Introduction

This chapter describes the toxic mechanisms that occur in secondary schools which can harm young people's health. The chapter draws mainly on qualitative research to explore three toxic mechanisms as they are experienced by students. Some of this qualitative research has been done by me and my colleagues. Some of it has been done by other researchers. As explained at the start of this book, qualitative research draws on interviews, focus groups and observations to try to understand how people experience the world. Interviews and focus groups involve researchers asking open-ended questions and then listening to people's stories in their own words. Qualitative research explores people's accounts of their experiences and the meanings they give to these as well as how they act and interact with others. It can explore how people's actions can be enabled and constrained by the institutions within which they find themselves (such as schools). And it can explore the immediate consequences of their actions.

Qualitative research is strong on understanding the details of social processes and how these are experienced by people. It can help us develop theories about cause and effect in the lives of people and across society.6 Qualitative research is less strong on testing the wider applicability of these theories. It generally draws on small samples of participants and contexts. It doesn't collect exactly the same sorts of data from each participant.