« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
4.0 CREDIBILITY OF DRUG EDUCATION
This section examines the credibility of drug education as perceived by respondents. Credibility was shaped by two main factors, the people teaching drug education (discussed in Section 4.1) and the content and relevance of the information provided (discussed in Section 4.2). To a lesser extent the credibility of drug education was also influenced by school drug policies. This is discussed in Section 4.3. Finally, section 4.4 examines the credibility and value of school drug education in relation to other sources of information and influence on young people.
4.1 People Teaching Drug Education
4.1.1 Teachers
Respondents had varying views on the credibility of teachers in relation to drug education. Some spoke very favourably about specific teachers, and perceived them to be a trustworthy and credible source of information about drugs.
"It is our guidance teacher's place to talk about that. He knows all about the drugs and stuff."
Male, S2, School E, Secondary, Statutory
This was usually in cases where pupils had fairly good relationships with their teacher. For example, one group of respondents were particularly fond of their guidance teacher (who also taught drama). This teacher was seen to have a good understanding of the subject and also brought the material to life with some real life examples and stories:
"She knows what she's talking about and she can explain it the way you can understand it."
Female, S4, School E, Secondary, Statutory
"She always has a story as well."
Female, S4, School E, Secondary, Statutory
Other respondents expressed doubts about the credibility of teachers and whether they could deliver drug education effectively. Several factors limited teachers' perceived credibility. Firstly, some were not felt to have a genuine interest in the subject and taught it without apparent enthusiasm. As described in section 2.0, some respondents perceived that teachers were only undertaking these lessons because they were required to and that little thought went into their planning.
"It's either a lack of training, or they just couldn't be bothered doing it, basically."
Male, 17-18, School F, Secondary, Statutory
"It doesn't feel genuine."
Female, S2, School F, Secondary, Statutory
"They don't actually care what happens to you. They are like, 'this is my job'."
Female, S2, School F, Secondary, Statutory
Secondly, teachers were perceived to have limited drugs knowledge. Although teachers were regarded as experts in their own subject areas (e.g. maths, geography), they tended not to be perceived as experts in health:
"The teachers were brought in to teach us English, Maths, whatever else. They weren't brought in to teach us sex education, drugs…"
Male, 17-18, School F, Secondary, Statutory
"She knows about geography and stuff like that, just not drugs, I don't know why."
Male, S2, School E, Secondary, Statutory
"The teacher is usually nervous and doesn't know what they're on about."
Female, 17-18, School H, Secondary, Independent
Respondents often felt that the teachers were no more knowledgeable about drugs than they themselves were, and so were incapable of teaching them new drug information or of answering difficult questions:
"You could ask them about it, but then they had a limited knowledge, so they couldn't tell you anything that you didn't already know."
Male, 17-18, School F, Secondary, Statutory
"Like she'll tell you something and then she'll say 'I don't know exactly about this'."
Female, S4, School E, Secondary, Statutory
"If you say something it would be like, oh well, oh, good question, maybe you should ask your mum..."
Female, 17-18, School H, Secondary, Independent
Thirdly, teachers' credibility was influenced by the degree to which respondents trusted and felt 'safe' with the teacher in relation to a sensitive subject like drugs. For the majority, this was not a problem, partly because they themselves were not involved with drugs and consequently did not feel that they had anything to feel worried or ashamed about:
"The group that we're in, none of us are into it, so therefore it's never even occurred to us, so …we're just comfortable speaking about it, because not something we're really into."
Male, 17-18, School H, Secondary, Independent
Others trusted their teachers and valued the fact that they could be honest with them:
"I like the fact that they were honest and can say what happened."
Female, S2, School F, Secondary, Statutory
"Your teacher knows you and knows how you would behave."
Female, S2, School F, Secondary, Statutory
However, several respondents were reluctant to speak openly in front of their teacher and would be hesitant about admitting their own personal drug use:
"You don't want your teacher knowing if you're doing anything that you shouldn't be."
Female, 17-18, School H, Secondary, Independent
"You wouldn't want her to know if you smoked."
Female, 17-18, School H, Secondary, Independent
"You just know it's a teacher sometimes just doing their job and you think you are a bad person if you tell them."
Male, S2, School E, Secondary, Statutory
Some were motivated by a desire not to have a teacher "think badly" of them, but others were more worried about confidentiality and the possibility that teachers would gossip about them to other teachers:
"If you told the teacher anything, I guarantee you'd walk past the staffroom and they'd say, 'Ah, you see that Kevin….?'
Male, 17-18, School F, Secondary, Statutory
"You may have told them about - and you just want to tell that person but the trouble is she may tell a lot of other teachers."
Male, S2, School E, Secondary, Statutory
4.1.2 External agents
External agents such as community police officers, actors or local drugs workers tended to be perceived as credible sources of information about drugs. Their novelty value and perceived expert status meant that they commanded attention, as did the fact that they had no prior relationship with the pupils:
"I think it's better if an outsider comes into the school instead of a teacher. If it's a teacher then the majority of the class aren't going to listen because they don't like the teacher anyway."
Female, 17-18, School D, Secondary, Statutory
Visitors generally tended to be perceived as friendly and approachable. There was a perception that specialist visitors were genuinely interested in drug education and the welfare of young people, and more willing to listen to their concerns. Respondents felt that, unlike some teachers for whom drug education was not a priority, visitors were responsive to all kinds of questions about drugs:
"Well it was really good having a new person who was really down to earth. Well he was teaching us but he wasn't. It just felt you were talking to a friend or something because he listened to whatever we said and sometimes teachers they mind if you ask questions."
Female, P7, School F, Secondary, Statutory
Visitors were also generally perceived as more skilled educators in relation to drugs, because of their professional expertise and their knowledge of the subject:
"When it comes to the teachers, they're not going to have very much training themselves on drugs and alcohol, and how to teach it. So the people that come in are more aware, basically, of how to teach on that."
Female, 17-18, School F, Secondary, Statutory
This was particularly true of community police officers, whose day-to-day professional experience was perceived to give them an authority lacking in teachers whose drug expertise came from teaching packages:
"The teachers, they don't really come into contact with what they're talking about… whereas, you know, if you've got a policeman who's speaking about drugs, they're dealing with that specifically, so therefore they can provide you with a better insight."
Male, 17-18, School H, Secondary, Independent
"There was a difference because the teachers don't know what they're on about. They've got a script and they've got like what they've got to say but the police can expand on it and if you ask questions they can like answer them properly."
Female, 17-18, School H, Secondary, Independent
"The polis. They show you videos and they know more than the teachers do 'cause they do all that kind of stuff."
Male, S4, School D, Secondary, Statutory
Male respondents appeared particularly responsive to the perceived authority of the police:
"The teacher would say something but if the policeman says something you really think."
Male, 17-18, School C, Primary, Statutory
"You'd listen to the polis. They know about it."
Male, S3, School D, Secondary, Statutory
On the whole, respondents claimed to feel more comfortable with the prospect of talking to a visitor about drugs than to teachers. This was partly because they had concerns about disappointing the class teacher or getting into trouble if they admitted to having some involvement with drugs. Perhaps surprisingly, one respondent commented that the police were less likely to be judgemental about drug taking because they have more exposure to it than class teachers:
"Cause they are used to that sort of thing and they are not going to be there every day looking at you as if you were a wee junkie."
Female, 17-18, School D, Secondary, Statutory
Only a small number of respondents, usually females in younger-middle secondary school, seemed less comfortable about the prospect of speaking to an external agent. Some students, including those from a special needs school, remarked that the police made them "nervous". Other concerns centred on issues of unfamiliarity and mistrust:
"Because I wouldn't know anything about them. These teachers, I know they have a well-paid job because they are a teacher and but other people you don't know."
Female, S2, School F, Secondary, Statutory
"The people that come in are strangers and they could tell someone what you said and they might be dangerous."
Female, S2, School F, Secondary, Statutory
4.2 Content
As noted above, the perceived credibility of school drug education was also influenced by perceptions of its content. Three facets of drug education content were important in terms of credibility: the accuracy of the information, the currency of the information and materials, and the relevance of the information to young people's own lives. The first two of these are discussed below, while the credibility of school drug education in relation to real-life experiences is discussed in section 4.4.
Respondents generally perceived the drug information they were given in school to be up to date in terms of drug names, types, categories and so on. The only exception was the recent change in classification of cannabis, which was not reflected in some information material.
Younger groups tended to trust and believe the information that they were given about drugs and perceived it to be accurate. As few had direct experiences of drugs, they had no yardstick against which to compare the information and no reason to doubt it. Older respondents, particularly school leavers, tended to be more sceptical and critical. Among older respondents, there was a perception that in some of the information they had been given about drugs, the negative consequences of drug use had been exaggerated:
"If you are in the same room as a joint you will die or you will be arrested and sent to prison for the rest of your life. I think it is all a little bit hyped up."
Female, 19-20, School G, Primary & Secondary, Independent
"I think at the time I thought it was a bit ridiculous."
