Student participation and school

culture: A secondary school

case study Steve Wilson
University of Western Sydney

his paper reports the findings of a single-site case study investigating the

T nature of student participation in a coeducational comprehensive govern-

ment high school situated in the western suburbs of Sydney. The purpose of
the study was to understand the relationship between student participation and cul-
tural dimensions in the school, particularly those dimensions which acted to
enhance or inhibit student participation. The study used qualitative methodologies
and the author was a single researcher with prolonged engagement in the research
site. Fieldwork was conducted over 25 months within an emergent research design.
The research identified 24 cultural dimensions in the school which impacted upon
student participation. The majority of these were found to have an inhibiting impact
on student participation; 8 were found to have an enhancing impact.

Rationale and conceptual framework

Research generally indicates that students are still poor participants in secondary
schooling. Despite this, student participation in schooling is critical to meeting
student needs because quality educational outcomes are best achieved by harness-
ing student motivation through participation (Boomer, Lester, Onore, & Cook,
1992; Broadfoot, 1991; Glasser, 1990; Nixon, 1996). Holdsworth (1996) suggests
that educators need to understand how student participation can be fostered in
schools.
In this study, distinction was made between forms of participation that are
tokenistic and those that are 'meaningful'. The concept of meaningful partici-
pation has its roots in the writings of Habermas (1972, 1990, 1993) and others
(Kemmis, Cole, & Suggett, 1983; Roberts, 1991; Young, 1990) who endorse
emancipatory processes of communicative action in which all stakeholders have a
voice. Meaningful forms of participation have meaning for the participant, and
contrast with disengaging forms of student participation often employed in schools
(Holdsworth, 1988). Forms of participation which have such meaning have been
labelled 'active' participation (Holdsworth, 1997), 'authentic' participation
(Cumming, 1994; Soliman, 1987), and 'deep' participation (Wilson, 2000). These
forms of participation are about students being active, taken seriously, listened to,
and doing work of consequence. The notion of student voice is fundamental to

Australian Journal ofEducation, Vol. 46, No. I, 2002, 79-102 79

deep participation. If students are to be accepted as partrcipants in and prac-
titioners of education (Holdsworth, 1996; Kelley, 1993; Kemmis et al., 1983), it is
clear that student 'voice' becomes a critical factor in allowing students to par-
ticipate (Farrell, Peguero, Lindsey, & White, 1988; Young, 1990). Students can
exercise participation in a variety of contexts within schools, most notably through
their learning experiences, through involvement in formal school govern-
ance processes, and through student governance and other student-operated
organisations within schools (Holdsworth, 1988).

Nature of the research site

Barracks High School (a pseudonym for the research site) is a state high school that
had 840 students at the time of the research. It is situated adjacent to a thriving
central business district in one of Sydney's most rapidly growing satellite cities.
The school is relatively old, having celebrated 120 years of continuous education
on the site. The school made much of its history, maintaining archival records and
an active ex-students association. The make-up of the student population was mul-
ticultural with only 10 per cent of students having Anglo-Saxon origins. The
remainder represented some 60 different ethnic and religious groups.
At the beginning of the study, Barracks High had a newly appointed princi-
pal. He felt that the school had a strong ethos of pastoral care, a justified emphasis
on multiculturalism, a traditional 1960s curriculum which needed modernising,
almost non-existent management structures which required re-structuring, and an
out-of-date perspective on student participation. The study began during a period
of quite significant change as the school sought to tackle these issues under the new
principal's leadership. The school context was relatively turbulent during this
period. This research was conducted at the invitation of the new principal, and
after agreement by staff

Research methods
The research was conducted over a 25-month period with a total of78 days spent
in the school. Data collection methods included many in-depth interviews, par-
ticipant observations documented through the writing of field notes and field
journals, and the collection of many documents and school artefacts (Merriam,
1988). These methods helped to uncover the multiple realities which existed in the
site among the various stakeholder groups (students, teachers, executive teachers,
senior executive teachers and non-teaching members of staff), and allowed the
nature of school cultural practices and their impact on student participation to be
identified. A particularly interesting method used in the study involved sets of
interviews conducted separately with students and teachers as 'hermeneutic circles'
(Guba & Lincoln, 1989). Consolidated summaries from these interviews, using the
power of participant voices as text, were disseminated throughout the school dur-
ing the research and resulted in much interest and comment on student and teacher
ideas. This provided further valuable data. Data analysis involved the development
of grounded theory based upon systematic coding of data through constant

80 Australian Journal ofEducation

comparison (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). This identified a number of key themes or
stories in the school, some of which related to school image, reputation and
traditions, teacher and student views oflearning, school decision making and lead-
ership, the nature of student organisations in the school, and notions of school
change and development. These issues were constant, of concern to staff and
students, and provided rich data over the life of the study.

Cultural context: Broad themes

Research findings identified five broad sets of data categories, each indicating
a key cultural theme within Barracks High School which impacted on student
participation.

Development of school ethos

The principal and teachers felt the need to develop the school's ethos because
Barracks was situated near a number of older state and private schools. Barracks felt
the need to compete with these schools by building a comparable school image
and ethos. The symbols chosen to underpin this ethos were the school's multicul-
tural nature, its school uniform, strong discipline, and its history. Students and
teachers generally supported these directions, though some conflict resulted as
teachers and students felt that efforts to enforce the wearing of school uniform
were overdone.

School governance and decision making

School governance and decision making comprised an important theme in relation
to student participation. A range of school management groups were accessible to
teachers (though not to students); however these groups were not empowered to
make decisions. Teachers began to see management groups as forums for discus-
sion rather than action, and believed that power lay outside of them. Teachers felt
disempowered. They perceived that, although the decision-making style of the
principal was outwardly democratic, in reality it was consistently directive.
These feelings were also held by some executive teachers, and caused cynicism,
withdrawal, low morale and lack of motivation.

