Ruth Boyask | Auckland University of Technology (original) (raw)

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Papers by Ruth Boyask

New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 2022

While debate on declines in children's literacy is ongoing in Aotearoa New Zealand, very little a... more While debate on declines in children's literacy is ongoing in Aotearoa New Zealand, very little attention in research and policy is paid to reading enjoyment and its capacity to support the reading development of children. Developed alongside a series of studies on children's reading for pleasure this article makes a theoretically informed argument to place reading enjoyment at the centre of literacy education in schools. Our argument is underpinned by a psycho-social conceptualisation of enjoyment that emphasises the fundamental sociality of emotion. Foregrounding affect and sociality in children and young people's reading speaks to the potential of teachers being with children and their whānau together reading for pleasure. When children are at school they can participate in the sociality of reading for pleasure, sharing its enjoyment with other class members and teachers without coming into conflict with the priorities of life outside of school. If schools embed reading enjoyment in their programmes, they might then have greater capacity to follow the literacy and communication strategy and work towards sharing the collective enjoyment of reading with families, whānau, and communities.

The physical location of Cornwall, England impacts upon its social and economic development and i... more The physical location of Cornwall, England impacts upon its social and economic development and is evident in the aspirations ascribed to and held by young people within the region. Schools have been set the task of raising aspirations, as low expectations are perceived to be a barrier to high attainment in schooling. We draw upon research in two Cornish secondary schools that attempted to raise aspirations through school change and by entering into the Academy schools programme. What we found was that their location was generally perceived as a disadvantage to aspiration. We suggest that within the current climate of localisation in educational policy it will be difficult for individual schools to scrutinise themselves and their practices. It will be difficult to ensure that they do not perpetuate poor social outcomes through entrenched beliefs about a link between physical isolation and social disadvantage.

Policy Futures in Education, 2018

Policy Futures in Education, 2017

In this article we argue that a refined understanding of ‘public’ and ‘public engagement’ can hel... more In this article we argue that a refined understanding of ‘public’ and ‘public engagement’ can help researchers who produce critical research make better decisions towards achieving policy influence. We acknowledge the challenges critical researchers face in putting their research to work within the public domain. Critical research struggles to gain influence in bounded public spheres where research is valued as a consumable commodity rather than for its integrity or capacity for informing change. A starting point for developing a method of engagement is to understand better ‘publics’ and the different ways they may be conceptualised. We draw on a framework of three conceptualisations of the public in public engagement: bounded, normative and emergent. We use this framework to analyse our own experience of public engagement and attempts at policy influence in the Respecting Children and Young People Project. Through this analysis we recognise alternative ways to conceive of publics t...

Policy Futures in Education, 2013

The role of local government in addressing issues of social equity is undergoing significant reco... more The role of local government in addressing issues of social equity is undergoing significant reconstruction in current educational policy reforms in England. The current conceptualisation of social provision places individual rights at the centre of policy, and social responsibility is represented as the work of individuals. Drawing upon a partnership project in Plymouth, England, and the analytical lens of refraction, the authors suggest that the ‘autonomy’ of local authority workers is embedded within systems of governance, including both traditional forms of centralised control, albeit obscured, and the new modality of networked governance.

The first comprehensive review of research on children's reading for pleasure in Aotearoa New Zea... more The first comprehensive review of research on children's reading for pleasure in Aotearoa New Zealand. The review is one of three reports commissioned from AUT by the National Library as part of its Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers initiative. The researchers looked at international and national research on reading for pleasure, finding very little on the topic in New Zealand. What research there has been has had little influence on policy. The review’s main conclusion is that reading for pleasure is a beneficial social activity where everyone has a role to play in distributing those benefits.

