Cradle-to-Career School Designs: learning from insider experiences
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Environment, Education and Development
Abstract
Background and aims
The UK has entrenched patterns of educational inequality. This project a new type of school design, 'cradle-to-career' initiatives, which engage with barriers to learning in families, communities, and wider socio-environmental contexts (Lawson 2013). Tailored to local areas, they aim to: (i) provide children with a seamless 'pipeline' of support, from pre-school to positive post-school destinations; (ii) improve children's outcomes, including health, education, housing, and material well-being; and (iii) enhance the capacity of families and community contexts to support better outcomes.
While these designs hold considerable promise, their knowledge base is limited. One issue is that professionals' assumptions about how designs will work are rarely surfaced and scrutinised (Douglass-Horsford & Sampson 2014). There are concerns that cradle-to-career systems are being designed without actively engaging with those they intend to benefit (Lawson & Van Veen 2016).
The studentship will be embedded in Reach Academy Feltham (RAF), an 'all-through' school for learners aged 2-18. RAF is at the forefront of cradle-to-career school design in the UK, and focuses its activities on improving: school readiness, family strength and capacity, and post-school outcomes. Through a 21 month detailed empirical case study over a 21 month period, the studentship will:
1. surface and scrutinise the understandings of the professionals leading RAF's design, focusing on what this is intended to achieve and how it anticipates doing so
2. explore how a sample of children and their families engage with, experience, and are impacted upon by RAF's design
3. support the professionals leading RAF's development through their engagement with the study's findings.
Research questions:
1. What does RAF's design do to try to improve outcomes for children and their families?
2. Why does it do this and what does it hope to achieve?
3. How is RAF's design intended to work in practice for children and their families?
4. What evidence is there that RAF's design is working as anticipated for a sample of children and their families, and what factors account for this?
5. What does this suggest for the development of RAF's design?
Research Design
Case study of RAF's design, with case studies of 10 families engaged with RAF's provision embedded within this.
Empirically, the study will have two broad phases:
Phase 1 (5 months) focuses on RAF's cradle-to-career design. Primary research activities will include interviews and reviewing relevant documentation. The CASE student will also become familiar with RAF's local area through field visits and reviewing socio-demographic data.
Phase 2 (16 months) develops in-depth case studies of 10 families, identified in consultation with RAF's leaders and family support workers. Each family's engagement will be tracked over 5 academic terms to explore the extent to which RAF's approach is working as anticipated and the factors which account for this. At a minimum, interviews will take place with each family on a termly basis. To ensure interview activities are easily accessible, discussion tools, such as the family outcomes star (www.outcomesstar.org.uk), widely used by charities and statutory services, will be adapted as appropriate.
Interim findings will be fed back termly to the leaders of RAF's design to support its on-going development.
Outcomes
Beyond direct impacts on RAF, the study's findings are likely to have significant practical and conceptual application within this emerging field, with the transferability of findings to other contexts in the UK, USA and beyond, supported by its in-depth case-study design. Furthermore, findings will have high policy relevance, illuminating: (i) the potential of cradle-to-career designs to tackle inequalities in disadvantaged areas, and (ii) the related design issues schools must consider.
The UK has entrenched patterns of educational inequality. This project a new type of school design, 'cradle-to-career' initiatives, which engage with barriers to learning in families, communities, and wider socio-environmental contexts (Lawson 2013). Tailored to local areas, they aim to: (i) provide children with a seamless 'pipeline' of support, from pre-school to positive post-school destinations; (ii) improve children's outcomes, including health, education, housing, and material well-being; and (iii) enhance the capacity of families and community contexts to support better outcomes.
While these designs hold considerable promise, their knowledge base is limited. One issue is that professionals' assumptions about how designs will work are rarely surfaced and scrutinised (Douglass-Horsford & Sampson 2014). There are concerns that cradle-to-career systems are being designed without actively engaging with those they intend to benefit (Lawson & Van Veen 2016).
The studentship will be embedded in Reach Academy Feltham (RAF), an 'all-through' school for learners aged 2-18. RAF is at the forefront of cradle-to-career school design in the UK, and focuses its activities on improving: school readiness, family strength and capacity, and post-school outcomes. Through a 21 month detailed empirical case study over a 21 month period, the studentship will:
1. surface and scrutinise the understandings of the professionals leading RAF's design, focusing on what this is intended to achieve and how it anticipates doing so
2. explore how a sample of children and their families engage with, experience, and are impacted upon by RAF's design
3. support the professionals leading RAF's development through their engagement with the study's findings.
Research questions:
1. What does RAF's design do to try to improve outcomes for children and their families?
2. Why does it do this and what does it hope to achieve?
3. How is RAF's design intended to work in practice for children and their families?
4. What evidence is there that RAF's design is working as anticipated for a sample of children and their families, and what factors account for this?
5. What does this suggest for the development of RAF's design?
Research Design
Case study of RAF's design, with case studies of 10 families engaged with RAF's provision embedded within this.
Empirically, the study will have two broad phases:
Phase 1 (5 months) focuses on RAF's cradle-to-career design. Primary research activities will include interviews and reviewing relevant documentation. The CASE student will also become familiar with RAF's local area through field visits and reviewing socio-demographic data.
Phase 2 (16 months) develops in-depth case studies of 10 families, identified in consultation with RAF's leaders and family support workers. Each family's engagement will be tracked over 5 academic terms to explore the extent to which RAF's approach is working as anticipated and the factors which account for this. At a minimum, interviews will take place with each family on a termly basis. To ensure interview activities are easily accessible, discussion tools, such as the family outcomes star (www.outcomesstar.org.uk), widely used by charities and statutory services, will be adapted as appropriate.
Interim findings will be fed back termly to the leaders of RAF's design to support its on-going development.
Outcomes
Beyond direct impacts on RAF, the study's findings are likely to have significant practical and conceptual application within this emerging field, with the transferability of findings to other contexts in the UK, USA and beyond, supported by its in-depth case-study design. Furthermore, findings will have high policy relevance, illuminating: (i) the potential of cradle-to-career designs to tackle inequalities in disadvantaged areas, and (ii) the related design issues schools must consider.