List of Titles

"Living on the edge" : A case of school reform working for disadvantaged adolescents

- Smyth, John, McInerney, Peter

Authors: Smyth, John , McInerney, Peter
Date: 2007
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Teachers College Record Vol. 109, no. 5 (2007), p. 1123-1170
Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP110102619
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Description: The issue of why so many young adolescents around the world are disengaging from school and making the choice to drop out is one of the most intractable, vexed, perplexing, and controversial issues confronting educators. Tackling it requires courage and a radical rethinking of school reform around issues of power, ownership of learning, and the relevance of schooling and curriculum for young lives. This means a heightened institutional capacity to "listen." This article describes an instance of a disadvantaged urban Australian government school that realized it had little alternative but to try new approaches; "old ways" were not working. The article describes an ensemble of school reform practices, philosophies, and strategies that give young adolescents genuine ownership of their learning. This school stands out as a beacon that school reform is possible, even for young adolescents from the most difficult of circumstances. However, such approaches look markedly different from where mainstream educational reform is taking us at the moment. Copyright © by Teachers College, Columbia University.
Description: 2003005576

'Coming to a place near you?' The politics and possibilities of a critical pedagogy of place-based education

- McInerney, Peter, Smyth, John, Down, Barry

Authors: McInerney, Peter , Smyth, John , Down, Barry
Date: 2011
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 39, no. 1 (2011), p. 3-16
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Description: It may seem something of a paradox that in a globalised age where notions of interdependence, interconnectedness and common destinies abound, the 'local', with its diversity of cultures, languages, histories and geographies, continues to exercise a powerful grip on the human imagination. The ties that bind us have global connections but are anchored in a strong sense of locality. This paper explores the theoretical foundations of place-based education (PBE) and considers the merits and limitations of current approaches with particular reference to Australian studies. The authors argue that there is a place for PBE in schools but contend that it must be informed by a far more critical reading of the notions of 'place', 'identity' and 'community'. The implications of pursuing a critical pedagogy of place-based education are discussed with reference to curriculum, pedagogy and teacher education.

'Getting a job' : Vocationalism, identity formation, and critical ethnographic inquiry

- Down, Barry, Smyth, John

Authors: Down, Barry , Smyth, John
Date: 2012
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Journal of Educational Administration and History Vol. 44, no. 3 (2012), p. 203-219
Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP100100045
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Description: This article examines the highly disputed policy nexus around what on the surface appears to be the helpful field of vocational education and training. Despite the promises of vocational education and training to deliver individual labour market success and global competitiveness, the reality is that it serves to residualise unacceptably large numbers of young people, especially those from disadvantaged circumstances, by reinforcing the myth that it is acceptable to have the bifurcation in which some young people work with their hands and not their minds. Furthermore, vocational education and training by itself cannot resolve the fundamental causes of poverty, unemployment, and economic inequality. This article draws on Australian research to describe the insights from a critical ethnographic inquiry in which young people themselves are key informants in making sense of 'getting a job'; how they regard the labour market; the kind of work they find desirable/undesirable; the spaces in which they can see themselves forging an identity as future citizens/workers - and how answers to these questions frame and shape viable, sustainable, and rewarding futures for all young people, not just the privileged few. © 2012 Taylor & Francis.

'Give me air not shelter': critical tales of a policy case of student re-engagement from beyond school

- Smyth, John, Robinson, Janean

Authors: Smyth, John , Robinson, Janean
Date: 2015
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Journal of Education Policy Vol. 30, no. 2 (2015), p. 220-236
Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP100100045
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Description: This paper tackles what is arguably one of the most pressing and intractable educational issues confronting western democracies and the disengagement and disconnection from schooling of alarming numbers of young people. The paper looks at the policy response in Victoria, Australia, and through ethnographic interviews with a small number of young people; it finds a significant mismatch between the policy intent of re-engagement programmes, and the experiences of young people themselves. It seems that this is an instance of what might be termed policy deafness, a situation that will likely produce devastating consequences unless corrected.
Description: This paper tackles what is arguably one of the most pressing and intractable educational issues confronting western democracies â€“ the disengagement and disconnection from schooling of alarming numbers of young people. The paper looks at the policy response in Victoria, Australia, and through ethnographic interviews with a small number of young people; it finds a significant mismatch between the policy intent of re-engagement programmes, and the experiences of young people themselves. It seems that this is an instance of what might be termed policy deafness, a situation that will likely produce devastating consequences unless corrected.

