Jane Carter | Education blog

Thursday 16 January 2025 saw the successful launch of a children’s exhibition at Bristol Cathedral, funded by a Higher Education Impact Fund (HEIF) bid and also the Early Childhood Research Group (ECRG), who funded the event’s refreshments, with a focus on the understanding of the value of tolerance and how this could be applied to a significant Bristol event, the toppling of the Colston statue.

We began the project with the European organisation, Children’s Identity and Citizenship Education (CiCe) network. CiCe had secured funding from the European Union to focus on citizenship education with a focus on the stated European values. We led the working group researching the value of tolerance from differing perspectives and applying the value to a range of sensitive and often controversial historical issues in each country of the working group. We worked with colleagues from Belgium, Romania, Greece, Estonia and Scotland to create a book for teachers to support the teaching of tolerance. The project was aligned and promoted by the Childhood, Children and Young People and Equity in Education strands of the ECRG.

Tolerance is a British Value (DfE, 2012) and also a European Value (European Commission, 2024). However, it is an underdeveloped aspect of the curriculum, in part because it is a contested, complex and so problematic area for teachers to navigate. Research by Whitehouse (2024) and Kitson and McCully (2016) has highlighted that many teachers actively avoid the teaching of controversial issues in relation to tolerance. Pettigine, Whitehouse and Carter (2024) brought together a set of distinctive perspectives on the issue – philosophical, theoretical and pedagogical. This approach enabled the development of a unique scheme of work that supports teachers to negotiate this area.

With HEIF funding, we recruited five Bristol schools to trial the lessons and to collaborate on developing the activities to match the specific contexts of each school. Whitehouse’s (2024) work on teaching controversial issues also informed the development of the project. Activities included: exploring a definition of tolerance as well as looking at definitions created by UNESCO, diamond nine discussions, drama, photo elicitation activities as well as teacher subject knowledge support to ensure children’s debates were supported by teachers planned interjections. Children were encouraged to analyse sources and consider viewpoints on the creation of the Colston statue, the work of Colston and the toppling of the statue. This work resulted in the children discussing and debating different perspectives and the impact of the Bristol Slave Trade and its legacy. Children produced writing, drawings, card sorts and discussion pieces, all of which were displayed at the cathedral.

The launch event included a talk by Jen Reid, a leading member of Bristol’s anti-racist movement, who engaged children in reflecting on their learning and on the legacy of the slave trade and current anti-racism approaches. Robert Short performed a number of spirituals that reflected the resistance of slaves.

Jen Reid, activist, with children from Ashton Gate Primary at the launch of the ‘Tolerance’ exhibition at Bristol Cathedral

Teachers and children said how inspiring the work had been and also have maturely children had managed to debate the issues, respectfully listening to the differing viewpoints expressed. The collaboration with the Cathedral has been a foundation of the launch event, with schools now coming to the Cathedral for workshops with the Cathedral Education Officer, Rebekah Guy.

Did you know you can change a life? Changing a life is easy.

Bristol Inter-disciplinary Group for Education Research | 10 December 201810 December 2018

Changing a life is easy.

Start by watching this short film.

Changing a life is as simple as sharing a book with a child. This is the message that has engaged and enthused a team of librarians, academics, family workers and local authority education specialists from across five European cities who are part of the Erasmus Plus project ‘Open the Door for Reading’

There is a growing body of research that provides the evidence about the benefits of reading aloud to a child: whether you are a parent, caregiver, teacher or from a whole host of professions working with children and families. The research by Shahaeiana et al (2018) offers a comprehensive overview of the benefits,

Results indicated that early shared reading was associated with children’s academic achievement directly and indirectly through receptive vocabulary and early academic skills. Also, the frequency of early shared reading predicted the outcome measures, over and above other home learning activities. Associations were stronger among low and middle socioeconomic status groups compared to the high socioeconomic status group. We conclude that shared reading offers unique opportunities for adults to teach young children new words and concepts

Gothenburg, in Sweden had for some time been troubled by the apparent decline in caregivers reading to and with children, and the city embarked on an initiative to promote reading – to be “The City Where We Read for our Children”. Their research had suggested that only four in ten parents read with or to their child.

To develop the project further Gothenburg applied for Erasmus Plus funding for the ‘Open the Door for Reading’ Project launched with cities that had a similar focus: Turku in Finland; Brussels in Belgium; Milan in Italy and Bristol. Each city faces particular challenges and has similar issues with families who have traditionally been harder to engage in education or social services. Details of the project can be found on the website. The cities have met three times now and have learnt from the practice in each country. Exciting ideas like cloakroom libraries in Gothenburg; bedtime story book shelves in early years settings in Turku and using UWE teacher training students to read with children in Bristol have ignited the imaginations of participants. Gothenburg also shared the short film linked at the start of this piece. It was produced to promote reading to caregivers. It is a powerful reminder of the impact of reading for both the child and the caregiver.

