Anthea Rose

Becoming employable students and ‘ideal’ creative workers: exclusion and inequality in higher education work placements

In this paper we explore how the ‘employable’ student and ‘ideal’ future creative worker is prefigured, constructed and experienced through higher education work placements in the creative sector, based on a recent small-scale qualitative study. Drawing on interview data with students, staff and employers, we identify the discourses and practices through which students are produced and produce themselves as neoliberal subjects. We are particularly concerned with which students are excluded in this process. We show how normative evaluations of what makes a ‘successful’ and ‘employable’ student and ‘ideal’ creative worker are implicitly classed, raced and gendered. We argue that work placements operate as a key domain in which inequalities within both higher education and the graduate labour market are (re)produced and sustained. The paper offers some thoughts about how these inequalities might be addressed.

Doing Diversity and Evading Equality: The Case of Student Work Placements in the Creative Sector

‘Diversity’ has become an all-pervasive concept within Higher Education (HE). This chapter explores how the generic concept of diversity gets ‘done’ (Ahmed, 2006) within the particular context of HE work placements in the creative industries. It draws upon a recent qualitative study (Allen et al., 2010a) commissioned by the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU), the HE equality body in the UK. The study was designed to examine how Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) support students from ‘equality groups’ (defined by the ECU as disabled students, Black and minority ethnic (BME) students and students seeking to enter a labour market sector where there are significant gender imbalances) into positive and inclusive work placement experiences that will enhance their future employment prospects.

Family literacy in Europe: separate agendas?

Family literacy programmes have become increasingly popular with policy‐makers as a means of addressing low levels of adult literacy. It is believed that such initiatives will help to address social exclusion and aid greater economic participation by those in deprived communities or from disadvantaged sectors of society. The growing interest in such initiatives comes at a time of international concern over general levels of literacy, as highlighted by the United Nations literacy decade 2003–2012 and in Europe by the Lisbon Agenda. In this article, which draws on the findings from a cross‐European study of family literacy programmes in England, Ireland and Malta, we argue that disparate agendas characterizse policy and practice. We conclude by considering the implications for the future of family literacy programmes in promoting social inclusion.

Exploring the impact of supplementary schools on Black and Minority Ethnic pupils’ mainstream attainment

This paper reports findings from a study commissioned by the (then) Department for Children, Schools and Families. The research mapped the provision, and explored the impact, of supplementary schools and aimed specifically to develop further understanding as to how supplementary schools might raise the attainment of Black and Minority Ethnic pupils. Drawing on a national survey and case study data from 12 supplementary schools, we highlight a range of perceived impacts identified by teachers, pupils and parents and problematise the concept of impact. We identify the unique contribution and impact that supplementary schools make to the mainstream school attainment of pupils from diverse (linguistic, cultural, ethnic) backgrounds. We suggest that there is much to be learnt by the mainstream school sector about the difference supplementary school education makes to minority ethnic children, while questioning whether mainstream indicators of impact should be applied to supplementary schools.

Building on existing informal learning in Traveller communities through family literacy programmes: an Irish case study

Focusing on Ireland, this paper explores the potential role family literacy programmes can play in influencing educational attainment and in fostering positive attitudes towards formal learning in Traveller families. It is often claimed that members of the Traveller community tend to undervalue learning; that they are uninterested in their childrens education and perceive it holds little relevance to adult life. However, research shows that significant forms of learning do take place within the family, for example, skills-based work-related learning. Further, there is evidence to suggest that some Traveller parents believe there is value in educating their children and there is a growing recognition, especially by mothers, that children need to achieve academically, particularly where there are concerns that migrant workers are accessing the jobs, Travellers have traditionally performed. Drawing on Bourdieus concepts of habitus and field, the author argues that family literacy programmes can potentially offer an alternative space in which to engage Travellers in formal education and that such engagement has the potential to impact positively on the academic attainment and achievement of Traveller children by helping mothers recognise, and build on, the informal learning in which they are already engaged.

Dialogue or Duel? A Critical Reflection on the Gendered Politics of Engaging and Impacting

This chapter seeks to offer a critical reflection on the politics of engaging stakeholders in research. Specifically, we shed light on the difficulties and tensions encountered in delivering a seminar series on the ‘inter-relationships of education and culture’ that had at its heart a desire to facilitate a dialogue between academics and policy makers and practitioners. This series of seminars, ‘New Perspectives on Education and Culture’ (http://educationandculture.wordpress.com/), ran from January 2011 to January 2013 and was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC, 2012).

Family literacy programmes: a comparative study of gender roles in England, Ireland and Malta

There is concern from government in each of the sample sites over the role fathers play in supporting their children through school. Fathers have become a more ‘visible parent’ and a focus for policy‐makers in education. Family literacy programmes are used in this article as an example of an educational programme where fathers are often absent. The article draws on interviews conducted with mothers in England, Ireland and Malta, regularly attending family literacy programmes and a small number of fathers who were not attending regularly, if at all, for a range of cultural and structural reasons. It explores why fathers did not attend and what might encourage them to do so. The authors argue that being absent from formal sessions does not necessarily mean that fathers are disinterested in their child’s education or that they do not contribute to the learning process.

Exploring the relationship between supplementary schools and ‘cohesive communities’

The number of supplementary schools in England serving minority communities continues to grow. They are popular with the parents of such communities because they often feel their children are disadvantaged in mainstream schools and not afforded the opportunities or the learning environment that is conducive to their children achieving their full potential. Simultaneously, over the past 10 years or so there has been an increasing political focus on local communities and issues of cohesion; both of which were high priorities for the last government. Schools were viewed as key to helping the government deliver these political agendas. The current coalition government also foregrounds the role and responsibilities of communities as part of its ‘Big Society’ concept. This paper explores the positioning of supplementary schools in relation to notions of ‘cohesive communities’. It draws on findings from a study commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families on supplementary schools, which aimed to establish their level and type of provision, impact, and to a lesser degree, their role in the community and the cohesion agenda.