Search

Shortly after taking power following the May 2010 UK general election, the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government published its education white paper, The Importance of Teaching. In this, certain features for primary school pedagogy can be discerned. Using the lens of the “position call”, this article examines the discourses implicated in the white paper to highlight the position calls offered to the primary profession concerning pedagogy. These are compared to those made by New Labour in its previous 13 years in power. Accordingly, the article proposes that whilst the previous administration offered the position calls for primary education of pedagogy as collective craft and pedagogy as collective performance, continuity and discontinuity can be seen in the recent white paper, namely that the position calls now being made are for pedagogy as individual craft and pedagogy as individual performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper contains a plea for the greater use of numeric secondary data as a routine part of all studies, whatever their primary method. It starts with a rehearsal of the current poor public image of UK educational research, and some of the possible reasons for that. This rehearsal includes consideration of the limitations in some examples of influential work by established researchers. The paper continues with a summary of the reasons for using secondary data, and one example of a project based solely on secondary data. It concludes that the purportedly poor quality of some UK educational research, allied to the potential of secondary data, might actually empower novice researchers, enabling them to critique established work and to conduct powerful and informative analyses of their own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to draw out the continuities and ruptures in current English education policy. In particular it considers the relationship between Coalition policy rhetoric and that of the Labour Party. Although the paper is concerned with the British and more specifically English context, it examines a range of questions that move beyond that particular setting. It explores the way in which we can understand crisis and the manner in which this informs policy discussion and the re-ordering of neo-liberalism. In conclusion, it argues that the presumed radicalism of the Labour Party can only take us so far, and that an examination of policy for its progressive and radical possibilities, whatever their origins, is an important site of struggle. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Intra- and inter-generational social mobility have been implicit to a wide range of UK Government policies aimed at promoting social inclusion through a focus on education and employability. Framed by these policy initiatives and a critical look at widening participation in higher education, this paper reflects on the impacts of university learning on the self and the family among students with dependent children. With emphasis on, and differences highlighted between, male and female undergraduate students' own (often gendered) constructions of the impact of their university experiences and aspirations for social mobility, the paper suggests that while these students face numerous and varied barriers to their learning, they are motivated by the impact their studying will have on themselves and their families. Of notable significance is how higher education is perceived to reverberate within the home, promoting a culture of learning among, and encouraging the educational aspirations of, children. The paper concludes that this potential and perceived social mobility necessitates a bridging of the rhetoric of access with a reality of accessibility and retention for those students with caring responsibilities and offers a number of recommendations to encourage this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a response to Richard Pring's 'Reclaiming philosophy for educational research', which appears in this issue. While it provides broad support for the case for the importance of philosophy in the study of education that Pring advances, it seeks to refine and to extend this. It does this through a consideration of three sets of claims. First, it considers the claims that can be made for the nature and value of the philosophy of education, about which the paper identifies and evaluates rival points of view. Second, it considers the kinds of claims that can reasonably be made upon philosophy by education in terms of the need for practical relevance. Third, it assesses the nature of the claims that are made in the name of educational research. It suggests that a failure of nerve has left educational research cramped and contained by its own self-conception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper notes the decline in philosophy of education in educational studies from its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s. The explanation is manifold, but includes the more utilitarian and managerial concerns which find less room for the questioning of assumptions distinctive of philosophical enquiry. The paper then uses the Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training to demonstrate the central importance of philosophical thinking if one is to pass from the 'disguised nonsense' to the 'patent nonsense' in much educational research, policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schools’ use of digital technology has so far proved to be a peripheral feature of the Conservative-Liberal education agenda. Through a series of reductions to previously extensive bureaucratic and funding structures, the Coalition administration has presided over a swift but sustained withdrawal of state support for digital technology use in schools. Many commentators have been quick to decry these actions as signalling an ill-informed “absence of ambition” for what could be seen as an integral area of twenty-first century educational provision. However, this paper contends that the Coalition’s apparent technological indifference instead marks a deliberate “ambition of absence”. Thus as well as contributing to immediate reductions in central government spending, the apparent shunning of educational technology policy-making has been driven by the Coalition’s long-term ambitions for localised and largely privatised forms of public sector governance. With this in mind, the paper considers the intended influence of the Coalition’s policy reversals on the future use of digital technology in UK schools. It is suggested that rather than constituting an irreversible crisis, the current withdrawal of state support is perhaps best understood as a continuation of the fluctuating cycle of government (dis)interest in educational technology over the past 30 years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reviews the extent to which contemporary concerns over the recruitment, training and retention of scientists have persisted among science education policy-makers. Drawing upon key government reports that