Studio Lenca is a world created by artist Jose Campos, it's a space to tell their story, a story of migration, belonging, visibility and a celebration of their Salvadoran roots. In this conversation Jose offers generous insight into their expansive practice and how their experience as a teacher lives on through their artistic practice.

https://www.studiolenca.com

We have a system of education that creates and feeds anxiety - it tells children and young people that their interests don't matter and they're not good enough. My guest today knows this all too well but the solution, as she explains, may not be as complex as you might think.

Dr Naomi Fisher is an independent clinical psychologist and EMDR consultant. She specialises in trauma, autism and alternative approaches to education. She works with children, adolescents and adults.

She is the author of ‘Changing our Minds: How Children Can Take Control of their Own Learning’ (Robinson, 2021) and ‘A Different Way to Learn: Neurodiversity and Self-Directed Education’ to be published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers in 2023.

She runs online courses to support parents and offers training for professionals.

Changing Our Minds, written by our guest, is only 99p on Kindle during June and Thier next book, A Different Way to Learn is out on June 21 and the code NFISHER20 will give readers 20% off if they order it directly from the Jessica Kingsley Publishers website. I'll pop the links in this episodes show notes.

Picture this. a young person at school is disrupting their maths lesson. Consequently they are sent out the classroom. A few days later they get into a fight so they are sent to a room, isolated from peers and forbidden from having break time. Their poor behaviour persists throughout term and in the end they are suspended, remaining at home on their own for 3 days. Finally, after trying everything the school permanently excludes the young person and they are sent to a pupil referral unit, with other young people who have been excluded, away from any of their peers.

Although simified, These multiple forms of escalating exclusions are common if not exclusive behaviour management practices in secondary schools across the country.

As an added measure of 'safety' police presence in schools has been increased in recent years and as we saw in the abhorrent case of child Q, state violence against minoritised and racialised groups in schools, the place where our young people should feel safeguarded against prejudice, is a serious, threatening reality.

If that wasn't scary enough 60% of youth offenders were permanently excluded from school meaning there is a clear trajectory from these punitive practices and sanctions to the criminal justice system.

In addition, for those who are racialised as black the statistics are even worse. According to the chief inspector of probation “There is a disproportionate number of black and mixed heritage boys in the youth justice system. This is what is known as the schools to prison pipeline.

My guest today is Mea, youth worker, campaigner and project officer at Kids of Colour, an organisation that provides the space for young people to explore their lived experiences of racism in school.

Once a young contributor to their brilliant video series, telling her own story, Mea now campaigns with Kids of Colour against the racial injustices faced by minoritised communities across the country …. and she has an idea. What if we put healing at the centre of education rather than punishment?  What if 'challenging behaviour' was actually recognised as a struggle to exist within a narrow oppressive system?

What would education look like then?

Enjoy…

https://kidsofcolour.com/

Schools to prison pipeline: https://www.connectedsociologies.org/curriculum/policing/school-to-prison-pipeline/