A Systems Level Focus on Overcoming Social

Inequality through Education and Community

Development: Early Intervention and Access Dr. Paul DownesDr. Paul Downes

Director, Educational Disadvantage Director, Educational Disadvantage Centre,Centre,

Senior Lecturer in Education (Psychology)Senior Lecturer in Education (Psychology)

A.Evaluation and Social Inequalities

B.Education as a Vehicle for Social Mobility: Key Aspects of System Change

A. Evaluation and Social Inequalities

How are inequalities produced and reproduced in society ?Through key forms of inequalities in education:School attendance, School performance, Early School Leaving, Access to Third Level Education and Educational Attainment GenerallyThrough factors associated with early school leavingHigher risk of substance abuse (especially heroin), heroin use as a proxy for social marginalisation, Higher unemployment, Higher risk of imprisonment etc

The need for wider indicators and benchmarks for social inequality through a focus on structural, process and outcome indicatorsIn the words of the UN Special Rapporteur on the international right to health (2006): ‘54. Structural indicators address whether or not key structures and mechanisms that are necessary for, or conducive to, the realization of the right to health, are in place. They are often (but not always) framed as a question generating a yes/no answer. For example, they may address: the ratification of international treaties that include the right to health; the adoption of national laws and policies that expressly promote and protect the right to health; or the existence of basic institutional mechanisms that facilitate the realization of the right to health…’;

55. ‘Process indicators measure programmes, activities and interventions. They measure, as it were, State effort’; 57 ‘outcome indicators will often be used in conjunction with benchmarks or targets to measure change over time’.This framework moves beyond the qualitative/quantitative framework as process indicators can be quantified It allows for a more dynamic focus on how a system is changing in relation to indicators – this is necessary for complex, changing environmentsIt provides a focus on a system and subsystems in relation to indicators as benchmarks for progress within a system and subsystem(See also Downes 2007 and Downes 2008 for applications of these indicators to wider contexts such as socioeconomic exclusion and human trafficking in the Baltic States)

Some concerns regarding a drive to evaluation of projects engaging with the most marginalized (Downes 2007a)The danger that projects/schemes will engage in ‘cherry-picking’ those who attend i.e., those most marginalized, with multiple disadvantages, may become excluded from interventions as gains may be harder to establish with this group. Evaluated gains for an intervention may be due to the selection process of who is allowed and not allowed in to the interventionFor those with particularly chaotic lifestyles an outcome indicator which demonstrates no decline (though no gain also) may be a positive outcome as without an intervention this stabilizing effect of no decline may not have been achievedRecognition is needed that every causal intervention still requires a range of background supporting conditions for the cause to be effective. These conditions may not be in place for those most marginalized. This does not mean that the causal intervention is not therefore of value

B) Education as a Vehicle for Social Mobility: Key Aspects of System Change

Educational policies to promote a more inclusive society.

Can education be a social mobility vehicle ?

YES !

System change interventions need to focus on the levels of:- individual, class in school, school, family, local community (Downes 2003, 2004, 2009) as well as wider policy fora

A) Access strategies to education for traditionally marginalized groups

a system level focus

strategies at the different levels: institutional, local, regional, national and EU level

developing structural, process and outcome indicators for system level change at each level

Other key emerging themes from LLL2010 FP6 study:

non-formal education as a bridge into the system for socially excluded

the need for accredited training for local community leaders

lifelong learning applies to prisoners (see also Maunsell, Downes and McLoughlin 2008)

B) Early Intervention: The need for Community Based Multidisciplinary Teams to Engage at a System Level with Families most in Need and with Local Schools with High Proportion of Traditionally Marginalised Students

See Familiscope Community Based Psychology Service, Ballyfermot, Dublin, Ireland (originally funded through EU sources) as a model of good practice of this (Downes 2004):

www.familiscope.ie

A Mental Health Focus: Need for teams to provide emotional and therapeutic supports for children at risk of early school leaving, as well as family supportThere is a large body of international research across a large variety of cultures on the pivotal role of positive interpersonal communication and relations between teachers and students to keep students in school (see e.g., Darmody et al 2007); the school needs to be treated as a mental health system with supports to ensure this system adopts supportive communicative practicesThe team is engaged with teachers to develop their conflict resolution skills

A Language Development/Literacy Focus:

Speech and language therapists are part of such a multidisciplinary team: Language and literacy are key to mental health as well as staying on at school

Literacy is an extremely complex area to teach: The team focuses on system level development of language and literacy at the levels of the child, family, teachers, whole school and community

Community Based though working also onsite in a range of schools

A Community Based Service helps gain the trust of children and families particularly alienated from the school system

A community based approach is more cost effective as it can service a wider number of schools rather than being located solely in one or two schools

It recognises the vital need for an outreach strategic approach to reach the most marginalized, and that ‘information’ type approaches are insufficient to reach this particularly vulnerable population

Other Issues as part of a Solution-Focused Approach

•Teacher Professional Development at Pre service and In service for:

conflict resolution skillsliteracy teaching skills

ethnic, social class diversity training (see Downes and Gilligan 2007)