have been commissioned in order to review the position of science education and training over the last 90 years, we consider the historical context of contemporary “moral panics” about the position of science education in schools. Three themes emerge: the nature and purpose of the school science curriculum, the recruitment of science undergraduates, and the teaching of science in schools. The review suggests that many of the concerns which pre-occupy us today, such as the perceived “quality” of the science teaching workforce, are the very same that existed when science was first introduced as a school subject. This raises issues about the role of policy in influencing educational change more generally but also questions whether there ever was a “golden age” for science education in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of the Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education (TLC) project, questionnaire data were collected from three consecutive cohorts of students in a wide range of learning sites, initially four in each of four Further Education (FE) colleges in England. This paper focuses on changes in perceived learning environment as mapped by these questionnaire items and seeks to relate these changes to changes in the circumstances of the students and the site, as understood from the extensive qualitative data also collected by the project. Although we make no suggestion that there were simple causal relationships, there is evidence that students' perceptions of their learning environment may have been affected by student and tutor disposition, curriculum, resources, broad aspects of college policy and by details of the overall FE framework. We argue that change in perception is particularly likely where there is synergy amongst two or more of these aspects within a site. On the basis of these findings we suggest that although change can be within the control of the tutor, the degree of control available will be affected by the broader circumstances in which the tutor and their students operate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The restructuring of teachers' work in Scotland, under the reforms of both the New Right and the New Left, has not exhibited the starkness and radical edge evident in the history of reform in England. This paper argues that the professional context of Scotland's teachers has changed, if perhaps in a Caledonian form, under the action of the same forces that have been altering the educational landscape south of the border and internationally. While comparisons with England tend to place Scotland in a more favourable light in relation to the recasting of the professional context of teachers, there is a danger of overstating the social democratic virtues of policy-making and educational reform under New Labour. Three examples are discussed by way of illustrating the performativity climate within which Scotland's teachers now work: the use of development planning, quality indicators and statistical monitoring; the Standards in Scotland's Schools etc. Act 2000; and the agreement on pay and conditions of employment for teachers following from the McCrone report (McCrone, G. A Teaching Profession for the Twenty First Century (Edinburgh, SEED, 2000)). We conceive the role of the teacher as being essentially malleable: what is expected and desired of teachers is susceptible and sensitive to the historically and politically contingent. The paper argues that the professional context of Scotland's teachers has been restructured by the same reform imperatives manifest internationally across education systems. However, the form and constitution of restructuring in Scotland can only be illuminated in relation to the interaction and compromises of such reform imperatives within the national political climate and policy-making process. The paper concludes that this vernacularization of international trends goes some way towards accounting for a distinctive Caledonian form of 'modernization'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ever increasing explosion of highly attractive multimedia resources on offer has boosted the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the teaching and learning of modern languages. The use of ICT to assess languages is less frequent, however, although online testing is starting to develop. This paper examines the national context for the assessment of modern foreign language proficiency in England, outlines the kinds of assessment currently available and the development of electronic forms of assessment and compares the above with the survey results of a European Union (EU) funded project on current good practice in online assessment of languages in other European countries. The findings indicate that speaking is inadequately served by online testing as tests currently focus primarily on receptive language skills. The implications for future successful online testing include the incorporation of interactive skills and effective formative feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the high level of achievement experienced by British-Chinese pupils in schools is well documented, the Chinese community in the UK is a relatively under-researched ethnic group. There is only patchy information on ways in which British-Chinese parents and children engage with education. It is often presumed the success of Chinese pupils is due to conformist cultural practices leading to the enactment of effective cultural capital. In this paper we examine support strategies adopted by professional and non-professional British-Chinese parents of young people in secondary schools in the East Midlands of England. Through demographic and qualitative interview data we look at how British-Chinese parents support their children’s educational achievement. Our study suggests that the parents adopt similar strategies to those seen in British and North American parents, yet with some significant class nuances related to cultural divergence. This suggests that class influence is less rigorous than other analyses, being supplanted by cultural dispositions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Like the rest of the United Kingdom, Wales is facing a new challenge from the implementation of the Coalition Government’s cuts. The Welsh Assembly Government [WAG, renamed Welsh Government (WG), in May 2011] budget was reduced by £1.8billion over the next four years. WAG responded by introducing its own revised austerity budget which reduced spending on Education by 8%. At the same time, the performance of Welsh Education has been under severe strain as a result of a series of new challenges. These include the consequences of Welsh pupils’ performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the failure to meet government targets projected in The Learning Country, funding disparities, the findings of the Chief Inspector’s Annual Report for Wales, the state of literacy in Wales, the re-organisations within the Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills [DCELLS, renamed Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in