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Inclusive education is, nationally and internationally, a current political trend. Inclusion involves more than education itself but one major driving force for change is the schooling system we develop for our children. One approach to including all children is to focus on and develop teaching and learning methods. This is based on the argument that if children have their learning needs met and see a purpose to their own education, they will develop into independent learners. This will reduce the likelihood of them becoming disaffected within their schooling environment. Cognitive psychologists and educational researchers have aimed to develop theoretical models to explain learning and help teachers undertake their role most effectively. One such theoretical model is the Accelerated Learning model. It combines an awareness of the individual's well-being and their environment with the theory of multiple intelligences and structured teaching and learning styles in an attempt to provide optimum conditions. This thesis considers teachers' perspectives of the Accelerated Learning model and explores the idea that to be successful these two issues are intrinsically interdependent. The data was collected and analysed using a narrative enquiry approach, based on Hollway and lefferson's (2000) work. The resulting joint story demonstrates an impressive commitment and enthusiasm within the teachers' perspectives and I suggest a value for the Accelerated Learning model as a credible teaching model. The importance of adopting it in its entirety is stressed by the teachers and a true sense of 'the sum of its parts being greater than the whole' emerged. The idea that this work is continuing to evolve is discussed within the thesis.

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The use of area-based positive discrimination as a response to the persistent educational underachievement of children was adopted by the Labour governments elected in both 1964 and 1997. Much has been written about recent policy, but the first use of this approach during the 1960s is, at present, no more than a footnote in the history of education. This thesis presents an historical account of the Educational Priority Area projects that took place in Liverpool and the West Riding of Yorkshire between 1968 and 1971. The lessons from the past which emerge from this 'novel' policy response to a seemingly intractable problem help us to understand the dilemmas of the present. The EPA project was part of an ideological tradition concerned with enduring pedagogical and political ideals relating to social justice and equality. Theoretically, the EPA projects raise questions about organisational structures and the agency of individuals. The actions of the Liverpool and West Riding teams challenged the ideological construction of teacher identity. Their work provided evidence that the relationship between the professional and the home is not unalterable. The approach taken was to analyse a range of primary sources including original documentary evidence and extensive interviews with the surviving EPA team members. The actions taken by the teams and the voices of those responsible revealed distinctive practices that contribute to existing understanding of the potential of area-based interventions. At a time when the respective roles of teachers and parents were clearly demarcated, the EP A projects demonstrated what might have been. They effectively challenged existing preconceptions held by professionals regarding their relationship with the home and provided a legacy of innovations with which to challenge educational underachievement. For anyone interested in overcoming educational inequality the EPA projects offer a contribution to debates concerned with what works, what doesn't, and why.

The underachievement of African Caribbean boys has been the subject of considerable debate and research in education but few studies focus on this group's achievements. Difficulties associated with racial identity and masculinity are amongst explanations offered for African Caribbean boys' educational underachievement and research has also implicated the peer group's contributions to undermining academic performance. This thesis explores the subjective experiences of high-attaining African Caribbean boys regarding their perceptions of peer influences in school. Seven pupils were given two narrative interviews (2 months apart) about their relationships with peers and experiences related to 'peer influence' and the impact they consider that this has on their education and attainment. Interviews also addressed the impact of family narratives on the boys at school. The interviews were analysed using Gee's (1991) structural linguistic narrative approach, which as well as helping to identify narratives also allowed analysis of how the boys performed their identities in co-constructing their narratives with the interviewer. The findings suggest that the boys perceive peers to have some influence on their educational experiences and subsequent attainment. Narratives espoused the positive aspects of peer relationships as being emotionally and practically supportive and helping boys' motivation to study through competing for high grades. They also highlighted that peer distractions could lead to underachievement. Pupils used multiple and complex strategies to manage their relationships so that they continued to attain well. These included strategic self-presentation, deploying resources (e.g. social capital) and utilising support from teachers and family members. Family racialised narratives were found to play an important role in developing racial identity and academic orientation. The thesis discusses the implications of these findings and critically comments on the use of narrative interviews and analysis in research with young people and its relevance to schools and Educational Psychology practice.

