Are school uniforms still a good idea in 2022?
A better question is how can we improve their design to support learning, says public health researcher Dr Johanna Reidy.
Photo: Ron Lach from Pexels
Dr Johanna Reidy Photo: Supplied
When her child's school changed its uniforms, Dr Reidy got curious about what existing research can tell us about how particular uniform garments affect educational outcomes.
"Being the geek I am, I went to have a look."
There wasn't much to find, she tells Jesse Mulligan, and no strong evidence that school uniforms directly improve learning.
"Given we send our children to school to learn, wouldn't it make sense to understand how uniform wearing and the uniform garments themselves impact on health and education?"
There are upsides to school uniforms, Dr Reidy says, but these tend to overshadow the negative impacts of uniform rules on educational outcomes.
Uniforms are too often impractical and unfair, she writes in a recent piece for The Conversation.
Since they appeared in the 19th century, school uniforms have successfully acted as social camouflage by removing outward signs of class differences, Dr Reidy says.
Kids who wear school uniforms can show their style via shoes and backpacks, but the pressure to wear certain clothing isn't so crushing.
"From a psychological perspective, they reduce that awful competitive dressing that's sometimes… people feeling pressure to wear certain labelled clothes."
Another upside is classroom management, she says, as students do report that wearing a uniform helps them settle into a task and concentrate more quickly.
Yet school uniforms and school uniform policies don't have the same effect on all students, Dr Reidy's research revealed.
Some schools don't provide a choice for girls to wear shorts or pants and wearing a skirt can be a disincentive to participate in physical activity, she says.
"Why don't we have a choice of garment that doesn't get in the way of students participating in sport?"
Then there's financial inequity.
Girls' school uniforms often cost more than boys but there is little documented research on this, Dr Reidy says.
This is an example of "pink tax", in which items designed for girls are more expensive than those designed for boys.
Even though uniforms are less expensive than non-uniform alternatives over a student's total school career, they are increasingly unaffordable for most families, especially in New Zealand where the start of the school year follows close behind Christmas.
Dr Reidy says she's heard of students not coming to school regularly because they share a uniform with a sibling.
"That is really ridiculous because the whole point of uniforms - originally - was to encourage everyone to come to school and everyone to have the same access to education."
A lot of learning comes via physical play and school uniforms should be comfortable enough to allow free movement and physical activity, Dr Reidy says.
Sports-style uniforms allow all kids to be active, and girls, in particular, are more physically active when they wear sporty clothing, according to an Australian study.
"[Sports-style uniforms] encourage more activity throughout the school day and that's what we want, especially as obesity is a concern."
Dr Johanna Reidy is a PhD candidate at the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago, Wellington.
Related:
'I can be free': 7-year-old scraps school uniform skirt for shorts
Kayleigh Dryden successfully petitioned her school for the right to ditch her pinafore uniform in favour of shorts during the summer months.
Otago Girls' students get the option of pants thanks to a Year-13 activist
From next year, students at the Otago Girls' High School will be allowed to wear pants, thanks to the efforts of Year 13 student Hannah King.
