Vision and Values
The overarching principle of the Centre is to build sustainable partnerships which aim
- to understand and increase young people's and teachers' participation in their own learning
- to explore how that learning extends beyond schooling, how it connects with prior learning, and with other arenas of learning in informal as well as formal contexts.
The ultimate goal is to improve the quality of children's lives, to enrich the quality of learning and teaching, and to improve the well-being of children and youth within and beyond school.
This goal is pursued in a climate of widening participation, with individuals and groups, with voluntary and statutory agencies, so as to widen opportunity, underpinned by common principles of equity and social justice.
The work of the CCE is premised on listening to students, teachers, school leaders, local and national policy makers and related agencies so as to develop intervention strategies which are sensitive to local needs and to broader cultural issues while, at the same time able to offer constructive challenge in a spirit of collaborative inquiry.
Research is thus integral, ongoing and formative, serving to build capacity not only of the Centre but of schools and agencies engaged with us in this work.
Implementation
The Centre is committed to
- Working with national policy-makers, school leaders and academics to impact directly upon policy and practice in classrooms, schools, networks and policy contexts, so as to enhance the capacity for learning within the countries of the Commonwealth;
- Identifying centres of best practice in primary and secondary education in Commonwealth countries, to distil the essence of that practice and to derive key principles that 'travel' across geographical and cultural boundaries;
- Collaborating within and across countries to test and apply principles of practice so as to share a stronger theoretical grounding of what constitutes 'good' practice;
- Working in collaboration with groups and communities in the informal educational sector, drawing on their experience to develop initiatives and strategies designed to improve the quality of education for vulnerable youth and marginalised groups;
- Developing policy and practice informed by research, context-specific and adapted to locally-based needs.