Tag Archives: Young People

Diverse Voices? Curating a National History of Children’s Books

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On Friday 24th November, Newcastle University’s Children’s Literature Unit and Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books co-hosted Diverse Voices? Curating a National History of Children’s Books. This one-day symposium, supported by Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal explored how Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic voices are represented in our national story of children’s literature. In this blog post, which originally appeared on The Race to Read blog, symposium co-convenor Professor Karen Sands O’Connor of SUNY Buffalo State reflects on the events.

In the foreword to the recently-published anthology of fiction and poetry for young adults, A Change is Gonna Come (Stripes, 2017), philosopher Darren Chetty writes, “We can think of change as the space between who we are and who we want to be—between being and becoming—as individuals and as communities” (7-8).

The brilliant and optimistic collection from Stripes includes writing from Diverse Voices? participants Darren Chetty, Patrice Lawrence and Catherine Johnson.The brilliant and optimistic collection from Stripes includes writing from Diverse Voices? participants Darren Chetty, Patrice Lawrence and Catherine Johnson.

This sentiment entirely encapsulates the motivation behind the Diverse Voices? symposium I helped to organize with Seven Stories, the UK’s National Centre for Children’s Books, and Newcastle University Institute for Social Renewal, a symposium where Chetty was a participant. During my year as Leverhulme Visiting Professor (2015-16), I formed a relationship with the people at Seven Stories Collections – archivists, curators, and librarians – that was both personal and professional.  They were supportive of (and occasionally amused by my revolutionary passion for) my project to make Black British literature a more “normalized” part of British children’s literature. As I put it in the book that resulted from that year at Seven Stories, “The face of Britain might have changed after World War II, but not necessarily the hearts and minds of white British people. This is partly because the Blackness of Black Britons was made manifestly obvious and continually depicted as Other; but the whiteness of white British society has remained largely invisible” (Children’s Publishing and Black Britain 5).

The Diverse Voices? symposium, held at Seven Stories, allowed some of the brightest thinkers in writing, publishing, librarianship and academia to come together and think about ways to ensure that real change would finally come to the UK’s children’s literature. This blog highlights some of the thoughts (both from the event, and from their more public commentary) of the main speakers of the day.

Catherine Johnson, Patrice Lawrence and Darren Chetty in conversation. Image: Newcastle University
Catherine Johnson, Patrice Lawrence and Darren Chetty in conversation. Image: Newcastle University

Catherine Johnson encapsulates the idea of Britishness/whiteness in her short story from A Change is Gonna Come, “Astounding Talent! Unequalled Performances!” In this story, the young protagonist is told to, “Fight the world . . . You are a black man in a white world. A foreigner” (69). When the main character protests that he was born in Norwich, the man responds, “I doubt if anyone else sees it that way” (70).

Although I was familiar with this attitude, that if you are Black, Britishness is out of reach, I knew that Seven Stories did not want to mirror this sentiment in their museum or archives. Collections and Exhibitions Director Sarah Lawrance pointed out on Friday that, “We have a longstanding commitment to collecting diverse authors and materials” at Seven Stories, but it has not always been an easy task for them.

Part of my remit during my Leverhulme year was to provide some recommendations for expanding the collection, but I was very conscious of the fact that I – like most of the Seven Stories staff – was white and middle-class, and an American to boot: the very picture of privilege. What is the point of a person who has always been privileged enough to raise her voice (in revolution or otherwise) speaking on behalf of those whose voices have been historically side-lined? I did not want to replicate old histories. I suggested we bring some intellectuals – writers, editors, librarians, publishers, academics, book people – from historically-marginalized groups to Seven Stories to hear from them directly. Sarah agreed – as did so many of the great names that we invited.

Seven Stories' Collections Officer Paula Wride discusses items from the Collection with Diverse Voices? participants.
Seven Stories’ Collections Officer Paula Wride discusses items from the Collection with Diverse Voices? participants.  Image: Newcastle University

We called the symposium “Diverse Voices?” because it reflected Seven Stories’ previous Diverse Voices initiatives and left open the question of whose voices were heard and where those voices were welcome. It became part of Newcastle’s Freedom City 2017 project, a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Newcastle University’s granting an honorary doctorate to Martin Luther King, Jr. The themes of Freedom City 2017 were those that King mentioned in his speech at the ceremony: the effects of war, poverty and racism on society. King had come to Newcastle from my current hometown of Buffalo, where he argued that these problems affected young people the most because “the best in these minds cannot come out” when they have to worry about their education, their housing, their ability to make their voices count.

I was lucky enough to discuss these ideas with author Alex Wheatle MBE in our Into Crongton with Alex Wheatle event on Thursday 23rd November 2017, who said that the characters in his Crongton series were affected by all of these issues – from World War II, which brought so many of their parents and grandparents to Britain, to the day-to-day poverty that prevents them from reaching their goals, to the institutional racism that keeps them “in their place”. All of Wheatle’s young adult characters in his Crongton series have creative and artistic dreams, but there remains a question over whether they will be able to achieve them. As he said at the symposium when talking about how whiteness influences prize-giving, “Otherness wasn’t quite adjudicated for.”

