Classroom Posters

Show Notes

My line of enquiry began by looking at the inequalities in the classroom through my practice of drawing. Looking to present day classrooms, with the lining up of children in rows and ranking on ability I saw there was an ‘allowed’ education according to the student’s social class. The Victorian classroom came to mind.

 

If you look closely at a Victorian classroom, through black and white photographs, there are illustrated posters detailing ecosystems, botany, ecology and zoology, etc. Ecosystems in particularly require a democratised balance between species to operate, and flourish. With the UK having one of the poorest rates of social mobility in the developed world, we may need to look again at how delicate these ecosystems are.

 

The illustrated posters feel like they have been taken from the Victorian classroom, showing how little the classroom has changed, however the messages are different this time.

The Great British Ecosystem

Lepidopterology & Levelling Up

  • 1. Accipiter nisus or commonly known as Sparrowhawk.

    2. Turdidae or commonly known as Thrush.

    3. Gastropoda or commonly known as Snail.

    4. Euonymus alatus or commonly known as Winged Spindle.

  • 1. Polyommatus icarus or commonly known as Common Blue.

    ‘Students from low-income families who take part in arts activities at school are three times more likely to get a degree’

    2. Pieris brassicae or commonly known as Large White.

    3. Aglais urticae or commonly known as Small Tortoiseshell.

    ‘Students from low-income families who take part in arts activities at school are 20% more likely to vote’

    4. Vanessa cardui or commonly known as Painted Lady.

    5. Aglais io or commonly known as Peacock.

    ‘A student from a low-income background is four times more likely to become socially mobile if they attend university’

    6. Anthocharis cardamines or commonly known as Orange-tip.

    ‘Over half of senior judges went through the private school to Oxbridge pipeline’

    7. Pyronia tithonus or commonly known as Gatekeeper.

    ‘Students from low-income families who take part in arts activities at school are two times more likely to volunteer’

    8. Pararge aegeria or commonly known as Speckled Wood.

    ‘Only 30% of all internships are paid’

    9. Vanessa atalanta or commonly known as Red Admiral.

 

*All data has been sourced from the Sutton Trust, the ‘Bacc for the Future’ campaign and the Cultural Learning Alliance respectively.