The emotional geographies of neoliberal school reforms: Spaces of refuge and containment

Nairn, Karen; Higgins, Jane

doi:10.1016/j.emospa.2010.10.001

Cited by 45 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Writing from a New Zealand context, Nairn and Higgins (2011) argue that alternative programmes with a re-engagement focus act both as a 'refuge' and as places of 'containment' (183-184). As 'refuges', they are places where young people 'experience more compassionate relationships … [where adults are] able to engage in the emotional labour of constructing meaningful and compassionate social relations because they [are] buffered from neoliberal imperatives', with 'a more generous staff/student ratio and a less-pressured curriculum' (185).…”

Section: Introduction and Argumentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-engagement to where? Low SES students in alternative-education programmes on the path to low-status destinations?

Smyth

McInerney

Fish

2013

Research in Post-Compulsory Education

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This paper poses a rarely asked question -Re-engagement to where? Or to what valued social purpose for the young people concerned? Drawing from a larger project funded by the Australian Research Council, the paper analyses the 'portraits' of two young people whose lives were seemingly better within a re-engagement programme, but whose lives were severely circumscribed by the narrow vocationalism offered in the programme. More concerning was the fact that the considerable natural talents and skills of these young people were neither acknowledged nor used as the basis to improve their life chances or opportunities.

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Section: Introduction and Argumentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-engagement to where? Low SES students in alternative-education programmes on the path to low-status destinations?

Smyth

McInerney

Fish

2013

Research in Post-Compulsory Education

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show abstract

“…Indeed, as Harris, Wyn, and Younes (2010) suggested, it is time to abandon the distinction between apathy and activism. Young people in the UK have also grown up during a period in which a rhetoric of individualisation and self-help or self-blame has dominated social and political debates in the UK, potentially reducing the potential for collective action (Nairn and Higgins 2011;Simmons and Thompson 2011). Whether or not such findings are more general, whether in other UK towns and cities, and in other countries, where the neo-liberal rhetoric of self-reliance is dominant and young men and women, as individuals are blamed for their structural position is an interesting question that would repay comparative analysis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Politics, anti-politics, quiescence and radical unpolitics: young men's political participation in an ‘ordinary’ English town

McDowell

Rootham

Hardgrove³

2013

Journal of Youth Studies

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“…Relationships with teachers and tutors in which participants were (or were not) recognised on their own terms emerged as key to their development of learning identities (see also Nairn and Higgins 2011). Many felt invisible at school, both because teachers seemed to ignore their learning needs in class, and because these young people became physically invisible through being sent out of class, and ultimately (for some) through becoming truant from school: I hated being at school because the teachers just helped the people that are real good and they don't help you if you can't do it.…”

Section: Research In Post-compulsory Education 179mentioning

confidence: 98%

Towards a learning identity: young people becoming learners after leaving school

Higgins

2013

Research in Post-Compulsory Education

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This article explores the development of learning identities among 51 young New Zealanders who left school with few or no qualifications. Most experienced a period of time after leaving school when they were not in education, employment or training (known as NEET). At the time of this research all had moved into a learning environment of some kind. The development of learning identities involved the explicit rejection of their former NEET identities and was facilitated by aspects of their current learning environment, particularly relationships with tutors and fellow students and styles of learning that differed from their school experiences. Within this context the young people were able to think about crafting future pathways into further education and employment. The article concludes with a discussion of current policy directions that attempt to reintegrate these young people into a school-like system, a process that may be unhelpful for them. IntroductionThe Education Employment Linkages (EEL) project is a five-year research project (2008-2012) exploring how transition support systems can best help young New Zealanders make good education employment linkages to benefit themselves, their communities, and the national economy (Dalziel et al. 2007). One strand of the project focuses on young people who have left school with few or no qualifications. The discussion below explores how a group of these young people moved from being outside education, employment or training (known as NEET) into learning environments in which they began to develop learning identities. Focussing particularly on these young people's own voices, it examines what they had to say about their capacity to develop education-employment linkages, and about forms of support (both individual and systemic) that facilitated this development. The article concludes with a discussion of recent policy developments in New Zealand aimed at assisting school-leavers who are regarded as being at risk of becoming NEET.

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The emotional geographies of neoliberal school reforms: Spaces of refuge and containment

Cited by 45 publications

References 20 publications

Re-engagement to where? Low SES students in alternative-education programmes on the path to low-status destinations?

Re-engagement to where? Low SES students in alternative-education programmes on the path to low-status destinations?

Politics, anti-politics, quiescence and radical unpolitics: young men's political participation in an ‘ordinary’ English town

Towards a learning identity: young people becoming learners after leaving school

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