What does home mean?

What do I want to find out?

Option A

What do I need?

For each group of pupils a set of 20 cards printed with the names of the following items, or with images representing them:

What do I do?water

Timing: 15 minutes

• Ask pupils what does home mean to you? They can write down their responses to talk in groups to a note taker.
• Display the 20 items above on a whiteboard and the question: What do we most need at home?
• Read through them one at a time and ask pupils to raise their hands to vote for the nine that they think are the most important for a home.
• For each item ask one pupil to give their reason for choosing it, and record the reason. Then ask if there are any different reasons amongst those with their hands up. Record all different reasons given.
• Keep a tally of the number of votes for each item and note down the top nine items.
• Take the top nine cards and remove the others from the whiteboard.
• With pupils in groups of three or four ask them to arrange these cards into a diamond, with the most important at the top and least important at the bottom for the whole class.
• Ask one member of the group to record all the pupils’ comments whilst their decisions are being made.

How do I analyse the results?

• Look at the criteria pupils used to inform their choices and the most popular cards chosen. Do the pupils consider:
  • basic needs (sleeping, eating and drinking, hygiene, keeping warm)
  • the need for safety and privacy (light, door, keys, window bars)
  • cognitive needs (books, computer, toys & games, television)
  • social needs (family, friends and neighbours, mobile phone)
  • the need for self-fulfilment (religious objects, paints or musical instruments, garden, pictures).
• Look at the reasons and justifications pupils have given for their choices and note to what extent pupils are aware of the similarities of people’s needs all over the world and the lack of access some people have to their basic needs, in both the Minority and Majority World.
• Note whether pupils mention any other criteria for makes a good home and whether they are able to discuss, share ideas and agree or disagree respectfully.

How do I measure the change?

• Depending on the time between each audit, you can repeat the activity exactly, or use the alternative activity Option B below.

Option B:

What do I do?

• Divide the pupils into groups of five or six.
• Ask one member of the group to be a note taker.
• Give each group 6 cards from the selection above.
• Explain that they will now play a card game and that in each round they should remove one card that represents the thing they least need at home.
• Draw the pupils´ attention to the fact that they are throwing cards away as a group and therefore the whole group should agree on which card will be thrown away.
• The group should keep the last remaining card.
• At each stage, the note taker should ask the group the following questions and record their responses

Why did you decide to remove this card?

How do you feel about the absence of this at home?

• Once the final card has been reached, ask each group

Why did you keep this card? What does this card represent?

What would happen if you didn’t have this at home?

Note takers can use a recording template to collect the pupils´ answers more easily. 

How do I measure the change?

• For both, look for changes in pupils’ understanding of different levels of human needs from the basic to the social. Has their awareness of the difference between wants and needs improved?
• Note the extent to which stereotyped comments about the Majority or Minority world have decreased. Are pupils less likely to assume that all Majority world countries are poor?
• Observe to what extent pupils are better able to negotiate with one another, reach a consensus, or settle a disagreement. Are pupils all expressing their views, and are they all listening to the views of others? Do pupils use any techniques to find agreement, such as voting or random choosing?