The rising prevalence of overweight and obese children has seen a focus upon school-based interventions. However, little research has considered the impact of the school context on pupil weight status. The aim of this project was to identify whether primary schools have an impact upon pupil weight status, and subsequently explore which, if any, school-based contextual factors were associated with pupil weight status. Reviewing the relevant literature identified two gaps in the evidence related to primary school built environment and policy, and weight status, which were examined through systematic reviews. These reviews highlighted the paucity of literature on the school influence on pupil weight status, demonstrating the need for more research. Subsequently, the main component of the research was a repeated cross-sectional study using secondary data from the National Child Measurement Programme and additional sources. The reviews highlighted the need for studies to examine multiple contexts simultaneously, and although restricted to the school, sufficient data were available to examine the socio-demographic, built environment, physical activity, diet and ethos contexts of schools. The final data set comprised 62,554 participants, over 300 schools and 40 potential explanatory variables across five academic years (2006/07 - 2010/11). Both continuous and binary measures of weight status were assessed using national and international definitions and each academic year was analysed separately. Multilevel modelling allowed the estimation of how much of the variation in pupil weight status related to differences between schools and between-year groups within-schools, both of which were found to be small (intraclass correlation coefficient <0.03 (body mass index standard deviation score and overweight), -0.05 (obesity)). It was not possible to differentiate between schools. Primarily only two school-based contextual factors were statistically significant predictors in each academic year, mostly related to the socioeconomic status and ethos of the school; however these did not remain consistent across academic years. The small impact of schools, led to the consideration of whether the shared experience of attending school 'stabilised' children's growth.

This thesis concerns how power works through language in an educational institution. The empirical context is secondary schools in Sweden. The educational system in Sweden is considered as a key instrument in increasing equality in society and the curriculum also states that the values of democracy and equality should be taught in schools. Through an ethnographic study and textual analysis, I investigate what the language of ideals does in both the site of everyday speech and in written texts, and further how 'truths' and 'knowledges' about students and schools are discursively iced. i. The thesis examines the power relations of race, class and gender in relation to practices in schools and how subject positions are produced.

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The study records narratives told by 11 black and coloured ex-pupils, who between 1992 and 1998 gained access to being educated at a private European school in the suburbs of Johannesburg. The contextualised stories of how they developed "texts of identity" for themselves within the multicultural setting of the school were used to explore a process called "rewriting the self". The identity of the school also is contextualised within its own socio-cultural community, as well as that of multiculturalism in schools. The study is placed within a postmodern Community Psychology epistemology, with a social constructionist "lens" attached to it. The excess of a social construction "lens" (such as "anything goes") is countered by defining the key notions of "texts of identity" - a "sense of self", "human diversity" and "multiculturalism" - within the collapsed boundaries of sameness and differences, global and local, as well as personal and collective notions of the self. The notion of transformation is contextualised as part of the process of "rewriting the self". This is illuminated by means of discourses of the past and human agency/empowerment as well as those related to the South African history of colonisation and apartheid. Narrative discourses also are introduced as a related epistemology and used to construct the ex-pupils' narratives within an Action Research mode, formulated in three ever-widening and interlocking phases. In the process of re-telling their stories the ex-pupils gained self-knowledge regarding how their schooling experiences allowed them to "stretch across (their) boundaries" and re-identify themselves anew. The vantage point was achieved by means of the ex-learners deconstructing their stories as part of a series of reflexive conversations. The insights yielded in this manner achieved the objective of the narrative research procedure. Viewed in a wider South African context, the ex-pupils' personalised stories highlight important issues that help or do not help South Africans make sense of their past and re-identify themselves within new boundaries. One issue that still hamstrings South Africans "rewriting the self" is the dominant discourses of the past regarding race and culture. It is suggested that a "common humanity" discourse (as well as that of "hybridity") be developed more fully as the way out. / Psychology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

The study records narratives told by 11 black and coloured ex-pupils, who between 1992 and 1998 gained access to being educated at a private European school in the suburbs of Johannesburg. The contextualised stories of how they developed "texts of identity" for themselves within the multicultural setting of the school were used to explore a process called "rewriting the self". The identity of the school also is contextualised within its own socio-cultural community, as well as that of multiculturalism in schools. The study is placed within a postmodern Community Psychology epistemology, with a social constructionist "lens" attached to it. The excess of a social construction "lens" (such as "anything goes") is countered by defining the key notions of "texts of identity" - a "sense of self", "human diversity" and "multiculturalism" - within the collapsed boundaries of sameness and differences, global and local, as well as personal and collective notions of the self. The notion of transformation is contextualised as part of the process of "rewriting the self". This is illuminated by means of discourses of the past and human agency/empowerment as well as those related to the South African history of colonisation and apartheid. Narrative discourses also are introduced as a related epistemology and used to construct the ex-pupils' narratives within an Action Research mode, formulated in three ever-widening and interlocking phases. In the process of re-telling their stories the ex-pupils gained self-knowledge regarding how their schooling experiences allowed them to "stretch across (their) boundaries" and re-identify themselves anew. The vantage point was achieved by means of the ex-learners deconstructing their stories as part of a series of reflexive conversations. The insights yielded in this manner achieved the objective of the narrative research procedure. Viewed in a wider South African context, the ex-pupils' personalised stories highlight important issues that help or do not help South Africans make sense of their past and re-identify themselves within new boundaries. One issue that still hamstrings South Africans "rewriting the self" is the dominant discourses of the past regarding race and culture. It is suggested that a "common humanity" discourse (as well as that of "hybridity") be developed more fully as the way out. / Psychology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)