The practice of reflection in teacher education is a contentious area. Debates have focused on the nature of reflection and how to evidence that it is taking place. Students training to be teachers in the UK are expected to be taught about reflection and incorporate it into their practice. This qualitative study took place in response to difficulties trainee teachers had in grasping abstract concepts. The study explores the use of reading poetry as a tool for facilitating reflection. Data were gathered by observing groups at work with the poems and by interviewing the participants. The findings were that poetry particularly encourages students to venture to areas that they may not address unprompted. It also encouraged a particular form of reflection, to do with the nature of teacher identity and the value of teaching. We suggest that further studies with larger sample groups could be carried out to test these findings.Keywords: reflection; teacher education; poetry reading. IntroductionThe impetus for this practice based research came from problems encountered whilst teaching on a pre-service professional teaching programme at a university in the south east of England. In order to complete a piece of coursework it was necessary for students on the Professional Graduate Certificate in Education course (PGCE) to grasp the concept of curriculum ideologies but they found this difficult: what does it mean to describe a curriculum as utilitarian/progressive/classical and how do these abstractions relate to the "Did anyone think the trees were students?" Using poetry as a tool for critical reflection. One of the texts used was the poem Learning the Trees by Howard Nemerov, and this in particular stimulated keen and tangled discussions among small groups of students. How does knowledge transform teacher and students? Why might knowledge be 'funny'? Voices were raised, students became noticeably more animated than in previous sessions and at the end one remarked 'This was really good, really made me think about things in a different way.'The tutor came away with the impression that something unexpected had happened in the class and wondered if this was related to the use of poetry and the quality of shared reflection it had prompted.Many reservations have been expressed about the practice of reflection in teacher training. Some are discussed below but it is worth noting that key concerns have been around the difficulties of evidencing good reflection i.e. that which promotes questioning and critical thinking (West, 2010). Atherton in a lecture delivered in 2012 argued that in place of individualistic accounts teachers should promote more 'collective' and 'oblique' approaches to reflection. Examples of alternative reflective techniques used in this respect include the use of blogs, other social media, and focus groups. To explore whether and how poetry reading might support reflection a small poetry reading group of seven volunteers was convened three times in the summer at the end of the PGCE year to discuss a s...

Concerns about youth violence and the radicalisation of pupils have contributed to the deployment of onsite police officers in schools in England. Little is known about the work these officers do. This article firstly outlines the policy background that led to police in schools, then with a focus on the schools in London that have onsite officers, data obtained from a Freedom of Information request are combined with school characteristics data to show that officers are more likely to be based in schools with high levels of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. Foucault's work on surveillance is explored in theorising police presence on school sites. The relevance of Agamben's State of Exception is examined in relation to the school-to-prison pipeline in the US.

The purpose of this narrative literature review is to provoke new ways of understanding the plethora of research around the role of the SENCo. Specifically, the aim is to use four themes as lenses to explore how SENCo identities are formed, and reformed, by intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. The four themes have been distilled from a list of standards that underpin the learning outcomes of the National Award for Special Educational Needs Coordination in England and are: change; culture; influence; and challenge. Although these themes stem from a given place and time, they mirror policy directives, and subsequent practice, across national boundaries and are visible in much of the research around the SENCo role and its equivalent. Whilst each of the themes is considered individually, areas of overlap are identified enabling both a focused, and wholesale, view of the literature in order to highlight areas of opportunity, conflict and tension that serve to shape SENCo identity.

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The last 20 years have brought numerous workforce reforms to the early years sector, enacted in the name of professionalisation, including the recent introduction of a new postgraduate qualification, the Early Years Teacher Status. This article features data from interviews with 22 participants who had just completed this award and situates their views in the relevant policy context and alongside a discussion of what it means to professionalise the early years sector and create a graduate led workforce. The data support findings from similar studies of Early Years Professionals, namely that the interviewees are passionate about working with young children. They view the sector as in need of change, and themselves as potential leaders and agents of change. The participants endorse the view that up-skilling the workforce is essential to the professionalisation of the sector and improving the quality of early years education.