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Dialogic Teaching : Evaluation Report and Executive Summary

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, WILLIS, Benjamin , THOMAS, Peter , TAYLOR, Roberta , MOORE, Nicolas , BURNETT, Cathy , MERCHANT, Guy and STEVENS, Anna (2017). Dialogic Teaching : Evaluation Report and Executive Summary. Project Report. London, UK, Education Endowment Foundation. [Monograph]

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The aim of the intervention was to raise levels of engagement and attainment across English, maths, and science in primary schools by improving the quality of teacher and pupil talk in the classroom. The approach, termed 'dialogic teaching', emphasises dialogue through which pupils learn to reason, discuss, argue, and explain in order to develop their higher order thinking as well as their articulacy. The intervention was developed and delivered by a team from the Cambridge Primary Review Trust (CPRT) and the University of York. Year 5 teachers in 38 schools, and a teacher mentor from each school, received resources and training from the delivery team, and then implemented the intervention over the course of the autumn and spring terms in the 2015/2016 school year. Following the intervention, pupils were tested in English, mathematics, and science. This efficacy trial compared the 38 schools (2,492 pupils) in which the intervention took place with 38 control schools (2,466 pupils). During the intervention, the evaluation team also carried out a survey and interviews with a sample of teachers, mentors, and heads, plus case-study visits to three intervention schools.

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Dialogic Teaching : Evaluation Report and Executive Summary

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WILLIS, Benjamin , THOMAS, Peter , TAYLOR, Roberta , MOORE, Nicolas , BURNETT, Cathy , MERCHANT, Guy and STEVENS, Anna (2017). Dialogic Teaching : Evaluation Report and Executive Summary. Project Report. London, UK, Education Endowment Foundation. [Monograph] PDF Dialogic_Teaching_Evaluation_Report.pdf - Published VersionAvailable under License All rights reserved.

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“Are You Listening?” Youth Survey Report 2026

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“Are You Listening?” Youth Survey Report 2026

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Schools as Sites of Activism: Students' Political Socialisation and Activism at School

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ABSTRACT
en

This paper explores students' political socialisation and activism at school. It draws on research from two datasets: interviews with 24 activists aged 15-25, and data from a national survey of 1600 school students in Wales. Wales offers a unique perspective as a case study for the enactment of young people's civil and political rights, given the focus on children's agency and citizenship in Welsh policy and legislation. The political socialisation of young activists in the study largely occurred outside of school through engagement with social movements and social media. However, participants also viewed school as a space for activism. They described attempts to change their school policies on a variety of environmental and social justice issues. They were sceptical about institutional forms of participation, such as school councils, and preferred student-led advocacy groups or more disruptive forms of activism as more effective avenues for change-making. Participants did not readily connect their activism to ideas encountered in lessons, suggesting that the official curriculum did not sensitise them politically. However, the hidden curriculum -including informal conversations with politically engaged teachers and witnessing strike action-did appear to foster their motivation for change. The research indicates that young people are claiming expertise on social justice issues and challenging hierarchical models of teaching and learning in line with critical pedagogic principles.

ABSENOLDEB
cy

Mae'r papur hwn yn trin a thrafod myfyrwyr yn cymdeithasoli ac yn ymgyrchu'n wleidyddol yn yr ysgol. Defnyddia ymchwil o ddwy set ddata: cyfweliadau gyda 24 o ymgyrchwyr rhwng 15 a 25, a data o arolwg cenedlaethol o 1600 o ddisgyblion ysgol yng Nghymru. Mae Cymru'n cynnig safbwynt unigryw fel astudiaeth achos o weithrediad hawliau sifil a gwleidyddol pobl ifanc o ystyried y ffocws ar weithrediad a dinasyddiaeth plant ym mholisïau a deddfwriaeth Cymru. Roedd cymdeithasoli ymgyrchwyr ifanc yn wleidyddol yn yr astudiaeth yn digwydd y tu allan i'r ysgol i raddau helaeth drwy ymgysylltu â mudiadau cymdeithasol a chyfryngau cymdeithasol. Er hyn, roedd y rhai a oedd yn cymryd rhan hefyd yn ystyried yr ysgol yn lle i ymgyrchu. Gwnaethon nhw ddisgrifio ymdrechion i newid polisïau eu hysgolion ar amrywiaeth o faterion amgylcheddol a materion sy'n ymwneud â chyfiawnder cymdeithasol. Roedden nhw'n amheus ynghylch ffyrdd sefydliadol o gymryd rhan, megis cynghorau ysgol, ac roedd yn well ganddyn nhw grwpiau eirioli dan arweiniad disgyblion neu ffyrdd o ymgyrchu mwy aflonyddgar fel llwybrau mwy effeithiol i greu newid. Doedd y cyfranogwyr ddim yn cysylltu eu hymgyrchu'n rhwydd â syniadau a ddaethon nhw ar eu traws mewn gwersi, gan awgrymu nad oedd y cwricwlwm swyddogol yn eu sensiteiddio'n wleidyddol. Er hyn, ymddengys bod y cwricwlwm cudd - gan gynnwys sgyrsiau anffurfiol gydag athrawon sydd â diddordeb mewn gwleidyddiaeth a bod yn dyst i streic - wedi meithrin eu cymhelliant i ysgogi newid. Mae'r ymchwil yn nodi bod pobl ifanc yn arddel arbenigedd ar faterion sy'n ymwneud â chyfiawnder troseddol a modelau hierarchaidd heriol o addysgu a dysgu yn unol ag egwyddorion addysgol beirniadol.

1 Introduction

During the spring of 2023, pupil activism made newspaper headlines in the UK following a spate of protests at school, including incidents related to skirt-measuring and access to toilets (Weale ). Within elements of the media, these child protests were framed as a school disciplinary issue, rather than as children exercising their right to express their opinions (Barrance and Muddiman ). Such negative responses emanate from children's protests challenging historical and normative understandings of the apolitical child living in a 'walled garden' (Holt ), insulated from the adult world of politics. Further, they highlight conflicts between increasing support for childhood agency in the context of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and hierarchical schooling cultures in the Global North which require children's compliance (Quennerstedt ).

Initiatives to support children's agency in schools have primarily been framed in terms of facilitating children's participation rights rather than supporting their protest rights (Tisdall and Cuevas-Parra ). Children's participation rights in school are generally supported through institutional forums for consultation on school decisions, which require children's participation to be managed and facilitated by adults. There has, however, been little research that has considered the school as a site for promoting or inhibiting childhood protest. Nevertheless, there is a legacy of protests by young people at schools internationally and in the UK stretching back over the last century, with protests linked to government policies, the Iraq War, and the climate crisis (Cunningham and Lavalette ; Pickard ). African American high school students had an integral role in challenging their schools' racist policies and practices in the USA in the 1960s and 70s (Rury and Hill ). More recently, students in the USA walked out of school as part of the March for Our Lives movement to protest against the lack of gun regulation following school shootings (Emeran ). In the UK, Cunningham and Lavalette's () history of school strikes shows how walkouts have been used by schoolchildren to protest on a wide range of school-based and national issues for over a century.

Alongside these forms of protest, there have been a range of initiatives to foster youth civic engagement in the UK: these include the creation of school councils and citizenship education. This paper engages with the tensions and complexities in realising the political and citizenship rights of children, using Wales as a case study in which policy and legal frameworks seem conducive to the expansion of children's political citizenship within the education system and beyond. Since devolution there have been a number of legislative and educational developments which indicate a desire on the part of decision-makers to be accountable to the voices and views of children: one of the Welsh National Assembly's earliest documents outlined Wales's post-devolution commitment to respecting children as 'active holders of rights' (NAW , 10) and it made school councils compulsory in 2005 (WAG ). Further, in 2011 it introduced the Children and Young People's 2011 Measure, which puts a statutory duty on ministers to give due regard to children's rights in any decisions affecting children (Williams ). The new curriculum for Wales, introduced for pupils up to Year 7 (11-12 year-olds) in 2022, highlights human rights as a key cross-cutting theme. It therefore represents an interesting case study for exploring the opportunities and barriers for children and young people engaging in civic and political activism. However, our previous research within Wales indicates that students do not always feel listened to and taken seriously at school, with pupils resorting to disruptive forms of activism when they feel they have exhausted institutional and legitimised routes for changemaking (Barrance and Muddiman ; see also O'Brien et al. ).

Within our framework for children's school-based activism (Barrance and Muddiman ), institutional activism sits within school policies and routine practices: this includes school councils and other forms of participation facilitated and organised by staff. In contrast, legitimised activism sits outside of formal school channels but does not break school rules and is generally accepted as a legitimate forum of engagement by schools. In our original paper, which drew largely on newspaper reports (and thus generally highly visible and contentious activisms), examples of legitimised activism included petitions, boycotts and open letters. In this paper we also include student-led advocacy groups, such as LGBTQ+ groups, which aim to challenge heteronormative school cultures. Finally, disruptive activism sits outside of school channels and involves the breaking of school rules and/or the disruption of routines. Examples of disruptive activism include demonstrations, sit-ins, graffiti, walkouts and breaking school rules. These forms of activism usually prompt an immediate response from schools as they pose a significant challenge to the social norms expected of children. The research conceptualised school student protest as an attempt to break down hierarchical models of teaching and learning in line with critical pedagogic perspectives (Freire ; Giroux ; hooks ), and to educate teachers on issues of social justice.

In this research, we draw on young activists' accounts of their activism at school to consider how they make sense of their activism in relation to their education. We discuss the perceptions of young activists on their schools as spaces for political socialisation, including curricula and relationships with staff, but also reflect on broader school cultures. We begin by considering children's political and citizenship education in the UK and exploring conceptualisations of activism in schools. In our analysis, we examine the extent to which young activists see their school as a site for activism, and the ways they engage politically at school. We conclude by considering the role of schools in fostering or inhibiting children's political socialisation and activism. In doing so, we feed into debates about children's activism, which draw on broader definitions of the 'political' that include children's everyday activities in service of their communities or families (Bosco ; Cuevas-Parra and Zhu ).

1.1 Children's Political and Citizenship Education

Formal citizenship education was introduced in all UK nations at the start of the twenty-first century, primarily as a result of concerns about the political disengagement of young people due to lower levels of voting (Pickard ). While England introduced discrete citizenship lessons following the Crick Report (), in Wales citizenship education was delivered through cross-curricular Personal and Social Education (WAG ) and Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship (ESDGC) (Welsh Government ). While both prioritise sustainability and the preparation of pupils for life in a global society, the PSE curriculum foregrounds active citizenship on the local, national and global level. Given the cross-curricular design of the new curriculum for Wales, citizenship continues to be taught as an element across disciplines (Welsh Government ). The citizenship curriculum in Wales has been subject to many of the same critiques as those in other UK nations: Jerome et al. () argue that all UK nations use a soft rather than critical citizenship approach, in which the focus is on personal responsibility, volunteering and doing good in one's community, rather than developing a critical mindset that interrogates power and challenges injustice. Further, they point out that none of the UK curricula prescribe teaching on governance within a devolved nation.

A key barrier to critical citizenship education is teachers' reluctance to teach what they see as controversial topics, with many avoiding such topics and others attempting to do so in a neutral way, so as to avoid politicising pupils (Donnelly et al. ). However, critical pedagogic approaches, as advocated by Giroux (), hooks (), Freire () and others, contend that neutrality is impossible to achieve, precisely because schooling operates within the political sphere, and so neutrality simply signifies adherence to the status quo which maintains dominant power structures. Giroux () argues that teachers should aim to develop problem-posing rather than politicising pedagogy, where the critical faculties of students are engaged. These debates reflect wider tensions and binaries in how childhood agency is conceived and the role of political socialisation, whether from the family, school or community: adults want children to be politically educated but relatively passive (a form of civic activism); they do not want them to be politically agentic and politicised (political activism).

1.2 Civic Engagement and Activism at School

Alongside curriculum and pedagogy matters, there are a number of extracurricular activities allied with civic engagement that students can become involved with at school. As discussed above, these can include institutional forums such as school councils, school clubs and groups, as well as student-led groups such as advocacy and issues-based campaigning groups. Much research has been conducted on school councils over the last 20 years in the UK, the majority of which has been critical of the tokenistic nature of councils as consultative, rather than decision-making bodies that do little to stimulate children's active citizenship (Alderson ; Wyse ; Allan and I'Anson ).

A smaller body of research has examined the role of school advocacy groups. Some of this research relates to school groups that are part of formal school programmes, such as Eco Schools (Lee ). Other research explores individual and informal school groups, often led by students themselves, such as Gay-Straight-Alliances (Walls et al. ). Fitzpatrick and McGlashan () note that pupils' efforts to challenge the heteronormative cultures of their schools often involve 'reimagining themselves as experts' (p. 264) as well as their relationships with teachers. Although research indicates that these groups can provide a safe space for students and increase visibility, Queer-Straight-Alliances can meet resistance in schools where there is not an overall culture of tolerance, making it difficult to effect systemic change (Griffin et al. ). A critical perspective on school-based activism, distinguishing between child- and adult-led activism, helps us to problematize some adult-led interventions as attempts to socialise youth for a particular future. Similarly, while adult-led interventions can potentially be emancipatory, there is a risk that school-based activist programmes can be co-opted by a neo-liberal consumerist logic focused on self-optimisation (Gordon and Taft ; Renold ).

2 Methodology

The research draws on two forms of data. The first is data from the WISERD Education Multi-Cohort Study (WMCS), a national longitudinal research project that surveys pupils about their views and experiences of growing up in Wales. The 12th sweep of the study (2024), included questions about participation in activism. The second is a set of 24 qualitative interviews with Welsh activists aged 15-25 (undertaken July 2023-June 2024). The authors received ethical approval for this second element of the research from the Research Ethics Committee of the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University (SREC:079).

The research procedures for Sweep 9 were approved by Cardiff University's Research Ethics Committee on the 1st of August 2017 (SREC:2372).

Participants were recruited through invitations sent to activist groups in Wales and interviews took place in person or online. The interviews focused on young people's experiences of taking part in activism in Wales and asked a series of questions about motivations and influences. Participants were asked about their schooling experiences to gauge whether schools had influenced their political expression and sensibilities, and to understand whether they saw school as a site for activism. The data was analysed using thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke ).

2.1 Ethical Considerations

Both of these research projects received ethical permission from the Research Ethics Committee of the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. Comprehensive and clear information sheets were provided at each stage of the research, enabling participants to give informed consent. Parents/guardians of participants in the MCS were provided with opt-out consent forms prior to the beginning of the research, and pupils consented on the first page of the survey. Consent for participation in the interviews was sought online via a consent form using the Qualtrics survey platform. Participants who gave consent were asked for their names and contact details to arrange interviews. Those under 16 were asked for their parent/guardian contact details and opt-in consent was sought from parents/guardians before proceeding to arrange interviews. Undertaking research with children and young people understandably entails heightened ethical scrutiny, and a key issue for us has been how to protect the identities of our participants. Anonymising the interviews presented a key challenge, since many of the young people participating in the study are doing unique, highly visible work or are part of small activist groups in Wales. This required us to take additional steps to protect the identities of participants. In this paper we identify participants by number only, and do not include additional demographic information to reduce the risk of identification.

We interviewed 24 participants with a mixture of genders including those identifying as men, women, trans and non-binary people. Nine of the participants were under 18. All of those aged 18 or above were either attending university or had left; none were unemployed. We grouped participant causes into five interrelated areas to aid anonymity. Participants were often recruited through one group but discussed involvement with other groups/causes in their interview. The causes identified are:

Anti Racism: includes activism linked to Black Lives Matter, Palestinian Solidarity and Stop the War movements.

Climate Activism: includes involvement with School Strikes For Climate, Fridays For Future, XR and Green New Deal Rising.

Welsh Activism: includes involvement with Welsh independence movements, protecting Welsh farmland, and organizations to promote Welsh language and culture.

LGBTQ+ Activism: includes campaigning on menstrual health, sex education, and trans-inclusive activism.

Left-Leaning Politics and Economic Inequalities: includes involvement with Labour, Socialist and Communist organisations, and material rights including housing/renters rights.

