This thesis is the study of experiences of a group of mainstream secondary pupils identified as having additional support needs within the terms of the Education (Additional Support For Learning ) (Scotland) Act (2004). This means that they have been categorised as having entitlements to whatever support they require to ensure that they can attain good educational outcomes. Prior to the 2004 legislation, practices were based on categorisation of such pupils into separate, often segregated, provision which reflected assumptions about their restricted potential. The 2004 legislation is part of a policy agenda concerned with social justice and equity of educational provision for all pupils. It requires that all barriers to learning are removed for each individual pupil. Such a policy shift, and the move towards an inclusive person-centred approach, seem consistent with Scottish education as it is widely regarded, that is, with a strong tradition of, and a commitment to, egalitarianism. However, there is research which also suggests that Scottish education has been, and continues to be, meritocratic and with a strong focus on academic attainment, and that the belief in the tradition of egalitarianism, which is now regarded as a myth, can still influence perception and policy. It has also been argued that the neo-liberal reforms of the public services since the 1980s have narrowed teachers‟ work, led to a focus on its measurable aspects and led to less time being available for other areas of work, including supporting non-academic learning and attainment. In this thesis I discuss how the influence of the „myth‟, a tradition of meritocracy, and a performativity focus on attainment, shape teachers understandings and practices as they are required to reconcile them with a concurrent policy agenda which has a focus on social inclusion and equity of educational opportunity. To enable the voices of pupils and their teachers to be heard, I use semi-structured interviews and an interpretivist approach to study the experiences and attitudes of 8 teachers and 17 pupils in 2 comprehensive schools in a Scottish local authority. Through doing this I identify factors which might prevent teachers from developing inclusive approaches and support for learning practices which are helpful and acceptable to pupils. I also consider any apparent tensions between a person-centred inclusive policy agenda and a tradition of meritocracy. I found that pupils were generally positive about their experience of learning and identified practices they thought would be both helpful and acceptable to them: peer working; teachers mediating learning through discussion/questioning; work which was interesting to them and/or relevant to life beyond school. There was also a degree of consensus that difficulties associated with the reading/writing tasks they were required to do could be barriers to fully accessing the curriculum. The study also found that the teachers interviewed showed a commitment to provide support to pupils with additional support needs and that they provided a range of in-class arrangements to achieve this. However, they seemed also to be influenced by academic traditions/assumptions and felt that what they were able to do was limited by the agenda created by national examination requirements and it was that which drove the curriculum. The study concludes that the practices and power relations in schools are influenced by the conservative thinking which characterises Scottish education, that these practices and power relations can be oppressive and disempowering to teachers and pupils and that pupils are still labelled, sometimes segregated and treated differently from their peers. It also emerged that while there are no real opportunities for pupils to express their views and challenge the identities ascribed to them, when they are given that opportunity they can have well formed views about their education and what changes to existing practice would better help them to improve their attainment and develop useful skills. Not all of the pupils did express such views, and this may link to effect of the power relations in schools. Of those who did express views about what they would like to see change, the changes they identified seem to be generally possible within the pedagogical and curriculum framework changes as suggested in Curriculum for Excellence documents. However, given the findings of this study about power relations and the persistence of academic traditions and assumptions, it is relevant to note that these changes in themselves will require alterations to existing in-school power relations, working arrangements and conceptualisations of what constitutes educational success and how it is measured.

