Evolution or Revolution: dilemmas in the post ERA management of special educational needs by local authorities

Abstract

The management by local education authorities (LEAs) of provision for special educational needs has long proved problematical, especially in mainstream schools. In the period following the 1981 Education Act, many LEAs sought to develop a ‘continuum of provision’ by the central direction of resources into the mainstream, but with limited success. In the wake of the 1988 Education Act, LEAs will need to pursue a more collaborative approach to the development of special needs policy. Examples of such approaches are studied and a model of an interactive relationship between schools and LEAs is proposed. Finally, the implications for LEA support services are discussed together with suggestions of a distinctive role for institutions of higher education.     

Effective Schooling: Research,Theory and Practice

ABSTRACT

Does the influence on academic progress, which a school exerts on its pupils’ achievements in public examinations, differ for pupils of differing levels of ability? The study on which this paper is based used data from a number of English local education authorities (LEAs) and showed that, in general, when finely‐differentiated measures of pupils’ prior‐attainment were employed, the rate of progress was uniform for most schools within the differing sets for which data were available, whilst the level varied substantially between schools. The analysis contrasts these findings with others where a grouped prior‐attainment measure was used, and evidence for ‘differential effectiveness’ was detected; the paper seeks to account for the substantially different conclusions to which the work leads.     

Primary School Perception of Disruptive Behaviour

The article reports on a survey of English primary school head teachers’ opinions on disruptive behaviour, coupled with a one‐day exercise in the monitoring of disruptive incidents in the same schools. Eighty‐five highly experienced head teachers from 38 local education authorities responded to an extensive questionnaire and 77 schools monitored incidents. Schools were categorised by the LEAs as potentially ‘difficult’, ‘of average difficulty’ and ‘easy’ in respect of intake. Thirty‐six Principal Educational Psychologists contributed briefly on a question on age of onset.

Findings relate to (a) an examination of the question whether the age of onset of disruptive behaviour is getting earlier, (b) the differing perceptions of questions concerning disruptive behaviour of head teachers, in schools of varying potential difficulty of intake, and (c) the coping strategies used and favoured by head teachers in their work with disruptive behaviour.     

Solving the equity–equality conceptual dilemma: a new model for analysis of the educational process

Background Over the past four decades there have been a number of controversies arising from the discussion of ‘equity’ and ‘equality’. These concepts are often invoked by policy analysts, policy-makers, government officials and scholars in order to justify or critique resource allocation to different levels of the educational system.

Purpose By creating a new equality–equity goal-oriented model, which allows the combination of different dimensions for each concept with different stages of the educational process, this paper aims to achieve two purposes: (1) to clarify among researchers, educators, evaluators, policy analysts, and policy-makers the notions of ‘equality’ and ‘equity’; and (2) to encourage researchers and evaluators to critically examine and synthesize equality/equity-based research.

Sources of evidence A review of the literature concerning the meaning, goals and assumptions of the concepts ‘equity’ and ‘equality’, and their implications for social and public policy, is presented.

Main argument A survey of recent and earlier debates on ‘equity’ and ‘equality’ among scholars and researchers reveals disagreement and confusion about what those concepts really mean and what they involve in terms of goals and results. It is debatable whether we can have ‘equity’ and ‘equality’ in a society that prioritizes efficiency in resource management over social justice. Certainly, such questions have shaped and guided many discussions and theoretical debates among scholars, policy analysts and policy-makers.

Conclusions Most of the definitions of ‘equity’ and ‘equality’ are frequently used by many researchers, evaluators, policy-makers, policy analysts, scholars and educators as if they were interchangeable. Instead of arguing for a unique or simple conception of ‘equity’ and ‘equality’, a set of definitions of those concepts as well as a discussion related to theoretical and policy issues associated are presented. In order to avoid that confusion, the equality–equity model developed in this paper suggests several new directions for analysis and research. It provides some ideas about how ‘equity’ (i.e. ‘equity for equal needs’, ‘equity for equal potential’ and ‘equity for equal achievement’) and ‘equality’ (i.e. ‘equality of opportunity’, ‘equality for all’ and ‘equality on average across social groups’) could be treated and measured in future research in relation to different features of the educational process (availability of resources, access, survival, output and outcome).     

