Encyclopedia of Cross-Cultural School Psychology

2010 Edition
| Editors: Caroline S. Clauss-Ehlers

Uniforms

  • Yvonne Yeh
Reference work entry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-71799-9_438

A uniform is a synonymous outfit worn by group members. School uniforms are worn by the student body of a school population. They are most likely conservative, examples being: white shirts and khakis for boys, white shirts and jumpers for girls. Less costly uniforms of differently colored knit shirts and jeans have also become a choice.

The case for school uniforms began mainly when some schools were recognizing their evolution from a place of learning into a place of displaying (as well as teachers becoming “judges of appropriate clothing”). Pressure, for some, begins even before leaving the house in the morning. A student’s outfit is one critical trigger to his or her behavior, reputation, and therefore self-esteem. Uniforms became a solution to revealing clothing, graphic clothing, and gang-colored clothing. As a synonymous outfit, school uniforms bring a shared identity with the aim of minimizing social cliques defined by wardrobe. The application of uniforms, to some known as a...

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Suggested Reading

  1. Steele, V. (1999). Fashion theory: The journal of dress, body and culture. Oxford, UK: Berg Publishers.Google Scholar

Suggested Resources

  1. The United States Department of Education—http://www.ed.gov/updates/uniforms.html: This is the U.S. Department of Education’s Manual on school uniforms.

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  • Yvonne Yeh
    • 1
  1. 1.Graduate School of Education, Department of Educational PsychologyRutgers, The State University of New JerseyNew BrunswickU.S.A.