3 Findings

3.1 Mapping the Prevalence of Youth Activism in Welsh Schools

In the WMCS survey, 12% of school students ( n  = 1458) responded to say that they had participated in protests over the last year across a range of causes. Those who responded yes were asked to write which causes they had protested about. The most commonly reported form of protest was related to 'school issues', including activism on uniform, exclusion and school toilets. This reinforces findings from a previous sweep of the survey (Barrance and Muddiman ), where almost a quarter of pupils reported protesting against school policies and practices, highlighting that the school is a key site for young people's activism. The second most prevalent theme of protest is the climate crisis, followed by protest linked to Palestine. These were more widely reported than Wales-specific issues including Welsh Independence, the Welsh Government Sustainable Farming scheme and the closure of local services.

Our interviews help to contextualise this overview by exploring the perspectives of young activists. The sample includes those still at school and some who have left school and are reflecting back on their experiences and involvement with activism at school. In the following analysis we investigate the extent to which young activists in our sample see school as a forum for, or facilitator of, their activism. Activists in our study were involved with activism on a range of issues at school. These were not always aligned with the issues they organised and protested about outside of school, supporting Meyer's () argument that activism stimulates participants' critical consciousness and this spills over into many areas of their life and work.

We begin by recounting participant accounts of institutional and legitimised forms of political campaigning and citizenship at school via school councils and advocacy groups, before exploring the more contested forms of participation that require some disruption of school norms. In the second section we consider the various opportunities and means through which participants describe building skills and experiences linked to activism.

3.2 School Councils: Legitimate but Lacking?

School councils, as an institutional forum for participation, have been both celebrated for facilitating children's participation, and derided as tokenistic (Allan and I'Anson ; Alderson ; Wyse ). A minority of our participants linked their involvement in school council to the development of their activist tendencies. One participant mentioned being part of a school council at primary school as an example of their early interest in politics, whilst another described how participating in their school parliament developed their interest in girls' rights:

I got into activism at a very young age through my School Parliament. I was very involved...looking at school skirts when the uniform changed...and, like accessing the toilets, and I was known as kind of the person on the Council that the girls-rights issues would go through (Activist-06)

However, for many participants, school council was seen only as a forum for fundraising or organising events like parties and proms. the majority of participants were dismissive of their school council as a forum for influencing their schools' policies and practices, and there was little evidence of school councils stimulating critical forms of active citizenship. One activist explained that a boy in their year at school had initially gone to the school council to overturn a ban on durag (also known as do-rag) head coverings-often worn by Black boys-but ended up going directly to school governors instead as the school council 'don't actually really do much'. (Activist-24).

Although this activist was successful in persuading her school to end gender-segregated assemblies, her account demonstrates the ways in which adult gatekeepers can frustrate the exercise of student voice by focussing on listening rather than following up with action, a condition for the fulfilment to the right to participation (Lundy ). We heard a similar narrative from another activist who 'pushed' for a prayer room for Muslim students and complained about resistance from her school. This activist also found alternative routes for making her voice heard when she became frustrated with the school council. Together these accounts demonstrate how young activists, hindered by the limitations of the school council, found other ways to push for change. In fact, schools lacking meaningful opportunities for participation could be providing activists with useful experience of interacting and negotiating with intransigent institutions: practising 'claim-making' and negotiation with authority figures, including those who are inflexible and resist their demands. This adds weight to the argument that pupils turn to other forms of activism once institutional forums for participation fail (Barrance and Muddiman ) and points to the flexibility and creativity of young activists facing barriers to the realisation of their demands. This echoes O'Brien et al.'s () accounts of environmental activists turning towards disruptive and dangerous forms of environmental activism when they do not believe that change can be actualised from within existing institutions.

3.3 School Advocacy Groups: Safer but Separate?

Participants in our study also discussed being part of issues-based school advocacy groups, including Eco Clubs, LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and branches of Amnesty International. Some of these are established and managed by schools, falling into our definition of institutionalised activism, while others were established and led by students, falling into our category of legitimised activism: schools have no role in running these groups but they accept their validity and engage with members. Examples of institutionalised activism include Eco Clubs, which have become popularised through an international programme requiring schools to have an eco-committee with student membership (Lee ). There were mixed perspectives on Eco Clubs in our research. One participant explicitly stated that he had not become involved with his school's Eco Club because it did not address structural issues and because the activities of the club mainly revolved around collecting rubbish at lunchtimes, the same task allocated to those who had violated school rules:

There were no discussions about, you know, the school's emissions, things like that...But then they were also like you've been a naughty boy, go and join the Eco buddies (Activist-16)

Other participants were more positive about their school's environmental groups. In two cases, activists that we contacted via their environmental campaigning told us that they were active members of their school Eco Council. When reflecting on their involvement they discussed initiatives to reduce plastic waste and improve the natural environment through tree planting. One participant, who was still at school when interviewed, shared her hope that 'smaller scale' changes like 'stopping plastic cups' and 'encouraging people to bring their own water bottles' would lead to more substantial changes 'to do with the lighting or energy' (Activist-3).

3.4 Awareness Raising: Creativity and Censorship

Activist-19 went on to describe how the group was involved directly in developing the approach to teaching, and their efforts to raise awareness around LGBTQ+ rights within school through assemblies. Their account is in line with previous research which has aimed to highlight young people as having 'expert subjectivities' in the field of gender and sexuality (Fitzpatrick and McGlashan ; Coll et al. , 157):

So a lot of it was kind of 'what is asexual?', and then we'd explain that [to] the younger kids and things like that. What is bisexuality, and sexuality, what's the differences? And...the history of gay rights activism, looking at Stonewall and other riots like that, and I guess legality of same-sex relationships throughout UK history. (Activist-19)

In addition to the group not being able to deliver the content themselves, Activist-7 described how teachers censored the presentations - 'they removed any mention of trans people' due to fears that the content 'might go against other teachers' beliefs or beliefs of parents'. This could be interpreted as a rejection, by teachers, of LGBTQ+ students' 'expert subjectivities' (Fitzpatrick and McGlashan ). Educational research into gender and sexualities has long advocated for the importance of (re)positioning young people as active agents, highlighting the transformative potential of schools (Coll et al. , ). The recent overhaul of the national curriculum in Wales has created a conducive context for this work, placing an emphasis on empowering, creative and co-produced Relationships and Sexuality Education (Renold et al. ). However, the shifting policy landscape of RSE in Wales and England has been met with significant backlash as gender and sexualities education operates in an increasingly contested and politicised terrain (Cumper et al. ). As highlighted in the example above, reimagining the relationship between teachers and students by positioning students as architects of their own learning can be met with anxieties and a desire to maintain power and control.

3.5 Problematising Institutional Neutrality

So far we have focused our analysis on institutionalised and legitimised forms of activism at school. In this section we focus on participant perspectives on curriculum content as a potential vehicle for political socialisation. Activists in our study almost unanimously expressed frustration about the level of political education at their schools, with some discussing running voting drives to compensate for their school's lack of action. Participants criticised a perceived lack of information about voting, as well as devolved politics, with Activist-20 calling for greater political education:

How are people meant to know about how our political institutions work...who to hold to account?

Teacher commitment to political 'neutrality' or impartiality was taken to extremes in Activist-24's account of a debate about slavery in a history lesson, in which students were encouraged to debate 'whether we thought it was good or bad' with the teacher remaining 'impartial'. This example undermines the idea that impartiality is always benign in educational environments. We echo Giroux () and hooks' () critiques of the concept of neutrality in education-contending that neutrality cannot exist because 'education and pedagogy do not exist outside of relations of power, values or politics' (Giroux , 210). Indeed, this reluctance to engage with politics and the deference to neutrality can be read as an abdication of the role of educators in developing informed and critical citizens (hooks ). Rather than being neutral, this type of pedagogy reinforces the status quo and denies young people the opportunity and tools to critically question the world around them.

This suggests that in some cases both students and teachers were dissatisfied with the lack of formalised space for discussing political issues, and that some teachers felt comfortable bringing some elements of their political selves into their interactions with students in ways that students found to be affirming. In other cases, teachers saw engaging students in political discussions as a risky endeavour, preferring to remain 'neutral' so as to avoid the perception of political allegiance and accusations of bias.

3.6 Social Media and Social Movements as Political Education

While informal engagement with teachers did have a role in the political socialisation of some students, several activists indicated that their political education primarily happened outside of school through social media and social movements. In fact, several students noted that they became politically engaged for the first time during the Covid-19 school closures, identifying the Covid-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd as politically galvanising events. Many discussed how Covid-19 gave them the time and space to think, read and reflect on injustice, with one stating that Covid and George Floyd 'pushed me politically...because I had so much time to myself' (Activist-13). Others noted that connections with online activist groups enabled their political engagement and socialisation:

During the pandemic and it was the Black Lives Matter movement going on and I kind of started my political journey then just from maybe people online and reading stuff and I just kind of I gradually through learning more became more left wing (Activist-7)

There was a lot of time and space to like do that political education, do those workshops...learn from other people... there'd be a lot of like reading groups, and you got to know a lot more people within the scene (Activist-20)

Many of these accounts note the role of social media in facilitating their engagement during the pandemic. Indeed, the role of social media in opening up new spaces for young people's political participation and activism is well recognised (Pickard ), particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic when much social movement organising moved online (Sainz and Hanna ). On the return to school, students appeared to be more willing to challenge injustices. One activist noted that after the first lockdown students asked their school 'to investigate more...how their staff and I guess the school just functions from like a racial specific viewpoint'. (Activist-19). This echoes the findings of our previous paper which found a rise in reports of school protests related to sexism and racism in 2021 on students' return to school after the first lockdown (Barrance and Muddiman ).

3.7 Experimenting With Activist Tactics at School

In this final part of our analysis we turn to non-institutionalised forms of activism described by our participants. We begin with examples that position students in conflict with school rules and authorities to consider the enactment of disruptive forms of activism at school. We then look at the ways in which participants drew on established activist repertoires of collecting and disseminating data, to try to legitimate their claims making in the eyes of school decision-makers.

3.7.1 Direct Action, Rule Breaking and Walk-Outs

While the majority of the activists we interviewed described participating in institutionalised or legitimised forms of activism at school, a minority engaged with disruptive forms of activism. Activist-5 recalled being part of a protest against 'uncomfortable uniform' for boys by wearing shorts-a prohibited item-to school.

It's that idea that you have a voice and you're able to protest...when we showed up in the wrong uniform, they started to send people home just to show what a hardline attitude they had towards it all. And then when the media came, they were like, oh maybe we'll tone down a little bit.

The arrival of the media seems to have been consequential here, and the practice of wearing a banned item of clothing in order to pressure school decision-makers to change uniform rules was the most widely reported form of school protest in the UK over a 20-year period in our previous study (Barrance and Muddiman ).

Several participants were also involved in disruptive activism through their participation in the national School Strikes for Climate campaign. Participation in these strikes involved negotiation between schools and students and stimulated discussions about the importance of environmental action. Activist-4 described how their participation led to conflict and an attempt by the school to bargain with students to engage in less disruptive activities:

We had a meeting with a head teacher, and she was like, I admire your principles and what you're doing, but... if you promise not to go on these school strike climate protests every Friday anymore...we'll give you...some green kind of school trip thing. And we thought that was a bit offensive.

Activist-4 noted that their Geography teacher encouraged pupils to turn down the offer, advising students to 'stick by what you believe', highlighting the complex ecosystem of schools in which students can be influenced by, and influence different actors. This resonates with research about the influence of liberal faculty in universities, and their role in facilitating an 'active political culture' (van Dyke , 206) and shows how schooling can be seen as a site for resistance against national and school based policies.

3.8 Surveys: Students as Researchers?

Our previous research highlights the role of open letters, petitions, and testimony gathering as a vehicle used by children and young people for drawing attention to perceived injustices at school (Barrance and Muddiman ). These forms of action could be read as attempts by students to be recognised as acting legitimately by teachers. For example, Activist-20 described emailing a survey on discrimination to all students in their school. However, despite receiving almost 100 responses the school did not take the survey seriously:

The school were like, well, you can't actually use this because it's biased and I'm like, I know...this is meant to be for a meeting we were going to have, so I could like show you some of the horrific stuff happening in the school.

In this instance, the school chose to dismiss the survey as evidence of the existence of discrimination, intended to inform a discussion, moving straight to a critique the methodology. It could be seen as an attempt to delegitimise and disregard the data collected by Activist-20. In a similar vein, Activist-25 was part of a group of girls who wanted to change uniform rules at her school:

We just wanted to wear shorts like the boys...we did like a mini survey, on like how many girls wanted to change this, and yeah I added that to the [headteacher] email and, you know sent it off, and... he came to discuss it, and I'd given a variety of reasons, like not just that it was impractical, and not relaxed, but also that it's not really gender neutral, you know, it was very like old-fashioned and traditionalist really of them.

In both cases it could be suggested that by attempting to gather and harness the perspectives of the wider student body, students are grappling with claims-making: canvassing opinion and collating evidence of support to help strengthen their case and provide a sense of legitimacy to their claims, in ways that echo campaigning in political arenas. This supports previous research indicates that children often engage in research to influence decisions relevant to their lives and address situations they consider to be unfair (Cuevas-Parra ). In our analysis of media reporting on pupil protests in the UK, there were numerous examples in which surveys, petitions and collections of testimony had built to a tipping point to newsworthiness and resulted in change (Barrance and Muddiman ). It could also be the case that being 'backed up' by fellow students helps individual students to feel protected against individual punishment or recrimination in the school system. The responses of teaching staff, on the other hand, could be viewed as attempts to minimise or down-play the legitimacy of such activity. Attempts to critique methodology or re-individualise collective efforts by seeking out conversation with an individual could be seen as ways to de-escalate momentum, suggesting that schools are anxious about responding to such forms of highly organised activism, particularly when the claims made by students relate to issues of equality and social justice.

4 Discussion

Despite various indications of a flourishing environment for the fostering and amplification of children's citizenship rights in the Welsh education and wider holtolicy context, the majority of participants in this study did not reflect positively on their schools as forums for political socialisation and activism. Schools in Wales have institutional forums for facilitating pupils' participation and agency in the form of school councils, which have been compulsory since 2005 (WAG ). However, our data highlight the perceived shortcomings of school councils as constrained by adult oversight. Pupils were also largely critical of the school's role in fostering political knowledge and engagement through the curriculum, with a palpable sense of frustration over their teachers' attempts to maintain political neutrality. The data suggests that there is a tension within the curriculum between the need for political impartiality and the aspiration to foster a politically sensitised youth. While concerns over political neutrality in education have been central to debates since the introduction of state education in the 19th century (Ball ), our data suggest that currently teachers feel pressure to remain impartial at school. However, there were instances where participants felt that their teachers were attempting to foster an activist sensibility. Indeed, the roles of individual teachers seem to be central to participant perceptions of whether or not they felt that they were supported or constrained in their activism at school. Activists in our study widely reported that it was the informal interactions with teachers, in casual conversation, or in relation to teachers' own industrial action, that were relevant or significant to their development of political activist identities, rather than through lessons or school councils. This indicates that there is likely to be much variability of experience amongst school students according to the individual characteristics and ability or appetite for openness amongst teachers. That these conversations are happening at the margins of the school experience, rather than being central to it, seems to be at odds with the stated aims of the New Curriculum for Wales and the wider policy context.

