6th Teacher Education Advancement Network Annual Conference

Knowing about Teaching

May 13th and 14th 2015

What price education?(Initial findings from PhD study)

•Background to research

•Grounded theory

•Research method

•Head teachers and outcomeso Autonomy from Policyo Contradictions about outcome based management

Background to the research

Efficiency-sufficiency

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Aims of the project/investigation:

•To explore recent and current trends in public sector organisations, with a view to evaluate the application and incorporation of ‘private sector’ values in professions with a ‘public service’ ethos

•To outline the political, economic and philosophical ‘logic’ of the ‘private sector’ in order to firmly establish the imperatives of privately run organisations in a market economy

•To examine the rise of (new) ‘social’ professions throughout the 20th century and critically analyse the value systems surrounding them

•To capture perspectives from professionals operating in a variety of public and private sector settings with a view to determine motivation and ethical foundations in order to draw conclusions about the ‘appropriateness’ and extent of incorporating different values based on traditional or ‘conventional’ private sector models into the public sector

•New Public Management context and impact and other models of administration

Education Reform Act 1988……

Original intention(!) to explore:

• Leadership• Educational policy• New public management

Actually explored all of this….plus:

• Teacher training• The ‘diversity of the job’ of Head Teacher• Academies and federations• Power relationships with local authorities• Etc, etc…………………………………………………

Ofsted grade descriptors:• Outstanding• Good• Requires improvement• Inadequatehttp://dashboard.ofsted.gov.uk/dash.php?urn=136753

http://www.education.gov.uk/cgi-bin/schools/performance/school.pl?urn=136753

School and college performance tables

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/

GCSE targets40% of pupils- five GCSE grades between A* and C, including passes in English and maths.

SATS resultshttp://www.theschoolrun.com/understanding-sats-results

Key Stage (KS) Ages Duration School years Forms Final exams

0 3–5 2 years (1 compulsory)

Nursery, Reception

Nursery, Infant Reception Class

1 5–7 2 years 1–2 1st–2nd form infants

KS1 SATS, Phonics and Reading Check

2 7–11 4 years 3–6 1st–4th form juniors SATS Tests

3 11–14 3 years 7–9 1st–3rd form secondary

4 14–16 2 years 10–11 4th–5th form secondary GCSEs

5 16–19 2 years or more 12–13

Sixth form secondary, also FE college

A-Levels, AS-Levels, NVQs, National Diplomas

Grounded theory

Grounded theory:

the ‘systematic discovery of theory from the data of research’(Glaser & Strauss, 2008)

‘….an attempt through the analysis of data to develop a theoretical interpretation of what is seen and heard’

(Strauss & Corbin, 1990).

The correction and integration of previous knowledge was not considered appropriate for the highly ‘social’ nature of enquiry.

(Goldhaber & Nieto, 2010)

‘….the (researcher) ‘...does not know theconcrete situation better than thoseinvolved’.(Glaser and Strauss, 2008)

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Where opinions and values are concerned, the uniqueness of responses is important and desirable. Social structures undergo continuous change and social actors act and react accordingly.(Glaser and Strauss, 2008)

We are awash in a sea of discourses – ‘a sea of signs’.(Foucoult, 1973)

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Reasons for selecting grounded theory approach

The data expected from the respondents is anticipated to be spontaneous to the point that ‘planning’ for responses by using theory may restrict the analysis of the data.

It is accepted that the data may differ so much from each respondent in turn that ways of conceptualizing responses may need to be developed as the research progresses.

This leaves the formation of an hypothesis from theory at the outset redundant and limiting.

Research method

…managed verbal exchange(Ritchie & Lewis, 2003 and Gillham, 2000)

the communication skills of the interviewer(Clough & Nutbrown, 2007)

• the ability to clearly structure questions (Cohen et al., 2007)

• listen attentively (Clough & Nutbrown, 2007)

• pause, probe or prompt appropriately (Ritchie & Lewis, p.141)

• encourage the interviewee to talk freely… (Newton, 2010, p1)

the relational aspect and trust which is needed between participants(Newton, 2010, p1)

Intensive interviewing fits grounded theory particularly well….open ended yet directed, shaped yet emergent, and paced yet restrictive. (Charmaz, 2014: p85)

Form and content of interviews:(Charmaz, 2014: p84)

• Theoretical plausibility• Direction• Centrality• Adequacy

Analytic ideas may occur to you during the midst of an interview…. (Charmaz, 2014: p111)

Mostly achieved….