In Mainland China, a national education policy called ‘Learning in Regular Classrooms’ (LRC) has been implemented for over 25 years to support the inclusion of disabled children in regular schools. Although the LRC policy framework has been gradually adapted in response to the global movement for inclusive education, little is known about what is happening in classrooms and schools. In particular, disabled children’s views and experiences of their school lives remain unknown. Drawing on perspectives from inclusive education, pupil voice, disability studies and childhood studies, this research is driven by a theoretical stance that positions disabled children as active and competent social actors whose voices should be valued and heard. This exploratory inquiry adopted an ethnographic approach. I conducted the fieldwork in 4 state primary schools in Shanghai, with 11 disabled children (designated as LRC pupils and labelled as having Learning Difficulties), 10 class teachers and 3 resource teachers. The Framework for Participation (Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2011) was used to inform data collection and analysis. Multiple methods were utilised including participant observation, interviews and participatory activities. Rich, in-depth and contextual data were collected and thematically analysed. This research highlights several key findings. First, the necessity of listening to pupil voice is reaffirmed. Children’s views of schooling revealed hidden knowledge that had been unknown to teachers. The child participants were sensitive, observant and reflective, exercising their agency to negotiate the circumstances in which they were living. They offered informative comments on school practice and shared aspirations for improvement. Second, it was found that the meaning of inclusive education failed to be addressed in everyday schooling process, although there had been rhetorical change in LRC policy, and its implementation helped to secure disabled children’s access to regular schools. Disabled children were still facing forms of marginalisation and exclusion, such as limited participation in decision-making, restricted opportunities to access extra-curricular activities and spaces, lack of support for academic learning, and negative experiences of bullying from peers. The existing special educational provision such as the ‘resource classroom’ was found to interrupt children’s sense of togetherness and generate negative labelling effects for them. Third, facilitators of and barriers to disabled children’s learning and participation were identified. The exclusionary process affecting disabled children was strongly fortified by the introduction of special educational thinking and practice, which not only marked out these children as incompetent and in need of protection, but also underrated the existing inclusive practice in regular classrooms. The process was further reinforced by the charitable model of disability in Confucian society and the prevailing competitive and performative school culture. Nevertheless, teachers could play important roles in negotiating all pupils’ learning and participation. Among the insights gained into teachers’ practice, a connection between teachers’ attentiveness to children’s worlds and their demonstration of inclusive practice was noticed, on the basis of which I discussed the implications of pupil voice for developing inclusive practice, and explored a working model for moving towards inclusive education in China with pupil voice as a core starting point. In China, there is still a long way to go before realising all children’s learning and participation. This research calls for a paradigm shift within the country to encourage new ways of thinking and researching, in which children must be seen as essential partners in the process of transforming and imagining possibilities for inclusive education.

A systematic review of the literature that explored the processes and perceived effectiveness of qualitative methods used to elicit the views of young people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) about their educational experiences was conducted. Studies that were identified and screened using a trialled evaluation checklist and synthesised using the PRISMA guidelines identified data collection methods that were perceived to be useful. Limitations such as the over-representation of participants who were able to engage in verbal discussion and the lack of detailed description and evaluation of data collection methods were also identified. A multiple case study research was then conducted to explore two special schools' processes of eliciting the views of secondary school-aged pupils with ASD about their transition to adulthood and its perceived effectiveness. Qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with the school's staff and an observation of a transition meeting were gathered and thematically analysed individually, then compared and contrasted within school level. The findings revealed that both schools' processes of eliciting young people with ASD's views about transition to adulthood is a long process which involves three phases and is underpinned by a person-centred ethos. Perceived strengths and limitations of the process were also identified. Dissemination of the study's findings will include presentations and consultations with key stakeholders such as mainstream and specialist secondary schools and local authority post-16 steering group to explore the utility of the findings in different contexts. Collaboration with other educational psychologists (EPs) will also be conducted to explore this study's implications in the way they support schools in eliciting the views of young people with ASD.

A child’s right to have their opinion in decisions which affect them given due regard forms the basis of Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (1989) which was ratified by the UK government in 1991. The term ‘pupil voice’ has been used by schools as a way of encapsulating this and a survey in 2007 suggested that 92% of primary schools in England and Wales had a school council in place (Whitty & Wisby, 2007a). The aim of the current study was to elicit the views of key stage 2 school councillors and staff members about the role of school councils and pupil participation in decision making. In Phase One staff from three primary schools in the south west of England were interviewed about school councils and pupil participation in school. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and three themes emerged. In Phase Two 16 key stage 2 pupils, who were members of their own school’s school council, took part. Mixed gender paired interviews were conducted to elicit their views about their role and pupil participation in decision making in their school. Interviews were followed by five weekly group sessions involving participatory activities to support and develop their understanding of their role as school councillors. Pupils from each school council had input into the topics explored in this part of the research. Findings from Phase One suggest that staff regard school councils as being positive for the children involved but they differ in opinion in terms of the impact they have on the wider school population. Findings from Phase Two suggest school council members value being responded to by adults when they have been asked to express their views about a specific decision. School council members also perceive trust as being one of the main factors involved in their election by peers. Findings are discussed in relation to recent research about participation in decision making, the effectiveness of school councils and the importance of a participatory ethos within schools. Overall findings lead to the proposal of a model for use in schools to support the participation of pupils in decision making. The model is based on the existing model conceptualising Article 12 of the UNCRC by Lundy (2007) but incorporates a shared participatory ethos and adult response as required factors. Limitations of the current study as well as suggestions for future research and implications for EP practice are discussed.

