This research explores home supervision requirements (HSRs) in Scotland; as well as the views about, and experiences of those who are affected the most by this type of compulsory intervention – young people, their parents and social workers. Home supervision requirements are a type of legal supervision order at home which is unique to the Scottish system of child legislation. Despite being the most common type of disposal used by the Children’s Hearing little is known about how HSRs work in practice. There is some evidence that young people who are subject to a HSR are likely to leave school with fewer qualifications than their peers – including young people who were ‘looked after’ away from home. Concerns with this gap in our understandings, combined with concerns for the poorer educational outcomes of young people who are subject to a HSR, has lead the Scottish Government, in collaboration with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), to set up and fund this case studentship. The research was conducted in a relatively large urban local authority in Scotland and used a multi-method approach in order to find out more about the nature, scope and outcomes of HSRs; as well as young people’s, their parents’ and social workers’ views about, and experiences of HSRs. I have conducted secondary analysis of data obtained from the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA). SCRA provided aggregated data on all 98 young people who were subject to a HSR in Thistle city for 12 months or more at 31st of December 2008. This information provided a ‘profile’ of young people subject to a HSR as well as a charter of their involvement with the Hearing System. This highlights the similarities between young people who are subject to a HSR and those who are subject to other types of supervision requirements (SRs) in Scotland. I also carried out documentary analysis of young people’s social work case files. Social work case files contain a number of different documents which provide qualitative information in narrative form about young people and their families, as well as a history of contact with social services. What gets recorded, how and to what effect is the result of the same system that they describe and influence. Case files are therefore of interest not because of what they record but how they construct subjects and facilitate the management of individuals and populations – in this case young people and their parents. Finally, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 young people, nine parents, one carer and 10 social workers. All of the young people interviewed had been known to social services for a considerable length of time, with some having been on and off different types of supervision requirements for five years or more. The interviews revealed a great deal of ambivalence towards HSRs from all stakeholders, and a lack of clarity about the nature and scope of the intervention. Drawing on post-theories critique on the rationalist, reductionist assumptions of modern discourses that dominate social policy and practice this study concludes that rather than asking whether HSRs are successful or not, we should first consider what HSRs are for. I propose that HSR is a disciplinary technique which aims to facilitate the management of individuals and populations. Social control should not however be understood as exclusive of disciplinary powers but as an inevitable and irreducible characteristic of all social relations. It is important therefore to explore how practice exercises control; how this is contested, resisted and transformed; and to what effect.

The aim of this thesis was to explore the key care factors that influence the educational achievement of children looked after at home and away from home in Scotland. Traditionally there has been less research conducted in Scotland than in the rest of the United Kingdom. The research analysed a large new sample - one fifth of the care leaving population in Scotland - and spans a five year period. The thesis makes an original research contribution. A unique features of the research is that it investigates the experiences of children looked after at home, alongside those looked after away from home. In addition, the research involved two large local authority areas in Scotland that had not previously participated in such research on looked after children. What emerged from the research was that the Corporate Parent (local authorities and partner agencies) had not yet successfully prioritised the educational achievement of looked after children in policy and practice, despite education being identified by the government as a mechanism for combating social exclusion. The key findings of the research demonstrated that looked after children perform less well academically than the general school population. In particular, placement type, the reason for becoming looked after and the age on becoming looked after were significant factors in determining educational achievement. Other factors such as gender and number of placements were also found to be associated with educational achievement. Empirical results further indicated that looked after children suffered from discrimination and social exclusion in all aspects of their lives, including school and where they lived. This was a significant finding as the disadvantage experienced by many looked after children continues to impact on their lives into adulthood, making them some of the most socially excluded adults in Scotland and the United Kingdom today.

There is compelling evidence that parental involvement positively influences children’s academic achievement. Its benefits occur across all socio-economic classes. In spite of its significance, parental involvement has received scant attention in Zimbabwe. This qualitative study sought to establish how parents in a materially poor rural district of Zimbabwe were involved in their children’s education. Barriers to their involvement were investigated with the view to overcoming or mitigating them for the benefit of the affected primary school pupils. The attribution theory was used not only to substantially explain the status of parental involvement in Zaka District, but also to generate strategies to promote parents’ participation in their children’s school education. Observation, semi-structured interviews (for school heads), focus group interviews (for parents) and the open-ended questionnaire (for teachers) were used in this qualitative study covering ten primary schools. Respondents were selected through the use of chain reference sampling and sampling by case. A total of one hundred and forty (140) participants were selected. It emerged from the research that parents, teachers and school heads/principals had very limited understanding of parental involvement. They generally thought that it was confined to activities done at school such as payment of school fees and levies, providing labour for the construction or renovation of school buildings and providing teaching/learning resources. Most teachers, school heads/principals and parents believed that parents were too poor and too lowly educated to meaningfully be involved in their children’s education. However, there were a few parents who believed that their socio-economic status did not prevent them from participating in their children’s education. They actually indicated useful ways in which they could be involved. The research also revealed that parents, school teachers and school heads/principals made wrong attributions about themselves and each other in connection with limited parental involvement in their schools. Both school staff and parents, after identifying barriers to involvement, were willing to learn about how they could overcome or mitigate the barriers. They believed that the challenges they were facing regarding parental involvement were capable of resolution. / Teacher Education / D. Ed. (Education Management)

There is compelling evidence that parental involvement positively influences children’s academic achievement. Its benefits occur across all socio-economic classes. In spite of its significance, parental involvement has received scant attention in Zimbabwe. This qualitative study sought to establish how parents in a materially poor rural district of Zimbabwe were involved in their children’s education. Barriers to their involvement were investigated with the view to overcoming or mitigating them for the benefit of the affected primary school pupils. The attribution theory was used not only to substantially explain the status of parental involvement in Zaka District, but also to generate strategies to promote parents’ participation in their children’s school education. Observation, semi-structured interviews (for school heads), focus group interviews (for parents) and the open-ended questionnaire (for teachers) were used in this qualitative study covering ten primary schools. Respondents were selected through the use of chain reference sampling and sampling by case. A total of one hundred and forty (140) participants were selected. It emerged from the research that parents, teachers and school heads/principals had very limited understanding of parental involvement. They generally thought that it was confined to activities done at school such as payment of school fees and levies, providing labour for the construction or renovation of school buildings and providing teaching/learning resources. Most teachers, school heads/principals and parents believed that parents were too poor and too lowly educated to meaningfully be involved in their children’s education. However, there were a few parents who believed that their socio-economic status did not prevent them from participating in their children’s education. They actually indicated useful ways in which they could be involved. The research also revealed that parents, school teachers and school heads/principals made wrong attributions about themselves and each other in connection with limited parental involvement in their schools. Both school staff and parents, after identifying barriers to involvement, were willing to learn about how they could overcome or mitigate the barriers. They believed that the challenges they were facing regarding parental involvement were capable of resolution. / Teacher Education / D. Ed. (Education Management)