New Zealand Annual Review of Education, 2020

Green School New Zealand is a private school whose school fees confirm for critics the inequity o... more Green School New Zealand is a private school whose school fees confirm for critics the inequity of private education, but the school may contribute to an alternative vision of public education if its commitment to sustainability is recognised as a public good. Conventional understanding of public education is challenged by contemporary political and democratic theory on the nature of publics. While public education generally refers to education funded by the state, if public education is limited to education provided by the state it restricts the good that it can do because the state is not equitable in whose interests it serves. Concepts of public education need updating to reflect understandings of varied publics and the individuals of which they are comprised (pluralist publics); the freedom of publics in subjectivity and sovereignty (unbounded publics); and the mutuality and equality of relations within publics (publicness). Green School New Zealand undoubtedly works against public interests in some respects; however, its focused concern for the environment represents an emergent publicness that is not apparent in schools that are more closely bound to the priorities of the state. When we recognise their public dimensions, schools like Green School New Zealand may help with rethinking public education and how we develop new systems of education that act for the good of pluralist, unbounded but connected publics.

Perhaps the most fruitful distinction with which the sociological imagination works is between th... more Perhaps the most fruitful distinction with which the sociological imagination works is between the ‘personal troubles of milieu’ and ‘the public issues of social structure’. This distinction is an essential tool of the sociological imagination and a feature of all classic work in social science. (C. Wright Mills 1970, 14)

To view education with a sociological imagination, using Wright Mills’s term, is to identify and attend to its relationships with both the personal and public. Sociology in intellectual and political work sheds light on the personal troubles and public issues of the times as well as the interrelationships between the two. In respect of the sociology of education, sociological theories and methodologies have been employed foremost to highlight and address inconsistencies in educational opportunity that are determined both at the level of the individual and in terms of social inequalities (Weis, Jenkins & Stich 2009). With equivalent potential, but to a lesser extent in practice, the sociology of education contributes to the understanding and progression of the wider social world and how social equity in general terms might be achieved. Classical social science has made heavy use of abstract thought and theoretical speculation to construct knowledge of the social world and resolve its concerns, but evidence from observable reality also contributes to sociological understanding. As the discipline of sociology has developed there has been an accompanying and proliferating development in empirical methodologies. The methodological developments are informed by developments in other disciplines (most notably anthropology and psychology) and fields of study (for example, health and business). In the main, such methodologies are identified as either qualitative (like the methodological approaches described in this book), quantitative (largely measurable survey research) or mixed method approaches. All three are used in the sociology of education, and while the methods themselves are not necessarily sociological, different strands of sociological thought have greater affinity with some methodologies more than others (see Hammersley 1984).

ACCESS: Critical Perspectives on Communication, Cultural & Policy Studies, 32, 1 & 2, 2013

Principles of freedom, independence and differentiation are shaping a new education landscape tha... more Principles of freedom, independence and differentiation are shaping a new education landscape that includes new schools like free, charter and academy schools. Paradoxically, the reforms are justified on the basis of a rights and equalities discourse, yet they lead to greater competition through increased involvement of private interests. Critics of privatised schooling highlight its effects upon social inequalities. Looking to schooling in the fee-paying private sector reveals that there are a few schools whose strong ideological drivers resist competitive social relations. The ideas of Durkheim and Dewey on developing individuality in relation to a social good suggest it is theoretically possible that some of the new state-funded schools will also operate from their own social values to further social equity and make contributions to a more just society. This paper explores such a possibility by comparing newly established free schools in England with existing cases of democratic schooling to theorise how in a deregulated market a school might act upon the social field of schooling to promote social responsibility and minimise commitments to economic drivers, showing also the challenges a school might face in so doing.

In this article we argue that a refined understanding of 'public' and 'public engagement' can hel... more In this article we argue that a refined understanding of 'public' and 'public engagement' can help researchers who produce critical research make better decisions towards achieving policy influence. We acknowledge the challenges critical researchers face in putting their research to work within the public domain. Critical research struggles to gain influence in bounded public spheres where research is valued as a consumable commodity rather than for its integrity or capacity for informing change. A starting point for developing a method of engagement is to understand better 'publics' and the different ways they may be conceptualised. We use Mahony and Stephansen's (2017) framework of three conceptualisations of the public in public engagement: bounded, normative and emergent. We use this framework to analyse our own experience of public engagement and attempts at policy influence in the Respecting Children and Young People Project. Through this analysis we recognise alternative ways to conceive of publics that may direct us away from some courses of action, and open new possibilities for public engagement with critical research.

