Current Reality and Future Risk
This article discusses a report which can be found here and was written by Evaluation and Evidence Manager, James Elliott.
I enjoy my role as an evaluation manager for many reasons, one of which is being the conveyor of good news. I am usually reporting on some shift that has taken place in learners’ outlook, understanding or attitude, and because our interventions are well-designed and well-delivered, these shifts are often considerable and frequently replicated across different schools and cohorts. Those interventions that are less successful become curios that in some regards are more interesting as they give us insight into what doesn’t work and enable us to identify factors that worked against what we intended. Either way, it is all about the shift, the then and now, the before and after. Everything is set up that way and we report on the ‘shifts’.
However, I have decided not to report on another Higher Horizons success. Instead, I have undertaken a qualitative analysis of the free text comments learners make in response to the question ‘Do you have any questions about university’. We ask this with every pre-evaluation form before learners participate in any intervention. Of course, by answering this question learners reveal what is most occupying their minds regarding higher education. Across 10,000 learners we get 2000 responses that tell us what most intrigues, excites and worries young people about higher education in the Staffordshire, Cheshire and Shropshire region. There are no shifts so it doesn’t tell us ‘what works’ , but it does tell us what we’re working with.
In this report I identify the top 10 themes or concerns learners raise. They are as follows;
There is tremendous satisfaction in a list like this; a tidy round number of concerns with neat categories, each category having two complementary components, complete with an aesthetically pleasing ampersand. In reality, as with any qualitative analysis, you are applying order where there isn’t any, and the picture is a lot messier and complex than any list would suggest; there is crossover and contradiction, and then there’s the ultimate irony of over-quantifying the qualitative. As I state in the report, what is unsaid tells a story all of it own as do those themes that do not feature in the top 10 at all, but are significant because they don’t; sometimes fears and concerns on the periphery are those of people who are underrepresented, those who are always on the periphery.
Anyway, enjoy the report. Remember it tells you what learners are thinking about higher education before they participate in an outreach event. I make recommendations, but I do so knowing full well that my practitioner colleagues address most if not all of these issues when they deliver their activities. It is good to have a reminder, however, that learners come to us with a very particular experience of the world, one bound by school and family, heavily rules-orientated and where choices are made on their behalf; it is suffocating, constrained, restrictive, but also familiar, safe, and risk-averse. We are offering something that is liberating, new, exciting, but also daunting, overwhelming, and ridden with risk. Addressing learners’ perception of current reality and future risk lies at the centre of the work we do.
Find the report here.