The less formalised advocacy and interest groups, which were mainly student-led, provided some participants with space to explore issues of importance to them. We suggest that the lack of institutional mandate for these groups meant that they were often under less surveillance than school councils and so provided opportunities for young people to connect with like-minded others and creatively explore topics important to them. However, some participants reported challenges when trying to move the discussion from within the interest group and out into the wider school environment, especially when awareness-raising initiatives were at odds with traditional ideas informed by heteronormativity. The restriction or censoring of these forms of student engagement represents a missed opportunity to recognise the lived expertise of, for example LGBTQ+ students, and indicates that despite a conducive policy context, such activities require a shift in teacher-learner authority that can be experienced by teachers as deeply uncomfortable (hooks ). In our previous paper we drew on critical pedagogic approaches (Freire ; hooks ) to conceptualise children's school-based activism as a means of challenging hierarchical models of teaching and learning, and attempts to educate teachers and other students on social injustices and democracy. In the current paper we identify examples of activists directly engaged in teaching and learning, for example through designing and delivering presentations for assemblies on LGBTQ+ rights, Islamophobia, racism and voting. We draw on Fitzpatrick and McGlashan's ()'s notion of LGBTQ+ students' 'expert subjectivities' (p. 264) to conceptualise how young people claim expertise on causes related to social injustices more broadly. Much of this expertise comes from young people's lived experience of injustice, as in Fitzpatrick and McGlashan's accounts of LGBTQ+ students. However, we found that in our activist accounts, much of their political learning came from engagement with social movements outside of school, often facilitated through social media. As previous research has indicated, social media can have a key role in facilitating young people's activism, providing easily accessible information and allowing young people to organise nationally and internationally, which has been key to the climate strike movement (Pickard ). While digital activism can replicate the same injustices as other forms of activism, it can also open up new spaces for inclusivity while enabling young people to participate (Sainz and Hanna ).

Students in our study who developed activist tendencies outside of school generally identified the school as a key site for their activism, and found other ways to resist once institutionalised forums for participation fell short of their expectations. As in our previous research (Barrance and Muddiman ), we found that the Covid 19 pandemic was a politically galvanising event, with many pupils holding their schools to account on issues of sexism and racism on their return to school after lockdowns. There is evidence of our study participants experimenting with activist tactics including canvassing opinion, collecting testimony, walking out as part of SchoolStrikes4Climate, and negotiating with decision-makers. This suggests that the perceived lack of institutionalised means for political expression does not necessarily dampen all outlets for student political expression. In fact, interviewees appeared to refine their activist skills through experimenting with different ways to challenge school authorities and raise awareness of the issues they felt strongly about.

5 Conclusion

While the study focuses on the Welsh context, it has implications for discussions of political education, rights and citizenship internationally, as it shows the systemic challenges inherent even in a country that has made an active commitment to promote children's citizenship and rights. In fact, it is notable that a number of participants described becoming politically engaged during periods of school closure (due to the Covid-19 pandemic), suggesting that time away from school provided the space and freedom they required to read, think and engage with activist groups. This indicates that the school is perceived as a barrier to, rather than a facilitator of young people's political socialisation. However, while the curriculum and institutions of school were not seen as enabling young people's political socialisation, it is clear that schooling is a key site for young people's activism. Young people have concerns about how their schooling cultures replicate injustices and are critical of school institutions regarding young people's political participation. While much research has focused on institutional forums' failures in fulfilling young people's rights to participation and agency, we show that school students are active in finding alternative ways to challenge their schools' policies and practices. Our research challenges deficit notions of young people as being politically disengaged and demonstrates the multitude of ways in which young people are attempting to make changes to their schools, asserting their knowledge and expertise in areas of social injustice.

Acknowledgements

We are incredibly thankful to all of the young people who took the time to talk with us about their activism; we appreciate your generosity in sharing your experiences with us. This paper also draws on research supported by the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research and Data (WISERD). WISERD is a collaborative venture between the Universities of Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, South Wales and Swansea. The WISERD Education Multi-Cohort Study is funded by the Welsh Government. Laura Arman and Zoe Rozelaar assisted in the collection of data.

Ethics Statement

The authors received ethical approval from the Research Ethics Committee of the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University (SREC:079 and 2372).

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Biographies

Rhian Barrance is a lecturer in Education at the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University. Her research focuses on children's rights and children's activism. She is the Director of the WISERD Education Multi-Cohort Study, a national study of children in Wales.

Esther Muddiman is a lecturer in Education at the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, with a particular interest in youth activism, intergenerational justice, decolonial practice, sustainability and civic engagement. Her research explores how and why some people get involved with volunteering, political campaigning, labour organisation or environmental activism.

Mark Connolly is a Reader in Education in the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University. His research focuses on range of educational projects relating to: creativity; outdoor and Forest School learning; routes into teaching; teacher education; professional leadership; children's rights; children's play.

Kate Marston is a lecturer in Education at the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University. Their research focuses on gender and sexual diversity in childhood and youth; digital relationships and creative, visual and arts-based methods. Their work also explores how creative, visual and arts-based methodologies can unlock a range of embodied, material, spatial and affective experiences with gender and sexuality.

Data Availability Statement

Author elects not to share data. Research data are not shared.

ABSTRACT
en

This paper explores students' political socialisation and activism at school. It draws on research from two datasets: interviews with 24 activists aged 15-25, and data from a national survey of 1600 school students in Wales. Wales offers a unique perspective as a case study for the enactment of young people's civil and political rights, given the focus on children's agency and citizenship in Welsh policy and legislation. The political socialisation of young activists in the study largely occurred outside of school through engagement with social movements and social media. However, participants also viewed school as a space for activism. They described attempts to change their school policies on a variety of environmental and social justice issues. They were sceptical about institutional forms of participation, such as school councils, and preferred student-led advocacy groups or more disruptive forms of activism as more effective avenues for change-making. Participants did not readily connect their activism to ideas encountered in lessons, suggesting that the official curriculum did not sensitise them politically. However, the hidden curriculum -including informal conversations with politically engaged teachers and witnessing strike action-did appear to foster their motivation for change. The research indicates that young people are claiming expertise on social justice issues and challenging hierarchical models of teaching and learning in line with critical pedagogic principles.

ABSENOLDEB
cy

Mae'r papur hwn yn trin a thrafod myfyrwyr yn cymdeithasoli ac yn ymgyrchu'n wleidyddol yn yr ysgol. Defnyddia ymchwil o ddwy set ddata: cyfweliadau gyda 24 o ymgyrchwyr rhwng 15 a 25, a data o arolwg cenedlaethol o 1600 o ddisgyblion ysgol yng Nghymru. Mae Cymru'n cynnig safbwynt unigryw fel astudiaeth achos o weithrediad hawliau sifil a gwleidyddol pobl ifanc o ystyried y ffocws ar weithrediad a dinasyddiaeth plant ym mholisïau a deddfwriaeth Cymru. Roedd cymdeithasoli ymgyrchwyr ifanc yn wleidyddol yn yr astudiaeth yn digwydd y tu allan i'r ysgol i raddau helaeth drwy ymgysylltu â mudiadau cymdeithasol a chyfryngau cymdeithasol. Er hyn, roedd y rhai a oedd yn cymryd rhan hefyd yn ystyried yr ysgol yn lle i ymgyrchu. Gwnaethon nhw ddisgrifio ymdrechion i newid polisïau eu hysgolion ar amrywiaeth o faterion amgylcheddol a materion sy'n ymwneud â chyfiawnder cymdeithasol. Roedden nhw'n amheus ynghylch ffyrdd sefydliadol o gymryd rhan, megis cynghorau ysgol, ac roedd yn well ganddyn nhw grwpiau eirioli dan arweiniad disgyblion neu ffyrdd o ymgyrchu mwy aflonyddgar fel llwybrau mwy effeithiol i greu newid. Doedd y cyfranogwyr ddim yn cysylltu eu hymgyrchu'n rhwydd â syniadau a ddaethon nhw ar eu traws mewn gwersi, gan awgrymu nad oedd y cwricwlwm swyddogol yn eu sensiteiddio'n wleidyddol. Er hyn, ymddengys bod y cwricwlwm cudd - gan gynnwys sgyrsiau anffurfiol gydag athrawon sydd â diddordeb mewn gwleidyddiaeth a bod yn dyst i streic - wedi meithrin eu cymhelliant i ysgogi newid. Mae'r ymchwil yn nodi bod pobl ifanc yn arddel arbenigedd ar faterion sy'n ymwneud â chyfiawnder troseddol a modelau hierarchaidd heriol o addysgu a dysgu yn unol ag egwyddorion addysgol beirniadol.

1 Introduction

During the spring of 2023, pupil activism made newspaper headlines in the UK following a spate of protests at school, including incidents related to skirt-measuring and access to toilets (Weale ). Within elements of the media, these child protests were framed as a school disciplinary issue, rather than as children exercising their right to express their opinions (Barrance and Muddiman ). Such negative responses emanate from children's protests challenging historical and normative understandings of the apolitical child living in a 'walled garden' (Holt ), insulated from the adult world of politics. Further, they highlight conflicts between increasing support for childhood agency in the context of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and hierarchical schooling cultures in the Global North which require children's compliance (Quennerstedt ).

Initiatives to support children's agency in schools have primarily been framed in terms of facilitating children's participation rights rather than supporting their protest rights (Tisdall and Cuevas-Parra ). Children's participation rights in school are generally supported through institutional forums for consultation on school decisions, which require children's participation to be managed and facilitated by adults. There has, however, been little research that has considered the school as a site for promoting or inhibiting childhood protest. Nevertheless, there is a legacy of protests by young people at schools internationally and in the UK stretching back over the last century, with protests linked to government policies, the Iraq War, and the climate crisis (Cunningham and Lavalette ; Pickard ). African American high school students had an integral role in challenging their schools' racist policies and practices in the USA in the 1960s and 70s (Rury and Hill ). More recently, students in the USA walked out of school as part of the March for Our Lives movement to protest against the lack of gun regulation following school shootings (Emeran ). In the UK, Cunningham and Lavalette's () history of school strikes shows how walkouts have been used by schoolchildren to protest on a wide range of school-based and national issues for over a century.

Alongside these forms of protest, there have been a range of initiatives to foster youth civic engagement in the UK: these include the creation of school councils and citizenship education. This paper engages with the tensions and complexities in realising the political and citizenship rights of children, using Wales as a case study in which policy and legal frameworks seem conducive to the expansion of children's political citizenship within the education system and beyond. Since devolution there have been a number of legislative and educational developments which indicate a desire on the part of decision-makers to be accountable to the voices and views of children: one of the Welsh National Assembly's earliest documents outlined Wales's post-devolution commitment to respecting children as 'active holders of rights' (NAW , 10) and it made school councils compulsory in 2005 (WAG ). Further, in 2011 it introduced the Children and Young People's 2011 Measure, which puts a statutory duty on ministers to give due regard to children's rights in any decisions affecting children (Williams ). The new curriculum for Wales, introduced for pupils up to Year 7 (11-12 year-olds) in 2022, highlights human rights as a key cross-cutting theme. It therefore represents an interesting case study for exploring the opportunities and barriers for children and young people engaging in civic and political activism. However, our previous research within Wales indicates that students do not always feel listened to and taken seriously at school, with pupils resorting to disruptive forms of activism when they feel they have exhausted institutional and legitimised routes for changemaking (Barrance and Muddiman ; see also O'Brien et al. ).

Within our framework for children's school-based activism (Barrance and Muddiman ), institutional activism sits within school policies and routine practices: this includes school councils and other forms of participation facilitated and organised by staff. In contrast, legitimised activism sits outside of formal school channels but does not break school rules and is generally accepted as a legitimate forum of engagement by schools. In our original paper, which drew largely on newspaper reports (and thus generally highly visible and contentious activisms), examples of legitimised activism included petitions, boycotts and open letters. In this paper we also include student-led advocacy groups, such as LGBTQ+ groups, which aim to challenge heteronormative school cultures. Finally, disruptive activism sits outside of school channels and involves the breaking of school rules and/or the disruption of routines. Examples of disruptive activism include demonstrations, sit-ins, graffiti, walkouts and breaking school rules. These forms of activism usually prompt an immediate response from schools as they pose a significant challenge to the social norms expected of children. The research conceptualised school student protest as an attempt to break down hierarchical models of teaching and learning in line with critical pedagogic perspectives (Freire ; Giroux ; hooks ), and to educate teachers on issues of social justice.

In this research, we draw on young activists' accounts of their activism at school to consider how they make sense of their activism in relation to their education. We discuss the perceptions of young activists on their schools as spaces for political socialisation, including curricula and relationships with staff, but also reflect on broader school cultures. We begin by considering children's political and citizenship education in the UK and exploring conceptualisations of activism in schools. In our analysis, we examine the extent to which young activists see their school as a site for activism, and the ways they engage politically at school. We conclude by considering the role of schools in fostering or inhibiting children's political socialisation and activism. In doing so, we feed into debates about children's activism, which draw on broader definitions of the 'political' that include children's everyday activities in service of their communities or families (Bosco ; Cuevas-Parra and Zhu ).

1.1 Children's Political and Citizenship Education

Formal citizenship education was introduced in all UK nations at the start of the twenty-first century, primarily as a result of concerns about the political disengagement of young people due to lower levels of voting (Pickard ). While England introduced discrete citizenship lessons following the Crick Report (), in Wales citizenship education was delivered through cross-curricular Personal and Social Education (WAG ) and Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship (ESDGC) (Welsh Government ). While both prioritise sustainability and the preparation of pupils for life in a global society, the PSE curriculum foregrounds active citizenship on the local, national and global level. Given the cross-curricular design of the new curriculum for Wales, citizenship continues to be taught as an element across disciplines (Welsh Government ). The citizenship curriculum in Wales has been subject to many of the same critiques as those in other UK nations: Jerome et al. () argue that all UK nations use a soft rather than critical citizenship approach, in which the focus is on personal responsibility, volunteering and doing good in one's community, rather than developing a critical mindset that interrogates power and challenges injustice. Further, they point out that none of the UK curricula prescribe teaching on governance within a devolved nation.

A key barrier to critical citizenship education is teachers' reluctance to teach what they see as controversial topics, with many avoiding such topics and others attempting to do so in a neutral way, so as to avoid politicising pupils (Donnelly et al. ). However, critical pedagogic approaches, as advocated by Giroux (), hooks (), Freire () and others, contend that neutrality is impossible to achieve, precisely because schooling operates within the political sphere, and so neutrality simply signifies adherence to the status quo which maintains dominant power structures. Giroux () argues that teachers should aim to develop problem-posing rather than politicising pedagogy, where the critical faculties of students are engaged. These debates reflect wider tensions and binaries in how childhood agency is conceived and the role of political socialisation, whether from the family, school or community: adults want children to be politically educated but relatively passive (a form of civic activism); they do not want them to be politically agentic and politicised (political activism).

1.2 Civic Engagement and Activism at School

Alongside curriculum and pedagogy matters, there are a number of extracurricular activities allied with civic engagement that students can become involved with at school. As discussed above, these can include institutional forums such as school councils, school clubs and groups, as well as student-led groups such as advocacy and issues-based campaigning groups. Much research has been conducted on school councils over the last 20 years in the UK, the majority of which has been critical of the tokenistic nature of councils as consultative, rather than decision-making bodies that do little to stimulate children's active citizenship (Alderson ; Wyse ; Allan and I'Anson ).

A smaller body of research has examined the role of school advocacy groups. Some of this research relates to school groups that are part of formal school programmes, such as Eco Schools (Lee ). Other research explores individual and informal school groups, often led by students themselves, such as Gay-Straight-Alliances (Walls et al. ). Fitzpatrick and McGlashan () note that pupils' efforts to challenge the heteronormative cultures of their schools often involve 'reimagining themselves as experts' (p. 264) as well as their relationships with teachers. Although research indicates that these groups can provide a safe space for students and increase visibility, Queer-Straight-Alliances can meet resistance in schools where there is not an overall culture of tolerance, making it difficult to effect systemic change (Griffin et al. ). A critical perspective on school-based activism, distinguishing between child- and adult-led activism, helps us to problematize some adult-led interventions as attempts to socialise youth for a particular future. Similarly, while adult-led interventions can potentially be emancipatory, there is a risk that school-based activist programmes can be co-opted by a neo-liberal consumerist logic focused on self-optimisation (Gordon and Taft ; Renold ).

2 Methodology

The research draws on two forms of data. The first is data from the WISERD Education Multi-Cohort Study (WMCS), a national longitudinal research project that surveys pupils about their views and experiences of growing up in Wales. The 12th sweep of the study (2024), included questions about participation in activism. The second is a set of 24 qualitative interviews with Welsh activists aged 15-25 (undertaken July 2023-June 2024). The authors received ethical approval for this second element of the research from the Research Ethics Committee of the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University (SREC:079).

The research procedures for Sweep 9 were approved by Cardiff University's Research Ethics Committee on the 1st of August 2017 (SREC:2372).

Participants were recruited through invitations sent to activist groups in Wales and interviews took place in person or online. The interviews focused on young people's experiences of taking part in activism in Wales and asked a series of questions about motivations and influences. Participants were asked about their schooling experiences to gauge whether schools had influenced their political expression and sensibilities, and to understand whether they saw school as a site for activism. The data was analysed using thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke ).

2.1 Ethical Considerations

Both of these research projects received ethical permission from the Research Ethics Committee of the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. Comprehensive and clear information sheets were provided at each stage of the research, enabling participants to give informed consent. Parents/guardians of participants in the MCS were provided with opt-out consent forms prior to the beginning of the research, and pupils consented on the first page of the survey. Consent for participation in the interviews was sought online via a consent form using the Qualtrics survey platform. Participants who gave consent were asked for their names and contact details to arrange interviews. Those under 16 were asked for their parent/guardian contact details and opt-in consent was sought from parents/guardians before proceeding to arrange interviews. Undertaking research with children and young people understandably entails heightened ethical scrutiny, and a key issue for us has been how to protect the identities of our participants. Anonymising the interviews presented a key challenge, since many of the young people participating in the study are doing unique, highly visible work or are part of small activist groups in Wales. This required us to take additional steps to protect the identities of participants. In this paper we identify participants by number only, and do not include additional demographic information to reduce the risk of identification.

We interviewed 24 participants with a mixture of genders including those identifying as men, women, trans and non-binary people. Nine of the participants were under 18. All of those aged 18 or above were either attending university or had left; none were unemployed. We grouped participant causes into five interrelated areas to aid anonymity. Participants were often recruited through one group but discussed involvement with other groups/causes in their interview. The causes identified are:

Anti Racism: includes activism linked to Black Lives Matter, Palestinian Solidarity and Stop the War movements.

Climate Activism: includes involvement with School Strikes For Climate, Fridays For Future, XR and Green New Deal Rising.

Welsh Activism: includes involvement with Welsh independence movements, protecting Welsh farmland, and organizations to promote Welsh language and culture.

LGBTQ+ Activism: includes campaigning on menstrual health, sex education, and trans-inclusive activism.

Left-Leaning Politics and Economic Inequalities: includes involvement with Labour, Socialist and Communist organisations, and material rights including housing/renters rights.

3 Findings

3.1 Mapping the Prevalence of Youth Activism in Welsh Schools

In the WMCS survey, 12% of school students ( n  = 1458) responded to say that they had participated in protests over the last year across a range of causes. Those who responded yes were asked to write which causes they had protested about. The most commonly reported form of protest was related to 'school issues', including activism on uniform, exclusion and school toilets. This reinforces findings from a previous sweep of the survey (Barrance and Muddiman ), where almost a quarter of pupils reported protesting against school policies and practices, highlighting that the school is a key site for young people's activism. The second most prevalent theme of protest is the climate crisis, followed by protest linked to Palestine. These were more widely reported than Wales-specific issues including Welsh Independence, the Welsh Government Sustainable Farming scheme and the closure of local services.

Our interviews help to contextualise this overview by exploring the perspectives of young activists. The sample includes those still at school and some who have left school and are reflecting back on their experiences and involvement with activism at school. In the following analysis we investigate the extent to which young activists in our sample see school as a forum for, or facilitator of, their activism. Activists in our study were involved with activism on a range of issues at school. These were not always aligned with the issues they organised and protested about outside of school, supporting Meyer's () argument that activism stimulates participants' critical consciousness and this spills over into many areas of their life and work.

We begin by recounting participant accounts of institutional and legitimised forms of political campaigning and citizenship at school via school councils and advocacy groups, before exploring the more contested forms of participation that require some disruption of school norms. In the second section we consider the various opportunities and means through which participants describe building skills and experiences linked to activism.

3.2 School Councils: Legitimate but Lacking?

School councils, as an institutional forum for participation, have been both celebrated for facilitating children's participation, and derided as tokenistic (Allan and I'Anson ; Alderson ; Wyse ). A minority of our participants linked their involvement in school council to the development of their activist tendencies. One participant mentioned being part of a school council at primary school as an example of their early interest in politics, whilst another described how participating in their school parliament developed their interest in girls' rights:

I got into activism at a very young age through my School Parliament. I was very involved...looking at school skirts when the uniform changed...and, like accessing the toilets, and I was known as kind of the person on the Council that the girls-rights issues would go through (Activist-06)

However, for many participants, school council was seen only as a forum for fundraising or organising events like parties and proms. the majority of participants were dismissive of their school council as a forum for influencing their schools' policies and practices, and there was little evidence of school councils stimulating critical forms of active citizenship. One activist explained that a boy in their year at school had initially gone to the school council to overturn a ban on durag (also known as do-rag) head coverings-often worn by Black boys-but ended up going directly to school governors instead as the school council 'don't actually really do much'. (Activist-24).

Although this activist was successful in persuading her school to end gender-segregated assemblies, her account demonstrates the ways in which adult gatekeepers can frustrate the exercise of student voice by focussing on listening rather than following up with action, a condition for the fulfilment to the right to participation (Lundy ). We heard a similar narrative from another activist who 'pushed' for a prayer room for Muslim students and complained about resistance from her school. This activist also found alternative routes for making her voice heard when she became frustrated with the school council. Together these accounts demonstrate how young activists, hindered by the limitations of the school council, found other ways to push for change. In fact, schools lacking meaningful opportunities for participation could be providing activists with useful experience of interacting and negotiating with intransigent institutions: practising 'claim-making' and negotiation with authority figures, including those who are inflexible and resist their demands. This adds weight to the argument that pupils turn to other forms of activism once institutional forums for participation fail (Barrance and Muddiman ) and points to the flexibility and creativity of young activists facing barriers to the realisation of their demands. This echoes O'Brien et al.'s () accounts of environmental activists turning towards disruptive and dangerous forms of environmental activism when they do not believe that change can be actualised from within existing institutions.

3.3 School Advocacy Groups: Safer but Separate?

Participants in our study also discussed being part of issues-based school advocacy groups, including Eco Clubs, LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and branches of Amnesty International. Some of these are established and managed by schools, falling into our definition of institutionalised activism, while others were established and led by students, falling into our category of legitimised activism: schools have no role in running these groups but they accept their validity and engage with members. Examples of institutionalised activism include Eco Clubs, which have become popularised through an international programme requiring schools to have an eco-committee with student membership (Lee ). There were mixed perspectives on Eco Clubs in our research. One participant explicitly stated that he had not become involved with his school's Eco Club because it did not address structural issues and because the activities of the club mainly revolved around collecting rubbish at lunchtimes, the same task allocated to those who had violated school rules:

There were no discussions about, you know, the school's emissions, things like that...But then they were also like you've been a naughty boy, go and join the Eco buddies (Activist-16)

Other participants were more positive about their school's environmental groups. In two cases, activists that we contacted via their environmental campaigning told us that they were active members of their school Eco Council. When reflecting on their involvement they discussed initiatives to reduce plastic waste and improve the natural environment through tree planting. One participant, who was still at school when interviewed, shared her hope that 'smaller scale' changes like 'stopping plastic cups' and 'encouraging people to bring their own water bottles' would lead to more substantial changes 'to do with the lighting or energy' (Activist-3).

3.4 Awareness Raising: Creativity and Censorship

Activist-19 went on to describe how the group was involved directly in developing the approach to teaching, and their efforts to raise awareness around LGBTQ+ rights within school through assemblies. Their account is in line with previous research which has aimed to highlight young people as having 'expert subjectivities' in the field of gender and sexuality (Fitzpatrick and McGlashan ; Coll et al. , 157):

So a lot of it was kind of 'what is asexual?', and then we'd explain that [to] the younger kids and things like that. What is bisexuality, and sexuality, what's the differences? And...the history of gay rights activism, looking at Stonewall and other riots like that, and I guess legality of same-sex relationships throughout UK history. (Activist-19)

In addition to the group not being able to deliver the content themselves, Activist-7 described how teachers censored the presentations - 'they removed any mention of trans people' due to fears that the content 'might go against other teachers' beliefs or beliefs of parents'. This could be interpreted as a rejection, by teachers, of LGBTQ+ students' 'expert subjectivities' (Fitzpatrick and McGlashan ). Educational research into gender and sexualities has long advocated for the importance of (re)positioning young people as active agents, highlighting the transformative potential of schools (Coll et al. , ). The recent overhaul of the national curriculum in Wales has created a conducive context for this work, placing an emphasis on empowering, creative and co-produced Relationships and Sexuality Education (Renold et al. ). However, the shifting policy landscape of RSE in Wales and England has been met with significant backlash as gender and sexualities education operates in an increasingly contested and politicised terrain (Cumper et al. ). As highlighted in the example above, reimagining the relationship between teachers and students by positioning students as architects of their own learning can be met with anxieties and a desire to maintain power and control.

3.5 Problematising Institutional Neutrality

So far we have focused our analysis on institutionalised and legitimised forms of activism at school. In this section we focus on participant perspectives on curriculum content as a potential vehicle for political socialisation. Activists in our study almost unanimously expressed frustration about the level of political education at their schools, with some discussing running voting drives to compensate for their school's lack of action. Participants criticised a perceived lack of information about voting, as well as devolved politics, with Activist-20 calling for greater political education:

How are people meant to know about how our political institutions work...who to hold to account?

Teacher commitment to political 'neutrality' or impartiality was taken to extremes in Activist-24's account of a debate about slavery in a history lesson, in which students were encouraged to debate 'whether we thought it was good or bad' with the teacher remaining 'impartial'. This example undermines the idea that impartiality is always benign in educational environments. We echo Giroux () and hooks' () critiques of the concept of neutrality in education-contending that neutrality cannot exist because 'education and pedagogy do not exist outside of relations of power, values or politics' (Giroux , 210). Indeed, this reluctance to engage with politics and the deference to neutrality can be read as an abdication of the role of educators in developing informed and critical citizens (hooks ). Rather than being neutral, this type of pedagogy reinforces the status quo and denies young people the opportunity and tools to critically question the world around them.

This suggests that in some cases both students and teachers were dissatisfied with the lack of formalised space for discussing political issues, and that some teachers felt comfortable bringing some elements of their political selves into their interactions with students in ways that students found to be affirming. In other cases, teachers saw engaging students in political discussions as a risky endeavour, preferring to remain 'neutral' so as to avoid the perception of political allegiance and accusations of bias.

3.6 Social Media and Social Movements as Political Education

While informal engagement with teachers did have a role in the political socialisation of some students, several activists indicated that their political education primarily happened outside of school through social media and social movements. In fact, several students noted that they became politically engaged for the first time during the Covid-19 school closures, identifying the Covid-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd as politically galvanising events. Many discussed how Covid-19 gave them the time and space to think, read and reflect on injustice, with one stating that Covid and George Floyd 'pushed me politically...because I had so much time to myself' (Activist-13). Others noted that connections with online activist groups enabled their political engagement and socialisation:

During the pandemic and it was the Black Lives Matter movement going on and I kind of started my political journey then just from maybe people online and reading stuff and I just kind of I gradually through learning more became more left wing (Activist-7)

There was a lot of time and space to like do that political education, do those workshops...learn from other people... there'd be a lot of like reading groups, and you got to know a lot more people within the scene (Activist-20)

Many of these accounts note the role of social media in facilitating their engagement during the pandemic. Indeed, the role of social media in opening up new spaces for young people's political participation and activism is well recognised (Pickard ), particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic when much social movement organising moved online (Sainz and Hanna ). On the return to school, students appeared to be more willing to challenge injustices. One activist noted that after the first lockdown students asked their school 'to investigate more...how their staff and I guess the school just functions from like a racial specific viewpoint'. (Activist-19). This echoes the findings of our previous paper which found a rise in reports of school protests related to sexism and racism in 2021 on students' return to school after the first lockdown (Barrance and Muddiman ).

3.7 Experimenting With Activist Tactics at School

In this final part of our analysis we turn to non-institutionalised forms of activism described by our participants. We begin with examples that position students in conflict with school rules and authorities to consider the enactment of disruptive forms of activism at school. We then look at the ways in which participants drew on established activist repertoires of collecting and disseminating data, to try to legitimate their claims making in the eyes of school decision-makers.

3.7.1 Direct Action, Rule Breaking and Walk-Outs

While the majority of the activists we interviewed described participating in institutionalised or legitimised forms of activism at school, a minority engaged with disruptive forms of activism. Activist-5 recalled being part of a protest against 'uncomfortable uniform' for boys by wearing shorts-a prohibited item-to school.

It's that idea that you have a voice and you're able to protest...when we showed up in the wrong uniform, they started to send people home just to show what a hardline attitude they had towards it all. And then when the media came, they were like, oh maybe we'll tone down a little bit.

The arrival of the media seems to have been consequential here, and the practice of wearing a banned item of clothing in order to pressure school decision-makers to change uniform rules was the most widely reported form of school protest in the UK over a 20-year period in our previous study (Barrance and Muddiman ).

Several participants were also involved in disruptive activism through their participation in the national School Strikes for Climate campaign. Participation in these strikes involved negotiation between schools and students and stimulated discussions about the importance of environmental action. Activist-4 described how their participation led to conflict and an attempt by the school to bargain with students to engage in less disruptive activities:

We had a meeting with a head teacher, and she was like, I admire your principles and what you're doing, but... if you promise not to go on these school strike climate protests every Friday anymore...we'll give you...some green kind of school trip thing. And we thought that was a bit offensive.

Activist-4 noted that their Geography teacher encouraged pupils to turn down the offer, advising students to 'stick by what you believe', highlighting the complex ecosystem of schools in which students can be influenced by, and influence different actors. This resonates with research about the influence of liberal faculty in universities, and their role in facilitating an 'active political culture' (van Dyke , 206) and shows how schooling can be seen as a site for resistance against national and school based policies.

3.8 Surveys: Students as Researchers?

Our previous research highlights the role of open letters, petitions, and testimony gathering as a vehicle used by children and young people for drawing attention to perceived injustices at school (Barrance and Muddiman ). These forms of action could be read as attempts by students to be recognised as acting legitimately by teachers. For example, Activist-20 described emailing a survey on discrimination to all students in their school. However, despite receiving almost 100 responses the school did not take the survey seriously:

The school were like, well, you can't actually use this because it's biased and I'm like, I know...this is meant to be for a meeting we were going to have, so I could like show you some of the horrific stuff happening in the school.

In this instance, the school chose to dismiss the survey as evidence of the existence of discrimination, intended to inform a discussion, moving straight to a critique the methodology. It could be seen as an attempt to delegitimise and disregard the data collected by Activist-20. In a similar vein, Activist-25 was part of a group of girls who wanted to change uniform rules at her school:

We just wanted to wear shorts like the boys...we did like a mini survey, on like how many girls wanted to change this, and yeah I added that to the [headteacher] email and, you know sent it off, and... he came to discuss it, and I'd given a variety of reasons, like not just that it was impractical, and not relaxed, but also that it's not really gender neutral, you know, it was very like old-fashioned and traditionalist really of them.

In both cases it could be suggested that by attempting to gather and harness the perspectives of the wider student body, students are grappling with claims-making: canvassing opinion and collating evidence of support to help strengthen their case and provide a sense of legitimacy to their claims, in ways that echo campaigning in political arenas. This supports previous research indicates that children often engage in research to influence decisions relevant to their lives and address situations they consider to be unfair (Cuevas-Parra ). In our analysis of media reporting on pupil protests in the UK, there were numerous examples in which surveys, petitions and collections of testimony had built to a tipping point to newsworthiness and resulted in change (Barrance and Muddiman ). It could also be the case that being 'backed up' by fellow students helps individual students to feel protected against individual punishment or recrimination in the school system. The responses of teaching staff, on the other hand, could be viewed as attempts to minimise or down-play the legitimacy of such activity. Attempts to critique methodology or re-individualise collective efforts by seeking out conversation with an individual could be seen as ways to de-escalate momentum, suggesting that schools are anxious about responding to such forms of highly organised activism, particularly when the claims made by students relate to issues of equality and social justice.

