It’s been quite the month. A decisive election result followed by a push back from a violent, disgruntled minority using an utter tragedy as camouflage for malice. It showed us at our worst, but also at our best in how the genuine communities that were most affected responded.
Between 2007 and 2010, community cohesion was a focal point for inspection in schools and nurseries. More recently there has been a shift towards British Values (so easily misinterpreted), and then came cultural capital.
Cultural capital is more focused on the development of the individual and a more singular understanding of the world (often for individual achievement). It focuses on the belief that there is standard or specific sort of intellectual ‘capital’ that is worthwhile. It starts with a pre-requisite; that to succeed, there is a type of knowledge that needs to be acquired by those with less social expertise and cultural depth. Conversely, community cohesion is a more co-operative approach; it puts the school population and local community in the driving seat, taking their own experience as the starting point for inter-communal understanding.
The importance of community cohesion shouldn’t be underestimated. It is not a deficit model and it prioritises real, lived experience as the basis for growth. Of course, there are real life skills that are vital to success, but these already form part of the curriculum through areas such as CoEL. If we want understanding, empathy and humanity (in what can be very diverse communities), then it must start with kindness and personal relationships. The danger comes when an ‘us and them’ mentality develops, something that we’ve seen a lot of recently.
In recent years, schools and settings have fought hard to prevent antagonistic, populist rhetoric from encouraging division. Any criticism of populism carries a label of ‘wokeness’. Nurseries are by definition ‘woke’, we preach values such as respect for others, empathy and emotional intelligence.
In education, community cohesion is one of the most valuable lessons we can support. It helps forge an understanding based on belonging and has a direct relevance by focusing on shared values and the similarities that can unite them. It starts with real people and an understanding that change releases new possibilities and opportunities. It is the antidote to a division based on blaming the innocent.
