The Redland Papers
The Redland Papers
ISSN 1360 1334
Issue Number Eleven, Autumn 2004
The Redland Papers is a peer-reviewed occasional journal published up to two times per year by the Faculty of Education, University of the West of England, Bristol. The editorial group wishes to attract contributions from a range of professionals concerned with educational matters, including teachers in all sectors, managers, researchers and practitioners in education and related fields. Contributions are especially welcome from previously unpublished authors and from individuals who have produced suitable material as part of an accredited programme of study. They may comprise analyses of existing practice, methods and programmes; critical discussions and accounts of new ideas and methods; reviews of developments and controversial issues; and reports on research activities with either empirical or theoretical emphases. Notes for Contributors can be found inside the back cover.
Coordinating Editor
Dr Martin Ashley
Editorial Group
Dr Gaynor Attwood, Professor Jacky Brine, Dr Kim Diment, Dr Richard Eke,
Dr Penelope Harnett, Professor David James, Elizabeth Newman.
Layout and Word processing
Louise Shelley
Distribution/Back issues/Correspondence
Enquiries concerning distribution and purchase of back-issues should be addressed to Research Manager, Faculty of Education, University of the West of England, S Block, Frenchay Campus, Bristol BS16 1QY.
Please address all other correspondence to the co-ordinating editor, Dr Martin Ashley, Faculty of Education, University of the West of England, S Block, Frenchay Campus, Bristol BS16 1QY. Email: Martin.Ashley@uwe.ac.uk
The Redland Papers
ISSN 1360 1334
Issue Number Eleven, Autumn 2004
Contents:
Editorial Martin Ashley Page 3
Yosanne Vella
Research on the Effect of Intervention on Children's Learning in History
Page 6
Bernadette Fitzgerald and Marelin Orr-Ewing
Keeping it Real: Developing a community of practice with a group of secondary teachers near the start of their careers.
Page 14
Helen Bovill
The Academic Vocational Divide in the Education of 14-19 Year Olds.
Page 21
Steve Sujoldzic-Lambert
The Induction of Sessional Staff
Page 36
Sian Breeze
Using Circle Time as a Vehicle to Improve Self-Esteem in the Primary Classroom
Page 40
Graham Capel
Citizenship as a Major Permeating Curricular Issue: The role of geography.
Page 57
Martin Ashley
Still Searching for a Pedagogy: A personal narrative
Page 69
Editorial
MARTIN ASHLEY University of the West of England, Bristol.
Ring out the old!
This is the last edition of Redland Papers in its traditional format. 2005 should see the launch of New Redland Papers, an exciting new venture in publishing by UWE’s Faculty of Education. More of that shortly.
Redland Papers was originally founded by Andrew Pollard and was intended, not only to be a showcase of the Faculty’s research work, but also to be a means of encouraging new authors into print. It was felt that there was a need for a journal that stood midway between peer reviewed academic journal and professional journal. It was always understood that if one published in Redland Papers, one could also submit to another journal, having used RP as a stepping stone.
Things have moved on since then. There have been highly significant developments in the post 1992 sector linked to the RAE and the development of research training on doctoral level programmes. There seems to be a new academic journal founded almost every week and, of course, there has been the growth in e-publishing. The result has been that those colleagues who publish anyway tend to publish in the established peer reviewed journals that are relevant to their fields and colleagues new to publishing increasingly do so too. Redland Papers has not, in the last few years, enjoyed the degree of success we would have liked in encouraging new authors.
Nevertheless, it’s good to quit while winning. This final issue of Redland Papers will, we hope, pay tribute to the vision of it founder. Yosanne Vella is a former UWE doctoral student now working in Malta and presents interesting field work carried out there on children’s use of primary sources in history. It is an interesting piece that shows how important skilled intervention continues to be in the development of process skills. Bernadette Fitzgerald and Marelin Orr-Ewing are two experienced faculty colleagues who report on fascinating work with local, recently qualified secondary teachers. The notion of a “community of practice” in which teachers working in collegiate style and using research techniques in collaboration with HE take a lead in continuing professional development is very timely. There are growing signs of a re-empowerment of teachers as professionals, and this work is of considerable value in pointing out paths forward and the not inconsiderable difficulties that still need to be overcome in following them.
Helen Bovill is another home grown researcher and writes on a subject dear to my own heart – parity of esteem and the academic/vocational divide. Again, this article is timely as the 14 -19 review begins to bite and Tomlinson enquires seriously into the reform of national qualifications for young people. Helen’s article confirms the steepness of the gradient that will need to be climbed. We are pleased to welcome contributions from outside our own Faculty. New author Steve Sujoldzic-Lambert from North East Surrey College of Technology provides some useful thoughts and feedback on the induction of sessional staff. Again, this is topical as so much teaching now relies on the support of visiting lecturers and hourly paid staff. It is not only that these colleagues deserve high quality induction and support, but also that the quality of the student experience is, of course, dependent upon their receiving it. Steve’s piece should be read by all module leaders.
It is not only Redland Papers that is coming to an end, but also the Faculty’s four year undergraduate initial teacher education award. As of this September, students are entering the new three year degree. This is an exciting new innovation of which we will doubtless hear more through New Redland Papers in times to come. Nevertheless, one thing that I think will be sadly missed is the extended fourth year dissertation work in which some of our students are able to produce work of a standard that would be creditable on master’s level courses. I am delighted to be able to include two such pieces. Graham Capel’s is an empirical investigation into geography and the teaching of citizenship, whilst Sian Breeze contributes an erudite review of literature on circle time in primary schools.
Finally, I hope I will be forgiven for including a piece of my own. Still Searching for a Pedagogy is a biographical narrative that first reflects the growing interest in narrative as a research methodology and second reflects the buoyant concern with pedagogy. Robin Alexander has stirred the pot with his recent piece Still no Pedagogy? We also have a university funded project on KS2 pedagogy and a DfES funded project on Steiner schools which is very much concerned with pedagogy. I am involved in both, so put my pedagogical prejudices into the public domain.
Ring in the new!
So, looking to the future, and New Redland Papers. Much of the inspiration for this new journal comes from the concept of the UWE academic. The UWE academic is expected to be “an excellent teacher, an excellent researcher and an excellent administrator”. In being an excellent researcher, the UWE academic can concentrate on pure, basic research and publish in peer reviewed academic journals. Alternatively, she or he can concentrate on applied research and publish in profession journals – or both! I have suggested that the demise of Redland Papers is due as much to the burgeoning plethora of academic journals as anything else. It is also the case that there are very few journals that offer the applied researcher the opportunity for peer reviewed publication targeted principally at the practitioner rather than academic community.
That is precisely the gap in the market that New Redland Papers will fill in an innovative and trail blazing fashion. New Redland Papers is to be a professional journal of applied research in education. It will be based on the principle of analytic research into practice in the tradition of the reflective practitioner. Its target audience is practising education professionals in all phases of education. It aims to contain a balance of articles that will interest administrators, lecturers, managers, policy makers, teachers and researchers at all levels concerned with a critical approach to the maintenance and furtherance of professionalism in education. It will be fully peer-reviewed and will stand as a journal of some prestige in its own right. The format will be double column A4 and the “look” will, we hope, be innovative and eye catching.
Contributions are sought far and wide. UWE staff will contribute significantly as will, we hope, ex UWE students who are now practicing reflective professionals. Equally, we will be seeking contributions from reflective practitioners in any relevant institution, and rigorous professional enquiry into educational administration and management will be as welcome as enquiry into teaching or reflection on the implications of the educational research process.
The first issue of New Redland Papers is being produced by members of the Faculty’s Primary and Early Years school and will be a reflection on Excellence and Enjoyment and the progress of the new Primary National Strategy. Members of the Faculty’s other school, which is concerned with secondary and further education as well as life-long learning are already at work on the second issue. The third issue, we hope, will include a range of contributions from education professionals outside UWE.
Research on the Effect of Intervention on Children's Learning in History
YOSANNE VELLA Faculty of Education, University of Malta
Introduction
The central concern of this research was the effect of intervention on children's work when handling primary historical sources. The ideas children offer when presented with sources were compared with the ideas they offer with the same source after undergoing intervention sessions with the researcher. This research tried to see whether these ideas were modified in any way. The intervention targeted mainly basic observational skills, teaching pupils how to look at historical sources in a better way. Nonetheless it was hoped that these observational skills would also develop a wide range of thinking history skills such as use and analysis of evidence, asking historical questions, understanding chronology and empathetic thinking.
The subject itself, history, which is the branch of knowledge in which the research was operating can be problematic and controversial. In turn this influences the methods adopted for teaching the subject in schools, for example supporters of a strict traditional approach to history teaching would not even consider the inclusion of sources as an integral part of classroom methodology. Traditional history teaching reflects the positivist stance for it rests on the assumption that history is a finished product – the work of historians. The construction of new thinking is not as highly valued as the ability to demonstrate mastery of conventionally accepted historical knowledge. History is seen as a body of knowledge which has to be passed on to pupils.
This is very different from "New History" teaching methods which takes for granted the supposition of certain historiographers, such as Carr (1964), Kitson-Clark (1967) and Tosh (1978), that history is not facts but an interpretation of facts, therefore here the focus in the classroom becomes the teaching of historical thinking skills. Postmodernism attacks this position when it questions the actual validity of the subject itself, shunning 'inherent' meanings, underlying structures and truth claims (Rorty,1982) According to Jenkins (1991:22) “history is not about skills” for a skills-approach to the teaching of history assumes there is a certainty of truth on which you can measure your judgement and this is not acceptable to postmodernists such as Jenkins.
The author of this paper is not in agreement with the postmodernist stance. Even if we accept that history does not give us the truth and ultimately the most we can hope from historians is an interpretation, that in itself can never be a sterile exercise. As Brickley (1999:92) says “Thus since knowledge - historical knowledge - is, substantially at least, about interpretation, it follows that we never have a stable object to study. It is always changing under our interpreting activity and, therefore, as historians, we need to be able to see our historiographical ‘footprint’, for this is a part of the object itself.”
The fieldwork
The research focused on particular age groups which belonged to the primary sector in education. Today it is clearly recognised (Blyth 1989, Cooper 1995, Fines & Nichol 1997) that for the actual process of enquiry to be achieved in history teaching, learning activities with young pupils must include historical primary sources.
The fieldwork for this research was conducted in Malta, therefore the Maltese context is an important element specific to this paper although naturally this research is by no means representative of the whole of Maltese society. While acknowledging the fact that the Maltese element and the school make the results from this study unique, the author believes that one can still cautiously draw certain conclusions which might be relevant to situations outside the confines of this explicit study, because they address elements which are common to all human behaviour.
The research was preceded by a pilot study which consisted of various phases. A sample of pupils similar to the age groups to be used in the actual research was selected: five-year-olds, seven-year-olds and ten-year-olds were used. Work was sometimes carried out with individual pupils or at other times in groups. The pilot helped the researcher to refine procedures in the light of exposure to school conditions as well as to gain some broad insights into the kind of information which it might be possible to collect. The first phase of the pilot was to choose the actual historical sources which would be used with the children during the pre- and post-intervention sessions. Eventually this phase also proved useful in selecting sources for tasks during the intervention. Artefacts in the form of a nineteenth century iron, a nineteenth century painting of a Maltese family and a twentieth century train timetable were selected to be used in the pre- and post-intervention sessions.
The second phase was to try out different formats for the structure of the sessions. Once the best format was chosen it was tested out on its own in the third phase of the pilot and this was used in the actual research. Therefore the format of the actual research design involved the pre-intervention part, where the three pupils working in a group were presented with a historical source and asked to give their comments for about 5 minutes, and a record of their initial impressions was noted. The historical source was then removed and the researcher joined the group. This marked the start of the intervention activities. The intervention tasks lasted around 45 minutes and these were followed by the post-intervention session. During the post-intervention session the pupils were once again given the original historical source they had already seen in the pre-intervention stage and asked to discuss it again for about 5 minutes. The whole procedure was repeated for the artefact, for the pictorial source and for the written source.
The Intervention
The intervention activities were constructed from history teaching methods involving sources, suggested in various history teaching literature and resources, such as English Heritage publications, English Standard Assessment Tasks, Nicholas Roberts’s The Integrated Literacy Pack and Keith Andreetti’s book Teaching History from Primary Evidence, amongst others. They were all chosen on the clear assumption that they were based on ‘New History’ teaching methods. The emphasis was always on skills not content. (See note 1.)
The research data for this thesis are the data coming from the pre- and post- intervention sessions, as well as data coming from the intervention sessions. This data was collected by videotaping and then each one of the pre- and post-intervention sessions was transcribed. This method was favoured because it is a far more sophisticated way of recording data than merely taking down field notes. Also taking down notes during the intervention sessions would have greatly hindered the researcher from concentrating on the pupils. In this way it was hoped that details of natural features of the conversation that went on would be better captured and saved for analyses.
NUD.IST (Non-numerical, Unstructured Data Indexing, Searching and Theorizing) version 4, a computer program for qualitative data analysis was used for the collection and eventual analysis of the pre- and post-intervention data. This program is designed for the storage, coding, retrieval and analysis of text. All the pre- and post-data in this research were organised into the ‘document system’ and the ‘indexing system’. The document system kept track of all the documents, in this case all the pre- and post-transcripts (called by NUDIST text files) while the index system organised the codes (called by NUDIST node). Both the document system and the index system were used to investigate the transcripts. Through this computer program transcripts could be analysed according to each code and provided for each transcript text units retrieved, the total number of text units and the percentage of the total text units retrieved. These were particularly helpful in creating accurately the frequency of reference of each code in the transcripts.
The intervention sessions were also video taped but not transcribed as a whole, like the pre- and post-sessions. Instead reference to data from these sessions was used only when necessary. These short transcripts of part of the intervention sessions usually took the form of examples chosen to illustrate or support an argument.
Data Analysis
Analysis of the data was approached from various different angles and revisited several times. First the researcher did not wish to impose any codes on the data but instead using grounded theory methods (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) went bit by bit through each transcript, and data were categorised from pupils’ comments. This way data were generated rather than verified. Each pre- and post-transcript was analysed by using NUD.IST. As each pupil statement was examined, different categories started to emerge, and then statements referring to the same concept could be grouped. This resulted in eight different codes for the object, seven for the picture and six for the written source.
A scoring system was created to assess children’s comments within the codes and in turn these scores were used to create bar graphs which showed quantitatively the difference in pre and post-scoring by each group. The NUD.IST package was also used to find quantitatively the frequency of reference of each code made by each group. These data were presented graphically.
Up to this point in the analysis no preconceived categories were used. It was hoped that by not imposing a given set of categories attention would not be deflected from uncategorised activities. However, after analysing the data in this way the researcher was curious to see what the data would produce if it were organised around a pre-existing grid. The conceptual grid used was taken from the English Department of Education and Science (DES) objectives for assessing primary pupil progression in history (DES 1985). While the grounded data provided a clear indication that the intervention was helping pupils in their observational skills the data were now being analysed to see whether specific historical thinking skills and concepts were also occurring despite the fact that the tasks in the intervention were not specifically aimed at targeting these. A matrix of children's comments deemed to represent these history thinking skills was created to show where they had occurred mostly.
The video recordings were viewed many times as the transcripts of the pre-intervention and post-intervention session were produced. As Atkinson and Heritage (1984) point out, the actual production and writing of the transcripts are essentially 'research activities'. To transcribe the recordings the researcher had to view closely and repeatedly the sessions bit by bit and this revealed various details besides the actual conversation, such as facial expressions, exclamations, tone of voice and body movement which accompanied the talk. The researcher was able to understand the recordings well because she had the advantage of having been there while the sessions were occurring and in the intervention sessions actually being part of the group being taped.
It was then helpful for the researcher to place the pre and post-session transcripts next to each other so that differences and comparisons could be discussed. In this analysis data from the intervention sessions was also used to try to map out any tangible influence that could be felt in the post-intervention session.
Finally all these different methods of viewing the data were integrated to produce a holistic general analysis of the data. This then led to the discussion on the findings and conclusions which could be drawn from this research.
Summary of results
In the pre- and post-sessions the pupils were working in a group but without the adult. From the analyses of the data it is clear that various things are going on. The first analysis of the texts produced codes which tended to be mostly observational skills, relating to the appearance of the source. This reflected work done in the intervention which involved activities whose objectives were aimed at enhancing observational skills needed to study a historical source. From the results there is a clear indication that on the whole this did occur. There was an increase in observational skills in the post-intervention.
It can be seen that the vast majority of post-intervention total scores obtained, as well as frequency of reference occurrence is higher for all age groups. Thus adult support as well as peer interaction during the intervention sessions is encouraging children’s attention and producing better and more frequent responses. The findings of this research regarding historical sources does in fact tally with other research which shows that children’s skills with any object can be channeled by adults’ highlighting of events during social interaction (Henderson, 1984). The results of this research for 5, 7 and 10-year-olds using historical sources are similar to those described by Henderson where the "active supportive involvement of an adult in children’s exploration of novel objects led to more exploration by 3-to 7-year-olds than did the simple presence of the adults.” (Quoted in Rogoff, 1990:158) Various studies with infants also show that infants, similarly to the response of the pupils used in this study, were more attentive and learnt new uses of objects after adult object demonstration and collaborative engagement. (Bornstein, 1988; Hay, Murray, Cecire & Nash, 1985; Rogoff, Malkin & Gilbride, 1984; Belsky,Goode & Most, 1980).
However, the researcher was also curious to know whether enhancing observational skills would in turn affect and increase specific history thinking skills too. So the data were analysed and coded for six particular history skills; reference and information finding skills, skills connected to the concept of time, language and historical ideas, empathy, asking historical questions and analysis of evidence.
The spread of pupils’ comments showed that some of the history thinking skills were already occurring in the pre-intervention stage of the first session when the aretefact was first used, which clearly shows that children possessed these thought processes before the intervention occurred with the researcher. To a lesser extent this is also true with the other pre-intervention sessions with the picture and with the written source. However in these cases although children were seeing and discussing the source for the first time they now also have the benefit of the earlier sessions. Therefore the influence of the previous intervention sessions cannot be dismissed.