4 Discussion

Despite various indications of a flourishing environment for the fostering and amplification of children's citizenship rights in the Welsh education and wider holtolicy context, the majority of participants in this study did not reflect positively on their schools as forums for political socialisation and activism. Schools in Wales have institutional forums for facilitating pupils' participation and agency in the form of school councils, which have been compulsory since 2005 (WAG ). However, our data highlight the perceived shortcomings of school councils as constrained by adult oversight. Pupils were also largely critical of the school's role in fostering political knowledge and engagement through the curriculum, with a palpable sense of frustration over their teachers' attempts to maintain political neutrality. The data suggests that there is a tension within the curriculum between the need for political impartiality and the aspiration to foster a politically sensitised youth. While concerns over political neutrality in education have been central to debates since the introduction of state education in the 19th century (Ball ), our data suggest that currently teachers feel pressure to remain impartial at school. However, there were instances where participants felt that their teachers were attempting to foster an activist sensibility. Indeed, the roles of individual teachers seem to be central to participant perceptions of whether or not they felt that they were supported or constrained in their activism at school. Activists in our study widely reported that it was the informal interactions with teachers, in casual conversation, or in relation to teachers' own industrial action, that were relevant or significant to their development of political activist identities, rather than through lessons or school councils. This indicates that there is likely to be much variability of experience amongst school students according to the individual characteristics and ability or appetite for openness amongst teachers. That these conversations are happening at the margins of the school experience, rather than being central to it, seems to be at odds with the stated aims of the New Curriculum for Wales and the wider policy context.

The less formalised advocacy and interest groups, which were mainly student-led, provided some participants with space to explore issues of importance to them. We suggest that the lack of institutional mandate for these groups meant that they were often under less surveillance than school councils and so provided opportunities for young people to connect with like-minded others and creatively explore topics important to them. However, some participants reported challenges when trying to move the discussion from within the interest group and out into the wider school environment, especially when awareness-raising initiatives were at odds with traditional ideas informed by heteronormativity. The restriction or censoring of these forms of student engagement represents a missed opportunity to recognise the lived expertise of, for example LGBTQ+ students, and indicates that despite a conducive policy context, such activities require a shift in teacher-learner authority that can be experienced by teachers as deeply uncomfortable (hooks ). In our previous paper we drew on critical pedagogic approaches (Freire ; hooks ) to conceptualise children's school-based activism as a means of challenging hierarchical models of teaching and learning, and attempts to educate teachers and other students on social injustices and democracy. In the current paper we identify examples of activists directly engaged in teaching and learning, for example through designing and delivering presentations for assemblies on LGBTQ+ rights, Islamophobia, racism and voting. We draw on Fitzpatrick and McGlashan's ()'s notion of LGBTQ+ students' 'expert subjectivities' (p. 264) to conceptualise how young people claim expertise on causes related to social injustices more broadly. Much of this expertise comes from young people's lived experience of injustice, as in Fitzpatrick and McGlashan's accounts of LGBTQ+ students. However, we found that in our activist accounts, much of their political learning came from engagement with social movements outside of school, often facilitated through social media. As previous research has indicated, social media can have a key role in facilitating young people's activism, providing easily accessible information and allowing young people to organise nationally and internationally, which has been key to the climate strike movement (Pickard ). While digital activism can replicate the same injustices as other forms of activism, it can also open up new spaces for inclusivity while enabling young people to participate (Sainz and Hanna ).

Students in our study who developed activist tendencies outside of school generally identified the school as a key site for their activism, and found other ways to resist once institutionalised forums for participation fell short of their expectations. As in our previous research (Barrance and Muddiman ), we found that the Covid 19 pandemic was a politically galvanising event, with many pupils holding their schools to account on issues of sexism and racism on their return to school after lockdowns. There is evidence of our study participants experimenting with activist tactics including canvassing opinion, collecting testimony, walking out as part of SchoolStrikes4Climate, and negotiating with decision-makers. This suggests that the perceived lack of institutionalised means for political expression does not necessarily dampen all outlets for student political expression. In fact, interviewees appeared to refine their activist skills through experimenting with different ways to challenge school authorities and raise awareness of the issues they felt strongly about.

5 Conclusion

While the study focuses on the Welsh context, it has implications for discussions of political education, rights and citizenship internationally, as it shows the systemic challenges inherent even in a country that has made an active commitment to promote children's citizenship and rights. In fact, it is notable that a number of participants described becoming politically engaged during periods of school closure (due to the Covid-19 pandemic), suggesting that time away from school provided the space and freedom they required to read, think and engage with activist groups. This indicates that the school is perceived as a barrier to, rather than a facilitator of young people's political socialisation. However, while the curriculum and institutions of school were not seen as enabling young people's political socialisation, it is clear that schooling is a key site for young people's activism. Young people have concerns about how their schooling cultures replicate injustices and are critical of school institutions regarding young people's political participation. While much research has focused on institutional forums' failures in fulfilling young people's rights to participation and agency, we show that school students are active in finding alternative ways to challenge their schools' policies and practices. Our research challenges deficit notions of young people as being politically disengaged and demonstrates the multitude of ways in which young people are attempting to make changes to their schools, asserting their knowledge and expertise in areas of social injustice.

Acknowledgements

We are incredibly thankful to all of the young people who took the time to talk with us about their activism; we appreciate your generosity in sharing your experiences with us. This paper also draws on research supported by the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research and Data (WISERD). WISERD is a collaborative venture between the Universities of Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, South Wales and Swansea. The WISERD Education Multi-Cohort Study is funded by the Welsh Government. Laura Arman and Zoe Rozelaar assisted in the collection of data.

Ethics Statement

The authors received ethical approval from the Research Ethics Committee of the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University (SREC:079 and 2372).

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Biographies

Rhian Barrance is a lecturer in Education at the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University. Her research focuses on children's rights and children's activism. She is the Director of the WISERD Education Multi-Cohort Study, a national study of children in Wales.

Esther Muddiman is a lecturer in Education at the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, with a particular interest in youth activism, intergenerational justice, decolonial practice, sustainability and civic engagement. Her research explores how and why some people get involved with volunteering, political campaigning, labour organisation or environmental activism.

Mark Connolly is a Reader in Education in the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University. His research focuses on range of educational projects relating to: creativity; outdoor and Forest School learning; routes into teaching; teacher education; professional leadership; children's rights; children's play.

Kate Marston is a lecturer in Education at the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University. Their research focuses on gender and sexual diversity in childhood and youth; digital relationships and creative, visual and arts-based methods. Their work also explores how creative, visual and arts-based methodologies can unlock a range of embodied, material, spatial and affective experiences with gender and sexuality.

Data Availability Statement

Author elects not to share data. Research data are not shared.

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Schools as Sites of Activism: Students' Political Socialisation and Activism at School

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This paper explores students' political socialisation and activism at school. It draws on research from two datasets: interviews with 24 activists aged 15-25, and data from a national survey of 1600 ...

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What is the Harkness Discussion? ... Why I've Embraced this Method and How It's Worked for Me | Teacher.org

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If you are like me, you are always trying to find new and innovative ways to get your students engaged in your lesson...or at least to buy into what you are teaching. The daily "sit and get" or the constant shuffling of stations can grow tiresome. One new learning style I recently discovered is called a Harkness Discussion. Some might argue this is just another variation of the Socratic Seminar of Shared Inquiry teaching. While they all do share some similarities, Harkness differs in that the teacher plays more of a moderator and less of the 'person in charge' role.

Misconceptions About the Harkness Discussion

Those of you who are familiar with the loose and tight method of teaching and classroom management might be rolling your eyes right about now. But, let me ease your concerns. The Harkness Discussion isn't just another fancy term for a class discussion. It goes beyond just talking about a subject or topic. When we try to have class discussions, the conversation is typically dominated by a few students or the conversation can quickly turn into an argument. This is not effective or helpful.

With the Harkness Discussion, students sit in a circle or oval shape. The conversation will begin with one student, but by the end of the discussion, every student has to pose a question and answer at least one question in order to receive a grade. Since the teacher is merely an observer, this allows him or her to watch and record interactions and summarize which students effectively understood the standards taught. For example: in my Harkness discussion, I sit behind the group and check off each student's name on my roster as they talk. Once I see that one or a few students have answered more than others, I will announce that they have to 'sit out' a round while others get an opportunity to share. I also include a visual PowerPoint with each discussion and lesson that lists the rules of the Harkness Discussion and how they receive points (posing the question and answering questions) and how they lose points (by dominating the discussion or not talking at all).

The Truth About the Harkness Discussion

The Harkness Discussion method is more of an active, discussion-based learning style that requires students to take the lead and manage the lesson and discussions that follow. This method actually teaches students how to learn in a way in which they are not just simply sitting and taking in instruction, but rather, they are required to listen, observe, analyze, verbalize, and provide visual descriptions. Since all students learn differently, this method allows you to differentiate the lesson to fit all of your students' needs while helping each one develop new methods to help them learn in a way that makes sense to them. Don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean the teacher gets to hang out and search Pinterest all class period. Instead, the teacher will have to provide the students with resources (texts to read) and question-starters to guide them as they prepare for their discussion.

How Does the Harkness Discussion Work?

Now, you might be thinking, 'this sounds wonderful, but how does it work?' Well, let me explain. First, the Harkness Discussion method can be adapted to fit any classroom and any curriculum. The teacher will assign a reading to their students. Students will analyze the material and develop a set of questions that they will ask their peers during the discussion. We all know those students who sit in the back of the class, hiding, and just praying the teacher never calls on them. They distrust their own ideas and answers and seek others for 'right' answers for an assignment. The Harkness will eliminate that and give this specific student the pride and encouragement they need to believe in their own opinions and ability to succeed. In terms of assessment, think of the reading as the formative aspect as students have to find information that pertains to the unit of study and standards given and the discussion is the summative aspect as it requires students to display their learned knowledge verbally.

Next, as students begin to ask their peers their created set of questions, discussion will begin. Students will raise their hands to answer, just like they would in a normal classroom setting. However, the student who posed the question will direct the conversation. Now, this will be messy and difficult at first. So I advise you model this with your students before jumping into a full Harkness discussion. I have even shown my students videos on YouTube of other classrooms performing this so they can see just how easy it is to carry on a natural conversation without the teacher directing everyone.

Finally, as students begin answering the posed questions, the originator of the question (student who originally posed the question) will write down the correct answer given. This part of the process requires several levels of understanding for the student. Students have to create a high level question from the understood material given. They then have to listen during the discussion and know the answer they are seeking. This process allows the teacher to assess reading, writing, and speaking standards in one interactive and fun lesson.

How to Effectively Teach This in Your Class

Since all teachers styles are different, one of the main reasons I love the Harkness Discussion so much is you can easily adapt it to your own style, curriculum, or reading. If you teach a poetry unit, you can have the students read the text, analyze, and create questions in one class period. The next day, students will enter the class prepared to begin their discussion.

Social Studies: Students could read and analyze a chapter about the Fall of the Roman Empire. As students read, they could create questions like these: What caused the fall of the Empire? Who were the main players? When did this happen? Why do you think this event is important in history? Are there still any relevant themes from the lesson of the Romans to today's societies? Again, you will have to coach your students through the development of question phases, but once they understand, the process will run smoothly.

Language Arts and English: Students could read a chapter from a given novel in class. They could analyze the text and create questions like these: Why did the main character... Infer, do you think... Compare one theme from this novel to another text read in class. Identify one example of a simile or...

Art: Students could view and analyze a specific painting. Their questions could consist of: What does this painting remind you of? What other artists share the same style? Why do you think this painting is important?

Science: Students could complete a unit on the ecosystem. The discussion could lead as followed: Which aspect of our ecosystem is most important? Infer... Identify... Create an example of...

Types of Questions to Teach Students to Ask

As a pre-lesson for this activity, you must teach students how to ask the questions you want them to pose to their peers. Best practices suggest using question-cues and prompts.

Factual-According to the textbook...As stated by... Based on the events...

Remembering-List examples of.... Identify how._____ was used... Define the term___ found in the story... Name one character who...

Understanding- Summarize... Explain... Interpret... Infer...Restate in your own words...paraphrase what happened when...compare and contrast_______ in the story...

Applying-Apply one theme or lesson in this story to...

Analyzing-Compare and Contrast...Organize events by...

Evaluating-Defend a characters actions by... Justify the statement...Evaluate the effectiveness of...

The possibilities are truly endless. The above examples are only a few of the many ways teachers can use this method in their classroom. I hope you take a leap and try a Harkness Discussion in your classroom.

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What is the Harkness Discussion? ... Why I've Embraced this Method and How It's Worked for Me | Teacher.org

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If you are like me, you are always trying to find new and innovative ways to get your students engaged in your lesson...or at least to buy into what you are teaching. The daily "sit and get" or the constant shuffling of stations can grow tiresome.

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Documentary Film makers & Film Productions. Watch Documentaries Online

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Documentary Film makers & Film Productions. Watch Documentaries Online

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Documentary on Focusing on public education, The War on Kids demonstrates how American public schools have become modeled after prisons in response to fear and a…

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Compulsory Schooling as a Form of Captivity: A Polemic

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Compulsory Schooling as a Form of Captivity: A Polemic

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This paper examines whether compulsory schooling systems in the United States constitute institutional captivity by applying established psychological criteria to contemporary educational practices…

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Typhoon Dolphin: China evacuates more than 1 million people as massive storm arrives

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More than a million people have been evacuated from their homes in eastern China including Shanghai, as Typhoon Dolphin made landfall on Sunday evening.
It packed maximum wind speeds of 150km/h (94mph) when it first slammed into Yuhuan in the Zhejiang province at 17:30 (09:30 GMT) before making a second landfall in the city of Wenzhou about an hour later, meteorological authorities said.

The typhoon halted transportation across the region - 1,400 flights were cancelled in Shanghai alone.

Chinese authorities had earlier issued their highest-level red alert, but by Monday morning they downgraded it to a tropical storm.

The storm is continuing to move further inland, and authorities are still warning of torrential rains, severe flooding and the risk of landslides through to Wednesday.

Heavy rain was forecast on Monday for the provinces of Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and the city of Shanghai.

Local governments have urged people to avoid outdoor activities, while several top tourist attractions remain closed, including parts of Disneyland and Legoland, and several viewing platforms along the Bund in Shanghai.

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Typhoon Dolphin: China evacuates more than 1 million people as massive storm arrives

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Typhoon Dolphin made landfall on Sunday evening, affecting Shanghai and other parts of eastern China.

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How these slum dwellers went from one-room shacks to beautiful new apartments

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Pooja Gawali used to live in a one-room home with no indoor plumbing. The walls were tin sheets. The roof leaked when it rained. The 32-year-old shared the cramped space with her husband, her in-laws and her husband's two brothers.

She never knew what it meant to truly relax, she says. The lack of privacy in her home meant that she always had to always be on alert - conscious of how she sat or behaved.

That's not uncommon in Sanjaynagar, a crowded slum in the western Indian state of Maharashtra where she lives. On mud lanes slick with goat droppings, homes press against each other. Around 900 people are squeezed into 206 metal shacks.

Today, things are very different for Gawali. In 2022, she moved into an apartment on the second floor of a newly constructed three-story building with 33 units that houses not just her own family but 30 other families from her slum neighborhood. One brother-in-law lives in the apartment below hers; the other in one above. When their home was being built, the family had a request - they wanted their apartments to be connected through an inner flight of stairs. They got that wish -- and more.

"I relish the privacy I have now," she says. "It's a joy to be able to live freely. We're still a tight-knit family, but life is so much easier when everyone has their own space."

Residents have named the three-story building Swapnapurti- Marathi for "a dream fulfilled." It's easy to see why. Each unit has its own living room, a single bedroom, a kitchen, bathroom with running water and balcony. Green plants and benches line the central courtyard. Bamboo screens along the walls provide natural shade and ventilation.

And it's noticeably cooler. The architects used building materials like bricks made of crushed sand and ash residue that have been found to be effective insulators, deflecting heat.

