Breaking the Cycle of Educational Alienation: A Multi-Professional Approach- by Richard Williams and Colin Pritchard

Abstract

217. Maidenhead: Open University Press. 2006. £18.99 (pbk), £55.00 (hbk). ISBN 0 335 21917 9 (pbk), 0 335 21918 7 (hbk).Children growing up in the United Kingdom suffer greater deprivation, worse relationships with their parents and are exposed to more risks from alcohol, drugs, early smoking and unsafe sex than in any other wealthy country in the world, according to a recent Unicef study ( Report Card 7, Child Poverty in Perspective: an overview of child well-being in rich countries (2007)). If educators and all those concerned with the well-being of young people really want to ensure that 'Every Child Matters' then the starting point seems to be discouraging. Moreover, many children who are truants or who become excluded from school have inherited a sense of educational alienation from their parents.Despite this context, Richard Williams and Colin Pritchard have written an authoritative and optimistic book showing how it is possible -with hard work, resources, professionalism and patience -to break the cycle of educational alienation. The backcover blurb describing the text as 'groundbreaking' is deserved. The authors describe and evaluate a highly successful initiative in neighbouring primary and secondary schools with severe socio-economic disadvantages, which, in conjunction with a school-based social work service, developed effective family-teacher-community alliances. It is studded with all too real individual case studies of young people seeking hope and support in troubled circumstances. As a PGCE course tutor I will make this text essential reading for all beginning teachers on my course. Anyone concerned with the education or welfare of young people will benefit from reading it.The text is fully grounded in the research literature on social inclusion. The evidence synthesised on the cycle of educational alienation in Chapter 2 is sobering and persuasive (e.g. Smith and Farrington, 2004;Flouri and Buchanan (2004)). In Chapter 3 Colin Pritchard then draws upon his own research over a twenty-year period to draw conclusions in relation to behaviours such as truancy, binge drinking, smoking, drug-taking and early sexual activity. He repeated a survey originally completed in 1985, of 'normal' Year 10 and 11 secondary students to compare today's adolescent behaviour with that of their 'parents' of 20 years ago. A questionnaire was sent out to 10 schools along the south coast with 824 pupils aged 14 to 15 completing it in 1985 and 854 pupils of the same age completing it in 2005. The findings by no means represented all bad news. There is clear evidence that schools, contrary to the picture portrayed in the media, are engaging boys more effectively. Perhaps unexpectedly, the 2005 youngsters have less problematic behaviour than the 1985 cohort, and even with the problematic behaviour -drugs, drink and sex -this is still a minority activity. Nevertheless, the consumption of alcohol is up for both genders. And a marked feature is the 2005 girls behaving badly. Girls now smoke and binge drink more than boys. They ...