About the Research

The Positive School Culture Project draws on doctoral research exploring how students experience school culture during the transition to secondary school.

The research focuses on how belonging, recognition, and participation take shape through everyday classroom interactions, and how these experiences differ across students within the same school.

Drawing on conversations with Year 7 students across multiple secondary schools, the study examines how school culture is not simply established through structures and policies, but generated through interaction and experienced in uneven ways.

Rather than treating school culture as something fixed or uniformly experienced, the research offers an account of how it is shaped in practice through relationships, expectations, and everyday encounters.

A note on how this research is shared

This site presents research in an accessible form. The ideas are grounded in doctoral work but are not intended as fixed or final statements.

One advantage of blogging, compared to traditional academic publishing, is the ability to revisit and refine ideas over time. As such, this page may be updated as the research develops.

Thoughtful feedback, corrections, and suggestions are welcome.

Comments

1.4 Why Some Lessons Feel Easier to Speak In

For students starting secondary school (ages 11–13) Part of the Positive School Culture Project — sharing research to help students, teachers, and schools create better experiences of starting secondary school. Starting secondary school can feel exciting, but it can also feel uncertain. Some students quickly feel comfortable in their new school, while others take longer to find their place.

1.2 Why Belonging at School Is Not Just About Having Friends

For students starting secondary school (ages 11–13) Part of the Positive School Culture Project — sharing research to help students, teachers, and schools create better experiences of starting secondary school. Starting secondary school can feel exciting, but it can also feel uncertain. Some students quickly feel comfortable in their new school, while others take longer to find their place.

1.1 You Shape School More Than You Think

For students starting secondary school (ages 11–13) Part of the Positive School Culture Project — sharing research to help students, teachers, and schools create better experiences of starting secondary school. This post is the first in a short guide for students starting secondary school. Starting secondary school can feel like stepping into a completely new world. The buildings are bigger. There are more teachers. The timetable changes. And suddenly you are one of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of students instead of being one of the oldest in your primary school. Because of this, it can sometimes feel like school culture is something that already exists before you arrive — something created by teachers, rules, or traditions.

The Positive School Culture Project

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