Under-stated powerhouses: Scottish independent schools, their characteristics and their capitals

Abstract

This paper presents a study from the Scottish Independent School Project (SISP). The first part of the paper provides an overview of the characteristics of Scottish independent schools (e.g. location, structure, fees) with the aim of distinguishing the different orientations of schools in the sector. The second and main part of the paper is a discourse-based analysis of the website texts of three case-study schools to show how schools discursively construct themselves and their ‘assumptive worlds’ (Ball, 2001). We explore what these schools take for granted by their use of language, and the nature of their communication with potential parents and pupils. The analytic of social capital (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992; Coleman, 1988; Putnam, 2000) and following Bourdieu, other capitals (e.g. cultural, national, emotional) are used to examine the discourses accepted, appropriated and deployed by the schools and the extent to which they advance the interests of specific social groups.

Keywords:

• social capital
• cultural capital
• national capital
• independent schools
• dimensions of power
• discourse analysis

Notes

1. This paper has developed out of the Scottish Independent Schools Project (SISP), which is funded by the Godfrey Thomson Trust and the Applied Educational Research Scheme (AERS); the latter is funded by the Scottish Funding Council and Scottish Government. SISP is one research project within the Schools and Social Capital Network of AERS. The SISP research team consists of: Bob Lingard, Gaby Weiner, Adela Baird, Shereen Benjamin, and John Horne, all of the University of Edinburgh, and Joan Forbes and Kevin Stelfox from the University of Aberdeen.

2. SISP is a ‘stage three’ project within the Schools and Social Capital Network of AERS.

3. This has been adapted by the Schools and Social Capital Network (2006) in its literature review on professionalism and teacher capacity.

4. SCIS maintains a database of all independent schools in Scotland at http://www.scis.org.uk/search/menu_new.asp

5. Special schools were excluded from the analysis after some discussion and deliberation, primarily because many of them are wholly or partly local-authority funded.

6. This is often referred to as ‘extra-curricular activities’ or ‘the informal curriculum’. Here ‘co’ is used to give such activities equal status alongside the School's academic learning experiences and activities.

7. Website Abstracts A to J are to be found in Appendix 1.