School violence, school differences and school discourses

Abstract

This article highlights one strand of a study which investigated the concept of the violence-resilient school. In six inner-city secondary schools, data on violent incidents in school and violent crime in the neighbourhood were gathered, and compared with school practices to minimise violence, accessed through interviews. Some degree of association between the patterns of behaviour and school practices was found: schools with a wider range of well-connected practices seemed to have less difficult behaviour. Interviews also showed that the different schools had different organisational discourses for construing school violence, its possible causes and the possible solutions. Differences in practices are best understood in connection with differences in these discourses. Some of the features of school discourses are outlined, including their range, their core metaphor and their silences. The authors suggest that organisational discourse is an important concept in explaining school effects and school differences, and that improvement attempts could have clearer regard to this concept.

I blame the mother: educating parents and the gendered nature of parenting orders

“…Mothers expressed concern about the ability of schools to keep their children safe, or whether the schools could provide for their child's particular needs. Watkins et al (2007) found in their study of six inner-city secondary schools that some schools in their study were able to deal with problems in the wider community ('on the estate'), keeping violence out of the school through good collaborative relationships between the school and the wider environment and between teachers and pupils. However, those schools that were less successful in reducing violent incidents in their schools related these events to the pupil intake, which were characterised as 'difficult families', 'violent, aggressive and threatening parents' (Watkins et al 2007, 70).…”

Developing resiliency in students with behavioural problems in Hong Kong secondary schools: teachers’ narratives from a school guidance perspective

“…When examining the development of students' capacity for resiliency, most teachers observe that some students misbehave more than others and this can be partially explained by individual characteristics or environments which are used to offset the negative impacts of stressful situations, risks, and problems (Henderson et al, 2000a(Henderson et al, , 2002bHewitt et al, 2002;Watkins et al, 2007). Ross, Smith, Casey and Slavin (1995), for example, stated that the school environment itself has the potential to impact upon the development of students' resilience.…”

“…It is argued in many cases, that the distinctions made between adaptive or unadaptive behaviour can be arbitrary as this could be varied among cultures, races and ethnic groups (Ungar, 2004, 342). For example, Watkins, Mauthner, Hewitt, Epstein and Leonard, (2007) and Hewitt, Epstein, Leonard, Mauthner and Watkins, (2002) investigated violence-resilient schools and the ways in which they related to their environments. They suggested that students in some schools are more resilient than those students in other schools, and that resiliency could be further examined by looking closely at the specific contexts in which the school is situated and upon which the concept of resiliency is constructed.…”

Redes (Des)Conexas de Intervenção Local na Violência Infanto-Juvenil

“…Princípios segundo os quais as instituições são (inclusivamente) avaliadas e cuja consonância dos discursos está patente. O conjunto significativo de fontes e formas de legitimidade política e organizacional resultam dos níveis de autonomia organizacional e capacidade de ação dos diversos atores (BARROSO, 2003;WATKINS et al, 2007), que participam ou interferem no processo de implementação das políticas e na aplicação das normas que orientam o funcionamento do sistema. As necessidades externas e propostas de ação indicadas neste estudo pelos representantes institucionais mostra que o caminho para a construção dos objetivos de intervenção conjunta e integrada ainda é longo.…”