Transcript A1 : `University is a waste of time`

“University is a waste of time” Myths and methods
in engaging parents in widening access work
Dr. Graeme Atherton, Director,
National Education Opportunities
Network (NEON)
NEON
• 90 organisations/500+ individuals
• Funded by subscription
• Professional organisation for access to higher
education in England
• Access Academy
• NEON News
• Working Groups
• NEON Awards
• NEON Symposium
• Research e.g. Early 2014, ‘Does Cost Matter’?
Apsirations are not ‘low’
‘children and parents from low income families have high
aspirations and value school, and that parents by and large
try their best to support their children’s education. There is
evidence that teachers and other professionals may
underestimate the aspirations of socio-economically
disadvantaged children and parents and not appreciate the
importance with which school is viewed….
Cummings C, et al (2012) Can changing aspirations and attitudes impact
on educational attainment? A review of interventions York: JRF
http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/education-attainment-interventions-full.pdf
But are they high?
Survey of 7000 parents – children at age 9 – 2001-02
Goodman, A & Gregg, O (eds) (2010) Poorer Children’s Educational Attainment:
How important are attitudes and behaviours? York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Parents and education ‘control’
Goodman & Gregg (2010)
Parents and education ‘control’
• Previous graph shows:
• Parents from lower socio-economic groups
feel less in control, believe less in school
• But this does not mean they do less with their
children at 9 years old.
Parental Engagement in Education
•
DEs are slightly more likely to feel very involved in the children’s education (42% vs 37%
of ABC1s).
•
more likely to be involved in practice in helping with dinner duties and school trips & they are
significantly less likely to get involved in PTAs, to take their children to museums and galleries,
to play sport with them and to do school projects together.
•
different perceptions of what being very or fairly involved means. Thus DEs are more likely to
definitely agree that they know everything they need to know about their child’s education,
despite the fact that children’s educational attainment is often lower for this group.
•
DEs are less likely to not feel very confident in helping with homework and more likely not to
understand the work that the child does
•
less likely to feel very confident when talking to teachers
•
less likely to find written information very easy to understand.
Survey of 2000 parents in 2004 - Moon, N & Ivins, C (2004) Parental Involvement in Children’s
Education. London: BIS
NEON 2015 Working with Parents
Survey
• Responses from 21 institutions
• Across mission groups and institutional types
• Will be developed into a NEON report
• Strong interest in a NEON working group
What is being delivered?
• 11 activities integrated into learner focused
projects – e.g. information sessions for those
parents whose children participating in a
particular project
• 10 activities ‘separate’ – stand-alone and
focused entirely on parents
Commonalities
• Information focused
• Relatively short – 1 – 3 hours
• Not thoroughly evaluated
• ‘Informal’ in delivery
• Some concentrate on particular learner groups –
e.g. foster carers
Commonalities
• Some examples of printed materials
• Some issues with ‘hard to reach’ parents
• Concentrated mainly, not solely though, on
younger learners – up to year 8
• Association with learning of children
Case Study 1:University of Derby
• Family information evenings aimed at year 10
(4.5 hours including taster session) and year
12/13/Level 3 students (1.5 hours)
• 438 students/parents attended
• 90/100% ‘positive evaluation’ of the
experience by parents
Case Study 2: Cumbria
• Parents/carers Summer University Graduation
Ceremony and Pre-briefing event
• 70% parental attendance and over 300 family
members
• ‘Mum and dad don’t want me to move away
but really enjoyed visiting Cumbria’
• Male parents/carers feel trepidation visiting
university for the first time
Case Study 3: University of York
• Science is for Parents Too – 20 week initiative
covering Key Stage 2 national curriculum
• 2013/14 – 235 parents at primary level – courses
delivered in mornings and online
• Independent evaluation
• All parents increased knowledge of science &
children’s knowledge of science increased
• Parents did it for the children
• Very apprehensive of ‘university’ at the beginning
Case Study 4: Keele University
• Parents ambassador scheme
• Trained parents without HE experience who
support their children from entry to
graduation
• Work on Visit days/Parent IAG events/Careers
and options evenings/
Views of parents
• Lack knowledge about HE and how to apply
• Concerns about finance
• Positive about HE itself
• Examples of ‘HE not for likes of them’
attitudes
Your challenge
• You have £10,000
• Design an intervention that by working with
parents will support the progression of young
learners from widening access backgrounds
into HE
• Aim, Objectives, Method, how funds used
Things to consider
• Target group (young people and parents)
• Accessing the ‘hard to reach’
• Collaborative or individual
• Integrated or stand-alone
• What does evidence tell us?