Rebecca Hale

Domestic Abuse Prevention Education: Listening to the Views of Young People.

This paper reports on findings derived as part of a two-year project funded by the European Unions Daphne III scheme, involving collaboration between seven partner organisations across six European countries. The project involved an evaluation, using questionnaires and focus groups, of domestic abuse prevention education programmes delivered in schools in the UK, France and Spain. This paper presents the findings from the UK focus group discussions, conducted with young people aged 10–11 years, and 13–14 years to explore their opinions about the intervention delivered in their school. The focus groups revealed the following challenges for service providers in this area: young people can misunderstand issues related to domestic abuse, especially the role of power and control within relationships; there is a tension between educators giving young people free expression to share their opinions and challenging sexism and other prejudices; and boys can become disengaged with gender-based interventions. These issues point towards three key considerations when implementing a domestic abuse prevention education intervention: programme content (the what); the teaching methods used (the how); and whether teachers or external organisations should deliver the programme (the who).

Preliminary steps towards a more preventative approach to eliminating violence against women in Europe

This article discusses findings from a project funded by the European Commission’s DAPHNE III programme that sought to enhance the provision of relationship education and domestic abuse prevention in European schools and other educational facilities: the REaDAPt (Relationship Education and Domestic Abuse Prevention tuition) project. It summarizes what is known about effective prevention from the research literature before explaining what the REaDAPt project revealed about changing attitudes, about implementing and evaluating domestic abuse prevention programmes in educational settings, and about being responsive to young people’s perspectives in the delivery of interventions. The article concludes by highlighting the iterative nature of the research needed to help develop relationship education and domestic abuse prevention tuition on a Europe-wide scale.

“As a Parent You Become a Tiger”: Parents Talking about Bullying at School

Bullying at school can be a distressing experience for children. It is also likely to be distressing for their parents. In spite of this, research in the field of school bullying and peer victimisation has tended to overlook the experience of parents when their child is bullied. This study explored school bullying from the parent’s perspective. Twenty-one parents took part in semi-structured focus groups and interviews to share their experiences. Thematic analysis of the interview transcripts identified two main themes: ‘perceived institutional factors’ and ‘being a good parent’. It was found that parents viewed their principal role as protecting their child; they referred to this as an instinct and fundamental to them being a good parent. However, during their attempts to help their child, many parents talked about difficulties working with schools and this triggered frustration and distrust towards teachers. The findings highlight the importance of communication between parents and teachers and ensuring that parents are kept informed of progress when teachers are trying to address the problem. Additionally, the findings indicate that parents may hold different views to teachers about their role in school bullying situations. This would suggest that parents looking at the situation from the teacher’s perspective, and vice versa, could help to build better parent–teacher relationships when tackling school bullying.

Singing in later life: The anatomy of a community choir:

Previous research has highlighted the individual and social benefits of participation in arts activities for physical, psychological and social well-being. However, less is known about the transformative community aspects of the arts and very few studies have investigated arts participation over a substantial period. This article reports a case study of an older people’s choir over a 4-year period, involving interviews, focus groups, observations and a World Café participatory discussion. In support of previous literature, choir members highlighted many individual and interpersonal benefits of being part of the choir. They also emphasised the importance of developing social relationships within a supportive community, and the importance of musical achievement was central to the ongoing development of the choir. Our analysis identified five main themes: personal investment and reward; inclusive community; always evolving yet fundamentally unchanged; a desire to connect; and leadership and organisation. Considering these with reference to Seligman’s PERMA framework from positive psychology, it is apparent that social relationships, meaning and accomplishment are particularly emphasised as reasons why older people find singing in a community choir so beneficial for well-being. Sustainability is a major concern, and factors such as an expert music leader to support this are identified.

Reflections on What Year 7 Students Know and Understand About the Holocaust: An Argument for Empirical Research in English Primary Schools

This chapter presents findings from a subsample of year 7 students (aged 11–12 years) who participated in a national study to explore knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust in English secondary schools. The students reported their only school-based learning experience of the Holocaust had occurred in primary school, and although caution is needed when drawing on secondary school data to attest to activities in primary schools, the findings do provide clues about what students know and understand about the Holocaust, influenced, in part, by learning about the subject in primary school. There is a paucity of evidence in this area, and this chapter highlights the imperative for empirical research in England to examine whether and how the Holocaust should be taught to younger students.

Understanding what young people know: methodological and theoretical challenges in researching young people’s knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust

ABSTRACT This article draws on research into young people’s knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust conducted by the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education (CfHE). Two questions are addressed: “How can we theorize and measure development and progression in young people’s historical knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust?” and “How can empirical social scientific research methods be used to help us describe young people’s knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust?” This article reviews methodologies developed by the CfHE and exemplifies a research tool and two complementary approaches to analysis, focused on young people’s descriptions of the Holocaust.