Closing The Attainment Gap To Improve Inclusion: Changing Attitudes Or Improving Opportunities?

Author(s):

Liz Todd(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

04. Inclusive Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

04 SES 07 A, Collaboration between Organizations (Closing Gaps)

Parallel Paper Session
Chair: Gunilla Lundström

Time:

2012-09-19

17:15-18:45

Room:

FFL - Aula 16

Chair:

Contribution

This research is a review of literature to find out whether interventions addressing aspirations, locus of control and valuing school would have a good chance of reducing the attainment gap between richer and poorer children and therefore increasing educational inclusion. There was a particular focus on whether ‘aspirations’ is something to focus on in raising attainment. This review will be of interest to all those concerned with reducing educational inequalities including practitioners and policy makers.

This review was funded by the charity 'Joseph Rowntree Foundation' (JRF) that has a commitment to looking at ways to address poverty. Working on this project with JRF was particularly interesting in terms of the attention given to dissemination. When the report was published, this project with 2 other related projects were taken to key national and regional UK policy makers.

Method

This literature review is a form of best evidence synthesis (Slavin 1986) across a range of methodological paradigms from education, health and the social sciences. The review question was: What are effective ways of intervening on aspirations and attitudes of children and parents in order to impact on educational outcomes to the benefit of socio-economically disadvantaged children? Three particular attitudes were looked at: aspirations; locus of control; and the valuing of school. The review looked for interventions that had evidence of impact on both attitudes and educational attainment, and some evidence that attitude change led to attainment change. 5 groups of interventions were reviewed: parent involvement; extra-curricular activities; mentoring; volunteering and peer education; and interventions that deliberately focus on attitude change. The review also looked at research into the lived experience of the attitudes of parents and children to answer the question as to whether attitudes need to change. It was a very interesting methodology that included consulting with a range of academics, policy makers, practitioners and young people.

Expected Outcomes

This review did not find convincing evidence that focusing interventions on raising aspirations, self-efficacy or the value given to school of parents or young people would impact on attainment. The detailed synthesis of evidence from interventions in the five areas was placed in the context of a wider purposeful literature exploring what might need to change in aspirations, locus of control and valuing school in order to influence educational attainment, and the place of different actions and provisions to bring this about. Research evidence of the high aspirations of young people and parents in all income groups led to a shift in emphasis from ‘raising’ aspirations to ‘keeping aspirations on track’. Rather than single interventions that can sort out attitudes, this wider review suggests the need for a range of opportunities, information and support over time (such as multi-strand provisions and ecological approaches) that recognizes the lived experience, knowledges and resources of young people and their parents. Any focus on attitudes which is about individual change needs to counter any assumption of individual or cultural blame, and should be considered as part of wider structural changes needed to address poverty and other measures to tackle the effects of poverty.

References

Crozier, G. and Davies, J. (2007) Hard to Reach Parents or Hard to Reach Schools? A discussion of home-school relations, with particular reference to Bangladeshi and Pakistani parents. British Educational Research Journal, 33(3), 295-313 Cummings, C., Dyson, A., and Todd, L. (2007b) Towards extended schools? How education and other professionals understand community-oriented schooling. Children and Society, 21 189-200 Gorard, S., See, B. H., and Davies, P. (2012) Attitudes and aspirations in educational attainment: exploring causality. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation Goodman, A. and Gregg, P. (2010) Poorer children's educational attainment: how important are attitudes and behaviour? York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation Kintrea, K., St Clair, R., and Houston, M. (2011) Shaping Educational Attitudes and Aspirations: The Influence of Parents, Place and Poverty. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Author Information

Liz Todd (presenting / submitting)

Newcastle University

Centre for Research in Learning and Teaching

Newcastle Upon Tyne

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