IOE Insights

The COVID-19 crisis has shone an intense light on the role schools play in improving social mobility.

On the one hand, it has exposed the deep inequalities outside schools that shape social mobility patterns, on the other it has also revealed escalating expectations placed on teachers to solve society’s ills.

So what is the role of schools in improving social mobility in a post-pandemic world? How can we enable education to be the great social leveller, when it has been commandeered by the middle-classes to cement their status in society?

Lee Elliot Major, Britain’s first Professor of Social Mobility at the University of Exeter and Honorary Professor at the UCL Institute of Education, argues that we need to rethink education as we face a ‘dark age of declining opportunity’.

Full information: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/events/2020/sep/virtual-event-apocalypse-or-new-dawn-social-mobility-and-education-post-covid-era

Talking about race can be at times difficult, challenging and uncomfortable, but it has to be done.

Dr Victoria Showunmi talks to Dr Humera Iqbal about her personal journey, experiences and research into gender identity and race in the context of leadership, and the implications for the experiences of learners and educators. Her work has gained international recognition and has also resulted in collaborations with fellow researchers across Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia.

Dr Showunmi shares insights into her work with Black girls and young women’s experiences of education and her thoughts into what students today expect from institutions as society continues to demand social change, inspired by movements and moments like #BlackLivesMatter, COVID-19 and #MeToo.

Full show notes: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2020/oct/black-identity-intersectionality-and-leadership-education-research-and-beyond-rftrw-s05e01

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Professor Michael Young joins Dr Will Brehm to talk about his concept of 'Powerful Knowledge'. How does it apply to schools? Where did the idea come from? How has his own thinking evolved over his career, which also spans over 50 years at the IOE?

Our thanks to Dr Will Brehm for allowing us to repost this episode from his FreshEd Podcast: https://freshedpodcast.com/michaelyoung/

How is UCL research helping to level out various playing fields? This podcast hears how legal experts are helping people to get the support they are entitled to, share thoughts with London’s commuters on how advertising can be more representative. But firstly, this episode takes a look at the creation of new technologies which make our world more accessible.

Join UCL alumna, Suzie McCarthy, as she explores these topics with UCL experts:

This podcast is republished from Series 1 of the #MadeAtUCL Disruptive Discoveries podcast. The series talks to UCL researchers answering life's big questions; from green infrastructure to artificial intelligence, space exploration to treating cancer. Find out more about UCL's top Disruptive Discoveries: bit.ly/MadeAtUCL

We've only realised that after many episodes, our 'Research for the Real World' hosts Dr Humera Iqbal and Dr Rob Webster have not seen each other speak. So we set up a video call to reveal all, including what's in store for Season 5.

Find out more and watch the video: https://bit.ly/researchfortherealworld

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Younger children in particular require help in understanding and adjusting to the ‘new normal’ brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. They also need relatively close supervision in their learning and development - support that would usually be provided by teachers, in school.

As the uncertainties continue about when all primary schools will re-open and on what basis, how can parents/carers and teachers best support pupils’ learning progress? How can they help these children – and themselves – prepare for a new school year that may well still be disrupted by social distancing?

More information: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/events/2020/jul/virtual-event-supporting-primary-learning-during-covid-19-outbreak

Dr Kate Cowan talks to Dr Rob Webster about how children interact and communicate, the challenges researchers face when conducting research with them, and the pandemic’s effect on the way they play at home and school.

An early years specialist, Kate’s research focuses on play, creativity and digital technologies, and prior to joining the IOE, she worked as a nursery teacher and remains committed to connecting research and practice. We hear examples of this from the ‘Playing the Archive’ project, which studied the ways children have played across the decades.

You might be familiar with W.C. Fields’ “Never work with animals or children” quote, but it appears that Kate has worked hard to push against the well-worn trope, employing multimodal methodologies to document and analyse play. Kate explains how using digital tools and involving children as co-researchers has benefitted her work.

To wrap up season 4, Rob and Kate discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected play, how the virus has been incorporated into new and traditional games, the significance of digital play during lockdown, and what’s in store for children as they return to school and interact with the outside world.

Full show notes and links: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2020/sep/children-co-researchers-theres-more-play-here-rftrw-s04e05

[Listeners may experience occasional audio issues at the start of the podcast - things start to sound better after the 2-minute mark.]

Dr Amelia Roberts joins Dr Humera Iqbal in the Research for the Real World virtual studio to share examples of what knowledge exchange looks like through her experience and work on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

As the Deputy Director of the UCL Centre for Inclusive Education (CIE), Amelia’s role involves working with UK and international partners to improve the attainment and participation of pupils with SEND. And when it comes to examples of knowledge exchange in full flight, look no further than the Supporting Wellbeing, Emotional Regulation and Learning (SWERL) and Making Autism Research Accessible to Teachers (MARAT) programmes, both lead by Amelia.

The pair also discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected children across abilities and degrees of disadvantage, as well as how the CIE is formulating a rapid response variation of their knowledge exchange programmes to mitigate these effects as schools begin to reopen.

Full show notes and links: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2020/aug/how-does-knowledge-exchange-work-education-rftrw-s04e04

A look at how the evidence can help schools make informed decisions about the ways they group students and work towards equity and improving their life chances.

“We don’t learn mathematics from getting everything right, we learn mathematics from making mistakes… protecting children from those mistakes and errors really doesn’t help their learning.”

Dr Rob Webster and Professor Jeremy Hodgen discuss what attainment grouping looks like in England and what best practice looks like, his work with IOE colleagues on investigating the outcomes of mixed attainment grouping in mathematics and what effect the pandemic might have on existing grouping practices, and addressing anticipated learning loss.

Full show notes and links: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2020/aug/attainment-grouping-and-maths-learning-mistakes-rftrw-s04e03

The transition from school to the world of work is one of the most pivotal moments in a young person’s life – it’s a time of high pressure and high uncertainty, and one that requires an equally high level of resilience to manage. Enter the coronavirus crisis, and suddenly this difficult transition gains a brand new set of complications. The OECD invited Professor Ingrid Schoon onto their TopClass podcast to discuss the current situation for school-leavers entering the job market. Ingrid is also joined by Anthony Mann, Senior Analyst at the OECD.

Courtesy of the OECD's 'TopClass Podcast', episode 24.