Student Representative Council

The Student Representative Council (SRC) at Barracks contained many talented
students but was ultimately a frustrating experience for its members. The SRC was
not integrated into school decision-making processes and was not valued enough
by the principal, teachers or other students. It did not have the level of support it
needed to help it identify and work towards its goals. Despite a rhetoric of partici-
pation in Barracks High, in reality SRC members were expected to work within
the confines of school expectations, upholding the traditional and confining
orientations of school ethos. Even low-level student initiatives put forward by the
SRC, including requests for school dances, non-uniform days and changes to the
school uniform, were ultimately deemed unacceptable because they were
perceived to threaten the desired image of the school.

Student participation and school culture 81

Place of student voice
Student constructions of schooling comprised views and theories touching on
many areas of school life, including teaching methods, relationships with teachers,
bullying and teasing, safety in school, and the wearing of school uniform. Students
often developed theories about school that were insightful and efficacious (see
Wilson, 1998), and many students had quality ideas that would allow them to par-
ticipate meaningfully in school development and decision making. However,
despite the power of their ideas, most student voices went unrecognised and had
no access to forums for discussion or decision making.

Approaches to teaching and learning

Classroom-related learning activities provide the greatest opportunity for the great-
est number of students to engage in participation in school, yet teaching at
Barracks High was generally found to be 'traditional', textbook centred and
didactic. Barracks was more concerned with curriculum development processes,
especially the implementation of a 'semesterised' curriculum, than with teaching
and learning practices in classrooms. Few executive teachers, even those at the
faculty head level, saw it as their role to lead changes in classroom practice, despite
teaching and learning being identified as focus areas in school planning documents.
Despite student voices during the research clearly pointing to the nature of
'good' and questionable teaching practices at Barracks, teachers were reluctant to
change and there was a lack of urgency among school leaders to accept teaching
and learning as the core business of the school.

Cultural dimensions influencing student participation

Data analysis resulted in the identification of the broad cultural themes outlined
above, the sub-components of which were coded and given substance through
processes of grounded theory data analysis (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). From this
process of coding were identified sets of cultural phenomena (ultimately labelled
'dimensions') which were found to be significant influences on student partici-
pation. These dimensions were able to be grouped into four distinct clusters of
cultural dimensions at Barracks pertinent to student participation. One cluster
comprised three dimensions which were found to be fundamental and pervasive
cultural dimensions in the school. These were labelled 'primary' dimensions. A
second cluster was labelled 'socio-political' dimensions. These relate to external
social and political pressures on the school and to internal dimensions concerned
with decision-making structures and ways in which individuals were positioned in
terms of power and autonomy. A third cluster of dimensions was labelled 'cur-
ricular' dimensions. These describe conditions and processes which influence
curriculum development and classroom teaching. A final group was labelled
'personal-participant' dimensions, and describes dimensions relating to the beliefs
and attitudes of participants at Barracks-most prominently, students, teachers and
executive teachers.

82 Australian Journal ofEducation

 Each of these clusters of dimensions influenced student participation in a way
that was neither simple, nor linear. The relationships between cultural influences
on student participation at Barracks are best regarded as an ecological phenom-
enon. This ecology was complex and was beyond the resources of the study to
engage fully. Its components are therefore presented in this paper as a matrix which
outlines dimensions as distinct rather than inter-related entities.
Figure 1 presents the matrix containing each of the cultural dimensions
identified at Barracks High and the relationship each had to student participation.
These dimensions were found to either enhance or inhibit student participation, and
were named according to the properties they were found to exhibit during formal
data analysis (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). There were 24 cultural dimensions identi-
fied at Barracks that related to student participation. For every dimension that
enhanced participation, there were two that acted as inhibitors. It is not possible
in this paper to give a detailed treatment of each of these dimensions and the way
they influenced student participation in the school. However a brief overview of
each is provided below.

Dimensions which Dimensions which

ENHANCED INHIBITED
student participation student participation

Primary dimensions • paradigm boundedness

• fragmentation
• rhetorical ambiguity

SOcio-political dimensions
• seeking out empathetic power
• scaffolding
• being under the microscope
• non-pedagogical orientations to
leadership
• sink or swim
• going cap in hand
• deflecting agendas
• learned helplessness

Curricular dimensions • student theorising • primacy of institutional values

• curriculum as the province of
the professional
• spoonfeeding

Personal-participant • celebratory perspectives of • dismissing student participation

dimensions youth • distrust of participant maturity
• desire for equity • tuning out
• desire for meaning • withdrawal
• wanting partnerships
• wanting in

Figure I Cultural dimensions at Barracks High and their relationship to

student participation

Student participation and school culture 83

Primary dimensions
Each of the three primary dimensions identified in the study acted to inhibit rather
than enhance student participation within Barracks. 'Paradigm boundedness'
relates to literature which suggests that secondary schools generally conform to a
model of schooling which emphasises the study of academic subjects, meritocratic
structures and processes, and didactic teaching methods (Connell, 1994; Edwards,
1995; Hargreaves & Earl, 1994), and in which student constructions are generally
unacknowledged or undervalued (Kemmis et al., 1983). At Barracks High, there
was a general acceptance of this paradigm, evident in both teacher and student
comments and teacher practices, and in the school's emphasis on its history and
looking backward to its past to define its present. Despite rhetoric in the school
about student futures and student centred activities, an unproblematic accep-
tance of the traditional paradigm positioned students in traditional roles where
they had little opportunity to define the school and were expected simply to
'fit in'. Paradigm boundedness was an inhibiting cultural dimension for student
participation.
The term 'fragmentation' is common in the literature and identifies phenom-
ena in secondary schools including fragmentation of the curriculum (Hargreaves,
1994; Hargreaves & Earl, 1994; Stodolsky, 1993) and fragmentation caused by
departmental structures leading to teacher separation and isolation (Eisner, 1988;
Stodolsky, 1993). Fragmentation existed at Barracks as a lack of organisational
cohesion and communication leading to fragmented understandings and courses of
action among school stakeholders. It existed in school governance, leadership, and
in school approaches to teaching and learning where few teachers were aware of
the teaching and learning practices of their colleagues. Fragmentation inhibited
student participation because school policies relating to participation were able to
be ignored due to fragmented leadership and accountability processes.
'Rhetorical ambiguity' relates to literature which identifies a tension between
the ideas espoused by practitioners (their espoused theories), and their actions,
which are often at odds with their espoused theories (Argyris, 1993; Argyris &
Schon, 1996). A feature of the Barracks High culture was the extent to which
words, both spoken and written, were attributed a subtext where outwardly
intended meanings were not necessarily those accepted by participants. This
dimension has been labelled 'rhetorical ambiguity', and is defined as the prepared-
ness of participants to say, or expect and accept others saying, sentiments that were
not intended to be believed or acted upon in practice. At Barracks it was a
primary dimension, stemming from the principal's espoused belief that 'image is
reality', but evidenced in a variety of ways in school life. This dimension was
rhetorical in the sense that much written documentation and statements emanat-
ing from Barracks were regarded as being for 'show', for an external audience that
had to be convinced that the school and its participants were functioning at an
expected level. Teachers indicated that many of the sentiments in school policies
were there to satisfy accountability requirements and convince external authorities
that acceptable change was occurring. Barracks's Student participation policy was
an example of a document seemingly developed for show. If the cutting-edge

