To the oppressed, and to those who suffer with them and fight at their side (Paulo Freire, 1970)
Anti-poverty Professional Learning for the Teaching Profession
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To the oppressed, and to those who suffer with them and fight at their side (Paulo Freire, 1970)
Teachers have told us that they want to develop and deepen a shared understanding of the range of poverty-related issues and impacts which learners, their families, and communities, struggle with day after day. This professional learning programme aims to meet that need and in doing so, unequivocally names poverty in all its forms as ‘the problem’. In emphasising the primary importance of naming and understanding that problem – its nature, causes and consequences – we believe we best meaningfully contextualise both learner’s and teacher’s poverty-related experiences and actions, and inform and support plans for change.
EIS takes a Human-Rights based approach to poverty (HRBA), in line with the U.K and Scotland’s international treaty-based commitments, and this is reflected here in both theory and practice. This not only acts to support the Curriculum for Excellence, and a range of other current and forthcoming school initiatives, but also explicitly furthers the aims of the U.N. World Programme for Human Rights Education, the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights Education and Training, and the Scottish National Action Plan on Human Rights.
While acknowledging and valuing that participants bring a wide range of experience and understandings of poverty gleaned from different settings, both educational and wider, this programme does not assume particular types of prior knowledge. We do so, not only in order that no-one feels embarrassed or worried about their level of awareness, but also because we want to emphasise shared experiences and explicit common understandings from our work together. We want to facilitate ‘a common language’ and framework that can act to maximise collegiate working on this issue within each school, and across the sector, while still drawing on that important diversity of background.
Attitudes; beliefs; facts and myths; child poverty; narrative; media; nature, causes and consequences of poverty; human rights; ideology; welfare state; collegiate.
Learner impacts; educational frameworks; pedagogy; whole school; human rights education (HRE); learning together; habitus; place; mental health; identity; insecurity and risk; stigma; power; wealth; neoliberalism; controversies.
Contextualised action; teacher and learner empowerment; active citizenship; community involvement; democracy; activism; theories of change; school culture; PL planning.
Module 1.
Shining the Spotlight on Poverty: how it is
We will focus on what poverty is and is not by examining its nature, causes and consequences; siting it firmly within its political and ideological context, and shining the spotlight on attitudes, beliefs and myths about poverty, inequality and wealth. In doing so, the module develops the role of poverty-related pedagogy within CfE, and explores what more we can do to translate theory into practical action by sharing research evidence, experience, insights, and good practice.
In addition, through our human-rights based approach to poverty, we provide an opportunity to learn more about human rights education on economic, social and cultural rights, and governmental responsibility to ‘Respect, Protect and Fulfil’ them.
Aims: To widen understanding of the educational, cultural and socio-political context of learners’ and their family’s experiences of poverty, in order to best maximise individual and whole-school support; to lay the ground for the development of related culture change and relevant policy and practice development; to introduce or further develop selected pedagogical and whole school activities; to facilitate increased peer support and introduce opportunities for poverty-related collegiate working and professional learning; to introduce a human-rights based approach to poverty and demonstrate its relevance.
Leads to: Module 2 – Digging Deeper on Poverty
And other options:
Module 2.
Digging Deeper on Poverty: how it feels and what it does
Poverty is both complex and simple. We further explore its essence and its many faces, through examining a range of potential impacts on both learners as individual young people, and as members of families, communities and wider society. Utilising case studies and lived experience as well as concepts from not only educational research, but also sociology and psychology, we will explore issues of poverty, wealth and inequality; identity, stigma and shame; risk and uncertainty; and examine a range of potential impacts on learning. We will highlight contested and controversial areas in the field and discuss and/or debate as appropriate. We will look at practical examples of what poverty can do – and does – to mental health and to lives, and at how teaching and learning about poverty together has the potential to empower teachers and learners in undermining some of these impacts.
The professional learning offer also draws on case studies and academic research to learn more about the potentially transformational impact of Human Rights Education (HRE) on thinking about, and acting on, poverty. We will examine how HRE can be practically used to strengthen links between existing educational frameworks and wider social justice initiatives in schools (e.g. CfE, Rights-respecting Schools, Nurture Schools, SDGs; Empowering Schools, Fairer Scotland Duty, and Child Poverty Action Planning etc.), and its potential to provide a coherent framework and narrative for relevant collegiate working and sustainable policy development.
Aims: To deepen understanding of poverty and its effects; to deepen understanding of its potential educational impacts; to increase awareness of good practice and research-based evidence on teaching and learning around poverty; to provide information and resources on developing classroom activities and whole-school actions; to deepen understanding of a human-rights based approach to poverty; to further the development of a whole-school approach to anti-poverty work.
Leads to: Module 3 – Schools Against Poverty
And other options:
Research opportunities
Module 3:
Schools against Poverty: the art of the possible
This module acts to collate and consolidate the work done so far, both within the programme overall and within each teacher’s existing practice and ongoing school actions, e.g. on the cost of the school day; UNCRC; learner voice; parental involvement, community outreach, etc.
Within a context of recognising that schools cannot solve poverty, we consider a wide domestic and international evidence base, to discuss and examine what else could be done within schools to ameliorate the effects of poverty on learners and their educational potential. Building on all of the above, we reflect on current and emerging statutory and good practice guidance, frameworks and policies, and explore their relevance and usefulness for Scotland’s learning communities.
Recognising diversity both within the profession and within schools, the module will also provide an opportunity for discussion and reflection to enable each participant to identify ongoing priorities for self-directed professional learning – including offering further support through ongoing involvement in the PACT community, if desired.
Aims: To consolidate prior learning and understanding on poverty and its impact; to enhance knowledge of a range of potential interventions; to enhance pedagogical confidence on poverty and related classroom activities; to enhance knowledge of the role of poverty-related HRE in educational settings; to aid the development of whole-school, anti-poverty policies; to facilitate local, regional and national PACT peer support and collaborative activity; to support the development of personal and professional learning planning.
Module 3 can lead to:
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