When educational discussions turn to cultural capital, and the gap between pupils who are disadvantaged and their peers, the solutions suggested can be simplistic: providing culturally rich experiences; ensuring no assumptions are made about prior knowledge; and teaching skills that may not be as embedded as you might hope.
But the reality is always more complex, and this is very clear when looking at science in the primary school where I work. The majority of pupils are from affluent, professional families and they arrive already brimming full of cultural capital. In science, many are far ahead in their knowledge and experiences of the subject compared with their disadvantaged peers.
Taking them all to a museum isn’t going to cut it: if anything, because our more affluent pupils have likely already been to the museums we visit beforehand, the gap widens because these children have more to build on to make the most of the experience.
I wanted to address this imbalance and found a potential answer at the Primary Science Teaching Trust conference. There, I was introduced to the “science capital teaching approach” – the culmination of a research project undertaken by Professor Louise Archer and colleagues at UCL Institute of Education and King’s College London.
What is science capital?
The project recognises that many groups struggle to make science relevant to their lives, especially women, working-class pupils and some ethnic minority pupils. All these groups are markedly under-represented in science, an elite subject that “can provide a route to social mobility”, as explained in an excellent downloadable publication (Godec et al, 2017).
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When a pupil is acting up, their motivations are often hidden from view. It’s possible that teachers themselves are partially at fault for setting the wrong tone in their interaction with others, writes Lekha Sharma, who suggests ways to remodel a school culture
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Schools should resist putting additional time and resources into yet more English and maths lessons and instead give children’s learning a research-evidenced boost by encouraging them to join a band or an orchestra, says Martin Leigh
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Predictive technology – powered by increasingly complex algorithms – is finding its way into schools, promising to pre-empt misbehaviour, violence or mental health issues before they happen. But does it work, and is its use ethical, asks Simon Creasey
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In a bid to improve parental engagement, one Edinburgh school is putting parents in their children’s shoes to experience a typical modern school day – and the results are breathtaking, finds Emma Seith
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Do your school policies unintentionally ‘out’ children from disadvantaged backgrounds? One charity says such occurrences are all too common and have proposed ‘poverty proofing’ as the solution. Lucy Edkins investigates
A Plant-Based Diet Of Learning
Aware of the mental health benefits of green-fingered working, Nigel Cox helped to set up an outreach course at his college to support people recovering from substance abuse and other personal challenges
Social And Emotional Skills In The Early Years
Children who are able to focus their attention, manage their behaviour and interact positively with others from a young age experience better learning outcomes later in life, finds Irena Barker
How Centralised Detentions Get Pupils' Attention
By adopting a consistent whole-school approach to rewards and sanctions, we achieved a marked improvement in attitudes to learning – and reduced teachers’ workload, says Calvin Robinson
Homework Truths
With some studies claiming that homework has little or no impact on pupil achievement, schools have been tempted to cut back on it or ban it altogether. But we shouldn’t write homework off, warn two gurus of UK education research. Steve Higgins and Lee Elliot Major argue that the evidence on homework has been misrepresented – and out-of-school study can, in fact, have a major impact on learning outcomes