May 2011], the Thomas Review Report and the announcement of the Minister’s new twenty-point plan which will guide policy for the next four years. This paper will first put Welsh educational policy into context before considering each of these issues in turn and finally, projecting forward to the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Promoting parental participation plays a significant role in education policies across Britain. Previous research has identified various barriers to involving disabled parents. This paper reports findings from part of a study examining disabled parents' engagement in their children's education, which focused on good practice. Twenty-four case studies were conducted with parents with a range of impairments. Common themes are drawn out, including the perceived importance and benefits of involvement, the need for effective communication and access, both to buildings and information, and the significance of an inclusive school ethos. The findings are discussed in the context of previous research. While some findings accord with the social model of disability, it is argued that more nuanced understandings of disability, which take more account of personal experience, offer a fuller explanation. Implications for policy and practice are discussed including staff training, facilitating disclosure of impairment and local authority responsibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on the views of seven Asian female Social Science students following a class seminar on religious issues and schooling at a university in the UK. It explores the importance of the post-class spontaneous student dialogue where participation in much teaching and learning is voluntary. The concern is with engaged pedagogy and interactive teaching methods that allow space for students to voice their views and experiences. This is especially important when dealing with 'controversial' topics such as Islamophobia - anti-Muslim racism - and 'war on terror'. Whilst the issues are provocative, some students remain silent and do not participate in the formal class setting; they hold back their comments for a less exposed moment. In this case, the post-class discussion threw up insights into the reasons for student 'silences' and possibilities for 'breaking' them. A key insight is the importance of 'safer spaces', usually after classes, in the corridors and refectories, and how to bring the discussions back into the classroom environment. Another is the political significance of 'counter-stories' told in safety for pedagogic and political theory and practice. This article refers to one such moment and explores the value of post-class student 'counter-narratives' that developed organically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an evaluation undertaken in 1998-1999, funded by the Department for Education and Employment, of pilot projects designed to reduce exclusion from school. The three types of project were: Multi-disciplinary Behaviour Support Teams [MDBSTs]; secondment of mainstream teachers to Pupil Referral Units; and In-school Centres [ISCs] for pupils at risk of exclusion. The evaluation included: analysis of exclusions figures; questionnaires to all project leaders requesting implementation details; telephone calls to 18 projects reporting different success levels; visits to seven projects to interview teachers, head teachers, special educational needs co-ordinators, pupils and parents. The evidence suggested that ISCs and MDBSTs could be equally successful in reducing exclusions. It also indicated that many successful practices were common to projects, regardless of type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Curriculum was introduced into British primary schools in 1989 to raise standards of attainment, especially in the basic skills. What has been the effect of these measures on children's mathematical attainments? This paper analyses the mathematics standards of nine cohorts of Year 2 and Year 6 children from five randomly selected primary schools within one Local Education Authority (LEA) (n = 1740 and 1663) who had all done Mathematics 7 or Mathematics 11 from 1989-1997. Examination of the means of the standardised mathematics scores for each cohort reveals evidence of stable standards in attainment over the 9 years. In both age groups there are fewer over-achievers than one would expect and this indicates that fewer children in this sample are doing really well than was the case when the test was standardised. The available national test results of this sample indicate rising standards at KS1 and KS2. The results are discussed with reference to both the content of the tests in the light of the mathematics programme of study and other research findings on primary mathematical standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic and journalistic comment is prioritised by the endless flood of policy initiatives. Yet these can be seen to be determined by long term intellectual frameworks which define why some issues remain constant and others remain marginal. Thus the dominance of academic provision and neglect of the vocational dates back to the nineteenth century. However within these long term determinants, major shifts of policy emphasis do take place, but do so within relatively long run parameters. These may be considered as Kuhnian paradigms, ie, intellectual structures which determine what evidence is accepted and what rejected. The results can be regarded as irrational, and the author follows the CFBT report of 2010, Instinct or Reason: How Education Policy is made in seeing policy imperatives as not being driven by evidence. He argues that this is a relatively modern development, of the last thirty years, but that education policy has always been driven by paradigmatic agendas. In the post war era three can be detected: (a) the tripartite paradigm, embedded in the 1944 Education Act; (b) the comprehensive paradigm, implicit in the Crosland circular 10/65; and (c) the marketisation paradigm enshrined in the 1988 Education Reform Act. The latter also embodied a major shift in power to the Secretary of State and the removal of professional autonomy from teachers and the marginalisation of democratically elected local authorities. As with all Kuhnian paradigms, anomalies exist. The author considers the current policies of Michael Gove, while embodying much that is new, notably Swedish style Free Schools and a reversal of recent attempts to develop vocational education, are a continuation of the third paradigm. The rhetoric of a “Conservative Revolution” is therefore misleading: the current paradigm remains the framework for policy making and analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this response to the article by Madeleine Arnot, Halleli Pinson, and Mano Candappa the author explores three issues that are key to the current refugee and education regimes in Britain. She addresses the association between the British state and the children living within its dominion, the role of education