A review of research on the effects of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) upon child development. CARE project; Curriculum Quality Analysis and Impact Review of European Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC)

This report considers the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) curriculum throughout Europe. It explores the official curriculum, specified by national or regional governments, along with the implemented curriculum that is provided ‘on the ground’ by staff to enhance children’s development. The official curriculum documents at national or regional level are often called ‘steering documents’. Moreover, the implemented curriculum is sometimes called the ‘experienced’ or the ‘realised’ curriculum, i.e., what the staff realise in their daily practice and what the children experience day by day. The CARE project has studied European curriculum in three ways: (1) by developing a template according to which the 11 partners in the CARE Consortium described the curriculum in their own countries; (2) by analysing the responses of our partners across 11 countries to the CARE curriculum template, with the aim of identifying commonalities and differences in the broadly representative sample that comprises the CARE consortium; (3) by considering information from the templates in light of selected research literature on effectiveness - NOT through a formal literature review which is the task of another Work Package in the CARE project (Melhuish et al., forthcoming) - but by comparing the template findings with widely cited, key studies. The analytic template originated as a series of questions at a curriculum conference held in Oxford (March 2014). This template was further refined as members of the CARE consortium provided information about ECEC in their home countries. The conclusions and recommendations presented in this report are based on analysis of the completed country templates (i.e. the survey of countries represented in the CARE Consortium), but also on recent EU reports and selected international literature

‘It makes me feel alive’: the socio-motivational impact of drama and theatre on marginalised young people

An in-depth, longitudinal, idiographic study examined the impact of theatre and drama involvement on marginalised young people. Semi-structured interviews, at three separate time points over 2 years, were conducted with four young people (15–21 years of age) involved in a theatre project. Interpretative phenomenological analysis suggested that drama and theatre create space and support for the authentic self, and provide optimal conditions for promoting growth and resilience through voluntary engagement in a positive activity. In particular, the analysis highlighted the pivotal role of interpersonal relationships and a nurturing environment in re-engaging young people. Some participants’ accounts also suggested that drama provides a uniquely engaging and therapeutic way to reflect on, express and explore experiences. The results are discussed in relation to core psychological processes underpinning self-development and key directions for further research

Becoming other: social and emotional development through the creative arts for young people with behavioural difficulties

This article focuses on the effects of an arts based intervention for young people deemed at risk of school exclusion because of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Using a range of qualitative methods, including observations and interviews, the study explored from the perspective of eleven young people (aged 11-16) the potential for creative arts interventions to transform young people’s difficult social situations of development and, in so doing, effect changes in behaviour and way of being. The findings suggest that the interventions that the arts organisation offered these young people provided alternatives to their personal, cultural and historical ways of experiencing the world. In ‘becoming other’ as an artist, experimenting with different art media and trying out creative ideas within a safe environment, the young people chose to try out becoming a different version of themselves. This process of adopting a new identity in becoming an artist enabled some young people to recontextualise their relationship with the social worlds around them. The introduction of an element of socialised play through creative arts interventions helped these young people to negotiate the crisis of a social situation of development. These findings suggest that imagination, invoked through the social situation of play, can help disengaged young people to change their perceptions about the imagined worlds of the future

Conflicts in professional concern and the exclusion of pupils with SEMH in England

Pupils with Social Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs are disproportionately excluded from schools in England. Drawing on data collected from interviews with Local Authority Education Officers in 2017/18 in a project that looked at disparities in rates of permanent exclusion across the UK, this article explores how the influence of perverse incentives in the system, as well as the potentially different primary concerns of actors involved in inter-professional work, may undermine practices of inclusion in schools, and lead to the exclusion of pupils with SEMH. The review of existing literature and current analysis presented in this article highlight a number of potential factors which may be leading to the exclusion of pupils with SEMH in England. The data analysis and proposed theoretical frameworks contribute to the knowledge on ways in which the fragmentation of the English school system has failed many SEMH learners. Our argument here is that professional communication to support pupils with SEMH requires inter-professional understanding and respect for the primary concerns of different agencies. However, in circumstances of challenge and limited resources, there is a heightened risk that pupils with SEMH can become collateral casualties of policy change evacuated to the social margins of schooling

Becoming other: social and emotional development through the creative arts for young people with behavioural difficulties

This article focuses on the effects of an arts based intervention for young people deemed at risk of school exclusion because of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Using a range of qualitative methods, including observations and interviews, the study explored from the perspective of eleven young people (aged 11-16) the potential for creative arts interventions to transform young people’s difficult social situations of development and, in so doing, effect changes in behaviour and way of being. The findings suggest that the interventions that the arts organisation offered these young people provided alternatives to their personal, cultural and historical ways of experiencing the world. In ‘becoming other’ as an artist, experimenting with different art media and trying out creative ideas within a safe environment, the young people chose to try out becoming a different version of themselves. This process of adopting a new identity in becoming an artist enabled some young people to recontextualise their relationship with the social worlds around them. The introduction of an element of socialised play through creative arts interventions helped these young people to negotiate the crisis of a social situation of development. These findings suggest that imagination, invoked through the social situation of play, can help disengaged young people to change their perceptions about the imagined worlds of the future

Excluded lives special issue

Prevention of school exclusion is a major UK policy concern in the COVID-19 era of economic uncertainty, speculation about the possible futures for social cohesion, and alarming reports about the prevalence of children’s mental health difficulties and eroded sense of well-being and security. This Special Issue on school exclusion is drawn from the work of the multi-disciplinary and cross-jurisdictional research group Excluded Lives, founded in Oxford in 2014 and now involving the universities of Cardiff, Edinburgh, Oxford, Queen’s Belfast and the LSE. It adopts a broad view of exclusion including those who are excluded legally and illegally and those who go missing from school. The papers in this special issue represent perspectives on school exclusion across the four UK jurisdictions and from different disciplinary perspectives