Maria Tsouroufli

Young People’s Community Engagement: What Does Research-Based and Other Literature Tell us About Young People’s Perspectives and the Impact of Schools’ Contributions?

Abstract This narrative synthesis based on a literature review undertaken for the project ‘Creating Citizenship Communities’ (funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation) includes discussion, principally, about what research evidence tells us about young people’s definitions of community, of types of engagement by different groups of young people, actions by schools and what they might do in the future to promote engagement. Community is seen as a highly significant and contested area. Young people are viewed negatively by adults but are in some contexts already positively engaged in communities. There seem to be gaps in the literature about what young people understand about community. There is, broadly, some consensus about how to promote engagement.

Equality, diversity and fairness in medical education: international perspectives

Among the key challenges addressed by this special ‘state of the science’ issue of Medical Education is that of increasing the conceptual sophistication of our accounts of equality, diversity and fairness in medical education. To this end, the journal seeks to introduce new perspectives to the field by bridging the gap between social sciences and medical education research. Our aim is to bring to the fore cutting-edge research on equality, diversity and fairness in medical education, informed by current theoretical debates and conceptual innovations in the social sciences. In particular, we wish to make a contribution to critical thinking about the conceptualisation, investigation and theorisation of relevant topics and highlight the implications for the education and practice of health care professionals.

Gender, Mentoring and Social Capital in the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland, UK

Abstract This chapter investigates the role of gender, mentoring and social capital and contributes to literature about the career development of women in senior management roles in the National Health Service of the UK. It draws on a doctoral study of senior-level managers in a Scottish NHS Board. The data collected are: (i) documentary; (ii) quantitative; and (iii) qualitative. The quantitative data are collected through questionnaires, while the source of qualitative data is in-depth semi-structured interviews. The doctoral study is embedded within an interpretivist and feminist paradigm. Although access to mentoring and social capital was seen as likely to enhance the career progression of females to senior managerial roles, gendered work and family expectations, gendered organisational culture, and normative performances of gendered senior management were identified as obstacles in taking advantages of mentoring and social capital. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only piece of work that explicitly investigates the role of mentoring and social capital in managing gender diversity at the senior managerial positions of the NHS.

Teachers' Views on Students' Experiences of Community Involvement and Citizenship Education.

Based upon the findings of a national survey of school coordinators and leaders on citizenship and community cohesion, this research indicates that teachers perceive their students to feel a sense of belonging to multiple communities, each with their own required actions for effective participation. There appears to be wide variation in the characteristics of students’ engagement in community activities depending on their individual needs and circumstances. While there is convincing evidence of schools successfully implementing strategies to equip students with a conceptual understanding of their roles as citizens, the research also identifies a need to develop students’ practical skills and self-efficacy to interact with their immediate and wider communities. In order to support students to participate most effectively in their communities, there is a need for schools to provide tailored support to those groups of students who may otherwise be least likely to participate in community activities.

Exploring Citizenship and Community in Education in England

‘Community’ and ‘citizenship’ are centrally important means by which we characterise society and establish mechanisms for societal improvement. Whereas the previous chapter was deliberately broad-brush in its efforts to identify key issues that apply across countries, this chapter synthesises what empirical data principally (but not exclusively) from England suggest about young people’ sense of, involvement in, and barriers to, community with reference to what schools can do to promote understanding and participation.

Creating Citizenship Communities through Teaching and Learning

To restate, the project ‘Creating Citizenship Communities’ had three major aims: to identify current thinking and practice in schools about citizenship education and community cohesion, to explore young people’ perceptions and practice of these areas, and to develop a strategy that would encourage partnerships, both within and outside schools, that might enhance learning.

Findings from the Focus Groups

This chapter will present and discuss the findings from the qualitative component of the Creating Citizenship Communities (CCC) project. The data presented here derive from focus group discussions conducted in eight schools across the United Kingdom, with young people aged 14–16 years of age. A central objective of the CCC project was to explore what young people’ conceptualisations of ‘community’ are, and crucially, how they feel that schools (as institutions) and the school curriculum teach them about community and citizenship. The focus group discussions provided vital insight into youth perspectives, suggesting that schools do a great deal of valuable work to develop feelings of community and civic identity among young people, but that key areas for further work and enhancement exist. The focus group data thus provided fundamental understanding of young people’ views on and experiences of community and citizenship, while also helping to contextualise findings from the survey component of the CCC project.

Why Is the Attempt to Promote Youth Engagement a Major International Issue

In this chapter, we provide an international overview of some of the issues that are important in the consideration of citizenship and community and forms of education that are intended to help young people and others understand and become more engaged in contemporary society. This chapter is deliberately international and global in its outlook and provides a wide-angled lens on developments about citizenship and community before we explore in detail, in Chapters 2–6, the specific research and development project that took place within England, and prior to broadening our focus back to overarching themes in Chapter 7. It is probably sensible for us to re-state the note of caution that we offered at the beginning of the book. We are not suggesting that in this chapter and towards the end of the book we would include all the themes and perspectives that are significant in all parts of the world. Derek Heater was right to emphasise the scale of the task when he declared: What is needed, though it would be a formidable undertaking, is a comparable study of world citizenship education.

Issues Arising from a National Survey of Schools

In this chapter, we describe what citizenship and community mean from the perspective of teachers and schools, based on the responses to our national survey of secondary schools in England completed in spring 2011.

Researching Young People’s Engagement in Society

In this chapter we will describe and discuss the means by which we can understand issues about young people’ engagement in society and what schools are doing (and could do) in order to promote that involvement. Our approach was determined by the need to achieve impact that only emerges from collaborative dialogue with both professionals and young people. Our methods set out to ensure that bridges were built between formal and informal, official and unofficial characterisations of community. We adopted a mixed methods design that combined a systematic review and narrative synthesis of the literature, online survey targeted at lead teachers in secondary schools, secondary analysis and data linking of existing datasets and in-depth case studies. As part of the research process, we held dissemination events and consulted relevant reference groups to assess the validity of emerging findings and set about the establishment of sustainable structures for continued work in this field.