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Notre thèse propose de saisir les difficultés d’insertion des jeunes sans qualification à partir de leur rapport à la norme. Elle prend appui à la fois sur notre expérience professionnelle et sur une enquête de terrain réalisée au centre de formation L’Atelier à Strasbourg. En se fondant sur les acquis de la démarche ergologique, nous abordons le travail et l’insertion sous l’angle de l’activité. De cette prise en compte de l’activité découle une première explication des difficultés d’insertion des jeunes sans qualification. Les échecs qu’ils rencontrent lorsqu’ils se confrontent à des situations de travail s’expliquent par leur incapacité à s’affirmer en personne dans les cadres normatifs du travail, leur incapacité à « renormaliser ». Pour d’autres jeunes, les difficultés reposent sur le fait qu’ils s’investissent dans le travail sur la seule base d’une affirmation de ce qui leur importe sans prendre en compte et identifier les normes qui structurent la situation. Ces deux types de rapport au travail permettent de proposer une typologie des difficultés d’insertion et invitent à interroger les enjeux de la prise en charge de ces difficultés par les professionnels de l’insertion. / This research aims at understanding the difficulties of (occupational) integration for young unskilled people from their way of dealing with the norm. It relies both upon our occupational experience and a survey conducted at L’Atelier, a Strasbourg-based training Center. Relying on the theory of ergology, labor and integration are analyzed in the light of activity. Activity thus considered, a first understanding of young unskilled people’s difficulties of integration into the workplace can be set up. The fact that they fail when they work is due to their unfitness to assert themselves and identify the normative frameworks of work. The difficulties of other youths are due to their focusing only on what matters to them without considering norm-structured work situations.These two work approaches allow us to set up a typology of integration difficulties and to question the responsibilities of caring about those difficulties for the workers dealing with integration.

Cette recherche se propose d’étudier l’effet d’un dispositif d’aide aux élèves en difficulté à l’école élémentaire dans le cadre des APC (activités pédagogiques complémentaires).L’hypothèse émise est qu’il est possible de passer d’un dispositif de soutien à un véritable dispositif d’aide aux élèves en difficulté par le truchement de la mise en mots par l’élève de sa propre activité, cette mise en mots permettant à l’élève de conscientiser les procédures efficaces afin de les réinvestir dans des activités de classe ordinaires.Le dispositif que nous proposons consiste à mettre en oeuvre des débats sociocognitifs entre les élèves, ces débats étant étayés par l’enseignant qui adopte une posture de médiateur. Ces débats concernent des élèves de cycle 3 et sont focalisés sur la résolution de problèmes mathématiques entrant dans le champ de la proportionnalité.Il s’agit d’une recherche-action dont la méthodologie s’appuie sur une démarche expérimentale. Cette démarche est complétée par une observation différée des séances mises en oeuvre par l’intermédiaire de vidéos et par des entretiens avec les enseignants des classes concernées.À l’issue de ces débats, outre les progrès observés chez les élèves, les résultats démontrent un renforcement de leur dynamique motivationnelle et un engagement plus important dans les activités de classe ordinaires. / This research will examine the effects of an aid scheme for pupils with learning difficulties in elementary school through a system called APC (complementary pedagogical activities).The hypothesis is that it is possible to switch from a support scheme to a real aid scheme to help pupils with learning difficulties, by enabling them to put into words the activities they carry on, with a view to allowing them to realize and reuse effective procedures in regular classroom activities.The scheme that we propose is to organize sociocognitive debates between pupils. The teacher scaffolds the debates by assuming the role of a mediator. These debates are aimed at pupils from grade 3 to grade 5 and focus on solving mathematical problems related to the notion of proportionality.The methodology of this action-research leans on an experimental approach. This approach will be completed with differed observations of the class sessions thanks to videos and with interviews with the teachers of the concerned classes.The debates having been held and besides the progress observed as far as the pupils are concerned, the results of the study demonstrate a strengthening of the pupils’ motivational dynamics and a more important commitment to ordinary classroom activities.

Le questionnement autour du phénomène du décrochage étudiant connait des ramifications directes vers les problématiques spécifiques liées à l’échec scolaire. La présente étude a pour objectif d’appréhender le décrochage d’étudiants de la première année de la licence, d’en étudier le processus afin de le comprendre, offrir ainsi une réponse adéquate à ce phénomène. Nous avons admis que le décrochage universitaire relève davantage du processuel et non de l’événementiel, et qu’il ne se réduit pas aux caractéristiques d’entrée de l’étudiant à l’université. Il est aussi influencé par des variables individuelles et/ou des variables contextuelles, ainsi que par l’interaction entre elle. Pour vérifier certains de ces éléments nous avons adopté une approche systémique à double supports : le questionnaire (783 répondants) et l’entretien semi-directif (8 interviewés). Les réponses à ces interrogations ont démontré que le décrochage étudiant est un phénomène multidimensionnel et processuel. L’interprétation des résultats à l’aide de la modélisation n’ont permis de catégoriser et de tracer les figures des décrocheurs. / The questioning around the phenomenon of student drop-out has direct ramifications towards the specific problems linked to school failure. The objective of this study is to understand the drop-out of students in the first year of the bachelor’s degree, to study the process in order to understand it, and to propose ways to shed light on this phenomenon. We have admitted that university drop-out is more a process than an event, and that it is not reduced to the student’s entry characteristics to university. It is also influenced by individual variables and/or contextual variables, as well as by the interaction between them. To verify some of these elements, we adopted a two-pronged systemic approach: the questionnaire (783 respondents) and the semi-directive interview (8 interviewees). The responses obtained demonstrated that student drop-out is a multidimensional and process-oriented phenomenon. The interpretation of the results using modeling did not allow the figures of dropouts to be categorized and traced.

