Background

Currently, we see a future for our children and young people where extreme and entrenched income and wealth inequality are seen as problematic, yet an unavoidable consequence of economic growth. Discussions around social mobility embed the belief that the only barrier to success in the UK is a lack of hard work, despite all the evidence that shows this to be untrue. We will build upon our previous work on educational materials (such as the novel Kuan’s Wonderland, the game Economicon, photo series ‘Visualising Inequality‘, our Theatre in Education Resource Guide and our Employment Rights with Young People project), developing new resources to be used in schools and colleges to support teachers and students to question these assumptions when economic inequality is covered in lessons. 

What are we striving to achieve?

• Working with educators, we will develop interventions for different stages and subjects in the school curricula, that seek to change the narrative that the wide range of social harms in our society result from poor individual choices, and challenge the resultant stereotypes that are often developed and embedded at a young age.
• Improvement of resources available for teachers to discuss intersecting socio-economic inequalities and their impacts on society. 
• Develop resources on socio-economic inequality to be used in teacher training.

What impact have we had? 

• Working with Dr Neil Herrington we ran a workshop with trainee teachers at the end of 2018 – to find out what resources are needed. You can access the PowerPoint and output from the workshop [PDF]. 
• In partnership with Bedales, we are facilitating a geography festival focused on inequality. Involving pupils and teachers from schools across London and the South East, we will be running two workshops focussing on the co-production of resources. You can access a wealth of resources by Paul Turner on radical geography – which looks at how geography can play a key role in radical social, political and environmental campaigning. 

Get involved

Please get in touch with Jo, Project Lead if you would like to find out more about getting involved in this project – whether you are a student, teacher or teacher trainer we would love to hear from you! 

Funding and partnership 

This project is being partly funded by Network for Social Change.