New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies

Public Policy Review, 2014

Policy Futures in Education, 2018

Democratic public schooling prepares for and models collective self-governance in a complex socie... more Democratic public schooling prepares for and models collective self-governance in a complex society where the people are subject to various forms of governmental power. The common or public school is the main way democratic nations prepare their people for participation, yet in modern versions democracy is contested through school curriculum and governance practices. Examples are state-funded self-governing schools, which appear to support democracy, yet are shaped by a neoliberal ideal of school autonomy. Proposed new models of school governance that attempt to build in collectivity may still limit democratic participation. The influence of entities outside of nations challenge the view that a national system of schooling is sufficient to inform public opinion. A better education for democracy would consider how public opinion is formed, and how public opinion might be formed within a complex society. Developing a deeper and more expansive concept of the public is one place to start.

The transnational trend towards school autonomy has been enacted in England through the Academies... more The transnational trend towards school autonomy has been enacted in England through the Academies programme. The programme is poised to enter its third phase of expansion in a plan to convert all state-funded schools to Academies by 2022. This article considers the ideological and moral implications of the expansion of the programme that aims to include all primary schools. It draws upon a study of schools in four local authorities to examine the extent to which autonomy and therefore academy conversion is desirable. In their relationships with local authorities primary schools that have resisted conversion and primary schools that have already converted show ambivalence to the notion of autonomy that has been promoted by the government as motivation to convert. Indeed most of the primary schools in this study that have already converted are critical of the local authorities that are driven by business values. Given that expansion of the academies programme is likely to lead to more rather than less fragmentation in the education system, worsen student outcomes overall and see market values extended it is concluded that the vision of autonomy for primary schools offered via the Academies programme is both misleading and undesirable.

We consider how a partnership between two universities in the South West of England and a unitary... more We consider how a partnership between two universities in the South West of England and a unitary local authority was put to work to mutual benefit. We show how research might directly inform local policy by grounding research in a local authority's practical needs to address ethnicity and racism, maximising the impact of our research and responding to international developments in evidence–based policy. The study explored the potential of young people to act as expert informants in social policy decision–making by asking them to identify how they differed from one another, which differences impacted upon their schooling and comparing these differences with generic social categories such as ethnicity, gender, class, disability for example (Boyask et al., 2009b). One response to the findings of the project was a structured reflection upon the capacity of our local authority partner to enact policy initiatives informed by the young people (Boyask et al., forthcoming 2013). Our investigation suggested that while some national policies intended to provide for individual needs in recognition of diversity, in practice this was difficult. Most local policy decisions were made on the basis of the needs of social groups identified through centralised data gathering (such as school test scores and numbers of children accessing free school meals). We recognise tensions for local authority officers who must follow recent national policy directives that prioritise both social group and individual needs. And finally, we suggest that dialogic partnerships between researchers and policy officers can inform policy decision–making by taking account of contextual understandings of social categories on the one hand, and dislodging the power of nationally defined categories of difference on the other.

There exist some rare private schools that attempt to mitigate the anti-democratic qualities of t... more There exist some rare private schools that attempt to mitigate the anti-democratic qualities of the private schooling sector in England. This article reports on a study of private schools that aim to promote equality and participation through some aspects of their operations. It considers to what extent the governance structures within the schools support their aspirations and what this means for the public good more generally. English private schools are accountable to the state under The Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014 (hereafter Independent School Standards, 2014), corporate law and the majority are accountable under the Charities Act, which requires them to demonstrate public benefit. The schools reported here have a commitment to the public good that extends beyond these limited accountabilities, demonstrating the weaknesses of the public good as it is presently defined by the state and also advancing understanding on the extent to which the schools can be regarded as Fraser's (1990) counterpublics.

Management in Education

This article draws upon findings from the New Relations between Local Authorities (LAs) and Schoo... more This article draws upon findings from the New Relations between Local Authorities (LAs) and Schools project to identify ideological and value-based differences between the models of service to schools adopted within four case study LAs. While each of the LAs has developed a privatized model of service, there are subtle differences between the models, which I term cooperative, entrepreneurial, community engagement and corporate. In this article I describe the differences between these models, and their underpinning values.