The most noticeable effect of the intervention on children’s history thinking skills was the increase in reference and information finding skills. Although it was not the intention of the intervention sessions to target any of the historical skills in particular, special attention was given to learning how to look at a source more carefully and how we can learn more about it. This focus on observational skills did produce a result, for the one skill that occurred only in the post-intervention and never in the pre-intervention sessions was the skill of reference and information finding. Clearly the children took on board the methods used while doing the tasks with the researcher. It is also interesting to note that while in the first session with the artefact this did not occur, eventually through reinforcement the children seem to gain more confidence. It is possible to observe this skill of reference and information finding demonstrated later on and especially in the last post-intervention sessions.
Although such an overt marked improvement as that which occurred with the reference and information finding skills cannot be seen with regard to the other skills, children’s comments also show that there is generally a substantial increase in the use of comments that show thinking skills. Pressley and Woloshyn (1995) have shown that in various subjects such as English reading, mathematics and science, children can be taught how to be good strategy users and these procedures then help them to meet cognitive challenges. It would appear that their assertion that “Strategies are rarely used in isolation" and the strategies learnt "are integrated into higher-order sequences that accomplish complex goals” (Pressley & Woloshyn, 1995: 3) is also correct for history thinking skills. From this study it is clear that there is an increase but a haphazard one. A neat overall pattern does not exist. Sometimes there is an increase with one age group but not with the others or vice versa. One can only say that being taught observational skills does generally appear to be enhancing the history thinking skills.
Observing the pupils in groups discussing the sources also reveals that independent of the intervention sessions with the researcher, learning can also occur because of the interaction between the pupils themselves. The dynamics of the different groups discussing the sources could create situations of learning. As one follows their talk one can see that the actual ‘talk’ is producing the learning that further ‘scaffolds’ their understanding. In the majority of situations in this study children appear to benefit from participating in the group because of the guidance of those peers who are more accomplished at the task at hand. On the other hand on certain occasions the more skilled children do at times dominate the decision making and ignore their peers.
The conclusions from the data generated by this study support a model of development for children’s history ideas which is non-linear and which has to consist of a 'back and forth' process. It would appear that one cannot create boundaries with clear demarcations regarding children’s history thinking. The picture presented by the data with regards to the effect of intervention is one of overall change caused by an increase in quality and quantity of responses.
Notes
1. A detailed description of the intervention sessions is available in
GATT, S. and VELLA, Y. eds. 2003. Constructivist Teaching in Primary School Social Studies, Mathematics, Science, ICT and Design and Technology. Chapter 6. Agenda Publication..
References
ATKINSON, J.M. and HERITAGE, J.C. eds. 1984. Structures of Social Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
BELSKY, J., GOODE, M. K. and MOST, R. K. 1980. Maternal stimulation and infant exploratory competence: Cross-sectional, correlational and experimental analyses. Child Development, 51, pp1163-1178.
BLYTH, J. 1989. History in Primary Schools. Milton Keynes:Open University Press.
BORNSTEIN, M.H. 1988. Mothers, infants and the development of cognitive competence. In FITZGERALD, H. E. , LESTER, B. M. and YOGMAN, M. W. eds. Theory and research in behavioral pediatrics. Vol.4. New York:Plenum Press.
BRICKLEY, P. 1999. A Postmodernism for School History. In PHILLIPS, R. and EASDOWN, G. eds. History Education:Subject Knowledge, Pedagogy and Practice. Standing Conference of History Teacher Educators. United Kingdom Publication.
CARR, E.H. 1964. What is History? Harmondsworth:Penguin.
COOPER, H. 1995. 3rd edition. The Teaching of History in Primary Schools; Implementing the Revised National Curriculum. London:David Fulton.
DES. 1985. History in the Primary and Secondary Years. London:Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
FINES, J. and NICHOL, J. 1997. Teaching Primary History. London:Heinemann Educational.
GLASER and STRAUSS. 1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Chicago:Aldine Publishing Co.
HAY, D. F., MURRAY, P., CECIRE, S. and NASH, A. 1985. Social learning of social behaviour in early childhood. Child Development, 56, pp. 43-57.
HENDERSON, B. B. 1984. Social support and exploration. Child Development, 55, pp1246 –1251.
JENKINS, K. 1991. Re-Thinking History. London:Routledge.
KITSON-CLARK, G. 1967. The Critical Historian. London:Heinemann Educational Books.
PRESSLEY, M. and WOLOSHYN, V. 1995. Cognitive Strategy Instruction. p3. Brookline Books.
ROGOFF, B. 1990. Apprenticeship in thinking. Oxford:Oxford University Press.
ROGOFF, B., MALKIN, C. and GILBRIDE, K. 1984. Interaction with babies as guidance in development. In B. ROGOFF and J. V. WERTSCH. eds. Children’s learning in the “zone of proximal development”. San Francisco:Jossey-Bass.
RORTY, R. 1982. Consequences of Pragmatism. Minneapolis:University of Minnesota Press.
TOSH, J. 1978. The Pursuit of History. London:Longman White.
Keeping it Real: Developing a community of practice with a group of secondary teachers near the start of their careers.
BERNADETTE FITZGERALD & MARELIN ORR-EWING Faculty of Education, University of the West of England, Bristol.
Introduction
This paper focuses on the development of a model of continuing professional development (CPD) in which University tutors work with teachers near the start of their careers, to learn through and with each other. Drawing on Wenger's construct of 'communities of practice' (Wenger et al, 2002 ) we invited a small group of English teachers, trained by us and now working within one urban Local Education Authority's (LEA’s) comprehensive schools, to engage in some action research, as co-learners, supported by us in our capacity as HE tutors. This paper charts our learning journey, as well as that of the teachers involved. Additionally, we offer our contribution to the debate about what constitutes a productive and sustainable 'community of practice'.
Continuing Professional Development through Communities of Practice
The prevailing model of CPD provision and centrally provided INSET covering national initiatives in England, is at odds with Feiman-Nemser’s (2001) assertion that
‘to improve teacher quality, professional development activities and resources are increasingly focused on teachers’ communities of practice, where teacher learning, in contrast to traditional delivery methods, is connected to the classroom and is supported by follow-up.’ (Printy and Marks:2004:1)
We wished to explore whether teachers’ deep level learning about effective pedagogy would be better nurtured through situating opportunities for developing new practice within their own classrooms and within an emerging community of practice which operated across comprehensive schools within a Local Education Authority (LEA). This resonates with Lave and Wenger's (1992) assertion that for individuals to work within a community of practice does not
'imply necessarily co-presence… it does imply participation in an activity system about which participants share understandings concerning what they are doing and what that means in their lives..'
(ibid:23 )
We concurred with their assumption that within a community of practice it is possible for members to have different interests, make diverse contributions to activity and hold varied viewpoints whilst having enough in common professionally to move forward together.
As trainers of English teachers, we were keen to find out if and how self-critical, confident teachers could be nurtured within an educational climate in which government prescription, testing and inspection tends to define what and how teachers deliver. We asked whether teachers near the start of their careers could claim and sustain ownership of their own continuing professional development and construct a professional identity without external support.
Methodology
We identified action research as a suitably structured and rigorous approach for the emerging community of practice to employ as we developed our understanding of what constitutes effective professional development in an agreed area of English teaching. Our belief that this was a valid way to proceed was supported by Pike (2002) who argues that teachers of English are particularly well positioned to be receptive to and benefit from action research. Pike argues that this is attributable to:
the ideological and epistemological congruence between the aims of English teaching, as perceived by most teachers of the subject in the UK, and the responsive, emancipatory, democratic and collegial values of action research.' (ibid:28)
Forming the group
We invited teachers in their third or fourth year of teaching who had, whilst our PGCE trainees, shown signs of becoming particularly reflective practitioners. They had all impressed us with the quality of their writing during the PGCE year and, since finishing the course, two had worked collaboratively with one of us to publish articles for a professional journal. (Fitzgerald, Pearce & Stewart, 2002)
It is true that any one of the teachers in our research group could have engaged in action research themselves, without any need for our involvement. The DfES 'Best Practice' scholarships have been well advertised (.uk) and findings from these studies are already being published on the web. However, we were keen to establish a community of enquiry which would provide a supportive, critical reflective forum in which teachers could share what they had discovered about the nature of learning in their classrooms – and be challenged to analyse it and modify their thinking and actions accordingly. Furthermore, informal discussions with former PGCE trainees suggested that they would appreciate being steered in this direction and supported by their former university tutors. The teachers we approached saw involvement with the University (us) as a 'privilege', the chance to work with 'like-minded people' and the university itself as a 'thinking place'. Despite all four being very busy, they responded positively to our invitation to participate. They all saw, quickly, the value of systematic reflection on their day-to-day work 'to see if the things I was doing were actually working' (James). They also anticipated the benefit of establishing a bit of 'distance' from the daily 'grind'. Miriam talks about the need for something to 'enliven' her work, whilst Chloe felt she needed to keep her mind 'active' because her job was getting a bit 'samey'. Sarah refers to being on a 'treadmill' and needing reflection and evaluation to help her be more 'clear-headed'.
Research schedule: proposed and revised.
We envisaged the project operating as outlined in the left-hand column of Table 1 below:
|Proposed research schedule |Actual research schedule |
|November 2002 - July 2003 |November 2002 - July 2003 |
|Meeting One UWE |Meeting One UWE |
|Outline Action Research methodology and principle of communities |Outline Action Research methodology and principle of communities |
|of practice. |of practice. |
|Identification of focus for enquiry |Identification of focus for enquiry |
|In school |In school |
|Reconnaissance and formulation of research question. |Reconnaissance and formulation of research question. |
|Meeting Two UWE |Meeting Two replaced by: |
|Planning for action |Telephone calls to individuals to |
| |establish research focus |
| |Letters to share information about topics chosen within the |
| |community. |
|In school |In school |
|Implementation, monitoring and initial write-up |Implementation and monitoring |
| |Too soon for write up. |
|Meeting Three UWE |Meeting Three replaced by: |
|Shared reflection on initial write-ups |Tutors meeting with individuals in school |
|Revise initial question or identify new question |Discussion of progress so far and forward planning |
| |Semi-structured tape recorded interviews. |
| |Ongoing outcomes shared by telephone call. |
|In school |In school |
|Reconnaissance and or implementation |Reconnaissance and implementation |
| |Initial write up |
|Meeting Four (in school - individual tutorial) |Meeting Four replaced by: |
|Review progress and plan for action |Meeting (off-site evening) of the community of practice. |
| |Sharing write-ups |
| |Planning for action |
|In school |In school |
|Implementation, monitoring |Implementation |
|Write-up of progress | |
|Meeting Five UWE |Meeting Five replaced by: |
|Reflection on progress |School visits by tutors to support as appropriate in the |
|Share write-ups with group |classroom. |
|Consideration of how action research can be taken forward | |
|independently. | |
|Meeting Six UWE |Meeting Six replaced by: |
|Evaluation and celebration of project |Submission of final account of action research findings |
In practice the only stage of the original outline which happened as intended was the initial meeting, where we:
• introduced action research as the project's modus operandi.
• agreed the focus of the research project as 'Improving KS3 pupils’ writing'.
• established the 'General Idea' and the teachers undertook to go back into their schools and embark on the 'Reconnaissance' stage of the action research spiral (Hopkins: 1985:34-35)
• agreed the value of establishing a cross-school community of practice.
Action research was accepted as a viable way of working; as one member observed:
It's research in what you are doing, sort of like the chalk-face
One member of the group actually knew more about action research having attended a University seminar on action research methodology as part of her school's DfES funded Training School programme (DfEE, 1999). Her initial approach was sophisticated and analytical; she began by questioning the methodology.
Chloe: I was thinking whether this (topic) would be appropriate for ( ) action research….where do the data come from when you are doing something like this?
Additionally she was able to see connections between action research methodology and her experience of teaching A level English Language in which her students:
have to do an investigation which is based very much round the same sort of variables
Setting the agenda
We felt that it would be neither possible nor within the spirit of action research to ask all four teachers to have an identical focus for their work. We believed, however, that if within this 'community' they could all agree to work within the area of improving pupils' writing in English, an area of national concern, we would have a unifying thread in subsequent group discussions. We provided copies of articles related to improving pupils' writing, culled from recent professional journals which are readily available at the university. The teachers were appreciative of being offered access to a research base and to more theoretical literature which they may not otherwise have had time to pursue.
Revising the route - how the community developed.
Our vision of the community of learning being framed by a series of meetings at the university was clearly too fragile (see Table One: right-hand column). Despite the genuine enthusiasm and commitment of the teachers involved the reality and pressure of everyday school life in challenging urban contexts impacted on our schedule. They all had some problems with attending the group meetings at the University:
Miriam: well I have really wanted to come up (to the University) but sometimes you just can’t get out of things, sometimes you just can’t and, you know, other things become really, really important.
In this case it was running a Government funded after-school 'Booster Class' preparing pupils for the KS3 English SAT.
Sarah: time is a huge obstacle, because a lot of the time I am crisis managing.
This teacher is the Head of a large faculty in a school that was involved in widespread consultation and staff development, prior to becoming a City Academy.
The offer of supply cover to enable teachers to attend meetings during the school day was definitely not helpful in the way we had imagined it would be.
Sarah: There isn’t much time, and even if people say ‘Well I’ll pay for you’ (or) 'you know we will pay supply cover’ …… and you think ‘yeah all very well, but I don’t need money I need the time really’
However they spoke positively of time spent in the University on the occasions that they were able to get there.
Chloe: once you are there it’s fine and I don’t mind.
Communities within schools rather than across schools
Our response to the need for a change in our modus operandi was to replace meetings at the university with the two university tutors working with individuals in their own schools. Of the three teachers who were able to remain in the project, two adapted working with the model to involve a colleague from their own school. In both cases it arose out of the fact they worked closely with that person anyway, enjoyed doing so and admired and respected their colleague's strengths.
Miriam: it was because we have got shared responsibilities (for gifted and talented provision)……and a lot of our conversations are about our styles of teaching.
The third teacher, Sarah, significantly changed her focus so her findings could contribute to her school's strategic planning.
Unfortunately, the fourth member of the group felt he had to prioritise his role in the school's imminent Ofsted inspection and with regret, withdrew from the project.
Where communities of practice can best exist?
Despite the apparent similarities of the schools in which the original four teachers worked, and the fact that three of the teachers had trained together, and two were close friends, it was proving impossible for them to support each other in the way we had envisaged. It is our view that the concept of a 'community' of English teachers as exemplified by the National Association for Teachers of English (NATE) or its regional branch activities is unlikely to provide the type of professional development and support that teachers want and need. Whilst NATE continues to have an important role in updating and representing its members, we would argue that in these pressured times it is within the English department of a school that real professional development will occur - if at all. The teachers in our project want to be creative, to reflect on and refine their professional practice - despite the prescriptive curriculum and national initiative overload which forms a major part of their day-to-day work. Two of the teachers took 'ownership' of the research process, and adapted the methodology that we had originally suggested by collaborating with a teacher from within their English department as co-researchers (Torrance & Pryor, 2001).
Is the model a workable way of approaching customised CPD?
Our original proposal was too close to traditional models of CPD provision, where teachers attend training sessions off-site, during school hours; these are not popular with teachers, their managers or pupils. The reasons for objections to this include the detrimental effect on the learning and behaviour classes left behind, the difficulty of finding appropriate supply cover, the loss of continuity and deterioration in pupil motivation. Where the participants in this research project took ownership of the methodology and formed small research communities within their own departments, momentum was maintained and workable outcomes were produced to the benefit of pupils.
The future
We believe we have gone some way towards finding a model for an effective role for the university tutor in the professional development of secondary teachers. With this in mind we have chosen to test our initial findings by offering to run a school-based module within the Faculty's CPD programme: School Improvement through Action Enquiry. Teachers considering enrolling on this module are advised that
… enquiries are always best conducted collaboratively and therefore participants are encouraged to work in pairs or ideally as a group of educators in a specific school …
UWE (2003)
Based on our findings to date, we believe that teachers working together in one school, supported by tutors from a partner higher education institution, is more likely to be successful than teachers working across a cluster of schools. We are optimistic that this ‘community of practice approach to professional development’ (Printy & Marks, 2004) is the way forward.
References
DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT. 1999. Better Training. London:DfEE.
FEIMAN-NEMSER S. 2001. From Preparation to Practice: Designing a continuum to strengthen and sustain teaching. Teachers College Record 103(6).
FITZGERALD, B., PEARCE, Z. and STEWART, C. 2002. A Tale of Two Approaches. The Secondary English Magazine 5 (4)
HOPKINS, D. 1985. A Teacher’s guide to classroom research. Milton Keynes:Open University Press.
LAVE, J. and WENGER, E. 1992. Legitimate Peripheral Participation in Communities of Practice. In MCCORMACK, R. and PAECHTER, C. eds. 1999. Learning and Knowledge. London:Paul Chapman Publishing.
PIKE, M. 2002. Action Research for English Teaching. Educational Action Research 10 (1).
PRINTY, S. and MARKS, H. 2004. Who participates? An investigation of the relationship between meaning and identity in productive communities of practice. Draft paper prepared for the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. San Diego, CA.
TORRANCE, H. and PRYOR, J. 2001. Developing formative assessment in the classroom: using action research to explore and modify theory. British Educational Research Journal 27(5).
UWE (2003) School Improvement through Action Enquiry, module publicity leaflet. Bristol:University of the West of England, Bristol.
WENGER, E, MCDERMOTT, R. and SNYDER, W. 2002. Cultivating Communities of Practice. Boston:Harvard Business School Press.
The Academic Vocational Divide in the Education of 14-19 Year Olds.
HELEN BOVILL Research Student, University of the West of England, Bristol.
Introduction
Does more choice mean better choices and is this what young people want? These are the two questions that will inform this paper and which set me on this path of discovery.
Throughout much of educational history there has been a tension between an academic education and a vocational training. Parity of esteem between the two has never been on an equitable footing and I want to explore whether increasing choice - as proposed in the 14 – 19 initiative Opportunity and Excellence will have the desired outcome which is to “…transform the learning experience for young people, so that they have a commitment to continued learning, whether in school, college or the workplace.” (DfES, 2003) or whether what will result is the maintenance of a two tier system of education where those perceived as less academically able students, receive a second class education that does little to prepare them for the workplace.
