The Respecting Children and Young People Project was a time limited project that produced Fair and Equal Education: An Evidence-based Policy Manifesto that Respects Children and Young People, released on the 10 March 2015. The posts in this blog contributed towards the development of the manifesto, but they also act as important statements on recent issues affecting children and young people, informed by research undertaken by researchers from the British Educational Research Association. While we are no longer posting to this blog, the posts will be held on this site as an archive. Enjoy reading and sharing them with your colleagues, friends, family and students. We thank everyone who has contributed to the project.
Editors:
Social Justice Ruth Boyask and Katy Vigurs Race, Ethnicity and Education Vini Lander Sexualities Pam Alldred Youth and Informal Education Ian McGimpsey and Janet Batsleer Inclusive Education Jennifer Spratt Practitioner Research d’Reen Struthers
post by VINI LANDER Head of Research, Edge Hill University
The Respecting Children blog has been concerned with linking research evidence to demonstrate how issues of social justice and inequality have recurred over the last forty years. The generation of empirical data is considered to be one way to support an argument and demonstrate a need for change within education policy or practice. Researchers working in the field of “race”, ethnicity and education have built up a sizeable range of data to demonstrate how “race” and ethnicity in intersection with other factors such as poverty impact on the educational outcomes of minority ethnic children (Strand 2014), or how ethnicity affects the experiences of Black and minority ethnic trainee teachers in schools (Flintoff 2014; Pearce 2014). Continue reading What’s story-telling got to do with research?→
post by RUTH BOYASK On behalf of the editors of the Respecting Children and Young People project
On the 10th March 2015, the Respecting Children and Young People project will be holding an event to launch the culmination of our work, the Fair and Equal Education manifesto. This manifesto has been shaped by the dialogue and engagement of members of six special interest groups (SIGs) within BERA, representing many hundreds of British educational researchers. We have come together because we, like many other voices at the present time, are concerned. Continue reading Fair and Equal Education→
I have read with interest and concern the Twitter debate generated by my blog “A Classroom Story” which was created as a counter-story. The characters William and the class teacher were representations of typical experiences composed from different accounts which were reported by Black male student teachers during a small scale research project in 2013. Continue reading Response to “A Classroom Story” Jasmine Rhamie→
William dropped exhausted on his bed. He hadn’t realised how hard it would be to train as a primary teacher. After relaxing for an hour he carefully reviewed his teaching and marked children’s work. They had done very well and it was rewarding to note how well they had understood and progressed in maths. He thought about how he would move them on to the next concept and amended his planning in light of his marking and reflections. Continue reading Classroom Story→
As I stood in the bathroom about to wash my daughter’s face I noticed that she looked rather unhappy. I stopped what I was doing and asked her what was wrong. The conversation went something like this: Continue reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears→
In a climate of austerity and radical change in education, I am concerned about the challenges faced by Black parents to find ways to achieve the best educational outcomes for their children in an ever selective and competitive educational environment. The pace and direction of change is worrying and demonstrates the need for Black pupils to develop greater resilience in order to succeed in an education system set up to increase the purchasing power of the White middle classes to the disadvantage of Black pupils. Continue reading Resilience, the Black child and the coalition government→
post by CHARLOTTE CHADDERTON University of East London
The Troops to Teachers (TtT) programme was introduced in England in autumn 2013. The programme fast-tracks ex-armed service members into teaching in schools and is supported both by the current Coalition government, and the previous Labour government.
post by UVANNEY MAYLOR Director of the Institute for Research in Education, University of Bedfordshire
Below I discuss two concerns which have preoccupied me for a while now.
Since the 1960s’s in schools and educational policy discourse much has been made about the lower attainment of Black children (but specifically Black Caribbean) and the perceived lack of parental valuing of education, and supporting their children’s educational attainment. So it was no surprise to hear a teacher at a conference (aimed at encouraging Black children to consider careers requiring higher education study) in 2009 point to Black educational failure being cultural and innate, and questioning whether ‘Black people’s culture predisposed them to underachievement’. Some might consider this a statement of fact given the persistent lower attainment of Black Caribbean students vis-à-vis White British students. While the comment by the teacher incensed me, it did not affect me as much as I was by a Black teenager at the conference who said, ‘lots of peoplesay we can’t do it, people like me are a failure’. Continue reading Teaching Black children→
RESPECTING CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE 