Pupil Involvement in School (Re)Design: Participation in Policy and Practice

CoDesign, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 197-210, 2008

18 Pages Posted: 14 Oct 2008 Last revised: 8 Mar 2009

See all articles by Olga N. Nikitina-Den Besten

Olga N. Nikitina-Den Besten

University of Northampton - Centre for Children and Youth

John Horton

University of Northampton

Peter Kraftl

University of Leicester

Date Written: October 9, 2008

Abstract

Over the last decade, an array of policy interventions relating to children, young people and education in the UK have positioned pupil participation in the (re)design of school environments as a key imperative. Indeed, pupil participation is an explicit, core ideal of major, ongoing school (re)construction and (re)design programmes in the UK such as Building Schools for the Future, Academy schools, and Primary Capital Funding. The aim of this paper is to juxtapose the ideals of participation as expressed in national policy statements, via-a-vis the ways in which participation in these contexts is being done (or not done) in practice. To this end, the paper presents findings from in-depth interviews with Local Authority officers responsible for the implementation of policies relating to school (re)building and (re)design in diverse localities. These interviews show how the idea(l) of pupil participation may, in practice, be foreclosed by contingencies, budgets, issues, debates, personalities and events at grassroots level. The paper will suggest that national policy-making regarding participation should be better grounded in the complex and diverse realities of the (re)design of school environments in practice.

Keywords: school design, pupil participation, Building Schools for the Future

Suggested Citation

Nikitina-Den Besten, Olga N. and Horton, John and Kraftl, Peter, Pupil Involvement in School (Re)Design: Participation in Policy and Practice (October 9, 2008). CoDesign, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 197-210, 2008, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1281685

Olga N. Nikitina-Den Besten (Contact Author)

University of Northampton - Centre for Children and Youth ( email )

United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://www.linkedin.com/in/olgadenbesten

John Horton

University of Northampton ( email )

Park Campus
Boughton Green Road
Northampton, NN2 7AL
United Kingdom

Peter Kraftl

University of Leicester ( email )

University Road
Leicester, LE1 7RH
United Kingdom

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