Utilising creative methodologies to elicit the views of young learners with additional needs in literacy

The research described in this article aimed to explore and examine the dominant ‘assessment’ and ‘participation’ stories of upper‐primary pupils with long‐standing and marked literacy learning needs, their views on how their level of participation in the assessment and remediation of their additional needs might be increased and also how they perceive themselves as literacy learners. This qualitative small‐scale study adopted a case study approach and utilised creative methodologies in the context of focus groups to investigate sensitively the views and experiences of Key Stage 2 pupils with additional needs in literacy. The findings discussed here are based on the outcomes from the four Northern Irish schools that participated in the original cross‐border (Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland) study. Findings are discussed in the context of strategies for promoting holistic and empowering pathways for learners with additional needs in literacy.     

Proteus Rising: Re‐Imagining Educational Research

The idea that educational research should be ‘scientific’, and ideally based on randomised control trials, is in danger of becoming hegemonic. In the face of this it seems important to ask what other kinds of educational research can be respectable in their own different terms. We might also note that the demand for research to be ‘scientific’ is characteristically modernist, and thus arguably local and temporary. It is then tempting to consider what non‐modernist approaches might look like. The purpose of this article is to sketch a case for one particular reaction against modernist thinking: romanticism. How might our understanding (apprehension, sense) of education be changed by readmitting the insights and perspectives of romanticism? And, crucially, what confidence could we have in educational research that was thus inspired and that took the ‘romantic turn’?     

Talking about Assessment: Mentor-student dialogues about pupil assessment in initial teacher training

This is an account of a study, conducted over the period of one extended school placement lasting a term, which monitored the dialogues between student teachers undertaking their school-based initial training and their mentors. The study took place in the context of the increasing emphasis placed on pupil assessment in England and Wales and the increasing prominence of school-based work in initial teacher training. This particular analysis focuses on the extent and kind of attention within the dialogues given to the assessment of pupil learning, and the ways in which school-based mentors model assessment practice through their formative discussions with student teachers. The evidence suggests that the dialogues are tending to define assessment in terms of examinations, tests and class control rather than in terms of pupil learning. While this suggests that there is scope for continued development of the mentoring role and the interpretation of initial teaching competences, it also adds to existing evidence that pupil-assessment is an area of difficulty for many experienced teachers.