Alex Wheatle MBE in conversation with Professor Karen Sands O'Connor at the Into Crongton with Alex Wheatle event.
Alex Wheatle MBE in conversation with Professor Karen Sands O’Connor at the Into Crongton with Alex Wheatle event.  Image: Newcastle University

Otherness, or rather being othered, was something that had affected many of the speakers at the symposium. Filipino writer Candy Gourlay mentioned that her work had been translated to television with her main characters depicted as white because there was always “the assumption that if I had a hero, my hero would be white”. SF Said wondered if by only listing his initials on his books, he had created the same assumption: “The minute I took away the obvious ‘difference’ of my name, doors opened for me.”

Some of the participants mentioned historical moments when those doors were opened because of cultural change; author Beverley Naidoo talked about how “There were really close connections between anti-apartheid movements and what was going on in the UK” in the 1970s and 1980s. And librarian Jake Hope reminded the audience of the “radical roots” that led librarians (Black and white) to demand changes in publishing during that same time period. This sense of history was underscored by author Patrice Lawrence, who highlighted the importance of the historical record: “The joy of looking at archives,” she said, is that “you come to understand how we got to where we are.” And archivist and author S. I. Martin pointed out that archives could teach more than just adults: “Archives are a world that kids can write themselves into.”

Jake Hope speaking about children's literature prizes, chaired by Dr Lucy Pearson.
Jake Hope speaking about children’s literature prizes, chaired by Dr Lucy Pearson. Image: Newcastle University

There was at times a rumbling undercurrent of concern that the symposium was a good start whose promise might never be fulfilled. Author Ifeoma Onyefulu spoke those concerns out loud when she said, “It’s good to talk, but where’s the action?”

Many of the symposium participants found the pace of historical change too slow, and did not wait for a space to be made for them. Verna Wilkins, the founder of Tamarind and then of Firetree Books, talked about how her life’s work was “an attempt to redress the balance” in the world of publishing. The illustrator Yu Rong spoke about seeing a hole in the publishing world: “There is very little about China and Chinese people in UK children’s books” and so Rong has done her best to fill up that hole, at least a little bit.

Verna Wilkins talks about setting up Tamarind Books at Diverse Voices? Image: Newcastle University.
Verna Wilkins talks about setting up Tamarind Books at Diverse Voices? Image: Newcastle University.

But for almost everyone at the symposium, action by one group of people was not enough to bring real change for everyone. Instead, it will take hard work and difficult discussions to change children’s literature in the UK if we are going to make every child feel a sense of belonging in the world of books. We must read differently – think differently – speak differently. We must cross the barriers that keep us apart by any means necessary.

In Sita Brahmachari’s recent book for the publisher Barrington Stoke, Worry Angels (2017), she writes about the difficulty and necessity of communication:

“If someone doesn’t speak the same language as you . . . when you want them to understand not just the words that you say, but what you feel, then you try to speak in any way that you can . . . with your hands, with your eyes, with pictures in the sand . . . You act things out . . . you let the feeling show in your whole body . . . whatever way you can to show them you want to be your friend” (71).

It is this kind of communication we need to keep up between us all, even when it is hard. When it goes wrong – as it will – we must keep on trying. This is the only way to ensure that the change we want will come in British children’s books – for all kids.

– Professor Karen Sands O’Connor

Part of Freedom City 2017, the Diverse Voices? symposium and associated events were supported by Newcastle University’s Institute for Social Renewal, the Catherine Cookson Foundation, the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England.

Making school buildings fit for purpose

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In ‘Ideas for an Incoming Government’ no. 14, Dr Pam Woolner from the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences argues that with pupil numbers rising, our schools are under pressure, and our school buildings need to catch up. Her idea is to make working with school students, staff and the wider community a priority in tackling the problem.

School buildings

What’s the problem?

Our school estate is not fit for purpose. Although this government and the previous Labour administrations have overseen new school building, it was long overdue and has not got anywhere near renewing or refurbishing all the schools in need. It has also led to very uneven provision: schools built over the last 150 years that have been designed for disparate understandings of education.

Meanwhile, student numbers are generally rising, putting pressure on this already-strained infrastructure. For the first time in decades, the UK is experiencing a sustained increase in birth rate which will translate into steady increases in school numbers. As Sarah Healey (then Director, Education Funding Group, DfE) commented in 2013, “this is not a very short temporary bulge […] so it will continue to be a challenge.” (Westminster Education Forum, 16.1.13).

This is concerning because there is an established, if not entirely understood, link between the quality of the school space and student outcomes. In particular, research shows that there are clear negative consequences of inadequate school buildings. Focused research has found direct effects on learning of specific physical problems including noise, high and low temperatures, poor air quality and limited learning space. Other studies reveal correlations between measures of school building and classroom quality with student outcomes including attitude, attendance and attainment. We can see how a poor school environment might contribute to a spiral of decline: this could involve declining student attitudes, increases in poor behaviour, reduced well-being and attendance, lowered staff morale and difficulties in staff retention.

