Living Contradiction E-Book

Sean Warren

• Herausgeber: Crown House Publishing
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Co-authored by Sean Warren and Stephen Bigger, Living Contradiction: A Teacher's Examination of Tension and Disruption in Schools, in Classrooms and in Self charts Warren's journey as an experienced and successful teacher who lost himself in his rigid commitment to upholding standards, and documents his research to find a better way. Values are in vogue in education: they are stated in school policies across the land. They are a list of what the school wants people to think about them and their educational aims that they are caring, effective, and ethical in rooting pedagogy and all educational processes in positive relationships between teachers and pupils. Amidst the reality of classroom life, however, the very best of intentions can be compromised as the insidious influences of power, pressure, and responsibility come to bear. In this candid account, presented in the form of a dual narrative, Warren describes how he adopted a persona infused with control and intolerance as his authoritarian approach to suppressing conflict in the secondary school classroom became increasingly incongruent with his personal values and aspirations as an educator. Then, through undertaking his action research project and engaging in a process of reconceptualisation under co-author Bigger's mentorship,Warren began to explore how he could redefine his classroom leadership and authenticate his teaching practice without compromising standards or authority. Living Contradiction investigates the efficacy of Warren's modified approach and tells the story of how he overcame the incessant demands of tension and disruption by becoming 'confident in uncertainty'. Grappling with both the philosophical and the pragmatic, the authors offer two distinct perspectives in their commentary on Warren's journey supporting their interspersed critical reflections with thought-provoking insights into the methodology and outcomes of Warren's research project. The book is split into five parts and is punctuated throughout with expert surveying of a wide range of related research that challenges the status quo on the effectiveness of punishment and authoritarianism as approaches to behaviour management. Furthermore, in exploring how schooling should be as much about developing motivated citizens as encouraging qualifications, Living Contradiction goes in search of answers to the question that all educationalists must ask: 'What do we want our education system to do for our children?' Suitable for teachers, NQTs, and policy makers, Living Contradiction is a resonatory self-examination of teacher identity and a significant contribution to the debate about how schools and classrooms are run.

Leseprobe

Praise for Living Contradiction

Drawing from a great wealth of research and the even greater wealth of their combined personal experience, Sean Warren and Stephen Bigger have written something rare – a book which not only deconstructs the thorny issues endemic in the British education system, but also presents us with intuitive and achievable remedies for them.

Charlie Carroll, author of On the Edge

A fascinating insight into teaching and education – I can personally identify with so many of the aspects discussed. What is clear throughout is that relationships in teaching are crucial: they underpin and determine the behaviour of students in our schools, whether we agree that this should be the case or not.

I would recommend Living Contradiction to anyone entering or already in the education profession.

Clare Gammons, Head Teacher, Cambian Wisbech School

Living Contradiction is a fascinating, honest examination of that genuine contradiction faced by teachers in reconciling the effort made to encourage young people towards independent critical thinking, with the simultaneous sense of responsibility to instruct and insist on a particular behaviour.

The authors’ methodology is robust, providing a full discussion and acknowledgement of the benefits and constraints of autobiography in an academic research project, and offers thought-provoking insight into the use of the immediacy of blogging as a tool to record or diarise, and share, immediate experience. Living Contradiction also offers an interesting evaluation of the role of educational theorists set against the realities of teachers’ experience on the front line in schools, where years of academic research are set against the need to respond to a behaviour in a matter of minutes.

Suzie Grogan, author of Shell Shocked Britain

Living Contradiction is the book that I wish I had had when I embarked on a career as a teacher.

The ‘living contradiction’ that is its starting point is painfully familiar to everyone who has stood in a classroom and wondered how they had ended up this way, with the energy-sapping task of keeping order becoming an end in itself. We had thought it was a precondition for learning, and we craved the respect of pupils and colleagues, but we had sacrificed the excitement that brought us into the profession.

