Watch the video of children in a refugee setting talking about what they want to achieve from education and their hopes for the future. You will hear that, despite having experienced very challenging circumstances, young people have many hopes and dreams.

The Ecological Systems Theory can also provide clues about how we can work with the different systems to help children and young people achieve their dreams. Finding ways to take action in different systems to help children learn and realise their dreams is an example of transformative education - in other words, education that brings about change.

Transformative teaching might include changing practice at the microsystem level (e.g. changing your relationship with the child and/or their family). It could also involve thinking about what wider changes are needed at the mesosystem and exosystem levels, e.g.:

• finding out which other agencies and individuals you could work with to support the child who you are concerned about; or

• encouraging changes in policy and practice within different services affecting the child.

Exercise

Read through the lesson plan available in the Downloads section below. It is designed to take around 45 minutes as a classroom activity. Notice that the lesson plan covers several of the learning types we looked at in the Conversational Framework last week (1.8).

• Consider whether this kind of activity would work in your context or how you might need to adapt it. Is there any other support that would be required (for example, a short session to guide learners through a discussion)?

• Now consider what type of activity you might do as a follow-up. For example, you might ask learners to write the message they would like to send to a person in power. Think about what you might do with these messages once children have written them. Who might they be sent to? Or where could they be displayed?

• When you have an opportunity to try out the lesson plan, think about what came out of the lesson and write down your own reflections in your journal. Were there things that surprised you through this exercise? If so, what?

Over to you

In the forum below, share what do you think of this lesson plan, and the suggestions on the Padlet as ways to change your practice at the microsystem level to support your learners’ dreams? Can you use these ideas? How would you need to adapt them in your context?

© UCL and the Inclusive Education Foundation (CoMOOCs Team), CC BY 4.0