Yet research into the physical environment of education also demonstrates that there is not a single perfect or ideal setting for learning. Although spacious, well-ventilated classrooms with good acoustics and temperature controls will tend to be beneficial, the suitability of other aspects of the school building will depend on what the school community wants to do: collaborative learning in groups, hands-on science, musical performance and sport all make particular, sometimes conflicting, demands on space.

The solution

There is some evidence that in effective schools, staff tend to engage with the physical environment and attempt to make it fit their needs. Other research suggests an important role for students in such evaluation and adaptation activities. In these processes, everyone comes to understand the helps and hindrances of their particular building much better and are able to make better use of it.

The evidence base reveals the negative effect of poor school premises, but it does not provide priorities for fixing them, and shows that there is no ideal to aim for. We need to understand the intentions and needs of the school community to design them an appropriate setting.

This all implies a necessity of actively involving school students, staff and the wider community in any redesign or rebuilding, helping them to think collaboratively about exactly what their requirements are.   There is expertise among architecture and design professionals to make such participation happen, but it needs to be a central requirement of rebuilding and refurbishment processes to ensure that it does. Unfortunately, it is this element of participation that is being determinedly left out of the current government’s funding arrangements for school rebuilding.

An incoming government needs to ensure that the understandings which school users have of education in their settings are brought together and developed to drive decisions in re-builds, re-designs and refurbishments. Ultimately, this is the most productive way to address the shortcomings of the school estate, which if ignored will detrimentally affect the education of the citizens of tomorrow.

The evidence

Bakó-Birób, Zs., Clements-Croomea, D.J, Kochhara, N., Awbia, H.B. and Williams, M.J. (2012) ‘Ventilation rates in schools and pupils’ performance’, Building and Environment, 48: 215-23.

Barrett, P., Zhang, Y., Moffat, J. Kobbacy, K (2013) A holistic, multi-level analysis identifying the impact of classroom design on pupils’ learning. Building and Environment, 59: 678-689.

Durán-Narucki , V. (2008). School building condition, school attendance, and academic achievement in New York City public schools: A mediation model. Journal of Environmental Psychology 28: 278-286.

Flutter, J. (2006). ‘This place could help you learn’: student participation in creating better learning environments. Educational Review 58(2): 183-193.

Maxwell, L.E. (2003) Home and School Density Effects on Elementary School Children: The Role of Spatial Density Environment and Behavior 35: 566 – 577

Uline,C. L. Tschannen-Moran, M., and DeVere Wolsey, T. (2009).The walls still speak: The stories occupants tell. Journal of Educational Administration, 47(3):400–426.

Woolner, P. (2015) (Ed.) School Design Together, Abingdon: Routledge

Woolner, P.and Hall, E. (2010). Noise in Schools: A Holistic Approach to the Issue, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 7(8): 3255-3269.

Woolner, P., Hall, E., Higgins,S., McCaughey, C., Wall, K. (2007a) A sound foundation? What we know about the impact of environments on learning and the implications for Building Schools for the Future. Oxford Review of Education, 33(1): 47-70.

 

School-Community Advisory Groups: ‘Turning Schools Inside Out’

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To turn schools inside out, develop a localised community curriculum, argues Professor David Leat from the Research Centre for Learning and Teaching (CfLaT), School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences. To read other Ideas for an Incoming Government, view the entire series hosted by the Newcastle University Institute for Social Renewal blog.

Turning Schools Inside Out smaller

What’s the problem?

We have a national curriculum which lays out what should be taught to school pupils.  When the National Curriculum was first introduced the mistake was made of cramming in too much content and successive reviews have chipped away at this content.  However it is increasingly recognised that schools need greater freedom to offer a curriculum that is locally developed to reflect local resources, issues and needs for a proportion of the school week.  We need a policy which allows and supports schools, in partnership with local stakeholders, to develop a localised community curriculum.

The solution

Schools should be able to apply to the DES for licence to devote between 20 and 40% of their school year to curriculum which is developed locally in partnership with community stakeholders which would include businesses, community organisations/charities, specialist societies, public services and universities.  The submitted plan would include the aims of such curriculum work related both to the goals of National Curriculum and to individual school aims and characteristics of the region/locality.  Once accepted the plan would be included in the school inspection remit.  Relevance comes from the meaningful work that is produced by the students which will address many of the challenges facing schools in relation to motivation, behaviour, transitions and wider educational outcomes (such as self-concept and resilience).

In practice schools would establish a community curriculum advisory group (CAG) which would advise and assist in developing inter-disciplinary, challenging and authentic projects for the students.  The advisory group would consist of 5-12 members (larger in large secondary schools) drawn from the constituencies outlined earlier, but including one or two governors.  Many might be parents and there should be a minimum of one from the business community and one from the culture/arts sector.  The school would have the final say about the composition of the CAG.  The aim of the CAG would be:

  1. To review curriculum plans for year groups or subject departments;
  2. To advise on and support curriculum development that uses the potential of the locality and community – thus acting as a conduit for school-community relationships;
  3. Have regard to soft skills and EU competences;
  4. Guide and support the school in recognising and validating the wider learning outcomes of school students, from both school activities and out-of-school activities – which would include possible development of digital portfolios.

