Introduction

This chapter explores the impact of Social Science in the City on my insights and practice as a teacher in a city school and as a postgraduate student pursuing research on the experience and meaning of poverty in a part of the inner city. My attendance at the Social Science in the City seminars, prior to registering for a PhD, provided me with social contact with others interested in and involved in social research. I shall reflect upon and discuss in-depth the value of such public engagement initiatives for my own professional practice, in particular, the importance of being informed about a range of critical social issues, backed up by academic research – topics that have ranged from thinking about the way we might deal with an increasingly ageing population to the insights gained from presentations focused on managing community conflict, including facts about urban realities and tensions on the ground that affect the students in the catchment area in which I work and the pressures they encounter outside the school gates. I shall also discuss the relevance of these talks for my own interest in pursuing social research in the inner city.

Overview

My professional career path has taken a significant change in the last year and a half. When I started attending Social Science in the City seminars, I was a sociology teacher at an inner city school and now, sometime later, I have a multiple identity as a teacher, voluntary youth worker and PhD student researching youth transitions/poverty in my school catchment area. I would like to chart this transition and acknowledge how Social Science in the City has supported and inspired this development and diversification of my career path. As a result of my attendance, I have been able to improve my insights in the discipline of social science, enrich my teaching and reflect deeply upon the deprivation issues facing my students. Consequently, I have begun my doctoral research with confidence and the support of other experienced scholars in the local academic arena.

Beginnings of an inner city teaching career

I began my teaching career four and a half years ago. I completed my professional training at Exeter University, which placed me in a private school for my teaching practice. During this time, I experienced the contrast between my own state schooling and the highly privileged surroundings in the minor public school in Somerset.