 This film was made as part of
 the Common Cause research 
 project
 which aims to understand how 
 universities,
 and black and minority ethnic  
  communities, 
 build collaborations. 
 Each of these films, 
 tells a different story 
 of how these collaborations 
 might work. 
 They range from long term 
 partnerships,
 to short term projects and 
 events.
 The films are designed to
 prompt discussion
 and reflection.
 We encourage you to ask ...
 What questions might be learned
 for the future
 from these stories? 
 We're a race equality think 
 tank, 
 we were founded in 1968, 
 50 years ago. 
 Our work focuses on producing  
  evidence 
 on multi-ethnic Britain. 
 I think most people would agree
 it would be better 
 if people from different 
 backgrounds 
 got along better 
 and mixed better 
 and had fairer opportunities
 in Britain. 
 But we want 
 to ensure that when we say 
 that, 
 that we're doing so on the 
 basis of the best 
 research possible. 
 Runnymede is very good
 because they have always 
 worked with academics over 
 a series of projects, 
 so they have more of an  
 understanding of the way that 
 academic research works 
 and how universities work 
 and what those pressures are. 
 I've been working for the
 last 25 years probably
 on issues around  race 
 and ethnicity in Britain. 
 Mainly concerned 
 with young people. 
 More recently on issues
 around South Asian
 migration to the UK. 
 We've worked with Claire on a 
 variety of projects. 
 'Romans Revealed' which looked 
 at the Roman period. 
 Bangla Stories which looked at 
  migration 
 to Bangladesh 
 and West Bengal in India. 
 And then this story:
 'Making Histories'. 
 And for us it was about 
 recognising that British 
 history is actually history 
 of people from all over the 
 world that come to the UK, 
 but also you know, 
 those entanglements of the UK 
 with the rest of the world. 
 I think there is an idea in
 our heads 
 about why we involve young 
 people you know,
 and I think it's an important 
 one.
 We've had concerns for some
 time 
 that not only is the history
 that we tell ourselves 
 not quite fully representative 
 of the facts. 
 but it also does so in a way 
 that 
 doesn't really engage young 
 people. 
 It sort of focuses on Kings 
 and Queens the 15th century, 
 the same stories over
 and over again. 
 So the 'Making Histories 
 Project' really consists of 
 two projects, the first of
 which was working 
 with young people in Cardiff, 
 Leicester and Sheffield. 
 Getting them to do family 
 and community histories 
 and produce work 
 talking to their grandparents 
 and local community leaders 
 and so on. 
 And the second part was
 one which was focused much more
 on teachers. 
 How teachers can teach 
 inclusive 
 and diverse histories in
 their classrooms, 
 and try to support them in ways
 of doing that,
 and for that we work  with 
 schools in Greenwich,
 in East London and in 
 Manchester. 
 For both of the projects, 
 they ran about the same thing. 
 So about kind of 9 or
 10 months.
 Probably drifting to 12 months.
 I think we brought a certain 
 amount of credibility, 
 I think a lot of the schools 
 were interested in being
 involved, because universities 
 were involved, 
 particularly because actually  
  Cambridge was involved, 
 I think.
 We brought, the initial
 material
 and some of those stories
 which people 
 were then able to see
 reflected  on some of perhaps 
 some of their own family 
 stories. 
 It gave them something to kind 
 of start from. 
 So that's probably what we 
 brought, 
 and we brought the money. 
 So I think one difference 
 with our relationship 
 with Claire compared to say 
 other community academic 
 relationships actually 
 including 
 other relationships that we  
  ourselves have had 
 with other universities. 
 Is, she very much included 
 us from the beginning in the 
 design 
 of the funding application. 
 It was a surprise I think that 
 we were  able to continually
 work with with Claire without 
 too many disagreements 
 or difficulties. 
 It was a surprise I suppose 
 how far Runnymede was 
 able to set some of the agenda 
 and the project not simply
 in terms of the outputs 
 but in terms of the approach.
 and in terms of the work. 
 I mean there are a number of 
 things 
 I think academics need to
 think  about before they start
 community partnerships. 