A revolutionary design initiative called the Sanjaynagar Redevelopment Project is transforming the slum where Gawali lived in stages. It's a partnership between the local government, charitable donors, nonprofits and family members. Each participating family pays 10% of the costs of construction - roughly $1,000 for a 300-square-foot apartment -which they fund by taking out low-interest housing loans provided by the social lending platform Rang De. Rang De offers peer-to-peer lending, a financial method that connects individual borrowers directly with individual lenders, bypassing traditional banks. The federal government's low-cost housing scheme, called the PMAY, contributes $2,500 and philanthropic donors such as the U.S.-based Currystone Foundation contributed the rest.

Even in these early stages, the project is generating praise, winning the Silver at this year's World Habitat Awards for innovative and sustainable housing projects.

Francesca Lionetti, an expert on housing rights at UN-Habitat, which co-runs the awards, says: "The fact it is community-led means there is a lot of attention on communal areas and social services. It's showing a path for other communities in India and in other parts of the world."

Sandhya Janardhan, an architect with the Curry Stone Design Collaborative, the nonprofit that helped redesign the houses, says the project focuses on the design details alongside the deep bonds the community shares.

"All the apartments are built around a central courtyard," says Janardhan. "This is a shared space for children to play, with benches where residents can sit and rest, and where community events can be held. The apartments are flanked by wide corridors that bring light and fresh air into the building."

A sanctuary in the slums

No one was certain this project would succeed. That's because the organizers had to persuade families to leave the only homes they knew and move into temporary accommodations based on a promise that they would one day return to something better. Their wait spanned three years while their old houses were torn down and rebuilt.

That leap of faith was possible largely because of Snehalaya, a local nonprofit. Snehalaya had been working in the community for years before redevelopment began. Since 2004, the group has run a learning center for children, raised awareness about drug and alcohol abuse and brought doctors and mobile clinics into this neighborhood with very few basic services.

Over time, this sustained presence built deep trust with residents. When redevelopment was proposed, Snehalaya became an important voice, helping families understand the plans, express concerns and prepare for temporary relocation.

Hanif Shaik, a director of educationprojects at Snehalaya, says the idea began on a motorbike ride through the community in 2016. He wanted to show Janardhan, the architect, around a balvadi in the heart of the slum. It's one of seven community recreational centers set up by the state government and run by Snehalaya - a place for children to gather after school to play and to create art.

"Slums are easy ground for the spread of addiction, violence and child labor," says Shaik. "We noted that a lot of these troubles came from the living conditions - dark, dingy homes and no personal space." It was easy for arguments to break out in these tight spaces; the threat of violence was always imminent. A balvadi provided a safe space but was not really a solution.

Shaik and Janardhan had an inspiration - if they could work together to redesign the slum, it could do a world of good.

They solicited donors. They got the consent of residents. And in 2017, the real work began. "We submitted a proposal [to the local government] to redevelop the slum in the city of Ahmednagar together," Janardhan says.
A gazillion meetings
The local government provided land, temporary water supply, electricity and sanitation for makeshift camps.

"We gave the residents materials [like corrugated tin sheets, metal scraps and plaster] to create new shacks while their homes were being rebuilt," says Janardhan.

Snehalaya reached out to a younger generation of slum residents to explain the nitty-gritty details to the others and to help with paperwork. "They played a vital role," says Shaik.

Anjali Naydu, who's 30, is one such representative. She's been working with Snehalaya for the last 6 years. Her family, including her parents and five aunts, will soon begin the process of moving out. The single room home where she grew up in the middle of the slum is small, but cheery - one exterior wall is painted bright pink. Potted plants line a shelf above the entrance. Sometimes, her mother and father move their bed outdoors so they can have more room.

"At first, it was hard," she says of the relocation process. "We had to have meeting after meeting. When we first started work, many people just couldn't believe that someone would go to all this trouble to make their homes and their lives better."

Trained as a bedside nurse, Suryavanshi, 26, who is on a break from work to raise her child, serves as a community representative for the project as well.

"People have lived here for years, so of course, even if our homes aren't perfect, there's an emotional attachment," she says. "But they're also happy to move into proper homes. We told them: you have choices. You can choose your building, decide where exactly you want to live within it and even choose your neighbors and be involved in designing your home."

For many residents living in cramped rooms with adult sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren, the prospect of additional privacy was attractive. "For example, if there are parents and three grown sons in one slum home, each son can get a separate unit without paying extra costs," says Naydu. "Slowly, people began to believe in the project. Many volunteered to give it a try."

After several meetings, a slum committee and eight housing cooperative societies [a collective body of residents who will own, manage, and govern the new housing] were instituted to ensure that the interests of different groups were represented across the project.

"We often forget that slums possess high levels of social capital," says Janardhan. "These are networks built over the years on trust and solidarity." For instance, neighbors rely on each other for mutual support during tough times or for childcare. Many NGOs offer free services, like breast cancer checkups, dental checkups, medical outreach for the community.

"Most low-income re-housing programs [in India] displace residents completely from where they've lived, moving them to an entirely new location, and they stand to lose all of that. We didn't want that to happen," she says.

A "dream fulfilled"

Savitha Yadava is a 42-year-old widow. After her husband passed away several years ago, she could no longer even afford to live in the Sanjaynagar slum. She moved back to her native village with her three children - a son and two daughters. To provide for them, she worked long hours as a farmer.

When the redevelopment project began her in-laws urged her to come back. They said their two sons were eligible for two housing units and though Yadava had lost her husband, they wanted her to bring the kids back to Sanjaynagar and move into the new unit with them..

The decision to return changed their lives, she says. With better lighting, and a home that did not fill up with mud and water during every monsoon, her children began to perform well in school. Her son, who lives with them, had access to better paying job opportunities in the city. Yadava takes pride in decorating her home. "I really enjoy it," she says. From her son's income, she's changed the flooring from cement to gleaming white tiles, added plenty of new wardrobes, a television and a small altar in the corner of the living room. Her college-going daughter Sonali, who is good at art, painted murals on the walls.

As residents have watched the first few families move into the newly designed homes -- and seen how their lives have changed as a result -- interest in the project has grown.

The government could cause some delays. With an ongoing overhaul of housing laws, legal and policy changes are expected. As a result, philanthropic support will likely be paused till the new policy takes effect.

But the project is going to move forward -- and will be "be more cost-effective and self-reliant, " says Janardhan. For many families still waiting to move in, this has sparked hope. Pooja Suryavanshi's toddler son is playing with his kittens on the chipped cement floor of their kitchen. "I dream of the day he will grow up in a home with sturdy walls that keep out the wind and rain, and with the possibility of a more secure future," she says.

Kamala Thiagarajan is a freelance journalist based in Madurai, Southern India. She reports on global health, science and development and has been published in The New York Times, The British Medical Journal, the BBC, The Guardian and other outlets. You can find her on X @kamal_t

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How these slum dwellers went from one-room shacks to beautiful new apartments

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It's a bold new experiment and it's already won a prize. Residents in a jam-packed slum, many of them living in one-room tin shacks, help design their apartments in a brand new building.

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Global population growth peaked six decades ago

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Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Pablo Arriagada

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Global population growth peaked six decades ago

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The increase in the world’s population is not exponential. The global population is growing, but the growth rate has declined since its peak six decades ago.

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They have no need of our help
So do not tell me
These haggard faces could belong to you or me
Should life have dealt a different hand
We need to see them for who they really are
Chancers and scroungers
Layabouts and loungers
With bombs up their sleeves
Cut-throats and thieves
They are not
Welcome here
We should make them
Go back to where they came from
They cannot
Share our food
Share our homes
Share our countries
Instead let us
Build a wall to keep them out
It is not okay to say
These are people just like us
A place should only belong to those who are born there
Do not be so stupid to think that
The world can be looked at another way

(now read from bottom to top)

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They have no need of our help So do not tell me These haggard faces could belong to you or me Should life have dealt a different hand We need to see them for who they really are Chancers and scroun...

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Key Stage 3+ Mission - Inspiring The Future

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Key Stage 3+ Mission - Inspiring The Future

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Find information on our Inspiring Aviation competitions including parameters, terms and conditions and how to submit.

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Laughton Lodge - A small, thriving community on the edge of the South Downs

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We gather every Friday evening for a community potluck, and throughout the year we mark the seasons with celebrations - from our summer party to a Christmas cabaret and a biennial art exhibition that brings together artists and makers from the surrounding area.

At the heart of the site is a large community building with a hall, kitchen, dining room, meeting rooms, offices and guest rooms ( all available to hire) set within beautiful meadows, gardens, mature oak trees, woodland, an orchard, allotments and ponds.

Whether you're curious about community living, interested in one of our homes, or would like to host an event here, we're always happy to talk.

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Laughton Lodge - A small, thriving community on the edge of the South Downs

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We gather every Friday evening for a community potluck, and throughout the year we mark the seasons with celebrations - from our summer party to a Christmas cabaret and a biennial art exhibition that brings together artists and makers from the surrounding area.

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Want a summer job that transforms young lives - or know someone who would? — Introducing The Park

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Want a summer job that transforms young lives - or know someone who would? — Introducing The Park

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We’re recruiting Team Leads to guide small groups of children at an outdoor summer programme across a couple of sites in Kent, combining wild fun with a serious mission: to build independent thinkers. This is an ideal role for recent school leavers or university students.  It’s mud, moveme

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When a teenager makes the ‘stupid choice’, their brain is working exactly as designed

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When a teenager makes the ‘stupid choice’, their brain is working exactly as designed

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If a young person trusts the system to deliver a just outcome, their brain’s urgent need for retribution is dialled down.

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English - Die Spielstadt für Kinder und Jugendliche

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Mini-Munich is a play city for children aged 9 to 15 and the largest summer cultural program for Children in Munich. Within a carefully designed urban setting and governed by a few simple rules, the play city is brought to life by thousands of children. They work, trade, consume, study, and create their own culture and politics. Adult experts from a wide range of fields also take part in the game. It is up to the children how they choose to participate, what they decide to do, and how long they stay. Entry to Mini-Munich is free and requires no preregistration.

Mini-Munich is a temporary model city. The institutions, facilities, and processes of urban life are represented and enacted on a smaller scale, giving rise to a highly complex game with thousands of participants. How does life in a city develop? How do its institutions interact? How are politics and the cycles of work, money, and consumption organized? The play city reflects aspects of real urban life, realized in a way that makes them accessible to children: the structural elements and spatial arrangements of a city, its inhabitants, and their everyday roles. Yet Mini-Munich is far more than a mere imitation. Through their many actions, movements, and decisions, the children co-create their own temporary urban reality.

By adopting and interpreting roles within this microcosm, they generate a dynamic network of interactions. Children become mayors, gardeners, taxi drivers, journalists, and professors. They empty bins and sweep the streets, hold elections, markets, and parties, write a daily newspaper, and run TV and radio stations. As they bring their city to life, they engage with social, economic, political, and organizational challenges.

In recent years, the children's activities have been expanded beyond the summer holidays. They now accompany and advise the organizers during visits to potential sites for the play city and work continuously and independently in the Mini-Munich town planning office in the months leading up to the main program.
The play city Mini-Munich is an event organized by Kultur & Spielraum e.V., a registered non-profit association in Germany.

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English - Die Spielstadt für Kinder und Jugendliche

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Mini-Munich is a play city for children aged 9 to 15 and the largest summer cultural program for Children in Munich. Within a carefully designed urban setting

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Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Veronika Samborska and Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser

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Around 80% of the world’s population lives in cities, towns, and suburbs rather than rural settlements. How has this changed, and what does urbanization look like across the world today?

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'Children were calling for their mummies': UK pupils struggle in 40C-plus classrooms

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The extreme heat that has hit the UK twice in the past few weeks has left teachers struggling to cope as temperatures in some classrooms climb above 40C, with pupils and staff suffering from heatstroke, nausea and headaches.

Teachers say they have been desperately trying to keep children safe, with some covering younger pupils in wet paper towels as they lie on the floor, while older students have been given trays of water under their desks to put their feet in.

Staff say learning on the hottest days is almost impossible, with pupil behaviour and attention deteriorating rapidly.

Some teachers and pupils have fainted, while others say they have had to buy fans and window shades out of their own pockets to try to keep themselves and their pupils safe.

One primary school teacher said: "Everyone was lying or sitting on the floor with their water bottles, sweating, moaning and feeling tired, [complaining of] headaches and nausea.

"The adults barely coped and most of the children were calling for their mummies and daddies. There was no learning, just surviving the best we could."

Many school buildings are simply unable to cope with the heat as they have little or no shade and lots of glass.

Buildings are often old and poorly insulated, with artificial grass or concrete in playgrounds that exacerbates the impact of the heat, while many schools do not have air conditioning.

Government climate advisers say air conditioning should be installed in all schools within 25 years. Photograph: mar-fre/Alamy

Some staff have reported pupils and teachers sitting on the floor of any classrooms they could find with shade, with the lights turned off. In May, the government's climate advisers said air conditioning should be installed in all schools within 25 years and that the country was "built for a climate that no longer exists".

"No one seems to know how to cool the buildings," said one teacher. "Changes to the fabric of the building and the planting of trees instead of the hot expanse of the playground are needed.

"I've worked three years in much hotter countries, but they had four ceiling fans in each room and rules about windows/blinds/doors that created a livable environment."

This year western Europe has been hit by its hottest June on record as the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis accelerates.

The UK entered its third heatwave of the year this week with temperatures peaking at 35C. The current high temperatures are expected to drag out over a sweltering 10 days and the oppressive heat on land has been accompanied by high global ocean temperatures that experts warn could cause "mass-mortality events" for some species.

The extreme weather led to more than 1,000 schools in England and Wales either closing or partly closing at the peak of the June heatwave, according to figures compiled at the time by PA Media.

Department for Education (DfE) statistics show one in five sessions of school in England were missed - the highest daily absence rate so far during the 2025-26 academic year.

Experts say closing so many schools puts pressure on the entire community and the economy.

The Round Our Way group estimated that the economic cost of the June heatwave was between £100m and £200m. It said its impact rippled out beyond schools and teachers to parents, who might have had to take time off work, and the wider community.

Roger Harding, the group's co-director, said it could not be left to individual schools and teachers to try to cope with the realities of the climate crisis.

"We need to see a plan from government to protect people, including children in school, when extreme weather hits," he said.

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"This needs to go hand-in-hand with measures to cut the pollution causing this climate change in the first place to ensure this extreme weather doesn't get worse and worse."

A survey of 1,000 UK parents carried out on behalf of Round Our Way found that during June's heatwave more than half had one or more child miss at least a day of school; 40% reported children coming home overheated and exhausted; 46% said their children were unable to play outside because it was too hot; and almost two-thirds said summers in the UK were "starting to feel genuinely unsafe for children".

Teachers were asked about the impact of the June heatwave in a survey carried out by Round Our Way in partnership with the UK's biggest education union, the National Education Union (NEU).

Jenny Cooper, a teacher and NEU safety rep for London, said recent heatwaves had taken a severe toll on the capital's schools.

"I heard of colleagues fainting, others shared photos of thermometers in their classrooms showing way over 10 degrees above safe working levels," she said.

"Our schools should be places where we can learn and teach safely. A place for children whose homes are not safe. Extreme heat and other climate impacts are jeopardising this."

Lorna Powell, an NHS urgent care doctor in east London and co-director of the Mothers Rise Up climate group, said as a parent and medic the recent "onslaughts of heat" had been frightening as she struggled to keep her two children and her patients safe.

She said the closure of so many schools was changing people's mindsets. "Most people I know don't really think or talk about climate change. But when our primary school closed in June, it became a regular topic of conversation. One mother said to me: 'We just didn't have summers like this when we were young, did we?'"

Powell said people were also starting to make the link between the fossil fuel industry, its funding of political parties and extreme weather events.

"Once people start to understand that vast coal, oil and gas interests prop up the political parties calling for more drilling, it's a lightbulb moment.

"It all makes sense and they can see through the bogus information suggesting that more expensive oil and gas will lower our bills and provide energy security when in reality it is making the world much more dangerous and expensive for us all."

A spokesperson for the DfE said schools were responsible for making their own decisions on whether it was safe to remain open, but that they should do "wherever possible".

