Employability and school uniform policies: Projecting the employer’s gaze

A Olosson; Rachel K Shanks

doi:10.1177/09075682221108838

Employability and school uniform policies: Projecting the employer’s gaze

A Olosson, Rachel K Shanks^* (Corresponding Author)

^*Corresponding author for this work

University of Cambridge

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

This article examines employability discourse within school uniform policies as a way to justify uniform. The uniform policy of every publicly funded secondary school in Scotland (n=357) was studied using content and discourse analysis. Employability discourse was grouped into three themes: School as preparation for work; school to replicate a work environment; and young people creating a good impression for employers. The rationale of the uniform is revealed as a technology through which the employer’s gaze is projected onto pupils.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	628–645
Number of pages	18
Journal	Childhood
Volume	29
Issue number	4
Early online date	5 Sept 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/09075682221108838
Publication status	Published - Nov 2022

Bibliographical note

Open access via Sage R&P agreement
Acknowledgments
We wish to thank the students who were involved in the original sourcing and coding of school uniform policies, namely Lucas Adrian Brauns, Agata Kostrzewa, Marton Kottmayer, Kirsten Phelps, Daniel Phillips, Vilma Pullinen, Atyrah Hanim Razali, Cameron Roy, Maria Steiner Simonsen, and particularly Jasper Friedrich who provided feedback on this work. We also wish to thank Prof Pamela Abbott for her insightful comments on an early draft of the manuscript and the two reviewers who provided very useful feedback.

Keywords

Employability
Foucault
school dress code
school uniform
secondary school

Access to Document

10.1177/09075682221108838Licence: CC BY

Olsson_etal_Childhood_Employability_school_uniform_VOR
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Final published version, 585 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "This article examines employability discourse within school uniform policies as a way to justify uniform. The uniform policy of every publicly funded secondary school in Scotland (n=357) was studied using content and discourse analysis. Employability discourse was grouped into three themes: School as preparation for work; school to replicate a work environment; and young people creating a good impression for employers. The rationale of the uniform is revealed as a technology through which the employer{\textquoteright}s gaze is projected onto pupils.",

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AB - This article examines employability discourse within school uniform policies as a way to justify uniform. The uniform policy of every publicly funded secondary school in Scotland (n=357) was studied using content and discourse analysis. Employability discourse was grouped into three themes: School as preparation for work; school to replicate a work environment; and young people creating a good impression for employers. The rationale of the uniform is revealed as a technology through which the employer’s gaze is projected onto pupils.

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KW - school uniform

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DO - 10.1177/09075682221108838

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JO - Childhood

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ER -

Employability and school uniform policies: Projecting the employer’s gaze

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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