As the year rushes to a close and we add Yuletide shopping to our busy lives (alongside school carol concerts and plays perhaps), there are two significant policy initiatives which deserve our time and attention. Both have December deadlines. One might be forgiven for thinking the timing was well judged, that is if policy makers don’t want to hear from the profession…
The House of Commons Education Committee recently launched an online enquiry into the way the DfE uses evidence, with a deadline of December 12th (just before you order that turkey), and the deadline for the DfE consultation into the new performance descriptors is just six days later, on December 18th (just before you wrap those presents).
Both of these initiatives have been the subject of previous CPRT blogs, with Robin Alexander raising pertinent questions about the breadth of the enquiry on evidence and Warwick Mansell observing that the performance descriptors are simply another way of labelling learners, under a different name (this time with the contentious notion of being judged ‘below’ or ‘above’ national standards at aged seven). It is surely time to voice our views. We cannot afford to stand back.
Based on government responses to previous ‘consultations’, there is scant evidence that the perspectives of academics, researchers or teachers will be heard, attended to or indeed in any way influence the outcome. Commas change, but rarely content.
Nonetheless, in gathering with others to talk and listen, whether in school or consortia meetings, in externally organised PD or in university-based groups (such as the CPRT London Teachers Reading Group), we have the chance to revisit our principles and remind each other of the need to consider research evidence and explore its application when back in the classroom.
However, it is not enough to read and debate research – though it is essential. Nor is it enough to respond to such enquiries and consultations – though again this is important. Surely we must also engage as researchers ourselves? As a profession we must avoid standing back and waiting for others to define the questions for us to answer (as is the case with the performance descriptors consultation, where delimited questions afford little scope for commenting upon wider issues of relevance).
Historically, teachers have been positioned as the objects of research, but in recent decades the involvement of the primary profession in research related practices has diversified, with many studies demonstrating the value of school-university research partnerships. Additionally, practitioners have undertaken their own classroom-based research, framed around self-identified questions, both individually and collectively, as part of teacher action-research networks.
In the South West of England, an arts and creativity focused CPRT action-research project is being run as part of our national research programme. Coordinated by Penny Hay at Bath Spa University and Emese Hall at Exeter University, it involves ten schools and reflects three of the CPRT’s eight priorities: children’s voice and rights; fostering a rich, relevant and broad curriculum and developing a pedagogy of repertoire, rigour, evidence and principle.
Another such CPRT action-research project is developing at Roger Ascham Primary School in Walthamstow, co-ordinated by Robin Desoer from the school and Amelia Hempel Jorgensen and Gill Goodliff from the Open University. It is focused on learner identity, autonomy and self-regulation. As a Trust we are seeking to evolve a model of school-led CPRT action research which addresses the overall research concern: how is primary education in England providing education relevant to children’s lives and worlds and how is this improving their life chances?
Whilst Kemmis (2006) suggests that harnessing teacher action research to the school improvement agenda has diluted its critical transformative potential, both projects are seeking to ensure attention is paid to the wider social, cultural and discursive consequences of any new practices developed, and are working to enhance the teachers’ sense of their professional roles and identities. In the midst of the midwinter mayhem, with personal and professional deadlines looming and not enough time in the day, standing up, speaking out and making time to ask our own questions remain important.
Professor Teresa Cremin is a co-director of Cambridge Primary Review Trust.