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A Fresh Start for a ‘failing school’? A qualitative study
Author(s) -
Araújo Marta
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/01411920802642439
Subject(s) - raising (metalworking) , qualitative research , context (archaeology) , sociology , pedagogy , identity (music) , public relations , semi structured interview , political science , social science , engineering , mechanical engineering , paleontology , physics , acoustics , biology
This paper examines Fresh Start , a New Labour flagship initiative to raise education ‘standards’ in a radical and innovative way. Drawing on a qualitative study of a comprehensive school in England, I argue that the initiative added to the problems faced by the ‘failing school’ and promoted rather traditional ways of raising ‘standards’ due to the close surveillance that Fresh Start schools were subjected to. In the case studied, the needs of the pupils that the initiative was meant to address were being sacrificed in the school's construction of a ‘successful’ identity. While the initiative has now lost momentum, some lessons can still be learnt. This paper illustrates the complexity of creating a new school, as well as the need to attend to the specificities of the local context and experiences in raising ‘standards for all’ pupils.