A critical analysis of the Language Background Other Than English (LBOTE) category in the Australian national testing system: a Foucauldian perspective

The Education Reform Bill is contrasted with the 1944 Education Act, especially in regard to the schools sector and the responsibilities of local education authorities (LEAs). The 1944 Act is seen as part of the formation of a Welfare State after the devastation and social upheaval of the war, in which educational opportunity and notions of a just society were guiding principles. The 1988 bill is seen as based on the spirit of consumerism, individual entrepreneurism and competition: the values of the market.

The contrast is examined specifically in relationship to policies for access to education, where a right based on citizenship is compared with the differential opportunities required by a market place, and through consideration of the different roles required of LEAs in a planned, comprehensive public service compared with a mixed economy of LEA and non‐LEA schools. It is argued that the strategic role of the LEA to plan and ensure provision as circumstances change will be more difficult to perform, and may be vitiated. The contradiction between a national curriculum and a market place in education (centralism vs. the free market) is highlighted and the question raised whether so contradictory a piece of legislation can achieve the ends its promoters hope of it.     

Match: The Report of the School

Schools are currently suffering from considerable ‘innovation overload’ with multiple changes being demanded by the Education Reform Act and other sources. Tom Peters (1988) has argued that a similar turbulent situation exists in US business and industry and suggests that the most successful companies are those which are able to ‘Thrive on Chaos’. LEAs and schools need knowledge and skills about school improvement and this article attempts to provide research‐based information to help them cope with innovation and improve teaching and learning.

School improvement is seen as a combination of previous research on the management of change and school effectiveness. Eight factors which seem to be related to effective schools are listed and knowledge about the change process is used to consider how a school could be improved. In order to offer practical help to LEAs and schools a set of guidelines is provided and recent research findings are discussed under each heading. The article concludes with an outline of a possible LEA school improvement project, involving a set of stages.     

Efficiency differences of finnish senior secondary schools: An application of DEA and Tobit analysis

We studied efficiency differences among Finnish senior secondary schools by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Four model variants were used. Average efficiencies in the most extensive models were 82–84 per cent. When parents' educational level was treated as an additional input, average efficiency increased to 91 per cent. The efficiency rankings of schools changed to some extent when simplest quantitative inputs and outputs were augmented by measures of teacher quality and national matriculation examination results. As a second stage after DEA analysis, we explained the degree of inefficiency (100-efficiency score) by a statistical Tobit model. Schools with small classes and heterogenous student bodies were inefficient whereas school size did not affect efficiency. Surprisingly, private schools were inefficient relative to public schools. When parents' educational level was only included in the Tobit model, it affected efficiency positively.     

Christians,Humanists and Common Ground

Abstract

The paper describes the setting up and implementation of an initiative in social education in Dudley, jointly supported by Dudley LEA and The Social Morality Council. The programme developed out of earlier work in the authority including the production of a syllabus in social education for 13‐18 year olds and was in direct response to the perceived needs of schools. Work was undertaken in several schools with a special emphasis on establishing links between schools, the community and employers and was monitored by surveying the views of parents, pupils, teachers and employers. The report describes the development of the role of advisory teacher, of involvement of various external agencies, the production of resource materials and summarizes the evaluators’ key ‘findings’ resulting from the project. This information, it is hoped, may be of interest to other schools and LEAs which may be considering a social education programme.     

Advisory teachers of mathematics: the ESG initiative

This paper traces the development of the education support grant provision for mathematics teaching. The rationale behind this DES initiative is discussed, and the paper provides evidence of the range of activities undertaken by ESG teams in various local authorities. An analysis of the variety of working models is provided across five LEAs. Results of interviews conducted with advisory teachers and teachers in participating schools are reported in an attempt to portray the nature of the support work. In the concluding section, it is argued that LEAs should consider basing their in‐service policy for mathematics teachers around projects of this nature, which have provided a much needed catalyst for curriculum change in the post‐Cockcroft era.     

Teacher education and LEA perspectives on disruptive behaviour: initial teacher training

From an examination of documents obtained from forty‐nine local education authorities (LEAs), a research suggested as useful by a project on disruptive behaviour (Lawrence, Steed & Young, 1978), an account was obtained of the expectations of LEAs as to how initial teacher training, programmes should introduce teachers to the skills required for coping with disruptive behaviour. This paper reports the findings derived from these LEA documents and examines their implications for initial teacher training.

