The aim of this research study was to explore strategies for reducing student alienation in comprehensive high schools. In the first instance, the study investigated three major high school reports, one in Britain and two in Australia, commissioned in the early 1980's. Curriculum strategies were believed to be the possible way forward in reducing student alienation but early in the research it became clear that curriculum strategies on their own were not enough. As such, a selection of strategies was determined from the literature and a model for the reduction of student alienation developed. Surveys of over 2500 students were analysed and a longitudinal case study of the implementation of the model in a comprehensive high school followed. Initial research identified a fundamental weakness with the over-all approach taken in the reports. The established structures of the comprehensive high school tended to dominate over the new strategies. Individual strategies for reducing alienation were in the main ad hoc additions to the existing structure of the school. The research undertaken endeavoured to show that strategies for reducing student alienation can only be effective using an integrated approach, implying a new approach for the school and the system itself. The alignment model as developed has the potential to change the alienating features of a school. Ideally the impact of such an integrated strategic approach on policy, operations, curriculum, and relationships as well as system support and physical resources needs to be undertaken in such a way as to produce a positive comparative advantage for all students, teachers and parents of the school. For the principal of a comprehensive high school this offers an alternative management of change approach to the needs deficiency or system directed approaches.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:536399 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Livermore, Ramon Edwin Dixon |
| Publisher | University College London (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10021584/ |
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