Poverty, Class and Education
Friday June 14th 2024
at Glasgow Caledonian University
Organised in conjunction with The Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit (SPIRU)
Poverty, Class and Education 10am to 4.30pm (Timetable below)
SIGN UP DETAILS:
To attend IN PERSON - sign up link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/annual-conference-of-alliance-of-working-class-academics-2024-in-person-tickets-899982400587
To attend ONLINE - sign up link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/annual-conference-of-the-alliance-of-working-class-academics-2024-online-tickets-902295900327
This hybrid conference acknowledges the context of a challenging environment for educational systems within and beyond Scotland. It recognises that policymakers, researchers and practitioners are seeking solutions to manage and overcome complex challenges. Within our institutions, we are grappling with poverty, hunger, high dropout levels, low attendance rates, exclusion, isolation, alienation, and mental ill-health, all which are exacerbated, if not caused by, poverty and inequality. Our contention is that we need to appraise and address these challenges with a sensitivity to class. We recognise the backdrop of increasingly punitive socio-economic measures against marginalised and underrepresented working-class individuals. Therefore, with a focus on “Poverty, Class and Education” the conference will investigate and develop effective responses to poverty and inequality in Scotland and beyond. The day features a wide range of the latest research, insights and work on poverty and inequalities, and the pathways of working-class individuals into, through and beyond education systems.
The conference brings together (working-class) academics, research students, widening access practitioners and researchers from across a range of educational and public sector settings. It is open to everyone, especially those who are interested in themes of (post-school, school, and pre-school) education, sociology, psychology, criminology, and public health. We welcome anyone with lived experience of conference themes and those who wish to become more informed on issues related to social class, education and poverty.
Note: This is a hybrid conference (delivered in person at Glasgow Caledonian University and accessed remotely via Teams), Robust debate is welcomed, but participants are expected to engage in a respectful manner.
If you have any questions about the conference, please contact: Dr Craig Johnston: c.johnston@uwe.ac.uk; Prof John McKendrick: j.mckendrick@gcu.ac.uk and/or Gavin Brewis (PhD Student): Gavin.Brewis@gcu.ac.uk
FULL TIMETABLE
10.00 Welcome
Dr Craig Johnston (Deputy Chair AWCA, UWE) and Gavin Brewis (SPIRU, GCU)
Introductions:
Prof. Geraldine Van Bueren KC (Chair , AWCA)
Prof. John McKendrick (SPIRU, GCU, Committee Member AWCA)
10.20 Keynote
James McEnaney: Journalist & Author: Poverty, Class and Education (pathways/ challenges)
11.30 Session 1: Working-class experiences, opportunities and insights
All sessions will take place simultaneously (across 3 rooms)
Main Room
Dr Neil M Speirs, University of Edinburgh Rejecting the Coldness of the Hidden Curriculum Through Loving Acts of Solidarity
Dr Pamela Louise Graham, Northumbria University “Trying to juggle study and work”: University staff reflections on supporting students experiencing financial hardship
Matthew Lee, University of Sunderland Code switching as a means of traversing class boundaries and re-gaining capital *this talk will be online
Room 2
Professor Yvette Taylor, University of Strathclyde Working-Class Queers and Crisis Climates
Nysha Chantel Givans, University of Wolverhampton "Reading Rita and Saving Arthur Seaton: Exploring Mature Students' Scholarly 'Becoming' and the Failures of Working-Class Education"
Dr Laura Green, Birkbeck University of London Beyond Access: Cultivating success for working-class foundation year students through a pedagogy of love
Room 3
Alison Alvarez Nee, South Bank University Using Creative Research Methods to Elicit Working-Class Women's experience of the transition into Higher Education.
Sorca Mcdonnell, TU Dublin, Co-operative Inquiry (CI) exploring class and education in Ireland with a group of working-class women who have attended HE
Laura Jackson, University of West of Scotland Navigating University and Motherhood: Understanding the Experiences of Single Mothers pursuing Undergraduate Degrees in Scotland
12:30 Session 2: Disciplinary perspectives and experiences
Main room
Dr Christopher O'Donnell & Prof Laura Kilby, University of the West of Scotland Power, prejudice, and exclusion of working-class identity in curriculum design, language, and artefacts in the existing post-16 education community of practice.
