Where now? New approaches to young people’s engagement in schools.
Educational challenges in 2024
As I embark upon my first follow-up research project since graduating from my PhD, I am intrigued by the challenges I see in the education system in England. From my many years of teaching and my research experience I see the big issues of the day being centred on school values. Two new papers have recently appeared which have influenced my thinking. The first by Hamilton, (2024) explores the links between school attendance and young people’s ‘school belonging and agency’ and how these are linked to their mental health. The second series of publications (The Centre for Social Justice 1, 2024; The Centre for Social Justice 2, 2024) concentrate on the crisis of school exclusions, particularly on some of our most vulnerable young people. The points made argue what we need is an inclusive education system which treats all young people with respect and as individuals. The aim being that all young people, whatever their background, will then be able to build trust in schools in order to develop a sense of belonging there. Unfortunately, what these papers highlight is that many vulnerable young people are either too anxious to attend school or attend and end up being rejected through exclusion; societies stated aim is an education system which enables young people to thrive. Sadly, what we have is a system which makes survival for some almost impossible!
Relational or Behavioural?
Arguments rage between those who want to follow a behaviourist path against those who favour relational education. As post-COVID absence and exclusion figure rise dramatically this is seen in both the attendance and behaviour debates. On the one hand schools are encouraged to impose fines for poor attendance, whereas many child psychologists talk about emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA) something which requires time, understanding and individual attention. Behaviour is no less fraught, some schools resort to zero-tolerance behaviour policies which studies have found to not only be ineffective but also counter-productive (McPartlan, 2023; Nassem, 2019; Skiba, 2008).
Collaborative research with young people
My research (McPartlan, 2023) was based in a large secondary academy in the north of England. As an ex-assistant headteacher with responsibility for all things pastoral, I returned to my previous school to develop my research, which investigated the efficacy of the whole school mental health strategy, something I had introduced two years earlier. I developed a methodology whereby young people from Years 12 and 13, the young research team (YRT), collaborated with me as co-researchers to work with young people from the Pupil Premium (PP) cohort, the participants, from lower down the school. The aim was to ensure my previous role in the school did not act as a deterrent for the youngest participants. They had known me as the person responsible for attendance, behaviour and welfare; there was a real chance they would not open-up to me. Instead, my co-researchers would build relationships with them and collect data from a series of weekly meetings over a four-month period. I called this methodology Youth Participative Dialogic Action Research (YPDAR).
What I discovered from YPDAR was that the processes involved in it helped both sets of young people grow and flourish. The school had promised to listen and engage with the findings with the intention of improving the strategy. Both sets of young people therefore knew they were engaged in school improvement research work and felt the school were trusting them to contribute to important work; this in turn enhanced their sense of self.
The contribution the YRT made was outstanding. They grew in to the role developing their skills along the way. The relationships they developed with the younger participants became pivotal to the success of the research. In my thesis I describe it as attachment-like (McPartlan, 2023), the YRT showed respect, care and empathy for their younger charges; the participants were supported by their YRT members both within and informally outside the research. This, together with the trust placed in them by the school, is what I believe helped develop their confidence and agency and particularly their epistemic agency. The school had made a decision to include them, using their lived-experience to help re-shape a crucial whole school strategy.
The development of the YRT came from their exposure to unique experiences. They started the process of learning how to become researchers. They co-designed the methods, collected and analysed the data before writing up the findings. They then worked with me to write joint papers (Barwick, et al., 2023; McPartlan, et al., 2021) and attend conferences to disseminate the research, something which also helped develop their communication skills. They grew in to their role as critical and reflexive thinkers. There was also evidence that their socio-emotional skills where enhanced as they grew in to their role as leaders with the participants.
Initially, I was surprised to learn the participants also developed and grew during the research. They described the meetings with the YRT as “the single best thing about the project” and many were disappointed at the conclusion of the research. Their confidence had grown as the YRT had encouraged them to contribute with honest reflections, this empowered them as they viewed themselves as trusted research partners. In addition, one of the participants even described the improvements in their personal wellbeing.
Where next?
This research was a detailed small-scale study. My latest research aims to expand on this both in terms of scale (across a number of primary and secondary schools) and time (ideally over a five-year period). The findings from my research suggest that when young people are trusted and included to contribute to school improvement they grow as individuals. They become more confident, feel empowered and their agency to act grows as they start to feel they belong in the school. Furthermore, I suggest that building this sort of research culture, over a number of years should help develop a more inclusive school culture. A culture where young people partner with staff to contribute to school improvement and feel they belong.
As I scope forward, I think of the enormous potential to this approach. Why not task young people with EBSA to explore what they needed to attend regularly? Such an approach has the potential to improve attendance whilst simultaneously building a sense of belonging within this group. There is also the potential to develop similar projects for the disaffected. Collaborate with them to draw on their lived-experience of always being in trouble. How do they see school systems and what would they do to improve their own time in school? By investing in them and giving them some responsibility, there is an opportunity for them to problem solve whilst also developing relationships with adults. My research has shown this has the potential to build their confidence, empowerment and trust in the system so they feel they belong to an inclusive school. With the growing crisis in exclusions and attendance, schools need to be creative and look to develop new approaches. I suggest a youth-led school improvement system could well be a way forward.
Bibliography:
Barwick, A., Chigwada, S., Giecco, M., Seeney, E., Turner, I., & McPartlan, D. (2023). How Staff And Young People Relationships Impact School Mental Health Self-Referral. Social Publishing Foundation.
Hamilton, L. G. (2024). education sciences Emotionally Based School Avoidance in the Aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic : Neurodiversity , Agency and Belonging in School. Education Sciences. Retrieved from https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/14/2/156
McPartlan, D., Burrus, A., Elder, K., Gregory, P., Hillary, M., McCrea, C., Bell, S., Greenup, C., James, C., Liddell, J., Liddell, K., Norwood, E., Rome, A., & Schollick, J. (2021). The Benefits Of Young Researchers In A School YPAR Project. Retrieved from https://www.socialpublishersfoundation.org/knowledge_base/the-benefits-of-young-researchers-in-a-school-ypar-project/
McPartlan, D. (2023). Young researchers in schools: a participative action research study into the efficacy of a whole school mental health strategy. (University of Cumbria.). Retrieved from https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/7274
Nassem, E. (2019). Zero tolerance policies cause anger not reflection. Retrieved December 22, 2021, from Birmingham City University website: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/news-events/news/zero-tolerance-policies-cause-anger-not-reflection
Skiba, R. J. (2008). Are Zero Tolerance Policies Effective in the Schools?: An Evidentiary Review and Recommendations. American Psychologist, 63(9), 852–862. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.63.9.852
The Centre for Social Justice. (2024). Suspending Reality 1. Retrieved from https://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/CSJ-Suspending_Reality_Part_1.pdf
The Centre for Social Justice. (2024). Suspending Reality 2. Retrieved from https://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/CSJ-Suspending_Reality_Part_2.pdf