Blog by Sonia Blandford
If we are in a place and at a time when there has to be a new way of thinking, there has to be recognition of the great things that have come out of initiatives (in health, social care, and education), and indeed, an appraisal of what hasn’t worked and what isn’t working. Rather than repeating mistakes or exacerbating them, there must be a will to change. That will have to come from both sides and is about mutual gain. Mutual gain happens when people, on all sides of the political spectrum, and across all classes and cultures, own the change and have a role to play. So how would it work in education?
What is mutuality?
Perhaps it’s easiest to start by saying what mutuality isn’t. It isn’t pouring money into certain areas of the country without asking the people who live there how they’d like to see money spent – without properly exploring what they need, rather than what others decide they need. And it isn’t about reshaping those areas in the image of the people giving the money. Nor is it about telling everyone they should get better exam results and aim for university. Actually, it includes resisting the urge to make those numbers a test of our social mobility.
Instead, mutuality is about ensuring everyone has the chance to read, write and engage in maths so they have choices – about what they learn, and what they do with that learning. That might be to learn more by going to university, or it might be to learn a trade or to travel the world. Mutuality is about schools and a curriculum that is relevant to their lives and which engages with them, so they can engage with larger society.
We know that when children and young people don’t achieve what they’re capable of achieving, it has a long-term legacy effect on society. This is estimated to cost the UK economy some £77 billion a year. In 2014, 120,000 13-year-olds were at risk of becoming NEETs; this group ‘collectively stand to lose £6.4 billion over their lifetimes’ (Impetus, 2014). These are young people we risk losing track of completely. Extending the school leaving age to 18 has only served to relocate the problem that was experienced at 16 and many who now struggle to stay in education – re-sitting exams and losing what little confidence they have left at a pivotal age when questions about the future are dominant. Whereas, if all children and young people facing economic disadvantage received high-quality early education the gap in achievement could be closed by between 20‐50% (Public Health England, 2016).
Mutuality is giving the other party a voice so they can engage – in a long-term way – with what happens next by working in partnership with others. Mutuality isn’t about rescuing people. It’s about valuing them and allowing them to develop in their own way – where they are now, or where they want to be. The articles in this issue of Every Child are truly inspiring and make us question our own understanding of mutuality. Mutuality is, I believe, social justice and the key to social mobility.
As I moved through teaching, and then onto the wider world of educational practice, I’ve been able to take my childhood experience and to hold onto what it taught me. I am astonished, all this time later, that I still meet children like me who are considered born to fail. And I still meet teachers – good, hard working professionals, overwhelmed and undervalued – who are on their way to hating their job and giving up because they haven’t had the right support to give these children the chance to achieve.