‘Liminal learners’ in a global city: the aspirations of young British Bangladeshi women at an east London secondary school

Young British Bangladeshi women are often perceived as a marginalised, vulnerable group unlikely to succeed within the UK education system. Although achievement at GCSE level has improved significantly in recent years, female British Bangladeshis continue to be identified as an under-performing group at A-level and in higher education (Dale, 2002; Hussain, 2005). This article examines the educational experiences of a group of young British Bangladeshi women at one east London secondary school, exploring their perceptions of educational success and their aspirations for the future. Through a narrative, case-study approach, and drawing on a range of theoretical perspectives, the research seeks to challenge commonly held perceptions of a group of young women whose voices are often absent from academic and policy discourse. Using the concept of ‘liminality’ (Turner 1969) as a way to conceptualise the location of young British Bangladeshi women within the education system, the article argues that we need to re-visit the widening participation (WP) agenda, in the light of the real, lived experiences of young people from second-and third-generation migrant communities

Leadership Learning Programme: Leading into the Future. Launch event presentation

Reconnect London and the UCL Centre for Educational Leadership are delighted to launch their free leadership programme “Leading into the Future”. This research-informed leadership programme will target senior leaders in London-based schools within a broad range of contexts. In this launch event, we look forward to introducing the programme to you and thinking about and exploring together: Why does school leadership matters? How will this project support the work of senior leaders in London schools? Why do we need to re-consider how we evaluate leadership impact

Leadership programme: Leading into the Future

This free leadership programme is jointly developed by Reconnect London and the UCL Centre for Educational Leadership, with the aim to strengthen the transformative impact of school leadership in London and further improve outcomes for young Londoners. The programme will do this through a place-based, collaborative enquiry approach which harnesses school leaders’ insights and experiences, improving and strengthening leadership practices for better outcomes in London schools

Measuring progress on climate adaptation from concepts to practical application

This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada.Despite the recognition that adaptation is necessary and the political and financial support for it, to date there are no universally accepted metrics to measure it. Measuring the effectiveness of adaptation is subject to two main challenges: knowing what adaptation is to be able to measure it, and determining whether the adaptation actions are effective in reducing vulnerability to climate change. There is also the need to reduce undue burden on countries who also have to report progress against the Sustainable Development Goals and Sendai Framework. Various countries have developed their own monitoring and evaluation systems for charting progress with adaptation. Several methodologies have also been proposed for use at a variety of scales, and here we outline four: Adaptation Tracking Tool, Tracking Adaptation and Monitoring Development; Tracking Adaptive Capacity and Participatory Monitoring, Evaluation, Reflection and Learning

CARIAA Working Paper #25

This paper assesses the evolution of adaptation research in the global South over the last decade (2010-2020) using a scoping review approach. Research has covered both policy and practice at different scales, from regional, to national, to individual/household, with a particular focus on agricultural and rural settings. The review shows there is significant and growing interest in the determinants of adaptation and adaptive capacity, including the role of barriers and enablers, as well as in the role of gender. Large swathes of sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East/North Africa remain severely under-researched. The majority of papers focus on rural and agricultural issues rather than cities.UK’s Department for International Development (DFID

D6.6.1 Scoping report on adaptation finance initiatives in Bangladesh, Ghana and India

This series is based on the work of the Deltas, Vulnerability and Climate Change: Migration and Adaptation (DECCMA) project, funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) through the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA).The report addresses sub-task WT 6.6.1 in the DECCMA workplan – to scope and document all adaptation finance initiatives available in each delta, as part of deliverable D6.6.1 – a scoping report on adaptation finance initiatives available in each delta. Given that the international adaptation finance initiatives available in each delta are broadly the same, this is all summarised in one report, as opposed to one for each of the four deltas. The report informs the third aim of the project, to “Lead to the development of gender-sensitive adaptation funding proposals in the three deltas”

Reflections on a key component of co-producing climate services: defining climate metrics from user needs

There is increasing recognition of the importance of co-producing climate services to bridge the current “usability” gap in climate information for decision-making – yet understanding precisely how this should take place is less well elaborated. One key stage of the co-production process involves identifying specifically which climate metrics can usefully inform decisions – but methods that can be drawn upon to construct this information are often overlooked. We discuss how the choice and application of four existing social science methods (interview-informed role play workshop, open-ended interviews, prioritised surveys and enhanced surveys) arose out of, and was in turn embedded within, a different epistemological approach characteristic of co-production to identify decision-relevant climate metrics for the water and agriculture sectors in Malawi and Tanzania. In so doing, we reflect on the evolution of our understanding of co-production as our assumptions were challenged, from the expectation that we would be able to “obtain” metrics from users, to a dynamic mutual definition based on better understanding of the decision-making contexts. Such reflections inform emerging experiences of co-production of climate services, as well as having implications for broader contexts beyond the climate change space in which co-production is attempted to improve science-society interactions

Water security in Africa is gender dependent

A person’s water security is affected by their gender, as is their likelihood to hold decision making positions about this vital resource. To increase water security in the face of a changing climate this must change

How do staff motivation and workplace environment affect capacity of governments to adapt to climate change in developing countries?

Government ministries are increasingly mainstreaming climate change adaptation within policies and plans. However, government staff in key implementing ministries need to be empowered to ensure effective delivery of policy goals. Motivation to act on climate change, combined with the capacity to make decisions and apply resources to programmes, is crucial. Informed by theories of motivation and workplace environments from social psychology and organisational theory, this paper reports findings from a questionnaire of government staff (103 respondents) in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia. The questionnaire was designed using self-determination theory to investigate the role of external influences, institutional structures and resources and how these, in turn, affect staff motivation and capacities to design and implement new policies and strategies. The study finds that whilst external influences and hierarchical structures are recognised, these do not have a strong direct influence on staff motivation, but they do appear to inhibit capacities to act. The results show that lack of staff and limited government-allocated budget reduce the ability of ministries to be self-determined and set their own agendas. Instead they are dependent on donor-determined projects which may be selective in the aspects of climate change adaptation plans and policies they support and even divert focus away from government priorities

Promoviendo la aplicación de la Información Climática e Hidrológica y su Traducción en las Políticas, Ciudad de Panamá, Panamá, 6-8 de octubre 2015 : reporte de taller

Versión en inglés disponible en la Biblioteca Digital del IDRC: Advancing the application of climate and hydrological information and its translation into policy, Panama City, Panama, 6-9 October 2015 : workshop repor