Developing a new awareness or understanding

An important category in this area involved the participants' development of a new understanding or awareness following particular experiences. For the participants from the South West, the Enquire project led to changes in their understanding of different ways of interacting with people, as the following comments from Jacob illustrate:

it's taught me how to work better in a group and different sorts of people. (Jacob, South West, interview 1)

Well I think it's sort of helped us to take into account that we can't just think about our own ideas, you have to think about other people's ideas and how they think things should fit together. (Jacob, South West, group interview)

For Jacob, the project allowed him to take account of something he hadn't previously considered and offered new insights into ways of working inclusively with other people. Claire articulated a similar process of becoming aware of the positive aspects of working with a variety of different people:

like there's more variety when you work with other people and your idea's not necessarily the best, like when you hear other peoples' ideas and think 'oh yeah, I hadn't thought of that.' (Claire, South West, interview 1)

Claire also expressed the view that taking part in the Enquire project had brought to her attention something new about the nature of group discussions that she had not been aware of in other contexts:

I think I kind of discovered that there's not a right opinion or a right way to do things whereas in class I'd always be like, 'oh, I don't really want to put up my hand, what if it's wrong?' Whereas with that you kind of

realise everyone's in the same boat really. No one's going to be like, 'oh you got that wrong, get out now' (Claire, South West, interview 3)

you just kind of come to accept that you are allowed to make mistakes but also that everyone's opinion is worth something because everyone's worth something as a person so... (Claire, South West, interview 3)

For Claire then, the experience of the Enquire project had altered her understanding of the nature of collective discussion, which in turn led to a new perspective on people's opinions that was linked to their intrinsic value as human beings. The project also had an impact on Craig's understanding of different ways of interacting with people. Whereas Jacob and Claire had become aware of the benefits of working in inclusive ways with other people in terms of fairness, equality and the quality of decision making, for Craig, this new awareness related to the more personal and emotional benefits of such interaction:

So us working in the way we did, it was different to me because I could test different ways of working with other people and find out which ways work better than other and kind of like, you make new friends by doing that. (Craig, South West, interview 2)

Their experiences of the project also sometimes affected the participants' understanding of themselves. This was the case for Claire, who talked about gaining a new awareness of what she was capable of within group discussions:

I think it's given me more confidence probably and the way that you can just give your ideas and things, no matter what people think and just get your word out there and your ideas and how if, how you can just take control of a situation if you can see it's not going anywhere, rather than just kind of think, 'oh, no-one else is saying anything, we'll just like go and... if you know what I mean? (Claire, South West, interview 1)

As well as impacting on the participants' understanding of themselves and their interaction with others, the Enquire project also led to a new appreciation of

different ways of creating art. This is illustrated in the following extract from an interview with Emma:

I think that was really good for art in way cause Laura like taught us to like look at things in different ways and when you're thinking of like what you're going to do for a final piece or anything in the subject it just taught us to look at it in different ways and like approach the problem or approach whatever you want to do do in the like different aspects of it and stuff like that. (Emma, South West, interview 2)

For Jacob too, taking part in the project had led to an awareness of more open ended ways of creating art:

Well I've kind of grown used to being told what to do and how to...well not how to do it but just to do it, and then Enquire came and it was a bit of a shock because we were given the choices of what to do and when to do it. We were given the choice of the subject we wanted to do, how we wanted to do it and sort of...how big, how much of it, that sort of thing. (Jacob, South West, interview 2)

Jacob' reference to the 'shock' of being given choices and the contrast of this to the way in which he had 'grown used to' working illustrates the affect of this experience on his awareness and understanding. Some of the participants from the South West also talked about arriving at a new understanding following their experience of the boycott. For Claire, this involved developing an awareness of the political circumstances affecting her school:

Erm, but no it was just so funny because the newspapers came and [the company], who are the people who own it, they wouldn't let them in because they own the school and so there were all these people outside who had been barred out and then everyone was sort of just like stood on the hill. I don't know, it was just the most surreal thing, it was really funny. (Claire, South West, interview 3)

For Claire, the visual impact of the boycott – the 'surreal' sight of everyone gathered in one place and the press being barred at the gates – led to a new awareness of the political circumstances affecting her school, i.e. the fact that it

was owned by a private company. This experience also made Claire aware of the nature of the school community in a new way:

It was just so strange because it was like literally three quarters of the school just all in the courtyard and there were so many people – I'd never seen like the whole school together as well so it was quite nice how everyone did join in and support it. (Claire, South West, interview 3)