Female, 19-20, School G, Primary & Secondary, Independent
Personal experiences of drug use which failed to deliver the dangerous effects which respondents felt had been implied led them to dismiss the information as somewhat unrealistic.
"The images are of people taking hash but I still took it and never felt the negative effects. I took it to calm me down."
Male, 17-18, School E, Secondary, Statutory
However, encounters with the reality of drugs did not always lead respondents to question what they had been taught at school. One group of younger respondents felt that the information that they were given about drugs at school must be true because it was borne out by what they encountered in real life:
"I believe it because I see some of the people, like when you walk past on the street you know, because how they're dressed, because they walk past you and they're sitting in the street with a blanket over them and you know…"
Male, P7, School B, Primary, Statutory
Even where respondents were not particularly sceptical or mistrustful of the information provided, there a perception that something was "missing" from it; that the lessons did not pay enough attention to "real life". Respondents could not always articulate clearly what they meant by this, but part of the difficulty appeared to lie in the abstract nature of the information, with its emphasis on names and categories and effects rather than on what drug taking means to a real individual.
"It was almost like you were missing the kind of real-life knowledge side of it. It wasn't what was going on in real life on the street."
Male, 17-18, School F, Secondary, Statutory
"They don't really tell you what happens. They tell you what happens but they don't really tell you what happens, in real life."
Female, P7, School C, Primary, Statutory
The perceived impersonality and abstract nature of much of the information limited its credibility because young people could not personalise it or bring it to life.
"Couldn't relate to it, it was basic and impersonal".
Female, 17-18, School H, Secondary, Independent
For this reason, those parts of drug education which featured real-life stories about drug taking, in the form of videos or drama, appeared to be more 'true' and therefore more compelling and convincing. Females in particular seemed to respond well to this approach.
"The real ones [videos] you are going to remember more 'cause you know that is real. The other ones - you could say that might not have happened 'cause that was only role play."
Female, 17-18, School D, Secondary, Statutory
"But some of the stories were quite shocking. I think when they had real life stories, I think they are the most shocking."
Female, 19-20, School G, Primary & Secondary, Independent
"There are some very sad problems that make people cry."
Male, S2, School E, Secondary, Statutory
Having said that respondents tended to find true-to-life stories and materials more realistic, it was also clear that some of the videos used in drug education were perceived as dated. Both the approach and the style of many videos were considered old-fashioned. Respondents often described the videos as 'cheesy' and said that the bad acting "made them cringe". The hairstyles and clothes of the actors and interviewees were perceived as out of date:
"They were very 80s, like shell suits and stuff."
Male, 17-8, School C, Primary, Statutory
"It's really old, not very modern."
Female, S2, School F, Secondary, Statutory
For these reasons, young people sometimes found it difficult to take the videos seriously and to relate to the featured characters. These factors had an impact on perceived credibility and hindered the quality of learning from these more dated videos:
"Well you're more, you're concentrating on the fact that they look ridiculous and they don't look up to date rather than the actual information you're supposed to be getting."
Male, 17-18, School C, Primary, Statutory
"You more concentrate on like how cheesy the acting is and how funny they look."
Female, 17-18, School H, Secondary, Independent
4.3 School Policies
The credibility of school drug education was to a lesser extent also mediated by perceptions of school polices on drug use, including cigarettes, and the extent to which policies were seen to be consistent or not with messages in the classroom.
On the whole, respondents felt that their schools had fairly strict polices about drugs, and imposed punishments on those pupils who violated school rules. This was especially the case in independent schools, which were seen to have very strict policies about drugs.
"If you do drugs then you are out of school. That is the difference between a state school and here."
Female, 19-20, School G, Primary & Secondary, Independent
However, in some cases, there were perceived contradictions between the messages that pupils were receiving about drugs in the classroom and those they were picking up in the playground. Some respondents, especially one group of boys from a fairly disadvantaged area, said that teachers were often seen smoking within the school grounds.
"There is a lot of teachers in the school who smoke. You see them at interval outside smoking."
Male, S4, School D, Secondary, Statutory
Teachers were sometimes perceived to turn a blind eye where pupils were caught smoking within the school grounds.
"Not smoking is not reinforced in our school because people walk about the playground smoking and everything and the teacher will walk right by them."
Female, 17-18, School H, Secondary, Independent
"There was one teacher and he's not there anymore, because he's retired. And if he caught you smoking, if he caught you smoking, he just used to say 'Hide it…I can't see it' and just used to carry on with it."