….but perhaps too well

Head teachers and outcomes

Original intention(!) to explore:

• Leadership• Educational policy• New public management

Actually explored all of this….plus:

• Teacher training• The ‘diversity of the job’ of Head Teacher• Academies and federations• Power relationships with local authorities• Etc, etc…………………………………………………

Contradictions about outcome based management

RM Yeah, it’s an interesting change. I think even had we stayed as a five class school, that role would have been changing anyway because the nature of ‘headship’ having changed. Um I think the fact that the school is growing means there’s almost an emphasis behind that change which is very real and has to be done, so it’s easier for me to manage but it does come with its difficulties…so for about eight or nine of those fourteen years, I knew what everyone was doing, and it is quite a change to rely and delegate to other people, but I am quite happy with it actually….I wasn’t sure that I would be, but it’s a positive move.

PolicyChanging role of Head Teacher Executive nature of modern ‘headship’

AK One of the things I am interested in is- heads who have a lot of experience, like you is that we have a kind of fast-track system, so you could have a head say 35. Do you think- I know this is going to be subjective, do you think you might have an advantage, having seen it come and seen it go over others who….?

RM Yeah I think um, there’s been a lot of research into practice recently, and the difference between having an innate talent and just getting there because you have practised and you’ve done it…I think that is the case, if you’ve been doing the job for a long time- I mean there are two schools of thought….either you become quite stale and really need to move on, and the other is that you get better and better because you have done things before- you can kind of model them.

Development of role as a head

Autonomy from Policy

‘I go back to 88’‘The government, control teaching to a point where it is now almost a stranglehold’‘We are the most over-tested education system in the world’‘The only way you can survive is….doing what I think is right’‘Have I always done what the government wanted? No, not at all’‘Rather than being observed they should be observing’

‘It’s a much tighter curriculum, certainly in terms of English, maths, science, it’s much more formulaic’

‘I will do that, but that is not as important’‘What you can say is am I meeting whatI should do for my children, and now I am looking at children as a whole rather than looking at them getting their SATS results in Year 6’

‘….never follow them through because there are so many’‘the ability to look at it and say that will help us, that one will really help us. That one’s not’

League tables‘I don’t think they are a true reflection of the school at all, I think they are dire.’‘I am not forcing my, my staff to get certain levels from certain children’

Ofsted‘I do remember the halcyon days before Ofsted’‘It was only a blink really; it was just a glimpse at what is going on- just enough! Any judgement is going to be subjective’‘Whether it is worth the paper it’s written on is another debate really’‘(Ofsted grade) it’s good and you then won’t get the support and perhaps the funding to move stuff that is not satisfactory’

Targets‘We are a ‘results driven’ industry, so if you can get children to do BTECS that equate to GCSEs then it is good for the school, but I don’t think it is good for the child’‘The schools that seem to be failing most in this country seem to be focusing purely on the exam results’

SATS‘the problem with SATS is it is a snapshot’‘You hear about schools that coach children much more through those tests’‘(Managing SATS results) is a skill in itself’‘…. because not everywhere in the country is the same, there’s different environments’

Targets for heads

‘You didn’t go into the minutia of detail but you said, you know, they have passed their targets or whatever, but Head Teachers were free to set up targets as they saw fit’

‘That’s why I left (the city), because I wanted to work with humans, and you know I disliked…. I didn’t like not having that human element in that job basically’

‘(Targets) not a natural thing for people who have chosen to go into education’

Performance management of staff

But….

I do think we should have performance management….

it makes them reflect on their own performance as a teacher

I don’t necessarily thinkthat it’s a bad thing.

At the Academy I work at now, I’d say that 30% of the staff are inadequate and shouldn’t be teachers

The Head wants to go slightly extremeand put our performance management, observations for example out there

We are also going to use video. When they say ‘how do you know this teacher is outstanding?, we will say ‘have a look for yourself’

Conclusions:

Head teachers are averse to being subjected to performance management themselves

Head teachers see performance management as a useful tool for themselves to manage staff

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