WHAT’S YOUR EDUCATION STORY?

At a personal level, we all understand the power of education and its role in shaping our own lives. As well as schooling, most reading this will also have benefitted from tertiary education and most likely went to university - and possibly more than once.

Some of us would have been the first in our immediate or extended family to have gone to university – I certainly was. However while for me, a narrative as a working class boy from a remote Scottish island overcoming the odds is not exactly false, it’s only one part of my education story; for me this ‘overcoming the odds’ narrative overplays the significance of rationale decision-making, hard work and courage, and underplays the critical importance of education being valued by some in my life, friendships and ‘escaping’ to Glasgow with a group of friends, savings from a very lucrative summer job in an oilrig fabrication yard, serendipity or luck, and subsequently the support of my wife.

Unlike most in out-of-home care I also had the benefit of completing my schooling, and not having to regularly move around or deal with early trauma, disability or racial discrimination etc.

What’s your education story? And:

1.        How have your personal experiences shaped your beliefs, assumptions, and attitudes towards education and learning?

2.        How do these personal experiences support your approach towards education and learning for children and young people in out-of-home care? Do they ever hinder?

3.        What do you understand about education pathways that are different to the one that you took?

4.        How do you see the long-term futures of the children and young people you and your organisation work with?

It is my very clear belief that education and learning has the potential to transform the lives and outcomes of those in out-of-home care. Are you and your organisation sufficiently leveraging that potential?

I’d love to hear your thoughts! You can email me at: iain@betteroutcomes.co.nz

Kia kaha (Stay Strong).

Iain