Warren and Bigger’s book breaks out of this sterile dilemma: discipline versus self-expression, strength versus weakness. Warren is no naive idealist, and is well aware that teachers continue to be accountable to a regime that insists on measurable, quantitative, and sometimes trivial outcomes. The breaking of familiar patterns is challenging for him, for colleagues, and for pupils. It is a rocky ride for everyone, but also an exemplary exercise in practice-based research. Armed with insights from educationalists and a rigorous methodology that enables him to analyse and interpret the results of his new approach, and fortified by a constant, questioning dialogue with Stephen Bigger, Sean Warren succeeds in changing the dynamic in his classroom – a hard-won achievement and a thrilling one.

This is not an arid book – all teachers will recognise the day-to-day dilemmas, confrontations, and compromises recounted here with honesty and wit. But it is inspirational: here is someone who has had the courage to believe in his students, in himself, and in the power of education.

Ann Miller, University Fellow, University of Leicester

Living Contradiction is an intelligent, sensitive, and socially situated antidote to the macho, authoritarian ‘what works’ publications in education that cocksurely proselytise about what needs to be done to improve teaching and learning.

In conceptualising teaching as a moral and ethical practice, Warren and Bigger seek to illuminate and confront some of the complexities involved in dealing with the thorny issues of behaviour and discipline in schools. But rather than providing spurious, short term solutions, Living Contradiction takes the reader on a journey of critical reflection and self-learning as the authentic experience of Warren’s professional life is openly interrogated. The richness, sensitivity, and depth of thought with which this book examines matters relating to behaviour and discipline in schools makes it very unique from many other publications.

Dr Matt O’Leary, Reader in Education, Birmingham City University

Warren and Bigger’s account is deeply human and is a model example of how to turn a piece of academic research (a PhD in this case) into a beautifully written, highly readable, and truly inspirational book.

Living Contradiction is a book for now which addresses the urgency for a radical reassessment of what schooling should mean. Some of the source material – particularly the extracts from pupils’ diaries – are frankly shocking, and illustrate an alarming lack of respect afforded to pupils’ human rights and dignity. Not all schools are the same, of course, but all who are involved in the education of our young people will find here a fascinating and inspiring journey that grapples with the real issues of schooling.

I’m certain that many teachers will find Living Contradiction deeply relevant and truly inspirational.

Dr Geoff Teece, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Exeter Graduate School of Education

What I like most about Living Contradiction is its collaborative nature and its honesty. Sean Warren and Stephen Bigger exemplify a collaborative educational relationship: the book shows how Bigger shared his understandings of critical theory, encouraging Warren to see that autobiographical writings could produce a valid and academically legitimate contribution to educational knowledge in the generation of a living educational theory. The honesty is in Warren’s educational journey, which will captivate your imagination and resonate with your own experiences of the imposition of institutional power relations.

I believe that Living Contradiction will be of great value on initial and continuing professional development programmes in education, and to all professionals in a wide range of workplace contexts who are facing their own contradictions in living their values as fully as they can.

Jack Whitehead, Visiting Professor of Education, University of Cumbria

Warren and Bigger present a highly engaging account of a teacher’s journey from an approach founded in authoritarianism to one founded in respect and care: moving from discipline imposed by teachers, to developing pupils’ self-discipline that is the result of self-learning. The move from compliance and confrontation to cooperation and care is compelling in its challenge to readers to review their professional practice and relationships.

Underpinned by research and personal reflection, Living Contradiction is a powerful challenge to the ways in which schools work.

Dr Richard Woolley, Head, Centre for Education and Inclusion, Deputy Head (Research), Institute of Education, University of Worcester

Acknowledgements

Sean: The content of this book spans my entire life. The process of articulation began nine years ago.

Acknowledging the family and friends who have made contributions for the full duration of my 50 plus years, I send my love and thanks.

For those teachers and classmates who walked with me during my school days, I give a thumbs up and a smile. I know you are all much older now, but in my memories you all look the same today as you did all those moons ago. In spite of the hardships, for me, it remains a blessed time.

For the colleagues and pupils who have shared some of my professional journey over the past three decades, I extend a handshake – and for others a hug. Making specific contributions to my research – Jon A, for generously sharing his intellectual property, and Graeme S, my faculty leader – take your pick, boys – too late, a hug it is!

