Can education be a place where ambiguity is welcome? How can we embrace moments of challenge as a trigger for collaboration, rather than a problem to be managed? This session will start by exploring the English and Finnish school systems and consider how set curricula and inflexible success criteria limit opportunities for student and teacher agency.
We will focus on a five-year project, Breaking the Silence, that was conducted in London schools and co-led by young people alongside peers, academics, teachers, politicians, unions, artists and others. Using a 'participatory action research' approach, participants were invited to pose questions, generate findings, co-create solutions and crucially, act to change society.
PAR positions young people (and those working with them) as active participants, rather than passive subjects; it is not only a research method, it's a worldview. One where young people are seen not as 'students', but agents of change and taking part can be transformational. We will think together about the potential implications of adopting this approach and the barriers that can impede working in this way. Read more here.
This session will be run in collaboration with Anna Rainio, Senior University Lecturer and Docent in the Department of Education at University of Helsinki.
Wednesday 9th April 2025, 13:30 – 15:30
Location: University of Helsinki, Main building (Room U3039), Fabianinkatu 33, 00170 Helsinki. Register here.
Chris Bagley is a psychologist, teacher, writer and musician with an interest in the evolution of ideas, educational transformation and systems change. He is Director of Research at social enterprise, States of Mind, Co-Director at Square Peg CIC and a Tutor at The Institute of Education, University College London.