Workbased learning and social justice: two examples of practice

1
Work-based learning and social justice two
examples of practice

• Marianne Coleman
• Reader in Educational Leadership and Management,
  Institute of Education

2
Social justice and work-based learning

• (Light and Luckin, 2008, p. 3) define social
  justice as the formal expression that the world
  does not treat all people fairly and that society
  should be made to be fairer. It is a standpoint
  that implies intervention.
• Work-based learning can be defined widely to
  include many work-based interventions, e.g.
  mentoring, or more narrowly as work-based
  qualifications accredited by an institution of
  higher education.
• My focus has been on two types of professional
  development for groups who may be treated
  unfairly.

3
Some driving questions

• Who benefits from work-based learning?
• What is the relationship between work-based
  learning and the diversity of the work-force?
• Can work-based learning remedy inequalities in
  our society?

4
Two examples of work-based learning in the
context of social justice (gender issues)

• Research project funded by WLE at the Institute
  of Education, London) and undertaken during 2008.
  
• The project aimed to identify
• The strategies and processes by which women in
  senior roles sustain and develop their leadership
  abilities and capacities in the work place.
• It included
• Interviews with women most of whom belonged to
  women-only networks secondary head teachers,
  senior women in HE, women consultant surgeons,
  senior women in the City, retail and the media.

5
Two examples of work-based learning in the
context of social justice (ethnicity issues)

• Research project funded by WLE at the Institute
  of Education, London) and undertaken during 2008.
• An evaluation of the longer-term professional and
  personal impact of the course Investing in
  Diversity on two cohorts of Black and Minority
  Ethnic (BME) deputy and assistant head teachers.
• It included
• a questionnaire to all participants (33) and
  interviews with 14.

6
Women-only networks

• Despite social and political changes, women are
  still poorly represented at senior levels at
  work.
• E.g. women are 32 of secondary school head
  teachers, 17 of professors, 6 of consultant
  surgeons, 11 of FTSE 100 board directors.
• Networks at work are often identified with the
  old boys network and linked with male
  privilege.
• A major factor in the establishment of women-only
  networks in the working environment has been to
  counter the perceived advantages that men are
  thought to derive from networking.

7
Women-only networks as work-based learning

• Expressive functions support, induction,
  mentoring and coaching.
• Instrumental functions typified by exchange of
  business cards. Networking for specific business
  ends.
• Anything and everything could happen to a woman
  who connects with another woman in this space.
  She might get a new job, a business tip-off or
  the promise of an introduction to a useful
  contact or she might hear an inspiring story of
  female success, or access advice on how to
  negotiate reduced hours maybe shell come away
  with the name of a reliable babysitter or a good
  plumber. And, more likely than not, shell have
  shared her own experiences, strategies and
  knowledge with other women too. (McCarthy, 2004,
  p. 90).

8
Expressive functions dominate

• I never believed in womens organisations till I
  joined one. You find you can talk in ways that
  are different. There is a sort of camaraderie.
  One is not let down. There is something about
  it. No one believes it till it happens.
• It was like going into a warm bath when I joined
  it.
• Women are honest and open. If Im having real
  trouble a woman will join in and say I had just
  the same thing, but men make out that everything
  is perfect in my school you poor woman.

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Implications for social justice?

• Womens workplace networks make a limited
  contribution to social justice. They attempt to
  educate. They are not overtly feminist. Their
  prime function seems to be support for women in
  the male workplace. Enabling more women to
  reach senior positions may bring further gradual
  change.
• A particular positive quality of the women-only
  networks is that they provide an opportunity for
  speaking honestly and openly in a way that a
  mixed forum does not allow. Women value these
  opportunities which would not be available
  elsewhere.
• Are they supporting the status quo by providing
  such outlets?

10
Investing in Diversity

• Over 1,000 BME London teachers have taken the
  course.
• The course deepens knowledge about how to lead
  differently in diverse cultural, linguistic,
  religious and social contexts by refining the
  existing tools of school leadership to address
  issues of social justice and equity.
• The programme also offers the opportunity for BME
  aspiring leaders to network, do action research,
  work collaboratively and obtain peer support,
  guided by an outstanding team of practitioners
  who are not only cognisant of the barriers to
  promotion that exist for BME professionals, but
  how to overcome them.

11
Impact of the course

• The course prepared me for a bigger wider
  picture of what headship was about. I completed
  the course and came to the realisation that I
  needed a change. I had been in the school for
  too long. I decided I did have the skill sets,
  training and understanding necessary. The course
  de-mystified what headship was about. It wasnt
  that I did not have skills, but that I had low
  expectations, aspirations. It was a cycle of
  deprivation. How could I possibly achieve that
  a headship? It is the messages you acquire,
  they are subtle both from the outside community
  and your own. The messages are about being a
  woman and an Asian. Most Asian women in schools
  are dinner ladies or TAs. In my first job I was
  asked if I was the new dinner lady. There was
  something fighting inside me and I always wanted
  to be doing different things. (Asian woman head
  teacher)

12
Implications for social justice

• The course is a positive intervention providing
  leadership training specifically tailored for
  individuals who may have experienced unfair
  treatment.
• Despite the participants wariness of positive
  or affirmative action they all felt that they
  benefited from sharing their experiences with
  others who have faced similar problems. There
  would appear to be a strong social justice case
  for providing leadership courses specifically for
  BME staff, particularly in the absence of
  structured opportunities to discuss equity issues
  in national leadership programmes.

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Dissemination of Senior Women project

•  
• A bibliography
• http//www.wlecentre.ac.uk/cms/files/projectreport
  s/annotated_bibliography_support_and_development_f
  or_women_senior_leaders_at_work.pdf
•  
• A digest of organizations that support women
• http//www.wlecentre.ac.uk/cms/files/projectreport
  s/digest_of_groups_and_organizations_supporting_wo
  men_in_work.pdf
•  
• A paper awaiting publication on the WLE website 
  Coleman, M. Women only networks four case
  studies.
•  
• A paper given at the 9 July WLE conference within
  the social justice strand and a workshop at the
  ASME conference 16 November.
•  
• Some of the data fed into a book (in press)
  Coleman, M. and Glover, D. Educational Leadership
  and Management Developing insights and skills.
  Open University Press
•  
• A summary of the research was given at the Second
  International Women's Leadership Conference
  Gender and Education 16 - 18 September,
  University of Augsburg.
• Additional funding for a further case study, book
  proposal and drafting of book. Book proposal now
  accepted by Palgrave Macmillan. Proposed book
  title is Women at the top Challenge, Choice and
  Change.

14
Dissemination of IiD evaluation

• An article to be published in a special edition
  of School Leadership and Management February
  2010.  Coleman, M. and Campbell-Stephens, R.
  'Perceptions of career progress the experience
  of BME school leaders'.
• An Occasional Paper written for WLE, but not yet
  on the website.
• A summary of the research in London Digest,
  Spring 2009, produced by the London Education
  Research Unit.
• A paper given at the 9 July WLE conference within
  the Social Justice strand, by one of the founders
  of IiD. The author of this paper is now aiming
  to submit it for publication.
• Some of the data from the project fed into a book
  currently in press Coleman, M. and Glover, D.
  Educational Leadership and Management
  Developing Insights and Skills. Open University
  Press .
• On-going relationship as critical friend with
  members of LCLL regarding future publications.