Reconsidering What Schools Are For

Abstract

A key objective of education development is to increase participation and achievement among school pupils, especially those facing disadvantage in terms of language, poverty, ability, and special needs. Another is to enhance their enjoyment of learning and their preparation for citizenship. Much education research concerns achievement and participation. But less effort has been put into considering how to promote the experiences of fairness, enjoyment, and ‘good’ citizenship, and how to recognise success or failure in this. We add to knowledge in this area by looking at the impact of schools and pupil experience on how pupils might develop the civic ‘values’ of fairness, aspiration, and trust, by presenting the results of a new international survey of young people, using an instrument assessing their experiences of justice at school, home, and in wider society, their backgrounds, and their hopes for the future.