‘My Journey to School …’: Foregrounding the Meaning of School Journeys and Children's Engagements and Interactions in their Everyday Localities

Abstract

This paper gives prominence to children's own accounts of school journeys. The characteristics of school journeys in Fife, Scotland are outlined, and the nature of children's school journey experiences discussed. The focus is on children in the latter years of primary school, concentrating mainly on the experiences of those who walk without adult accompaniment on their school journeys. By drawing attention to the meaning of these journeys to children this paper brings to the fore children's active and imaginative engagements in and with their environments. This situates school journeys as an integral part of children's geographies indicative of the regulation of the child's realm and the active part which children play in redefining this.

Keywords:

• Children
• school journey
• mobility
• neighbourhood
• identity
• photography

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to all those who assisted with the research on which this paper is based for their support, particularly the children and parents who shared their views and experiences, and staff in schools involved. I would like to thank Chris Philo and two anonymous reviewers for the helpful comments made during the development of this paper.

Notes

1. In the larger of the primary schools the activity sessions were carried out with the entire P7 class in the classroom with their teacher present. In the smaller primary schools, those with classes comprised of children of different ages, the activity sessions took place in a free room or space within the school, without a teacher being present. There were seven pupils in the largest of these groups and only one pupil in the smallest. Relationships formed were affected by these different contexts, with interactions less formal and opportunities to converse and spend more time together greater in the smaller schools.

2. The survey was used to contextualise the qualitative data and facilitate comparisons with previous studies that used school journeys as an indicator of children's independent mobility. The survey was not a representative sample, 86 primary schools in the study area were contacted and 14 of the 30 schools showing interest were included in the questionnaire survey. The procedure adopted by schools varied, meaning that some pupils completed their forms in school and others completed them at home. Parental questionnaires were sent to parents via the schools involved and some slight administration problems meant the response rate is based on number of questionnaires delivered to schools, not on the number received by parents.

3. Hillman conducted research in 1990 in a range of rural and urban settings in England. O'Brien's study was conducted in an English new town and two locations in London. The age groups differ slightly with findings reported for children aged 11 in Hillman's 1990 study, age 10/11 in O'Brien's study and age 11/12 in my study. These studies were conducted in different areas and therefore cannot be used as a reflection of changes over time. They are examples of time and place specific research of similar content, and findings are compared on this basis. However Hillman previously conducted research (in 1971) in the same areas as the 1990 study allowing comparisons over time to be made, though in the reporting of findings the age groups differ slightly (age 10/11 in the 1971 study).

4. There are problems inherent in converting images to textual information and there will always be a degree of subjectivity involved in the assigning of categories, and a reduction of the information contained in the image through categorisation. Content analysing the photographs by subject and by location permitted common themes and attributes that children give significance to, to be identified. Comments written by children to accompany their photographs were used to aid categorisation by location, and by subject, with only one category assigned for each.

5. In the photographic presentation, children's written commentary on their photographs is shown in Comic Sans bold font and their written extracts from their project books on their school journey routines are shown in Comic Sans normal font. Excerpts from interviews are shown in Times New Roman italics font. Individual names and specific locations have been changed. Children's spelling and grammar have not been altered.

6. A proposal is currently being developed to update and expand upon the research on which this paper is based, looking at children as vectors of community interaction and exchange.