Amanda Corrigan, University of Strathclyde 'We've all had bad experiences of school, but we want to fix it.' Supporting adults who experienced school exclusion to take on the role of teacher educators.
David Watt, University of Glasgow: To what extent has inclusive education in Scotland failed working-class children and young people?
Room 2
Esme Lillywhite, University of Strathclyde: Does getting a degree improve social mobility? An analysis of intergenerational income mobility in the UK
Thanos Angelopoulos, Edinburgh Council: Keeping the poor in poverty - A critique of Employability Programmes in contemporary Scotland.
Dr Robert James Crammond, University of the West of Scotland Creatively confronting poverty amongst Scotland’s young people: The intervening role of supportive and systematic enterprise education and policy
Room 3
Grant Macdonald, The Young Communist League: Young and poor, revolting and educating.
Professor Alpesh Maisuria. University of the West of England, Articulating class as a socio-economic category
Caroline McDonald, Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership Hungry for Education: Poverty and Educational Attainment from a grassroots radical social work perspective.
13.15 LUNCH – One Hour
14.15 Session 3: Beyond the academy
Main room
Dr Deirdre O’Neill, University of Hertfordshire. The Inside Film project: Radical Pedagogy, Prison and Class
Haley Sneed, University of Glasgow Exploring youth experiences of wellbeing through photovoice. How can youth wellbeing be supported within a Scottish youth work context after COVID-19?
James Holloway, Artist: A phenomenology of Working-Class Experience in Govan
Room 2
Aaron Colin Sheridan, University of Strathclyde: Aspects of community-led education in Edinburgh’s council housing schemes 1930 – 2000
Esme Lillywhite, University of Strathclyde: Breaking Barriers: investigating the moderating role of childhood relationships in intergenerational mobility
Dr Scott Kennedy, South Lanarkshire College: Post Covid-19 barriers to education for individuals from a widening access background: An FE practitioner’s perspective
Room 3
Hannah Clegg, Dr Teresa Hagan and Calum Guinea Class in Clinical Psychology Collective: A conversation surrounding the impact of class when pursuing a career in Clinical Psychology
Dr Stephen Hendry, Royal Society of Chemistry, Chemistry: Inclusive access and progression from undergraduate onwards within both academia and industry
Caroline Bald, University of Essex: Nothing about us without us: a mixed methods study of HEI social care course admissions decision-making and implications for excluding working-class voices from state resource allocating professions.
15:15 Session 4 Conceptualising class and the academy
Main room
Dr Ray Campbell - University of Glasgow No Narratives But Our Own: The Liberatory Nature of Biographical Interpretive Narrative Methods
Stewart McGill, Economist and Author “Charisma, Confidence and Collective Liberation.”
Ruth Woolsey, Leeds Beckett University: No ‘buts’; Poverty is caused by inequality, not behaviour of people born into it.
Room 2
Dr Lee Crookes, University of Sheffield ‘The University will be for the people’? Mobilising the university to tackle inequality in a northern city – some reflections from a ‘hometown’ working-class academic.
Dr Steven Anthony Thirkle, Newcastle University: Marginalisation and Emergency Service Reliance: Understanding the Needs of People Experiencing Homelessness in Rural Coastal Northumberland and North Tyneside
Toni Beardmore, Aberystwyth University Perceptions and Experiences of Time Amongst Working-Class University Students
Room 3
Dr Sean Kippin, University of Stirling Educational equity in England: the shortcomings of the UK Government’s COVID-19 response
Katie Weir, University of Sheffield The Impact of Poor Housing and School Estate Infrastructure on Young Peoples Educational Outcomes and Absence Trajectories: A Duration Analysis
Emma River-Roberts, The Working-Class Climate Alliance, the Post Growth Institute The Degrowth Debate: Emancipation or Hegemony for the UK’s Working Class?
16.15/30 Rounding Up - Q and A - Next Steps
Finish