For Claire then, the boycott was an aesthetic experience that led to an altered understanding of herself, her school community and the involvement of both within a wider political and societal framework. The boycott also led to the development of a new awareness for Tommy. Reflecting on whether the boycott was justified or not, Tommy offered the following comments:

Well I thought it was funny. I saw the dinner ladies get quite stressed out about it and they just didn't find it...like they just didn't find it the right thing to do or anything and only a couple of people went in and erm everyone else was sort of outside and like having a go at the people who were actually in there because they were still buying things...But I don't think there was anything that wrong with it. (Tommy, South West, interview 3)

In Tommy's case, reflecting on the boycott involved developing a new awareness of the ethical implications of the students' action, as he deliberated over whether the boycott was justified given the upset it caused to the canteen staff. For the participants in both groups, the transition from school to college was also an occasion for the development of a new awareness or understanding, often in relation to encountering different people. Claire articulated this when she reflected on some of the differences between school and college:

Erm, it's been really interesting because you're just so much part of a community, it's like your little family, you know everyone's names, you know what they're like, you know their groups and that sort of thing, whereas now you're trying to meet new people and you're...you

have...you're thrown into talking to them with no background knowledge of them and it's kind of...I would say its probably more interesting because obviously it's new and you find out new things. (Claire, South West, interview 3)

The participants from the North East also articulated a process whereby they developed a new understanding following their interaction with a wider variety of people at college, and the occurrence of this in more open and unrestricted ways than they had been used to at school. For these participants, the experience of gaining such new insight also had an emotional impact because it challenged the prejudices and stereotypes they held about other people following negative experiences in the past. Leanne's account of her transition from school to college illustrates this:

when I first come to the college I was getting like really intimidated because I was like, 'oh, I'm going to have a hard time here, I'm going to get bullied and they're going to get bullied because of the way they dress and the way they look', and once we got into class, we got our set classes, it was like, 'whoa, everyone's actually getting along and helping each other out and not going, “eugh, you're...what're you wearing?” and “you look like a whatever”' so it's actually opened my eyes to different things because I had all that experience at school with the bullying and I was like, 'oh, it's going to carry on all the way through life' but it hasn't. (Leanne, North East, interview 1)

For Leanne, the experience of moving to college had 'opened her eyes' to new possibilities for interacting with people who were different to her. Rather than seeing this in purely negative terms, Leanne was made aware that interacting with different people could also be a positive and pleasant experience. Encountering people with learning disabilities at college had also challenged Leanne's pre existing ideas and led to a new awareness:

it’s really good because you see them and actually they're, like people think, 'oh, bless, he or she can't do much' but actually they're really really, actually brilliant. They've got a really good like...I mean there's some things obviously they can't do like obviously they'll not be able to

read or write as well as other people but they've actually got good senses. (Leanne, North East, interview 3)

Daniel referred to a similar process of becoming aware of the positive elements of interacting with people who were different to him, following the move to college:

over the year and a half I've learned that everyone's different, they all have different styles which can carry different stereotypes, but those stereotypes aren't correct. Everyone is different, they've all got different styles but everyone's nice, no one's aggressive. (Daniel, North East, interview 3)

For Daniel, encountering different types of people at college was an occasion for having his prejudices challenged and for seeing the possibility of interacting with different people in a new way. However, Daniel also described how his interaction with people at college had led to a new awareness of people's prejudices:

people are like when they get on buses and Muslims get on the bus they get a bit scared because of the London bombings and stuff and I do feel a bit edgy, but I know nothing is going to happen, it’s just like with all the stereotyping and stuff. It just ends up in a big debate about racism and stuff because some people are racist and some people aren't. (Daniel, North East, interview 1)

For Daniel, making a transition from school to college involved changes in his understanding of differences amongst people in both positive and negative ways. At the same time as having his own prejudices challenged, he also became more aware of the existence of prejudice amongst his classmates. The move to college was not the only transition across contexts that led to the development of a new understanding amongst the participants from the North East. Dean spoke about how his involvement in charity work had led to a new awareness of inequalities in the education system:

it taught us that like how different schools can do stuff, it taught us like what life's like at different schools, how schools, like how some schools

are better than other schools, I mean some schools that can afford to put productions on don't work as hard and the ones that can't afford to put productions on. (Dean, North East, interview 1)

For both sets of participants, new experiences had the power to offer the young people new insights and altered understandings of themselves, their communities and the wider issues that impacted on both.