Researching young people's sexuality and learning about sex: experience, need, and sex and relationship education

This paper describes findings from an in-depth case study of young people's sexuality and learning about sex. Focus groups and unstructured interviews were conducted with young women and young men aged 15-16 years in a school in the north of England. Analysis focused on disjunctions between reported sexual behaviour in a park and in a bedsitting room, and the content of school sex and relationship education. Tensions between the accounts are considered for their impact on learning about sex, sexual negotiation, subjectivity and inter-generational understanding. Despite some negative experiences in sex education, the young people interviewed desired the affirmation and support of adults, and recommend sex and relationship education as the most appropriate vehicle for providing this. The value added outcomes of participation in the study, including consciousness and awareness raising, and the opportunity for reflection and debate and selves as 'experts', enhanced young people's view that non-judgemental and meaningful advice and guidance are possible in formal learning contexts. Implications for future forms of sex and relationship education are discussed.</p

Transitions to informal care in Great Britain during the 1990s

Objectives: To estimate annual changes and trends in the population of informal carers and to investigate transitions to caregiving by age, gender, locus of care, and level of involvement. Design: Longitudinal analysis of data from the British household panel survey, 1991 to 1998, an annual prospective survey of a nationally representative sample of more than 5000 private households in England, Scotland, and Wales. Subjects: Over 9000 adults over 16 years interviewed personally in successive waves of the survey, including around 1300 informal carers each year. Results: One third of co-resident carers and 40% of extra-resident carers start caregiving each year and similar proportions cease to provide care. Five year period rates are at least 75% higher than the one year prevalence estimates. Almost everyone is involved in caregiving at one time or another and over half are likely to provide 20 hours or more care per week at some point in their lives. Recent trends indicate that more adults are becoming heavily involved in providing longer episodes of care. Although the onset of caregiving peaks in late middle and early older age, above average incidences span three decades or more of adult life. Age variations in the start of caring relationships are driven by the changing demands for care within and between generations over the life course. There is no firm evidence that carers increase their involvement in caring activities over the first three years of a caring episode. Conclusions: The population of carers is constantly changing as some people stop providing care and others take on a caring role or vary their level of involvement. Policy measures responsive to the diversity of caring roles, and geared around key transitions, are likely to be most effective in supporting carers through changing circumstances. Recognition and support for carers who are heavily involved in caring activities from the outset should be a priority

Estimating the prevalence of unpaid adult care over time

To help fulfil their responsibilities towards unpaid carers, service providers need some idea of the carer’s situation and how many might require support. This paper argues that estimating the prevalence of unpaid care across service planning and budgeting cycles provides a better indication of the size and composition of the carer population than estimates at a point in time. The number of adults providing care at any time during a year is estimated for typical catchments or organisational settings, including social services and primary health care. As well as focusing on carers who are heavily involved in their caring activities, variations in their psychological well-being are assessed to provide an indication of unmet needs for support

Ethical considerations in selection and streaming in education

Under this rather forbidding title I want to dig below the immediately practical questions to do with selection and streaming in schools and look at certain of the fundamental moral and social value questions that pervade debates on these topics. In doing this I am not seeking to evade the directly practical issues that arise. It is rather that, in an area where much of the empirical evidence on what happens under different practical arrangements is inconclusive and raises such sharp controversy, there is a danger that we lose sight of what is really at stake. The analytical exercise of the kind I shall undertake therefore seeks to bring to the fore just those basic issues of principle on which any organisation of schooling inevitably takes some stand. After all what we really want is a system that as far as possible embodies the principles we really espouse rather than one locked into principles we have inadequately examined. The basic question I am therefore addressing is: what are the principles of selection and streaming we think the educational system should reflect and what can we say about the practical organisation of the system simply on these grounds.peer-reviewe

Making Assessment Meaningful

Our investigation highlighted practical implications and barriers for implementing assessment for formative purpose. With larger student numbers it is becoming harder for academics to find the time to engage in formative assessment. It seems a shame that as class sizes grow it is at the cost of the learning experience in terms of formative feedback. So whilst our respondents showed a commitment to using assessment for formative purposes, practical reasons may prevent this from actually happening. As an institution we also need to be looking at assessment timing. If assessment is to be formative, it needs to happen at a time when students can then act on feedback in a constructive way. We also need to be creating activities that allow students to engage with the feedback: simply handing students a page of written feedback will not encourage all students to act and learn. Creating discussion during teaching time, following assessment, for students to talk about the feedback will encourage them to read and reflect on any feedback. It is clear that assessment for formative purpose is at the heart of most lecturers’ practice within London Metropolitan University, but now we need to place it firmly at the heart of the student experience, in a meaningful and real way