Equality and Power in Schools: Redistribution, Recognition and Representation

Based on a study of 12 schools over a two-year period, this book explores issues of equality and power both in the classroom and in the staff room. Through classroom observation, interviews with pupils and staff, focus groups and questionnaires, the authors examine classroom practice, grouping and streaming, peer group relations and attitudes to power relationships both between pupils and teachers, and amongst teachers themselves. They also look particularly at the different experiences of pupils in single-sex and co-educational schools. The authors’ findings offer an insight into the way schools operate in terms of social class, gender, religion and ethnicity, and raise fundamental questions about the use and abuse of power in schools and how this affects the lives of pupils and staff. This book should be of interest to those studying education, sociology, gender studies and women’s studies, and to policy makers and teachers in senior management roles.