LEAs are asking colleges to provide factual information about facilities, discussion of major related concepts and training in observational skills, and in a problem solving approach. These requirements are modest and feasible, but require staff who are up‐to‐date vis‐a‐vis disruptive behaviour.     

Selecting schools for closure: theory and practice in ‘rational’ planning

For more than a decade, LEAs have been under pressure to close schools. During this period the scale of contraction in school provision has been substantial but has nevertheless lagged behind DES expectations. This paper is concerned with the selection of schools for closure or amalgamation and examines in detail the procedures adopted and the proposals advanced in one LEA. While existing evidence suggests that the selection of schools for closure has generally been less than rational, the case selected is an example of what has been officially described as ‘strategic planning’ and ‘good practice’. Policy statements, criteria for selecting schools, and the characteristics of schools earmarked for closure are compared to assess the relationship between theory and practice. In practice, the criteria cited by the LEA were generally not capable of strict application. In addition, unstated criteria, notably school size, appear to have been significant. Thus, the LEA's proposals did not correspond directly to its own stated policy. Further, the extent to which the procedure adopted by the LEA conformed to notions of rational planning was limited. Current legislation is likely to reduce still further the ability of LEAs to produce rational schemes of contraction.     

Actual Minds of Two Halves: Measurement,Metaphor and the Message

Abstract

This article takes ‘measurement’ as a will to determine or fix space and time, which allows for a comparison of ontological models of space and time from Western and Māori traditions. The spirit of ‘measurement’ is concomitantly one of fixing meaning, which is suggested as the essence of the growth of the scientific genre of language that has taken place alongside the growth of science itself, since the European Enlightenment. ‘Measurement’ and ‘metaphor’ are posited as an original binary for classifying thinking and language, updating classical educational models of thought by drawing on recent results in brain and cognitive science, and recognising that basic cognitive resources, such as logic and rationality, power all forms of thinking. The article suggests that the notion of ‘cultural worldview’ may involve different balances of left and right brain thinking, embedded in the discourses, lexicons and grammars of each language, and that Western domination of left brain thinking (through the influence of science on the European languages, particularly English) may be a useful viewpoint on the philosophical dead end of the West.     

‘I’m teaching,but I’m not really a teacher’. Teaching assistants and the construction of professional identities in Hong Kong schools

Background: In the past decade, educational settings worldwide have experienced a significant increase in the number of school-based teaching assistants (TAs). The deployment of these TAs has been accompanied by reports of confusion and uncertainty about their roles and responsibilities within schools. While the need to reframe the role and purpose of TAs is recognised, it remains unclear how this can be best achieved.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to explore the ways in which one group of TAs deployed in Hong Kong schools construct their professional identities, to understand the constraints and enablements to these processes, and to consider how different stakeholders might be able to best support this identity work.

Sample: The primary participants in this study are nine English language teacher assistants employed at different schools across Hong Kong. Other participants include full-time English language teachers who have experience of working with one of these TAs, as well as students who attend English language classes in which these TAs participate.

Design and methods: A qualitative multiple case study approach is adopted. In-depth interviews with TAs, teachers and students are used to gain a contextualised interpretation of the primary participants’ experiences of constructing professional identities within schools. A multilevel, multidimensional theoretical framework, which considers identity construction as both a discursive and experiential accomplishment, is then used to understand the constraints and enablements TAs experience in constructing these identities.

Findings: Results indicate that TAs face challenges in constructing their professional identities at institutional, interpersonal and intrapersonal levels within Hong Kong schools. In addition, the TAs believe that exercising agency to contest their positionings within schools is often insufficient to place them on a trajectory towards become a teacher. The results also suggest that the identity conflicts TAs experience can lead some to question their decision to pursue a teaching career.

Conclusions: These results imply that in order to attract and retain TAs, educational authorities need to, first, problematise identity positions such as ‘TA’ and ‘teacher’ and then reconceptualise these identities in ways that allow for a multiplication of the identity positions potentially available to all stakeholders involved in teaching within Hong Kong schools.     

Mentoring at Tower Hamlets

This research looks at class management in senior high schools during tutor supervised teaching practice in and around the west Norwegian port city of Stavanger. The main focus is on the management of pupil behaviour, but some attention is also given to the management of pupil learning. It is recognised, of course, that the two overlap.

The study provides tentative evidence ‐no grand claims are made ‐ that Norwegian pre‐certified teachers (this term is explained below) value a class management style which is consultative rather than authoritarian. The preferred model is ‘indulgent persuader’ rather than ‘sergeant major’.

