Education In England Research Articles

‘It ain't (only) what you do, it's the way that you do it’: A mixed method approach to the study of inspiring teachers

This paper draws on findings from a study of ‘inspiring’ teachers in order to illustrate the way in which the chosen mixed methods design contributed to the success of the research in addressing its research aims. The study investigated the concept of ‘inspiring’ and ‘inspirational’ teaching through recruiting a purposive sample of 17 primary and secondary school teachers in England drawn from nine schools in a single Multi‐Academy Trust (MAT). The aim of the study was to integrate and synthesise evidence from a range of perspectives using multiple methods involving a combination of descriptive and numeric data, in order to increase knowledge and understanding of what it means to be ‘inspiring’ within the current educational landscape. The study fits with the ‘numbers and a narrative’ tradition reflecting the growing popularity of mixed methods (Gorard & Smith, ) and adopted an equal‐status, sequential research design that comprised integration of multiple methods including semi‐structured interviews with teachers, classroom observations including both descriptive field notes and systematic observation schedules that tapped features associated with effective practice, numeric ranking sheets for teachers and head teachers and a student questionnaire survey that included rating scales and open‐ended response questions. The findings reveal clear associations between effective and inspiring practice but also identify particular features that distinguish inspiring practitioners and their practice. Findings concerning the socio‐emotional component are highlighted in particular in relation to the emphasis these teachers placed on creating positive relationships with students and a safe supportive classroom climate.

Engaging with curriculum reform: insights from English history teachers’ willingness to support curriculum change

ABSTRACTThis research explored the extent to which secondary school history teachers in England willingly engaged with a series of concurrent curriculum reforms, and the factors that shaped their level of agency in the process. The curriculum has been the target of sustained reform by many governments, and accountability measures are frequently used to compel teachers to engage with the process of change, as teachers are often seen as resistant to change. Data were obtained through online surveys conducted annually from 2015 to 2017, providing a large, longitudinal data set of over 1100 individual responses. Responses to closed items were analysed using SPSS to generate descriptive and inferential statistics, and qualitative responses were coded to identify key themes. Generally the teachers were reluctant to engage in the process of reform. There was some statistically significant variation between teachers in different types of school. Teachers’ willingness to engage with changes was also related to their sense of subject identity. However it is evident that accountability measures dominates teachers’ thinking, and even impacts on what teachers choose to do in non-examined phases of the curriculum. This appears to diminish teachers’ agency when creating a curriculum.

The Psy-Security-Curriculum ensemble: British Values curriculum policy in English schools

ABSTRACTFramed as being in response to terrorist attacks and concerns about religious bias in some English schools, ‘British Values’ (BV) curriculum policy forms part of the British Government’s Counter-Terrorism and Security Act, 2015. This includes a Duty on teachers in England to actively promote British Values to deter students from radicalisation. This paper, first, traces the history of Britishness in the curriculum to reveal a prevalence of nationalistic, colonial values. Next, an ensemble of recent policies and speeches focusing on British Values is analysed, using a psycho-political approach informed by anti-colonial scholarship. Finally, we interrogate two key critiques of the British Values curriculum discourse: the universality of British Values globally, and concerns over the securitisation of education. Findings indicate that the constitution of white British supremacist subjectivities operate through curriculum as a defence mechanism against perceived threats to white privilege, by normalising a racialised state-controlled social order. The focus is on ‘British’ values, but the analytic framework and findings have wider global significance.

Aspiration, career progression and overseas trained teachers in England

ABSTRACTThe recruitment of overseas trained teachers (OTTs) in England is a matter that has received as much attention inside the United Kingdom as outside. Education systems in small island and developing states, especially, were believed to have been placed ‘at risk’ following the departure of experienced and qualified teachers. Correspondingly, the presence of OTTs in England has contributed to, inter alia, workforce stability, behavioural management solutions and curriculum enhancement. Despite these contributions, however, very little is known about the career progression of OTTs in England. Through a tracer study of OTTs recruited between 2001 and 2008, in the first phase of teacher migration to the UK, this qualitative study explored the perceived factors that facilitate and/or hinder the progression of Caribbean OTTs in England. Drawing on postmodernism, critical and social identity theories, this paper examines how institutional racism and discrimination play a part in restricting the promotion and career progression of OTTs.

