Is the educational ‘what works’ agenda working? Critical methodological developments

Pampaka, María; Williams, Julian; Homer, Matt

doi:10.1080/1743727x.2016.1170476

Cited by 29 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…It has also served to (re)inforce a narrow understanding of what counts as valuable educational outcomes. This has led to a government preoccupation with identifying tightly defined, replicable interventions, that 'work' to improve attainment outcomes rapidly and at scale [20].…”

Section: The English Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting Equity in Market-Driven Education Systems: Lessons from England

Kerr

Ainscow

2022

Education Sciences

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There is a global trend towards the use of market-driven approaches as a strategy for educational reform. However, this is creating new barriers to the promotion of equity in some countries. Focusing on England as an extreme example of this approach, this paper points to some possibilities for addressing this concern. It reports findings from a series of studies in high poverty contexts in England. These studies have typically involved local educational practitioners and university researchers working together in ways designed to support equitable developments. Lessons from these experiences are identified for market-driven systems internationally. They suggest that to create more equitable arrangements, schools need to work together, and with other organizations, both within and beyond their local areas. They also point to the value of surfacing and using the rich experiential and contextualized knowledge held by practitioners to inform these collaborative developments. Acting on these lessons would mark a significant shift for systems whose current emphasis is on schools working competitively and in isolation, often to the detriment of disadvantaged children and young people.

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Section: The English Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting Equity in Market-Driven Education Systems: Lessons from England

Kerr

Ainscow

2022

Education Sciences

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“…Through a series of career moves, by the 1980s, she connected with the Brookline Teacher Researcher Seminar (BTRS). A group founded by, for, and of teachers, BTRS focused on promoting open dialogue about "what wasn't working" in members' classrooms, a stark contrast from the dubious What Works Clearinghouse associated with accountabilityera education (Lynch & Martin, 2017;Pampaka et al, 2016).…”

Section: Cindy Ballenger: "A Teacher Out Of the '60s"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Taking a Stance: Teacher Researchers’ Historical and Political Positioning

Currin

2020

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With teacher walkouts and other forms of protest on the rise, EdD programs are beginning to frame practitioner-scholars’ work as activism. The purpose of this article is to explore and complicate that trend by interpreting data from oral history interviews with three long-term teacher researchers, alongside shifting historical scholarship on civil rights activism. Each participant cites civil rights activism as an inspiration and positions the rise of neoliberal education reform as a backlash to the 1960s that threatens the so-called teacher research movement. However, historians challenge the dominant narrative of the 1960s, highlighting behind-the-scenes conservative activism that did not garner the same media attention as liberal marches and boycotts. Consequently, while the participants’ stories offer abundant insight for practitioner-scholars as well as for the teacher educators who guide them, this article ultimately argues EdD activists should take a schoolhouse-to-statehouse approach.

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“…In this second part of this double special issue, we continue to investigate the 'What works' agenda, challenging methods and developing a debate around how best to research, and revealing implications for policy and practice. In the first part (Pampaka, Williams, and Homer 2016), we focussed on what might be considered relatively 'orthodox' 'what works' approaches, with the dominant theme being impact evaluations and educational randomized control trials (RCTs), along with systematic reviews and meta-analysis. Another theme was that of effective communication and dissemination in order to reach maximum impact with the relevant stakeholders.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%