84 Australian Journal ofEducation

sentiments expressed in this policy had been taken at all seriously, student partici-
pation would have been very different at Barracks High. Rhetorical ambiguity was
a powerful, inhibiting dimension for student participation, resulting in a lack of
action by teachers and students (especially on the SRC) on initiatives which would
have increased student participation. Not knowing what was to be believed or
taken seriously, teachers and students were often not committed in their efforts in
what they saw as token projects.

Socio-political dimensions
Socio-political dimensions relate to external social and political pressures, and to
internal political or power relations in the school, that were found to be important
influences on student participation. Six of the eight socio-political dimensions
acted to inhibit student participation.
Inhibiting dimensions
Being under the microscope This describes perceptions by teachers that they were
under observation from outside the school; that they were subject to external
expectations that impacted on their work yet they could not control. The litera-
ture indicates it is common for teachers to feel under these kinds of pressures from
parents (Dellar, 1992; GECD, 1989), bureaucracies (Dinham, 1995; Larson, 1992;
Raebeck, 1992) and media (Raethel, 1997a, 1997b), resulting in confusion and
ambiguity concerning the role schools and teachers are expected to play. At
Barracks, feelings of being under the microscope were identified by participants as
pressure from media interest in events involving gangs and fights, and in the need
to prepare students effectively for examinations so that public expectations of
acceptable Higher School Certificate (HSC) exam results could be met. Teachers
seemed to be continuously aware of the need to be accountable to these external
forces. Being under the microscope caused teachers to develop an 'accountability
mentality' where they continually weighed up the consequences of their actions in
terms of possible public perceptions. A significant example was a teacher who,
when a media report linked a lack of student note making with poor HSC results,
stopped using student discussion as a teaching methodology and began having
students write more notes. Being under the microscope related negatively to stu-
dent participation because it made teachers conservative in the decisions they took,
and unlikely to take risks and experiment in their teaching approaches with students.
Non-pedagogical orientations to leadership Some literature points to school principals
becoming alienated from their staff by placing administrative concerns before
pedagogical considerations (Ball & Bowe, 1992; Seay & Blase, 1992), leading to
staff disenchantment with change and decreasing teacher motivation (Fraatz, 1987;
Hargreaves, 1992). This study identified a widespread non-pedagogical orientation
to leadership among the majority of the school executive, although it was not
directly related to the principal. Few school leaders at Barracks took the oppor-
tunity to lead other teachers in pedagogical practice. Leadership perspectives were
focused on other areas. The principal saw his main responsibility as working to
'sell' the school, develop its physical environment, emphasise its history, and

Student participation and school culture 85

encourage major public events such as historical celebrations. A succession of
deputy principals focused primarily on the development of a 'semesterised' cur-
riculum structure rather than pedagogy, and these curriculum initiatives did not
translate into pedagogical reforms. Faculty heads saw their role as managerial:
maintaining faculty programs, managing resources and making sure school and
systemic policies were adhered to by staff. The development of teaching and learn-
ing was seen as something that would be nice to engage in if there were time, but
faculty meetings were usually spent on managerial issues and disseminating infor-
mation from executive meetings. Few people consequently took responsibility for
developing more active approaches to teaching which may have led to improved
student classroom participation.
Sink orswim Sink or swim describes the tendency ofsome participants at Barracks
to expect students to demonstrate competence without being taught the necessary
skills. This was apparent at a number of levels, and in each case constituted an
inhibiting dimension for student participation. The most obvious level was in the
SRC, where it was common for teachers to expect students to succeed on their
own (swim), without help or training from staff. If students were not capable of
autonomous success, they were allowed to fail (sink), and as a result were often
considered disinterested in the SRC or not capable of success. Perceived failures of
the SRC to succeed in their projects (planning camps, raising money for charities,
running meetings effectively) tended to reinforce a view among some teachers that
students were not interested in, or capable of, accepting responsibility.
Going cap in hand School leaders often adopt hierarchical decision-making struc-
tures in which they are vested with significant power (Cohen & Harrison, 1982),
often sponsor those initiatives with which they are personally comfortable (Fullan,
1991), and act as significant 'blockers' of initiatives with which they do not agree
(Cohen & Harrison, 1982; Smylie & Brownlee-Conyers, 1992). At Barracks,
going cap in hand related to the principal's leadership style. Teachers and SRC
members had to seek out the principal's personal approval for many courses of
action, despite the rhetoric of participation which the principal employed. This led
to feelings of disempowerment and disinterest among teachers and SRC members
and a lack of agency, commitment and innovative behaviour. Going cap in hand
was an inhibiting dimension for both student and teacher participation at Barracks
which related strongly to another socio-political. dimension of the Barracks
context, 'learned helplessness'.
Dfjlecting agendas This was a dimension related to going cap in hand, and to
literature which shows principals are able to be effective 'blocking' agents in schools
(Cohen & Harrison, 1982; Smylie & Brownlee-Conyers, 1992). Both the principal
and the teacher adviser of the SRC engaged in deflecting agendas, to the detriment
of student participation. SRC proposals to have school dances, camps, changes to
the girls' uniform and non-uniform days were each rejected or stalled on grounds
of safety or because they did not fit with the desired image for the school. Students
became frustrated with these tactics because they were usually encouraged to put
submissions to school leaders, often with a lot of work and energy behind them,

86 Australian Journal ofEducation

only to have them rejected at the end of the process. Students often minimised or
terminated their participation in the SRC as a result.

