Emancipatory research with children in Pupil Referral Units: a Foucauldian perspective on policy and practice

摘要

This critical psychology research is set within current education reform and focuses onudchildren attending Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) in one local authority. A systematicudliterature review indicated that, whilst there is research into interventions in PRUs, thereudis limited research into the abilities of children in PRUs or their constructions. Toudaddress this, three subsidiary research questions were developed, within the centraludresearch question of ‘What are the characteristics, beliefs and Foucauldian themes ofudchildren in Pupil Referral Units?’. Mixed methods emancipatory and exploratoryudresearch was conducted with 14 children (11-15 years old). Data collection involvedudcognitive assessment, assessment of their attitudes towards school and themselves, andudconversational-style interviews. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and audsemantic deductive Foucauldian informed thematic analysis. Findings indicatedudchildren generally had positive attitudes towards their PRU teachers, with someudnegative attitudes towards their competency in learning. Participants wereudheterogeneous in terms of their cognitive ability, but with a trend of below averageudverbal abilities. Spatial abilities were a relative strength. Governmentality wasudconcluded to influence institutional practices within education and children’s lives.udThis served to create and maintain a ‘norm’, thus enabling the ‘abnormal’ to exist. As audresult the children self-disciplined, subjectified and problematised themselves againstudthe ‘norm’. This was made possible through relationships. Therefore, the importanceudof relationships in education is central to the research findings and conclusions. Theudthesis concludes with reflections on the researcher’s learning journey and plans forudsharing the findings to inform practice and policy within education and EducationaludPsychology.