The school could also submit an application for a community curriculum award at one of three levels (for the sake of argument: bronze, silver and gold).  Such an application would have to include evidence of the wider learning outcomes for the students, and of the ‘products’ generated by the students validated by users or others in the community.

Benefits

  • The policy would make a substantial difference to schools, allowing them to release the creativity of staff and school leaders and free them from the excesses of ‘teaching to the test’.
  • Pupils would feel the difference through the authentic work and challenges that they are offered – thus engaging with work that matters.
  • Universities would feel the difference in having students who are better prepared for research and both collaborative and independent study.
  • Employers would benefit from having employees who have a wider spectrum of skills (with no diminution of basic skills).
  • The creation of CAGs would also bring fresh air to the feverish issue of accountability.  Currently the government and its agent, Ofsted, determine the criteria for judging the performance of schools.  This is an over-centralised model which is unresponsive to local need and creativity.

There would be teething troubles over how representative CAGs are and it is important that schools have control of their composition, so that they do not feel that they are being ‘done to’.

The evidence

A Demos report (Sodha & Gugliemi, 2009), detailed the disaffection and alienation evident amongst young people of school age, and the harm that they encounter.  Recently, an Independent Advisory Group, coordinated by Pearson, recommended that England must adopt a framework of key competences such as that developed by the European Union (e.g. learning to learn, working as part of a team and intercultural competence) AND a recognition of vocational learning for ALL students (Anderson 2014).

The RSA have produced a report (Facer 2010) which summarises the literature relating to ‘Area Based Curriculum’ and reporting on two ABC projects in Manchester and Peterborough.  The outcomes in Peterborough, where Curriculum Development Partnerships were pioneered included:

  • Teachers learned about the locality and felt more connected
  • School and partner representatives reported a change to the way organisations engage with schools
  • Partners reported that more schools are now open to working with outside agencies

In the US there is a substantial resurgence in interest in Community Education (although with a greater involvement of social workers that we are suggesting) and here the evidence is for far greater engagement.  ‘High Tech High’ in California has a very high profile and reputation for project based work, often but not always, linked to the community (http://www.hightechhigh.org/about/results.php).

 

Extending Choices and Access for the Poorest to Low Cost Private Schools in India and Africa

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Dr Pauline Dixon from E.G West Centre, Newcastle’s School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, draws our attention to international aid in the latest Idea for an Incoming Government hosted by the Social Renewal blog. In particular, she argues that the evidence supports financial contribution towards low-cost private schools in slums of the developing world.

Low-cost private schools

What is the problem?

A large body of research published since 2000 has documented the significant and growing contributions of low-cost private schools in slums and villages of developing countries around the world. In India, Pakistan and Africa these schools have been shown to have better facilities, teacher attendance and activity as well as higher student achievements than government schools. And this is all achieved at a fraction of the teacher costs. Low cost private schools are already contributing to quality “education for all”.

However, even though many poor people are able to access low cost private schools costing £4-£5 per month, others are so poor that they are unable to afford the fees. If international aid were to be given at the grassroots level in the form of targeted vouchers and/or conditional or unconditional cash transfers, then this would assist the poorest to access a better education for their children.

International aid regarding schooling in the developing world needs to focus on quality “Education for All” and not just getting children into ‘schools’ that may be ineffective. Aid agencies should start to consider assisting the poorest parents in gaining access to the better quality and more effective and efficient low cost private schools that already exist in city slums as well as rural areas in Africa and India. Parents voting with their feet away from state education that is failing their children have set an agenda that international aid agencies need to appreciate and acknowledge.

The solution

An education voucher may be a coupon or a cheque that a government or philanthropist provides to parents for them to spend with an education provider of their choice. They may be used as part or whole payment for schooling, which could be in the state or private sector – but typically an approved school participating in the voucher programme. It is possible therefore, through the use of aid vouchers, for funds to reach the poorest at the grassroots level, minimising waste, corruption and theft whilst focusing on efficiency and effectiveness. It is now time that such alternative means of allocating international aid be given a true hearing.

Some, such as Joseph Hanlon et al., also suggest that just giving money to the poor is the best solution to ending poverty. Hanlon et al provide evidence from cash transfer programmes around the world, setting out a case to show that cash transfers given direct to the poor are efficient because recipients use the money in a way that best suits their needs. Cash transfers can be unconditional (no conditions attached for gaining the cash) or conditional (the recipients are required to do something to get the cash transfer). Mothers usually receive the transfer and, in addition, some programmes give money to the student. They can have a broad target or a narrow target providing a very small or large proportion of household income. Typically, conditional cash transfers (CCTs) request those in receipt of the cash to make specific investments in their children’s education and health. The two largest CCTs are in Brazil and Mexico – Bolsa Família and Oportunidades respectively. Chile and Turkey’s CCT programmes focus on the extreme poor and socially excluded, and in Bangladesh and Cambodia CCTs aim at reducing gender disparities in education.

