Teaching quality, social mobility and ‘opportunity’ in England: the case of the teaching and leadership innovation fund

Steadman, Sarah; Ellis, Viv

doi:10.1080/02619768.2021.1901078

Cited by 14 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Street (2003, p. 77) suggests that power in the autonomous model of literacy arises from ‘imposing Western conceptions of literacy on to other cultures, or within a country those of one class or cultural group onto others’. Even seemingly progressive proponents of the autonomous model (through, for example, an emphasis on phonics teaching) are, at best, aligned with ideas of social mobility (Steadman and Ellis, 2021), rather than social justice.…”

Section: Establishing a Notion Of Neurodivergent Literaciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Neurodivergent literacies’: exploring autistic adults' ‘ruling passions’ and embracing neurodiversity through classroom literacies

Bailey

2023

Literacy

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The concept of neurodiversity has fuelled a social justice movement advocating for the rights of those whose lives diverge from a socially-constructed default. However, deficit understandings of disability persist in educational settings and neurodivergent people continue to face disadvantage and discrimination in organisations constructed on normative understandings of the world. Although New Literacy Studies is concerned with ideas of power, dominance and worth, there is a notable lack of work that connects NLS with issues of neurodiversity. In this paper, I introduce the term 'neurodivergent literacies' to propose a field of study that links the ideological model of literacy with the neurodiversity paradigm. From this starting point, I outline a project that examined literacies around what are often referred to as the 'special interests' of autistic people. Presenting data from interviews with 13 neurodivergent adults, related to school experiences and the literacies they engage with around their self-defined 'ruling passions', I make recommendations for literacies practitioners, arguing that schools need to do more to take account of difference and disability. By describing how 'neurodivergent literacies' can help teachers harness their own critical literacy skills to challenge deficit models of difference in the classroom, this paper illuminates how an understanding of neurodiversity is essential for anyone teaching and researching literacies with a commitment to social justice.

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Section: Establishing a Notion Of Neurodivergent Literaciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Neurodivergent literacies’: exploring autistic adults' ‘ruling passions’ and embracing neurodiversity through classroom literacies

Bailey

2023

Literacy

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“…Students and teachers have been 'responsibilised' for the quality and outcomes of education, with assessment and examinations providing the quintessential vehicle for individualising and responsibilising success and failure in relation to achievement and social mobility. (Torrance 2018, p. 83) Accordingly, mitigating the effects of structural inequalities has become the province of educational intervention; improvements in teaching quality and learner attainment are proffered as responsibilised terms designed to reduce failure (Steadman & Ellis, 2021) through the 'fact' that they confer equality. Education science extols such features by elevating learning as an individual activity and teaching as a series of acquirable skills.…”

Section: That Thorny Issue At the Heart Of Education: Pedagogymentioning

confidence: 99%

Scotland and Pedagogy: Moving from the Anglophone Towards the Continental?

Adams

2022

nse

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Across the Anglophone world, throughout the late 20th and early 21st century, learning and teaching became the go-to descriptions for teacher and learner activity. Notably, this term posited individualistic views that ‘education is an individual right’ realised through technically proficient teacher-action that engenders favourable positioning in a post-industrial, efficient world. More recently, pedagogy seems to have remerged as a flavoursome term. However, its use is still dominated by the doctrines of the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) realised through education science assumptions and approaches. In turn, across much of the Anglophone world, pedagogy is mostly described as ‘the methods and practices of teaching’ often associated with delivery-type teaching and learning judged by quantitative uplift on test scores. Pedagogy, it seems, is still subservient to individualism reified by forms of technically legitimate teaching competence. In many respects, Scotland is no different: policy frames and explanations (Adams, 2016) often legitimise through technocratic and positivist Discourses (Gee, 2012). Matters such as the recent incorporation of the UNHRC into Scottish law offer hope though, for they offer ‘rupture’. The OECD might prevail over system-wide evaluation and conversations about ‘curriculum’ dominate, but ever-increasing calls to shift ‘schooling’ from ‘learning and teaching’ to ‘education, more broadly conceived’ seem to have widened discourse (Gee, 2012) and acknowledged the inherently political. While this has not magically moved pedagogy on, it is clear is that pedagogy as ‘being in and acting on the world, with and for others is finding a Scottish voice.

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Effectiveness of educational interventions: An ecological systems analysis of initiatives from the UK opportunity areas programme

Spear,

Kirkman

2024

British Educational Res J

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Government interventions to address inequalities in education are common in the United Kingdom and internationally. Whilst there is a tendency for policy discourse to focus on benchmarks and indicators as measures of educational success, the inclusiveness and effectiveness of government interventions in education has been questioned. This paper uses the ecological systems perspective as a way of analysing how government interventions may, or may not, lead to real impact on young people's educational outcomes. Two case studies are presented on projects funded as part of the opportunity areas (OA) programme in England to tackle barriers to learning for young people: Ipswich ‘Learning Behaviour Leads’ and Norwich ‘Engagement Coaches’. The research team carried out an evaluation of these projects in seven schools, using a mixed methods approach which involved interviews and reflective journals by the staff delivering the projects (n = 7), interviews with members of the school senior leadership teams (n = 7), an online survey with teachers (n = 23) and focus groups with young people involved in the projects (n = 14). The evaluation found that although there was shared understanding of the purpose and priorities of the OA programme between the macro and exosystems, there were tensions between these and the microsystem, and a lack of interconnection with the mesosystem. Whilst the projects benefited the young people involved, they fell short of the initial intentions to foster engagement amongst the most at‐risk groups, and failed to address the macro aims of fostering a pan‐system response.

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Teaching quality, social mobility and ‘opportunity’ in England: the case of the teaching and leadership innovation fund

Cited by 14 publications

References 35 publications

‘Neurodivergent literacies’: exploring autistic adults' ‘ruling passions’ and embracing neurodiversity through classroom literacies

‘Neurodivergent literacies’: exploring autistic adults' ‘ruling passions’ and embracing neurodiversity through classroom literacies

Scotland and Pedagogy: Moving from the Anglophone Towards the Continental?

Effectiveness of educational interventions: An ecological systems analysis of initiatives from the UK opportunity areas programme

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