The early years are crucial to a child’s healthy development. Over two decades, researchers at Manchester Met have undertaken a collaborative programme of research providing strongly-theorised, holistic findings that have transformed the curriculum and pedagogy for this age group.
A team from the University’s Education and Social Research Institute led the programme, which included multiple projects across three strands. The first focused on replenishing the research base around Birth to Three Matters (B-3M), the pioneering framework for early years practice developed by Manchester Met researchers between 2001 and 2003. Strand two looked at two-year-olds in the nursery, and strand three explored under-threes in museums and galleries.
Fleshing out the theory
The original B-3M research identified four aspects of successful early childhood practice: a strong child, a skillful communicator, a competent learner, and a healthy child. Subsequent projects have fleshed out the holistic theory underlying these aspects, with findings on embodiment and sensory experience, and sense of place.
One of these projects focused on mental health and wellbeing — Odd: feeling different in the world of education. It was led by Rachel Holmes, Professor of Cultural Studies of Childhood. Professor Holmes contributed to the B-3M framework and leads the Children and Childhood Research Group.
This interdisciplinary research project was funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council from 2018 to 2021. It built on the principles and huge legacy of the 2001-03 B-3M framework. The team worked with the whole community of a primary school in Manchester, including the pupils, staff and parents.
Easing daily struggles
According to the 2021 Health and Social Care Committee report Children and Young People’s Mental Health, NHS data suggests the mental health of children and young people in England has worsened since 2017. This has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the ubiquity of social media, peer pressure, schools’ expectations, and the drive for academic achievement and success.
Feeling different, lonely or out of place at school is reported by increasing numbers of young people with disabilities and special educational needs, by those who are in care or care leavers, by those who identify as trans or queer, and many more.
These feelings can have a detrimental impact on some young people’s mental health, while others may occupy this space more confidently. Discussing children on the autistic spectrum, for example, Judith Hebron and Neil Humphrey note how the sense of ‘difference’ experienced may trigger emotional distress. Other children often view them as ‘odd’, ‘strange’ or ‘weird’, and therefore prime candidates for bullying and teasing.
Among young people living with obsessive-compulsive disorder, researcher Carly Keyes and her colleagues found there was a strong sense of feeling ‘different’. According to Mike Stein in the 1994 report Leaving Care, nearly all the young people said they felt that they were the ‘odd one out’, and the subject of curiosity and abuse.
The Odd project aimed to help ease the daily struggles that some children face in a stifling school culture, where the pressure to conform is overwhelming. As Rachel explained: “The research was based on the idea that, despite years of inclusion and intervention strategies, schools are still hostile places for some young children.
“We looked at lots of different sources and found many parents expressing their concerns, saying things like my child doesn’t fit in; they feel lonely, don’t have any friends; she feels like the teacher doesn’t really like her; the system doesn’t support what he needs; he’s been expelled or withdrawn from school. It seemed that lots of children still felt very isolated and alienated.”
An experimental approach
The research came out of the team’s concern for those young people who see themselves as — or are made to feel — illegitimate in the world of education. From an ethical perspective, they recognised the need to tackle the idea of ‘difference’ in an innovative way, exploring how oddness takes form in schools. More specifically where they might find oddness, and how it feels, smells, looks, tastes and sounds, as well as how children notice and respond to it.
“We all feel different and peculiar at different times in our lives,” Rachel said. “What does that feel like? What does it make us think, feel, do?”