To contextualise this paper I will briefly outline the historical development of the divide that exists between academic and vocational education before going on to outline recent developments in vocational education and then the proposals in Opportunity and Excellence. I will continue by setting out the competing arguments surrounding this debate.
The views of young people are vital to the development of policy which they are at the heart of. To investigate these views I have chosen to use semi-structured interviews with a small group of students at my college placement. I have chosen a small sample group because of the restrictions of time and space. For these same reasons I have chosen not to conduct a more in-depth form of enquiry such as unstructured interviews, case studies, or life stories (Plummer, 2001; Miller, 2000; and Atkinson, 1998). By using semi-structured interviews I am making the most efficient use of resources in this instance but still allowing the respondents a certain degree of freedom to move the research in a direction of their choosing to produce a ‘rich’ source of data. A semi-structured interview will allow me - the interviewer - some degree of control over topics of discussion and this is useful in a small scale study such as this as “it is unclear how one goes about combining into a coherent structure the rich detail that even a small amount of qualitative fieldwork will amass.” (Miller, 2000: 113). By imposing some structure on the interview process, the amount of information generated is more easily regulated.
It is not my intention in this paper to come up with answers, rather I wish to begin an investigation into an area that I have great interest in allowing for the possibility of further investigation at a later stage. The last section of the paper will analyse the viewpoint of the respondents – all 14 -19 year olds themselves and studying within the vocational sector.
I will conclude this paper by drawing the strands of the investigation together and highlighting the main points to arise from this research. Finally I will demonstrate any impact that this research has had upon my professional development as a teacher.
Historically Speaking
The inferiority of vocational education to that of academic education is historically specific. “The purpose of education, in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, was to produce the cultured gentleman.” (Wallace, 2002: 9).
Subjects that could be deemed as ‘useful’ to the economy were not for the upper classes who aspired to a classical education. It is important here to define the difference between vocation, referring to areas such as medicine which would carry high social status, and vocational which refers to those areas of application to industry, commerce, manufacture. As industry expanded it became necessary to develop technical education and Mechanics Institutes evolved, but still this form of education was linked to the lower classes as “The better students on the whole found more gentlemanly employment.” (Weiner, 1985: 133). Thus the debates grew over the ‘usefulness’ of knowledge and the purpose of education (Wallace, 2002). These debates rage today and have found no resolution. To demonstrate this I will now fast forward to Ruskin College Oxford and to two time periods – 1976 and then again twenty years later in 1996.
The Great Debate Part I
Philip Brown (1990, in Halsey et al., 1997: 393-408) usefully for the purposes here, divides the changes in education since the development of mass schooling into three ‘waves’. In his ‘first wave’ of the nineteenth century the drive toward mass schooling was fuelled by the needs of industry “…there was considerable concern about the ‘untutored masses’ and ‘dangerous classes’.” (ibid: 394). There was also concern that this sector needed to be ‘appropriately’ educated. Thus they received an education not to encourage a questioning mind, but rather to create an economically productive workforce who displayed such skills as basic reading and writing, the ability to keep good time and to follow orders.
Brown characterises the ‘second wave’ as involving “An ideological shift in organising principle, from an education determined by an accident of birth (ascription) to one based upon one’s age, aptitude and ability (achievement).” (ibid: 395). For a short time - from the Education Act of 1944 until the early 1970s - the principles of meritocracy and equality of opportunity took hold of education. The inadequacies of the tri-partite system in achieving equality of outcome or any real equality of opportunity have been widely documented (Halsey et al., 1997) and it is not my intention to contribute to this debate here. Suffice it to say that by the mid 1970s education was being criticised as incompatible with social engineering, and child centred forms of education, comprehensive schooling and social justice were soon to take a back seat to the needs of the economy.
By Brown’s ‘third wave’ these principles were said to be lowering standards of education
…comprehensive reorganisation has both eroded the standards of our elite schools because of their contamination by the masses, and led the masses to receive an education which is not suited to their ‘needs’. (ibid: 398).
The post-war educational ‘consensus’ had come to an end and in 1976 at Ruskin College, Oxford, James Callaghan – the then Labour Prime Minister – launched what came to be known as The Great Debate. This speech criticised the education system as – amongst other things – not responding to the needs of the economy or producing socially well adjusted yet unemployable young people. Yet again the purpose of education is debated and the 1980s sees a move towards what is described as the ‘New Vocationalism’ in response to the perceived weaknesses of vocational education:
In the wake of Callaghan's speech, the subsequent 'Great Debate' and the election of a Conservative government a plethora of White Papers were produced containing a wide variety of proposals for the reform of vocational education. Acronyms multiplied as general policy statements were translated into specific programmes and courses - YOPS, YTS, TVEI, CPVE, DVE, NVQs, GNVQs. (Yeoman,2002:2).
These ‘specific programmes’ – prolific as they were – did little to bring either a sense of harmony or co-ordination to vocational education; or to deal with the ongoing issue of parity of esteem between academic and vocational education.
The Great Debate Part II
December 16th 1996. The Right Honourable Tony Blair MP – speech given at Ruskin College, Oxford.
Since I became leader of the labour Party, I have emphasised that education will be a priority for me in government. I have done so because of the fact – increasingly recognised across our society – that our economic success and our social cohesion depend on it. An Age of Achievement is within our grasp – but it depends on an Ethic of Education. That is why in my party conference speech I said that my three priorities for government would be education, education and education. (Education-Line: URL, 1996: 1).
He goes on to set out the changes needed in education: a new consensus, economic efficiency, raising standards, and higher expectations:
The century old tradition of low expectations for the majority is at the heart of this problem. In the 19th and early 20th century, it was thought either that the majority of people did not need to achieve decent standards, or that they could not achieve them. Today we know from the experience of other countries that more education need not mean worse education. And we know too that not only is it possible for large numbers of school leavers to achieve high standards, but that it is more and more important that they do so.” (Education-Line: URL, 1996: 3).
So once again education, its purpose and its value, is under scrutiny. In 1997 Tony Blair took office as the leader of The New Labour Party and much change has occurred in education since then but it is to the new 14 – 19 initiatives proposed by the government that I now want to turn to.
‘14 – 19 Opportunity and Excellence’
14-19 Opportunity and Excellence (DfES, 2003) is a government document which builds on the Green Paper 14-19: Extending Opportunities, Raising Standards (DfES, 2002). In brief it is outlining the weaknesses of the vocational system and putting forward a ‘new’ solution as follows:
• To give 14-19 year olds more choice in the education system.
• 14 – 16 year olds will still have to study English, mathematics and science.
• 14 – 16 year olds will continue to be taught citizenship, RE., sex education, careers education, and PE, and ICT remains compulsory for now.
• They want 14 year olds to have more choice in their GCSEs, so that – if they want to – at 14 students can choose more work related (vocational/applied) GCSEs, more academic GCSEs, or a mixture of both.
• Vocational GCSEs already exist in art and design, applied business, engineering, health and social care, applied Information and computer technology, leisure and tourism, and manufacture and applied science. The government wants to improve and extend these GCSEs, to eventually replace GNVQs – proposed by 2004/5.
• Modern apprenticeships are already offered, the government also wants to improve the standards of these and to increase the places available to young people.
• They want schools and colleges to work together in educating young people from 14 upwards and so some young people may be taught at both school and college from this age, or on alternative curricula solely at a college.
• They intend that a work related education will become as important and as valuable as an academic education as they are working with employers to find out what they want.
• By dropping the unhelpful – as they describe it – title of vocational it is hoped that equal status between academic and applied subjects will be further enhanced.
• The government intends to offer education maintenance allowances from September 2004 to those from poorer backgrounds, to help them stay on and complete their further education.
• They are also putting forward plans to fully nationalise and further resource Connexions, to provide an informed young workforce for the 21st century.
So why should these initiatives work where others have seemed to fail? To explore the possibilities of a successful integration of vocational and academic studies that enhances the life chances of all young people in a system of equal esteem I will analyse both sides of the argument.
Reasons which Support the New Vocational Initiatives
• Young people will have the chance to learn a work related skill from 14 years upward.
• Young people will be able to see the relevance of what they are being taught through practical application.
• Vocational GCSEs are a method for re-engaging young-people who are at risk of/who have dropped out of traditional education.
• A vocational education produces an economically productive workforce.
• The new vocational initiatives will help to bring about collaboration between the education system, employers, careers advisors and others involved in meeting the needs of young people. This will more successfully cater for the diversity of their needs at this stage.
• The desired ‘outcome’ of this overhaul of the system is to remove the stigma attached to a vocational education and ultimately to achieve parity of esteem with an academic education. If this was achieved it would provide a more balanced and fair system of education which accounts for diverse aptitudes.
Reasons which Do Not Support the New Vocational Initiatives
• Vocational GCSEs will contribute to a two-tier system of education not dissimilar to what was experienced through the post-war tri-partite system of education. This split will confirm an intellectual elite rather than achieve parity of esteem.
• Young people will be forced to make very difficult and crucial decisions at a very young age. These decisions could have the capacity to set them on a course for failure or success.
• Young people rarely have clear ideas of what they want to do for the rest of their lives. The new vocational initiatives may force them onto a job targeted path too soon.
• Many young people will lose out on the chance to broaden their minds through subjects of a non-utilitarian nature. What about education for education’s sake? The benefits of well rounded and inquisitive young people are as important for the good of society as is the creation of an economically productive workforce.
• Many teachers and lecturers are not equipped to teach vocational subjects and many who are technically qualified do not possess adequate teaching or lecturing skills.
• Educational needs will be/are subordinated to the needs of industry.
Analysis of the Implementation of Vocational Initiatives
The Conservative Government’s statement in the White Paper Learning to Compete stated
The Government wants young people to take greater ownership of their own development and to value more highly their opportunities to learn. Then more young people will choose to stay in learning, and they will tend to choose options which are better matched to their individual aptitudes and to their future employment needs. (DfEE, 1996: 6).
Shortly afterwards came the Labour Government’s statement in the White Paper Learning to Succeed
Increasing the number of young people who want to learn – and improving their success in getting skills and qualifications – will make the difference for individuals between a lifetime of low skills and low wages, and making a real contribution to society and gaining proper reward for it. (DfEE, 1999: 51).
These two statements, from an outgoing Conservative government and an incoming Labour government are similar and evidence of an educational ‘consensus’ in the United Kingdom. This ‘consensus’ dictates that young people must take more responsibility for their education and training; they must be focussed and purposeful and take full advantage of all the new educational opportunities available to them.
It also implies that young people in the past have not been responsible, focussed, purposeful and that if they have found themselves with low skills and low or no wages then the fault has been with (a) themselves, or (b) the education system. Just as in 1976 there is little account to external constraints which determine life outcomes such as the economy, the job market for young people, confusing and continuing changes in policy, implications of social class (Bourdieu, 1986, in Halsey et al., 1997: 46-58), or of the complexities of identity formation for young people in a changing world (Giddens, 1991). New Labour operates under the banner of an ‘inclusive society’ (Levitas, 1998). I will now examine some of the available evidence regarding the vocational initiatives to see whether their policies are moving the debate away from individualised blame toward a more productive debate which embraces a more inclusive education.
To do this I have examined aspects of a research report prepared by SWA Consulting for the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) entitled National Evaluation of Key Stage Four Work-related Learning Demonstration Projects). Briefly the background and remit of the report are as follows. In 1997 bids were invited for demonstration projects (DPs) with the aim to “develop additional programmes of work-related learning at KS4, supported – as appropriate – by employers and/or Further Education Colleges/training providers.” (ibid, 1).
The remit or aims of those chosen to participate are to enhance the lives of young people through education in the following ways:
• Improve motivation and attainment
• Prepare for working life
• Provide opportunities for work related learning
• Aid effective post-16 transitions
• Promote key skills
• Schools, colleges, trainers, employers to work collaboratively
The objectives of the project were to
• Analyse the impact of the projects on all of the above
• Explain factors which influenced success or failure
• Assess external factors
• Explore the capability of local/national replication of projects
Thirty five DPs were established and the results are somewhat complex. The report explains that the comparator group should have been representative of the project groups. They were not. The project groups were overwhelmingly selected from “lower aspirers and achievers” (ibid: 15) while the comparator groups were made up of a cross spectrum of year groups. However the results show that those in the project groups (predominantly former low aspirers/achievers) were now achieving at least up to the level of the average in the comparator groups (ibid: 15).
The three projects which focussed on improved opportunities via the vocational GCSE route – Coventry, Norfolk, and Barking and Dagenham – reported increased support from local employers (ibid:16). In the section on ‘destinations’ (ibid: 25-27) the percentage of students in participating schools staying on in full-time education after year 11 rose in 1997 from 62% to 65% in 1999. In the section which deals with ‘impact on student motivation’ (ibid: 28-39) evidence suggests that in the project schools, unauthorised absence rates fell, student behaviour improved, and students’ self-esteem and confidence was boosted by being selected for this ‘high status initiative’ (ibid: 28).
The findings from the report are encouraging, but the connection with vocational education and low aspirers/achievers is problematic. It reinforces the image that a vocational education is for those students who don’t do well in the traditional school system. Appeasing the sector that has lost out to the introduction of markets and a 'parentocracy' within education (Brown, 1990 and 1995: in Halsey et al., 1997: 393-408 and 736-749) with what is perceived as a second class education is not enough. Using vocational education as a safety net to gather up all those that the education system has failed will not achieve parity of esteem and it will not deliver the education that these young people deserve.
A commitment to establishing quality in vocational education is paramount and this will require resources, real collaboration between all those institutions involved over a sustained period, as well as a commitment to involving those at the forefront of these changes – students – in the decision making process. Vocational initiatives will not work until the opinions of the students - who are currently either the pioneers or the ‘guinea-pigs’ of this latest re-organisation - are taken into account. For the next section of this paper this is my intention. Through an analysis of the semi-structured interviews I conducted, I will analyse the opinions of four students from a student group I am currently teaching. If time and space had permitted I would have chosen a larger group of students. It is my informed choice that in this instance – because of constraints – a smaller group will be more effective and make best use of the resources available to me.
The Interviews
At the beginning of this paper I stated that the questions which would inform this research would be:
• Does more choice mean better choices?
• Is this what young people want?
I do not claim any universal generalisations from such a small research sample and it would not be my intention to do so if the research group were of a size to warrant this. Rather my value system falls more in line with a humanistic style of research as advocated by Ken Plummer
…I am simply advocating getting close to living human beings, accurately yet imaginatively picking up the way they express their understandings of the world around them, perhaps providing an analysis of such expressions, presenting them in interesting ways, and being self-critically aware of the immense difficulties such tasks bring.
(Plummer, 2001:2)
Bearing the two questions above in mind I have analysed the ‘discussions’ that I had with four students to find a way in to their unique understandings of the world around them and, more precisely, the educational world around them. I have also worked with these students for nearly a year now and during this time I have observed their interaction in the class. My observations and my professional relationship with them impact upon the way I interpret this information and also the way in which they impart this information to me. Qualitative interpretive research has been criticised as invalid, unreliable and subject to researcher bias. As I have already documented my research falls within a value system which embraces subjectivity and, largely, denies the possibility of researcher neutrality. To overcome some of the positivist critiques I employ a technique referred to by Hessler (1992) as ‘touching base’ whereby I frequently check back with the respondents that I have understood what they are saying, that what I have written is a clear interpretation. My main objective within this – and other research – is to try to document people’s understandings and the way they make sense of the world “For what is research in educational settings for if it is not to understand? When we understand, we can change.” (Bolton, 1981, in Clough, 2002; 83).
All four participants gave their permission - verbally and in written format – for the interviews to take place and for the information gained to be used for research. The researcher must always bear in mind ethical and moral issues particularly when dealing with real people and real lives (Clough, 2002; Harrison and Lyone, 1993; British Sociological Association, 1992). Before submitting this paper I asked each participant to read this document so that they were able to verify that they were comfortable with the interpretations that I had made of their contributions (Atkinson, 1998).
Leroy (aged 16) had come to college after walking out of school in year 11. This was because of bullying and Leroy says that the teachers didn’t offer him any help with this – obviously – (my observation) a painful period of time for him.
Kel (aged 17) came to college after he had been excluded from school – also in year 11 – because of truanting, damage to the school and theft. In his own words “I used to treat school like my home, talk, run, cheek the teachers.”
Nicola (aged 17) finished year eleven of school and took eight GCSEs. She came to college after the advice she had received at school to improve her grades and because the college was expanding its performing arts section, an area she still wishes to pursue some day.
Jenny (aged 15) is following an alternative curriculum at college because of health reasons; she suffers with ME and missed a lot of school. She finds college “more relaxed, in school you had to be in each day.” The flexible approach that college is more able to adapt to suits Jenny’s particular needs.
Leroy and Kel both state that they were given very little choice, advice or time when it came to choosing subjects in school and they both seemed – quite rightly – angry about this. Both boys say how they were given only five or ten minutes to choose the subjects that would set them on course to whatever exams they may later take and both state how being with their friends was one of the most important criteria in their hurried choices: “First thing you thought….I don’t want to be on my own….choose what my friends choose…I really regret this now as your friends shit on you.” “How can you decide your future in 10 minutes…too immature to pick…picked the same as my mates.”
Nicola was more positive about the advice she received as she feels it was appropriate. However, she talks about how she sought out this advice. It was not readily offered to her. Jenny explains that because she wasn’t often in school she missed a lot of the advice and when she was in school “no one tried to make sure she got advice.”
Both Leroy and Kel thought that giving young people more choice at 14 years old was a good thing with Leroy saying that “At least they can choose what they’re good at.” Kel articulates a high level of maturity in his response. “They should be more aware of the consequences…with more choice comes more consequences…kids think it’s all a big game.”
Nicola is ‘not sure’ that young people can handle more choice. “Not everyone knows what they want. They are very young to decide whether to stay at school or college.” Jenny feels that more choice for young people is a good thing but “only if they get the right advice and help.”
