Eleanore Hargreaves
Biographic Data
| ID | 758706 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Eleanore Hargreaves |
| GIVEN NAMES | Eleanore |
| FAMILY NAME | Hargreaves |
| SIGNATURE | HARGREAVES E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5630-6995 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 8 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Agentic action as an aim for sustainability education
To support young people and their futures, sustainability education is increasingly framed around enhancing young people’s agency. In England, however, sustainability is not a formal subject within the National Curriculum and teachers may have different understandings of what sustainability education involves. New insights were revealed through content analysis of written questionnaire responses from 335 secondary school teachers of different sub…
Ellie's story
This article demonstrates how Foucault’s often overlooked concept of counter-conduct can helpfully illuminate children’s sense-making about school. Through exploring the understandings of Ellie, a disengaged low-attaining primary school pupil, we show how counter-conduct allows us to see pupils’ disengagement as part of a struggle over their subjectivity. Engaging in a project to avoid internalising the model of pupilhood available to her within …
Children who experience misrecognition in primary education
Our research constructed school life histories with 23 ‘lower‐attaining’ primary school children in England. Previous research has often failed to focus on the social justice aspects of this group, and no attempt has been made to contextualise children's misrecognition experiences within their full school life history, nor to hear primarily from children. Our results reveal for the first time the feelings, thinking and actions of lower attainers …
Threats to creative learning in the primary-school
This article tracks the life-histories of 23 British schoolchildren aged from seven to 12 who were designated as ‘lower-attaining’ at age seven. Drawing on Self Determination Theory’s mini-theory of Causality Orientations, the authors explored whether/how children with a Controlled or Impersonal Orientation approached creative learning differently from those with an Autonomy Orientation. Six detailed life-histories presented illuminate that child…
National Curriculum and Assessment in England and the continuing narrowed experiences of lower-attainers in primary schools
A considerable body of global educational literature has examined how schooling policy based on measuring and managing performance has narrowed children’s access both to curriculum breadth and to diversity in pedagogy. This article approaches these curriculum dilemmas within the global concern for children’s wellbeing and social justice. In particular, it focuses on the experiences of children designated by this system as lower-attaining, which i…
Students’ views on what aids their learning of school science in Lagos state, Nigeria
In Nigeria, school science education is believed to be impeded by multiple issues, in part resulting from limitations on funding, but there is a dearth of research that attends to the views of learners themselves. The aim of this study was to explore the views of secondary students in Lagos, Nigeria about the school science teaching they received. A multiple case study research design was employed and semi-structured individual ( n = 26) and grou…
“Look at them! They all have friends and not me”
This paper explores the peer relationship experiences of 23 primary-school children who had been designated as “lower-attaining”. It is written against the backdrop of the mental health crisis among young people in Britain. Using John Macmurray’s principles of equality and freedom as underpinning positive personal relationships, it investigates how “lower-attaining” children experience their peer relationships in a climate where attainment in mat…
Life‐history research with children
This article explores the life‐history research approach, outlining its key aims and traditions. It suggests that what is often missing from life‐history research is the inclusion of young children as life‐history participants. This paper considers some innovative means for constructing children's life‐histories across 5 years of their primary schooling in Britain. These include interviews based on activities, games, role‐play, pictures and filmi…
Persevering for a Cruel and Cynical Fiction? The Experiences of the ‘Low Achievers’ in Primary Schooling
This paper is significant in its exploration of the experiences of children designated as ‘lower-attaining’ in British primary schooling. It is underpinned by Nancy Fraser’s conceptualisation of a global shift from government via nation-state welfare structures to governance through supra-national financialised neoliberalism. Within this context, we take the innovative path of investigating how ‘lower-attaining’ children explain perseverance with…
Systemic threats to the growth mindset
In this paper, the authors consider how Carol Dweck’s concept of growth mindset has been misconceptualised. They explore the proposition that agency is an important aspect of growth mindset and that the effects of hard work by children is reduced when agency is limited. They draw on qualitative data from 84 interviews with 23 participant children who had been designated at the end of their Year 3 as ‘lower-attainers’ in mathematics, English or bo…
Parity of participation? Primary-school children reflect critically on being successful during schooling
Nancy Fraser describes parity-of-participation in social interaction as an important component of social justice. In this paper, we explore the participatory experiences of primary-school-children who have been labelled ‘lower-attainers’ in mathematics and/or writing. The paper explores justice drawing on the perspective of these pupils, in relation to how they perceive success in their school learning. We link the concept of participation to the…
Children’s experiences of agency when learning English in the classroom of a collectivist culture
Exploring collaborative interaction and self-direction in Teacher Learning Teams
This article explores teachers’ learning from a Vygotskian perspective, which emphasises collaborative interaction and self-direction. The article describes case-studies of three senior teachers in socio-economically disadvantaged Egyptian primary schools where collaboration and self-direction were systemically discouraged. It analyses how, through a teacher development intervention, the teachers learned to use collaborative interaction to suppor…
The Sage Handbook of Learning
Multigrade teaching in Peru, Sri Lanka and Vietnam
Assessment for learning in the multigrade classroom
Persevering for a Cruel and Cynical Fiction? The Experiences of the ‘Low Achievers’ in Primary Schooling
This paper is significant in its exploration of the experiences of children designated as ‘lower-attaining’ in British primary schooling. It is underpinned by Nancy Fraser’s conceptualisation of a global shift from government via nation-state welfare structures to governance through supra-national financialised neoliberalism. Within this context, we take the innovative path of investigating how ‘lower-attaining’ children explain perseverance with…
Multigrade teaching in Peru, Sri Lanka and Vietnam
