In many EU countries, for young people aged 10-17 years, having come into conflict with the law within their country and having been incarcerated, re-offending rates are high, for example, in the UK, the re-offending rate is 67% within one year of release which suggests they are not engaging in education employment and training. Further to this, as many as 9 out of 10 young offenders leave school early, having dropped out in the 6 months or more prior to being incarcerated. This has economic implications, as it costs over £200,000 per year to place a young person in a secure children’s home. Furthermore, this group of people are more likely to become entrenched in the system and become adult offenders. Young offenders are also likely to be marginalised and socially excluded when back in the community, particularly as they are likely to have less training or educational opportunities. This makes employment opportunities more limited. Thus, re-engaging young offenders whilst in custody presents a unique opportunity for resettlement into the community and education on release. However, research has shown that educators in prisons tend to have less qualifications than teachers in mainstream schools. There is also a higher staff turnover and training, which is specific to addressing the multiple needs of young offenders, is limited. Therefore, the aim of this project is to enhance educators’ capability to re-engage young offenders with education and learning whilst in secure custodial settings in 4 partner countries in the EU. This involves training education staff in secure custodial settings to use ‘authentic inquiry’ as an intervention to enrich educators’ repertoires in learning design. Authentic inquiry is an intervention designed to build personally relevant knowledge which is useful in education. The personally relevant topic is identified by the learner, enabling greater opportunity to connect with the learning process. This is done by taking the learners’ interest through their own narratives and stories (personal) and navigating this towards the production of an ‘artefact’ such as a piece of art, poster or other product that has some external educational value (public). In so doing, there is a connecting of the personal to the public. This intervention has been shown to be effective in re-engaging disengaged learners in both the UK and Australia. The project is supported by a digital infrastructure which facilitates learners’ journeys (both education staff and young offenders). The digital infrastructure and its associated tools, enable users to assess progress along their journey, and areas of focus for them as learners. The infrastructure includes a repository for online educational resources and a community of practice for both learners and educators (trainers and education staff). Education staff in secure custodial settings are the main target group of the project. The long term impact of this training could reach hundreds of young offenders (aged 10-17) through the staff training. The project has the potential to reach at least 100 young offenders in the secure settings that are part of this project as the ultimate beneficiary group of the project. Furthermore, up to 40 educators will be trained during the life of the project.
There are as many as one million young people incarcerated across the world at any one time. Whilst the overall number in Europe are falling, those who do enter the youth justice system and particularly those who receive custodial settings tend to be the most troubled young people in our societies. Even when released back into the community the reoffending rate is high, for example, in the UK, 67% of young people reoffend within one year of release. This is evidence that they are not engaged in education, training or employment. This is not surprising when nine out of ten young people who come into conflict with the law and are incarcerated have dropped out of school in the six months prior. School dropout is used as a proxy for disengagement with education and formal learning. If they are disengaged with education and learning, any attempts to present education and learning opportunities is not going to have much success (as shown in reoffending rates). This has economic implications as well as social. In the UK, it costs over £200,000 to house a young person aged 10-17 years in a secure children’s home and as they are less likely to gain meaningful employment they are not likely to contribute to the economy, but rather, cost it. The social implications of this is the more entrenched they become within the system, making it difficult to instigate change as they get older and enter adulthood with little training or formal qualifications. Time in custodial or other youth justice settings is a vital and unique opportunity to invest in re-engaging the young people with education and learning. Doing this successfully means there is greater chance they will engage in education or training opportunities when released. However, there is research which shows how educators in prisons tend to have less qualifications than teachers in mainstream schools. There is also a higher staff turnover and training, which is specific to addressing the multiple needs of young offenders, is limited. Therefore, the aim of this project was to enhance educators’ capability to re-engage young offenders with education and learning whilst in secure custodial settings in 4 partner countries in the EU. This involved training education staff in secure custodial settings to use ‘authentic inquiry’ as an intervention to enrich educators’ repertoires in learning design. Investing in transformative educator training and professional development can have a powerful impact on their learners. Thus, this project uses the same methodology for educators so that they are in a better place to re-engage, inspire and empower the young people they work with. The methodology used in the Renyo project is focused around authentic inquiry which is an intervention designed to draw on personally relevant knowledge (private) and experience in a bid to connect the learner to a formal curriculum (public). The personally relevant topic is identified by the learner, enabling greater opportunity to connect with the learning process. This is done by taking the learners’ interest through their own narratives and stories (personal) and navigating this towards the production of an ‘artefact’ such as a piece of art, poster or other product that has some external educational value (public). In so doing, there is a connecting of the personal to the public. This intervention has previously been shown to be effective in re-engaging disengaged learners in both the UK and Australia and now Italy, Spain and Germany (albeit to differing extents, due to culture and attitudes). The project had four Intellectual Outputs. The first Output (IO1) was the foundation of the project, developing the resources and training materials, and delivered Master Training. The second Output (IO2) built on this where Master Trainers trained educators on the principles of authentic inquiry, developing a Guidance Document and Report to support educators in their own experience of authentic inquiry. The third Output (IO3) involved the educators directly working with young people in conflict with the law in both custodial and community settings. During this, qualitative and quantitative data were collected for feedback on improving the materials but also as data for Output 4. Output 4 involved the analysis of all data collected and for this to be reported as an academic paper which is submitted to the European Journal of Education. During the life of this Renyo project 112 educators have been trained and 80 young people were directly involved in the authentic inquiry intervention. Over 230 stakeholders were engaged through the project multiplier events and over 5,000 people reached through Facebook. A significant potential of continued impact through the educators, the young people, the partner organisations, the website, the academic paper and subsequent projects is expected.