A sense of school belonging has a powerful effect on students' emotional, motivational and academic functioning. This phenomenological research synthesized qualitative literature presenting pupil voice on school belonging, investigated how secondary school-aged students who have undergone a 'managed move' experience belonging, and sought their views on the role stakeholders might play in promoting school belonging for managed move students. The author discusses policy and practice implications and outlines a dissemination strategy. The first paper is an interpretative meta-synthesis involving a process of reciprocal translation and synthesis of seven qualitative studies was used to examine secondary school students' experiences of school belonging. The second paper is an empirical study investigating how secondary school students who have undergone a managed move experience school belonging, and what they feel would promote a sense of school belonging for other managed move students. This research employed purposive sampling, an interpretative case study design and semi-structured phenomenological interviews. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse data. The meta-synthesis (Paper 1) generated four main concepts: school belonging and intersubjectivity; school belonging and knowledge, understanding and acceptance of individual identity; school belonging and experiences of in-group membership and school belonging and safety/security, and the 'higher-order concept' of school belonging as 'feeling safe to be yourself in and through relationships with others in the school setting'. Superordinate themes identified in the empirical study (Paper 2) were 'making friends and feeling safe'; 'feeling known, understood and accepted as a person in receiver school'; 'identification of and support for SEN/D' and 'supportive/unsupportive school practices/protocols'. Findings indicated that a sense of school belonging for these students resulted from positive social relationships with peers and an attendant sense of safety, security and acceptance. Managed move participants expressed the desirability but also the perceived difficulty of forging relationships in a new school and acknowledged the value of sensitive and subtle support.

This dissertation presents an action research project carried out in a primary school to address the issue of ‘pupil voice’. Consulting with stakeholders has risen in prominence in the political context of schools. A number of government directives to encourage schools to engage have been put forward, including the expectation of the establishment of a School Council. The formation of the School Council is the first cycle of action presented in this dissertation, which then continues to develop through three further action cycles: listening to the voices of teachers, ‘children as philosophers’ and action research partnerships in the classrooms. Preliminary work prior to the introduction of School Council sets the context. The conceptual framework has been developed through consideration of the work of Shier (2001), Fielding (2001) and Hart(1994) which has contributed to the establishment of a taxonomy of ‘pupil voice’ development. The methodological approach emerged from the works of Elliott (1991), Zuber Skerritt and Perry (2002) and Whitehead and McNiff (2006) through the development of ‘circles of influence’ which rose and diminished in importance throughout the action cycles. Three circles of influence are identified as ‘self’ including reflexivity, ‘methods’ including ways of engaging and analysing the data, and ‘literature’ pertinent to the area of action as well as the methodology itself. The contribution the subsequent thesis offers to practice is threefold. Firstly, there is the ‘methodological messiness’ (Dadds & Hart 2005) which occurs when conducting action research which necessitates listening to the voices of the participants in order to determine the next cycle. Secondly, there is the development of the ‘pupil voice’ taxonomy which embeds the pupils within the process and is groundbreaking in ‘pupil voice’ research in primary schools. Finally, there are the action cycles themselves which offer the lived experience of engaging in ‘pupil voice’ action research partnerships.