When asked whether young people actually wanted choice such as the choice to study at school or college, Leroy and Kel gave mixed responses: “Yes…more adult environment.” “Depends on the person…kids are too quick to pass blame…they won’t take responsibility.” Nicola is unsure whether young people would like to go to college at 14 and Jenny says “They want to go to college, it’s cooler than school, less rules.”
Each of the students interviewed seemed to prefer studying at college, though Kel poignantly says “I miss school loads, but we’re much closer here.” Nicola, Leroy and Kel all thought that class sizes in school should be smaller. They liked the smaller groups in college. Nicola says “At college, there are smaller groups and you get more help and attention when things aren’t going right.”
When asked what learning and education should be about the students seemed to want more relevance to their own lives taught in the subjects they were studying, and Nicola replied it was about “Bettering yourself – so you’re not stuck in a dead end job – get better qualifications – and for enjoyment.”
I want to finish this section of the paper with one final comment from each of the students interviewed. When asked to summarise their experience of education so far and in one sentence these were the replies:
Leroy: “School was shit. It’s been alright here so far, but I’m not going to open my gob too soon.”
Nicola: “Better as time goes by.”
Kel: “It’s been a rollercoaster ride with a shit load of bumps.”
Jenny: “School’s rubbish but college is better because they treat you as more of an individual.”
Conclusion
From this research and from my experience within education the tensions between an academic and vocational education remain. Parity of esteem has not been achieved and the new government initiatives in the 14-19 sector seem unlikely to resolve this situation.
As I have outlined in this paper the education system of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries quite openly advocated a differentiated system of education for the upper and lower classes. This differentiation has suffered periods of ‘erosion’, most notably the post-war period where educational principles of meritocracy gained some foothold, and then from the late 1960s where educational differentiation was further reduced by the democratising principles of comprehensivisation. From the 1980s onwards there has been a distinct and deliberate move towards a ‘marketisation’ of education (Brown, 1990, in Halsey et al., 1997: 393-408) where we are told that greater choices will lead to greater educational freedoms. This is undoubtedly true for those sectors of society with sufficient economic and cultural resources (Bourdieu, 1986, in Halsey et al., 1997: 46-58) to take advantage of these extended choices. However, while our system of education is based “…upon the wealth and wishes of parents, rather than the ability and efforts of pupils.” (Brown, 1990; in Halsey et al., 1997: 393) and any real efforts to democratise education are thwarted by fears of “contamination by the masses” (ibid: 398) and a desire to maintain class advantage by heightening educational differentiation – parity of esteem will never be achieved.
The ‘Great Debate Part I’ – as I have referred to it – set in motion the ‘New Vocationalism’, but this was in response to the needs of the economy rather than to any real desire to bring about any equality between vocational and academic education. The ‘Great Debate Part II’ as led by Tony Blair MP in 1996 was once again responding to the needs of the economy and a panic over falling standards and rising levels of ‘disaffected’ youth. My analysis of the implementation of some of the government’s vocational initiatives demonstrates some promising results in responding to the disaffection of some sectors of the young population, but the analysis does not support a move toward equal esteem between a vocational and academic education. Indeed the DfEE document which I analysed for this paper provides evidence of the maintenance of a two-tier system of education through the differences perceived to exist between academic and vocational qualifications. It states that a “…pre-condition of success in the projects” (DfEE, 2000: 55) was that schools must decide on
… a curriculum philosophy which has sorted out whether work- related learning is an entitlement for all students or something which is of particular relevance to certain students only (most frequently those who are disaffected, poor attenders or simply those who are not achieving as well as they might) (ibid: 55).
It was evident from the document that most – if not all - of the thirty five DPs that took part had made their decision on a ‘curriculum philosophy’ as most project groups were populated by the disaffected, poor attenders and/or ‘low’ achievers.
In principle developing an ‘alternative’ form of education for those students not coping with more traditional forms of schooling and education could be a positive step. However as a former ‘low achiever’ myself who followed a vocational pathway within the 1980s era of ‘New Vocationalism’ my major criticism with the system is that it seeks to separate people at too young an age into tidy sections of academic students, non-academic students or educational failures. There is no system of adequate support in place to support the very crucial decisions that young people are being forced earlier and earlier to make, and without this system of support young people may be forced into making decisions they later come to regret.
The four interviews that I carried out with the students highlight that they were given little or no support in making crucial decisions. The government is trying to co-ordinate support for young people through initiatives such as Connexions. Apart from Leroy, not one of the students had accessed this service and all of them knew very little about the services available to them. Even this service in itself is problematic as it has come to be associated with students experiencing trouble or problems, once again with ‘disaffected youth’. I have spoken to many of the students I teach and this is the impression that many of them have regarding Connexions. With this impression there is a stigma attached, just as there is to vocational education for many of these students. I have also spoken to the Connexions advisor who visited my college to clarify this point and she explained that because of limited resources those students experiencing problems made up the bulk of her work.
It is evident that more resources need to be targeted at supporting students in making choices if they are to be forced into such important choices at a young age. The responses from the students I interviewed about whether they wanted to make such important choices at 14 were mixed, ranging from not sure to yes but with support. The students’ responses in general to the interview questions were mixed, with some students being more willing to give an opinion than others. All the students however were keen to be interviewed and in actual fact when I asked for four students to interview, every student in the class was keen to take part. As I have said previously, because of limitations on time I had to keep this study small, however this was not because of lack of interest from the students. This fully justifies my claim earlier in this paper that for vocational initiatives to work then the views of students must be taken into account when planning new initiatives.
I want to end this paper on a positive note as despite the criticisms of the implementation of vocational initiatives there is evidence of the positive nature of a relevant and work related curriculum for young people, and not just young people for whom the traditional education system has failed, though for now this seems to be the main target. On a recent school visit I was very impressed with the implementation of the vocational curriculum. There was good evidence of the college and school working in close partnership – I witnessed a meeting between college and school staff and know that the school’s vocational co-ordinator makes regular visits to the college. In real terms the school does try to hold on to its more able students in the sixth form, but from talking to the staff I came to understand that they also have a very individual approach to students’ needs, supporting them as best as resources allow in the array of choices they now face in the post-16 (and sometimes younger) transition from school to work, or college.
I also visited one of the school’s vocational ‘successes’, a young man who was on the verge of being lost to the education system. Everything they had tried previously to ‘re-engage’ this student had failed. Now he is enthusiastically following a vocational course in mechanical engineering which is supported by the school, the college and a local employer. He is in the process of applying for a modern apprenticeship and all the signs are that he will be successful.
The real success of vocational education will be apparent when students, educators, trainers and employers regard vocational qualifications with equal esteem to academic qualifications. This research highlights that – for the time being – the success of vocational initiatives will largely be measured in their capacity to re-engage those students that the education system would otherwise fail.
Finally, in terms of my own professional development – this research has led me to look at the vocational system with a more open attitude. As is evident from this paper I have not found evidence to support that parity of esteem has been achieved between vocational and academic education; neither do I support the current government’s claims that their initiatives will achieve this. However, though the vocational route was not successful for me in my education as a young adult it is evidently successful for many young and older students alike. Vocational initiatives need more resources and better co-ordination, and crucially they need to be given greater value by policy makers, educators and employers so that they can better serve the needs of all students in making an informed choice to follow this route.
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The Induction of Sessional Staff
STEVE SUJOLDZIC-LAMBERT North East Surrey College of Technology
Introduction
This article reviews the current practice of providing inductions to hourly paid (sessional) staff and addresses the shortfalls in current practices. It identifies a number of key recommendations for the provision.
The government's principle of mass higher education was identified in its White Paper of 1991 (DES, 1991). Pressure on institutions of both Higher Education (HE) and Further Education (FE) to increase the intake of students comes with problems, particularly of both physical and human resourcing. Institutions have for some time turned to hourly paid staff to help meet the shortfall in staffing levels (Husbands,1998) and to provide the specialist skills that courses often require. Whilst many of these staff bring with them valuable industrial experience, many are new to education, having just completed their teaching qualification. Many are looking for their first appointment, possibly to secure a more permanent post. Not all sessional staff fall into this category. Some have what Handy (1994) describes as a 'Portfolio Career', working for a number of institutions.
The formal process of providing staff induction differs considerably between permanent employees (full time or fractional) and sessional ones. A permanent employee will participate in a structured induction programme, typically incorporating:
• one to one induction on their first day with the Human Resources (HR) department
• one to one induction on their first day with their line manager
• attendance at an institutional induction programme (possibly Y2 day)
• possible attendance at an academic staff induction programme
• possibly assignment of a mentor.
Researching the problem
Sessional staff will often have a limited induction programme. In some instances a chat over a cup of coffee is all that they will receive. Education is not unique in this situation. Davies et al (2001) highlight almost identical issues within the hospitality sector, outlining in particular the widening skills gap, due in part to Iow numbers entering the hospitality profession. Can the model of staff induction which we use for permanent staff meet the needs of the sessional staff? To establish further the extent to which staff induction should be implemented a cross-section of staff were interviewed. These included sessional staff, senior quality tutors, human resource staff and faculty management.
It became apparent early on in the interviews that there was a common theme emerging. All staff agreed that sessional staff needed an induction. However, each group of staff had a different view on what should be included, and the way in which it should be delivered. The sessional staff required very specific information, 'how do I get photocopying done? Where do I get board pens? What is the procedure for booking Audiovisual (AV) equipment? These are operational issues. They also wanted to know a little about the structure of the faculty. The strategic direction of the institution, or indeed the vision of the institution was not considered a priority for the sessional staff. On the other hand, most who were interviewed stated that they would attend an induction session/s if they were to be paid.
The issue of paying staff is complex. Human resources argue that they will not pay for specific induction activities that fall outside of the normal institutional induction. It is the faculty's responsibility to fund such induction activities. The faculty's management agrees that sessional staff should be given an induction, if nothing else for equal opportunities purposes. However, they were not enthusiastic about finding monies from an already over stretched budget to pay for an induction programme for staff, some of whom are only delivering 1 hour of class contact time per week.
The issue of delivering the induction, without the cost associated with it was interesting. A short article in Personnel Today (unauthored, 2002) considered how more and more large corporations were turning to technology to carry out tasks that traditionally were difficult or time-consuming. The article looked at how B&Q, the DIY chain, had implemented an electronic staff induction programme. The system speeded up the induction process, reducing both time and cost of delivery. BT, the telecommunications giant, has also been implementing a similar system for staff induction.
If companies such as B&Q and BT are using such systems, then why is education not? Careful consideration needs to be given to such a system, in particular with regard to individuals' levels of IT literacy. Staff Induction, as with any learning, needs to be a two way process for it to be successful. If these considerations are met when developing an e-induction system, (Sieman 2002), then I can see no reason why it couldn't assist in the induction of staff. The idea of e-induction is a longer-term plan, and assumes that a rigorous and adequate system for providing sessional staff induction is already in place.
Thompson (1998) summaries by saying 'new strategies are selected because they offer opportunities and potential benefit’.
After many interviews and collation of data and analysis a draft framework was drawn together which was based on the requirements for the institution, however, this could act as a model for others seeking to develop their own session staff induction programme.
Stage 1
Ensure that all sessional staff are line managed by the relevant manager. Not all institutions have sessional staff reporting to the Head of Department or Curriculum Manager, some have a system where sessional staff report to a cross faculty manager, be it the Head or Deputy Head of Faculty. This is integral to the success of the induction programme and for the sessional staff having a sense of belonging to a team, even if they are only teaching a nominal number of hours. If the sessional colleague teaches across a number of departments, then sessional staff should be managed by the department where a majority of their teaching is concentrated.
Stage 2
Draw up a formal checklist based on the requirements of the sessional staff, the faculty and the institution, where necessary ensuring that effective teaching and learning is taking place and that the induction meets the needs of the target audience.
Stage 3
The transition from a paper based/tutor led induction programme to an e-induction system, which has all the key elements needed to ensure that effective teaching and learning is taking place. When planning the transition to an e-induction system careful consideration has to be paid to the content delivery mechanism. Internet, CD and Video are all possible content delivery systems and expert advise is recommended.
The induction of sessional staff varies considerably from one institution to another, but often sessional staff are second to permanent colleagues, (Cox 2000), if we can provide the initial support to the sessional staff, then maybe this group of staff will feel more integrated within the institution. Productivity will increase, as staff should (based on the induction content) have the operational information necessary. The investment in the induction will be fixed, through the initial development costs of the e-induction. If nothing else the balance of equality has been addressed through the re-engineering of the sessional induction.
References
Unauthored. 2002. B&Q takes staff induction online. Personnel Today. March 12th 2002: p7.
COX, D. 2000. Peripheral Vision: Staff Development and Part Time Tutors.
SCUTAEA - 30th Annual Conference.
DAVIES, D. TAYLOA, R. and LAWSON, S. 2001. The role of appraisal, remuneration and training in improving staff relations: a comparative study. Journal of European Industrial Training. Vol. 25 (7) pp366-373.
DES. 1991. Higher Education:a new framework. Cm. 1541. Department of Education and Science. London:HMSO.
HANDY, C. 1994. The Empty Raincoat. London:Hutchinson.
HUSBANDS, C. 1998. Assessing the extent of use of part-time teachers in British higher education: problems and issues in enumerating a flexible labour force. Higher Education Quarterly. Vol. 52 (3): pp257-282.
SIEMAN, G. 2002. Instructional Design for e-Iearning. [online] Available at
THOMPSON, J. 1998. Strategic Management:Awareness & Change. London:Chapman & Hall.
Using Circle Time as a Vehicle to Improve Self-Esteem in the Primary Classroom
SIAN BREEZE Final Year ITE Student, Faculty of Education, University of the West of England, Bristol.
Introduction
This is a library based study that will examine the relationship between self-esteem and the use of a pastoral care curriculum vehicle such as circle time in the primary classroom. It has been suggested that “…a literature review should be used to display your scholarly skills and credentials.” (Silverman, 2000: 226). A wealth of research has been studied and considered so that a broad view of opinions can be brought together and reflected on. Literature will be examined to see whether self-esteem can indeed be improved through the use of circle time or whether caution needs to be exercised when relying on a single method of classroom practice. The findings will be evaluated for the implications they will have on both classroom practice and future professional development.
Self-esteem is not something that has always been acknowledged by researchers and professionals. The Psychologist BF Skinner was a pioneer in behaviourist thinking and empirical work but he did not acknowledge the existence of ‘self’. More recently, self-esteem has been recognised by researchers and professionals alike as an important aspect of educating pupils because of the need to develop the whole child and to prepare them for a future as independent citizens.
… self-esteem is important to children, teachers and everybody connected with the school community. It is at the heart of all our learning. People learn best when they feel able to cope with their learning; feeling positive is the best condition for learning to take place, and good self-esteem is at the heart of feeling positive. (Wetton & Cansell, 1993: 4).
One method that has been put forward by educational researchers to assist in the preservation and improvement of self-esteem in schools is circle time.
Circle time is a technique to promote pupils’ self-esteem, and can be the basis for the development of an effective whole school policy which supports this and extends it to all those working within the school. (Lang & Mosley, 1993: 11).
During circle time pupils and teacher sit in a circle and share their thoughts and opinions on any topic or subject pertinent to the group in question. Every member of the circle is given the opportunity to participate in group games and discussions but have the prerogative to opt out until they feel comfortable as contributors. In classes where pupils find it difficult to pay attention and take turns an object is often used to illustrate who is speaking, while the rest of the group should then be listening. Many teachers choose to nominate a ‘special person’ as part of circle time who receives positive praise from the rest of the group for the duration of the circle or throughout the day. White (1999) is of the opinion that this successfully enables children to gain a sense of security, identity and belonging.
Interest in this field was initiated during an inset-training day attended two years ago whilst on block school experience. The school was in the process of introducing the use of circle time twice a week throughout the school. It was felt staff development was necessary to establish a whole school policy and generic format that would form part of progression from the Foundation Stage through to Key Stage Two. This was my earliest encounter with circle time in any form and it generated a spark of interest that still stands to this day. In addition it highlighted a gap in my professional knowledge that I was keen to develop. Knowledge gained through this study will go some way to informing not just my knowledge and understanding of this topic, but also have implications for my classroom practice and professional development.
The National Curriculum
The National Curriculum specifies the statutory requirements for schools and teachers regarding what should be taught along with outlining pupils’ entitlements to knowledge and experiences. The DfEE (1999) set out values, aims and purposes that should underpin the curriculum in all schools. Every school is required, amongst its aims to promote pupils’ self-esteem whilst helping them maintain worthwhile relationships, develop confidence and a sense of identity in addition to passing on enduring values that will enable pupils to become responsible, caring citizens.
Ofsted (2002) in surveying successful primary schools found that education has been dominated by the government’s drive to raise standards through the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies although, headteachers have expressed concern over the problems of curriculum overload. They go on to question whether adjustments need to be made to the National Curriculum to make breadth and balance more attainable in relation to pupils’ skills, attitudes and values.
Despite the aims underpinning the National Curriculum it is increasingly felt that it can be a constraint upon teachers work in classrooms. Recent years have seen a call for the National Curriculum to be applied with an element of creativity and flexibility being mindful of the statutory frameworks laid down by the government. Round (2004) advises teachers to experiment with, bend, stretch and manipulate the curriculum in a way that inspires, excites and motivates pupils whilst bearing in mind how children learn best. Winkley (2002) goes on to warn teachers against losing sight of the fact that children should be the true focus of education rather than intrusive targets and tests.
It is time, say the professionals, to ease up on top-down targets and decision-making and give teachers the space and freedom they need to give the children a rich and varied education. (Sutcliffe, 2003, p.22)
White (1999) considers that exclusive attention to cognitive skills leaves much of value out of the education process and that with today’s emphasis on academic performance it is more important than ever that children receive a well-rounded education. Gilmore and Dymond (1996) in reporting on classroom research noted that children “… feel alienated and unmotivated by work that bears no relationship to their interest or curiosity and fails to use their knowledge as a starting point.” (Gilmore and Dymond, 1996, p.13). However, not all elements of the curriculum are seen as regulatory and narrow. The citizenship curriculum emphasises the importance of both social and moral responsibility while encompassing democracy and global standpoints. Gilmore and Dymond (1996) believe this is in sharp contrast to the highly prescriptive curriculum that leaves little time for divergent thinking.