'Hanging in with kids' in tough times: Engagement in contexts of educational disadvantage in the relational school

- Smyth, John, Down, Barry, McInerney, Peter

Authors: Smyth, John , Down, Barry , McInerney, Peter
Date: 2010
Type: Text , Book
Relation: Adolescent Cultures, School, and Society Vol. Volume 49
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Description: Synopsis - This book brings a unique, innovative and refreshing perspective to one of the most protracted issues affecting young lives - disengagement from schooling. Rather than continuing to blame young people, as most educational policies do, this book examines disengagement from the vantage point of the lives, experiences, interests and aspirations of the communities from which young people come, and within which they are embedded. It uses a narrative and representational approach that gives detailed insights into the wider context of poverty, class, power, relationships and identity. A major and defining hallmark of the book is the emphasis it places upon a number of 'doings', - including community voice, identity formation, critical work education and education policy - all of which provide a very different set of scripts with which to reinvent the institution of high school.

'I want to get a piece of paper that says I can do stuff': youth narratives of educational opportunities and constraints in low socio-economic neighbourhoods

- McInerney, Peter, Smyth, John

Authors: McInerney, Peter , Smyth, John
Date: 2014
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Ethnography and Education Vol. 9, no. 3 (September 2014), p. 239-252
Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP110102619
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Description: The persistent failure of contemporary policies to improve school retention rates and close the achievement gap between students from low and high socio-economic (SES) backgrounds should be a matter of grave concern. In this article, we set out to show what it means to be educated in a context of disadvantage from the perspectives of young people attending a senior secondary public school in regional Australia. Acknowledging that youth are experts in their own lives, we draw extensively on student narratives of the funds of knowledge and opportunity structures that support and/or constrain education and employment opportunities in low-income neighbourhoods. Although young peoples' stories of hope and agency go some way to undermining the deficit thinking about these students and their families, we argue that the realisation of their aspirations requires institutional support and policies that address the systemic causes of educational disadvantage.

'Not everyone has a perfect life' : Becoming somebody without school

- Robert, Hattam, Smyth, John

Authors: Robert, Hattam , Smyth, John
Date: 2003
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Pedagogy, Culture & Society Vol. 11, no. 3 (2003), p. 379-398
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Description: This article draws on the Students Completing Schooling Project, conducted in Australia, which has developed an account of early school leaving though listening to how 209 young people made sense of their experiences of leaving school. In this study, we were keen to understand the way young people deliberate upon how schooling fits into their plans for living a life: for 'becoming somebody'. We propose understanding early school leaving as a tactical manoeuvre and part of the complex process of identity formation. Our interview material indicates that a powerful 'interactive trouble' contributes to the non-completion of school and involves underestimating the demands of private life, especially for those living in poverty.
Description: 2003003524

'Voiced' research as a sociology for understanding 'dropping out' of school

- Smyth, John, Hattam, Robert

Authors: Smyth, John , Hattam, Robert
Date: 2001
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: British Journal of Sociology of Education Vol. 22, no. 3 (Spetember 2001 2001), p. 402-415
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Description: How people obtain more complex understandings of the phenomenon of 'dropping out' of school is one of the most urgent policy and practice issues facing educational practitioners, policy-makers and sociological researchers at the moment. Smyth and Hattam argue that a different 'sociological imagination' is required--one that is simultaneously more attentive to the lifeworlds of young people and more reflexive of its own agenda.