Male, 17-18, School F, Secondary, Statutory
In these cases it is possible that, because teachers were busy and did not view breaches of school rules on smoking to be an immediate priority, they did not pursue any punishment of this behaviour. In other cases, respondents incidents of teachers joining older pupils in the playground for a cigarette. These perceptions and experiences seemed to reinforce the feeling among some respondents, described in section 2.2 and 4.1, that schools and teachers were not genuinely concerned about health and were 'going through the motions' in drug education.
4.4 Salience and Credibility of Drug Education in Comparison with Other Influences
The qualitative research also sought to explore the salience and credibility of school drug education in relation to other sources of drug information and influence on young people. Four main sources were identified by respondents: advertising, friends, parents and real-life experiences. Each of these is discussed below.
4.4.1 Advertising
Health education advertising on drugs, alcohol and tobacco appeared to be a particularly salient source of information and influence. In several groups, specific adverts were mentioned spontaneously. Respondents of different ages, including special needs pupils, were able to recall adverts and describe them in some detail. The current NHS Health Scotland youth smoking adverts were frequently mentioned, and appeared to be particularly salient to females.
"There's like a young girl, she's like going through her purse and tipping out all the fags and stuff."
Female, S4, School E, Secondary, Statutory
"There's three adverts about smoking but with the same person in them. There's one where she's wanting to top her phone up because she hasn't got any money on it and the guy says '£10 please' and she goes through and she's only got cigarettes and then there's the other one where she's in the shower and there's cigarettes coming out of her hair.."
Female, S2, School F, Secondary, Statutory
"See the adverts - see when the guy is talking in the toilets and he's sniffing. You can see all his bones. I think they're good. And one where the lassie washing her hair and all the douts are falling out. I think they're good because it shows you exactly what can happen."
Female, 17-18, School D, Secondary, Statutory
About the girl…that she goes in to buy cigarettes and she opens her purse and all these cigarettes come out and then there's the one where the boy's kissing the girl and all the cigarettes are going into the guys mouth.
Female, S5-S6, School I, Secondary, Special Educational Needs
These adverts appeared to have some impact on young people. Respondents were impressed by their visual trickery and appreciated what they described as the 'shock factor' behind the adverts ( 'They're shocking but they get to the point.'). The smoking adverts mentioned above triggered recognition because they depicted scenarios which seemed to resonate with young people's own experiences. Particularly important seemed to be the fact that the adverts depicted realistic, salient consequences: embarrassment, not death.
When asked how influential they felt this kind of advertising was, compared with drug education at school, many respondents claimed that it had a much bigger impact on them, particularly in terms of encouraging them to actively reflect upon their own behaviour:
"When you see it on the telly I think it makes you think more."
Female, 17-18, School D, Secondary, Statutory
The perceived greater impact of such advertising campaigns may be partly a result of their generally high production values, combined with the status conferred on a message by virtue of it appearing on television. However, what is perhaps particularly important about the specific adverts which respondents recalled spontaneously is that they succeeding in triggering identification and engagement: respondents could recognise the characters depicted, perceived the threatened consequences as believable, and could project themselves into the characters' shoes. There are implications here for how school drug education can be improved in terms of relevance and impact.
4.4.2 Friends
Friends were important to young people in helping to shape and reinforce their values and views. As described in section 1.4, the friendship groups tended to share similar attitudes towards drugs. Some groups had clearly shared anti-drugs attitudes throughout their school careers and into early adulthood, while others were tolerant of drug use, and perceived it as normal in their communities and families.
Friends were therefore unsurprisingly perceived as a potential source of new information about drugs: "There are lots of stuff you pick up about drugs when you are just talking to your friends". However, because friends tended to have similar experiences of drugs, they were also generally likely to have similar levels of knowledge about drugs.
Where friends were perhaps more influential was in shaping attitudes towards drugs and confirming them. It was notable that in one group of older females, apparently high levels of binge drinking were shared by all members of the group, and these were potentially reinforced by a shared exaggerated way of talking about alcohol: "my liver was pickled". If the norm in a group of close friends was anti-drugs, then this could have a powerful effect on the choices perceived to be open to members of the group:
"In our group nobody, hardly anybody, smokes and so drugs was just out of the question."
Female, 19-20, School G, Primary & Secondary, Independent
When asked to contemplate what would happen if one friend in a group was to become more involved in drugs than the others, several respondents acknowledged that this could create conflict. Others argued that "genuine" friends should not try to influence one another. However, even where this was seen to be an independent choice, respondents felt that it could still cause difficulties within the friendship.
For respondents who were relatively uninterested in drugs, friends' values and school drug education potentially reinforced one another. Respondents who were more ambivalent about or accepting of drugs tended to be more likely to perceive school and friends' values as at odds, and to give more weight to friends and to their own personal values and experiences.