The National Curriculum can be seen in two ways, as a constraint or as a guideline to providing every child with a myriad of experiences that will shape their lives for the future. The latter is far more positive and is closer to the values, aims and purposes that shore up the government’s vision for school improvement. There are many aspects to the non-academic side of the curriculum that are nonetheless statutory and there are countless ways these can be met. Building the self-esteem of every individual is one of these areas that teachers need to consider in the day-to-day management of their classrooms.
Self-Esteem
Extensive research has been done in the field of self-esteem and its consequences on all areas of classroom life in our schools. Curry and Bromfield (1994) consider the debate about self-esteem to require definitions of self-concept, ideal self and self-image. Self-concept “…is the umbrella term under which the other three aspects develop.” (Curry and Bromfield, 1994, p.26). Self-concept on the other hand has been defined as:
…the sum total of an individual’s mental and physical characteristics and his/her evaluation of them. As such it has three aspects: the cognitive (thinking); the affective (feeling) and the behavioural (action). (Lawrence, 1988, p.1)
Gurney (1988) further states that once self-concept is formed it can be added to with more detailed information that once acquired is difficult to change, making positive experiences from an early age vital.
Self-image is “…the picture we have of ourselves, both academically and physically.” (Curry and Bromfield, 1994, p.26). Lawrence (1988) expands on this definition by stating that one’s image develops in terms of the richness of school experiences, the more positive the richer the self-image becomes. “Ideal self is the picture of ourselves as we would like to be…children are learning that there are ideal characteristics they should possess.” (Curry and Bromfield, 1994, p.27). Researchers believe that self-esteem is the individual’s perception of the difference between self-image and ideal self, the wider the gap between the two, the lower the level of self-esteem (Lawrence 1988, Curry and Bromfield 1994; Collins, 2000).
Research has accumulated (Lawrence, 1988; Lang and Mosley, 1993; Collins, 2000) advising teachers that focusing on skill development needs to go hand in hand with the building of self-esteem. A great deal has been written about the need for self-esteem to become a whole school ethos, not simply something aspired to by teachers for their pupils. Wetton and Cansell (1993) write that self-esteem is more important than the National Curriculum for every member of the school because it makes classroom life and relationships easier and fosters a feeling of community. Mosley (1993) is in agreement and believes that despite the fact that individual teachers make an important contribution, if every member of a school community is committed to developing positive self-esteem a more valuable impact is made. This is an opinion backed up by Lang and Mosley (1993) who believe policies and practices should be universal if every child is to receive their entitlement to positive development.
If you don’t have relatively high self-esteem yourself you don’t possess the emotional intelligence to give others the praise they are due… Persons with high-calibre interpersonal skills will do the best job. (Adams, 2004, p.25).
This view has been extended by researchers who believe that adults must be aware of their own levels of self-esteem because it puts them in a better position to encourage children having difficulties by providing a positive role model to those in their care (White, 1999; Plummer, 2001).
The important role played by teachers in levels of pupil self-esteem has been widely researched. “Teachers’ particular concerns in the classroom usually centre on pupils’ self-esteem.” (Teachernet, 2004a). Tamaren (1992) carried out research in America and concluded that educators are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of heightened self-esteem and the need for acceptance of individuals uniqueness. Roberts (2002) expands on this research by recognising the need for teachers to identify and develop children’s patterns of learning, or schemas, therefore illustrating to pupils that expectation grows out of knowledge of their interests and needs, a powerful way of raising their self-esteem.
Depending on the individual, reactions to their perception of themselves can be manifested in a number of ways. Mosley (1991) perceives children with high self-esteem to be confident in their ability to succeed, welcome new learning experiences and will relate well to others. Roberts (2002) noted that children measure themselves against others and in doing so some pupils will become competitive as they learn to achieve their sense of worth, or non-worth, while others rely more on their inner sense of power and control. Mosley (1993) researched the effect of self-esteem and notes that individuals with sound self-esteem are more able to improve their skills than those with a negative view, who do not feel able to take risks because they pre-empt failure.
There is some conflict in research as to whether self-esteem levels are intrinsic or whether it is something that can be brought about extrinsically with assistance from others. White (1999) is of the opinion that we are born with total self-esteem but that early experiences create personal beliefs that are not in all cases positive. However, he does believe that self-esteem can always be changed and enhanced and it can be learnt not taught. Lawrence (1988) is in agreement and claims that self-image changes over time with each new experience, furthermore Bruner believes schools play a crucial role in this because of the significant amount of time children spend in attendance. Gilmore and Dymond (2001) agree and see self-esteem as a skill that can be learnt. Other researchers are of the opinion that it is never a fixed attribute because it is continually being influenced and enhanced (Gurney 1988; Mosley, 1993). Collins (2000) on the other hand reports on the object-relationists conflicting argument that negative experiences at an early age become part of a child’s self-image and set a pattern for their future.
If self-esteem can be learnt then teachers and peers are in a position to both enhance and damage the perceptions held by pupils about their self-image and ideal self, the elements determining self-esteem. Gurney (1988) warns that the comments made by adults or peers cannot be over-estimated because negative comments made by adults important to a child may be accepted and ‘strike home’ more readily with children who have low self-esteem. Research has found that teachers’ expectations are transmitted to pupils and have an affect on their self-image and so they have a responsibility to convey true acceptance and encouragement in an atmosphere that is both non-judgemental and unconditional (Mosley, 1993; Bliss, Robinson and Maines, 1995; Plummer, 2001).
Carr (2000) is of the opinion that although teachers need to be cautious that their views are not transmitted to pupils, this does not just count for negative views because too much positive praise can also be damaging as it needs to be proportional with achievements. Lawrence (1988) warned that perception could be communicated both verbally and non-verbally because children are sensitive to body language and tone of voice. Collins (2000) understands that failure does not produce low self-esteem but that it is the reaction of people to it. Therefore relationships play a pivotal role in individual’s self-image.
According to Curry and Bromfield (1994) there are a number of characteristics associated with low self-esteem in children. Typically they are isolated, hold feelings of inadequacy and worthlessness, underachieve in school, can be anxious, set themselves unrealistic goals, tend to be disruptive, are reluctant to join in, rarely seem satisfied with their efforts therefore destroy work, dislike themselves and believe others do too and do not like criticism. Lawrence (1988) agrees with the characteristics put forward but goes on to state that pupils with low self-esteem choose punishment for non-completion of work over failure while Mosley (1993) continues by stating that pupils with this negative view of themselves will believe this is how others perceive them.
However, adults and peers have an equally good chance of boosting self-esteem as they do of damaging it. “Children need to feel secure, know that they are appreciated as individuals, and have a real sense of belonging to a group: these are the first three basic requirements for building self-esteem.” (White, 1999, p.29). It is important that all members of the school community appreciate the value of self-esteem. “Dejected or delighted, ashamed or assured, self-conscious or self-confident – the quality of one’s life is dramatically directed by one’s self-esteem.” (Tamaren, 1992, p.vii)
There are many ways in which self-esteem can be adjusted through experiences in the classroom. Research has accumulated showing that there is a strong link between self-esteem and school achievement (Lawrence, 1988; Bliss and Tetley, 1993). White (1999) goes on to state that self-esteem is a pivotal point between success and failure due to the fact that the correlation between self-esteem and school achievement is as great as between IQ and school achievement. This relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement exists, according to Gurney (1988) because schools put a high value on academic success, and as a consequence it becomes something by which children judge themselves. This makes it a significant part of self-concept and a crucial factor in self-esteem. Round (2004) believes that in order to boost confidence and self-esteem, success should be real and meaningful in order to improve standards that are secure and lasting. Plummer (2001) poses the question of whether self-esteem or academic achievement comes first but does not deny the fact that they are closely linked.
It is clear then that teachers need to become aware of the need to sustain and improve the self-esteem of the pupils in their care whilst bearing in mind their personal perceptions and how these are imparted on the children. Carr (2000) considers the notion of self-esteem to be potentially problematic for educators and schools because it does not square fully with other educational goals. Research thus far has revealed the pressure on teachers to determine the self-esteem level of each child in their class and the need to strive to provide each child with positive experiences that will enrich their self-image whilst communicating appropriate expectations that mean ideal self is positioned at an appropriate level. The closer these two concepts are the higher the self-esteem of each child will be.
Circle Time
Circle time is a technique that has grown in popularity with teachers over the past decade. “The circle symbolises equality, inclusion and sharing of ideas. There are no barriers.” (Draper, 2000, p.29). Mosley (1993) believes sitting in a circle to be beneficial because, as well as emphasising equality, it is also a sign of unity where attitudes of honesty and trust are promoted. Wetton and Cansell (1993) advocate the use of circle as a means of communication because sitting at the same level means everyone can be seen in an environment that is non-hierarchical. It has also been found to give everyone an equal position and establishes the responsibility of each child to listen and become encouraging and non-judgemental (Bliss and Tetley, 1993; Bliss, Robinson and Maines, 1995; Gilmore and Dymond, 1996; Lang, 1998; Kidd, 2003).
Researchers have noted the fact that despite circle time being used in the majority of schools there is no common view of the characteristics or processes constituting circle time resulting in a lack of clarity in defining good practice (Lang, 1998;). Lang (2003) goes on to state that this is not the case in other countries where circle time is used such as America, Northern Europe and Italy where it has a clear theoretical position making it more straightforward to identify effective practice.
A number of definitions of circle time have been put forward through literature and research studies that highlight the different impressions of what it entails and the varying perceptions held.
Circle Time allows children to participate as partners in the process of developing responsibility for their own behaviour and learning… [it] boosts interpersonal skills, strengthens relationships and enhances self-confidence whilst, at the same time, allowing all participants, (including the teacher!) to have fun together. (Mosley, 1991, p.11)
Lown (2002) simply summarises that circle time is a content-free process into which the emotional literacy curriculum fits. Bliss, Robinson and Maines (1995) elaborate on this opinion and assert that circle time brings about self-awareness and gives consent for discussion about feelings and emotions.
Circle time is a group activity in which any number of people (although anything up to about twenty is most practical) sit down together with the purpose of furthering understanding of themselves and of one another. (Teachernet, 2004b)
Bliss and Tetley (1993) examined the relationship between circle time and the National Curriculum. They concluded that teachers see the curriculum as removing flexibility from classroom practice but that the inclusion of circle time fulfils an essential role in the spiritual and moral development of pupils that is often squeezed out of the curriculum. In addition they see it as meeting the needs of the English curriculum because children respond through speaking and listening in whole class discussions. Circle time has much to offer the National Curriculum because discussion offers a channel through which children can learn about the world in which they live and are a part. The benefit of circle time as offering a platform from which to approach the Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) curriculum has been noted by researchers (Collins, 2001; Lown, 2002).
Mosley (1993) found that in spite of the benefits of circle time, many teachers feel it is difficult to justify its inclusion in an already overloaded curriculum, however she believes the answer to this is a simple one because until children have a positive view of themselves the National Curriculum cannot be delivered.
Circle time is a forum for reinforcing the values of a school and should therefore be used, as with self-esteem, as a whole school approach where adults are looked after in addition to the children because what happens at the top will inevitably filter down to the pupils. Lang and Mosley (1993) reflect that the most successful whole school approach to circle time is extended beyond pupils and teachers to the parents, a view added to by Mosley (1993) who believes it should encompass both teaching and non-teaching staff. Circle time is something that should be timetabled regularly, not just in some classes but in all. Gilmore and Dymond (2001) think circle time should be a daily occurrence when children feel free to express themselves in a supportive climate where the importance of every contribution is recognised.
Housego and Burns (1994) believe that circle time seeks to support the development of pupils in becoming autonomous citizens and so warns that it cannot operate in schools with an authoritarian atmosphere in which children are afraid to fail. It is for this reason that in introducing circle time it needs to become a whole school policy where the practice of every member of the community should centre on a common goal. Circle time can appear contrived unless the values it promotes are encompassed in all areas of the curriculum and school life.
Circle times do affect what happens in all the other exchanges which take place in the school day and hopefully their message does not conflict with all the other practices that go on in the institution. (White, 1999, p.18)
When carrying out circle time in classrooms, teachers should be aware of the need to set ground rules which include pupils knowing when they are able to talk, listening to the person speaking while thinking about what is being said and being able to pass until they feel comfortable speaking to the group. This last rule is important because participants should be allowed to feel they have a choice in participating. Collins (2001) extend these rules by declaring that pupils should not touch the people around them or say things that will hurt anyone. Bliss, Robinson and Maines (1995) recognise the need to set ground rules but believe they should be kept to a minimum. White (1999) recognises the place of circle time in developing listening because it is a valuable skill in all relationships. However pupils cannot be forced to provide input until they feel comfortable to do so.
The introduction of circle time should be a gradual progression from superficial issues pertinent to the pupils on to deeper topics once the process is familiar. Lang and Mosley (1993) report that this will take different forms depending on the pupils’ prior experiences, for some it will enlarge on previous circle time skills, while other pupils will find it a radical deviation from what they are used to. Collins (2001) researched the use of circle time for very young children and found that one method cannot be employed across the whole primary spectrum. This is due to very young children finding it easy to tell but hard to listen so in the foundation stage groups should be no larger than 10 pupils. This can progress on to half the class in Key Stage One where pupils feel less threatened by the gap in the middle of the circle. Lipman (1988) on the other hand is of the opinion that even young children are able to engage in careful and logical thinking because every child should be offered challenge and enriching opportunities to talk.
The place of listening in circle time has been extensively researched (Gilmore and Dymond, 1996; Gilmore and Dymond, 2001; Plummer, 2001) who found that listening needs to be both active and creative in order that each child feels they have been heard and understood in a non-judgemental manner. Gilmore and Dymond (2001) define active listening as everyone paying attention to the extent that they are able to pursue a train of thought without interruptions. This involves children giving their full attention and using appropriate body language thus enabling pupils to participate in higher order skills of listening, negotiating and reflective thinking which have an impact on learning and social interactions. “Learning to listen supportively, share opinions, discuss ideas and feel empathy towards other beings lies at the heart of education.” (Gilmore and Dymond, 2001, p.5).
Gilmore and Dymond (2001) believe that circle time is a democratic structure that can be a forum for personal expression and an opportunity to develop the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary for active citizenship because it models the qualities and responsibilities the curriculum seeks to promote. This invaluable use of circle time helps pupils learn to empathise along with offering their peers support and ideas.
White (1999) believes that in addition to circle time being valuable in the development of speaking, listening and democracy, it also assists in the acquisition of collaborative learning methods something that does not happen by osmosis. He goes on to state that it is as important as learning to read and write and should warrant as much time and effort. “Circle Time is a very powerful and enjoyable process that assists both the development of the individual and the individual as a member of the group.” (Bliss, Robinson and Maines, 1995). Gilmore and Dymond (1996) researched group interaction and believe that when emphasis is placed on co-operation as noted above, and children are working towards a common goal, conflicts are less likely to arise as pupils support one another’s development.
Not all the research into circle time in recent years has projected a positive image of its use in classrooms. Housego and Burns (1994) believe that at its best circle time enables pupils to make sense of their internal and external worlds but that far too many teachers are adopting it because it is fashionable or has superficial appeal without fully understanding its underlying values. Lown (2002) believes that due to a lack of research there is little evidence of the effectiveness of circle time although she does admit that teacher and pupil perceptions of circle time are that it is a positive intervention.
Research has highlighted the many benefits of circle time in the primary classroom and the ways in which teachers can achieve this. It is apparent that circle time is not always used to its full effect but that with careful consideration and planning it can foster many of the values underpinning the National Curriculum as well as meeting the needs of the English and Citizenship programmes of study. With the positive aspects in mind its increasing attraction to the teaching profession is obvious. It can bring about co-operation, improved speaking and listening skills and democracy in addition to an increased awareness of the value of contributions of every member of a group and the positive affirmation this can bring about in individuals. In order that circle time is used to its full effect teachers must be aware of what is necessary to make it work. It is not enough to carry out ‘artificial’ circle times in which pupils simply play games. Although these have a part to play, this needs to be done in conjunction with careful planning and implementation.
Using Circle Time as a Vehicle to Improve Self-Esteem
The value of circle time in sustaining self-esteem has been researched and the two entities have been found to complement one another (Lang and Mosley, 1993; Lawrence, 1988; Mosley, 1993; Curry and Bromfield, 1994; Bliss, Robinson and Maines, 1995 and Collins, 2001). “Circle time is like the scaffolding which is erected to support a building while it is being built, it supports children while they grow and develop their self-esteem.” (White, 1999, p.16). Lang and Mosley (1993) consider circle time to improve self-esteem only when a variety of positive strategies are employed in order that pupils can recognise their own worth and individual strengths along with those of their peers.
There are a number of reasons why circle time has become more widely used as a vehicle to improve self-esteem. Lang and Mosley (1993) recognise circle time as a technique to promote self-esteem that should be adopted as a whole school policy that makes a positive contribution towards behaviour and the general school ethos.
Circle-time is the ideal forum for enhancing self-esteem, as it provides opportunities to encourage individuals and to work in group situations on relationships and social skills. The groups we belong to and the social support which they provide have important and powerful effects on self-esteem. (Curry and Bromfield, 1994, p.29)
Curry and Bromfield (1998) go on to state that, in addition it allows children to take risks, explore their feelings and recognise their self-worth, further enhancing self-esteem. Mosley (1993) shares this opinion but also points out the problem solving and decision-making benefits that can be gleaned from circle time. Gilmore and Dymond (1996) feel that the curriculum dominates the majority of the day and that circle time provides an opportunity to show children that their opinions matter and gives them freedom of expression, which enhances self-esteem in a way that systems based on external rewards and sanctions cannot do.
Researchers have found that some pupils find it difficult to talk to a group of pupils due to feeling exposed and threatened with the result that they become shy and isolated and find it difficult to express themselves. Circle time was found to assist these pupils in sharing information (Bliss, Robinson and Maines, 1995; White, 1999).
