Cultural Capital and Curriculum Remixing

As I have now run my first week or two of the Haggerston Cultural Capital Go game. I have posted below some of the interview / focus groups I had with students after the event to see if they thought it was useful or valuable and if they did indeed feel that it had made them aware of the need for more background knowledge.  "Very interactive" Students agreed that they were engaged more with the displays as a result. They also suggested ways in which this technology could be used by their subject teachers, which shows that they are aware of the possibilities for this interaction. "When we did our blogs.. it (the app) helped a lot "If you made it more specific to lessons then we would definitely go and find them" "the treasure hunt brought it back to games when we were young which was fun" Improvements:  Students thought that staggering the release of them out would be a good idea and that they could be linked to questions about this person...

So for my final staff interview I have interviewed Rachel Ray-Chouduri who is the Head of Expressive Arts, Assistant Head Teacher and Lead Practicioner for the Teaching and Learning Faculty! Do our students have Cultural Capital? "When I first started at Haggerston (15 years ago) there was a huge gap, especially in the Arts" "In the arts there is a history out there (that is impossible to teach) that makes their vocabulary their understanding and their connections so much easier (if they knew about it)". Ray interestingly highlighted the recent change in the demographic of our school due to gentrification of Hackney and the explosion of the arts in Shoreditch and East London: "What we have now is that we have a different type of middle class young person due to their culturally knowledgeable parents "(what i was used to was) trying to teach drama to people who had never been to the theatre" "the head of music used to teach music whe...

Hannah is the Head of Sixth Form and member of the Senior Leadership Team at the school. She is also a subject teacher in Psychology and Maths. Do students lack cultural capital?  "Yes some of our students, and not just our students but my experience in previous schools,  they know a lot about the now and different strands of culture and celebrity culture, but its often historical references they lack". Is cultural capital useful?  "it might be that the only use it serves is to enable them to move on to the next level (in society)" Hannah also explained using an example around the topic of conformity on the psychology curriculum that Cultural capital is useful in the contextual sense around historical time periods. How are we tackling background knowledge in the sixth form currently: - Giving wider reading - Prior knowledge needs to be considered as part of the curriculum in the planning stage. Has the curriculum changed?  "(Maths) Its harde...

Interview with former Literacy Coordinator, Lead Practitioner in the Teaching and Learning Faculty member, Homework coordinator, English teacher and long serving teacher (since 1997) at Haggerston School; Nancy Matthews. Is there a Gap between student knowledge and what they are expected to know? "Yes!... it becomes very obvious when you teach a student with cultural capital.. they stand out" Nancy exemplified her point of view through a student she taught who gained their cultural capital : ..Through parents jobs, political leanings, reading culture at home led to students having a huge advantage when it came to analysing a text for context. ....Many of our EAL students experience issues because at home their talk is all in other cultures... Nancy talked about the positive impact of the old AQA anthology 'poems from other cultures' and the way in which this opened up a cultural dialogue for many EAL students and students from a wide range of backgrounds. ...

This student interview is with an extremely high achieving student who many teachers would consider to be one who definitely has 'cultural capital'. He is from a very well educated family of Irish/ British heritage. Interestingly this student feels that their cultural capital is "a bit unfair" Why is having cultural capital an advantage?: When referring to feminist texts and the issues around them the student points to examples of how reading the guardian has helped him understand the wider context to books he read in English. "I have an advantage for whom my parents are.. they both went to oxford and are both knowledgeable guardian readers" He also pointed to the experience of reading from a very young age.. but also points out how he is "ignorant of a lot of popular culture" so feels he has gaps in his knowledge here. The only thing he watches on TV however is Eurovision! Its not clear whether this can be considered 'cultural ca...

4 more students this time, from a range of backgrounds, 2 males and 2 females. 3 are from working class Irish and British backgrounds and 1 is from a middle class Indian household. The students are all fairly high achieving in  terms of their GCSE grades and AS level target grades. Findings:  1 student had visited an Art gallery in the last week and saw some usefulness in going One student identified going to cultural places as useful in that: "I think it can give you context to the things you are studying" However she quickly realised that "its not really a priority" although she expressed a willingness to go to these places if she had the time. Internet changes:  "Art galleries and theatres are outdated.. you can find films on your phone" "I think students get the wrong culture too easily" (because of the internet) "The reason people use the internet (for access to culture) because its accessible" Do you have cultu...

Justin Harvey - Head of R.E at Haggerston School: Overall comments highlight these areas:  - R.E: students bring significant prior knowledge due to the demographic make up of our school (most families are Muslim or Christian). Syllabus changes: KS4 - The new spec is nowmore traditionalist, liturgical and textual background of the new course. Students who are actively religious and visit places of worship might have a greater advantage. A third unit at KS5 gives a priority to a set of scholars from a historical christian background. The New specification moves the knowledge away from contemporary issues and prioritises lists of key texts and scholars. There are pre-identified religious texts that students must know about. Many students will have gone through the learning of texts before, pedagogically they will have an advantage in that they are used to learning religious texts already before they approach the exam and the course.