Education Symposium on Empathy, Narrative & Cultural Values

Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College is hosting the Education Symposium on Empathy, Narrative & Cultural Values on Wednesday 4 November, starting at 12:30. It's a free event, and it comes out of a larger project that's been running across the city for a few years now.

The symposium is part of the AHRC-funded Empathy, Narrative & Cultural Values project, led by Dr Peter Morey of the University of Birmingham. The whole thing looks at how faith and cultural values shape the way South Asian Muslim subjects in the West Midlands perceive and engage with narratives. It's been running in two separate strands: an education one with Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College, and a health one with Green Lane Masjid. The education side has focused on A-Level English Literature students and how they identify with literary texts through the moral frameworks of their communities. The health side has followed cancer patients' narratives through the 'Cancer Champions' programme.

There's a fair bit of practical work behind the research, too. The project has produced CPD toolkits of strategies and lesson plans for Key Stage 5 teachers, as well as for KS4 students moving up to KS5 and A-level students heading to university. The team has also presented at the English Association's Thinking Forwards event and on Unity FM's Connecting Communities radio series.

The project itself has been funded to the tune of £701,297 and has been running from December 2023 through to January 2027, so this symposium sits towards the later end of its life. It's free to attend, and you'll find it at Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College, 1 Belgrave Rd, Balsall Heath, Birmingham B12 9FF, starting at 12:30 on Wednesday 4 November.