Learned helplessness Learned helplessness was a socio-political dimension that

relates to literature on micropolitics in schools which indicates that teachers can
become fatalistic about change and lack initiative as a result (Fullan, 1991; Roberts
& Blase, 1993; Seay & Blase, 1992). Participants at Barracks expressed their help-
lessness by displaying a lack of initiative, interest, motivation and action. Although
most were keen and willing in relation to those aspects of their work they felt they
could control, they also developed a view that it was pointless trying to influence
events in the wider arena. This helplessness was not a trait that necessarily resided
within individuals: it was a result of a school culture in which individuals learned
that it was difficult to influence events. At Barracks learned helplessness con-
tributed to a form of stasis where no one in authority felt they had enough power
to influence events and so little of substance occurred. This closely reflects research
by Cohen and Harrison (1982), which found that competing but fragmented
power relationships among teachers could lead to a vacuum in decision making in
secondary schools. Consequently, in this study, those teachers and school leaders
who were theoretically disposed to improving student participation in the class-
room did not act to do so. Learned helplessness was also a potent force within the
SRC at Barracks and inhibited student participation through the SRC. Lacking
encouragement, students found it difficult to complete projects, which resulted in
a lack of confidence among the SRC and having to wait to be told what they were
allowed to do.

Enhancing dimensions
Two socio-political dimensions were identified as enhancing of student partici-
pation: seeking out empathetic power and scaffolding. The former was initiated by
students, the latter by teachers.

Seeking out empathetic power Seeking out empathetic power describes the political
activity, adopted by some students at Barracks, of circumventing political impedi-
ments by identifying staff members they felt were sympathetic to their cause and
had the power to help them achieve their goals. Examples of students seeking out
empathetic power were unusual because it required a level of confidence that most
students did not seem to have, but they included SRC members by-passing the
SRC coordinator for advice, and students enlisting the help of a deputy principal
who would support their projects. Seeking out empathetic power provided an
important enhancing dimension for student participation at Barracks. It initiated
students into political processes of persuasion that were usually denied them and
was an important act of participation in itself It also allowed students to apply pres-
sure to teachers and caused teachers to reflect on the issue of student participation
and their personal responses to it. The few discussions about student partici-
pation were usually held between, or initiated by, adults. Seeking out empathetic
power provided students with an opportunity to begin the dialogue from their
perspective.

Student panicipation and school culture 87

Scaffolding At Barracks, when meaningful student participation did occur, it did
so that with the support of a teacher who provided structured and targeted sup-
port to students so that they could participate. The act of providing structured
forms of support is defined as 'scaffolding', drawing from constructs developed by
Vygotsky (1978) and Bruner (1986) in relation to cognitive growth. Scaffolding
was an important dimension of the Barracks context that acted to enhance student
participation. Scaffolding was critical to student participation at Barracks because
other cultural dimensions such as paradigm boundedness and learned helplessness
had helped to create passive students unused to taking initiative or achieving suc-
cess. Without scaffolding, student projects were often marked by poor planning,
poor team work, a lack of goal clarification and poor success rates. Scaffolding
helped students to develop the skills to overcome these obstacles.

Curricular dimensions
A number of curricular dimensions at Barracks influenced student participation. Of
these, the primacy of institutional values, curriculum as the province of the pro-
fessional, and spoonfeeding were found to be inhibiting dimensions for partici-
pation. A fourth dimension, student theorising, was found to be an enhancing
dimension.

Primacy of institutional values Primacy of institutional values was an important cur-

ricular dimension at Barracks where the emphasis on discipline, school uniform
and school history communicated that the values of the school stood above those
of the students and teachers, and were not negotiable. The school's values were
essentially meritocratic, emphasising success in relative and competitive terms and
drawing attention to high achievers. These values required students and teachers
to conform, to sacrifice individuality for the reputation of the school and the
benefit that school participants would derive from this reputation. These values
were not shared by significant numbers of participants, particularly students, who
saw the world with themselves more at the centre and whose values focused on
personal relevance, experience and growth. The primacy of institutional values also
inhibited classroom participation. Teachers who did share institutional values
found in this dimension a reason not to change their views of curriculum and
teaching, whereas teachers who did not share these values found conflict in the
way they perceived their roles as teachers. These teachers referred to their hesi-
tancy in using active learning approaches and group work. They were worried
about poor exam results and the responses of their more conservative peers to nois-
ier classrooms. For many teachers, the primacy of institutional values had the effect
oflimiting opportunities for students to participate in the classroom because many
teachers did not consider adopting teaching approaches which may have enhanced
participation.
Curriculum as the province if the professional Research indicates that teachers gener-
ally feel comfortable when they use transmission models of teaching in which
teachers possess privileged knowledge (Lewis, 1995; McNeil, 1988b; Young,
1990), and situations where they are in control of their work practices and matters

88 Australian Journal ofEducation

of curriculum (Blase, 1990; Fullan & Hargreaves, 1991; Lewis, 1995; Nias, 1987).
A dimension was identified at Barracks that is related to this literature, and has
been labelled 'curriculum as the province of the professional'. Curriculum as the
province of the professional describes the assumption held by numbers of par-
ticipants that those in the school best placed to understand curriculum and make
decisions about its development were teachers. Curriculum as the province of the
professional also resulted in limited opportunities in classrooms for students to help
determine the nature of content or learning experiences: there was little evidence
of student choice or negotiation in classrooms at Barracks High, although one
positive example of student negotiation arising from this study has previously been
documented (see Rabone & Wilson, 1997; Wilson, 2000).

