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meal ratio of 49% and the intake population was largely working class. Parents and teachers completed questionnaires, and the children were interviewed about their understanding of the power structure in the school, and their attitudes towards their school.

 

In general, young children had the most positive attitudes towards school of all children studied. Furthermore, there were no differences in the attitudes towards school by socio-economic class, but there was a significant correlation between child and parental views on the school. The importance of the head-teacher in the power structure was evident in the responses of all children, butane understanding of the purpose of the class teachers was patchy until the middle primary years. The researchers closely examined the responses of the children at both schools for social class effects on comprehension and understanding of the school.

 

At the middle-class school, the responses of the children followed general age trend patterns where children’s knowledge and understanding increased with years. However, for the working-class school, the pattern of responses were more complicated. Children were much less likely to discuss the role of parents, and children in the organisation and function of school compared to children at the other school. This suggests that children are not feeling ‘included’ in school, with a strong sense of membership that children often report at the middle class school (p263). Examination of parental responses to the questionnaire revealed broadly similar responses between schools, but working class parents reported feeling more welcome at the school than middle class parents.

 

As Buchanan-Barrow and Barratt (1998) have suggested, “Since middleclass parents are likely to be readier to take issue, more assured of their ability to achieve their aims and better equipped to make their feelings known, it might be expected that the staff might be more wary of their interventions and less warm in their welcome. On the other hand, working class parents, without the same sense of empowerment, maybe seen as less threatening” (p 263). This is an important study in that it reveals age-trends in children’s understanding of school, and their place within the power structure and function of the school.

 

According to Piaget cognitive theory, age-related differences in understanding are to be expected, as a combination of increased cognitive abilities with age. However, constructivism alone does not explain the individual differences in responses. The age related findings in the children’s responses may not be due to developmental changes in cognitive ability alone. In particular, social-interactional factors may have an important contribution to children’s understanding of the school, with parents, teachers and children’s interactions about the school being mediated by the age of the pupil.

 

A social representation perspective would emphasise the individual differences in本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。