60 min Brainstorm #1: Education and the Urban Environment

Draft Minutes

(27 March 2012, 11.00am-12.00pm)

Present: Mike Osborne (Education); Gwilym Pryce (Urban Studies); Robert Docherty (Education); Paul Graham (Politics); Stephen McKinney (Education); Muir Houston (Education); Fiona McGregor (Education);Deirdre Kelly (Education); Kim Lauden (Education); Moira Summers (Education).

Chair: Gwilym Pryce

1. The meeting opened with introductions from those present, describing their background and research interests. (15 mins)

2. We then had a period of open discussion about themes of particular interest to those present, with a particular focus on finding ways to identify research projects that could be investigated by analysing and linking large secondary datasets, such as the Scottish Longitudinal Survey and the British Household Panel Survey/Understanding Society, which could be complemented by rigorous qualitative investigations. (30 mins).

3. In the final phase of the meeting we attempted to tie together a number of the themes which had emerged in the open discussion the goal of identifying a shortlist of plausible projects that had realistic prospects of being developed. It was proposed that these projects would form the subject of email discussions and follow-on meetings in the near future. Four projects/themes were identified:

Theme/Project #1: Mapping and Analysing Household, Urban and School Segregation and Inequality

This project seeks to exploit cutting-edge longitudinal data (such as the SLS) to explore the nature and affects of individual characteristics, household characteristics, neighbourhood characteristics and school characteristics on educational achievement. By separating out these different elements and by identifying the links between them, the goal would be to estimate more robustly the effect that household location has on child performance and life outcomes.

Theme/Project #2: Learning Cities

There was a broad interest in a variety of themes related to what makes a "learning city", understood at multiple levels and what effect this has on the urban and regional economy. For example, what is the role of arts and culture in generating economic vibrancy, by creating a broader social environment that attracts highly skilled and entrepreneurial people who have the capacity to become catalysts for innovation and growth? And to what extent does inequality and urban segmentation undermine the attractiveness of a city for such individuals?

Theme/Project #3: Learning from Dandelions: Understanding the Nature and Drivers of Successful Individuals from Disadvantaged Backgrounds

For the vast majority of individuals, obtaining good academic qualifications (particularly in Maths, English and one or more science) is a pre-requisite for success. This threshold has become all the more binding over time with the decline of manufacturing and skilled trades which in previous generations absorbed large proportions of the unqualified school leaver cohort. This decline has made it increasingly difficult for individuals that fall below this education threshold to find stable and rewarding work over the life-course. Yet, there are exceptions to this rule--so called "Dandelions" -- individuals with few or no qualifications, who also come from deprived neighbourhoods and/or disadvantaged family backgrounds, that nevertheless succeed and flourish in the job market (and in life), against all odds. This project seeks to utilise a combination of qualitative and cutting-edge statistical analysis to deepen our understanding of this particular group. More specifically, we propose identifying such individuals from within the SLS and BHPS/Understanding Society datasets, combined with linked data on the neighbourhood characteristics and segmentation of the individual's origin and subsequent locations, to map out a series of clustered trajectories that will reveal a rich set of details about their characteristics and circumstances. What are the key patterns that emerge in the nature and trajectories of these individuals? What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for Dandelions to emerge and flourish? To what extent can we use the answers to these questions to design novel and cost-effective policy intervention strategies?

Theme/Project #4: Learning from Other Countries

Apparent stagnation in the class structures of British society suggest a dystopian view of the future where individuals that have grown up in areas of entrenched deprivation will reproduce the educational underperformance of parents and lead to successive generations of socio-economic division. At the same time, other countries (particularly developing countries in South America and the Far East) are experiencing and pushing forward rapid change in the educational and urban landscape, pulling millions of people out of poverty and revolutionising educational performance from disadvantaged groups. Meanwhile, Scandinavian countries continue to provide well-established exemplars of how advanced economies can limit social inequality and develop educational and socio-economic systems that have much greater degrees of social mobility and cohesion. This project will seek to draw from a selection of these countries, working with international partners, to identify fruitful ways forward with the specific goal of breaking the link between social/spatial deprivation and educational under-achievement.

4. The meeting concluded with an agreed plan to explore ways of taking these ideas forward:

• We agreed that we would initially encourage a process of email exchanges to add flesh to the bones outlined above.
• We agreed to circulate ideas more widely to ascertain whether there was interest in these topics from other academics in the college.
• Two areas of expertise in particular were highlighted as priorities.
  • Firstly, academic input from Urban Studies was identified as crucial to the success of these ventures (of the ten staff that attended the meeting, only one was from Urban Studies).
  • Secondly, GIS/human geography (mapping the links between segregation and educational achievement in creative and innovative ways was seen as an important way to communicate research outputs and maximise impact).
• It was agreed that specialised/advanced statistical expertise (e.g. from the School of Mathematics and Statistics and/or the AQMeN and Glasgow Social Statistics Groups networks) could be sought once a more detailed description of the proposed projects had been established.

Action Points:

1. Gwilym Pryce to circulate minutes including a description of the four projects proposed.
2. Gwilym Pryce and Mike Osborne to propose and organise subsequent meetings and activities following email feedback.
3. All of those in attendance agreed to email Gwilym to confirm their attendance and provide email addresses, and also to identify whether they want to be included in further discussions and activities around these themes.

5. Date of next meeting: TBC.