SpoonJeeding 'Spoonfeeding' was a term used by teachers to describe the teacher

practice of giving unmotivated or under-performing students structured, unchal-
lenging classwork, characterised by students having simply to copy or learn 'right'
answers. Spoonfeeding was a reflection at Barracks of trends among teachers, also
identified in the literature, to expect less of students from culturally diverse and
economically deprived backgrounds (Beiser, Lancee, Gotowiec, Sack, & Redshirt,
1993; Cooper & Good, 1983; Meade, 1983; Tollefson, Melvin, & Thippavajjala,
1990). Many teachers felt that spoonfeeding was rife at Barracks, and attributed it
to student disinterest in academic work, poor literacy levels among students, and
student resistance to more active and rigorous learning approaches. Teachers
reasoned that, without spoonfeeding, students with low literacy levels would do
poorly in examinations, especially the School Certificate and HSC. Spoonfeeding
acted as an inhibiting dimension for student participation by providing students
with unstimulating, repetitive low-level work which deprived students of the
opportunity to engage in critical and creative thought, discussion and expression.
It positioned them ~s passive consumers of information rather than as active inter-
preters and critics, and dispossessed them of the opportunity to participate in
rigorous intellectual endeavour.

Student theorising This dimension enhanced student participation. Some literature

indicates that students in schools are capable of theorising about school practices
and contributing to school processes of curriculum change (Cumming, 1996;
Cummins, 1997; Furtwengler, 1985a; Roberts, 1991 ; Young, 1990). At Barracks,
student theories about curriculum, elicited and published through the hermen-
eutic circles, indicated that students could develop sophisticated insights into the
nature and consequences of curriculum and teaching practices (see Wilson, 1998).
Students effectively critiqued teaching practices, approaches to learning, classroom
management and assessment, and the nature of classroom environments.
Additionally they often offered their visions of better practice. Student theorising
was an enhancing dimension for student participation at Barracks, particularly
when, through teachers who were able to provide scaffolding, students were able
to present their theories. Occasionally during the study, students presented their
ideas in formal contexts, which gave them the opportunity to formalise their
ideas and express them carefully and logically. These acts in themselves were

Student participation and school culture 89

participatory, indeed emancipatory for some of those students involved, and of
significant benefit (Wilson, 1998).

Personal-participant dimensions
Personal-participant dimensions derived from the attitudes and beliefs of school
participants. Most of the enhancing dimensions for student participation were of
this type. Key inhibiting personal-participant dimensions identified were: dismiss-
ing student participation, a distrust of participant maturity, tuning out, and with-
drawal. Enhancing dimensions were: celebratory perspectives of youth, a desire for
equity, desire for meaning, wanting partnerships and wanting in.
Dismissing student participation Case reports of teacher innovation show that
effective teachers adopt strategies which enhance classroom participation by
students (for example, Daugherty, 1995; Levin, 1994; Renzulli, 1997). However
Cumming (1996) found that some teachers find it difficult to accept that students
should participate or should be given increased decision-making power. At
Barracks it was evident there was a general lack of belief among teachers that
student participation ought to be valued as a core school purpose. This was labelled
as 'dismissing student participation'. Teachers commonly perceived schooling in
traditional terms as the learning of academic content. For them, students had little
to bring to the definition or development of schooling. Teachers were the experts,
students were there to learn. Student participation was a nice idea, one which fit-
ted into the realm of rhetoric but could reasonably be forgotten in the real world
of examinations and community pressure for acceptable academic results. Even
teachers who espoused ideas compatible with student participation often failed to
pursue their implementation in the hurly-burly of daily practice. There was a
general lack of practical interest and action concerning student participation.

Distrust ifparticipant maturity The literature on student participation suggests that

students are often not considered by teachers or principals to have the capacity to
engage in meaningful forms of decision making (National Association of
Secondary School Principals, 1989; Nayano-Taylor, 1987; Spence 1993). At
Barracks, this came through strongly as a distrust of participant maturity. This dis-
trust was experienced by teachers and students alike at Barracks High, and helped
to create an atmosphere in the school which inhibited student participation.
Rather than challenging students to improve their work ethic and standards
of classroom behaviour, some teachers tended to respond to student disinterest and
management problems by narrowing down the range of classroom activities, focus-
ing on book work, and limiting interactive learning experiences. At the institu-
tional level, the school's discipline and school uniform policies and the manner
used to enforce them assumed that students could not be trusted, that coercion was
required to make students conform. Members of the SRC came to believe
they were not trusted to make decisions, and at different times felt they were not
trusted either by the principal or the SRC teacher adviser, as many of their
projects were denied or not supported.