Assessment for learning in the multigrade classroom
Ellie's story
This article demonstrates how Foucault’s often overlooked concept of counter-conduct can helpfully illuminate children’s sense-making about school. Through exploring the understandings of Ellie, a disengaged low-attaining primary school pupil, we show how counter-conduct allows us to see pupils’ disengagement as part of a struggle over their subjectivity. Engaging in a project to avoid internalising the model of pupilhood available to her within …
Children’s experiences of agency when learning English in the classroom of a collectivist culture
Multigrade teaching in Peru, Sri Lanka and Vietnam
Assessment for learning in the multigrade classroom
The Sage Handbook of Learning
Exploring collaborative interaction and self-direction in Teacher Learning Teams
This article explores teachers’ learning from a Vygotskian perspective, which emphasises collaborative interaction and self-direction. The article describes case-studies of three senior teachers in socio-economically disadvantaged Egyptian primary schools where collaboration and self-direction were systemically discouraged. It analyses how, through a teacher development intervention, the teachers learned to use collaborative interaction to suppor…
Systemic threats to the growth mindset
In this paper, the authors consider how Carol Dweck’s concept of growth mindset has been misconceptualised. They explore the proposition that agency is an important aspect of growth mindset and that the effects of hard work by children is reduced when agency is limited. They draw on qualitative data from 84 interviews with 23 participant children who had been designated at the end of their Year 3 as ‘lower-attainers’ in mathematics, English or bo…
Parity of participation? Primary-school children reflect critically on being successful during schooling
Nancy Fraser describes parity-of-participation in social interaction as an important component of social justice. In this paper, we explore the participatory experiences of primary-school-children who have been labelled ‘lower-attainers’ in mathematics and/or writing. The paper explores justice drawing on the perspective of these pupils, in relation to how they perceive success in their school learning. We link the concept of participation to the…
Children’s experiences of agency when learning English in the classroom of a collectivist culture
Students’ views on what aids their learning of school science in Lagos state, Nigeria
In Nigeria, school science education is believed to be impeded by multiple issues, in part resulting from limitations on funding, but there is a dearth of research that attends to the views of learners themselves. The aim of this study was to explore the views of secondary students in Lagos, Nigeria about the school science teaching they received. A multiple case study research design was employed and semi-structured individual ( n = 26) and grou…
“Look at them! They all have friends and not me”
This paper explores the peer relationship experiences of 23 primary-school children who had been designated as “lower-attaining”. It is written against the backdrop of the mental health crisis among young people in Britain. Using John Macmurray’s principles of equality and freedom as underpinning positive personal relationships, it investigates how “lower-attaining” children experience their peer relationships in a climate where attainment in mat…
Life‐history research with children
This article explores the life‐history research approach, outlining its key aims and traditions. It suggests that what is often missing from life‐history research is the inclusion of young children as life‐history participants. This paper considers some innovative means for constructing children's life‐histories across 5 years of their primary schooling in Britain. These include interviews based on activities, games, role‐play, pictures and filmi…
Persevering for a Cruel and Cynical Fiction? The Experiences of the ‘Low Achievers’ in Primary Schooling
This paper is significant in its exploration of the experiences of children designated as ‘lower-attaining’ in British primary schooling. It is underpinned by Nancy Fraser’s conceptualisation of a global shift from government via nation-state welfare structures to governance through supra-national financialised neoliberalism. Within this context, we take the innovative path of investigating how ‘lower-attaining’ children explain perseverance with…
Threats to creative learning in the primary-school
This article tracks the life-histories of 23 British schoolchildren aged from seven to 12 who were designated as ‘lower-attaining’ at age seven. Drawing on Self Determination Theory’s mini-theory of Causality Orientations, the authors explored whether/how children with a Controlled or Impersonal Orientation approached creative learning differently from those with an Autonomy Orientation. Six detailed life-histories presented illuminate that child…
National Curriculum and Assessment in England and the continuing narrowed experiences of lower-attainers in primary schools
A considerable body of global educational literature has examined how schooling policy based on measuring and managing performance has narrowed children’s access both to curriculum breadth and to diversity in pedagogy. This article approaches these curriculum dilemmas within the global concern for children’s wellbeing and social justice. In particular, it focuses on the experiences of children designated by this system as lower-attaining, which i…
Children who experience misrecognition in primary education
Our research constructed school life histories with 23 ‘lower‐attaining’ primary school children in England. Previous research has often failed to focus on the social justice aspects of this group, and no attempt has been made to contextualise children's misrecognition experiences within their full school life history, nor to hear primarily from children. Our results reveal for the first time the feelings, thinking and actions of lower attainers …
Agentic action as an aim for sustainability education
To support young people and their futures, sustainability education is increasingly framed around enhancing young people’s agency. In England, however, sustainability is not a formal subject within the National Curriculum and teachers may have different understandings of what sustainability education involves. New insights were revealed through content analysis of written questionnaire responses from 335 secondary school teachers of different sub…
Ellie's story
This article demonstrates how Foucault’s often overlooked concept of counter-conduct can helpfully illuminate children’s sense-making about school. Through exploring the understandings of Ellie, a disengaged low-attaining primary school pupil, we show how counter-conduct allows us to see pupils’ disengagement as part of a struggle over their subjectivity. Engaging in a project to avoid internalising the model of pupilhood available to her within …
Psychology (13 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Pedagogy (11 works) · Political science (8 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies (7 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (6 works) · Social science (6 works) · Mathematics education (5 works) · Children's Rights and Participation (4 works)