This is something that has been observed firsthand in the classroom. During a recent series of circle time sessions held in a year four class many of the quieter pupils felt apprehensive and uncomfortable about participating in the discussion and opted to ‘pass’ when their turn came in the round of discussion. However, when the group were given the opportunity to add any further comments to the flip chart near the end of the session some of the pupils who had elected to not to add anything had a contribution to make. As the sessions progressed through the term the pupils appeared less inhibited because less pupils opted out of discussion than in the first circle time session.
Lown (2002) believes that many researchers attach un-researched benefits to circle time such as its use in enhancing self-esteem.
The benefits mentioned often include reference to self-esteem; from evidence that associates self-esteem improvement with learning and behavioural improvement, the assumption is made that circle time is a legitimate tool to use to improve all three. The association with behavioural and learning gains thereby becomes a ‘third-party’ association, not directly linked to the research base. (Lown, 2002, p.95 – 96)
Lang and Mosley (1993) appreciate the fact that when schools adopt circle time as a policy to bring about a positive change in self-esteem, the importance of pupils’ perception can be understood. Housego and Burns (1994) believe that circle time facilitates in the development of a positive self-image in pupils but only when the process is carefully managed.
Galton (1996) has highlighted a dilemma in maintaining self-esteem while setting tasks that involve discussion of controversial issues that has implications for circle time in terms of the topics it often centres around. He believes this type of dialogue requires ‘theory change’ that encourages a change in pupils’ existing knowledge. The problem arises because self-image is partly based on prior learning and so a change in this knowledge calls in to question the picture pupils hold of themselves therefore risking a decrease in self-esteem.
The government requires pupils to have access to a broad and balanced curriculum that is significantly contributed to by circle time and the topics it is able to cover (Lang and Mosley, 1993; Margerison, 1996). The DfES (2003) reported that Ofsted reports show the best schools bring together high standards with a broad and rich curriculum and that in order to do this schools need to take ownership of the curriculum and be creative and innovative in how they approach the curriculum.
The use of circle time in enhancing self-esteem has been researched with reference to extensive literature. Although no claim is being made that circle time is the only method of improvement or that it can be used alone, it appears that when used the self-esteem of pupils improves as they begin to perceive their contribution as being worthy of communication to the rest of the group. This in turn has an effect on how pupils see themselves, their self-image, closing the gap with the ideal self thus aiding the improvement of self-esteem.
Conclusion
This research has implications for professional development in both small scale and more widespread domains. Hopkins (1993) believes that if teachers are serious about enhancing the quality of education they need to become more involved in curriculum development and evaluation further stating that this can create a more energetic and dynamic classroom environment. Hitchcock and Hughes (1995) hold the belief that research will throw light on particular situations as well as informing the wider spectrum of the profession. On the other hand Loughran (1999) believes that findings are applied to the classes of immediate participants but that they have little application beyond the initial contributors.
Beliefs developed during this research encompass the work of a number of researchers. In some situations research is very specific to a particular classroom and translating this to a different environment may prove problematic. However in most cases there are aspects of researcher findings that can have positive consequences for the teaching profession as a whole.
…the outstanding characteristic of the extended professional (teacher) is a capacity for autonomous professional self development through systematic self study, through the study of the work of other teachers and through the testing of ideas by classroom research procedures. (Stenhouse, 1975: 160)
Wellington (2000) summarises that educational research illuminates situations, policies and practice and can show connections and correlations between issues.
This research came about through an interest in circle time and how it can be used in the primary classroom as a vehicle to enhance self-esteem levels in pupils. Self-esteem has been highlighted as a key issue in the life of primary schools, not purely for the pupils but for every member of the community. This is due to the fact that research indicates self-esteem has implications, not just on the view people hold of themselves but also on how they achieve both academically and socially. One method put forward in the research to aid the improvement of self-esteem in pupils is circle time. It is recognised that circle time is not the only method of self-esteem improvement, but a vehicle being used in schools that recognise the need for pupils to be developed further than academically alone.
“Circle-Time holds self-esteem building to be a central aim.” (Mosley, 1993, p.9). However, research by Housego and Burns (1994) reveals that in some schools circle time cannot be commended as it is superficial in its approach and is implemented where children are not encouraged to think carefully and build on what has been said by their peers, an essential interplay if children’s understanding is to grow. It is essential that circle time does not come to be seen as a universal remedy for the ‘cure’ of low self-esteem. This is especially the case where teachers focus on the many games that are suggested in the wealth of literature, this type of approach it not enough to have a positive impact upon the self-esteem levels of pupils.
…if we are to take full advantage of what Circle Time can offer, then we need to examine our principles, our theories of learning, our management and organisation of the classroom and much more. (Housego & Burns, 1994: 26)
It has been suggested, “…self-esteem permeates the child’s whole life and potentially influences every single learning situation and action which he undertakes.” (Gurney, 1988: 51). Circle time needs to be approached as a method of bringing about an overall elevation of self-esteem within a school that holds it as an important aim in all areas of learning and child development. Teachers need to become aware of the self-esteem levels of the pupils in their care and what they can realistically do to bring about an upward turn in pupils’ perceptions of themselves. In this way it is more likely to become part of their general practice therefore embedding itself in all teaching and learning situations.
Circle time should be seen as one of these learning situations through which the PSHE and citizenship curriculums can be delivered, rather than an isolated event that has a magical result on the way pupils feel about themselves. Therefore self-esteem development should be seen as a by-product not the aim of circle time. “It is clear… that they can teach for self-esteem enhancement as well as for the improvement of basic skills.” (Lawrence, 1988: 12). The important words in this statement are ‘as well as’ because the teachers should not attempt to take care of self-esteem in an isolated situation such as circle time and then ignore it whilst planning for discrete subjects.
In my capacity as a teacher, this research has given me a more open view of pupils and how it is not enough to bring about academic development because in order for children to grow up to be well rounded individuals their emotional needs have to be met. This is due to the fact that all aspects of personal, social and academic development are inextricably linked and so have to be embarked upon with an equal amount of enthusiasm by both teaching and non-teaching staff. This is something that can be of benefit, not just in my teaching but in the profession as a whole and it is for this reason the information should be shared with any school of which I form a part in the future.
Walker (1996) shows concern over the fact that as is so often the case in educational research, knowledge is shelved and does not inform our practice but that teacher development is crucial for changes in classroom practice and reconstruction of quality primary education. I believe that it is not enough to carry out research without ever implementing the findings. Wellington (2000) considers that research should be educational in the sense that we should learn from it.
… the outstanding characteristic of the extended professional is the capacity for autonomous professional self-development through systematic self-study, through the study of the work of other teachers and through the testing of ideas by classroom research procedures. (Stenhouse, 1975, p.144)
Research does not just have an effect on teachers’ professional development but can have a positive influence on their pupils.
…enhancing teachers’ own intellectual abilities through experimental learning and reflective practice seems a prerequisite for their developing their pupils’ higher order cognitive skills. (Walker, 1996, p.211).
In order to gain a more comprehensive view of how self-esteem can be improved in schools and to extend this research essay it would be necessary to look at other methods being used in conjunction with and as an alternative to circle time. This would provide a wider picture of improvements being achieved in the field of self-esteem and how circle time compares to other techniques that are being employed by professionals across the primary spectrum. In addition it would be beneficial to carry out school-based research into whether self-esteem is being adopted as a whole school policy in all areas of the curriculum. Another benefit to this field of research would be to amalgamate research on circle time to formulate a definition of what it is and how it should be used. In this way, it would be more possible to identify good practice therefore removing its fashionable and superficial uses.
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Citizenship as a Major Permeating Curricular Issue: The role of geography.
GRAHAM CAPEL Final Year Student, Faculty of Education, University of the West of England, Bristol.
Introduction
The reason for my exploration of this topic stems from a conversation I had with an experienced classroom teacher, who looked on with interest at my plans for the teaching of citizenship during a block school experience. At the end of a lengthy discussion he said “…but I have been doing this sort of thing for years, have we got to teach it as a subject on its own now”. I explained that I thought that it might be a likely outcome for the future but I would be teaching citizenship within the humanities lessons, particularly through geography.
I will show that the term ‘Citizenship’ is much used and yet means many different things to many different people depending on their interests and view point. I will also show how Citizenship may or may not be taught through the geography curriculum and I hope to show opportunities for the involvement of citizenship within the primary curriculum. Geography is seen as the one curriculum area that has integral links to elements of citizenship education (Grimwade et al, 2000).
Using geography, initially, seemed to me to be the most obvious vehicle for the teaching of citizenship within education although I would also question that citizenship is the most appropriate way of teaching certain aspects of geography. This identified an early problem regarding the focus of the research. In reporting on methodology I will partly address this by the comments of the children in an effort to see if one element teaches the other.
The identities of the school and the children involved in the gathering of information have been withheld for reasons of confidentiality. However it is important that they are identified as a Year Four class of 35 children. The school is situated in a small village within a 10 mile radius of a major city. The school draws from a predominantly middle class area and the class in question has no children who could be considered to be from an ethnic minority. The class is well represented across the social spectrum.
What is citizenship?
At its most simple ‘citizenship’ is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary (1997) as “a member of”, however in the realms of education I believe that it is far more complicated whilst at the same time being as simple as this statement.
Book Two of Thomas More’s ‘Utopia’ (Turner, translation, 1965) written in Latin in 1516 was a book on citizenship ahead of its time and examined the roles of society working together for a common good, dealing specifically with morals, honesty, respect and hard work. Many of these ideas of citizenship are taught to children through the current curriculum.
David Leat makes the point in Primary Geographer (1999, p14) that “Geography is not an end in itself to be learned for its own sake – rather we see it as a vehicle to assist the development of the capacity to learn”.
In 1990 the National Curriculum Council ‘Education for Citizenship’, produced a framework document which specifically identified citizenship as a cross -curricular issue. This it claims would enable children’s participation in the community, society and the family, eventually helping them to deal with inappropriate behaviour, conflict resolution and respect for the views of others.
Paul Machon (1998) claims that the key to being a good citizen is empowerment and the ability to make good choices, and that citizenship has tools to help individuals make those choices. These choices become increasingly important when as Hendy in Robinson et al (1999) points out:
“Each generation perceives itself as justifiably different from its predecessor but plans as if its successor generations will be the same as them; this time it needs to be different”.
What is increasingly obvious is that the world is changing faster than ever. DfEE 0115/2000 clearly shows that its interpretation of a global dimension for the curriculum engages children through sustainable development, social justice, diversity, human rights, conflict resolution, interdependence, values and perceptions, and citizenship. I would argue that each of these could be dealt with under the heading of citizenship as a generic term. This brings into question for me whether geography in its present form is large enough to be able to do all of these issues justice.
These views are echoed in Clough and Holden (2002) who quote Clare Short’s views on the need for international development. However I would counter this by suggesting that we assume a lot, as a western society, when we judge the success of others by that of ourselves. There are many forms of wealth and wellbeing that do not involve money. Many of the problems, that we are gracious enough to now address and attempt to redress, are ones that we have forced upon others throughout history.
Clare Short also makes the point in Brendon O’Malley’s article (TES, 2002) that she places great importance on educating British children as global citizens, believing that they have more “globalised brains” than their parents and that this is where there are chances for all of our futures.
In light of these wide and varied aspects of citizenship it suggests to me the direct opportunities for this aspect of children’s education may be taught within both geography and history although I will be specifically looking at how it may directly influence the geography curriculum. I make no apologies for mentioning history, which is hard to separate from the study of geography. As indeed it is hard to separate geography from citizenship. It is also important as Ashley and Barnes point out, to place citizenship in its historical context (Ashley, 1999).
The Research
My intention was to design a series of lessons that would provide opportunities for the children to develop and investigate citizenship skills. It was also hoped to show how learning in geography could compliment the learning of citizenship and visa versa. The lessons aimed to provide qualitative data through action research that would highlight the children’s ideas, thoughts and observations
Lesson one was carried out with two small groups of three to identify any preconceived ideas. The children were separated by gender. The three boys were each 8 years old as were 2 of the girls, with the third being 9. They were shown four photographs of Kenya and aspects of rural Kenyan life (Weldon, 1997). The comments and observations made have been quoted directly and where appropriate summarised.
The first photograph was aimed at identifying how globally the children think. The boys were preoccupied with it being a European country. B1 said ‘maybe Scotland, it can’t be Rome ‘cos they have long straight roads’, a direct reference to prior learning on the Romans.
B2 ‘it looks like a cold country like Britain’
B3 ‘Perhaps it could be America’
G1 ‘I think it’s a campsite’
G2 ‘It definitely can’t be a hot country ‘cos of the grass’
Both groups were surprised that the picture was of Kenya and this prompted many questions about why it wasn’t sandy and dry like a desert, bringing out the misconception of Africa being a barren dusty country. The children independently investigated the atlases that had been made available to discover exactly where Kenya was. Importantly this instigated an enquiry about geography.
The intention for the second picture was to raise issues about people and their lives, making comparison with the children’s own lives and circumstances. Generally the boys showed little in the way of focused responses to this issue and explored over-active imaginations. However B2 thought that it was unfair to ask small children to work hard like this and thought that they were a family working together.
The girls were far more willing to make judgements about the wealth of the group, taking into account the clothing and the lack of men in the photo. Again they thought that it was unfair for children to have to work when they should be at school “like us”. G2 thought “they are not wealthy – quite poor as they have no shoes or fashionable clothing”.
In the third picture the boys thought that the family looked really poor but did raise the question “Why are they outside?” B2 suggested they were having a picnic. B3 thought the orange and yellow hut might be a barn. He also observed that people don’t like living like this.
I found it interesting that children as young as this were making judgements on the lives of others. The boys also thought that it would be a bad thing for the family not to have computer games if they were poor but it was good that it wouldn’t hurt their eyes.
One of the most astute comments was made by G3 who, after some deliberation said “maybe in their country they are rich, we don’t know”. G1 replied, “We don’t know how lucky we are. We have more money than we really need”. I thought these very adult comments from young children who were unprompted.
The photo that engaged the children most was the fourth one which was the village school. All the children were surprised that in Kenya children wore school uniforms and they then engaged in a free flowing conversation about similarities and differences with their own uniform.
B1 commented that the desks looked like the ones in his old school so the children could not be “… very, very, very, poor”. B2 raised the point that he “wouldn’t like to go to a school like that as it looks boring”. He explained that what he meant was that there were no windows and nothing on the walls to look at. “They might not have many books”.
The girls engaged in a conversation about what it might be like to go to this school. G3 said “… to go there would be a good experience, not for everyday or very long.” At this point she demonstrated a clear judgement about the value of her own surroundings and lifestyle. It was also clear to me that all of the children at varying levels were able to make value judgements about life for children in a southern hemisphere country. Neither of the groups made any reference to either colour or race at any time, which I found interesting and refreshing. They saw children and people, not colour, and made observations about the lives of people in the photographs as well as their own.
Given time I would have liked to repeat this lesson with more groups to raise specific issues illustrated by the first group. I thought that the girls demonstrated a more mature approach to the subject and were a good deal more thoughtful about other people in general.
Lesson two was designed to allow the children to experience a small part of the life of a villager in Kenya. It was carried out as a whole class lesson working in 12 groups. Each group was given two stones, some corn and some millet seed. I felt it was important for children to experience the event before the discussion to prevent any preconceived ideas from permeating through. The children clearly enjoyed the practical side of this lesson and the classroom soon became a buzzing, exciting place to learn.
“…learning about other people and becoming aware of problems don’t in themselves change anything. Young people may go through a range of emotional as well as intellectual responses; they may feel sad, angry, enraged, outraged or frustrated. Yet unless they are given the opportunity to develop relevant skills as well as planning avenues for taking action, they will feel increasingly powerless.”
(Grimwade et al 2000, p9)
I am not suggesting that a small time experience such as grinding flour is making such a detailed political statement as Oxfam but it is a small way in which geography can support citizenship brought into the classroom and raise issues that can promote discussion. I do believe that experience discovered is valued more than experience given, although it is the opportunity that must be given.
After each child had experienced the grinding process we looked at how much flour had been produced. The children were then shown a 1kg bag of flour and asked to compare it with their own effort. They were asked how they might feel if they had to produce this amount of flour everyday just to survive. The debate that followed was enjoyable and engaging. The children were on task and we were all disappointed when the lesson had to end. There were also untapped opportunities to develop numeracy through weighing and measuring that time prevented us from taking.
I feel that there is little to replace practical experience for children and the additional opportunities for science, maths, geography, art and literature especially speaking and listening are immense.
Lesson three was designed to engage the children in working relationships and thinking about others. The most important element of this activity was for the children to follow the rules and work as a group without speaking.
Each child was given pieces of a map. The idea was to offer pieces that were not needed to others in the group in order that everyone would end up with a complete map. They were not allowed to indicate, gesture or talk in any way to others of their group. This was to show how we might rely on others and raise issues of needs and wants. After 15 minutes of silent group work I halted the lesson. Two groups had achieved the end result. The remaining four groups were having real problems. This was partly due to the size of the work area, which I would reduce next time. I asked the class what the problem was; one girl put her hand up and said, “This would be much easier if we talked to each other”.
The class agreed. I allowed the activity to continue and invited the children to talk to each other. They all finished inside 5 minutes. Each group was asked to discuss what had been learned from the activity. The consensus was that it is always better to talk about your problems and it is not good to keep your problems to yourself. They also said how frustrating it was to see the piece that you needed and not have the ability to ask for it.
Lesson four was designed with the intention of providing concrete evidence of how closely linked a small village school in the United Kingdom can be to the rest of the world, providing children with direct evidence of globalisation and the global village.
Taking onboard an idea from an art lecture at UWE in 1999 the children were invited to discover where things in the classroom, including clothing, had originated from. A record was kept on an A1 laminated map on the class board. As each country of origin was revealed the area was blocked out on the map.
The majority of countries were from the Far East - Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia and children soon began asking why this was. Within a short space of time, as a class, we were looking at the idea behind multi-national companies, globalisation, market forces and labour costs. The lesson had never been intended to deal with these issues in depth but more to explain our links to the world and for the children to think and question why? what? where? when? and who? I did however feel it was important to answer the children to the best of my ability or else they might have learnt not to ask questions (Ashley (1999). I also felt it essential to explain when there was an issue I was unsure about in order that they would also learn that the teacher doesn’t know everything. The other area that emerged was the explanation of ‘bias’. In order to make value judgements on information it is necessary that the children understand that people have vested interests.
