A Narrative Inquiry into the experience of using Dorothy Heathcote’s Commission Model with young people, at risk of NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) in a college in Port Talbot

Towler-Evans, Iona A Narrative Inquiry into the experience of using Dorothy Heathcote’s Commission Model with young people, at risk of NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) in a college in Port Talbot. Doctoral thesis, Liverpool Hope University.

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Abstract

The purpose of this research was to document and analyse, within the changing social and cultural contexts of a 18-month project, the extent to which the agency, identity, and positioning of three young people, marginalised by the education system, changed over the time of the research. The research took place between September 2016 and January 2018 at Neath/Port Talbot College in Port Talbot, South Wales. I used the Commission Model, one of Dorothy Heathcote’s pedagogical approaches, with a group of approximately eighteen young people, aged 16-19, who had been designated as ‘being at risk of NEET’ (not in education, employment, or training). Like Heathcote, I wanted to bring about transformative change in the participants: ‘I try to bring about a change, a widening of perspective, in the life of the real person’ (Heathcote, 2009, n.p). The reason I engaged in this research was to explore the educational possibilities of using the Commission Model with marginalised youth. Such research has never been conducted before. The project group was given a real-life commission by a local library in collaboration with Sally Burton, Richard Burton’s surviving wife, to create a film on the life of Richard Burton. Sally Burton had gifted his diaries to Swansea University. It was chosen because the students lived in the area where Burton was born and grew up. As their classroom teacher, I worked at building trusting relationships with and among each of the young people. I used Narrative Inquiry as a methodology to document and analyse stories of the three research-subject students that I gathered in my field notes and in interviews. I selected the concepts of positioning, agency, and identity, because these concepts were foundational in Heathcote’s theory and practice. This study shows significant change in the positioning, agency, and identity of all three students who were the subject of this research.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Divisions:	Doctoral Theses
Depositing User:	Ms Hazel Barham
Date Deposited:	11 Jun 2026 13:04
Last Modified:	11 Jun 2026 13:04
URI:	https://newman.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/17407

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