What we intend to achieve with this project is to tackle some of the challenges faced by Turkish speaking students including problems relating to low educational attainment, a lack of role models, truancy and exclusion; few are in employment with employers outside their own ethnicity and many are ambivalent about adopting a British identity.
By presenting students and their families with role models and information on the various options available to them in UK educational system, we hope to enable them to look outside their immediate environment and make more informed choices. We also aim to equip and empower students about their rights and responsibilities as British citizens.
The ‘Raising Expectations’ project will commence with 30 interviews with figures that have been successful in their respective fields. These role models will be:
i) Persons that pupils can relate with and potentially be inspired by,
ii) Have received academic or other professional training,
iii) Drawn from a wide range of fields and disciplines (including media, politics, law, art, science, technology, medicine, sports, etc),
iv) Representative of the Turkish speaking community,
v) Raised or lived in the UK for a considerable period.
We believe that promoting the profiles of some of the most prominent figures within the community and making them more visible may help eliminate the cultural and psychological barriers that prevent second/third generation Turkish speaking pupils from achieving their full academic potential. We also aim to raise the overall confidence and awareness in the community, not just amongst secondary school and college students but also their families.
The interviews will be published in the form of a booklet and will be disseminated throughout educational establishments in London. To make it more accessible to a wider audience, the original interviews will be supported with online multimedia material. The second part of the project will consist of a series of networking events in the summer of 2011.
We would like to thank the Big Lottery Fund for supporting and sponsoring this project.
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