study aimed to subtype patients with schizophrenia on the basis of social cognition (SC), and to identify cut-offs that best discriminate among subtypes in 809 out-patients recruited in the context of the Italian Network for Research on Psychoses. Method A two-step cluster analysis of The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT), the Facial Emotion Identification Test and Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test scores was performed. Classification and regression tree analysis was used to identify the cut-offs of variables that best discriminated among clusters. Results We identified three clusters, characterized by unimpaired (42%), impaired (50.4%) and very impaired (7.5%) SC. Three theory-of-mind domains were more important for the cluster definition as compared with emotion perception and emotional intelligence. Patients more able to understand simple sarcasm (14 for TASIT-SS) were very likely to belong to the unimpaired SC cluster. Compared with patients in the impaired SC cluster, those in the very impaired SC cluster performed significantly worse in lie scenes (TASIT-LI <10), but not in simple sarcasm. Moreover, functioning, neurocognition, disorganization and SC had a linear relationship across the three clusters, while positive symptoms were significantly lower in patients with unimpaired SC as compared with patients with impaired and very impaired SC. On the other hand, negative symptoms were highest in patients with impaired levels of SC. Conclusions If replicated, the identification of such subtypes in clinical practice may help in tailoring rehabilitation efforts to the person's strengths to gain more benefit to the person

Social cognition in people with schizophrenia: A cluster-analytic approach

Background The study aimed to subtype patients with schizophrenia on the basis of social cognition (SC), and to identify cut-offs that best discriminate among subtypes in 809 out-patients recruited in the context of the Italian Network for Research on Psychoses. Method A two-step cluster analysis of The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT), the Facial Emotion Identification Test and Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test scores was performed. Classification and regression tree analysis was used to identify the cut-offs of variables that best discriminated among clusters. Results We identified three clusters, characterized by unimpaired (42%), impaired (50.4%) and very impaired (7.5%) SC. Three theory-of-mind domains were more important for the cluster definition as compared with emotion perception and emotional intelligence. Patients more able to understand simple sarcasm (14 for TASIT-SS) were very likely to belong to the unimpaired SC cluster. Compared with patients in the impaired SC cluster, those in the very impaired SC cluster performed significantly worse in lie scenes (TASIT-LI <10), but not in simple sarcasm. Moreover, functioning, neurocognition, disorganization and SC had a linear relationship across the three clusters, while positive symptoms were significantly lower in patients with unimpaired SC as compared with patients with impaired and very impaired SC. On the other hand, negative symptoms were highest in patients with impaired levels of SC. Conclusions If replicated, the identification of such subtypes in clinical practice may help in tailoring rehabilitation efforts to the person's strengths to gain more benefit to the person