How trainee physical education teachers in England write, use and evaluate lesson plans

Traditionally, all physical education initial teacher training (PEITT) courses in England, and in many other countries, require trainee teachers to complete detailed lesson plans for each lesson they teach in their school-based practicum and then to evaluate those lessons. However, there has been a limited amount of research on lesson planning in PEITT generally or in England specifically. The purpose of this study therefore was to gain an initial insight into how trainee physical education teachers write, use and evaluate lesson plans. Two-hundred-and-eighty-nine physical education trainees in England completed a questionnaire about lesson planning after finishing a block school-based practicum. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for the limited-choice questions on the questionnaires and open-ended questions were analysed using thematic analysis. Results showed mixed responses, with no one method followed by all trainees. Some trainees stated they planned and/or evaluated lessons as taught. Some stated they completed the plan and/or evaluation proforma to ‘tick a box’. The highest percentage of trainees stated it took between half an hour and one-and-a-half hours to plan each lesson. Although most trainees stated they found the plan useful in the lesson, others stated they found it too detailed to use. Some stated they did not deviate from the plan in the lesson, whereas others adapted the plan. The majority of trainees stated that evaluation enabled them to see if objectives had been achieved. Results are discussed in relation to teaching trainees how to plan lessons in PEITT in England.

What is dyslexia? An exploration of the relationship between teachers' understandings of dyslexia and their training experiences.

Given that an estimated 5–10% of the worldwide population is said to have dyslexia, it is of great importance that teachers have an accurate understanding of what dyslexia is and how it effects their students. Using results from a large‐scale survey of teachers in England and in Wales (N ≈ 2,600), this paper demonstrates that teachers held a basic understanding of dyslexia, based on the behavioural issues that it is associated with. Teachers lacked the knowledge of the biological (i.e., neurological) and cognitive (i.e., processing) aspects of dyslexia. Moreover, a number of teachers mentioned visual factors in their description of dyslexia, despite there being inconclusive evidence to suggest a direct relationship between visual functioning and dyslexia. Further findings demonstrate the importance of good‐quality teacher training in increasing teachers' confidence working with those with dyslexia, while increasing their knowledge of the cognitive aspects of dyslexia. This paper argues that evidence‐based teacher training, which informs teachers of the up‐to‐date research on the biological, cognitive, and behavioural aspects of dyslexia, is essential to combat misconceptions and ensure that teachers have more nuanced and informed understandings of dyslexia.

Mastery mathematics: Changing teacher beliefs around in-class grouping and mindset

Internationally, reform efforts in teaching of mathematics have found it difficult to change practice. This study used classroom video stimulated recall interviews with Primary teachers in England to investigate their beliefs during implementation of a textbook-based South Asian mastery approach to teaching mathematics. The self-reported beliefs of the teachers showed their support for change in practice, from in-class grouping by prior attainment to whole class teaching with everyone exploring the same problem, and suggested conceptions of malleable intelligence in the specific domain of school maths.

Irish migrant teachers’ experiences and perceptions of autonomy and accountability in the English education system

ABSTRACT With many Irish teachers migrating to England, and with the Irish education system moving in a more neoliberal direction as accountability slowly permeates the landscape, this paper reports on Irish migrant teachers’ experiences and perceptions of autonomy and accountability in the English education system, where accountability is perhaps more high-stakes than in any other jurisdiction. The primary research consisted of semi-structured interviews with Irish migrant teachers in England. The qualitative data not only offer insights into their experiences and perceptions of teacher autonomy and accountability in the English system, but also shed some light on how similar policies and mechanisms would be received in Ireland by Irish teachers. Ultimately, the participants had overwhelmingly negative experiences and perceptions of the English education system. They reported a very one-sided autonomy/accountability balance and unsustainable workloads, and consequently a range of negative emotions due to the critical and unsupportive manner in which they were judged, scrutinised, and held to account. The participants did feel however, that there was a need for classroom practice in Irish schools to become more observable but they were thoroughly opposed to an accountability framework similar to England’s being adopted in Ireland - as they also envisaged the teacher unions would be.

The Schools Council ‘Geography for the Young School Leaver’ project: lessons from the past?

ABSTRACTThe ‘Geography for the Young School Leaver’ (GYSL) project was funded by the Schools Council, a government body established to fund National Curriculum development across a wide range of subjects (and the first official step taken by any government to exert some influence on the school curriculum). GYSL was the longest running initiative of its type and had the largest take-up in schools of any geography project. It was concerned with both the content of the geography curriculum and the management of educational change. This article, written by an ‘insider’ and hopefully with the benefit of hindsight, explains the geographical philosophy of the project and the three key strategies it devised in attempting to ensure that this was adopted successfully at the classroom level. GYSL's impact on both student and teacher development is considered, and, in this portrayal, the article reminds us of the dramatic differences that have occurred in the provision of continuous professional development for geography teachers in England in recent years. A number of key lessons from GYSL's work are suggested, which are felt to be relevant today despite this change in the educational landscape.

