Education project: Image & Identity

Partners/funders

Image & Identity is a project jointly funded by the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) under the national/regional partnerships programme for education. It includes: Victoria and Albert Museum; Manchester City Galleries; Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery;  Brighton & Hove Museums; Museums Sheffield; Shipley Art Gallery,Tyne & Wear Museums.

Evaluation findings for Image & Identity

This year's evaluation aimed to identify how the project had supported specific learning and shifts in attitude in the young people in their knowledge about slavery.  We were interested to see how such a museum -based project could support learning around a potentially sensitive topic touching on so many relevant contemporary issues such as racism, poverty and discrimination.

The independent evaluator Nicky Boyd wrote: 'The depth of which some young people came to understand what 'the actual reality' of being a slave was like shines out of the evaluation data e.g. 'what surprised me most was that I learnt so much from the project. I mean I know absolute nothing about slavery and the slave trade. It upset me to know that Britain got involved in the Slave Trade', 'pupils' participation and interest was impressive and it worth stating that some pupils … cried in the view of objects like manacles, shackles and neck irons', 'it made me feel I was a bit naïve about what was actually happening'

The 2006-07 evaluation, set out to identify what teachers and community group leaders wanted in terms of CPD and learning resources to sustain their continued use of museums. The research identified that:

• Over 70% of teachers/group leaders participating in Phase 4 had never used a gallery or museum with a group and 70% said they planned to visit again after the project
• The three most popular suggestions for sustainable learning resources to support the theme were teachers' packs, CD's of images and on-line resources

In 2005-6 the evaluation focused on the involvement of teachers and youth workers, both as professional learners and as contributors to the projects with the report 'Broadening the spectrum: An evaluation of the professional development opportunities for teachers and youth workers offered by the Image & Identity scheme'.

There was also a small scale research report produced in 2005-6 that investigated the ways in which young people might develop a sense of their own identity, and the identity of others, through engagement with museum collections. This was called 'Identifying with the Objects: The Image & Identity Project'.

In 2003-4 an NFER report entitled 'A good image of myself: An evaluation of the Image & Identity Scheme' evaluated the impact of the project on the young people involved.

Read all these reports in full here