Lesson five asked the children to investigate their food cupboard at home and carry out a similar activity. Again the map was blocked out and even more of the world was accounted for. This raised many geographical questions for the children regarding location, climate and physical and human geographical features.
I felt that all of these lessons had engaged the children in thinking about others and the way everybody has a role to play in a successful world. As a discussion point I raised the issue of ‘Fair Trade’ and asked the children for their views. Many felt that it was unfair to exploit other countries but found themselves in a dilemma when it was explained that these goods would cost more. I asked what they would be prepared to give up in order to pay a fair price for goods. The purpose of this was to generate discussion points rather than find answers. Children must be allowed to question things, feel involved in and take some ownership of their work.
“Tell me and I might hear you, show me and I might see, involve me and I will understand.”
(Grimwade et al, 2000, p8)
Within literacy the children were studying poetry and I decided to use geography and citizenship to provoke their thoughts. The children were given access to ‘What a Wonderful World’ by Weiss/Douglas (sung by Circuit 16 Choir) and ‘Affirmation’ by Savage Garden to show contemporary poetry set to music. The children listened to both of these poems and were asked to write their own poem about their hopes and fears for the future. They were also asked to think about some of their ideas from their previous lessons on citizenship.
Although this poetry lesson had not initially been designed to be part of the specific citizenship scheme of work, it seemed wholly appropriate as a medium for expressing the thoughts and feelings of the children. It can be seen from these examples that many of the ideas expressed by children as young as 8 demonstrated maturity beyond their years. For me it was an excellent example in a way in which citizenship could be taught through the literacy hour although the work had its foundation within the geography curriculum. Each of these lessons could easily have been taught through other core or foundation subjects.
An 8 year old girl wished for an end to war, people as friends, no more fighting and food to send to poor and suffering people. An 8 year old boy thought more locally when he asked for friends that “weren’t bullies” and spreading friendships. He also demonstrated wider thinking, hoping for no more oil spills, peace for the world and trees not to be cut down. These were children considered “more able”. The following examples are from children who might previously have been considered underachievers and yet clearly demonstrated that they are also able to think and express themselves as citizens in the broadest sense of any definition. An 8 year old girl said “I see the trees that grow like a wish” and “I wish for people to be happy for war to stop”. An 8 year old boy said “I see no pollution that stops plants being poisoned” and “I see clear water and no litter that helps fish”.
It should be pointed out that the children were not asked to rewrite any of their work as the objective was to show thoughts and feelings, not a demonstration of handwriting skills. For me, too often, children are assessed by the quality of their handwriting, grammar, spellings and presentation rather than the depth and perceptiveness of their ideas. This is supported by Estelle Morris (Oxfam 1997, p10) who said, “The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of our children is just as important as academic knowledge”. Perhaps this is where the strength of citizenship education lies, although it does take more time to assess children’s efforts and involves subjective comments.
I used two weeks of literacy lessons specifically to develop children’s learning of citizenship. The class were asked to write a story for a Y1 class as part of their inclusion in World Book Week. They were asked to work as a class to write a sequel to ‘Elmer’ by David McKee. ‘Elmer’ is an elephant who is different from all other elephants because of his colour. He is made of a patchwork of bright colours that makes him stand out from the crowd. The story celebrates the differences that we have as individuals and how each person in the community is appreciated and valued for who they are. The children discussed the key points of what they wanted to include in the final story in relation to what moral they wanted the younger children to think about. The children worked cooperatively in groups of five or six and each child’s work was directly included in the final product. The children discussed the values of honesty, friendship, helping others and doing the right thing, all of which are citizenship issues. They used ICT to present their work, art to help display it and maths, through shape and space, to plan the display of the book. They developed speaking and listening skills through a topic that clearly interested them and eventually read and presented the book to the Y1 class.
The children took a real and proper pride in their work that was valued by peers. Each Y4 child also made a paper ‘Elmer’ which they decorated and presented to a class member in Y1. To do this they used design technology and art. In return they received a smile and a thank you.
It also provided evidence that children do not have to travel very far to realise that citizenship, in a geographical context, is around every corner. At school children will be provided with their first experience of formal rules for the classroom and expectations of behaviour. This is an opportunity to participate in active citizenship by negotiating the rules of the classroom. At the other end of the scale there is the discussion of the then Prime Minister’s idea of the ‘Citizen’s Charter’ (Kimber , 1995, p112), and the extent to which individuals are expected to take responsibility for their own actions. This text also opens up opportunities for the geography syllabus to explore people’s rights and freedoms and how the needs of citizenship education are ever changing in a changing world. Yet this whole project had begun with a discussion on where we might set the book. The class talked about Africa and the sort of things that grow there, what the scenery might look like, what animals occupy the land. How could this not have started as a geography lesson?
Conclusion
The Education Reform Act 1988 opened with the statement that the school curriculum should promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils and prepare them for opportunities, responsibility and experiences of adult life (Bigger and Brown 1999, p 3).
Where does geography fit into all this?
“Geography addresses the central concerns and issues of citizenship education directly. Citizenship education explains why society can only work to the benefit of everybody if all its members act with consideration towards others. The central message of geography complements this: it is that all human beings are dependent upon one another because all share an environment which is globally inter-connected. What people do in one place can therefore affect people, even in faraway places”
(Edwards and Fogelman, 1993, p58)
Bailey also maintains the basis for citizenship education begins at home and as this is usually people’s first experience of geography, both spatially and socially, it provides the obvious foundation.
Initially I thought that I would find that citizenship should only be taught through geography enhancing its role in the curriculum. In the light of my experiences of teaching children it has become increasingly obvious to me that it is a subject that cannot be taught on its own and that it requires different vehicles to move children’s thinking and considerations forward.
I would contend that citizenship has always been taught within education and that it is nothing new. Religious Education, although not within the National Curriculum, has always taught the models of good behaviour and moral guidance. What is new is the presentation of it as a key skill to life and a better world for all. It appears clear to me that the framework for citizenship education could lie within geography but it should be taught and reinforced at every opportunity. There is no reason that I can think of that does not allow citizenship to be addressed though English, Mathematics, Science, PE, History, RE, Music, Art, Drama or even ICT. Every time children are asked to work cooperatively in pairs, groups or as a class they are learning the skills of being a better citizen. Whenever they say please. or thank you, they are learning about respect and consideration.
I am, therefore, in agreement with the Education Reform Act 1988, section 1 (Bigger and Brown, 1999) which says “unless citizenship forms part of what schools seek to convey to their pupils, the aim(s) as set out in the Act will not be achieved”. Children must be allowed to feel that they are active participants in their own school, community, country and world. This participation will help to foster responsibility and a sense of value that will build better citizens.
David Leat (1999) makes the point that “Geography is not an end in itself to be learned for its own sake – rather we see it as a vehicle to assist the development of the capacity to learn”. In 1990 the National Curriculum Council produced a framework document in which it specifically identified citizenship as a cross-curricular issue. This, it claimed, would enable children’s participation in the community, society and the family, eventually helping them to deal with conflict resolution and respect for the views of others, removing inappropriate behaviour.
It is important children’s interests are engaged to make the learning effective and every child should feel included in the informed debate of relevant issues.
“…the ability to discuss, debate and listen to others’ points of view is essential if we are to have well-informed young people, able to make their own judgements, who will participate as active citizens in the next century”
(Holden, 2000:15).
As has been shown in the lesson developing the story for the Y1 class, citizenship is an active process that has the ability to include everyone at a range of levels. There is no doubt in my mind that the children learnt many things from these lessons that will never be recorded except in their minds and they all began with geography.
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Still Searching for a Pedagogy: A personal narrative
MARTIN ASHLEY Faculty of Education, University of the West of England, Bristol.
Introduction
My aim in writing this article is to place in the public domain a biographical narrative that other researchers and writers can draw on as a resource in answering questions about the development of pedagogy. As the title implies I am still, after seventeen years as a teacher in a variety of schools, and eight years as an academic in a faculty training teachers, searching for a pedagogy. This might alarm those students who expect to pay fees in order to have knowledge of pedagogy transmitted from my full head into their empty heads. The least I can hope for is that there will be no such students by the end of a year of my pedagogical ministrations. I will have done an at least adequate job if that turns out to be the case.
Since developing my interest in narrative methodology, I have found it increasingly impossible to believe that any one person can approach the ideal of an objective analysis of any question in the human sciences (Skeggs, 2004). In co-ordinating the Faculty’s KS2 Pedagogy Project I am constantly mindful of the personal agenda I bring to all that we do. Writing this article has been cathartic. My initial objective was to subject my deeply buried prejudices about pedagogy to the public gaze, so that a discourse could proceed in which the project was liberated from the “well he would say that wouldn’t he” kind of criticism that I could already see was potentially going to be an issue. I struggled long and hard with questions such as how long it should be and how interested readers would be in trivial details of my life. I found myself almost crushed between the conflicting positions of the piece being so short as to do totally inadequate justice to some extremely formative events, and so long as to bore readers to death.
I also struggled with the question of the level of reflectivity and analysis I should apply. Should I simply tell it as it is, as a pure biography, or should I begin to apply a level of analysis and reflectivity? In the end, I have settled for the latter because I have been so amazed at what I have learned about myself and pedagogy by writing the article. Perhaps all researchers should attempt something similar. The process of reading, re-reading, reflecting and editing seems to have revealed that life has cast me adrift in a sea of pedagogical uncertainty. Perhaps it is only my perception, but pedagogy has not always been kind to me. It is only natural, therefore, that I have often sought out the utopia of a kind pedagogy. I have identified three periods of particularly stormy weather in my pedagogical sea crossing: my own schooldays, my training as a teacher and my transfer from the independent to the maintained sector. That, however, is not the end of the story by any means. There have been events since then which are for telling later, and I have by no means arrived in a safe haven where a pedagogy untroubled by uncertainty rides securely at anchor.
1958 – 1970: A pedagogy of sadism and chivalry
My early encounters with pedagogy took place in a boys’ public school during the 1960s, and before that in a small, private pre-preparatory school (again, boys only). This privileged upbringing was not my choice, so I cannot be responsible for it. My memories of the early years are variable and probably not wholly reliable. However, certain features stand out. All our pre-prep teachers were female, and I recall that, for an eight year old boy, this was not a problem. We regarded female teachers as the norm and never questioned it. I remember these teachers as generally kind, patient and people with whom one felt comfortable. The teachers of the older classes were slightly stricter and more awe inspiring, and the headmistress was positively the vicar of an old testament God omnipotent in matters of pestilence, hailstones and storms of fire. Nevertheless, all the teachers were still somehow “child friendly” and supportive.
I have various memories of teaching in the early years. This was from 1958 until 1962 and didactic, whole class methods were certainly dominant. Play was definitely not on the agenda, though I do remember delighting in a wooden Noah’s Ark that was the reward for being “good” in much the way that some schools nowadays still seem to treat the computer. I distinctly remember how we learned to read, and this may be significant. We never read individually to the teacher. There were whole class sets of books and we would read these together. Sometimes the teacher would read and we would follow. Sometimes pupils would read and you followed really carefully in case you were lost when your turn came. I think the teacher wrote words on the board and talked about their phonetic construction, but my memory here is very hazy. It is following the text and reading aloud to the class that I remember clearly.
This teacher directed, transmissive pedagogy, which was employed for all subjects, appeared to “work” because, by the age of eight I was a fluent reader of English and had also progressed well in French. I also recall being able to add and multiply fractions confidently. I was not yet the victim of pedagogical cruelty and recall myself as a happy little boy, but that was about to change. In what would now be called Y5, I progressed to the junior department of my public school. This was my first encounter with a pedagogy founded on physical violence, and my dominant memory is of boys being lifted out of their seats and beaten with cricket bats, violent ear pulling and, of course, the inevitable throwing of the wooden board rubber (aiming deliberately to hit rather than miss). These things mostly happened to other boys, but I do remember the time when the Latin master in Y6 smashed his fist with extreme violence on my desk and flung all my personal possessions right across the classroom. That was a bit close for comfort.
These tactics might shock the present child-protected generation, but at the time we regarded them not only as normal but as a sign that we had grown up and now had “proper teachers” who were men. Indeed, these men endeared themselves to us through their use of words and stories that we imagined would undoubtedly have shocked our prim lady teachers in pre-prep. This was pure boys’ stuff – havin’ a laugh – and we actually liked it. The entire school staff, with the exception of the Lower 1 (Y4) class teacher, was male. Looking back on this I through the eyes of a researcher on boys and gender, I am frankly stunned at the power of the message that women didn’t know anything and could only teach little kids. There was a similar message that “proper” teaching was done by subject specialists, and that generalist teaching was only for the “babies”.
As we progressed to senior school and became too big for physical manhandling, psychological means were increasingly used. Spiteful and unrelenting sarcasm and various other forms of psychological terrorism and victimization of the individual through manipulation of the peer group were employed. Of course, not all masters took these to excess, but it is the ones that did that have created the strongest memories. A particularly vicious maths teacher in form 1B (Y5) was, I think, responsible for my catastrophic loss of confidence in that subject. The French teacher we had in the sixth form was quite the most sadistic and calculatedly cruel person I have ever met in my whole life. His main aim in life seemed to be the destruction of the souls of those boys he took a dislike to. Again, I had been good at languages up to that point, even being moved to the A stream for French “O” level. Reflecting back in the light of contemporary masculinity literature, I realize that I had been moved to be with the boys I had taken for granted were the “swots” and “poofters”. What they called us in the B steam I never knew. I gave up “A” level French after a term.
Quite what role sadism and cruelty have in a portfolio of pedagogy is a good question, as is the question of whether such pedagogical approaches (if they can be called that) still exist anywhere. The result for me, however, was a loss of the wonder and delight in school learning which I recall was part of the relationship with the kindlier women teachers at pre-prep. As far as school was concerned, I became what we now call an “underachieving boy”. It needs to be stressed, however, that this was a role only for school. Though I learned very little at school, I taught myself a huge amount, mainly about science. I would read books avidly and diligently “deconstruct” technical devices. At about the age of eleven, a friend and I built a “contraption” which, I recall, had a tall chimney belching smoke and bore us around the garden at breakneck speed. I remember creating a foundry and casting molten lead by the age of twelve. By the age of thirteen I had built a miniature railway in the garden powered by a steam engine that could pull me along. By the age of sixteen, I had taken apart a large church organ and constructed a new electro-pneumatic mechanism for it.
A result was that I passed physics “O” level with relative ease because the concepts seemed so simple. Alexander (2003) is a little dismissive of the alleged dichotomy between teaching and learning, but I have to say that for me at this time, learning was everything and teaching was nothing. Doubtless my self chosen emphasis on learning hands-on technical competence would now be considered “boy”. One other aspect of schooldays cannot escape mention. Matheson & Limond (1999) assure their readers that the public school ideology has as its principal values physicality and character. I would have to aver from experience that this was indeed the case in the 1960s. I don’t recall being particularly conscious of it at the time, but I can now see clearly how one’s status in the school hierarchy was determined through games. What was more remarkable was the pedagogical belief that academic expectations were to be directly correlated with games. The presumption was that either you understood at once what a master was saying, or you were stupid. The masters decided whether or not you were “stupid” and seemed to base their judgments on the principle that the less heroic a boy was on the games field the more stupid he would be in the classroom.
The high status boys were all members of “the fifteen” or “the eleven” (cricket, that is. Soccer was considered too working class and not played). I didn’t hate games. I recall that I quite enjoyed “rugger”. Blundering around like a muddied oaf and legally beating up other boys was, I recall, quite fun. But I wasn’t that good at it and the masters had decided that I wasn’t worth coaching, so blundering around was what we did on the games field, and blundering around was what we were expected to do in the classroom. We were taught to be stoic in this – particularly the long cross country runs in freezing and wet conditions across rough farm and woodland (now outlawed by child protection). Here we were taught “not to let the side down” as well as “to play the game”. Lack of “moral fibre” was an explicit offence that merited a legally sanctioned beating by prefects. For some reasons, these lessons in chivalry and resilience stuck. I particularly remember a boy with severe dwarfism who would insist on completing the whole course. The entire school was kept back to applaud his crossing the finishing line about an hour later than everybody else.
The result of this early conditioning is that I cannot help regarding today’s children as ludicrously soft and mollycoddled. Strangely enough, in spite of the obvious criticisms above, the overall memory of my time at public school is a warmly glowing one. Perhaps this is related to my introduction to cathedral choirs and the great outdoors (more physical torture) but there is not space to go into those matters here. They have driven my research career perhaps more than my teaching career.
1976 – 1979 A pedagogy of Piaget (unappreciated)
Alexander (2000: 541) is confident that the divergence of education theory and practice is a well documented aspect of the development of teacher training in the UK, exacerbated by the arrival of the BEd degree in 1965 in a desire to make teacher training more academically respectable. This was my story between 1976 and 1979 when I decided that a career in film sound with the BBC (the curious amalgam of interests I had acquired during the late 60s) was not for me after all. The switch to teaching was abrupt and the product of a choir tour where I decided that I definitely had a vocation with young people and wanted, after all, to be a music teacher.
Argyris & Schon (1974) compare ‘espoused theories of teaching, to which one gives allegiance’ with ‘theory-in-use’ which actually informs practice. As a BEd student in the 1970s, there was a theory that one was required to espouse. Amongst its principal tenets were a belief in Piagetian developmentalism, an allegiance to Lady Plowden as the true messiah and a belief in what I was later to learn was the ideology of the integrated day, as set out in glowingly idealistic polemic by Brown & Precious (1968). It is only one more step into absurdity to own up to the fact that my seminal pedagogical text of the time was Antony Buckeridge’s Jennings Goes to School. This romanticised, sentimentalised and sanitised what I had learned about pedagogy as a boy and was the backbone of my ‘theory-in-use’. I never espoused the required theory and was admittedly arrogant in the application of my ‘theory-in-use’.