The spokesperson added: "Schools have well-established measures to manage hot weather, including ensuring children stay hydrated, adapting uniforms where appropriate and avoiding strenuous activity during the hottest parts of the day."

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'Children were calling for their mummies': UK pupils struggle in 40C-plus classrooms

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Teachers call for schools to be urgently adapted for hot weather amid reports of nausea, fainting and heatstroke

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Giving nature a say: why Scottish marine scientists appointed the ocean to their board

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Giving nature a say: why Scottish marine scientists appointed the ocean to their board

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As the rights of nature are increasingly being recognised, the Scottish Association for Marine Science is the latest organisation to make the ocean a trustee

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‘We plant belonging’: how nature charities and asylum seekers work together in UK countryside

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‘We plant belonging’: how nature charities and asylum seekers work together in UK countryside

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Environmental and refugee groups have joined forces to benefit lives and wildlife in Wales and elsewhere

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Think Like a Researcher - Chelsea Physic Garden

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This resource involves students growing beans and observing change over time. It encourages students to think about the skills researchers need and how they can practice these before or after a visit to Chelsea Physic Garden.
National Curriculum links: Learning Objectives:

Students will know the importance of data collection and careful observation.

Students will think about and apply the skills needed to be a researcher.

Students will foster their curiosity and work on their observational skills.

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Think Like a Researcher - Chelsea Physic Garden

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This resource involves students growing beans and observing change over time. It encourages students to think about the skills researchers need and how they can practice these before or after a visit to Chelsea Physic Garden. National Curriculum links: Learning Objectives: Students will know the importance of data collection and careful observation.

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How We Work: film-based teaching resources on global citizenship, migration, economic activity and development - Geographical Association

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Developed by academics, filmmakers and teachers, these teaching resources for key stages 3, 4 and 5 draw on a collection of short films called 'How We Work', which were created as part of the 'Protracted Displacement Economies' multi-university research project led by the University of Sussex ( https://www.displacementeconomies.org). The resources address questions and themes across geography and the humanities including: migration, citizenship, displacement, cities, development and climate, as well as gender, place-based learning and alternative or informal economies. The resources are suitable for geography, citizenship, RE and other teaching modules, enabling a unique opportunity for students to draw connections and learn.

How to use the resources

Choose one film to focus on, or make a selection of films (whatever works best for your classroom). The films look at a range of issues in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Lebanon, Myanmar/Thailand and Pakistan. A full list of the films and the themes they focus on are listed below. Please note that these are not exhaustive and you may want to draw out other themes.

Each film has a workbook that includes a country information sheet, a film information sheet, and teaching activities, which vary but generally include: quizzes, discussion prompts, essay questions, and further resources for KS3-5. We have included focus notes and answers where the concepts are more advanced but please adapt as needed to your classroom and context. You may use any of these on their own or use the whole workbook.

The welcome page can be downloaded here.

Impact questionnaire

Help us understand how you're using this resource by completing this quick questionnaire. Thank you!

All information provided will be stored securely and handled in full compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and accessed by a limited number of staff in the Film and Impact & Engagement departments Queen Mary University of London. Any data collected will be aggregated and anonymised.

The films and resources

Brief information and links to the individual films and their resources can be found below. Alternatively, all the films can be accessed via this YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@HowWeWork-Films and you can download a zip file of the full set of teaching resources here.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Synopsis: Set in the small crossroads town of Kitchanga in rural eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), this film follows the journey of a sorghum plant from harvest to milling, to being sold in the market, where many women are market traders. Through the crop's journey, we begin to understand this small rural town's agriculture and trade, and the connections between its people. Access to basic food such as flour is a key concern of displaced peoples, making locally produced food trade a central activity in Kitchanga.
Download the workbook
Synopsis: When Stephanie and her family were displaced from another part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to Goma, they had to rebuild their life. Luckily, they had three chicks. From these small beginnings, together, they were able to build up a small chicken farm and a successful business that is able to support the whole family.
Download the workbook
Ethiopia

Synopsis: Naima led a comfortable life, running her own hotel in northern Ethiopia, until war broke out and destroyed everything she had built. Today, she is internally displaced in Ethiopia, and lives on the outskirts of Addis Ababa in a camp of internally displaced people. She has to make ends meet through a range of activities: she juggles housework, breeding goats and selling crops at the market to support her family.
Download the workbook
Synopsis: Nasteeho was displaced from Somalia to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia as a child. At the time, she spoke no Amharic - one of the main languages spoken in Ethiopia today - and quickly realised that she needed to learn the language to survive. Today, Nasteeho is fluent in Amharic and works as a translator supporting fellow Somalis in Addis Ababa, especially those who are newly arrived and need help navigating the city.
Download the workbook
Lebanon

Synopsis: In a family-run grocery shop in Saida (Sidon), south Lebanon, a father and son attempt to make their dreams come true. Originally from Syria, their family was displaced to Lebanon, where they set up a small local business, which they run together. Through the shop, they become a part of the neighbourhood. At the same time, the items they stock are a reflection of the community and their needs, as well as of the economy. The son wants to be a hip-hop artist, and uses the shop's storage room to set up a recording studio. There, he records music with his friends and is able to balance his duties to his family with his creative dreams.
Download the workbook
Synopsis: Two Syrian boys, displaced to Lebanon, collect plastic in their neighbourhood - the Shatila refugee camp - in Beirut, Lebanon. Plastic collection does not require specific skills but it is time consuming work. Once gathered, the plastic is sold to a plastic recycling plant based in the area, which is also run by refugees. Having worked all day to gather plastic, the boys often find themselves having to negotiate for better prices for their labour. But Lebanon's economy is in crisis, meaning that the price of goods changes every day and it isn't always possible to make a good sale.
Download the workbook
Synopsis: This film was built around a simple question asked of people on the streets of Bourj Hammoud and Al Dawra in Beirut: 'What does it mean to belong?' The result is a reflective, enchanting documentary film that invites us all to think about questions of belonging, loneliness, community and neighbourliness.
Download the workbook
Myanmar/Thailand

Synopsis: After being displaced from his home in Myanmar to a border town in Thailand, a young man begins to explore the possibilities around a career in photography, his dream job.
Download the workbook
Synopsis: After being displaced from Myanmar to Thailand, Sucee sets up an online shop through which she sells teas and medicines. Her resourcefulness in making a business for herself enables Sucee to survive. As a trans woman, her new found community in exile has also provided her with a level of acceptance that she did not have at home.
Download the workbook
Synopsis: The Bitter Embrace portrays the life of a man in Mae Sot, Thailand, a town near the border with Myanmar, who falls into the grips of alcoholism after being displaced by the military dictatorship in Myanmar. As he struggles to find work, his family grapples with the consequences of his addiction and the lasting impacts of displacement.
Download the workbook
Pakistan

Synopsis: Obaid is a teenage jack of all trades. Coming from an Afghan refugee family living in Peshawar, Pakistan, he navigates the challenges of being outside his homeland, supporting his family and finding a sense of belonging with humour and charisma - a key ingredient to his ability to find work. In the film, Obaid paints a picture of his life in Peshawar - the restaurant he used to work in, the field he plays football in and the auto rickshaw he now drives. As the main breadwinner for his family, Obaid dreams of getting an education, and is always looking for opportunities to practice his English and to learn from others.
Download the workbook
Synopsis: The coal industry in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, is a site of economic activity and migration. With the help of a Pakistani friend, a resourceful Afghan businessman creates labour opportunities for locals and Afghan refugees alike, despite the economic challenges he faces.
Download the workbook

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How We Work: film-based teaching resources on global citizenship, migration, economic activity and development - Geographical Association

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These teaching resources for KS3-5 draw on a collection of short films and address themes across geography and the humanities including migration, citizenship, displacement, cities, development and climate.

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‘A big chunk of positive energy’: Green Man celebrates 10 years of training refugees

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‘A big chunk of positive energy’: Green Man celebrates 10 years of training refugees

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Welsh festival helps asylum seekers gain confidence and skills while settling in to a new life in the UK

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This part of the Extended Project Qualification Level 1 and Level 2 exemplar library includes exemplars and commentary for Topic pathway approach.

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The Fertile Crescent and Its Importance in Ancient Times

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The Fertile Crescent is an arc-shaped area by the Mediterranean where human civilization began and flourished.

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Infographic: 4,000 Years Of Human History Captured In One Retro Chart

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In 1931, John B. Sparks distilled human civilization into a single chart. Even today, it’s great infographic design.

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Transatlantic Fiber-Optic Expialidocious - 99% Invisible

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Terms like "the cloud" and "WiFi" can make it seem like the Internet exists in the air, without wires. But that's not true. Almost all of our online world moves around the planet not across the sky or through space, but by way of a massive complex of cables crisscrossing the globe. And those cables are based on fiber optics.

Fiber optic technology turns information into pulses of light which are sent down long, hair-thin glass fibers, and then turned back into information on the other side. Today, fiber optic cables are the infrastructural backbone of the global internet. Countless fiber optic cables are in use around the world right now. Some of those lines are on land.

But there are also 1.5 million kilometers of fiber optics cables stretched across the bottom of entire oceans.

"About 95% or so of intercontinental traffic goes via submarine telecommunications cables," says Jane Ruffino, a researcher studying global subsea cables. "No matter how wireless your device is and no matter how wireless you think your connection is, there is always a wire somewhere."

Nearly all of the data moving around the planet this second is traveling across the bottom of an ocean somewhere.

And all of those submarine fiber optic lines in use today-about a million miles worth-all owe their existence to a single cable that started it all.

It's known as the "Transatlantic Telephone Fiber Optic Submarine Cable 8." TAT-8, for short. It was the first ever fiber optic cable to cross an ocean, and it really proved what fiber was capable of. It was a huge part of a telecommunications revolution, paving the way for the Internet that we have today.

TAT-8's long journey began in the mid 19th century, when people first started experimenting with fiber optic technology, but not for communications. "It was essentially like a Victorian party trick," Ruffino says. The glass fibers were used to light up gardens and dazzle guests. "They sort of had this technology and they weren't quite sure what to do with it."

Into the late 19th century, physicians began working fiber optics, using illuminated glass to light up bodies during surgery.

But by the second half of the 20th century, engineers began to see the potential of fiber optics and telecommunications.

And in the mid to late 70s, the first fiber optic telephone lines went up.

Before then, phone cables were copper-based. That was a problem when it came to the long distance submarine cables connecting continents across vast distances. Those copper cables couldn't carry a lot of calls before the lines would start to sound static-y, or they became too busy for more phone traffic.

By contrast, a fiber optic line could theoretically carry way more calls, more quickly, and with way less static. And so very gradually, these old copper cables were getting replaced with the new fiber optics technology.

And not just phone lines, AT&T did the first ever live fiber optics TV transmission when it broadcast the Winter Olympics in 1980 from Lake Placid. And then they made this little promo film to brag about it.

But while the new technology was impressive, there were also big limitations. Fiber optic lines were still only available in a few places, and for relatively short distances. And all of it is terrestrial.

At the same time, satellites were threatening to squash fiber optics technology before it really even took off. "As soon as satellite technology developed, as soon as they started to put satellites for communication in space," says Ruffino, "a lot of these cable and telephone companies said, 'we're cooked. Everything's gonna be satellites. These are the last cables. We're gonna go straight from telegraph cables to obsolescence.'"

At the time, satellite technology was becoming more and more popular. There were already some communications satellites in use. When it came to global telecommunications, the assumption was that satellites were the future and that they would be the thing that fully replaced those old copper cables.

The rising popularity of telecom satellites in the 1970s was partly because of the larger cultural obsession with space. Beaming phone calls to and from a satellite, hovering above the Earth-that felt way more exciting and futuristic than using wires.

"Satellites were a genuine competitor because they could carry voice traffic a lot more cheaply because cables are incredibly expensive to build," Ruffino says. Satellite telecommunication was also simpler on a diplomatic level, because the U.S. could build and operate its own equipment, which the government preferred. "These cables that go between countries had to be built with consortia. So companies from different countries had to collaborate with each other. And with a satellite, an American company could just do it."

In fact, the Federal Communications Commission, which gave permission for things like running new phone cables, was very pro-satellite. The FCC did not think that any cable-based telecom was worth it, especially compared to the newer, space-age technology. Ruffino says they drew a hard line with U.S. telecom on this. "The FCC said, 'you know what, if you can't find some way to compete on capacity and price, we're not going to approve any more cables.'"

So despite all of its promise, it wasn't a given that fiber optics would be the future for big long distance telecommunications.

But fiber did have one very big champion: AT&T. They were at the front of this fiber optics evolution. They were America's giant telecom monopoly. Which is why in the 1970s the federal government began to break AT&T up.

As AT&T's dissolution loomed, one way for the communications giant to keep and even extend its control of U.S. long distance communication was fiber optics cables. AT&T had been laying long distance cable for more than a hundred years. AT&T had all the expertise and equipment to lay cables all over the world. They wanted to keep the world running on cables because AT&T already controlled a lot of US telecom cables, including the undersea wires that were running from the US out into the world.

But they had to get the approval of the FCC, which told AT&T if it was going to lay more long distance cables, they had to build something that was better than satellites.

And AT&T's Hail Mary would be TAT-8.

They teamed up with telecom companies in the UK and in France. And they formed this consortium. Together, they developed a plan to build a massive submarine fiber optic cable, and run it from the East Coast of the US, all the way over to western Europe. This would be the first fiber cable to ever cross a whole ocean.

In the early 1980s, they began doing stress tests around the world, dropping simulation cables into the North Atlantic to see how pressure change and temperature affected signal transmission, and if laying and recovering the cable caused any breaks in the fiber.

At the Bell Labs' complex in Holmdel, New Jersey-where Severance is filmed-they also built the Ocean Simulation Facility to see if deep sea conditions disrupt the cable's ability to transmit light across all that distance.

During one of their tests, they discovered breaks in the cable electrical signal. According to Ruffino, one of the lead researchers at Bell Labs had the shark teeth that'd been pulled from the glitchy cable.

There are competing versions of this story, but Jane Ruffino says the faults in the cables were probably abrasions from the seafloor. Nevertheless, out of an abundance of caution, engineers added extra layers of protection and insulation to the cable.

In 1986, AT&T began laying the cable across the floor of the Atlantic, from England and France across to Tuckerton, New Jersey, not far from Atlantic City.

In December 1988, they finally switched on the "Transatlantic Telephone Fiber Optic Submarine Cable 8," the massive, first of its kind, state-of-the-art cable.

It was immediately clear that TAT-8 was a revolution in global telecommunications. First, because it was a quantum leap in capacity. TAT-8 could carry 40,000 phone calls at once-10 times the capacity of its predecessor, which was a copper-based cable.

The superiority of subsea fiber optics to satellites was plain to see. Satellites had a problem with latency, where the time it took for a signal to go up to space and back caused delays. And the quality of that signal quality was mediocre compared to the fiber cables of TAT-8.

Also, TAT-8 proved that submarine fiber cables could actually be cheaper to make, install, and repair.

Perhaps best of all, TAT-8 was coming into use just as the World Wide Web was taking off. So it was also perfectly positioned to fill the immediate demand for infrastructure that could move huge amounts of information all over the world quickly.

Once TAT-8 proved the concept of international submarine lines, the FCC invested more and more in fiber optics cables. By the 1990s, the capacity of fiber optics overtook satellites and it just kept growing. Today we are completely reliant on fiber optic technology, with more than 600 sprawling subsea cables enmeshing the planet right now.

Although cables like TAT-8 were developed by international telecom consortia, today half of all the bandwidth across the world's subsea cables is controlled by giant tech corporations-Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon.

The expansion of AI has sparked a subsea cable boom. All of those tech giants need wires that connect all those data centers around the world. And they're investing more and more in subsea cables.

As for TAT-8: even though it revolutionized global telecom and played a decisive role in the birth of the Internet, it won't be part of the AI explosion.

That's because TAT-8 didn't actually work for all that long. It was switched on in 1988, and it stopped working in 2002-just 14 years later. It's been sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic for almost 40 years.

