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Teaching English in the Youth Justice System
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This seminar explores some of the key issues facing practitioners and policy makers in the teaching of English for those within the youth criminal justice system.
Karen Chouhan: 1) Barriers to teaching
The event aimed to inspire and engage practitioners and policy makers and to facilitate networking and the sharing of ideas. The discussion is aimed at those with an interest in the intersections between education, especially the teaching of English, justice and youth.
The rationale for the focus of the seminar can be found in the abstract produced by Karen Chouhan, who delivered the seminar:
Teaching ESOL in a Young Offenders Institute is stressful but probably not as stressful as being young, probably quite recently in England, in a very different cultural setting, with little or no English and maybe illegal - and in prison. Here the young people often face discrimination and abuse but will not or cannot talk about it. For the teacher it is sometimes frustrating sometimes heartbreaking. Many times rewarding, many times funny. Always interesting.
The event provided a space for those with experience or interest in the theme of teaching English in the youth criminal justice system to hear from opinion formers, contribute to the debate and be present at the creation of a new and sustainable network, with specific focus on the challenges faced by teachers of English.
The overlap between youth, justice and education issues were explored as well as the intersections between these policy areas, surface questions around the relationships between policy makers and practitioners and lines of responsibility for delivery, quality assurance, strategy and delivery.
You can read a report of the event below.
Further thought-provoking discussion of these areas can be found in Mike Waldron's EnglishAgenda blog posts.