Considering the whole child in Chess in Schools and Communities

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Considering the whole child in Chess in Schools
and Communities

• CISCONN (Chess in Schools and Communities
  International Conference), University of Aberdeen
• Janet Shucksmith
• Professor in Public Health
• University of Teesside
• 30 August 2007

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Outline

• Research on chess in schools and communities
  the pressure to impress funders
• Considering the whole child
• Opportunities for involvement in school life
• A role for chess as part of the curriculum?
• Chess as after school activity?
• Can chess improve childrens agency?
• Ethical issues in researching children and chess
  in schools

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Research on chess in schools and communities

• Characterised by evangelical fervour and
  enthusiasm rather than systematic endeavour
• Relatively small amounts of work subjected to
  peer review
• Emphasis on cognitive gains or skill development
  in order to lever investment

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Considering the whole child

• ..many agencies in addition to mental health
  services have a part to play in minimising the
  cost to the individual and society of the impact
  of childhood psychiatric disorders, including
  interventions not directly aimed at improving
  mental health. Schools in particular have a huge
  role to play in the promotion of mental health
  and are an obvious vehicle through which to
  deliver universal programmes aimed at promoting
  important coping skills and enhancing access to
  social support.
• (Ford et al 2007, p 18)

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Considering the whole child
From Lancet April 14 2007. Patel et al
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Considering the whole child
From Lancet April 14 2007. Patel et al
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Considering the whole child
From Lancet April 14 2007. Patel et al
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Involvement in school life?

• Evidence that children and young people feel
  fully involved in school life?
• Long tradition of ethnographic studies in
  education have shown reverse, e.g. Corrigan 1979,
  Willis 1977, Woods 1979, Pollard 1985, Sherman
  1996
• Schools perceived as alienating certain groups,
  some of whom survive by developing various
  strategies of minor or major subversion at
  secondary level

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Involvement in school life?

• Primary schools also facing same dilemma
• Teacher in Christensens and James (2001) study
  talked about what he felt schooling was for at
  this stage
• ..opening up avenues for them for later life..I
  have pupils who come back to me after
  years..often theyve forgotten the Maths lesson
  or the English lesson but theyve remembered the
  drama production, the trip or the sport..
• While stressing that, in his view this was a
  very, very important part of primary education,
  he saw it as increasingly at risk, owing to what
  he described as the press of standards,
  standards, standards

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Involvement in school life?

• Same study asked what is schooling like for
  children?
• Children saw themselves as having little or no
  control over how to spend time at school who to
  sit by, what to wear, who to talk to, when to
  talk, when to go to the toilet, who to work with
  , what work to do
• Echoed in Blatchford 1998, Pollard et al 1994
• Childrens boredom at school exemplified in
  diaries and accounts
• Pollard et al 1994 make the point that it is not
  work per se that children object to, but the type
  of work and way of working, over which they see
  themselves as having little control or choice

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A role for chess in the curriculum?

• As part of the curriculum or as an after school
  activity?
• Does incorporation into the curriculum brings
  with it same overtones of compulsion, or is it
  different because of game element?
• Does it offer different ways of constructing
  power relations between adult and child?

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Chess as an after school activity?

• Voluntary, rather than compulsory
• Children more likely to have agency about when
  they play, who they play etc, although after
  school activities becoming increasingly
  circumscribed by adults
• But also less likely to involve all children
  without serious effort by development workers or
  other staff
• After school activities still a liminal area?
  Links with families an added bonus

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Can chess improve childrens agency?

• Moreno's approach emphasizes the game's social
  side, using it to reach kids of all backgrounds.
  His book Teaching Life Skills Through Chess
  explains that teachers and mentors can "use the
  game to help students, youth and parents grow."

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Can chess improve childrens agency?

• His basic premise, to use chess as a metaphor for
  life, assumes that the situations encountered in
  chess are similar to those faced in daily life.
  He explains that, in both chess and life,
  individuals find themselves confronted with "a
  specific position, where you have to make a
  decision to increase your chances to have a
  better game. These examples of thinking skills
  will allow transfer to real life."
• He applies their lessons to such varied
  situations as learning to avoid a fight, to
  consider the consequences of drugs, and to plan
  for one's education.

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The impact of chess the need for research

• Likely to hear calls today and tomorrow for more
  systematic and rigorous examination of cognitive
  benefits of chess tuition and play
• This is important but it may not reflect the
  value of the activity for the whole child
• Need for research that explores the extent to
  which chess improves childrens agency, is able
  to effect changes in adult/child relations etc,
  contributes to childrens mental wellbeing

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Researching chess with young people?

• Researching chess needs to be about more than
  before and after testing of cognitive skills
• CYP views may highlight the value of the activity
  in quite different ways

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Researching chess with young people?

• RCTs are gold standard for evidence but have
  scant regard for ethics of researching with
  children
• CYP often co-opted by schools and researchers.
  Fully informed consent rare
• New guidance through agencies like INVOLVE or
  SCCYP for working with children rather than on
  children
• Need to explore processes as well as outcomes
• Long term research needed to examine sleeper
  effects

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• Thank you