For my doctorate supervisors, Richard Woolley, John Visser, and of course my co-author, Stephen, I give my sincere gratitude. To those ‘critical friends’ who read the thesis – a substantial piece of work which provides the foundation for this book – I offer a ‘cheers’. (Brian H, John B, and Tim WM – really appreciated it.) Both Stephen and I wish to say thank you to Emma T, our copy editor at Crown House, for her thorough review of our first draft.

Tying together many of these threads is my wonderful wife, Julia: a loyal friend, a fellow teacher, and my chief proofreader, she has been my anchor throughout. And finally, to our beautiful children: Emma, Libby, and Chad, for the many sacrifices they have made during a prolonged period of research and writing. Daddy is all done now.

Stephen: Dedicated to the memory of my parents and of the many other relatives and friends we have sadly lost.

Contents

Title PageAcknowledgementsPrologue: SeanPreface: StephenIntroduction: The Background to the Book1. A Sense of …2. Autobiographical ResearchReflexivityPart I. Power Over3. Subscribing to AuthoritarianismAn Authoritarian SchoolThe SituationSanctionsInternal Isolation UnitTraining ColleaguesStaff DisempowermentInner EmotionsOutbursts4. Conceptions of Good and BadFear and BlameThe Significant MinorityRules5. A Consideration of CurriculumWhat Is Education For?The Politicisation of LearningPositive School Relationships: Critical PedagogyResistance to AuthoritarianismPromoting Well-Being: Schooling and Mental HealthPart II. Methodological Considerations 6. Knowledge and ValuesApplication to Research in Education and SchoolingEvidence and Evidence-Based Research in Education7. Quality As MeasuredA NumberAccountabilityA Directed ProfessionSite of StrugglePositioningMy Contextual Settings8. Quality As ExperiencedSubjective KnowledgeLiving Logics9. ComplexityInteractionsConceptual FudgeComplex Adaptive Systems‘Is’ Not ‘Ought’Clocks or Clouds?Part III. Degrees of Resistance: Low Level Disruptions 10. VariancePositionality11. Weather Forecast‘Can’ Not ‘Do’Conduct Offers Up CluesPossibility of Localised ShowersAn Assumption of Quality12. Testing and Challenging BoundariesRain Cloud BehaviourCrossing the LineStaff Language Conveying Disruptive IncidentsUndeterredTheorising Through a Complexity LensThe Significance of Timings13. Recognising BoundariesThe ‘Means Business’ TeacherThe ‘Scary’ TeacherCommentary14. Indistinct BoundariesThe Ineffective Teacher15. In-Group/Out-GroupTerritoryDisregard16. Professional IdentitySplit-SelfSelf-lacerationSub-identitiesPart IV. Power With17. Classroom ClimateInitial Forming PhaseReinforcing Cues During the Re-forming Process‘With-it-ness’Collective ResponsibilityClassroom Climate QuestionnaireSecure, Significant, and Valued18. Dark CloudsHidden GoalsSolitary Rain Cloud19. Stormy WeatherAnalysis of GamesReflexive Turmoil20. React or Respond: Examining the PatternsReactDominating21. Core GimmicksThe Socialised Self, School, and TeachersExposureParental FiguresExposed Again22. TransitionsProductServantAgentAuthoritative Presence23. Social DynamicsSelf-organisationIsolates24. The Teaching and Learning InteractionReconceptualising ‘Disorder’Lesson Observation ModelArchetypal Friday Period 5Capturing the Edge of ChaosPart V. Working with Colleagues 25. Affirmation and the Potential for Continuing Professional DevelopmentEstablished TeacherNQTsTrainee26. A Salutary Reminder: Colleagues and PupilsHarriedA Mere ContributionEpilogueAppendix A: FIRO TheoryAppendix B: Temple Index of Functional Fluency (TIFF) DescriptorsAppendix C: Professional DevelopmentReferencesCopyright

Prologue

Sean

In 1981, I was coming to the end of my compulsory education, and about to embark on the world of work – I was yet to realise that it would lead to a career in teaching. When I belatedly chose to become a teacher, I was largely oblivious to politics, educational history, theory, or policy. A desire to work with children and to help them achieve motivated me. I was totally unaware that the vocation I had chosen would cause me to compromise and distort these noble but simplistic intentions. I had no inkling that through steadfast adherence to institutional standards and expectations, I would lose something of myself in the process.