New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 2022

Policy Futures in Education, 2018

Policy Futures in Education, 2017

Policy Futures in Education, 2013

New Zealand Annual Review of Education, 2020

ACCESS: Critical Perspectives on Communication, Cultural & Policy Studies, 32, 1 & 2, 2013

New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies

Public Policy Review, 2014

Policy Futures in Education, 2018

Management in Education

Pluralist Publics in Market Driven Education: Towards More Democracy in Educational Reform, 2020

This book opens a conversation on the nature of the public in education systems weary from market... more This book opens a conversation on the nature of the public in education systems weary from market driven educational reform. Ruth Boyask observes the characteristic of publicness within contemporary education settings, a characteristic defined by analytical tools drawn from public sphere and democratic education theory. Boyask’s investigations of publicness in educational sites are founded in conceptualising public education as pluralist, unbounded and conditional. These concepts of the public are important for ongoing and future debate on public education.
The settings Boyask examines are different in structure, function and location yet each demonstrates the push and pull between market relations (including competition, efficiency and productivity) and the desire for social equality and democracy in education. Examples of educational settings are drawn broadly from an Anglo-American imaginary that has taken hold in educational systems transnationally, with detailed observation from three research studies of education policy enactment in England. The research studies (including research on curriculum reform in a private democratic school, privatisation of regional educational services and governance in English private schools) provide contexts for examining public accountability, public service and the public good as they relate to a reconceptualised public education. Boyask’s argument is that by opening a conversation about the nature of the public within these sites we bring them into the spheres of a pluralist public education. They become open to public scrutiny and through their debate arise new ideas for challenging market-driven restrictions to contemporary public education.

Key points: • Inequalities in society are increasing, and education is often presented as the mea... more Key points:
• Inequalities in society are increasing, and education is often presented as the means to overcome such inequalities, with increasing privatisation in education we need a better understanding of how well equipped privatised schools are to address inequalities;
• Privatisation is increasingly normalised in the state-funded schooling sector; privately-funded schooling provides an established context in which we can see how the public interest is transformed when it comes into contact with private and commercial interests;
• Only 3.3% or 64 of the almost 2000 privately-funded schools in England openly express a commitment to equality on their school websites in one or more of the following areas: governance, pedagogy, curriculum, intake and outcomes;
• Compared with Dewey’s democratic ideal, the 64 schools included in this study tend to promote free and equal interactions in relationships between members of the school community, and less so interactions with different communities outside the school, particularly communities considerably different from their own.

A presentation on ‘Emerging models of service relationships with schools’ from the BELMAS Structu... more A presentation on ‘Emerging models of service relationships with schools’ from the BELMAS Structural Reform Research Programme funded study: New Relations between Local Authorities and Schools. Presented at Birmingham City University, 17th September 2014.

This is a working paper, drawing together ideas from public sphere and democratic theory to conce... more This is a working paper, drawing together ideas from public sphere and democratic theory to conceptualise 'public' in public schooling. Paper to be presented at ECER 2018 on 5th September.

The transnational trend towards school autonomy has been enacted in England through the Academies... more The transnational trend towards school autonomy has been enacted in England through the Academies programme. The programme was poised to enter its third phase of expansion through a plan to convert all state-funded schools to Academies by 2022. While the Secretary of State for Education was forced to revise this plan in light of increasingly hostile responses from lobbyists within and outside government, there continues to be robust progression towards academies expansion. This paper considers the ideological and moral implications of the expansion of the programme for primary schools. It draws upon a study of schools in four local authorities to examine the extent to which autonomy and therefore academy conversion is desirable. In their relationships with local authorities primary schools that have resisted conversion and primary schools that have already converted show ambivalence to the notion of autonomy that has been promoted by the government as motivation to convert. Indeed most of the primary schools in this study that have already converted are critical of the local authorities that are driven by business values. Given that expansion of the Academies programme is likely to lead to more rather than less fragmentation in the education system, worsen student outcomes overall and see market values extended it is concluded that the vision of autonomy for primary schools offered via the Academies programme is both misleading and undesirable.

