Weaver-Hightower, Marcus B., An Ecology Metaphor for Educational Policy Analysis: A Call to Complexity, Educational Researcher, 37(April, 2008), 153-167.

Presents a conceptualization of policy ecology and its uses in policy analysis in education

‘Why are they making us rush?’ The school dining hall as surveillance mechanism, social learning, or child’s space?

This is an author's accepted manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Children's Geographies on 07/11/2023, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2023.2276280 The accepted manuscript may differ from the final published version.School mealtimes, for many schools, are characterized by behavioural difficulties, a problematic time of day requiring much attention and resources. Yet for many school food reformers, those wanting food environments to be educative and pleasant, strict behavioural interventions are contrary to the ideals of social learning. This paper presents an ethnographic case study of Peartree Academy, an all-through academy school in England, to explore how school personnel used the dining hall simultaneously as a community space and as surveillance mechanism. We deliberate on causes and variations of how this manifests. A Foucauldian lens, viewing dining space as ‘heterotopia’ and ‘heterochronies’ [Foucault, M. 1986. “‘Of Other Spaces.” Translated by J. Miskowiec. Diacritics 16 (1): 22. https://doi.org/10.2307/464648], highlights tensions that shape the everyday for both students and staff in the school. As counter-spaces used differently by administrators, pupils, and food reformers, we show how rules and regulations imposed by staff work against the original intentions to develop the dining hall into a community forum in which children develop positive eating behaviours and good citizenship. The children became subjected to power relations through which bodies became docile or resistant, with less opportunity for social learning. True progressive food reform thus requires, ultimately, deeply understanding and negotiating the multiple, overlapping functions of dining spaces.Published onlin

Interrogating recuperative masculinity politics in schooling

This article focuses on the continuing impact of recuperative masculinity politics in the schooling of economically advantaged boys (elite and middle class); yet, it also indicates resistance to this politics. An understanding that the gender order is unstable and that variants of hegemonic masculinity continue to morph in the context of globalisation is also exemplified. Two case studies are analysed, both focused on remaking masculinities: Balfour, an elite all boys' school in Scotland and Springtown Religious School, a middle-class, coeducational Australian school. The cases show that the remaking of masculinities is shaped by social class politics and confirm the diversities within the categories of boys. At Balfour, the remaking of elite masculinities was framed by the perceived needs of the globalised labour market (especially in finance) and the changing practices of professional, elite femininities. At Springtown, a school known for rejecting competitive sport and for their commitment to gender equity, girls and some staff resisted changes to the outdoor education programme framed by recuperative mythopoetic discourses. The article illustrates the production and reproduction of privilege and advantage and the remaking of elite and middle-class masculinities within an ever-changing gender order, an important insight for those working towards socially just gender policy and praxis.</p

Dialogue About Arts-Based Research

This dialogue, written by three contributors from this book’s first section, focuses on arts-based research as a form of qualitative research. The authors first discuss with each other how they became involved in doing arts-based research. Then, they reflect about how their data analyses have or have not been changed as a result of incorporating arts-based research. Their dialogue concludes with thoughts on how their arts-based research has been received by others and advice for individuals interested in carrying out similar research.</p