In the same year, 1981, Berlak and Berlak conducted a study producing insights which I remained ignorant of for over 30 years. Whilst preparing to leave classroom teaching to write up the findings from my own research, I read their work for the first time and smiled. Unbeknownst to me, they had foretold (and affirmed) the validity of investigating the deep sense of incongruity which had come to define my experience of operating in the English education system. In the Berlaks’ terms, I had been brooding over the dilemmas of schooling:

The authors describe dilemmas as representing contradictions that reside in the situation, in the individual, and in the larger society – as they are played out in one form of institutional life: schooling. These dilemmas focus on the fluidity and the reflexivity of the social process that are encapsulated in daily encounters between teachers and children. The practitioner’s exchanges are not to be seen as disconnected, contradictory, discrete, or situational, but a complex pattern of behaviours which are joined together through consciousness.

A participant in the Berlaks’ research (Mr Scott), provides a hint of his continuing internal conversations, as he deliberates over the apparent thoughtful choices he is making. He concludes: “I have yet to come to terms with myself,” as he distinguishes between the ‘act’ and the person. It is evident that he has some degree of awareness of a wide range of contradictory social experiences and social forces, past and contemporary – both in his classroom, his school, and beyond in the wider community. He has internalised these contradictions (in his personal and social history, and in his present circumstances) and they are now ‘within’ him, a part of his generalised other, informing his outward responses.

The writers suggest that an awareness of how these forces come to bear on our conditions means that we are capable of altering our behaviour patterns and/or act with others to alter our circumstances – to become steadfast in our efforts to transform.

They conclude that the purpose of enquiry for teachers is to enable us to partake in reflective action. Engaging in this process requires participants to look again and recognise that what they have been taking for granted about classroom life, the origins of schooling activities, and the ensuing consequences upon children and society are all problematic. (adapted from Berlak and Berlak 2002: 8–10)

Turbulent change defines the past three decades in education, yet the dilemmas (or contradictions) remain as pertinent today as they ever were, perhaps even more so, as schools negotiate market forces, incessant political intervention, media platforms, and that old chestnut – pupil behaviour. Think of the teaching profession, and increasingly there are concerns about stress, recruitment, and retention. The Children’s Society report (Pople et al. 2015) informs readers that children in England are amongst the unhappiest in the world. These, I argue, are clear symptoms: they substantiate an apparent tension in schools in light of the relentless demand for us to be ever more rigorous in the pursuit of quantifiable effectiveness, lest we be judged as failing.

Dilemmas reside in the lived experiences of practitioners, and, as I will show, may even be detected by discerning pupils as they protest against the nature of teacher–pupil encounters and query the legitimacy of the institutional status quo. Schooling is distinguished from education. On the surface, the situations I describe in this book are familiar and routine, yet the exchanges I experienced were rich and complex, often representing sites of struggle. The concepts of tension and disruption in the title relate to school systems and classroom interactions, but I also came to discover how these concepts could play out from deep within a teacher’s psyche. These are the realms that I interrogated as a practitioner-researcher.

I believe this perturbing state – this condition – to be endemic. For me it was subliminal, obscured, undefined. Nias (1989: 65) describes teachers as living with tension, dilemma, and contradiction, and concludes, “those who claim that they can be themselves in and through work … are signalling that they have learned to live not just with stress but with paradox”. Unfortunately, I came to a point in my career when I could not. Looking beyond paradox, my sense of dissonance intensified as I came to better appreciate the hypocrisy engrained within the school system; it had infiltrated my professional identity, it was inherent within me, and it was apparent in my practice.

