There is a significant school of thought which is critical of the fact that governments pay insufficient attention to student voice. Despite the fact that students are often
articulate about qualifications, their perspectives are rarely listened to. Isaacs (2013) argues that this is because governments shape qualifications’ policy according to pre-set beliefs and are unwilling to take note of dissonant voices (Isaacs, 2013). This reflects a similar view expressed in the Nuffield Review in relation to the curriculum.
Relevant work has been carried out in a number of studies around young people and the importance of gathering their perspectives. Wilkins (2012) looked at what could be learnt from students deemed to be achieving, most particularly in two groups of 12-13- year-old pupils. The emphasis in this study was less on actual participation but more on how these pupils managed to fulfill academic expectations alongside satisfying their need
for positive approval from their peers. He highlighted again the importance of learners feeling involved, showing that there are interconnections between neoliberalism and pedagogy and school-based orientations to learning and concluded by considering how neoliberal styles, rhetoric and cultural forms impacted on ideas of social justice and possibilities for a ‘critical’ or ‘transformative’ pedagogy that takes seriously the positive contribution of learners to education discourses and practices (Wilkins, 2012). Stahl (2013) set out to examine the social class identification of 15 white working class boys in a socially marginalized area of south London where academic performance was seen as crucial to economic and social well-being. He concluded that their engagement with education was strongly linked to their sense of participation within such a high performing school (Stahl, 2013).
Ren and Deakin Crick’s (2013) study into underachievement of 14-year-old students in four English schools examined the characteristic learning profiles of underachieving and overachieving adolescents, and then used student learning profiles diagnostically to support the learning needs of a selected sample of underachievers. This was followed by an impact study of the interventions on the development of student learning power and their academic achievement. The pre-intervention quantitative findings demonstrated a significant difference between the learning dimensions of underachieving students and the rest of their cohort. Qualitative and narrative analysis provided a greater depth of perspective from the data and the sample group. Coaching conversations, as a major intervention strategy, were found to be successful in strengthening underachieving teenagers' learning power and enhancing their learning experiences rather than just raising their exam performance. The study concluded that in addressing the learning needs of underachieving adolescents, serious attention should be given to their learning
71
subjectivities, enabling them to relate school learning to their personal values, attitudes, aspirations and identities (Ren and Deakin Crick, 2013).
Further insight into educational disengagement was given by Duffy and Elwood (2013) who criticised government policy in England for being too narrow, focusing primarily on raising the age of educational participation, promoting vocationalism and directing resources at the population of young people not engaged in any education, employment or training (NEETs). They suggested that, in fact, ‘disengagement’ was a more fluid and dynamic concept than policy-makers recognised. Disengagement was visible within a wide range of students, even those deemed to be engaged by their presence in education and educational settings. Physical attendance did not necessarily equate with active participation in learning. They drew on students’ accounts of their educational experiences which suggested many factors at work in engagement including the context of and the pedagogical methods used within the classroom, student-teacher relationships and peer relationships (Duffy and Elwood, 2013).
The studies outlined here have enabled young people’s voices to make a
contribution to the debate as this study has aimed to do. In all cases it has required a shift in power away from the educator towards the educatee who has become more engaged in the learning process. The purpose of doing this is to empower young people in relation to the decisions affecting their own lives so that they can engage more fully at all levels in the democratic process. Critiques of student voice have argued that this is far from the case and that the concept has, in fact, been created by policymakers and others involved in schools, in such a way that it can mean students having a say with no guarantee of a response, whereas in its most radical form it calls for “a cultural shift that opens up spaces
72
' (
and minds not only to the sound but also to the presence and power of students” (Cook- Sather, 2006, p 363). Freire’s (1970) description of cultural synthesis is relevant in showing how dialogue between educator and educated could enrich the world view of both. Cultural synthesis does not deny the differences between two views but denies ‘the invasion of one by another’ instead affirming ‘the support each gives the other’ (Freire, 1970, p. 162). Freire was referring here to a government and illiterate peasants but the underlying principle of implicit respect in such a dialogical exchange could play a part in engaging young learners who might otherwise underachieve.
3.8 Summary
This chapter has explored, a number of the frameworks and classifications that have been used in the literature to discuss the concepts of achievement and underachievement. It has noted the diversity and relativity in understanding of and application associated with both terms. It went on to consider specific literature related to boys’ underachievement. At the outset, this review has set out to examine the development of perspectives on boys’ underachievement while noting relevant historical issues, as well as, the connection between globalization and national policy development. The literature shows that, for a range of different reasons, some boys and some girls underachieve around the ages of 14-
19 while some others achieve their full potential. Examples of possible solutions were examined to explore how young people might be offered an education which would enable them develop work and life skills relevant to a changing economic world. The next chapter examines the theoretical framework adopted to underpin the study and helps to shed light on the research questions.
74 4.1 Introduction
This second part of the literature review aims to provide the theoretical context in which the study is situated, by highlighting and discussing the theoretical basis relevant to boys’ underachievement. The chapter clarifies the nature of the research questions
underlying this research while also setting the study within the wider context of the broader body of knowledge within which discussion and explanation of the research findings take place (Burgess, et al., 2006). The research process has been an iterative one in which there have been many modifications and which have continually been built upon. This research aims to make a contribution to the debate and in so doing enhance my own practice and highlight issues for the professional practice of others.