• Education research shows that children learn best when their culture, local context and language are reflected in school curriculum. This has been shown to considerably raise aspirations, engagement and a sense of belonging [1]. Today’s Eurocentric curriculum in the UK often doesn’t connect with the lived, cultural and historical experiences of children and young people. Culturally responsive and locally relevant pedagogies allow for the deconstruction of harmful stereotypes and create safer spaces for students to bring in learning experiences from outside the classroom.[2]

• Unconsciously or consciously teachers can have low expectations of pupils based on their cultural or class backgrounds. This is picked up on by students who have been shown to have a high awareness of teacher expectations [3]. Research has shown this has a hugely detrimental effect on pupils and their ability to have the opportunity to flourish and achieve well at school [4]. 

• There are low levels of trust and understanding between some communities and school. The government’s counter extremism Prevent policy has created a significant lack of trust between communities and schools and a sense of fear and alienation among Muslim communities. Between 2017 – 2018  3,197 Muslims were referred to the government’s counter-extremism Prevent strategy [5] - the largest proportion of these were under the age of 15.

• Most schools say that they do not have an explicit plan for how they work with parents, and fewer than 10% of teachers have undertaken training on parental engagement. [6]

• Government cuts of up to 60% to local authority budgets since 2010 mean councils have been forced to sell closed, sold or reduced access to libraries, community and leisure centres and thousands of public spaces for cost-cutting measures. The devastating loss of vital community resources and spaces has hit marginalised communities the most. [7] In this landscape it is important to explore how schools can become community spaces where parents, carers and community members can regularly interact and engage.

[1] Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice (2000)

[2] NYU Steinhardt, Culturally responsive differentiated instructional strategies (2008)

[3] Rubie-Davies, C. (2010) “Teacher expectation and perceptions of student attributes: Is There a relationship?” British Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 121-135.

[4] Tina Craig, Factors That Influence Teacher Expectations of Hispanic, African American and Low-Income Students (2011)

[5] Home Office (2018) “Individuals referred to and supported through the Prevent Programme, April 2017 to March 2018” p.14

[6] Education Endowment Foundation (2018) "Working with parents to support children's learning" p. 6

[7] Davies, R. et al (2019) “Revealed: The thousands of public spaces lost to the council funding crisis”, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism