The Scottish Independent Schools Project: Applied Educational Research Scheme Research Briefing Paper 5

This research briefing reports on the initial findings from the Scottish Independent Schools Project (SISP), developed to complement a range of other case studies supported by the Schools and Social Capital (SSC) Network of the Applied Educational Research Scheme (AERS). The SSC Network has focussed largely on "disadvantaged groups" or communities while SISP, in contrast, sought to explore how social and other capitals work in and through a more privileged setting- that of independent schooling in Scotland. Social capital embraces the idea that social networks are valuable assets for individuals and societies, and is one of a number of 'capitals' defined by Lin (2001, 3) as 'investment of resources with expected returns in the marketplace'. A preliminary analysis of independent school websites showed how such schools represent themselves, revealing also the complexity of their categorisation. Case studies were then carried out of three independent schools involving the collection of a range of other data by means of interviews, focus groups and questionnaires.