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Principal Investigator

Susan Morgan

Email: sm.morgan@ulster.ac.uk

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About

Relational education

TBS has found that meaningful relationships between boys and educators are crucial in facilitating engagement and holistic development in educational settings, particularly for boys and young men experiencing compounded educational disadvantage.

The 10 TBS principles of relational education provide a framework for embedding relational work with boys.

Relational Learners

Educational ecosystem

This concept celebrates the unique gift that individuals and institutions across the whole pipeline of education from early years onwards can bring enabling boys to thrive.

TBS promotes the collective capacities of communities and educational settings in advancing more equitable opportunities and outcomes for boys and young men experiencing compounded educational disadvantage.

Educational Ecosystem

Compounded educational disadvantage (CED)

The concept of compounded educational disadvantage was coined through the research in 2018 helping shape the research methodology and advance critical thinking about the causes and responses to persistent low levels of educational attainment and progression for some groups of adolescent boys.

It captures both systemic and contextual issues which in Northern Ireland include relative poverty, a selective education system, and normative masculinities constructed with reference to conflict legacies of segregation, polarisation, and residual violence. Each time a young man encounters one of these systemic issues it is as though another brick is added to their backpack making their journey through the education system more difficult.

Compounded educational disadvantage

TBS Principles

View 10 principles of relational education with boys and young men.

View principles

Young Men’s Voices

TBS Holy Family YC
TBS Artillery YC
TBS Monkstown Boxing Club (students)
TBS Blessed Trinity College students
TBS Black Mountain Action Group

TBS Steering Group

An active and committed steering group are co-creators of the research representing a cross-section of the education system.

Professor Brian Murphy

Dean of Academic Business Development

"The correlation between educational attainment and social mobility is well known; so too is the failure to eradicate entrenched social immobility. Our research seeks to break decades of leaving many boys and young men behind. This may mean change in policy; but it is most likely to involve changes in pedagogy and practice."

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TBS Conference 2021

TBS Educators

Blessed Trinity College
Belfast Boys Model School
Abbey Community College
Monkstown Boxing Club
Newstart Education Centre

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