The conditions of the CCTs generally require parents to make investments in their children’s human capital in the form of healthcare and education. The education conditions have typically until now focused on government school enrolment. That is, the child’s school attendance requirements are set at between 80 and 85%. Focus could now be on the low cost private schools’ sector, which would be part of the ‘condition’ of the transfer. The child would need to access a school of ‘quality’ that would increase their attainment and ability, and not merely prove ‘attendance’.

The evidence

In India, randomised control trials have illustrated the advantages of directing funds to the poor through an alternative provider and management sector. The ARK (Absolute Return for Kids) Delhi voucher programme funded by a London based charity has been shown to provide access to the poorest as well as to benefit girls from the poorest families in society. Some of the poorest children in the slums of Delhi started school in 2011 using ARK vouchers. They are attending schools of their own choice. At the end of year one of the voucher scheme, children in both control and treatment groups were tested again in the standardised tests. The results show that there is a positive and statistically significant impact of the voucher programme on math achievement. The voucher adds up to about £100 per year and includes the payment for fees, books, uniform and meals.

The Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) has been running the Education Voucher Scheme (EVS) in Lahore since 2006. In 2011 a total of 40,000 vouchers were offered in 17 districts including Lahore.  Over half of the voucher recipients are girls. The aim of the scheme is to allow the poorest of the poor to have equal access to quality education. The LEAPS project found that children in low cost private schools in Pakistan were 1.5-2.5 years ahead of children in government schools.

In Columbia, the Programa de Ampliacion de Cobertura de la Educacion Secundaria (PACES), was set up 20 years ago and provided vouchers to help 125,000 children from low-income families. Researchers tracked the children over the years. They also tracked a similar number of families who had applied for, but were not allocated vouchers due to limited numbers. The results show:

  • Parents who were given vouchers opted to send their children to private schools and not keep them in the state system
  • The children stayed on until 8th grade (about 13 years old), were less likely to take paid work during school time (therefore concentrated on their studies) and they scored higher in achievement tests than their peers attending government schools.
  • The number of youngsters graduating from high school rose by five to seven per cent and they were more likely to try for university.

Looking at the evidence regarding cash transfers, this shows that they are not only affordable for donors and governments, but provide immediate hardship and poverty reduction for those in receipt of the transfer. They facilitate economic and social development, initiating the potential to reduce long-term poverty. Providing those at the grass roots with a monetary payment, which is regular, assured, practical to administer, fair and politically ‘acceptable’, allows the poor to be in control and in charge of their own development.

References:

Watch Dr Pauline Dixon’s TED Talk on how private schools are serving the poorest in Asia and Africa and why, how and whom they are run and supported by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzv4nBoXoZc

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All Children Need to be Able to Read

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Professor James Law (School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences) presents Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal’s latest Idea for an Incoming Government: get all children reading well at age 11 by 2025. Using the findings of Save the Children’s Read On Get On report, Professor Law suggests that we are failing our children with the current system, and argues that change is needed to prevent further exclusion.

Children's reading

What is the problem?

There has been a lot of hand ringing recently about our addiction to screens, games consoles, tablets and all the rest of the gadgets which now permeate our lives. Yet this obscures a much more significant underlying societal problem which we overlook at our peril. Too many children are managing to get through school without being able to read. This means that in our predominantly ‘white collar’ world they are pretty much excluded from school activities and ineligible for most employment.

Getting children to read has been the focus of the National Curriculum for many years following the introduction of the Literacy Hour. Indeed, so dominant has this trend been that the word ’literacy’ seems to have replaced ‘reading and writing’ in many children’s vocabulary.  Yet once children reach the age of ‘learning to read’ it is assumed that they will be ‘reading to learn’ and support for poor readers fades away and they are largely left to fend for themselves. Evidence suggests that an inability to contribute in these later stages of primary school leads to disengagement in the whole process of schooling well before the children reach secondary school.

But let’s have a look at some of the figures, taken from the report produced by Save the Children in September 2014 called Read On Get On. This report was designed to shed light on the data behind this issue and to ensure that these issues became an integral part of the manifestoes of all the political parties as they move towards the General Election in May 2015.

Last year a quarter of all children left primary school without being able to read well. This figure rose to 40% in the most socially disadvantaged groups. Low income white British boys were by far the most vulnerable group. The reading gap between boys and girls is one of the widest in the world. Similarly, the gap between the most and the least socially disadvantaged groups is wider in the UK than it is any country on Europe apart from Romania.

It is almost as if we have deliberately engineered inequity into our educational system. This is directly related to employment prospects. A quarter of people earning less than £10,000 per year are not functionally literate. The figure for those earning over £30,000 is one in 25.

The evidence

Underpinning this challenge is a need to understand how these difficulties emerge. We contributed a chapter in the report about the way that oral language skills – that is children learning their own language – have a bearing on children’s reading. Difficulties learning to read start in the preschool period as children struggle with basic language competency. In most cases it’s not that they don’t speak, but rather they often start late and then don’t keep up as the language skills of their peers race ahead. Again this is clearly related to social disadvantage.