in contemporary British statecraft and the core values of the education system insofar as it concerns asylum-seeking and refugee children. Building on the authors' discussion of the role of compassion in education around non-citizens, the author problematises this concept and examines some of the political and popular perceptions that are brought to bear in relation to this topic. In particular, she highlights how the interests of the modern state are vested in children and how, in line with this, government attention to instilling public morality in school pupils has centred on a nationalist ideology which excludes forced migrants. She argues that in a context in which a persistent moral and instrumental case is made against asylum-seekers and refugees, teachers struggle against the odds to achieve the successful integration of these children within British schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of its agenda to promote choice, diversity and parent power in education, New Labour is aiming to develop a system of independent non-fee paying state schools. It is envisaged that control of the governing arrangements in such schools will shift from the local authority and be delegated to a range of external partners and sponsors drawn largely from business and religious organisations. The involvement of external partners in education in the US suggests that it may be both ineffective and detrimental to the development of rounded citizens. This article reviews some of the themes from research there and argues that, in an increasingly fragmented world, privatised control of civic education in state-funded schools in England threatens the integrity of public education and the civic objectives of state schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that children's understanding of text can be improved by the explicit teaching of those comprehension strategies that are used implicitly by skilled readers, particularly the use of self-regulating strategies to generate questions about text. This study of the teaching of comprehension in 51 London Key Stage 2 classrooms explores the extent to which comprehension strategies are explicitly taught within the literacy hour and the amount of opportunity which is provided for children to generate there own questions. Evidence from teacher interviews and classroom observations shows that direct teacher questioning, mostly in the form of 'teacher-led recitation', is both the most frequently advocated, and the dominant strategy used for teaching comprehension. When sharing books with children, teachers model the strategies which are used by skilled comprehenders, but they neither make these strategies explicit nor encourage children to generate their own questions about the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current UK agenda for modernization of schools places great emphasis on the reconsideration of the roles and boundaries of teaching and support staff. Internationally there is a significant move towards the inclusion of all children within a mainstream setting as an undeniable right. This carries great implications for staff in mainstream schools who, until recently, often regarded provision for 'special needs' as the province of an identified member of staff who often taught the 'special needs population' separately. This article examines modernization in the area of special educational needs (SEN) drawing from case study research investigating the role of the primary special educational needs coordinator (SENCO). It suggests that although the role of the SENCO has altered dramatically schools need to understand the parameters of the role and to reconsider the roles and responsibilities of all staff who work with children with SEN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents research undertaken with female teachers which explores their perceptions and experiences of male teachers in early years contexts. It considers male trainee teachers experiences, examining prevalent, contrary discourses and their impact on the construction of male teachers' identities. The article notes that public discourses, together with women's own discourses in relation to male teachers reveal contradictions and ambiguities. Male teachers are conscious that many conflicting identities are constructed for them, including the notion of the 'right kind' of man constructed for them by female teachers. This concept of a 'millennium man' may be difficult for men to achieve, but for those who 'read' the system, the pay-offs are great. UK statistics reveal that there are 26,200 male primary teachers and 141,000 females (Department for Education and Skills website, 2005) yet the numbers of male headteachers are vastly disproportionate. The article concludes that men may invest in positions which will bring eventual gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the findings of a study of the experiences and expectations of a cohort of 13 'Academic Coaches', appointed to temporary teaching support roles in challenging inner city secondary schools. The discussion of this particular initiative is located in a broader consideration of the work and conditions of para-professionals as the UK teaching workforce is remodelled, and in the career patterns and choices of people attracted into teaching and teaching related roles. Conclusions are drawn about the importance of professionalizing these newly emerging roles. An important aspect of professional recognition, and one which is in danger of being overlooked in the current political climate, is the sustained involvement of teachers at school level in defining the professionalism of extended and newly created support and teaching roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the context of the current government's concerns to raise literacy standards and its stated intention to examine literacy practices in the secondary school, this report details a survey concerning secondary teachers' views of and knowledge about literacy and literacy teaching. It argues that whilst the majority of secondary teachers acknowledge their role in supporting pupils' literacy, they are often uncertain of how to proceed; they make limited use of many literacy teaching strategies and may even assist their pupils in 'retreating from print'. The survey reveals that few secondary teachers have had any training in literacy development although teachers from all curriculum specialist areas indicate their willingness to engage with literacy training and INSET. It is argued that secondary schools will need such support and the sharing of good practice within and across schools if they are to be successful in supporting literacy development across the curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the effectiveness of home-based education in Great Britain. Factors why families take the option of home-based education in preference to school attendance; Comparison of the performance of home-based educated children with their school-attending peers; Ways of regenerating and reconstructing education systems.