Campus, ministry and chalkface cultures seem to support non‐combative styles of class management, which suggests that the idealism of the tutor and civil servant is not pitted against the pragmatism of the pre‐certified teacher.

When'I' is used in the article, it refers to Paul Stephens, who implemented and conducted the empirical research. Otherwise, the content reflects the joint thoughts of both writers. To avoid literary tedium, the terms ‘pre‐certified teacher’ and ‘teacher’ are sometimes used interchangeably. The context makes it clear whether ‘teacher’ refers to pre‐certified or qualified persons.

Citations from Norwegian sources (except for one published in English) have been translated from Norwegian to English. So too have replies to a questionnaire which was used in the study.     

‘Becoming co-operative’ – challenges and insights: repositioning school engagement as a collective endeavour

ABSTRACT

This article explores how a school’s decision to become co-operative affects its engagement relationships with students and parents. The findings stem from a wider study exploring approaches to engagement in a recently converted co-operative academy, a large secondary school in a northern English city. The article surfaces the possibilities and tensions that occur as the school seeks to reposition itself in the English education marketplace, with a co-operative model that explicitly sets out to promote mutualisation, not privatisation; ‘we’ rather than ‘me’. The process of becoming co-operative is examined by exploring the underlying purposes of the school’s engagement with students and parents and the relationships that emerge as a result. The study surfaces the issues faced as a co-operative school seeks to enact thicker, ‘collective forms’ of democratic engagement against a backdrop of English education policy based on individualistic notions of democracy as freedom of choice. The findings point to the need for a different policy understanding of school engagement, an understanding that suggests engagement is about the process of developing more equitable, collaborative relationships with stakeholders and rests on the repositioning of students, parents and community members – from ‘choosers’ and ‘consumers’ to a collective public in education.     

The Drama Teacher's Journey

Abstract

This article focuses on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and English as a Second Language (ESL) texts, that is texts produced in interactions between native and non‐native speakers of English. Such texts are hybrid in that they comprise a blending of ‘standard’ and ‘non‐standard'1 English forms. In these times of globalised English and the increasing prevalence of non‐native speaker models of English, research is increasingly likely to encounter ESL texts. The issue for the critical analysis of such ‘new’ texts is that CDA generally utilises ‘standard’ linguistic models for its analytical apparatus. Fairclough (2003), arguably the most widely‐recognised proponent of CDA, bases his analytical framework on Standard English. The question is whether and if so how CDA can accommodate hybrid texts, specifically those with a blend of linguistically ‘standard’ and ‘non‐standard’ forms of English. In this discussion, I consider the application of Fairclough's model of CDA to the analysis of an interview with a Thai ESL student beginning postgraduate studies in Australia. I argue that the analysis is made more effective by drawing on principles from Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research, in particular communication strategies.     

All the Nines: Creativity in English Curricula in England in 1919, 1989 and 2019 as a Reflection of Britain’s Place in Europe

ABSTRACT

Just after the First World War the English Association published The Teaching of English in Schools. It argues that developing children’s ‘creative spirit’ is fundamental to maintaining peace in Europe. Seventy years later, the first National Curriculum promotes a creative, unitary English appropriate for ‘a European context’.

In contrast, today’s national curriculum contains no reference to the role of English in international relations; simultaneously, all references to creativity have disappeared.

As Britain struggles to cope with the fallout from Brexit, this paper – written from a hermeneutic perspective – discusses the correlation between how each of the three documents positions English in an international context and how they value creativity. Without wishing to over–simplify complex issues, it questions how to what extent a curriculum might echo or shape national politics. It calls for a new curriculum that embraces a creative, internationalist view of English to inspire communities of the future.     

Implementing the Code of Practice for Special Educational Needs

Abstract

This article explores the provenance and features of the new Code of Practice for special educational needs and then reports on research on the implementation of the Code in one Local Education Authority. It is argued that the Code has managerial, curricular and consumer dimensions, all of which have a number of implications for policy and practice, for both LEAs and schools. In particular, the Code can be seen as a mechanism for controlling and targeting resource allocation as well as a means of increasing accountability in relation to provision and partnership with parents. The Code is also closely linked to the changing role of LEAs and is therefore likely to affect the relationship between LEAs and schools.