Marion Sheridan

Young people on the margins: in need of more choices and more chances in twenty‐first century Scotland

The aim of this study was to find out more about the lives of young people in the category ‘not in education, employment or training’ (NEET). We worked intensively with 26 young people in four smaller groups, spending three days with each group. During our time with them we engaged in a variety of creative and artistic activities designed to help them to construct accounts of their lives for us with the purpose of gaining an understanding of what it was like to be NEET. Three significant issues that emerged from these life stories are discussed in this paper. These are the problematic nature of the discourse of NEET sub‐groups; the challenges of school‐exclusion policies and practices; and the myth of low aspirations.

‘You want the best for your kids’: improving educational outcomes for children living in poverty through parental engagement

Background: Existing evidence suggests a relationship between family social contexts, family relationships and interactions, children’s social and cognitive development and educational outcomes. Interventions that assist families in relation to parenting and supporting children’s development can have positive effects on both parents’ skills and the educational progress of their children. Purpose: This article reports on a study conducted in an area with high levels of social and economic deprivation in Scotland, which aimed to investigate the nature and effectiveness of the services in place to support poor families. The project focused on capturing the experiences of parents and what they perceived as effective support from the nursery and school staff in terms of getting them more involved in their children’s learning. Sample: There was a particular focus on the four-to-seven-year age group, thus covering the crucial transition from pre-school (or non-school) provision to primary school. A sample of three Early Education & Childcare Centres (EECCs) and three schools were selected. The schools and EECCs were all from areas of high social deprivation and had a high proportion of children on free school meals. Design and methods: The study was qualitative in design and included in-depth semi-structured interviews with 19 service managers and practitioners, six focus groups with parents and six activity groups with children. Data were analysed using both pre-determined and emerging codes. Results: While all parents recognised the value of education for their children’s social mobility and opportunities and were keen to engage in activities, they remained aware of the limited resources they could draw upon, mainly in terms of their restricted academic competencies, specialist knowledge and qualifications. The desire to help their children overcome their families’ economic circumstances was also hampered by the absence of strong social and kinship networks that they could draw upon. Conclusions: We draw on concepts of social and cultural capital to examine parents’ positioning in relation to their children’s education. The conclusion highlights parents’ strategic orientation to school/nurseries, often seen as a resource of cultural capital, and calls for a more positive discourse of parental engagement in relation to disadvantaged groups.

Evolving improvised ideation from humour constructs: a new method for collaborative divergence

This paper reviews and applies key principles from improvised comedy (“improv”) to overcome common barriers in effective group ideation, resulting in the formulation and presentation of a new creative idea generation method. The emergence of an innovative product design can be compared to the telling of a funny joke: both combine seemingly unconnected ideas in a way that is both surprising and satisfying. Our research expands upon this link between humour and creativity, and operationalizes the improv principles best suited to the conceptual design process. A workshop‐based methodology was used to select, develop, and refine the method protocol and facilitation technique. Participant feedback and observations have demonstrated how this approach can expand the solution space to support the generation of bold, innovative ideas. Finally, we present a step‐by‐step guide for the new “design improv” method and discuss its potential value in the generation of creative ideas in a group ideation context.

Rapid response research: using creative arts methods to research the lives of disengaged young people

In Scotland, as in other legislations, the government and its agencies commission educational research to inform policy and practice development. This provides opportunities for academic researchers, who are under pressure to engage in funded research, to carry their interests forward with some assurance of social usefulness and impact. Many educational researchers have a commitment not just to explore and explain processes around the organisation of learning, but also to change current practices for the benefit of groups who are not getting the most out of their educational experiences. There are, though, costs involved in this kind of research. Often very tight timeframes are imposed by the funders. There may also be constraints on publication of outputs. This paper provides one case study of undertaking policy-facing research whilst attempting to maintain integrity and quality.