90 Australian Journal of Education

 Students, teachers, and to a lesser extent head teachers all felt this mistrust.
The outcome of this dimension for student participation was student and teacher
resentment and frustration at the way mistrust led to infrequent opportunities to
participate meaningfully in decision making and classroom activities. Feelings of
mistrust deprived many participants of opportunities to participate and accept
responsibility, helped to entrench the dimension ofleamed helplessness, and inhib-
ited student participation both in its direct effect upon students and through the
general non-participatory climate it helped to create in the school.
Tuning out Many students in secondary schools do not value the academic
agenda of schools, valuing sports (Freeston, 1993; Suitor & Reavis, 1995), other
extra-curricular activities (Nieto, 1994) and social interactions with friends over
other aspects of school life (Caimey et al., 1992; Walton & Hill, 1987).
Observations of student behaviour in classrooms indicate widespread student dis-
interest and boredom with academic work (Fullan, 1991; Nieto, 1994; Sarason,
1995; Siddle Walker, 1992). The literature also identifies similar characteristics
amongst teachers who become dissatisfied with their work and retreat into mini-
malist roles in their schools (Blase, 1990; Dinham, 1995; McNeil, 1988a; National
Board, 1993). Similar feelings about school were identified among students and
teachers at Barracks High. These were collectively labelled as the dimension of
'tuning out'. At Barracks, tuning out described the phenomenon of teachers and
students not wanting to be involved in school decision making, development or
change, or limiting their involvement to areas where they had influence. For
students, this often meant limiting their real commitment at school to subjects
where they perceived their agendas were being met, to sport, or just to maintain-
ing their social networks. Students also tuned out from their work on the SRC,
losing motivation and productivity as their agendas were deflected by those with
power. For teachers, tuning out meant ignoring school change initiatives and
focusing on their classroom teaching or a faculty responsibility. Signs of teachers
tuning out included teacher positions on school working groups remaining
unfilled, and teachers expressing that they now stayed out of school decision
making and politics. Tuning out was a significant inhibiting dimension for student
participation beyond the obvious consequence of causing students to cease their
participation in classrooms and student initiatives in the SRC. Tuning out helped
to reinforce an emerging culture of non-participation at Barracks.
Withdrawal As students and teachers in schools tune out from school life, so the
literature finds they also withdraw completely from it. Dinham's (1993) study
demonstrated that teachers can become so dissatisfied with aspects of their work
that they resign from the teaching service as a result. Literature on students in
schools deals with student alienation and finds that significant numbers of students
in secondary school are 'alienated' (Ainley & Sheret, 1992; Australian Curriculum
Studies Association, 1995), leading to non-performance or non-attendance at
school (Farrell et al., 1988; Gibson-Cline, 1996). At Barracks, a dimension was
identified among students and teachers that is related to concepts of alienation (for
example, Cormack, 1995) which has been labelled 'withdrawal'. Withdrawal was

Student participation and school culture 91

an inhibiting dimension for student participation, and describes a choice made by
some participants to cease their involvement in some or all aspects of school life.
Tuning out was a more common form of participant response to the school con-
text, but withdrawal represented a more serious response by participants who
chose this option. Students who withdrew did so by simply not attending school,
by leaving early, or by ceasing to participate in particular aspects of school life.
Often the reason for withdrawal was the failure of the school to provide them with
participatory opportunities. An example was a Year 10 male who left school to
work with the railways. He cited the reason as four years of junior education in
which teachers failed to understand his problems, capacities, or to provide an
appropriate standard of work. Like tuning out, withdrawal was an inhibiting
dimension because it added to the general malaise of non-participation at Barracks.

Celebratory perspectives oj youth A number of personal-participant dimensions were

found to enhance student participation. The most significant was celebratory
perspectives of youth. The literature identifies certain qualities that in the minds
of students determine good teachers, and usually these qualities revolve around
teachers having positive perspectives of young people (Abbott-Chapman, Hughes,
Holloway, & Wyld 1990; Disadvantaged Schools Program (DSP), 1992; Hughes,
1994). There were teachers at Barracks who placed students squarely at the centre
of their teaching. These teachers tended to listen to students, treat them equitably
and fairly, and reflect on and modify their teaching to meet student interests and
needs. These teachers were reflective, empathetic, and appeared intuitively to use
constructivist approaches to learning. Whereas other teachers may have liked
students (especially well-behaved and academically capable students), these
teachers valued young people, academic and non-academic alike. Students in turn
knew who these teachers were, enjoyed being in their classes (even if they did not
like the subject), participated and were motivated. Students could articulate why
these teachers were good teachers. The efforts of teachers who held celebratory
perspectives of youth led to improved student motivation, enthusiasm and partici-
pation. These teachers routinely provided scaffolding to students to help them
succeed in their projects inside and outside the classroom-a key example was the
leading teacher, a senior executive member who believed in the students enough
to convince the principal to let a group of students present to a full staff meeting
on teaching methods in the school. Where meaningful student participation
existed at Barracks (in the form of students discussing their own issues, being
listened to, and encouraged to make their own decisions) facilitating the process
was generally a teacher who held a celebratory perspective of young people.
Desire Jor equity The literature indicates that secondary school students would
often like to change school practices to make them more equitable. These feelings
of unfairness about the status quo and desire for change have been identified
among students in relation to reforming the relevance of academic subjects
(Cairney et al., 1992; Cumming, 1996; Nieto, 1994; Walton & Hill, 1987), teach-
ing practices (Shann, 1990), and teacher behaviours (Harris & Rudduck, 1993).
These feelings were also evident among students at Barracks High, and represent a

92 Australian Journal ofEducation

personal-participant dimension labelled as a 'desire for equity'. Desire for equity
was a key dimension for participation among students at Barracks, manifest in their
expressed need to be understood by teachers, to be treated fairly as emerging adults
and to have their points of view listened to. Desire for equity was significant
because it helped to mediate the quality of student participation and the ways
students chose to participate. It essentially acted as an enhancing dimension for
student participation. However, when other cultural dimensions such as going cap
in hand and deflecting agendas acted to block change, the desire for equity could
quickly lead to non-participation among students. At Barracks the desire for
equity appeared to be linked strongly to other personal-participant dimensions of
wanting in, tuning out and withdrawal.
Desire for meaning Secondary school students want to take subjects that are rele-
vant and meaningful for them (Farrell et al., 1988; Gibson-Cline, 1996), want to
improve their understanding of these subjects (Kempa & Orion, 1996; McNeil,
1988b), and want to participate in them through active and applied learning expe-
riences (Shepardson, 1993). Such a dimension was evident in the Barracks context
as students expressed the view that their learning needed to be meaningful if it was
to be valuable and stimulating. This dimension has been labelled as a 'desire for
meaning', and it constituted an enhancing dimension for student participation at
Barracks High.
Students desired meaning in relation to their classwork. They saw little point in
the content or learning methodologies associated with much of their classwork. It
was common for students to differentiate between theoretical and practical subjects
and to express a preference for practical subjects. Practical subjects had meaning,
either because they emphasised contemporary, useful or interesting content, were
associated with vocations or vocational skills, or because they provided active,
applied forms of learning. Practical subjects were more likely, in the minds of
students, to meet their needs. Theoretical subjects were associated with content
that was obscure, poorly explained or not readily applied to students' lives, and
teaching methods which depended almost exclusively on the reading of textbooks
and the making or copying of notes. Where students' desire for meaning was
realised, they were generally more motivated and performed better in their class-
work. However, like their desire for equity, when students' desire for meaning
remained unfulfilled students often reacted by withdrawal or tuning out.
Confronted with an unfulfilled desire for meaning in their schoolwork, many of
these students maintained minimal levels of participation in their academic work,
as testimony from teachers verified.
Wanting partnerships The literature on the secondary school context indicates that
teachers and students share many mainstream values associated with schooling,
with both wanting cohesive classroom climates (Raviv et al., 1990) where friend-
ly supportive relations exist between students and their teachers (Abbott-Chapman
et aI., 1990; Cohn & Kottkamp, 1993; Dinham, 1993, 1995; DSP, 1992; Hughes,
1994). In this study, this need was expressed powerfully by some participants and
transcended a simple sharing of values. At Barracks both students and teachers