 One is that community 
 partnerships can't solve all 
 the problems 
 or change the world in the way 
 that I think academics 
 often think that they'll just 
 take 
 a piece of research give it to 
  someone, they'll 
 disseminate it, and something 
 wonderful will come out of it,
  without recognising the amount
 of work 
 and commitment that goes on,
 On both sides on that. 
 I think one other thing
 that the community 
 organisation should insist on, 
 is that they do indeed have  
  expertise and experience, 
 they have skills,
 they have expertise 
 that the academic does not 
 have, 
 and they shouldn't overstate 
 what those are and they 
 shouldn't 
 say that they have expertise
 in everything. 
 But there is a reason why the  
  academic partner has 
 come to them and it's not 
 simply 
 to improve the chances of 
 funding. 
 It's because they can't reach  
  communities that way.
 They don't know things about a 
  local community.
 So my colleague Debbie actually
 did most of the research 
 herself and ... 
 Claire more supervised. 
 We didn't maybe 
 affect the wider debate on 
 say how the history curriculum 
 is taught at the time 
 as much as we would have
 liked to. 
 It is a challenging thing to  
  influence. 
 There are limitations as to how
 much a small community 
 organisation like us can do. 
 But on the other hand we do 
 have influence 
 with policymakers 
 and potentially we could help 
 bridge that divide between say 
 young people especially in 
 maybe more disadvantaged 
 schools 
 and the decision makers of the 
  council. 
 One of the things we learnt 
 very early on in this 
 collaboration 
 with the 'Bangrah Stories' site
 was that although academics 
 think they're very good at  
  communicating, 
 they're terrible at 
 communicating to young people. 
 And so it was quite interesting
 for us having to 
 let go of what we thought of as
 our 
 expertise and pass that over
 to someone else 
 who actually knew how to make 
 this accessible. 
 My question for Runnymede 
 probably would be ...
 around how effective they think
 the changes that we were
 able to  make in terms of 
 education practice in 
 classrooms was.
 How well they felt that was 
 ... how significant 
 and how kind of enduring 
 they felt that was? 
 Would you agree that in many 
 ways the work that you do
 for Runnymede is over and
 above the work you do as 
 an academic 
 and that you do it knowing
 that it won't necessarily 
 contribute to your academic 
 career? 
 How do you think ...
 we and other community 
 organisations could similarly 
 motivate other academics 
 to lend their expertise and 
 their knowledge 
 in that sort of collaborative 
 way? 
 We did as well, 
 parliamentary launches for both
 of the projects
 where we brought some of the 
 young people from each of
 those schools into parliament 
 to present their work 
 and talk about what that was 
 like,
 and show some of the films. 
 INTERVIEWER:
 What do you hope that the
 young people
 got out of this project?
 I think two things I think. 
 One is that 
 the young people will have had 
 some hands on experience of 
 doing research 
 and what that's like. 
 And I think that partly 
 demystifies 
 higher education. So if they 
 were thinking about going to 
 university they could think OK 
 that actually that could be me?
 The kind of big idea we had 
 which is that 
 young people can, 
 and will engage better with 
 history,
 if they  themselves  are
 involved 
 actively in making that history
 and learning that history 
 and in excavating that history 
  locally in
 a way that connects with them. 
 And it was a joy really to see 
 that, 
 in some ways intellectual 
 hypothesis 
 was actually realised when we 
 work 
 with these young people. 
 We worked with some young 
 people in Greenwich. 
 Quite disaffected alienated, 
 hated school, 
 and we got them to go and talk 
 to their grandparents. 
 And there was that moment where
 they realised actually that 
 their grandfather who came over
 from Ireland 
 was part of a particular kind 
 of history 
 and that story actually 
 mattered. 
 Some of the kids produced
 some amazing 
 work, some animation 
 and that kind of...
 it's not really a surprise 
 but it made me think about
 the kind of 
 talent that's there amongst 
 young people,
 and wondering where that
 ... what happens to that? 
 Where is that talent getting 
 wasted? 
 If you are interested in
 finding out
 more about the project, 
 please go to the Common Cause 
 website