'When students have power': Student engagement, student voice, and the possibilities for school reform around 'dropping out' of school

- Smyth, John

Authors: Smyth, John
Date: 2006
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: International journal of leadership in education: Theory and practice Vol. 9, no. 4 (2006), p. 285-298
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Description: It is no coincidence, that disengagement from school by young adolescents has intensified at precisely the same time as there has been a hardening of educational policy regimes that have made schools less hospitable places for students and teachers. This paper argues that producing the circumstances necessary to turn this situation around requires invoking a radically different kind of ethos and educational leadership-one that encourages and promotes the speaking into existence of authentic forms of student voice.
Description: C1
Description: 2003001899

'You're no-one if you're not a netball girl': Rural and regional living adolescent girls' negotiation of physically active identities

- Mooney, Amanda, Casey, Meghan, Smyth, John

Authors: Mooney, Amanda , Casey, Meghan , Smyth, John
Date: 2012
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Annals of Leisure Research Vol. 15, no. 1 (2012), p. 19-37
Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP0990206
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Description: Despite the widely articulated health implications of physical inactivity, declines in youth participation levels, particularly for adolescent girls, have fuelled social and moral panics about the importance of regular physical activity. Recent attempts to explain these participation trends have focused on the institutional and cultural discourses that are drawn on to construct particular identities and social practices connected with sport, physical education and leisure interests. In this paper we report on the findings of data collected through interview and focus group sessions with 138 females ranging from 14 to 16 years of age across six rural and regional communities in the state of Victoria, Australia. Adopting a feminist poststructuralist methodology and drawing on the work of Foucault, we explore the impact that dominant discourse-power relations operating in the context of rural and regional sport and physical education can have in the negotiation of physically active identities for adolescent girls.

A high school teacher's experience of local school management : A case of the 'system behaving badly towards teachers'

- Smyth, John

Authors: Smyth, John
Date: 2003
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Australian Journal of Education Vol. 47, no. 3 (2003), p. 265-282
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Description: The move to local school management (LSM) in its various formations is one of the most significant educational policy moves to occur in recent times in western countries. Although something is known about the effects on governance, budgeting and resource decision making, relatively little is known about the rhetorical and actual ways teachers' work is affected. Even the proponents admit this, albeit in terms of the little known relay effect on student learning. Drawing on the narrative biography of a single high school teacher, as part of a larger multi-sited ethnography, this study revealed the level of policy incoherence to be such that most of the worst excesses of accountability and marketisation accompanying LSM were minimised. Emerging from a deeply held set of pedagogical values and convictions, this instance confirmed a robust view of teacher identity as lying beyond those of victim construction.
Description: 2003003527

Affective topologies of rural youth embodiment

- Farrugia, David, Smyth, John, Harrison, Tim

Authors: Farrugia, David , Smyth, John , Harrison, Tim
Date: 2016
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Sociologia Ruralis Vol. 56, no. 1 (2016), p. 116-132
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Description: This article explores the affective, embodied dimensions of young rural people's relationship with space and place. Relationship with space and place has been recognised as a significant dimension of rural youths' subjectivities but it has been primarily understood through representational perspectives which focus on young people's perceptions, images, or discursive constructions of their local places. In contrast, this article draws on non-representational approaches to subjectivity and space to highlight the embodied, sensuous entanglements between young people's subjectivities and the spaces they have inhabited and experienced. Qualitative data gathered as part of a project exploring youths' subjectivities in regional Australia shows that young people's experience of their rural locale, as well as their relationship to the city, reflect an affective topology of relations of proximity and rhythmic tempo which emerges from the relationship between the space of their bodily hexis and the spaces and places they are situated within. These non-representational, embodied processes are intrinsic to rural youths' subjectivities and structure how young people approach and navigate their futures. © 2015 The Authors. Sociologia Ruralis © 2015 European Society for Rural Sociology.

An argument for new understandings and explanations of early school leaving that go beyond the conventional

- Smyth, John

Authors: Smyth, John
Date: 2005
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: London Review of Education Vol. 3, no. 2 (2005), p. 117-130
Full Text: false
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Description: This paper presents an argument around the need to rethink the issue of early school leaving from the vantage point of students and teachers, and the conditions and pathways that need to be constructed and brought into existence within schooling, if such conditions do not already exist. The attempt is to move discussions outside of the well-meaning but ultimately unhelpful literatures of 'at risk' categories that end up blaming students, their families or backgrounds. The claim being advanced is that the focus needs to be on relationships, school cultures, and pedagogical arrangements that make schools more attractive and educationally engaging places.
Description: C1
Description: 2003001466

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