Student Participation and School Culture: A Secondary School Case Study

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of a single-site case study investigating the nature of student participation in a coeducational comprehensive government high school situated in the western suburbs of Sydney. The purpose of the study was to understand the relationship between student participation and cultural dimensions in the school, particularly those dimensions which acted to enhance or inhibit student participation. The study used qualitative methodologies and the author was a single researcher with prolonged engagement in the research site. Fieldwork was conducted over 25 months within an emergent research design. The research identified 24 cultural dimensions in the school which impacted upon student participation. The majority of these were found to have an inhibiting impact on student participation; 8 were found to have an enhancing impact.