Student participation and school culture 93

expressed a strong desire to be understood by the other group, and wished they
had the opportunity, based on improved understandings, to work with each other
for better schooling. This dimension has been labelled 'wanting partnerships' and
was an enhancing dimension for student participation.
Some teachers felt that students did not understand that they were real
people as well as teachers, whereas students wished that teachers could appreciate
things more from their perspective, understanding that they were more than
students, they were people with other lives, family pressures and part-time jobs.
Wanting partnerships was an enhancing dimension for student participation
because of its potential to provide transactions between students and teachers and
a basis for dialogue and negotiation. Wanting partnerships was something about
which students and teachers were concerned and shared views. The issues
were common ground, waiting for an opportunity to become dialogue between
students and teachers, to be negotiated into a more commonly accepted and
improved standard of relationships between them. Unfortunately at Barracks,
impeding cultural dimensions ensured that these opportunities were not realised.
None the less the feeling of wanting partnerships represented a potential lead-in
to better student teacher communication and subsequent student participation in
redefining student-teacher relationships and work practices.

Wanting in The literature indicates that students in secondary schools like having
the opportunity to be involved in schooling in ways that transcend classroom
activities and the learning of academic work (Furtwengler, 1985a, 1991; Lewis
1995). Students enjoy the responsibility provided by these opportunities and want
the power to influence school decision making (Connors & Epstein, 1994). At
Barracks, a dimension labelled 'wanting in' was identified which describes this feel-
ing among some students and teachers who wanted to have real power in the
school by being part of meaningful processes of decision making and change.
Wanting in was a strong desire to be involved in change, a belief by participants
that they had the right to participate, and a tenacity to persist in the face of diffi-
culties. Few students and teachers displayed this characteristic: in the face of other
cultural dimensions at Barracks, many students and teachers settled into relatively
non-participatory routines. The importance of wanting in for student participation
was that those few students with this strong desire provided the potential leader-
ship for student government at Barracks, taking the initiative and persuading
teachers to work for student agendas.

Framework for building student participation

Cultural dimensions at Barracks High represent a complex ecology in which the
beliefs and attitudes of individuals interacted with various structural and proced-
ural constraints in the school, and acted to inhibit participation. Teachers and
administrators did not see student participation as a priority. Added to this belief
were other general beliefs about teachers, teaching and education which existed at
Barracks-the importance of academic (as opposed to applied) work, concerns
about discipline and student appearance, and the feeling that students should fit
into the traditional paradigm of secondary schooling. These beliefs were set against

94 Australian Journal ofEducation

structural features of the school which also militated against participation-s-
the dominance of the principal in decision making, the fragmentation between
faculties and within school development structures, and the lack of leadership in
developing effective student learning.
Those dimensions which acted to enhance participation came from the realm
of participant beliefs, values and actions. None of the enhancing dimensions can
be regarded as structural: there were no entrenched processes or policies at
Barracks that promoted student participation, no common approaches that
endorsed active learning, no strategies to guarantee student decision making.
Enhancing dimensions depended upon the beliefs and agency of individuals.
Unfortunately individual students, like teachers, found the dimensions that inhib-
ited general and student participation too pervasive to overcome. This raises a
critical issue for student participation at Barracks and in other secondary schools:
the issue of how to foster individual agency in an organisational context.
A sense of agency, or autonomous action in human beings (Bandura, 1986),
triggers participation. Bandura (1986) suggested this is true of both children and
adults. When human beings achieve success through participation, their feelings of
self-efficacy rise. 'The stronger their feelings of self-efficacy', wrote Bandura
(1986), 'the more vigorous and persistent are their efforts' (p. 394). A lack of these
feelings triggers non-participation. Bandura drew similar conclusions about agency
among children and adolescents, suggesting that young people in schools often lose
motivation and agency because school 'all too often ... undermines the very sense
of personal efficacy needed for recurring self-development' (p. 416). Argyris (1993)
found it common for organisational leaders to espouse the rhetoric of participation
in organisations while engaging in behaviors which acted against participation. The
solution, suggested Argyris, was to 'create a new theory of action [which] would
facilitate learning at all levels, ... drastically reduce their organizational defensive
routines and ... build routines for effective organizational learning' (pp. 4-5). The
concept of organisational learning has application to this study. To increase agency
among their student and teacher stakeholders, schools need to construct themselves
as effective learning organisations which stress collaborative communities working
in critical, participatory and supportive relationships (Astuto & Clark, 1995;
Burkhardt, Petri, & Roody, 1995; Fullan, 1995; Hough & Paine, 1997). Such
learning communities need to be inclusive of students.
The Barracks High School culture was unique. Despite its uniqueness, there
is considerable congruence between the dimensions identified at Barracks and
those found in the literature to describe the general culture of secondary schools.
In many ways, Barracks High can be considered typical. Therefore, although the
findings of single-site case study research may often be inapplicable to other set-
tings (Lincoln & Guba, 1985), there are cases in which findings may be generalised
(Sturman, 1994) and, in this study, they can be tentatively applied to suggest a
framework for building meaningful participation in secondary schools.
At Barracks, the majority of dimensions acted to inhibit student (and indeed
teacher) participation. Any framework proposing to build participation in schools
needs to build on dimensions which enhance participation and respond to those
dimensions which act as inhibitors. By using the clusters of dimensions identified

