Surveillance schools security, discipline and control in contemporary education

141 Pages·2013·1.192 MB·English

by  Taylor, Emmeline

Surveillance Schools
DOI: 10.1057/9781137308863
Crime Prevention and Security Management
Series Editor: Martin Gill
Titles include:
Paul Almond
CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER AND REGULATORY REFORM
Rachel Armitage
CRIME PREVENTION THROUGH HOUSING DESIGN
Policy and Practice
Joshua Bamfield
SHOPPING AND CRIME
Daniel Donnelly
MUNICIPAL POLICING IN THE EUROPEAN UNION
Comparative Perspectives
Paul Ekblom
CRIME PREVENTION, SECURITY AND COMMUNITY SAFETY USING THE 5IS
FRAMEwORk
Adam Graycar and Tim Prenzler
UNDERSTANDING AND PREVENTING CORRUPTION
Bob Hoogenboom
THE GOVERNANCE OF POLICING AND SECURITY
Ironies, Myths and Paradoxes
Daniel McCarthy
‘SOFT’ POLICING
The Collaborative Control of Anti-Social Behaviour
Tim Prenzler
POLICING AND SECURITY IN PRACTICE
Challenges and Achievements
Emmeline Taylor
SURVEILLANCE SCHOOLS
Security, Discipline and Control in Contemporary Education
Jan van Dijk, Andromachi Tseloni and Graham Farrell (editors)
THE INTERNATIONAL CRIME DROP
New Directions in Research
Adam white
THE POLITICS OF PRIVATE SECURITY
Regulation, Reform and Re-Legitimation
Crime Prevention and Security Management
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DOI: 10.1057/9781137308863
Surveillance Schools:
Security, Discipline
and Control in
Contemporary
Education
Emmeline Taylor
Senior Lecturer, Australian National University
DOI: 10.1057/9781137308863
© Emmeline Taylor 2013
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First published 2013 by
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doi: 10.1057/9781137308863
Contents
Preface vi
Acknowledgements viii
Series Editor’s Introduction ix
Introduction 1
1 Surveillance Schools: A New Era in
Education 15
2 Visions of Control: A Case Study on
School CCTV 40
3 Lessons in Submission? The Societal
Impacts of Surveillance Schools 61
4 Panoptic Pedagogy and the Political
Economy of Surveillance Schools 79
Conclusion 106
Bibliography 114
Index 126
DOI: 10.1057/9781137308863 v
Preface
In the early 2000s, I embarked upon a PhD in Manchester,
United kingdom that aimed to explore the societal impacts
of CCTV. The Uk at that time was undergoing an aggres-
sive, state-funded roll out of CCTV systems that would see
coverage across England and wales rocket from a mere 100
public surveillance cameras in 1990 to over a million in
20 years. The Uk was fast emerging as the ‘CCTV capital
of the world’ but there wasn’t a huge amount of empirical
research being conducted on the impact it was having on
society, other than a handful of evaluations that specifically
focused on whether CCTV ‘worked’ in reducing crime.
Largely omitted from the agenda was any discussion about
the ‘side effects’ of CCTV and how it might impact on
social interaction, privacy and civil liberties.
As with many PhD scholars, the task ahead seemed
daunting and the many facets of CCTV, and more broadly
surveillance, was unwieldy. One day I sat talking with my
sister, ten years my junior. I told her that I was explor-
ing the use of CCTV in more depth, and her response
is something that has shaped my scholarly enquiry ever
since: ‘will you be looking at the CCTV in my school?’ I
thought I had misheard her at first. Cameras in her school?
She was 11 years old. It became apparent that a school just
up the road from where I was living, in a lower-middle
class suburban area, had installed a very sophisticated
CCTV system with cameras in the classrooms, corridors
and the pupil’s toilets. There was extensive, near-seamless
coverage that any urban metropolis or police department
would be envious of. In fact this one school with little over
vi DOI: 10.1057/9781137308863
Preface vii
1000 pupils had more CCTV cameras than the city centre public scheme
at the time. I couldn’t understand it, and immediately I had a research
topic that would continue to fascinate me a decade later. Over the years,
I have had many similar encounters talking to pupils as they somewhat
nonchalantly tell me about the new fingerprinting systems, the random
searches without suspicion, and the omnipresent CCTV cameras that
have become a routine part of their school day.
My incredulity is less with the technologies and processes themselves,
but more the lack of consideration that has been given to their use in
schools. Blind faith in technology as a quick-fix panacea, draconian
zero tolerance strategies, a generalised mistrust of youth and the infil-
tration of corporate values into education have taken us down a path
of creating Surveillance Schools that are not necessarily safer, better or
more conducive to learning. These policies and technologies are too
often implemented at an exorbitant cost to under-resourced schools and
premised on ‘commonsense’ presumptions of efficacy. My concern lies
with the impact this is having on pupils, teachers and staff, and more
broadly society. In the school environment, pupils are taught to accept
‘the way things are’, particularly when activities are embedded into the
pedagogical apparatus. Pupils have a relative lack of power in an institu-
tion that is oriented around an axis of control and discipline. Their dual
casting, as potential perpetrators and vulnerable victims, make them
ideal candidates for invasive surveillance practices.
But what can we make of these developments in schools? Surveillance
Schools maps out the trends in technological surveillance and begins to
unpick some of the causal factors driving this revolutionary change in
educational practice.
DOI: 10.1057/9781137308863
Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the
support and influence of numerous individuals to whom
I am indebted. Throughout my career as a researcher I
have engaged with many colleagues and friends who have
helped me to generate new ways of thinking about surveil-
lance, its impact and the role of schools in society.
Several people read sections of the manuscript and
provided excellent feedback. I would like to thank my col-
leagues at the Australian National University for engaging
with my research and ideas, and my former colleague,
Professor Martin Gill, for his ongoing encouragement.
Many teachers, staff and pupils have shaped my under-
standing of Surveillance Schools. I am very grateful for
the forthright views and experiences that they shared with
me, particularly those who participated in the case studies
in the North of England.
I would like to thank the team at Palgrave Macmillan
for making this book a reality.
On a personal note, I wish to thank my family and
friends for their support. Jamie provided encouragement
and a sense of perspective when it was most needed and I
couldn’t have done it without him.
viii DOI: 10.1057/9781137308863
Series Editor’s Introduction
This book provides a powerful reminder of why surveil-
lance merits careful attention and why this takes on a spe-
cial significance in a school setting. while surveillance can
provide for safer and more secure settings, claims on the
extent to which these can be assured by different types of
surveillance technologies and practices can be overstated,
and the negative consequences can completely nullify
any positive effects. These issues are a prime concern of
this book in which Emmeline Taylor analyses the range
of ways in which teachers and pupils are watched over,
and how these are used alongside other strategies, such as
security screening, personal searches and zero tolerance of
some types of behaviour to instil a negative culture to the
environment in which children are educated.
Via her own work on CCTV in schools, she highlights
the ways in which children felt it ‘undermines privacy’
and contributes to a ‘manifestation of mistrust’, having a
‘chilling effect’ on creativity, while simultaneously initiat-
ing a process of ‘distanciation’ (denying the opportunity
for social interaction). Emmeline draws from a range of
theories and writers to explain the consequences this has
on both generating a false sense of safety and security
but more importantly, for her interests, in leading to the
isolation and marginalisation of certain groups of young
people who are caught up in overly punitive environ-
ments. This book does not just point to the danger of civil
liberty intrusions; it shows the ways in which this is hap-
pening. In response she proposes a new way of responding
to indiscipline in schools, one that moves away from a
DOI: 10.1057/9781137308863 ix