The Research Commission on Poverty and Policy Advocacy

Child poverty is increasing in the UK. But how does that play out differently in the four UK jurisdictions, in relation to education? How do the different educational policy contexts and different educational structures affect the curriculum and pedagogy, and so what flexibility do they allow teachers, in engaging with children and young people who are growing up in poverty? This BERA Research Commission on Poverty and Policy Advocacy has provided a nuanced picture of variations across the UK in terms of educational responses to child poverty. It has brought together a network of practitioners and researchers to find new ways of thinking about the problem of child poverty and how educators can respond to it.

This research commission builds on the relationships and work of leading academics across the four nations already engaged in work concentrating on policy deliberations on poverty, education and schooling.  The focus of this commission was to build an interconnected transnational network of research-active practitioners across the UK to engage in knowledge building about poverty and cumulative multiple deprivations as these find expression in education and schooling.  

The reports can be found at the bottom of this page. 

Events:

Poverty & Education in four jurisdictions and internationally- 21st January 2016

Reading Materials:

• Beckett on England
• Briefing Seminar 1 in Leeds 210116
• Egan on Wales
• Leitch & Hughes on Northern Ireland
• Lupton Thinking Differently
• McKinney & Hall on Scotland
• Stewart Child Poverty
• Wrigley ‘From deficit accounts to reductionist targets’

Presentations:

• Beckett ‘Failing theme ppt (3)
• Bera commission Terry Wrigley (3)
• BERA Ruth Lupton 21st Jan 2016
• Child Poverty Kitty Stewart BERA 21 Jan 2016
• Christala S Poverty and education BERA seminar leeds jan2016 (1)
• Perspectives frm N Ireland Joanne Hughes Ruth Leitch
• Stephen McKinney Stuart Hall LEEDS 2016
• Video Link Suzanne Gannon

Videos:

• Presentations

Challenging deficit models of poverty – 15th February 2016

Reading materials:

• Counteracting pathologising discourses of poverty & creating radical pedagogies
• The intergenerational transmission of poverty
• The Blame Game: schools, families, society – whose fault is it that poverty and poor academic achievement are so closely linked?
• Poverty in Wales
• Paradoxes and Dilemmas in Welsh Education

Videos:

• The history of poverty in Wales – Video

Schools, community and the low attainment nexus – 10th March 2016

Reading materials:

• Innovations in Scotland in response to the impact of poverty on education
• A view from Wales (for the Belfast seminar)
• Beneath the Surface Child Poverty in NI (Horgan)
• Child Poverty strategy – Briefing paper
• Schools, community and the low attainment nexus & social capital in NI
• Social capital and school community nexus
• Full-service extended schools provision: An initiative in an area of high deprivation: outcomes and lessons learned
• The impact of adopting a research orientation towards use of the Pupil Premium Grant in England in preparing beginning teachers to understand and work effectively with young people living in poverty
• Tony Gallagher

Videos:

• Dr Ian Thompson talk
• Ruth Leitch and Erik Cownie talk
• Dr Stephanie Burns talk

Models of Partnership: Research and intervention on the impact of poverty on school education – 20th April 2016

Reading materials:

• Researching improvements in attainment, leaver destinations, exclusion and attendance in Glasgow City schools

Videos:

• Val
• Siriol
• Sarah
• Paul
• Maggie

Lessons from the past to inform the future – 19th May 2016