4 Case studies and practical applications

SIYA MNGAZA

So what we can see from Soraya’s case is a real pattern of dehumanisation that ends up shrinking Soraya and extinguishing her light. So adultification within this context is when neutral behaviours and, in the case of Soraya, commendable behaviours-- having a voice, being confident, advocating for oneself and others-- are viewed through a racist lens as being too much or being overbearing. Children have-- it manifests in the classroom, within this case, works through adultification. So those behaviours that Soraya was attributing-- the behaviours that Soraya was presenting-- so being confident and having a voice-- were interpreted through this particular lens.

In terms of the impact on children, we do have studies about the way that racism impacts a child’s psychology. And so there have been studies around microaggressions. So we can think about a child consistently being told that what they’re doing is wrong or their responses are not correct or the way that they’re responding is not correct as a chip, chip, chipping away. And the research around microaggressions tells us that it leads to a sense of low self-esteem. So children end up internalising these interactions that they’re having within the classroom.

Another impact of racism in this way through adultification on children is hypervigilance. So when we think about what a hypervigilant mind is like, a hypervigilant mind is constantly thinking. It’s constantly ready to receive information from the immediate environment. That’s not necessarily the best place for deep learning. So it has a very real impact on learning capacity for children too.

If you have a child who has a voice and who is confident and you are interpreting that in a neutral way, the implications are you’ll give them more of a voice. You’ll know what their strengths are. You’ll give them opportunities to exhibit those strengths.

I think that the implication for Black children is that something is being extinguished there. And the potential to grow those attributes gets lost. So I think that it’s about a child’s actual developmental opportunities being reduced through that interpretation.

What I actually have a lot to say on this. So I hope it’s not a really long answer. So I think that the way that language was used within that case was really interesting. Because to me, language is the mechanism that sustains racism. It sustains adultification. And it sustains misogynoir. So describing Sorayah as dominant or intimidating or as too much, it reinforces that stereotype of a Black woman being too much.

And similarly, when we think about Black boys, the language that we might be expecting are things like aggressive or unruly or overbearing. And so this language has the impact of reducing the freedom that that young Black person has. It reduces the amount of grace that a young person is given to be a child, to make mistakes, to take risks.

We know that risk taking is one of the key things that supports children to learn. If Black children can’t take risks, how are they developing? And what are they learning about themselves as a growing person?

What do they know about taking risks? And what do they know about being a human? If they’ve had a very linear experience of it because of this type of language, then we’ve got a lot of work to do in adulthood to unpick all of that. And so I think it’s about thinking about the whole lifespan also.

And finally, on language, a lot of what we do as educational psychologists is construct picture portraits of children in our reports. We also receive information about children through requests for involvement that used to be called referrals. And the language that is used on these requests for involvement is often very, very telling.

And so the first thing that I’m often doing when I receive a request for involvement if it is concerning or if I feel that I’m picking up on stereotypical language or language that tells me that there might be some adultification lens happening, I’m having a conversation about what those experiences and expectations are about my role. So I’m supporting them to understand, I’m not going to collude about the view of this child as being aggressive. What I can do is work with you to understand the context of what’s going on for that child in the classroom and give a view about a holistic, whole person that we’re kind of dealing with here. So I think language is really important not only in the way that we describe children but also the way that we write about children too.

So I feel that there are a couple of layers to this. One is looking at school data. One of the schools that I work with who have thought about the way that racial inequities impact the children in their school-- and they’ve done this really well-- is by looking at their data, and exploring the ways in which children are attaining or not attaining across the curriculum, looking at exclusion statistics, looking at data. So where are the patterns? And what is your data telling you about your school community? And who is benefiting? And who is being disadvantaged?

The other thing that I think is really key is exploring the language that is used within behaviour policies. So a colleague of mine and then later me were able to look at the ways in which language can be incredibly punitive. Sometimes, if you look at a behaviour policy, you might think that it was written in the early 1900s due to the way that children are spoken about within these policies.

So going through policy with a fine-tooth comb to think about, is this fit for purpose? Is this me in a modern context of schooling? And is this policy informed by what we know about child development?

Is it trauma-informed? Are we thinking through the ways in which children’s behaviours might be communicating a need to us? So exploring policy with a fine-tooth comb is something that I always advocate for for senior leadership and using your aligned professionals. Many schools have an educational psychologist or other professionals that they have relationships with that can support them in policy development.

I think that another thing that’s key is looking at policy development and being intentional about infusing anti-racism through policy. And then finally, I think in terms of what we can do as external professionals working with schools is thinking about, how do we put our advocacy hat on? So something that I’ve thought through often is that I have a relationship with the school that needs to be protected.

Often, though, you have to put the advocacy of the child before that. And I’ve been really fortunate in that I’ve worked in a service that has always encouraged me to put the advocacy hat before thinking about maintaining, for example, a financial relationship with a school. The child has to come first. And when we’re thinking about discrimination of Black children, knowing that I’m within a setting that is encouraging that from me and that expects that from me is really key. So I think for external professionals, thinking about the values of the services that you work within is really important too.

I think that parents and educators-- I think it’s really hard on parents when they can see that this is happening and the school cannot see it or will not come on board with accepting that this is happening. It’s a really lonely experience for parents. So I think that in terms of educators, it’s about arming ourselves with an understanding about what adultification can look like. It’s about understanding the nuances of what that may look like in practice.

So as one sort of example, I was working with a family where they did not feel that their child’s mental health was being taken seriously. And naming adultification became the piece of work that I did with the family and with the school. But it’s a longer process. It’s a challenging process to help a school to understand what this is, A, and that B, a child is experiencing this within your setting.

So I think there’s a willingness that educators need to have to go there. I think we need to be really purposeful in the way that we use our language. And also, I think that there needs to be a sense of compassion, mainly for parents in particular, to help them feel validated and to help them feel understood. And then there needs to be some form of ongoing learning process for that education setting too.

So we’ve named adultification. We’ve identified it. What do we do now? And what does that look like in terms of your new recruits as teachers, your CPD days? Are you learning about adultification? Are you buying in expertise to help your staff body understand that this is a thing and how to spot it?

And are staff feeling well enough? Is there enough going on for staff wellbeing where they’re able to explore some of these things? It’s an emotional process, I think, especially for educators who are not Black and who have not had that experience to go on that anti-racist journey. Are they within the place where they can do that safely? And then in terms of our Black educators, are they getting the support, the supervision, the space to unpack the experiences that they have as Black educators around adultification?