•The role of the Arts at a Community Development Level and School Level in:

overcoming fear of failure as there is no ‘right answer’ in the arts

integrating the arts with literacy teaching and learningemotional expression

conflict resolutionfostering community leadership in future generations (see

Downes and Maunsell 2007)

•The need for communal spaces for youth such as community drop-in centers

these community spaces need to be as flexible as possible in recognition that many potentially marginalized young

people need places to go to on ‘impulse’ rather than through planning days in advance

•Recognition of the potential need for interventions to overcome other problems such as hunger in school, lack of sleep (frequently due to anxiety related issues, Downes and

Maunsell 2007)

• A community development and social innovation focus needs further examination of the different kinds of

traditionally marginalized communities which may exist even in the same city, as well as across countries and regionsa structural, process and outcomes indicators approach is

highly suited to assessing progress at a community development level, as is recognized by the UN Special

Rapporteur on the Right to Health (2005, 2006)

Recognition that factors other than family income affect the future of new generations and intra/intergenerational economic mobility requires acknowledgement of the psychological factor of fear of failure highlighted in

international research (see Downes 2003 for an account).

Other emerging psychological themes are fear of success for working class students (Ivers 2008), mental health stressors, peer to peer support and cohort effects for learning, as well

as the need to stimulate voluntarism strategies generally and particularly in Central and Eastern European contexts

ReferencesDarmody, M. (2007) Strengthening the School Social Climate. Pp. 329-342. In Beyond Educational Disadvantage (2007), (P. Downes & A-L Gilligan, Eds.), Institute of Public Administration: Dublin:

Downes, P. (2003). Living with heroin: HIV, Identity and Social Exclusion among the Russian-speaking minorities in Estonia and Latvia. English version. Legal Information Centre for Human Rights, Tallinn, Estonia.

Downes, P. & Maunsell, C. (2003). EMCDDA Expert Survey on family-based prevention, community-based prevention and indicated prevention (early interventions). Survey Coordinator for Ireland for the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) (2003).

Downes, P. (2004). Psychological support services for Ballyfermot: Present and future. Commissioned Research Report for European Union funded organisation, URBAN, Ballyfermot, in conjunction with Ballyfermot Drugs Task Force.

Downes, P. (2007). Intravenous drug use and HIV in Estonia: Socio-economic integration and development of indicators regarding the right to health for its Russian-speaking population. Liverpool Law Review, Special Issue on Historical and Contemporary Legal Issues on HIV/AIDS, Vol.28, 271-317

Downes, P. (2007a). Why SMART outcomes ain’t always so smart… pp.57-69. In Beyond Educational Disadvantage (2007), (P. Downes & A-L Gilligan, Eds.), Institute of Public Administration: Dublin:

Downes, P. & Maunsell, C. (2007). Count us in: Tackling early school leaving in South West Inner City Dublin, An integrated response. Commissioned Research Report for South Inner City Community Development Association (SICCDA) & South Inner City Drugs Task Force: Dublin

Downes, P & Gilligan, A-L Beyond Disadvantage: Some conclusions pp.463-491. In Beyond Educational Disadvantage (2007), (P. Downes & A-L Gilligan, Eds.), Institute of Public Administration: Dublin

Downes, P. (2008). The International Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health: A Key Legal Framework for Human Trafficking ? pp.278-289. In Not One Victim More: Human Trafficking in the Baltic States, (P. Downes, A. Zule-Lapimaa, L.Ivanchenko & S.Blumberg, Eds.). Tallinn: Living for Tomorrow.

Downes, P., Ivanchenko, L., Zalcmane, S., Smelt, H., & Blumberg, S. (2008). Conclusion: Key Indicators Regarding Prevention, Protection and Prosecution in Relation to Human Trafficking in the Baltic States pp.290-298. In Not One Victim More: Human Trafficking in the Baltic States, (P. Downes, A. Zule-Lapimaa, L.Ivanchenko & S.Blumberg, Eds.). Tallinn: Living for Tomorrow.

Downes, P. (2009). Prevention of Bullying at a Systemic Level in Schools: Movement from Cognitive and Spatial Narratives of Diametric Opposition to Concentric Relation. In Shane R. Jimerson, Susan M. Swearer, and Dorothy L. Espelage (Eds.), The Handbook of School Bullying: An International Perspective , Section III., Research-Based Prevention and Intervention (2009) (pp.517-533). New York: Routledge.

LLL2010 FP6 study:Downes, P. (2010). Access of adults to formal and non-formal education – Comparison of policies and priorities across 12 European countries (work in progress)

Ivers, J. (2008). Fear of Success in North Inner City Dublin Youth. Masters Thesis, Educational Disadvantage Centre, St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin

Maunsell, C., Downes, P., & McLoughlin, V. (2008). National Report on Lifelong Learning in Ireland. European Union Sixth Framework Project ‘Towards a lifelong learning society: The contribution of the education system’. Dublin: Educational Disadvantage Centre, St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra

21 February 2005 UNITED NATIONS Economic and Social Council, COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS. Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Paul Hunt, MISSION TO ROMANIA

UNITED NATIONS Economic and Social Council 3 March 2006 COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Paul Hunt