The aim of this study is to acquire knowledge regarding democratic education in upper secondary school programmes with different gender and social class profiles. It covers the teaching in and about democracy, pupils’ power-positions and their attempts to affect routine school activities. A particular focus of attention was processes of influence, through which the pupils themselves pursue issues in school. The analysis is based on theories and previous research focused on gender and class perspectives of fostering democracy. Basil Bernstein’s theories regarding power, control and pedagogic codes, in combination with feminist theories (principally those of Arnot, Reay, Skeggs, Gordon and Walkerdine), form the basis of the theoretical framework. Ethnographic methods have been applied, including participatory observations, conversations, interviews, and analysis of relevant documents over one academic year. Two Swedish upper secondary school classes were followed: one from the vocational Child and Recreation Programme and one from the academic Natural Science Programme. Teaching students about democracy and invitations for them to exert influence appeared generally to be unplanned and were marginalised in school. The few invitations that occurred had an individual stamp and focused on pupils’ choices, responsibilities and duties, rather than on their rights in school. Democracy was presented in the form of facts about formal democracy and formal participation in democracy in the future, while a more critical   attitude and possible influence strategies for youths were marginalised. Pupils in both classes wished and attempted to influence teaching, primarily through informal means. There were, however, significant differences between the classes in what they were able to influence. Analysis of pupils’ voices in relation to the pedagogic context revealed that the power relationships in these influence processes depend partly on the focal academic subject. More   importantly, they also differ between the upper secondary school programs, which differ in strength of classification (sensu Bernstein), demands, pace and difficulty levels. These   differences are related, in turn, to whether the programmes are intended to prepare the pupils for higher education and/or a vocation after school. Generally, the Child and Recreation pupils exerted influence more successfully when they wished to reduce the pace and difficulty of lessons than when they wished to get more out of their education, while the opposite applied to the Natural Science class. Who had influence over what was principally   related to the programmes’ gender and class profiles and the pupils’ expected positions in society. / Ett aktivt medborgarskap? Om demokratifostran i gymnasieskolan

This qualitative study sets out to explore the experiences of secondary school students while they are learning mathematics in school. By using student stories of learning mathematics as my main data collection method I began to understand the view of mathematics that my students were constructing as they negotiated the complicated terrain that I know as the mathematics classroom. This method of student stories to communicate student voice was selected by me to allow the students the freedom to express themselves in a variety of comfortable, differentiated formats. My methodological approach evolved as the action research phases progressed, allowing for methodological inventiveness (Dadds and Hart 2001). This was a deliberate decision by me so that my research progress could be best served by a suitable methodological approach. The end result was a qualitative study that embraced a living theory model of action research (McNiff 2013), where practitioners can develop their own personal theories of practice (Whitehead 1999). Within this action research structure I used a narrative approach, considering narratives both as a data collection method and as a transformative phenomenon. Using the ideas of narrative research for data collection, I facilitated storytelling workshops with my students, collecting stories to inform the research interest. In this research, using narratives was also considered as a phenomenon because of their influence in allowing authors to model and re-model their experiences through their stories. I found that considering narrative as phenomenon complemented and supported a portraiture methodological stance (Lawrence-Lightfoot 2005). Narrative as a phenomenon also became apparent by the influence the student stories had on my 9 ability to understand my classroom and my subsequent teaching practice. To analyse the story data I utilised the ideas of Anderson (2011) who developed a transpersonal research method that incorporates the researcher's intuition, emotional and personal capacities into the research process. By using a multi-method approach of thematic analysis, symbolic interactionist perspective, input from colleagues and my reflexive intuition, I formed an analysis of the data that could be used to look at similarities and trends in the student stories. In addition, working with the student stories encouraged levels of empathy between the reader and the student author that transformed classroom practice and understandings. There are several ways that this thesis can contribute to practice. Firstly this research develops a pedagogical tool that encourages student voice, celebrates individuality and helps create an approachable interface between mathematics teacher and student. Secondly, it models how this way of working could be used to inform the practice of the classroom teacher by developing a deeper understanding of their students. Thirdly, the identification of particular themes is invaluable to subject department development and planning, and these themes can feed into a department and whole school ethos. Finally, it models a form of action research that encourages critical reflexive practice and utilises the knowledge, experience and intuition of the researcher with the sole purpose of improving the experiences of their students.