This research follows the discourse of the ragged school movement across a twenty-year period, and through this provides a greater understanding of problem-formation and problem-solving. By...Show moreThis research follows the discourse of the ragged school movement across a twenty-year period, and through this provides a greater understanding of problem-formation and problem-solving. By analysing the movement using ideas of problematisation and sub-culture solidification as the theoretical framework, this thesis contends with contemporary views of the child-saving movement. Unlike the wider historiographical work on the child-savers, this work has investigated the problematising function of language that was used in ragged school material, and has shown how the rhetoric that was used sought to mobilise and involve the general public. During this research, factors such as the identification of deviants, the fluidity of categorisation, the association of broader issues, and the importance of problem solvability have been explored in a manner that had not yet been done in association with the child-saving movement. Beyond this, this work has contributed to current theories of problematisation by focusing on how a problem can be built around an intended solution.Show less