Using data from 18,000 children in the Millennium Cohort Study, we showed that when you follow the children from three years to five and then at eleven years the gap between the highest performers and the lowest is 26 months at five years rising to 31 months at eleven years. Children do catch up, of course, but equally the skills of some children seem to fall back and this was twice as likely for the more disadvantaged groups. Whether a parent reads to their child has been consistently shown to predict more positive outcomes and there seems to be a special role for dads in this, particularly when children are in primary school, something that attracted a lot of attention when the report was released. It is also important to note that early child development fits into another cross party initiative called 1001 Critical Days which focuses on the importance of child development up to two years of age, but the need to keep an eye of a child’s development doesn’t stop at two years.

The solution

The ambition of Read On Get On is simple enough: to get all children reading well at 11 years by 2025. Underpinning literacy are oral language skills. And this has led to an additional aim of all children achieving good early language development by the age of five by 2020. The report calls for a national mission to address these issues. This mission seeks to engage parents in reading to every child for just ten minutes every day, to encourage volunteers to give their time to help children with reading and language, to bring together voluntary sector, schools, policy makers and the private sector together to create innovative solutions with local schools leading the way. And finally that this be driven across government, supporting these local initiatives.

Clearly the Government has a responsibility for the economic prosperity of the country and they are sensitive to international comparisons, as we see with the alterations being proposed for the A level system to raise Maths attainment to that of South Korea and other countries. Undoubtedly it is important to let our strong students thrive. Yet the fact that we appear to continue to fail students, who come out of school ill-prepared for the workforce, and thus vulnerable to external competition in a multinational world, raises real questions which are posed in Read On Get On and it is very appropriate to look for solutions in the party manifestoes.

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Restricting the Marketing of Alcohol Directed Towards Young People

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What impact does alcohol marketing have on young people? Our newest Idea for an Incoming Government is from Professor Eileen Kaner and Dr Stephanie Scott (Institute of Health and Society), who call for restrictions to be put in place, protecting our national health, and improving young lives.

Alcoholic beverages in bottles

What is the problem?

Alcohol use is the leading risk to health and well-being in young people, accounting for seven percent of disability adjusted life years in 10-24 year olds globally, with UK adolescents amongst the heaviest drinkers in Europe. Frequent, often high-intensity drinking in early to mid-adolescence has been linked to a myriad of adverse effects. Short-term implications, which pose the greater immediate risk, include accidents; early and unprotected sex; exacerbation of mental health problems; and poor school attendance and reduced educational attainment. Acute problems may have life-time consequences, such as early disfigurement or unintended pregnancies. Moreover, the longer and heavier an individual drinks, the greater the risk of developing chronic health problems such as liver disease or cancers later in life.

As a caring society, we should do more to limit youth exposure to alcohol marketing. But how can we be sure that there is a connection between this and alcohol misuse?

A growing body of literature, including two recent systematic reviews (Anderson et al, 2009; Smith and Foxcroft, 2009), demonstrates an association between exposure to alcohol marketing and initiation or progression of alcohol use, as well as development of pro-drinking attitudes and social norms (Gordon et al, 2010; Lin et al, 2013). UK research suggests that alcohol brand recognition is common amongst young people as young as 10-11 years old (Alcohol Concern, 2012) with US studies demonstrating identification with desirable images in alcohol advertising in 8-9 year olds and brand-specific consumption in 13-20 year olds (Austin et al, 2006; Siegel et al, 2013).

Despite the heavy attention paid to price and traditional advertising, alcohol marketing is much more extensive and comprises price, product (image/branding), promotion (including advertising) and placement (point of sale and outlet density or distribution), defined as the ‘4 Ps’ or ‘marketing mix’. This means that availability as well as how a product looks or tastes can be of as much importance as how much it costs. The extensive nature of alcohol advertising, including through new media (e.g. sponsorship of social networking sites) means that young people are regularly exposed to alcohol promotion including many who are below the legal age to purchase alcohol.

A recent qualitative study in North East England among 14-17 year olds found that marketing seemed to play a key role in building recognisable imagery linked to alcohol products, as well as associations and expectancies related to drinking (e.g. having fun, drinking games, brand slogans or logos, drinks associated with certain TV shows, such as cocktails).

The solution

  • Restrict alcohol advertising in newspapers and other adult press, with content limited to factual information about brand, product strength and provenance, mirroring The Loi Evin model in France.
  • Establish an independent body to regulate alcohol promotion in the interests of public health/safety.
  • Review the use of new media to market alcohol with a view to limiting the exposure of ‘under age’ young people who frequently access key sites (e.g. Twitter, Facebook etc.).

The evidence

In terms of price restrictions only, recent research conducted in Canada over the course of eight years (where a minimum unit price has been implemented) suggests that a 10% increase in the price of most drinks led to a 32% fall in alcohol-related deaths (Stockwell et al, 2013). This international evidence is supported by UK modelling work which demonstrates the effects that setting a minimum unit price of 40p would result in (see below).

Alcohol graphic

It is increasingly accepted that a fully joined-up public health response to tackle alcohol problems needs to include policy-focused interventions as well as individual-level input from health and social care practitioners (NICE, 2010). Individual and policy-level interventions are needed which can limit youth exposure to alcohol marketing whilst not curtailing producers’ legitimate right to market their products to adults.

