Caroline McGowan PhD Candidate, TU Dublin Unreasonable expectations - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Caroline McGowan

PhD Candidate, TU Dublin

Unreasonable expectations that DEIS schools can ‘solve’ complex societal problems.

A progress report on a collaborative, cross-curricular intervention around food and cooking in an inner-city school.

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Contents of the Presentation

• Genesis of the research
• The fieldwork and expected outputs
• Case study DEIS Band 1 school
• Profile of the case study area
• What DEIS schools are expected to deliver
• Designing an integrated curriculum module
• Covid 19, school closures and calculated grades
• Unmasking the systemic ‘unfairness’ of the school

system.

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Genesis of the Research

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This presentation reports on a collaborative intervention invited by the Parents’ Council and staff of an inner city DEIS GaelScoil to TU Dublin Cathal Brugha Street doctoral programme. The main identified school needs were nutrition and food knowledge. Additional requirements centred on a need for compensatory and cross-curricular pedagogical practices to achieve DEIS learning targets.

The Fieldwork & Expected Outputs

A Single Case Study using collaborative enquiry methods with the Principal and class teacher to develop:

• 1. An Edu- Care Integrated ‘Food and Care’ Programme with

Two Food and Cooking Modules delivered to 4th, 5th and 6th classes in one session per week.

• 2. Care for Some Lunch? It’s More Than Just Food, A Pilot Hot

Lunch Experience every Friday for the whole school

• 3. A ‘Food Book’ – Project Based Learning by the children
• 4. A Pedagogical Guide for teachers to replicate the module.

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The Case Study Band 1 DEIS Gael Scoil

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• Formerly Scoil Colmcille 1927-1983
• 3 teachers, 65-110 average numbers
• Teaching through Irish
• The ‘Model School’ has 276 pupils in the senior school
• Original Teacher Training College and Model School

1831

• Teaching through English

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Few Primary Schools No Green Spaces

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Post-Primary schools

Multiple and Cumulative Disadvantages in the Case Study Area – which aspects???

• Homelessness? Temporary accommodation?
• Lone parents?
• Household income?
• Crime stats?
• Drug prevalence?
• Spaces to play and socialise?

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Statistics Render Disadvantage Faceless

9 Scoil Chaoimhín Scoil Chaoimhín

Educational Attainment

Scoil ChaoimhÍn 10

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Dublin 1 23% 3rd lowest after D10 and D 17

What can DEIS schools achieve?

• DEIS was introduced in 2007 to address the

educational needs of children from disadvantaged communities (3 to 18 years).

• A prerequisite for inclusion in the DEIS

Programme is a school’s commitment to target setting for numeracy and English literacy, to monitoring progress and to measuring outcomes.

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DEIS ‘advantages’

• 20 in junior classes, 24 in top classes (26 in Non-DEIS)
• Administrative principals
• Access to the School Meals Programme
• Access for staff to a literacy/numeracy support service and to

literacy/numeracy programmes through the teachers professional support services

• Access to homework clubs/summer camps assisting literacy and

numeracy development

• Access to Home-School-Community Liaison services (including

literacy and numeracy initiatives involving parents and family members) NOTE: access to does not imply right to

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Imbalance in DEIS

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Food Poverty Homelessness (lack of sleep, space, loss of friends, lack of emotional support)

‘Children learn in contexts… and the spaces, places and people they come into contact with have a deep influence on their development’

(Hayes, O’Toole and Halpenny, 2017).

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Revising the primary curriculum

NCCA is reviewing and redeveloping the primary curriculum for the first time since 1999. 'The redeveloped primary curriculum will support schools in working towards the creation of inclusive learning environments which teachers can interpret locally and which allow for variations in children’s learning needs.’ (NCCA, 2020).

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7 Discrete Primary Curriculum Areas

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Social, Personal and Health Education

Physical Education Religious Education Primary Languages Arts Mathematics

Social, Environmental and Scientific

Integrating curriculum areas for the research fieldwork Move away from the time-on-task paradigm to a compensatory paradigm

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20 SESE - Geography

Where food comes from e.g. garden, the supermarket, another country, Local food, The garden and growing. Nature and our food, caring for the environment. Food miles.

SESE - History

Understanding of Irish foods/local . History of Irish foods. Food heritage, Food and farming,

Primary Language -Languages

Discussing of ideas, giving opinion, journal writing, writing up recipes reading food labels, packaging and

• ingredients. Growing vocabulary

through ingredients and processes. Using words with real life application. Book design skills. Photography.

Mathematics

Measures - Cooking times, setting the oven temperature, cost of food products, value for money, eating nutritious food for less, weights, measures and sequences in relation to food recipes, costings, shopping, money management.

SESE - Science

Natural Environment environmental awareness, energy and cooking foods Seasonality of foods, winter and summer/autumn foods. Observing changes while cooking and baking.

SPHE

Making decisions about what to eat, nutrition and health. Practising a life skill (cooking) Caring for yourself/others and relating to others through food. The dining/eating experience. Taking time to enjoy food.

Edu - Care Integrated ‘Food and Care’ Programme

Art - Visual Arts

Drawing from observation or memory of foods, events experienced during the module.

Compensating for 4 domains of developmental needs

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Home Works 2018

Edu-Care Integrated (Food and Care) Programme Affective Practices 5th Domain Children's Affective Needs

Belonging, Mattering, Counting

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The Module in Action

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Leabhar Bia

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Current Research Stage: Evaluation of the Fieldwork

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Guiding Principles Theories Class Plans Resources Pedagogical Guide

• The findings from the evaluations will be used in together with
• ther elements below to inform the Pedagogical Guide for

teachers

Unexpected Aspects

• Covid lockdown and school closures
• Discourses about standardised Leaving Cert.

results and unmasking advantage/disadvantage and ‘entitlements’ in the education system.

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School closures affected disadvantaged students much more severely, study shows School leaders fear digital divide will widen achievement gap, ESRI research says

Fri, Jun 26, 2020, 00:00 Irish Times

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Big Question

‘Educational institutions alone cannot eliminate social class inequalities as the generative site of social class injustices rests on economic rather than educational relations’ (Lynch, 2018)

Are DEIS schools a site of reproduction, agents of change, both,

• r neither?

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A Socially Inconvenient Truth - No Equality of Opportunity?

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Sunday Independent 13 September 2020

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A Socially Inconvenient Truth – Schools maintain the system?

Míle Buíochas

Caroline McGowan

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