The impact of housing tenure on secondary school pupils’ educational attainment

Robison, Oonagh M.E. (2018) The impact of housing tenure on secondary school pupils’ educational attainment. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Educational attainment is strongly associated with a person’s life chances, and poorer children most often have poorer educational outcomes, thus entrenching inequalities. It is known that living in a deprived neighbourhood can have a detrimental impact on educational outcomes. Additionally, it has been found that having a high proportion of poor pupils within a school can have a negative impact on individual educational outcomes. In Glasgow, tenure mixing, which aims to break up areas of mainly social rented housing with owner occupation, has been an objective of regeneration policy. This thesis aims to look at whether mixed tenure policy has had an impact on individual pupil educational attainment in Glasgow.

A mixed methods approach was utilised. Firstly changes between two timepoints using data from Glasgow City Council, 2001 and 2011 Censuses, and Scottish Qualification Agency data were examined, focusing on educational attainment and housing tenure. Secondly, multilevel modelling was used to explore variations in educational attainment between neighbourhoods and schools in relation to housing tenure and other socioeconomic measures at each timepoint, as well as over time. Finally, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 15 teachers and pupils in two case study schools in Glasgow.

This research found that the proportion of owner occupied households in a pupil’s neighbourhood had a significant impact on their educational attainment, over and above other individual, neighbourhood, school catchment area and school factors, suggesting that mixed tenure policy could have an impact on educational attainment in Glasgow. Owner occupation was seen by teachers as a way of increasing the numbers of ‘aspirational’ families in catchment areas. Without an influx of ‘aspirational’ pupils the scope for policies to raise attainment and reputation to take hold was viewed to be limited. Pupils were more likely to be negative about changes in the catchment areas, highlighting the slow pace of change, and felt that their schools and areas were stigmatised due to poor reputation.

This thesis illustrates the importance of taking into account the different contexts that may impact on a person’s outcomes. It also highlights the role of policy to take a more holistic view of contextual influences.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: mixed tenure, schools, neighbourhood effects, school effects, multilevel modelling, educational attainment.
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General); L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1603 Secondary Education. High schools
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences; College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
• Funder's Name: Medical Research Council (MRC)
• Supervisor's Name: Henderson, Dr. Marion, Kearns, Professor Ade and Linsay, Dr. Gray
• Date of Award: 2018
• Depositing User: Dr. Oonagh Fraser
• Unique ID: glathesis:2018-8972
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 25 Apr 2018 07:34
• Last Modified: 07 Mar 2022 11:23
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.8972
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/8972