Oldham 6th form college equality

EQUALITY – GOVERNANCE AND LEADERSHIP

Mole (Laura) Chapman

Welcome• Powerful language.

• Professional purpose.

• Validating experience.

• Not an add-on.

Without certain groups represented in the room, we miss out on the voices we need to hear in order to change.

Ground Rules

Agreed understandings or social contract?

What do you need to participate?

Shared Outcomes:

• Hopes and fears:

From mindscapes to landscapes

We would be foolish to assume that it’s easy to achieve a fairer society.

If it was easy we would have cracked it, and we would all live in an equitable world.

• It is not.• We have not.• We do not.

Culture Change

WelcomeToleranceSingle /otherDeficitBarriers Rigid rulesComplianceImprovement

InvitationAcceptanceDiverse Assets BoundariesFlexible ValuesCommitmentTransformation

Chapman, L. 2011 p. 26

Culture Change

• Tackling inequality is best understood as a practitioner’s ethical commitment to realise every child’s rights in full.

• Cultural change takes both time and innovation: it is neither immediately available nor instantly achievable.

COMMUNITIES OF BELONGING

Locality

Disabled children

Schools

Toddler groups

Outsiders

Insiders

Hard to reach

Polish

Pockets of deprivation

Perceived Inequality

High InequalityLow social mobility

Deprivation and poverty

Deprivation and poverty

Low InequalityHigh social mobility

The wider the perceived inequality - the unhealthier the community

“The first thing to recognise is that we are dealing with the effects of relative rather than absolute deprivation or poverty” Fullan

Protected characteristics:

Stereotypes and Prejudice Myths and assumptions Organisation and systems

Behaviour and communication

Feeling Action

Whose cake?Inequality is best explained as a powerful social force that leads to community divisions and hierarchies.

Inequality weakens community life, reduces trust and increases violence across populations.

Equality:• Equal treatment for all: The availability of the same

rights, position, and status to all people, regardless of gender, sexual preference, age, race, ethnicity, ability or religion.

• Agreement of equal value• State of being equal: rights, treatment, quantity, or value

equal to all others in a specific group• All individuals need to have equal choices and opportunities

regardless of their ability.

Inclusive practice:

"Inclusion is a process of identifying and breaking down barriers which can be environmental, attitudinal and institutional. This process eliminates discrimination thus providing all children and young people with equal access to play.”

(Play Partnership 2007)

“Is an ongoing process of reviewing and developing practice in order to adjust and celebrate diversity. It is the journey not the destination!”

(EQuality Training 2006)

Equalities Act• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act. • Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. • Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

Values & PrinciplesValues: ‘for all human beings must have some common values or they cease to be human, and also some different values else they cease to differ, as in fact they do’ Berlin, I. 2001, p.12

Principles of inclusive practice: •Equality •Equity •Diversity•Balance•Fluidity•Ethical practice

Chapman, L. 2011, p. 20

Growth and Capacity building

A Tool in Practice:

• Between learner, teaching professionals,

the governing body and community?

• Trust: time and space.

• Growth and thinking.

• Respectful challenge.

Positive & Possible

We can:

Meaningful relationships

Our judgments about almost all social interactions, organisations and communities depend upon our perceptions of the relationships involved.

Professor John West-Burnham

Implications for personal and shared practice?

Personal meaning • What do I understand by

inequality? • How do I promote wellbeing

and health and happiness?• How do I strengthen my own

understanding?• How do I enable others to

grow?• What can I do to take more

responsibility?

Governor understanding • How do we tackle hierarchy?• How do we work together?• How do we value others?• How do we address common

language?• How do we enable our learers?• How do we involve parents and

other groups?• How do we share leadership?

Multi-Agency Teams

• Respect for equality and wellbeing though joined up service and shared resources

• Personal meaning - acknowledge different models• Shared understanding - develop shared language• Leadership - identify management and personal

responsibility

Closing Circle Good bye!

See you again

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