My ‘theory-in-use’ emphasized subject knowledge. Middle school training, where I could indulge my passions for an eclectic mix of music, science and PE seemed an ideal preparation for my clear goal of becoming a teacher in a cathedral choir school. I worked especially hard and did well in my subject specialisms, particularly music where I studied organ under Alan Wicks (a role model if every there was one), obtained diplomas in organ playing and was trusted to play in the cathedral. Science at the time was a second study and something of a disappointment. It was all biology, taught by a very worthy lady whom I remember for her green wellies, fishing nets and energetic romps through the local swamps. But there was no physics or chemistry (this was, of course, long before the National Curriculum). I had not done biology at school and had little interest in it at the time. To this day I remain a missionary for physics and chemistry.
Professional studies was a much less certain area. I recall that most of the academic work was about Piaget and to a lesser extent, Hirst and Peters. I was good at it, but not interested. As far as I was concerned, Piaget had nothing to do with teaching. He was to be endured and the lecturers were to be humoured. It is fascinating to reflect on the fact that the classic studies of Hargreaves (1967) and Lacey (1970) would have been undertaken with pupils of my generation and indeed were the groundbreaking ideas on my course. Dearden on the philosophy of education I found a lot more interesting than endless Piaget and I recall writing a particularly well received essay in favour of a voucher system to increase parental choice. Radical and a bit right wing for the time, but looking back I can see that, for some reason, a commitment to widening participation and equality of opportunity was latent. It simply hadn’t fired properly because of my public school background. We had a lecturer who I was convinced was a Marxist (he probably wasn’t) and who ran some very interesting sessions on J.S. Mill and R.H. Tawney. We got on very well together.
Brian Simon’s claim that trainees [sic] encountered education theory which they could not readily connect with what they saw and did in schools (Simon, 1981) was, in my experience as well justified as Matheson & Limond’s (1999) assertion that public schools were all about physicality and character. Teaching practice (school experience) was to be all about forcing through the ‘theory-in-use’ which, bizarrely, had been acquired from those 60s public school masters. We should never forget that children and not education tutors are probably the most significant observers of teachers. Some lessons learned in childhood endure, whilst others are forgotten quickly. It is interesting that it appears that pedagogy is remembered whilst facts crammed for “O” levels are rapidly forgotten.
I was training for middle schools, but as there were none in the locality my placements were in primary and secondary schools. My recollections of my first placement with Y5 in a primary school were of being told that I “must hear every child read every day” and that I should never correct their spelling or grammar (“nothing must impede the flow of creativity in writing”). I was surprised that maths was not taught – the children simply turned to a page in what I think might have been the SPMG scheme and got on with it. This, apparently, was the individualized differentiation that Piaget required. I decided that this kind of pedagogy was definitely not for me – particularly the “hearing reading”. It failed completely to connect to any of my past experience which was all to do with what we would now call “whole class teaching”. I wanted to be a “teacher” (oblivious, obviously, to the fact that I had “learned” most of what I knew, rather than been “taught” it). I got by, I seem to recall, by amusing the children with my trombone playing and introducing them to some science – a great novelty at the time.
The second practice was in a boys’ secondary school. Y7 and Y8 were on a separate campus and that was where I taught music and science as a subject specialist. I connected at once. This was much more like my ‘theory-in-use’. I knew what I was doing and did it with confidence. A very ancient tutor turned up to observe a music lesson, quite unannounced as was the convention at the time. I think he fell asleep. He wasn’t a music specialist, and I passed. I recall two highlights. We distilled alcohol in the science lab, which I suspect was illegal but swear came from the Nuffield science book. The point is, it was a bit subversive and the lads had a good laugh. On another occasion, I had two boys sent to the deputy head for a caning, which taught me that corporal punishment simply makes hard lads harder. No, it doesn’t work and I’m not in favour, but I am of the last generation to be able to say that on the basis of experience.
Buoyed by this relative success, I tried my luck with the partnership office by requesting that my final practice “must be in a school with a chapel”. Partly I wanted to practise the organ, but secretly I hoped I might end up at the choir school. The partnership office obliged by sending me to the Duke of York’s Royal Military School. Set high on the cliffs of Dover, this could best be described as a free public school for the sons of non-commissioned soldiers. The head and several staff were members of the army education corps and the regime was a mixture of the military and the traditional public school. I taught science, music and swimming as well as living and working in a junior (Y7 & 8) boarding house, and I again did it by following the ‘theory-in-use’ model learned from my own public schooldays.
It worked admirably in that I remember how impressed the army PE instructor was with the way I Iined up Y9 on the edge of the swimming bath and yelled at them. I remember well a Y8 science lesson that was observed by the Head. It was Newton’s laws of motion on a frictionless air table. The boys were rapt and the Head said I was “a gifted and natural science teacher”. I completed my teaching practice on the crest of a wave having, to all intents and purposes, learned absolutely nothing in a practical sense about the pedagogy I was required to espouse.
1983 – 1994 A pedagogy of reflective practice (discovered)
I jump forward in this account to 1983, which finds me as Head of Geography and also teaching science in a cathedral choir school. This was the third year of my second post and the consummation of my original ambition to work in such a school. A brief word might be said about the geography, because current research into pedagogy tells me that what I have to say may be significant. Geography had not been one of my subjects as a school pupil – indeed I achieved the ultimate accolade of the underachieving boy, a grade 9 at “O” level. The post had actually been advertised for English and history. Not really my subjects, but it was a choir school, so I went for it. I have never, ever wanted a job so much in my life and maybe that’s why I got it.
I’m really not sure why I was asked to take on the geography, but I was. I quickly enrolled on a correspondence course and took geography “A” level, which I passed easily with an A grade. I then went on to study further geography units with the Open University. If I was going to do the job, I was going to do it properly and to me that meant subject knowledge and “becoming a geographer”. I found this relatively easy because, despite my dismal former performance, I discovered that I had a real interest in the subject and became very enthusiastic about it. The point of this pedagogical lesson is twofold. First, the importance of enthusiasm is emphasized. I did not do geography reluctantly and under protest. I did it out of interest in the subject and the thrill of learning myself at “A” level and beyond the topics I was teaching at what we’d now call KS3. Second, the notion of “being a geographer” seemed significant. The boys seem to take it for granted that I decorated my hallway with OS maps and talked about hanging valleys and truncated spurs in the pub.
There is surely a huge lesson here. I think it is perhaps best articulated in a book on Steiner pedagogy – what matters is not what the teacher knows but who the teacher is (Avison, 2004). What happened over the next three years was highly significant. Having achieved my initial goal, I began to think about the future. I was very happy at the school, but could see that I would need to move on. Two things in particular began to trouble me. The first was that it had finally got through to my dormant social conscience that I was working in the privileged environment of a cathedral close (and told the Dean so, I recall). I became increasingly ill at ease with the whole notion of advantage through fee paying and began to look out towards “real children” in the “real world”. The second was pedagogical. Looking back on it now after the benefit of a further fourteen years’ teaching in maintained schools, I can see that I was actually too interested in the subject. Somehow I wanted those twelve year olds to be doing “A” level geography or science and nothing else. I was frustrated by the constant need to forgo discussion of the periglacial fringe in order to concentrate on sitting still, writing the date and underlining the heading.
Mature reflection from a distance causes me to contemplate the degree to which the whole enterprise was really about my interests and needs rather than the children’s, though any such suggestion at the time would have shocked me to the core. At the time, I rationalized it through critique of the system. In those days, the Common Entrance exam was modeled on the Geography “O” level papers I had myself taken at school. In fact, it was remarkably similar, particularly the first question on Ordnance Survey maps. Possibly this gave the impression of “high standards”. Children of thirteen were taking an exam very similar to that taken by sixteen year olds. The reality was very different. Only the most able were able to construct meaningful essay answers. Some really struggled with the whole business of creating coherence without any form of writing frame. Yet almost all passed the Common Entrance examination. Could it be that the only question that really mattered in Common Entrance was “Do your parents earn enough to pay the fees?”
The pedagogical theories I had been required to espouse on my BEd, having hitherto lain as dormant seeds, began to take on a real meaning. I was aware that in primary schools, the classrooms were covered in stimulating displays. In the choir school, the walls were bare. I began to create displays in my geography room. I began to work up enthusiasm for the integrated day and create in my mind various fantasy images of very green grass on the other side of the great divide. I think it is interesting, nevertheless, that throughout my time at the cathedral school I had taught science as a Vygotskian constructivist. Though this was well before the National Curriculum, I was developing process skills very much in the way of Sc1. I recall promoting a questioning classroom discourse in which there was much pupil talk and children were encouraged to hypothesise, question and evaluate each others’ ideas. I have no recollection of Vygotski from BEd days (it was, as I have said, all Piaget) and certainly made no conscious effort to apply his theories at the time. For whatever reason though, it seemed to me that what we would now call whole class interactive teaching, with a strong emphasis on scaffolding through public discussion of children’s meanings and misconceptions, was the natural and obvious thing to do.
I eventually found a job as a Y5 teacher in a primary school, having also had interviews for music posts in two middle schools and one secondary school. Nothing in the world could have prepared me for the scale of cultural shock I experienced. At first, I didn’t get on with the children at all. We found each other mutually incomprehensible, in spite of my good intentions. I very soon learned the bitter lesson that somebody from a privileged background can’t export their culture to the working class and expect to be thanked. This, however, was a minor matter compared with the pedagogical war zone I had walked into. Alexander (2003) writes in a detached way that “there certainly was a time when it was common to hear people in primary education say thing’s like ‘let’s talk about learning, not teaching’ or ‘child, not curriculum’, or ‘learner-centred not teacher-centred’, and this kind of pedagogical discourse has been tracked on both sides of the Atlantic” (p3). Well there certainly was such a time, and I had arrived at its Armageddon.
It turned out that I had been given the job because the Head wanted a traditionalist – somebody who would sit the children in rows and impart grammar and tables by didactic, whole class teaching. The fact that I had come to escape such practices in search of a new, enlightened pedagogy was something that was clearly beyond the governors’ competence to pick up at interview. The LEA adviser was absolutely furious. It seemed that the Head had appointed me without consulting him because she knew he would oppose the appointment. Initially, it felt as though the adviser’s sole purpose in life was my destruction. However, deciding to make the best of a bad job, he sent me for a day a week to one of the authority’s showcase schools where integrated day and topic work were at their apotheosis.
It is difficult, nearly twenty years later, to distill analytically from the warm glow of enthusiasm the elements of the pedagogy at this school. Pupil autonomy was certainly one of them. There was a very clear expectation that pupils would be self-motivated and take responsibility for their learning, which they certainly did. This, I recall, was allied to a broad curriculum that was created to be relevant to pupils’ interests and dependent to quite a degree on shared first hand experience. I also remember that considerable steps were taken to make the curriculum meaningful. Writing had to be for an audience. Mathematics could sometimes be an end in itself, but pointless drilling in computation was distinctly out, as were “pointless English exercises”. Calculations had to be about something actually happening in pupils’ lives. Often, this involved the creation of extended role play and simulation. Thinking skills were highly prized and creativity permeated all the children’s work. I don’t recall that exercise books were used. Children made books that would not look out of place in a medieval library and I was taught the relevant skills of marbling and bookbinding. The books could be fiction, in which case there was extended story writing and a whole series of stages from brainstorm, through first and second drafts to actual book production. The calligraphy and art work would, I suspect, amaze today’s younger primary teachers familiar only with the style and scope of the National Literacy Strategy. For non-fiction topics, children would similarly produce technical manuals, employing skills such as creating an index and glossary and producing annotated diagrams. Everything had to be “real”.
After a year or so, the Head who appointed me left and was replaced by a child-centred enthusiast. The first thing she did was make me take a Y2/3 class because, she said, “I had to learn to come down to the level of Y6”. I can see now she was right. We got on well and I began to get the measure of the children (it was at this time that I began my MPhil research on peer attachments and disruptive behaviour). Soon, in recognition of the fact that I had at last embraced the required ‘espoused theory of teaching’ I was promoted to topic work co-ordinator, an important job at the time. I still have the curriculum and policy I wrote, and it is fascinating to be able to look back to a primary source.
The coming of the National Curriculum saw an end to most of this creativity. My role changed to that of Y6 - Y7 liaison teacher and my main memory of this period is of meetings at the secondary school to devise tick box systems for the 1400 odd attainment targets that the pre-Dearing curriculum seemed to expect. I could see that the writing was on the wall and felt it a natural time to move. I moved to a state middle school, initially to teach a Y5 class, but later to teach geography as a subject specialist throughout the school. Strangely enough, I also ended up as the KS2 maths co-ordinator. This was a result of very positive observations of my maths teaching. The pedagogical implications could hardly be clearer. As a Y5 pupil myself, I learned to dread mathematics and became quite disabled as a mathematician as a result of a teacher who had good subject knowledge but was cruel to children. Now, teaching the subject to Y5 and Y6 pupils, I was sympathetic to children’s struggles and able to relate to their conceptual difficulties, perhaps in a way that a subject expert who has never found it hard might not.
There was a brief final flourish of primary topic work in Y5 (I still tell students about our class yoghurt factory) but I coped with what was happening in primary education by turning back to the middle years. At the time I joined the school, Y5 and Y6 had class teachers and Y7 and Y8 had subject specialists. It was as though there were two separate schools on the same site. I was an enthusiastic member of a working party set up to forge a middle school philosophy and co-authored the report which called for a gradual transition from generalist to specialist teaching. Y5 had a class teacher, though were taught music by a specialist. Y6 had specialists for the core subjects as well as music, PE and technology, but remained with a class teacher for a form of integrated humanities topic work that also drew on applied aspects of literacy, numeracy and science over the year. Y7 had more specialist teaching, but undertook some cross-curricular work with a form tutor. Y8 were on a full secondary timetable.
My recollection is that it worked well. I still have some of the children’s work on display in my office as a bench mark. I think the best work I have ever achieved from children was when I used some of the techniques I had learnt at the showcase primary school described above with Y8 geography. We ran extended simulations such as “a wind farm on the Mendips” (how prophetic!) The approach was enquiry based and children would act parts in role and produce technical documents, reports, pamphlets and the such-like, much in the way we had done when topic work was at its apotheosis. With the extra ability and maturity of Y8 over Y6, however, the results could be stunning. There are two examples published in SCAA (1996). This was the time I won the WWF curriculum management award and created a whole host of environmental projects around the school grounds. I was back to my old role as geography enthusiast and enjoyed an Indian summer of some of the best field trips I have ever done.
Perhaps I was coming close at last to finding a pedagogy with which I was happy. Middle schools, however, have the Achille’s heel of cutting across key stages. The old head retired and his successor was not prepared to risk KS2 league table positions through a pedagogical model that was unproven in the newly evolving ethos of competition between schools. The middle school philosophy we had created began to be dismantled and the number of school camps and field trips was drastically curtailed as the perceived need to prioritise the preparation of Y6 pupils for the KS2 SATs began seriously to bite. “Teaching to the test” has never been part of my pedagogy and it wasn’t going to be now. I was completing my PhD at the time and felt strongly that it was time to make the leap into Higher Education. For all my seventeen years in front of children, I don’t think I was ever really content with the academic challenge of twelve year olds. Perhaps I would have been happier in social or pastoral work, or perhaps I should have moved into Higher Education much sooner. Who knows?
There is another story of searching for pedagogy for doing a PhD that has yet to be told, and there is a fascinating story of how apedagogy for undergraduates compares with a pedagogy for KS2. Suffice to say, I am still searching.
References
ARGRYS, C. and SCHON, D. 1974. Theory in Practice: Increasing professional effectiveness. San Franciso: Jossey-Bass.
ALEXANDER, R. ROSE, J. and WOODHEAD, C. 1992. Curriculum Organisation and Classroom Practice in Primary Schools: A discussion paper. London: DES.
ALEXANDER, R. 2000. Culture and Pedagogy: International comparisons in primary education. Oxford: Blackwell.
AVISON, K. 2004. A Handbook for Waldorf Class Teachers. Forest Row: Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship.
BROWN, M. and PRECIOUS, N. 1968. The Integrated Day in the Primary School. London: Ward Lock.
HARGREAVES, D. 1967. Social Relations in a Secondary School. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
LACEY, C. 1970. Hightown Grammar: the school as a social system. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
MATHESON, C. and LIMOND, D. 1999. Ideology in education in the UK, in D. Matheson and I. Grosvenor (eds) An Introduction to the Study of Education, London: Fulton.
SCHOOLS CURRICULUM & ASSESSMENT AUTHORITY, 1996. Teaching Environmental Matters Through the National Curriculum. London: DES.
SIMON, B. 1981. Why No Pedagogy in England? In B. Simon and W. Taylor (eds) Education in the Eighties: the central issues. London: Batsford.
SKEGGS, B. 2004. Class, Self, Culture. London: Routledge.
Internet Sources
ALEXANDER, R. (2003) Still no Pedagogy? Principle, pragmatism and compliance in primary education. educ.cam.ac.uk/download/stillNOPedagogy2.doc Accessed July 2004.
The Redland Papers
Notes for Contributors
The Coordinating Editor will be happy to discuss ideas for potential contributions, and it is usually possible for a member of the editorial group to give informal feedback on a draft article.
Manuscripts should be sent in two copies to The Coordinating Editor, The Redland Papers, Research and Staff Development Office, Faculty of Education, University of the West of England, S Block, Frenchay Campus BRISTOL BS16 1QY. They should normally be between 2000 and 3500 words in length, printed on one side of A4 paper and double spaced. An abstract of not more than 100 words should be included. A front sheet should bear the name of the contributors together with an indication of their professional role, the title of the article and the address for correspondence.
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PATEL, A., 1994. Subaqua Creativity. London: Seaweed Press.
or a chapter in an edited collection:
BROWN, A., 1993. Coping with the undertow. In: J. SMITH, ed. Submerged Willow. Atlantis: Coral Books.
for a journal article:
SLOGGS, J., 1995. Underwater basket weaving revisited. British Journal of Submarine Crafts, 6 (2), pp 22-26.
for a conference paper:
BUGGINS, G., 2002. New issues in turtle racing. Great Barrier Reef Society of Scotland, 25th Annual Meeting, Cairo 5-8 November.
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