Much of Western media has promoted the idea that we are facing an epidemic of mental illness and psychiatric emergencies in contemporary Western society and worldwide, and that young people are a particularly vulnerable group. Schools have become a prominent site of concern and focus for this discourse as mental health problems are said to start…

Background: Many primary school students encounter the educational system positively from the outset. However, over the school years, students develop negative attitudes towards school, which peaks during secondary education. According to the literature, we conceptualise this process as school alienation: a decreasing sense of belonging in terms…

Special conditions of urban schools that operate as barriers to renewal and present difficulties for renewal efforts are explored. (JD)

School reform in New Zealand in the 1990s greatly affected funding strategies and school social dynamics. This paper investigates the effects of per-pupil funding and the track system on the sensibilities of students in one New Zealand secondary school. Per-pupil funding and the track system are used in an effort to attract parents (consumers) and…

Regardless of recent curriculum revisions, physical educators, faced with reduced time and/or inadequate equipment and facilities, continue to offer competitive team sport activities for a high percentage of their program time. When competition is only experienced as a win-lose situation, possibilities that students will derive any morally…

Theoretical traditions concerning school environments and student achievement are described, and their insights are linked with analyses of school and classroom interactions to develop a simple conceptual model of environmental influences on student achievement. The literature regarding environmental influences is then reviewed, and the last…