The Bristol team, Debbie Miles and Cerys Stevens (Reading Recovery Teacher Leaders), Kate Murray (Head of Libraries) and Jane Carter have been working on the projects’ output: a practitioners’ guide to supporting caregivers with reading. This guide is full of practical ideas and tips for non-education focused professionals in ways to encourage first steps in communication around a text. It is hoped that midwives, social workers, family workers and early years professionals will become ambassadors for reading in the knowledge of its life changing effects.

The team is also now trying to gather support for a Gothenburg style initiative in Bristol and has begun to plan ‘Bristol, a reading city’. The city’s councillors are interested in the project as are many stake holders who attended a first meeting a few weeks ago to plan possible first steps in the project. Representatives came from local businesses, charities, city council services (Early Years; Family Support), the museum, libraries and schools. We are currently exploring funding avenues and hope to establish the first Bristol Cloakroom libraries along with community reading ambassadors. I am planning for UWE students to be involved in this exciting initial step and with the ‘Bristol a Reading City’ when funding is secured. Watch this space!

Author: Dr Jane Carter, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Education and Childhood, the University of the West of England.

Jamie, joy and learning to read

Bristol Inter-disciplinary Group for Education Research | 12 June 201822 June 2018

You may have heard the expression “never work with children or animals” and having been a primary school teacher and now a lecturer in Primary Education I have always felt that this is rather an unfair maxim. From my experience, it is often children that offer a more insightful view of the world we have created rather than the adults who created it. Children are able to reflect on the world from their unique vantage point, unburdened by big picture pressures of the big ‘p’ and small ‘p’ politics of daily life: the politics of party political education policy and its ramifications in schools and classrooms. However, working with children does offer an element of unpredictability, surprise and unplanned for diversions – and perhaps this is what the expression is hinting at. As a researcher at UWE Bristol, these are the qualities that make researching with children so powerful and engaging.

I have just completed my Doctoral studies researching the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check and drawing on the voices of teachers and children to evaluate the Check in its widest sense. Kushner identified evaluation as a social service and the data that it generates as representing “the people – their hopes, fears, aspirations and failures.” Children, in their open and generous responses provided just this and so giving a momentary insight into the world of children aged 5 and 6, in Year 1.

One child, let’s call him Jamie, left a particular impression. The struggle to become a reader was etched on his face and clearly, reading was a real challenge. In fact when introducing the research to the children and asking if they were happy to be part of it, he immediately volunteered “I’m no good at reading, it’s really hard,” suggesting he was therefore not suitable to be part of such a research study. Jamie repeated through the session that the only way to get better was to practice – every day. His ideas of perseverance and practice seemed to be, in part, repeated tropes from teachers and parents. He offered this as the way to learn to read but without any joy or delight in the process or even a sense of any satisfaction in the final destination. Jamie knew reading was important: he made this clear – he mentioned the need to read as an adult, to get a job, to find your way “around London” as he put it. Jamie seemed to have internalised a fear of not being able to read and a keen knowledge that his friends could. Jamie expressed how he was not as good as others at reading and his face seemed to express how tired he was by this constant ‘practice’ that he seemed to suggest was his ‘lot’ for some time to come. Jamie, whilst being only six was no longer a primary school child but, as described by his teachers, ‘a student’ ripe for intervention. How is it that this term ‘student’ has come to be used with reference to all school aged children where once it was only used to identify learners at University? Have we lost the fact that Jamie is a child and that he won’t recapture these years as a child at primary school?

Jamie expressed an almost treadmill approach to developing as a reader – learning sounds; being tested on sounds; reading allocated books; moving through the book levels until one day in the future moving to that enviable position of being a free reader. Each step will be marked out by daily practice. Not only that, but Jamie expressed what seemed to be an ‘obstacle race’ view of the process – adults putting unnecessary additional hurdles in the way of the drudgery. “We have to read alien words,” he said – words that don’t make sense to children “only aliens”. Lucy piped up at this point to correct him:

“Miss Honey said that, um they are just to help you with your sounds they are not for any other use they just help with sounds – um, a bit of a waste of time.”

These children are taught by fabulous teachers who inspire and enthuse their classes and there were many children that reflected this as part of my research. It is the voice of Jamie though that is the voice that sticks with me. In the introduction I talked about the warning that you should “never work with children or animals” and Jamie is perhaps one of those children, not because he is difficult or disruptive but because of the uncomfortable truths he expresses. Yes, we do want to teach Jamie to read and for some children, like Jamie, it won’t always be easy. However we do need to learn how best to make this a joyful process and one that doesn’t become so focused on the mechanics of practice that we lose sight of the child ‘in the student’.

Jane Carter ,Senior Lecturer in Primary Education

Tag: Jane Carter

Successful launch of the ‘Tolerance’ children’s exhibition at Bristol Cathedral

Did you know you can change a life? Changing a life is easy.

Jamie, joy and learning to read

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