Cette recherche explore les conditions d’émergence et d’exercice de la réussite scolaire chez des jeunes relevant de la Protection de l’enfance, au travers d’une approche conjuguant positionnement et dynamique sociaux et relationnels et mobilisation individuelle. Elle a été réalisée, à partir de 2009, sur deux circonscriptions d’action sociale du département de l’Ain et alimentée par deux phases de travail de terrain. La première, quantitative, a été réalisée par questionnaire auprès des adultes (accueillants, travailleurs sociaux référents, enseignants) en charge des 229 jeunes confiés de ces deux zones et a consisté en un recueil de données relatif à leur parcours de placement, leur scolarité, leurs spécificités, leurs liens avec leur famille d’origine. La seconde, qualitative, a pris la forme d’entretiens auprès de ceux que l’exploitation des questionnaires avait permis d’identifier comme étant en réussite scolaire (N=83). Ont ainsi été recueillis 39 entretiens d’adolescents, auxquels ont été adjoints 7 apports d’adultes, « ex-enfants de la Ddass ». Le contenu de ces entretiens a été traité par la méthode Chartier (codage des unités d’informations), complétée d’un travail littéral approfondi autour des stratégies mises en œuvre. Les résultats des analyses quantitatives confirment les soubassements traditionnels de l’adaptation scolaire et, en particulier, l’impact socio-culturel du milieu familial. Ils mettent, de plus, en évidence les ressources que ces jeunes déploient spécifiquement, dans leur parcours inattendu, ainsi que les ancrages et étayages qu’ils expérimentent. Les entretiens permettent d’affiner ces deux atouts. Apparaissent ainsi particulièrement discriminants au regard de la réussite scolaire la personnalité du jeune, marquée par une profonde détermination, une grande maturité, une aptitude à positiver son vécu et à envisager l’avenir avec confiance, le rôle de relations de proximité, entretenues avec un certain nombre de personnes marquantes, la capacité à se distancier d’événements ou de personnes susceptibles d’entraver la progression. Ces traits dessinent des processus et des expériences de résilience, où les fragilités ne sont pas absentes - leurs motivations sont diverses, leurs résultats ne sont pas tous excellents, leur passé ressurgit régulièrement - mais où l’école et le savoir apparaissent comme espaces de perspectives et comme médiateurs à l’expression et à la réalisation de leur reconstruction. / This research explores the emerging conditions and the successful scholastic results of those covered by the Protection for Children, through an approach grouping social and relational position and dynamics, and individual mobilisation. It took place in two sectors of the social action in the Ain department and concerned two phases of field work. The first one, quantitative, was achieved with a questionnaire for adults (the welcoming committee, social workers and teachers) in charge of the 229 youths in these 2 zones and consisted of a recording of facts relevant to their experience of placement, scholarity, specifications and their possible links or ties with their birth family. The second one, qualitative, resulted from meetings with those who appeared to be in academic achievement through the questionnaires (N=83). Thus, we were able to record interviews with 39 adolescents combined with those of 7 adults, themselves "ex-children of the Ddass". The contents of these meetings were analysed using the Chartier Method (a code of information units), in addition to an extensive amount of literal work about the used strategies. The results of the quantitative analysis confirm the traditional foundations of scholastic adaptation and, in particular, the socio-cultural impact of the family. In addition, it brings out the resources which the adolescents specifically use in their unexpected course as well as the anchorages and supports they may experience. These meetings allow us to define both these opportunities. Moreover, this shows in a particularly specific way the personality of the adolescent with successful scholastic results, shown by a strong determination, an increased maturity, an aptitude for positive thinking about his/her life, with a confident outlook to the future, the role of the close environment, looked after by a certain number of influential figures and the ability to distant himself/herself from events or people likely to hinder his/her progress. These specific features shape and form processes and experiences of resilience, where certain weaknesses are present - their motivations are varied, not all results are excellent as their past regularly reappears in their lives - but which above all bring into play learning and knowledge as sources of perspectives and as mediators to express and realise their reconstruction.