Freire for twenty-first-century, austerity-driven schools: creating positive educational relations with and among students at the margins

Despite the rhetoric of successive governments in England to engage all students with their learning there has been a substantial increase in suspensions and permanent exclusions from secondary schools since the early 2000s. This removal of students from school is particularly high among underperforming students, most of whom come from low-income families. These concerns, amplified by well-being and mental health issues related to the lockdowns caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, accelerated government calls for new and innovative approaches to re-engage students with education. Particular emphasis is placed on mentoring and tutoring projects. This article discusses a relational pedagogy employed in the initial stages of a mentoring project called Beyond the School Gates that emerged from a research study carried out by the University of Portsmouth in 2018 and was established as a charity association in 2020. Specifically, it analyses the mentoring processes that draw on Freire’s decoding model to create relational spaces within excluded students’ homes in order to facilitate critical dialogue between mentors, students and their parents. Mentors facilitate relational encounters that involve mutual dialogue and a series of relationship-building activities so that students are able to voice their social realities and educational experiences. Students depict their circumstances in image metaphors or art forms, some of which are illustrated. These frame conversations about their educational and social developmental interests, needs and goals. Mentors then facilitate activities that help the students develop confidence and the skills necessary to access resources to meet these needs and realise their goals. This extends to facilitating conversations between students, parents and teachers in order to address social and curricular barriers in school.