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PROJECT TEACH: Applying Intelligence to Teacher Education

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Project Teach

As part of our ‘Ideas for an Incoming Government’ series, Rachel Lofthouse from the Research Centre for Learning and Teaching (CfLaT)within the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, writes about the pressing need for supportive improvements to the current teacher training infrastructure.

What is the problem?

A change is needed in our education system. Rapid policy developments prioritise the role of schools as providers of workplace learning, affecting the experiences of and infrastructure for teacher training. Even those professionals who support ‘on the job’ training for teachers appreciate that meeting the learning and social needs of children and young people has to be every school’s priority. In the current system new teachers are immediately exposed to the performative culture of schools, having their individual successes and failures measured and graded from the moment they arrive.

In some cases this creates significant anxiety. Student teachers may not be encouraged to innovate and instead they simply learn how to survive. Instead of new teachers being a source of inspiration and innovation, they adopt normative practices, and their potential and energy is not garnered for their individual benefit or that of the schools.  In the worst cases, instead of building the necessary professional capacity to work flexibly to meet ever changing demands of the job, they become less resilient to the stresses of the job.

The solution

Student teachers should be educated not only individually but also in teams, tackling real-life workplace challenges through projects based on research, development and practice. The teams would be supported by co-coaches (experienced teachers and academic tutors working together) who enable their team to develop collaborative, empowering and supportive relationships, as well as the knowledge and skills required for them to tackle the genuine challenges of teaching.  The responsibility for the professional learning of all student teachers in a team becomes a collective one; each team is aiming for the best possible outcomes in terms of professional learning, pupil outcomes, and school development.

Through PROJECT-TEACH, intelligent thinking would be applied to teacher training, drawing on the principles of successful learning organisations, coaching and project-based learning:

  • Post-graduate student teachers would form project teams hosted by, and learning on behalf of, an alliance of schools, supported by ‘co-coaches’ – providing combined professional and academic expertise and drawing on principles of servant leadership. The motto of this approach is to ‘gather intelligence and use it intelligently’.
  • The project teams would work through a number of core projects spanning the school year, based on the principles of ‘project-based learning’.  Each project would include the need to teach, and as the year progressed this would be over more sustained periods and include working with learners across the relevant age range and with complex needs.  This teaching comes as a culmination of research and development, making it more evidence-based and allowing for systematic evaluation of outcomes. Student teachers would be registered as post-graduate students, and gain academic awards as well as evidence of meeting professional standards as a result of PROJECT-TEACH.
  • Learning is a social process, and PROJECT-TEACH would enable new teachers to develop skills and knowledge through collaboration on authentic and rich learning tasks set in the context of the workplace. The project briefs would be planned by drawing on the combined expertise of the professional and academic co-coaches who would design them to meet the ambitions of the host schools as well as to take account of the development stage of the new teachers. New teachers would meet the Teacher Standards through coherent development opportunities rather than through atomised practice.  The ‘standards’ would develop significance in terms of long-term occupational capacity, rather than simply as a checklist of time and context limited competencies.

PROJECT-TEACH sits firmly in the current Department for Education policy of creating a ‘Self-improving school led system’, in that it would be ‘evidence based, data rich, sustainable, focused, attract and retain talent and create a collective moral purpose’.  It does however challenge some of the current practices of teacher education.  While the Carter Review of Initial Teacher Training (DfE, 2015) recognised that the ‘challenge for the nation is to maintain a supply of outstanding teachers so that every child has the opportunity to be taught by inspirational, skilled teachers throughout their time in school’ (p.3), it lacked imagination in its proposals for re-creating teacher education.  PROJECT-TEACH can be afforded within current budgets; student teachers pay their training fee, and gain DfE bursaries according to prior qualification.  It is a matter of ensuring that the resource is deployed differently to support the approach and ensure excellent outcomes.

 

The evidence 

  • Billett (2011) identifies three dimensions to workplace learning; the practice curriculum, the practice pedagogies, and the personal epistemologies.  PROJECT-TEACH would act on each dimension by developing a curriculum based on project-based learning and by addressing the student teachers’ learning needs through more open engagement with authentic complex tasks.
  • Student teachers would be supported by expert co-coaches drawing on the principles of effective teacher coaching (Lofthouse et.al, 2010) and servant leadership through which they prioritise the needs of the student teachers as their main professional role. . This would counter the impacts of the pervasive performativity culture (Ball, 2003) and detrimental practices of judge mentoring (Hobson & Malderez, 2013) in which judgements made by experienced teachers are rapidly revealed to the novice student teachers undermining the potential of mentoring processes to support development.
  • PROJECT-TEACH would develop new teachers’ resilience by enabling them to develop positive collective teacher efficacy and beliefs, which can help to mitigate the deleterious effects associated with socio-economic deprivation (Gibbs & Powell, 2012) and as such would help to address the problems in teacher supply and retention in England.
  • PROJECT-TEACH would support schools to become learning organisations where staff and students ‘continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free’ (http://infed.org/mobi/peter-senge-and-the-learning-organization/).
  • PROJECT-TEACH would build a ‘culture of trust (and challenge) in schools to enable professional learning of teachers to prosper’ which was recognised as key by the 2015 Sutton Trust’s ‘Developing Teachers report and thus encourage the essential components of professional learning of ‘creativity, innovation and a degree of risk-taking’ (Major, 2015).

