Violence, Mental Health and the British School Child: from theory to practice in an era of war, peace and social change, 1944-1980. (360G-Wellcome-108600_Z_15_Z)

Focusing on primary and secondary state education in England from the Education Act of 1944 to 1980, the project will examine thought and practice on the relationship between violence and children. This will entail, in the first instance, exploring the connections between theory and practice and the ways in which psychological ideas were mediated by the range of actors who commented on, and were active in debates about, the problem of violence in schools. Secondly, beginning its time-frame with the Second World War, the research offers a valuable opportunity to assess whether the conflict affected thinking about children as well as providing scope for examining the effect of the new tripartite education system and its post-war extension of secondary education to all children. Finally, the research will consider the differences in how a range of professionals thought about this subject, particularly psychologists and teachers, but also social workers, parents, and popular commentators. It will trace differences in practice according to the age of children, gender, class and ethnicity, and explore the effect of ideas about moral decline associated with the permissive society (evident in alarm during the 1950s about the existence of a 'blackboard jungle').