This paper reflects on the history of evidence-based education in England in an attempt to find c... more This paper reflects on the history of evidence-based education in England in an attempt to find common ground between educational sociology and evidence-based policy. It contends that educational sociologists share with policy-makers commitments to social justice and increasing the use of research evidence in educational policy and practice. However, educational research is underutilised by policy-makers. The paper argues that at root are some misunderstandings about the nature and value of educational research. Addressing these misunderstandings includes calling for re-evaluations of a broader range of methodologies, including interpretive methodologies, and recognising the power of social theory for explaining and informing fairer and more equal democratic societies.

New Zealand is facing a major teacher shortage. At least 850 new teaching staff are needed to gua... more New Zealand is facing a major teacher shortage. At least 850 new teaching staff are needed to guarantee that all primary and secondary school children have a teacher next year.

Teachers are poised to take rolling strike action next week over pay equity. School principals and teacher unions say low pay and lack of equity are significant contributors to the escalating teacher shortage. The sector claims realistic pay increases will address teacher recruitment and retention problems.

However, the New Zealand government has chosen to respond with an urgent drive to recruit teachers from overseas as part of a package of initiatives.

My research into the unintended consequences of policies for equity and diversity in schools suggests this strategy to import teachers from the UK, Canada, South Africa, Australia and Fiji risks creating a mismatch between the ethnic diversity among school children and the teaching workforce.

A new generation is starting their working life in an age of inequality. The income of 22 to 30-y... more A new generation is starting their working life in an age of inequality. The income of 22 to 30-year-olds is projected to be 7.6% lower in 2014-15 than it was in 2007-8, according to new analysis of median incomes from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. But they estimate incomes will be 2.5% lower for those aged 31 to 59. And now messages about the problems of inequality from the spheres of global finance and economics are converging on a similar path.

There has been a recognition among many prominent financial organisations, institutions and economists that unrestrained capitalism is the source of the world’s widening economic inequality. Resolution lies in a fairer distribution of material and cultural resources among the less well-off in society. For some time, researchers have recognised how education systems sustain and reproduce these material and culture inequalities.

Inside Higher Ed, Oct 15, 2013

SUMMARY This project has generated new knowledge about the limits and possibilities of socially j... more SUMMARY This project has generated new knowledge about the limits and possibilities of socially just education in a privatised education system through investigating the aims and practices of a rare group of schools: privately-funded independent schools that are committed to social justice. Social justice in this study is regarded as the aim of Dewey's (1916/1994) democratic ideal in which society progresses as diverse individuals interact freely and equally with one another, changing social habits through these interactions. Young (1990) argues that " only democratic processes are consistent with justice " (p.92). The study undertook a survey of the websites of all privately-funded schools in England. From 1924 schools the review of websites identified 64 (3.3%) that met the criteria for inclusion as privately-funded schools committed to social justice, and one more was identified later in the study. Eighteen schools were selected for case study, looking at how they operate in the areas of school governance, pedagogy, curriculum, school intake and outcomes (outcomes for individuals, the schools and system-wide). Case files were developed from each of the case study schools from publicly accessible documents (such as websites, school census data, inspection reports, school prospectuses, newspapers, instruments of government, public benefit and annual financial reports, and existing research) and telephone interviews with school leaders, governors or administrators. The initial survey and review indicates that very few privately-funded schools seek to address social inequality other than through supporting the social mobility of individuals. The study did find 65 schools that attempt to support a democratic ideal in some ways. Importantly these schools, mostly charities, are going beyond Charity Commission requirements to demonstrate public benefit. While the schools included in this study show some link with a democratic ideal, none of the schools in this study entirely conformed to that ideal. They varied in the extent to which they promoted equality within the areas of governance, pedagogy, curriculum, intake and outcomes. So a school may address justice through its curriculum but promote elitism through its governance structures. There were a number of schools who attempted to prevent exclusion based on financial barriers, the main objection to privately funded schools, yet these schools seemed particularly at risk because they were subject to changes in funding policies or the capacity to undertake fundraising. Three of the 18 case study schools closed during the research period. The study suggests that the 65 schools are fundamentally contradictory places where some social inequalities can be alleviated, but not all.

PLiYE is a scoping study that investigated the learning that took place through young people’s pa... more PLiYE is a scoping study that investigated the learning that took place through young people’s participation in the Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery (PCMAG) Young Explainers (YEs) programme.