Pen
Pen Green: Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Circumstances
At Pen Green we are able to support the education of individuals, from pre-birth to PhD, all of this work is informed by research with, and by, the families who access the Centre. Nowadays these may be pregnant young women, mums, dads and grandparents using the space as a second or third generation, practitioners from local childcare settings or masters students from across the globe. We know that learners of any age learn through, and with, the people they love and care for. It helps us to develop our approach if we know about the families, and wider contexts, within which our learners reside.
We have often adopted an ethnographic approach to research and capture the lived experiences of families across the community. The arrival of a global pandemic in Corby had a profound impact on the functioning of us all, including the Centre. The Nursery remained open to care for the children of key workers and vulnerable families. Many staff were redeployed or worked from home, maintaining contact with families across the community, delivering parcels of resources and food supplies, ensuring students could complete degree studies and tried to offer a consistent figure of support during a very inconsistent period.
As the restrictions on everyday life began to ease it was important to us that we capture snapshots of this moment in time, we wanted to record and enshrine in history the initial thoughts, feelings and memories of individuals from across the Centre – those who work here, brought their children here, studied here and were connected to our work.
We asked four, open-ended questions, encouraging individuals to tell their story in their own way, knowing that the very act of telling the story can help bring it together and help it make more sense. The stories make for interesting reading, each is so unique and so fascinating, which is why we wanted to share them with you in their ‘raw’ form for now. Contained within the ordinary lives of families in these extraordinary circumstances are tales of economic instability and difficult employment conditions; the pressures of multi-generational care and working from home; the trauma of physical and emotional disconnection; the benefits, and limitations, of having more time at home and the joy of spending time with loved ones.
The interviews will form part of a research project and analysis of them, as a whole, will allow the research team to draw out themes and implications for future practice which will be used to inform and develop the ongoing work of the Pen Green Centre, as we continue to support learners of all ages. Initial findings, highlight the power of human relationships – each interviewee mentioned missing family and friends – and the importance of being in unrestricted physical proximity to those we care deeply about cannot be understated.
‘Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Circumstances’ was presented by Sandra Mole and Emma Hewitt of Pen Green at the BECERA Conference 2021 on Wednesday 17th February.
You can view the presentation here
“When you see somebody, unconsciously you can connect with them to see how they are, and because I can’t physically see the team, I have to go on what people say, and so people are on my mind because I can’t get that sense of what their day or evening has been like and I miss that. I’ve missed that connection”
“When we adopted our children I did a lot of work to get them to cuddle and kiss like Italians and now they are being told they cannot do that.”
“I have been thinking more about other people’s experiences. I have found myself getting teary a lot – for happy reasons as well as sad reasons. I think that’s partly due to the teacher training course, it’s so personal, but also the situation has made me empathise more than normal… perhaps if we could all be a bit more like that, that could be a good thing”
“The pace of life has changed and I would actually be really reluctant to lose it.”
“Life in lockdown is like, if you take away the celebrity part of ‘I’m a celebrity, get me out of here!’ – just get me out of here! I just want to have some space. And go outside. It’s boring to do work at home…”
“Just before lockdown my hours at school got cut…I am paying out twice as much as I am getting in, my only buffer is my student loan.”
“We appreciate our family more, understand and appreciate the time together; that has been really important…Now we understand that to be healthy is more important than everything”
“Some children were off for eight weeks but they came back like were never away. Some new children have started and they’ve settled so quickly, it’s like they’ve always been here.”
“I’m not ready for things to loosen-up yet, with my husband and his condition and my mother. I’m very aware of my position within the family.”
“So then the world was very different – initially it was panic, ‘oh god something is happening’ something that you wouldn’t expect in this day and age.”
“I had my son in the hospital. Just as the country went into the lockdown.”
“My neighbours just next door have some really comfortable sofas in their garden and when I visit I have one to myself. My specialism is frozen margaritas and we brought our own glasses, or wine. We did that every couple of weeks.”