Now, crews have started recovering TAT-8. Partly because there are limited routes where subsea cables can run, and demand for that space is surging. TAT-8 is made of some valuable components like copper, which is getting stripped and recycled.

The steel in TAT-8 is being turned into fencing. And the plastic is being recycled into consumer goods. "So when next time you're washing your hair," Jane Ruffino says, "you can imagine that you could be squeezing your shampoo from part of what used to be the first fiber optic transatlantic cable."

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Transatlantic Fiber-Optic Expialidocious - 99% Invisible

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Terms like "the cloud" and "WiFi" can make it seem like the Internet exists in the air, without wires. But that's not true. Almost all of our online world moves around the planet not across the sky or through space, but by way of a massive complex of cables crisscrossing the globe.

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‘The things that connect us are fraying’: James Graham short film explores what it means to be English

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‘The things that connect us are fraying’: James Graham short film explores what it means to be English

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Ahead of England’s first knockout game of the World Cup, Love Letter to England celebrates what English people have in common

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‘The things that connect us are fraying’: James Graham short film explores what it means to be English

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‘The things that connect us are fraying’: James Graham short film explores what it means to be English

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Ahead of England’s first knockout game of the World Cup, Love Letter to England celebrates what English people have in common

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Rise of the Nazis - Series 1: 2. The First Six Months in Power

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At the start of 1933, Hitler is the chancellor of Germany, but he does not have absolute power. He sets his sights on dismantling the German state.

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The Forgotten Sides of Learning (1) - School and the Crisis of the Psyche.

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Some movies don’t just let you go again...The film impressively shows how a note-fixed school system can psychologically burden children – and at the same time promote authoritarian ways of thinking. But he also encourages: school can be a place of relationship, resonance and protection.Expressive images were taken in countries such as Uganda, India, Romania, Albania, Iceland and Germany. The realities of pupils: women like those of teachers and school leaders are presented in a touching way.In addition, numerous experts have their say in Dr. Herbert Renz-Polster (German physician and educator), Prof. Peter Gray (US developmental psychologist) and Jenny Rasche (from the EU and the child emergency aid excellent social educator).A movie that triggers somethingAfter initial screenings, there were standing ovations. The feedback speaks for itself:“Moving, uplifting and full of important questions.”“A film that everyone should see in the field of education.”“It’s about our children, and how school can be.”

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Hannah Ritchie and Sophia Mersmann and Tuna Acisu and Marwa Boukarim

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Where do migrants live, and where were they born?

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An interactive tool that helps us see where migrants were born, and where they live now.

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Private Candidates - JCQ Joint Council for Qualifications

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This list has been updated to show centres who are willing to accept entries for the Summer 2022 examination series

Simply enter your postcode, select the type of qualification and the exam board you wish to enter with, and click Submit. You can then filter your results by specific subject or by type of qualification using the drop-down and clicking Submit again. Results will be listed by proximity to the postcode you enter. You can then click on a centre for further information, the deadline for applications and contact details.

This list has been updated to show centres who are willing to accept entries for the Summer 2022 examination series.

Please be aware that centres may still accept private candidates even if they are not listed on the JCQ website. Appearing on the list is not a prerequisite for supporting private candidates.

Enter your postcode, select your filters and click submit to see centres near you

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Private Candidates - JCQ Joint Council for Qualifications

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This list has been updated to show centres who are willing to accept entries for the Summer 2022 examination series Simply enter your postcode, select the type of qualification and the exam board you wish to enter with, and click Submit. You can then filter your results by specific subject or by type of qualification ...

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Subterranean fungi networks more than 100 quadrillion km in length, study finds

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Subterranean fungi networks more than 100 quadrillion km in length, study finds

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First ever global mapping of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi shows scale of hyphal systems that sustain plant life

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Human migration has surged since 2000 — these maps reveal where people are going

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Human migration has surged since 2000 — these maps reveal where people are going

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Modelling with artificial-intelligence tools has filled gaps in migration data, revealing detailed global population movements from 1990 to 2023.

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Fieldwork: How do natural processes at the coast affect surfing conditions? - Geographical Association

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This resource looks at how natural processes at the coast affect surfing conditions including wind speed and tide height.

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On patrol with the RNLI, along London’s sacred river

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The DO Lectures: an encouragement network for those seeking a different path. Watch 100+ free talks online plus DO Books, courses, workshops and more.

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Myriad Natural Toys & Crafts - Natural Waldorf inspired wooden toys - Natural dolls, art & craft materials, books and musical instruments

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The Kid Should See This: Educational videos for curious kids of all ages, a free resource for parents & teachers. Science, art, nature, animals, & more.

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The TKSST Gift Guide • Smart STEAM Gift Ideas for all ages, curated

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Over 350 smart, STEAM + mostly screen-free gift ideas for all ages, curated by The Kid Should See This™.

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The Global Justice Project attempts to set out a new vision for global progress in the 21st century: grounding human development and equality in planetary habitability. It explores the conditions under which the world could move toward this horizon and traces an economically and ecologically consistent transition path from 2026 to 2100.

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"This is a recycling centre, where whatever we throw out in our households is getting transformed into something useful. This is also a production centre. I cannot imagine any other part of the city, which is filled with such a productive kind of citizens. More importantly, most of these people here have not gone to a TVET college or university. They have to learn their skills here. So this is also a training centre. Not only technical; this is a training centre where ruralites learn the basic skills of becoming an urbanite. So this is also a transformation centre. And, this is also a place where people live. So [Minalesh Terra] is a real city model where everything is happening."
-Zegeye Cherenet

Together with his wife and two children, Ato Gizachew lives in a small hut on the periphery of Addis Ababa. He works as a kuré-yalew, a trash collector who roams the streets of Addis Ababa in search of anything reusable. His consistent daily routine leads him first to Minalesh Terra in the morning, where he shares a small shop with colleagues. After changing his clothes he continues on public transport to Bole, his territory. The city is clearly divided into collection areas. Every one of the about 5,000 kuré-yalews has specific streets assigned to him or her. Once there, Ato Gizachew starts calling out. This call announcing his presence to homeowners gave the kuré-yalews their name.

Gizachew buys almost anything on the doorsteps of the houses he visits daily: light bulbs, metal scraps, fabrics and so on. Packed into rice bags, the items return to Minalesh Terra - the "What do you have to offer? centre " - where they get resold to different manufacturing shops in order to be transformed into something useful. In the course of a few days, these items re-enter the cycle, sold to the owners of small neighbourhood shops as "new" products.

This recycling process is not only a source of income for many families in the city; it has also appropriated a significant amount of space. From Minalesh Terra, an area within Africa's biggest open-air market, Merkato, outward, the network of kuré-yalews spans all of Addis Ababa. The system is an informal answer to the lack of formal trash collection. It keeps the city relatively clean and provides products for daily use for all households and income to almost half a million city dwellers.

Recycling Spaces documents the use of space allocated to this recycling system in Ethiopia's capital. Based on the daily routine and experiences of the kuré-yalew, this film aims to address universal questions of informal citywide infrastructural systems that provide services to the formal and public sectors.

Experts
Ato Fasil Giorghis
Chair Holder
Chair of Conservation of Urban and Architectural Heritage, EiABC, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Prof. Dr. Dirk Donath
Chair Holder
Chair of Building Construction, EiABC, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Dr. Heyaw Terefe
Chair Holder
Chair of Theory and History of Architecture and Urbanism, EiABC, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Ato Zegeye Cherenet
Former Chair Holder
Chair of Architectural Design, EiABC, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Special Thanks to
Ato Gizachew Takele

Credits
research and movies by
Felix Heisel and Bisrat Kifle

supported and financed by
ETH Zürich
Future Cities Laboratory Singapore
Asst. Prof. Dirk E. Hebel

produced by
next studio plc.
Josef Mayerhofer

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Recycling Spaces - a day in Addis Ababa's merkato

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"This is a recycling centre, where whatever we throw out in our households is getting transformed into something useful. This is also a production centre. I cannot imagine any other part of the cit...

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Fieldwork involving water - Geographical Association

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The purpose of this set of resources is to provide support, guidance and ideas for teachers to carry out fieldwork involving water.

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Search TV & Radio Clips - Educational Recording Agency

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ERA’s Video Streaming Platform features thousands of curriculum-aligned broadcast resources, available to stream with your ERA Licence

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What is the world’s oldest tree and why has it lived so long? - BBC Bitesize

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This BBC Bitesize article takes a closer look at the oldest tree in the world, how the ancient species has lasted so long and why it has long been protected.

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KS3 and GCSE Geography - Maps, map reading and navigation

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KS3 & GCSE Geography. Maps, map reading and navigation. A series of clips exploring map reading skills, including coordinates, contour lines, keys and use of a compass.

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Geography KS3/GCSE: The environment - is rewilding a good idea?

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KS3/GCSE Geography. Rewilding. A student investigates the pros and cons of reintroducing the lynx to Kielder Forest.

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Secondary Geography - Deforestation and the growth of soya in Paraguay

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KS3/GCSE Geography. Deforestation. Simon Reeves is in Paraguay to find out about the deforestation there and the reasons for it. BBC Teach.

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Africa - 5: Resources and economy. KS3. Opportunities and challenges.

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KS3 Geography: Africa. 5: Resources and economy. Exploring the wealth of Africa’s natural resources and the history of foreign intervention in Africa’s economy. BBC.

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Secondary Geography - Where are the largest cities?

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Geography KS3/KS4. A short animation revealing the world’s largest cities and where they’re located.

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Geography KS3/GCSE: Change of land use - developing the greenbelt

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KS3/GCSE Geography. Change of land use - the greenbelt. A student investigates the pros and cons of building development on the greenbelt.

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Secondary Geography: How should we seek to control traffic pollution?

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KS3/GCSE Geography. A student examines the pros and cons of using a congestion charge to control traffic pollution.

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Africa - 4: Urbanisation and cities. KS3.

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KS3 Geography: Africa. 4: Urbanisation and cities. Exploring rural to urban migration in Africa and the rapid urbanisation of African cities including Johannesburg. BBC.

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Geography KS3 / GCSE. This short film for secondary schools explores urbanisation: how rapid urbanisation impacts both urban and rural areas and the challenges this presents. BBC Teach.

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Secondary Geography - How glaciation has shaped parts of the UK coastline

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KS3/GCSE Geography. Glaciation. A video clip examining how glaciation has shaped sections of the UK coastline during the last Ice Age. BBC Teach.

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Secondary Geography - What is a ‘spit’ and how does it form due to longshore drift?

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KS3/GCSE Geography. Coasts. A clip which examines the coastal features of a spit, backwash and longshore drift. BBC Teach.

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Secondary Geography - What coastal management techniques are being used on Hayling Island?

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KS3/GCSE Geography. Coastal erosion. Liz Bonnin introduces a short film explaining the techniques used on Hayling Island to control coastal erosion. BBC Teach.

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Geography KS3/GCSE: Coastal erosion - the high cost of protecting homes

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Geography KS3/GCSE. Coastal erosion. A student investigates whether we should protect properties threatened by coastal erosion.

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Geography KS3/GCSE. A short film for secondary schools explaining the causes and consequences of coastal flooding, focussing on examples from the UK. BBC Teach.

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In this series of short videos for secondary schools, Paul Whitehouse explores the environmental and ecological issues facing waterways in the United Kingdom.
Paul investigates a variety of topics including sewage and microplastic pollution, rewilding, and the impact of industrial and agricultural practices on river ecosystems.

Suitable for teaching KS3/4 for England and Northern Ireland, Progression Step 4/5 for Wales and S4/5 for Scotland.

These clips are taken from the series Paul Whitehouse: Our Troubled Rivers - available on BBC iPlayer

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UK rivers case studies. Paul Whitehouse: Our Troubled Rivers. KS3/GCSE Geography

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In this series of short videos for secondary schools, Paul Whitehouse explores the environmental and ecological issues facing waterways in the United Kingdom.

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Geography KS3 / GCSE. Rivers. Exploring the River Ganges in India - it’s significance to both physical and human geography. BBC Teach.

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A montage includes aerial views of rivers meandering through the rainforest of Guyana, views from the river with banks of thick jungle on either side and a waterfall cascading down into a deep plunge pool.
Along the river banks are the dwellings and homes of the local communities.

Tribespeople are seen going about their daily lives, using the river as a means of transportation, a source for food and a supply of water.

This clip is from the series Seriously Raleigh.

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Geography KS2 & KS3: Expedition to Guyana - rivers and waterfalls (no narration)

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Views of the rivers running through the rainforest of Guyana, cascading waterfalls and a glimpse into the ways in which the rivers support Guyana's rainforest communities.

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Secondary Geography - The impact of flooding in the UK - the Somerset Levels

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KS3/GCSE Geography. Flooding. A video clip exploring the impact of flooding on the Somerset Levels in the UK in 2014. BBC Teach.

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Secondary Geography - How does a river change as it travels downstream?

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KS3/GCSE Geography. Rivers and erosion caused by river water. Liz Bonnin introduces a BBC archive clip of Sir David Attenborough as he follows the Amazon River downstream. BBC Teach.

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Secondary Geography - What is the water cycle?

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KS3 / GCSE Geography. Hydrology / Rivers and water. The water cycle. Liz Bonnin introduces the water cycle and how water is constantly moving around Earth. BBC Teach.

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Geography KS3 / GCSE. A short film for secondary schools explaining the common responses to flooding and the methods employed to prevent and reduce flooding, including examples of hard and soft engineering techniques. BBC Teach.

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Geography KS3 / GCSE. A short film for secondary schools explaining the causes and consequences of river flooding, with case studies from the UK and around the world. BBC Teach.

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Secondary Geography - How glaciation has shaped parts of the UK coastline

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KS3/GCSE Geography. Glaciation. A video clip examining how glaciation has shaped sections of the UK coastline during the last Ice Age. BBC Teach.

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Secondary Geography - How have physical processes, including ice, impacted the landscape?

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KS3/GCSE Geography. Physical processes: ice. Video clips examining how physical processes including ice form limestone paving in Malham Cove, Yorkshire Dales. BBC Teach.

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Geography KS3/GCSE. A short film for secondary schools explaining glaciation: what it is, how it shapes the land, and the effects of climate change on the world’s glaciers. BBC Teach.

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Secondary Geography - What evidence is there for climate change in the UK?

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KS3/GCSE geography. Climate change. This video clip examines the evidence that the UK climate is changing, with increased droughts, increased summer temperatures and wetter winters. BBC Teach.

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In this series of short films for secondary schools, Ade Adepitan travels to places on the frontline of climate change to see the damage caused and how we can fight it.

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The UK boasts a unique and stunning landscape defined in part by its shifting seasons and changing weather. But below this beauty lies a savage nature which can sometimes hit with little or no warning.
The result can be devastating: Arctic-like winters, unimaginable floods, hurricane-force winds, baking heat and severe droughts. Like it or not, Britain can be susceptible to some deadly weather events - even if they only occur once in a while.
Please note that since this page was published, the UK has experienced temperatures of more than 40°C .

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Ten of the worst weather events that shook Britain

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The UK boasts a unique and stunning landscape, but below this beauty lies a savage nature which can sometimes hit with little or no warning. This timeline for schools charts ten extreme weather events.

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Geography KS3 / GCSE: Richard Hammond’s Wild Weather

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Richard Hammond travels the globe to discover the unexplained and the unexpected, the unbelievable and the just plain unlikely, in an attempt to reveal the hidden world of weather.

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Geography GCSE: Rock Types at Great Heights

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Geologist and keen climber Dr Tom Challands challenges three pairs of young people each to climb a different rock face and see what can be revealed from this unique vantage point.

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Secondary Geography - The geology of the Jurassic Coast

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KS3/GCSE Geography. Coasts and rocks. Liz Bonnin introduces a clip examining the geology of the Jurassic Coast in southern England. BBC Teach.

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Secondary Geography - The erosion of the Grand Canyon

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KS3/GCSE Geography. Erosion. Liz Bonnin introduces a clip exploring water erosion in the Grand Canyon in Arizona. BBC Teach.

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Geography KS3/GCSE. A short film for secondary schools explaining different types of erosion and their effect on landscapes around the world. BBC Teach.