We need to put energy and vitality back into educating (not simply training) new teachers, ensuring that those that enter the profession gain relevant expertise but also the experience and insight to fulfil their potential role to transform schools for the next generation, not simply replicate the working practices of yesterday’s schools.

 

References:

  • Ball, S. J. (2003) The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of Education Policy, 18(2), 215-228
  • Billett, S (2011) Workplace curriculum: practice and propositions, in F. Dorchy, D Gijbels. Theories of Learning for the Workplace, Routledge, London (pp.17-36)
  • DfE (2015) The Carter review of initial teacher training (ITT)
  • Gibbs, S., & Powell, B. (2012) Teacher Efficacy and Pupil Behaviour: the structure of teachers’ individual and collective efficacy beliefs and their relationship with numbers of children excluded from school. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(4), 564-584.
  • Hobson, A.J. (2013) Judgementoring and other threats to realizing the potential of school-based mentoring in teacher education, International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, Vol 2 [2] 89-108
  • Lofthouse, R., Leat, D and Towler, C., (2010)  Improving Teacher Coaching in Schools; A Practical Guide, CfBT Learning Trust
  • Lofthouse, R. & Thomas, U. (2014) Mentoring student teachers; a vulnerable workplace learning practice, International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education Vol. 3 (3) pp. 201 – 218
  • Lofthouse, R., Thomas, U. & Cole, S. (2011) Creativity and Enquiry in Action: a case study of cross-curricular approaches in teacher education. Teacher Education Advancement Network Journal, Vol. 2(1), pp.1-21.
  • Major, L.E. (2015)  Developing Teachers; Improving professional development for teachers, The Sutton Trust

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Investing in Young People

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As part of our ‘Ideas for an Incoming Government‘ series, Professor Peter Hopkins from the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology writes about the urgent need to end the marginalisation and misrepresentation of young people.

Investing in young people

A number of recent policy changes have placed an unfair burden upon young people, particularly for those who live in the most socially and economically deprived areas. In England, Educational Maintenance Allowance has been withdrawn, tuition fees of up to £9000 a year have been introduced for those wanting to study at university, and many young people across Britain are expected to undertake unpaid internships or voluntary work to gain ‘work experience’. Young people are bearing the brunt of these policy changes unlike the generations before them. It is time to start investing in young people by providing additional youth services and funding for educational training, and to stop marginalising, excluding and misrepresenting young people.

Research has been undertaken to counter these problematic and negative representations of young people, particularly those from the most deprived backgrounds.

  • Hill et al (2006) undertook research with children and young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods and found that they hung out in groups in order to protect themselves rather than to threaten others.
  • In a more recent example, MacDonald et al (2013) searched for ‘intergenerational cultures of worklessness’ in response to political rhetoric about ‘three generations of families where no-one has ever worked’; interviews with 20 families in Glasgow and Middlesbrough who were long term workless found no evidence of intergenerational cultures of worklessness.
  • Related to this, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation noted that in 2007-08, 31% of children were in families in poverty (4 million children).
  • Recent research with students involved in the Newcastle Occupation found that the young people who participated in this social movement were politically sophisticated, astutely aware of political matters and savvy about how to have their views heard by those in power (Hopkins, Todd and Newcastle Occupation, 2012).

What is the solution?

  • Creating environments where young people can express their views, be listened to, and encouraged to foster social change with others (including with adults and older people)
  • Providing additional educational funding and paid training opportunities for young people, particularly those from the most economically and socially deprived backgrounds
  • Representing young people better in the media (consider for example, the sophisticated ways in which students engaged with political issues through organisations, occupations and marchers in protest at government proposals about the funding of education).

The evidence

  • Much of the work of the Intergenerational Foundation demonstrates clearly that young people are being treated very unjustly in many areas including education, employment and housing. Moreover, such stark inequality between the generations means that young people are continually losing out compared to older and wealthier generations.
  • Recent research with young people growing up in social and economic deprivation in the UK has found that austerity cuts have meant that services in such areas have been cut back dramatically with religious organisations being some of the only services left to support young people (see this Religion and Society resource)
  • Many churches have experienced disinvestment or have been closed, leaving young people with very few, if any, services in their local area. This is particularly challenging for young people from such backgrounds that may be experiencing family breakdown, bereavement and social isolation.
  • The protests against the rise in tuition fees in England demonstrates that young people are politically engaged and aware of their situation (as opposed to their dominant representation amongst politicians and in the media as being disengaged, apathetic and inert). Research surrounding this involved interviews with young people involved in the Newcastle Occupation (Hopkins, Todd and Newcastle Occupation (2012) Occupying Newcastle University: student resistance to government spending cuts in England. The Geographical Journal 178 (2) 104-109).

It is time to invest in young people in order to counter negative assumptions about their peer group behaviours, their engagement with work, and to minimise their experiences of poverty.

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