It is my privilege to take the baton from Mr Scott all these years on, and to offer an array of perspectives to probe his predicament, for it is one with which I began to identify. As I sought “to come to terms with myself”, I came to recognise myself as a living contradiction. Significantly, I want to convey both the profound and subtle implications as I critique my contribution as a teacher and as an authority figure. And yet, it is important to declare that my attention extends beyond these formal roles. Implicit in the text is the thought, the possibility, that I am being a man in our society with all that entails – the anger, the appeal of strength and assertion of will, an inclination to resort to violence to deal with threat. Negotiating issues of masculinity, identity, and status as a child and an adult, in the family and the workplace, I acknowledge that this might be an ‘everyman’s’ tale but it is not everyone’s story. I ponder whether my experiences would have the same resonance with a female teacher, or indeed male colleagues who don’t identify with the power dynamic I convey. Regardless of gender, my fervent hope is that this book might encourage some brave colleagues to run the next leg. Whilst this book is written with teachers in mind, I am aware that there is growing interest amongst practitioners about the use of evidence to inform practice. I want to illustrate how the research process has the capacity to shine a discerning light on the classroom elements we find important and troublesome. The holistic coverage incorporates and shifts between perspectives I classify as ‘I’ and ‘them’ – ‘we’ and ‘us’. The interests I explore in my work include the exchange of teaching and learning interactions, and low level disruptions. These provide context to examine my dilemmas. The scene in which I unravel my concern is a typical secondary school in the UK; the broad setting is the education system, whose current constitution was established as I was about to start my professional career at the end of the 1980s.

Preface

Stephen

I remember in 1987, when working in teacher education, the assembled education staff at Westminster College, Oxford being firmly told by Secretary of State for Education Kenneth Baker, who had helicoptered in for that purpose, that the education service was in a parlous state and that the new national curriculum, national testing, league tables, and a new inspection service would solve all the problems and turn everything around. The finger was pointed at left-wing educators and politicians, and explicitly at John Dewey’s influence. The grass roots development of bodies such as the Inner London Education Authority and the Schools Council were being swept away and centralised policies imposed. His 30 minute speech has defined the three decades that followed, whatever the colour of the government. Of course, this centralising policy did not solve all the problems. Even defining the national curriculum was, and is, difficult and at times bitterly contested, not least concerning the place of Britain in history. To a crowded, subject based curriculum was added cross-curricular themes to answer criticisms of the limitations of focusing only on academic subjects. That the planners were pouring a gallon into a pint pot has always been a major criticism. Amongst the many issues was the differentiation between what is taught (content) and how it is taught (pedagogy and developmental learning).

In 1988, national projects called Compacts began to encourage secondary schools to up their game. It was a grass roots scheme, imported in 1987 from Boston, Massachusetts, and it was financially cheap. Year 11 pupils were set Compact Goals, which were crystallised as excellent attendance and punctuality, demonstrating personal qualities, coursework completion, and participation in work related activities. Mentors from local businesses went into the schools regularly to help and support. I was seconded to a leadership role in Birmingham Compact (1992–1994). The schools were self-selecting, in the sense that head teachers had to be keen and feel their staff would be enthusiastic about it. The inner city school catchments were deprived, but most were vibrant schools which we had regularly used for teaching practice placements. Each school had a three year programme in which staff committed themselves to working in motivational ways, mentors from industry offered classroom based support, and Year 11 pupils were rewarded with a formal certificate for achieving Compact Goals (see Bigger 1996 and 2000). Enough to say here that the programme achieved very significant results in the schools’ examination results for the majority of pupils. The percentage ending Year 11 with five GCSEs (all grades) rose from 30% up to 70% or 80% in many of the schools, showing that pupils became increasingly engaged with their studies. This was an example of how positive pedagogy greatly enhances achievement. The project was killed by league tables: these forced schools to focus on raising a few grade Ds to Cs rather than motivating all pupils. It was a privilege to work alongside 21 inner city comprehensive schools, even if it meant signing thousands of certificates.