A New Deal for the Teaching Profession

The crisis in teacher supply points to fundamental problems in the way teachers in England experience their work. In this contribution to debates about a National Education Service (NES) the author argues that a Labour government must be prepared to radically rethink how it engages with the teaching profession. The challenge is to shift from a compliance culture to one in which education workers become central to building the movement on which the NES will be based.

Black leaders matter

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to evaluate factors that contribute to black male school leaders’ career progression and sustenance within the teaching profession. This, because the progression of black and minority ethnic (BME) teachers in Britain has been the subject of much debate. Fewer BME teachers are in leadership roles in education, and there are only 230 BME headteachers of approximately 24,000 primary and secondary headteachers.Design/methodology/approachThe headteachers’ professional lives are explored through the lenses of critical race theory and interpretivism. In doing so, it illuminates the journey towards and the realities of a group whose views are currently unrepresented in research on school leadership or that of the experiences of male BME teachers in England.FindingsThis study finds that whereas personal agency and determination are largely responsible for keeping these black headteachers in post, “White sanction” (Miller, 2016) has played a significant role in career entry and early career development. Furthermore, participants experience both limiting and facilitating structures as they negotiated their roles into headship and as headteachers. Limiting structures are those which constrain or hinder progression into leadership, whilst facilitating structures enabled participants to navigate and negotiate gendered racism, make progress in their careers and achieve success in their respective roles. Both limiting and facilitating structures include personal agency and contextual factors.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper also makes the point that more research is needed on current BME school leaders to examine the factors that motivate and enable them. Additionally, more research is needed on the limiting and facilitating structures identified in this study and on the potential generational differences that may exist between more established and newly appointed male BME school leaders. Studying generationally different school leaders may help to illuminate the salience of race and racism across an increasingly diverse population.Practical implicationsFurthermore, this paper also suggests that more BME school leaders are needed, thereby making the leadership teams of schools more representative, as well as raising aspirations and interest among BME teachers and therefore making black leadership sustainable.Originality/valueThis paper is an original piece of research that adds fresh insights into not only how black school leaders get into teaching and leadership but also significantly what keeps them there.

Gross National Happiness, British Values, and non-cognitive skills: the role and perspective of teachers in Bhutan and England

One of the fundamental debates in education is on what schools should teach, and in the balance between academic content and the role of the school to teach non-cognitive skills and traits. This article explores how teachers think about, and experience, their roles and responsibilities beyond merely deliverers of curricular academic content. We conducted focus groups and classroom observations of teachers in England and teachers in Bhutan. In each case, we discuss the policy and curricular context surrounding the role of schools to society, and in how this translates to the teachers themselves. In this comparison we found some convergence in the expression of stress to deliver an “over-subscribed” curriculum and in the shared nationalistic goals of some sort of values education being offered, but we also found divergence in how teachers thought about their role and relationship to students, school culture, and if educational trends related to non-cognitive skills should be measured and assessed.

Including nonreligious worldviews in religious education: the views and experiences of English secondary school teachers

ABSTRACTAlthough the teaching of nonreligious worldviews has been advocated in a Council of Europe Recommendation, few European countries include such a study in religious education (RE). Guidance on implementing the Recommendation recognises that inclusion is problematic, raising issues for policymakers, teacher trainers and schools. In this article, findings from a qualitative study of the views and experiences of 25 RE teachers in England are used to identify and explore a range of issues, in relation to national and international debates and research. Examples of inclusion and the models that they suggest are considered and it is argued that major obstacles, such as limited time and lack of a framework for the integration of religious and nonreligious worldviews, can be of overcome. However, it is concluded that this will require further research and curriculum development work and that international collaboration should be pursued.

How different reflective learning activities introduced into a postgraduate teacher training programme in England promote reflection and increase the capacity to learn

Student teachers in England are expected to learn from experience in order to become reflective practitioners and to achieve Qualified Teacher Status. This study is a qualitative project studying whether and how different reflective learning activities introduced into a postgraduate teacher training programme promote reflection and increase the capacity to learn. It takes an interpretative approach, generating qualitative data on the reflection of students and the most effective learning methods. The study took place over a one-year period in one teacher training institution. The data arose from Post Graduate Certificate of Education student teacher responses to different reflective learning activities and subsequent interviews followed by an evaluation of the effectiveness of the overall learning strategy. Of the four activities used to promote reflective learning (discussion groups, action learning sets, journals and interviews), the action learning sets had the most impact on the student teachers’ ability to reflect. The implication for initial teacher training programmes is that providers need to recognise the importance of oral reflection within a communal setting.