Student panicipation and school culture 95

in this study, it is possible to conceive of a framework of principles and strategies
which would help to establish collaborative learning cultures in schools which
could facilitate meaningful student participation. This framework is outlined in
Figure 2. The framework rests on the assumption, arising from this study, that
meaningful student participation in schools depends upon creating conditions
which support participation by teachers and students alike.
The strategies outlined in Figure 2 are underpinned by a fundamental
premise, reinforced in this study, that student learning should be the core purpose
of schools and represents the most potent means of providing opportunities for
student participation. The actual learning experiences of students need to be the
central consideration of schools if participation is to be meaningful. Secondary
schools need to reflect a concern with appraising existing practices in student learn-
ing and with continuously developing new practices. This should be done with
students as participants whose voices are valued. Because school curriculum and
teaching cultures are powerful determinants of the quali ty of the school experience
for students, in an effective learning community students will have representation
at all levels where curriculum decisions are made, including faculty discussions,
inter-faculty discussions and at whole school meetings. Regular amounts of class-
room time should also be devoted to discussions of curriculum, teaching and learn-
ing issues which can involve all students (Glasser, 1990). Further strategies in
Figure 2 place students as participants in school political processes which give them
access to school decision-making forums, integrate the SRC into school decision-
making processes, allow students to select or elect their own advisers, and which
encourage students to say what they think. Schools operating as genuine pro-
moters of student participation are also likely to implement participatory
approaches to school change and development, including open and problem-based
approaches to school development (Robinson, 1993) which explicitly target
school purposes, external constraints and pressures acting on schools.
To promote environments which in turn promote meaningful participation
for young people, school leaders must manage both 'bottom-up' and 'top-down'
processes of planning, provide scaffolding so both teachers and students can
develop the confidence and skills to enable them to participate and, through clear,
understandable forward plans and communication, provide participants with an
informed basis on which to participate. In this way, participation may be accepted
by participants as a genuine opportunity to contribute their voices to school
development, and school leaders have an essential role to play in facilitating this
environment. There is evidence, in this study and in other literature (Gabella,
1995; Harris, 1994), that young people positively change their attitudes to school-
ing when supported by engaging school practices. It is important for school
leaders to model behaviours of openness and inclusion. It is also important for
teachers and other participants to enact values that communicate a caring about
and trust of students and each other. Communicating that all participants can
achieve and are capable of success is also important, and can be achieved through
strategies such as celebrating the success of student learning at every level, and
celebrating successful teaching practices.

96 Australian Journal ofEducation

Strategies for the socio-political dimension
• clear processes to encourage students to say what they think about all aspects of school life;
• student representation in all school forums and committees and on each faculty;
• student government bodies have equal status with other organisational groups and equal
access to decision making;
• student involvement in appointment or election of teacher advisers on student bodies;
• student learning experiences are the focus of all planning;
• 'open' and problem-based approaches to organisational problem solving and decision making
(Robinson, 1993);
• school ethos and underpinning values continually discussed and developed by all stakeholders,
including students;
• external constraints and pressures are identified, discussed and responded to in the context
of formal planning;
• integrated 'bottom up' and 'top down' approaches to planning and school development
processes;
• targeted scaffolding is available for teachers and students involved in school development;
• clear communication about forward plans, etc.

Strategies for the curricular dimension

• student representatives involved in all discussions about learning experiences and curriculum
in faculty meetings, whole-school meetings and committees;
• regular discussions in all classrooms about learning and learning experiences, including class-
room-based student participation in curriculum negotiation and decision making;
• provision of academic credit for student representation in school governance;
• student learning experiences are the focus of all planning;
• consistent, planned discussion about student learning occurs in faculties;
• consistent, planned discussion about student learning occurs between faculties;
• curriculum development is secondary to the development of effective learning experiences;
• use of active learning approaches including problem solving, experimentation, research, use of
non print-based resources and activities, discussion and cooperative learning;
• 'bottom-up' and 'top-down' processes of developing learning experiences and curriculum;
• scaffolding for teachers and students in techniques for promoting and valuing student voices,
including developing critical thinking and discussion skills.

Strategies for the personal-participant dimension

• school leaders model organisational and personal tenets of schools as learning organisations;
• teachers resolve to value all students as learners and to challenge them to learn;
• celebratory perspectives of youth are developed by celebrating academic achievements of the
full range of students, and by celebrating student successes achieved outside of school;
• teachers resolve to talk to students about themselves and their worlds; they look to connect
the meaning of academic work to the personal worlds of students;
• all participants encourage trust and openness in dialogue between students and other
participants; they discourage arbitrary resorts to power and status;
• encourage the belief in all participants that their ideas have value, are valued by the
organisation, and can make a difference.
Note: It is difficultfor schools to enact strategies to influence the beliefs and attitudes of participants.
Generally, experience of efficacious new approaches will encourage teachers to change their beliefs (Fullan,
1983), as will collaborative approaches of critique and dialogue within supportive groups of teachers (Nias,
1987). Such strategies are believed to be natural outcomes of the socio-political and curricular dimensions
of schools as participatory organisations.
Figure 2 A framework of principles and strategies for building participation
in secondary schools

Student participation and school culture 97

 Had such principles and practices for building student participation guided
school development at Barracks High, it would probably have contributed to
increased agency and motivation among participants at Barracks, led to more
meaningful forms of participation by students and teachers, and to enhanced learn-
ing outcomes for students. It is something that should be considered and taken
seriously by secondary schools. Only by including students as meaningful partici-
pants in the learning community of their school are we likely to resolve issues of
decreasing motivation and academic performance amongst young people in the
secondary school years.

Keywords
educational environment school organisation student participation
qualitative research secondary school curriculum teaching process

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Author
Dr Steve Wilson is Head of the School of Social Ecology and Lifelong Learning at the
University of Western Sydney, Penrith Campus, Locked Bag 1797, South Penrith
Distribution Centre, New South Wales 1797.
Email: s.wilson@uws.edu.au

102 Australian Journal ofEducation