4.4.3 Parents
Respondents had mixed views of the extent to which parents were an influence on their drugs knowledge and attitudes. There was a perception among many that parents were not particularly knowledgeable, either about drugs in general or about the local situation regarding drugs.
"To be honest a lot of parents just don't know about, enough about it either."
Female, 17-18, School H, Secondary, Independent
"My mum doesn't know anything about it so I just talk to friends."
Female, S2, School F, Secondary, Statutory
Where parents did appear to have an influence on respondents it was more through implicit or explicit expectations regarding drugs. Several said that although they did not generally speak to their parents about drugs, they knew that their parents disapproved of drugs, and this constrained and shaped their behaviour. Respondents seemed to be concerned about their parents' opinions of them and commonly expressed a desire not to disappoint them and to gain their respect.
"I know I would disappoint them. That is the main thing I would fear."
Female, 19-20, School G, Primary & Secondary, Independent
"You respect them. You want them to respect you."
Female, 17-18, School H, Secondary, Independent
"She would really shout at me, she wouldn't talk to me. She would give me the silent treatment."
Male, S2, School E, Secondary, Statutory
"I think it might be something to do with my dad because he is a police officer. I don't know what it is."
Male, 17-18, School C, Primary, Statutory
In another case, a female respondent appeared to be able to talk to her mother in a relaxed and open way about drugs. This was in a community with relatively high levels of drug taking, and the fact that drug taking was often visible provided a platform for mother and daughter to discuss the issue in a non-judgmental way.
"Me and my ma will talk about drugs. But it's not like my ma saying, you don't do drugs. It's just talking like, if my ma says oh I seen a wee guy who was mad with it on the bus. It gets you talking about it and saying there's nae point in that."
Female, 17-18, School D, Secondary, Statutory
One older respondent perceived that her parents had been instrumental in shaping her knowledge and values regarding drugs. School drug education had, in her view, merely added to an already strong base:
"I think that with drugs education it all depends on where you've being brought up because my mum and dad set the foundations of what I already know and they expanded on it. The school made a slight difference but everything I know is from my mum and dad and what I've seen on TV. It's also common sense, so school has played a part but I wouldn't say it's played the most important part in that."
Female, 19-20, School G, Primary & Secondary, Independent
4.4.4 Real-life experiences
Real life exposure to and experiences of drugs were also influential in shaping young people's perceptions and beliefs. As section 1.4 above shows, perceptions of the extent and acceptability of drugs in society were influenced by and related to what young people saw around them in schools and in their local communities. Respondents in disadvantaged communities where drug-taking was widespread and visible tended to feel that drug education at school was somewhat redundant in the context of their real life experiences, which had provided them with a more intensive education in the reality of drugs:
"We had more of an education from that street about drugs than from the school. So we had always had a background in dealing with people with drugs. When they were high, and then when they were that desperate to get them. So we'd seen them every day, because there were so many drug dealers in the street. So what we learnt there, it just seemed like a waste of our time, because we already knew it."
Male, 17-18, School F, Secondary, Statutory
Sometimes real-life experiences coincided with and reinforced school drug education (and vice versa), and sometimes the two differed. As respondents matured and moved away from school and home, they acquired new experiences which led them to reassess the information they had been given at school.
"It doesn't match up with what is painted at school."
Female, 19-20, School G, Primary & Secondary, Independent
Encounters with other people who took drugs but did not meet stereotypical negative perceptions of drug users, and first hand experiences of taking drugs without suffering ill effects, led respondents to feel that school drug education had been exaggerated in some respects.
"It's not until you leave school you realised that there are actually good people out there who take drugs. It is too much put in a bracket - like bad, bad, bad. Obviously it is bad but …"
Female, 19-20, School G, Primary & Secondary, Independent
There was a perception that school drug education tended to depict an extreme picture of drug use. However, for some respondents who were subsequently exposed to seeing drug use close-up among acquaintances, there was a feeling that the information given in school, rather than over-stating the effects of drugs, could not really prepare them for the reality.
"It did open your eyes to it. Because as much as you can sit in a classroom and they can tell you about the effects, you don't really know about the effects until you've seen them."
Male, 17-18, School F, Secondary, Statutory
"I think the thing that frightens me the most is I've seen people after taking a line or a pill and you are like, shit, you are totally out of your face. That frightens me a lot and I have had to look after people who have been completely gone."
Female, 19-20, School G, Primary & Secondary, Independent
« Previous | Contents | Next »