The Closure and Re-organisation of Institution of Teacher Education in England and Wales, 1972- 1981

The closure and reorganization of the Colleges of Education in England and Wales during the 1970s will perhaps go down in the history of English education at the beginning of the end! That is the beginning of the end I of the era of affluence in higher education in Britain which characterized the sixties and early seventies and which led one commentator to characterize the dominant values of teacher education at the time as those of 'social and literary romanticism.' The erosion of such values began then and it has continued unceasingly from that day forward. This has been accompanied by a major increase in forms of bureaucratic control under the demands both of a shrinking numbers base and of increasing organizational differentiation. In many cases this process has resulted in the attempted marriage of such romantic values with those of the craft and technical tradition in English education where, in the case of the last two, the liturgy of rationality as a highly valued goal in modem industrial societies is daily intoned.

The Psychological Plight of the Colonized in Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North

This study investigates postcolonial suffering of people in Sudan as portrayed by Tayeb Salih in his novella Season of Migration to the North (1966) . Relationship with the colonizer renders the colonized psychologically, emotionally and mentally disturbed. In response to their pain, victims resort to different mechanisms like repression, isolation, and violence. Colonial abuses affect men and women. After spending long years pursuing higher education in Britain, two major male characters in Salih’s novella find themselves stunned to realize they were no more than tools used by the colonizer. With a mind spurning out of control, one of them finds himself incapable of digesting his heart-wrenching fiasco. As a result, he puts an end to his life. The other one seems also to have contemplated committing suicide, but he changes his mind at the last moment. As for women, getting accustomed to losses and violence, a helpless mother appears devoid of emotion at her only son’s departure and leaving her alone with a possibility of not seeing him again. Another one, to the shock of everyone, a widow forced to marry an old man, kills her husband and commits suicide at her wedding night. Salih uses certain literary techniques to convey the intolerable wretchedness of the colonized and the failure of communication between colonizer and colonized. These techniques include an unnamed narrator, stream of consciousness, personification of the natural landscape as well as intertwining fictional and historical elements. Society as a whole seems plagued by a sense of loss, aimlessness, and worthlessness. In brief, Salih’s portrayal of the conditions of the colonized reflects a deep awareness of their psychological plight.

Review: Ken Jones, Education in Britain: 1944 to the Present, 2nd edn

Review: Ken Jones, <i>Education in Britain: 1944 to the Present</i>, 2nd edn

‘Certified to make a difference’: the motivation and perceptions of newly qualified early years teachers in England

The last 20 years have brought numerous workforce reforms to the early years sector, enacted in the name of professionalisation, including the recent introduction of a new postgraduate qualification, the Early Years Teacher Status. This article features data from interviews with 22 participants who had just completed this award and situates their views in the relevant policy context and alongside a discussion of what it means to professionalise the early years sector and create a graduate led workforce. The data support findings from similar studies of Early Years Professionals, namely that the interviewees are passionate about working with young children. They view the sector as in need of change, and themselves as potential leaders and agents of change. The participants endorse the view that up-skilling the workforce is essential to the professionalisation of the sector and improving the quality of early years education.

Exploring mathematics teacher knowledge for teaching: mathematics teachers in England, France and Germany

This article explores mathematics teachers’ knowledge for teaching, in the Anglo/American, French and German ‘scene’, and how this may relate to teachers’ beliefs and practices as a ‘teacher of mathematics’. Using a socio-cultural framework a particular concern was what it meant to be a mathematics teacher in England, France and Germany, and in which ways their knowledge construction was influenced, or shaped, by this. The findings are based on twelve teacher case studies, four in each country, and additional interviewing of 30 teachers, ten in each country. Results show that teacher knowledge for and in teaching was different, in the sense that teachers needed different kinds of knowledge to become effective within their systems and classrooms, and even similar kinds of knowledge (for example, subject knowledge) appeared to be differently perceived in the different educational ‘spheres’.

Educational change and innovative teaching practice: a study of the impact of reforms on the work of lecturers in vocational education and training in England and Germany

This paper focuses on the connection between system-wide reform in vocational education and training and the implementation of these reforms in learning and teaching processes. The study that is the subject of this paper conducted interviews with teachers in school-based vocational education in England and Germany. These interviews generated data on how teachers perceive reforms and in which ways they adapt their teaching as a result of reforms. This paper concentrates on the question in how far the interpretation of reforms by teachers leads to innovative processes at classroom level. The comparative design of the study aimed at identifying differences in innovative practice of teachers in Germany and England. It is concluded that the comparatively stable situation that German teachers € nd themselves in allow them to engage more actively in, and reflect more freely on, innovative practices than is possible for teachers in England. In contrast, innovative activities of teachers in England are often focused on the management of new teaching contents and the preparation for the teaching of a constantly changing portfolio of qualifications.