This paper explores the peer relationship experiences of 23 primary-school children who had been designated as "lower-attaining". It is written against the backdrop of the mental health crisis among young people in Britain. Using John Macmurray's principles of equality and freedom as underpinning positive personal relationships, it…

This article is unique because it fills a significant gap among COVID-19 related educational research in three ways. First, it analyses data from face-to-face interviews with 23 children, whilst most COVID-19 related research has been based on online data collection methods. Second, it involves 'lower-attaining' children who were already part of…

This article tracks the life-histories of 23 British schoolchildren aged from seven to 12 who were designated as 'lower-attaining' at age seven. Drawing on Self Determination Theory's mini-theory of Causality Orientations, the authors explored whether/how children with a Controlled or Impersonal Orientation approached creative learning differently…

'Lower-attaining' children are known to encounter negative experiences in school, including experiencing feelings of upset, shame and inferiority. Using extensive interview and observation data from the first two years of a five-year longitudinal study of 23 'lower-attaining' children (age 7-9), we draw on Seligman's theory of well-being to…

In this paper, the authors consider how Carol Dweck's concept of growth mindset has been misconceptualised. They explore the proposition that agency is an important aspect of growth mindset and that the effects of hard work by children is reduced when agency is limited. They draw on qualitative data from 84 interviews with 23 participant children…

This paper is significant in its exploration of the experiences of children designated as 'lower-attaining' in British primary schooling. It is underpinned by Nancy Fraser's conceptualisation of a global shift from government via nation-state welfare structures to governance through supra-national financialised neoliberalism. Within this context,…

By portraying the views and perspectives of children labelled as 'low-attaining', this text makes a significant contribution to the debate on within-class attainment grouping in primary schools. Extensive, active individual interviews plus observations over three terms facilitated rich insights into whether, and if so, how 23 'low-attaining'…

Nancy Fraser describes parity-of-participation in social interaction as an important component of social justice. In this paper, we explore the participatory experiences of primary-school-children who have been labelled 'lower-attainers' in mathematics and/or writing. The paper explores justice drawing on the perspective of these pupils, in…