I was responsible for education PhDs at the University of Worcester when Sean came in to discuss his project. By now a well-respected religious education teacher responsible for behaviour and discipline, he wished to explore this area in order to disseminate good practice to others. In the ensuing discussion, it became clear that there were issues of power and authority that needed further thought. As a consequence, he began asking the broad question, “Is it possible to build good positive relationships with pupils without sacrificing order and discipline?” and more specifically, “Could we find ways to support pupils to become more self-disciplined without compromising their education?”

To achieve this, habits of a lifetime needed to be reassessed. Where issues had once been resolved by authoritarian means (through a demand, instruction, or reproof), new strategies were needed. This formed the basis of a part-time action research project which formed the basis of his PhD, and now this book. The supervision relationship included using a research diary in blog format allowing frequent discussions of experiences and findings, all of which helped to articulate issues and theories. I explain this process in more detail elsewhere (Bigger 2009a).

These thoughts formed the melting pot from which this book is the end product. It has been, in a real sense, Sean’s journey, but a journey taken with interested and willing co-travellers. Our conversations are reflected in most pages of the book.

I will end with some thoughts on teaching, learning, and schooling. Firstly, these are not the same thing. Schooling can take place without much learning. Teaching does not necessarily end with learning. Learning is not always positive: pupils can learn not to care and not to achieve. That these three can work well together to enhance the experience of pupils is the belief that has inspired this book. It is depressing that the issues which a century ago inspired John Dewey to develop a pedagogy of hands-on experience are still problematic today. The curriculum has become a stagnant testing regime. I remember a 6-year-old Chinese-American girl weeping through her (American) maths SAT, and would not be surprised if now, in middle age, she has difficulties with maths as a consequence. A curriculum and pedagogy which fails to motivate and enthuse has failed pupils. There are many questions to be asked about current credentialist and accountability policies in schools; this book invites further thought on how a school can benefit its pupils by creating an environment where they feel respected and enthused.

At the end of the 19th century, Dewey set out a pedagogic creed to help pupils develop into the creative thinkers, producers, and inventors needed for the following century (see McDermott 1981: 442–454). This creed emphasised five ‘articles’:

1.  Learning should enhance understanding of and for social life.

2.  Schools are social institutions and should represent society at its best, and be an embryo society in which children participate in disciplined ways.

3.  The curriculum should relate to the social experiences of the pupils.

4.  Children learn best through activity, developing good habits of action, and thought.

5.  Education is shared social consciousness. Teachers are engaged in the formation of the proper social life.

Thus, learning should be hands on, engaging pupils with real experiences. Pedagogy should be judged on the way it motivates and energises learners. It should make pupils more critically aware. It should induct young people into lifelong learning and encourage democracy, not compliance and blind obedience. In Dewey’s view, schooling is not a preparation for future life: the jobs these young people will end up doing may not exist at the time of their schooling. School learning has to be a thing in itself, a form of present enrichment rather than training for something uncertain. Now the 20th century has turned into the 21st we need to update this broad credo in detail. The curriculum and pedagogy need to become socially enriching again. This vision was Kenneth Baker’s bête noire, and its opposite now holds schooling in its grip, except where teachers subvert the usual mediocrity with creative pedagogy. Dewey was one of many voices seeking to explore real learning. Others will help us to articulate ideas later in the book.

Introduction

The Background to the Book

Stephen

When prominent politicians call for tougher discipline in schools, requiring pupils to respect and even fear their teachers, they encourage advocates of zero tolerance and champions of Assertive Discipline to quash any disruption to learning and to use punishment or ‘consequences’ as a key weapon. The latest manifestation is encompassed in the phrase ‘no excuses’. Pupils have on occasions found themselves described in the media and some popular books through emotive and derogatory terms, such as ‘yobs’ and ‘buggers’. Pupils belong to a family, most will be future parents, and all are people whom we hope will enrich society in the future. They have to be in school for well over a decade, whether they like it or not. Schools and teachers have the power to make their stay profitable, ideally enjoyable, or something to be endured; likewise, pupils have the power to make or break teachers. I believe that when adults are entrusted to contribute to these formative years, there is a straight choice between suppression and empowerment. Sean’s research shows that in certain and testing circumstances the choice feels anything but straightforward.