'Performing against the odds: how working class kids succeed in education'

'Performing against the odds: how working class kids succeed in education'

Presenter: Iram Siraj-Blatchford (PhD) is Professor of Early Childhood Education at the Institute of Education, University of London and Partner Investigator on the E4kids study. Her recent research projects have included: Evaluation of the Foundation Phase across Wales and she is a principal investigator of the major DCSF 15-year study on Effective Preschool, Primary and Secondary Education (EPPSE 3-16) Project (1997-2013) and of the influential Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years project (REPEY). She is a specialist, early years advisor to governments and ministers in the UK. Iram is the President of the British Association for Early Childhood Education and is currently an Honorary visiting professor at the Universities of Melbourne, Hong Kong IEd and Swansea.

Time: 10:00am - 11.30am

Date: Friday 5th August, 2011

Venue: Theatre B (Room 129), Ground Floor, Old Arts Building, The University of Melbourne - Parkville Campus (map ref:149, G14)

Abstract: This seminar is based on a sub study of the influential EPPSE study. The Effective Provision of Pre-School, Primary and Secondary Education (EPPSE) research has provided a large scale, longitudinal, mixed-method study that has followed the progress of 3000+ children from the age of 3 to 16 years and will continue to do so up to their start in higher education or the workforce. A continuing question for EPPSE was whether pre-school, compulsory education or children's home learning experiences (HLE) could reduce inequality. While the study found that parents' SES and levels of education were significantly related to child outcomes, it also found that the quality of the HLE was important: it was what parents did that was more important in terms of the children's outcomes than who they were (Melhuish et al., 2001). In this seminar I report on 50 qualitative Child and Family Case Studies (CFCS) that were conducted to extend our understanding of how child, family and school factors and experiences interact and contribute to the achievement of children in school.

RSVP/Registration: e4-kids@unimelb.edu.au by Wednesday 3rd August as space is limited