Sunday 22 May 2016

What are we calling it??

Teacher research? practitioner enquiry? professional enquiry?

This week’s thoughts are a reflection of a twitter conversation from this week initiated by  @anna_d_beck and contributed to by @PCampbell91, @Catriona_O, @kate_wall98, @psychohut, @mrs_leitch.

This was the starter of the conversation:


Personally, I prefer the term practitioner but understand that for others this sounds mechanical or technical and doesn’t capture the professional standpoint.
In research versus enquiry, I feel that research is very weighted and carries connotations of academic research and the rigour that entails. I prefer enquiry but understand that to some is considered a ‘safer’, less critical way of using literature and interrogating practice. I hold to the notion that I am a teacher who does research, not a researcher. I feel there is a distinction to be made and if we all become researchers does that change the status of academic research? For some enquiry is a theme of research and should not be considered ‘the way’ but ‘a way’ of improving practice, which I totally agree with. Perhaps this is linked to the issue that enquiry has been ‘appropriated by policymakers and gatekeepers’ and as such, has it become a product rather than ‘way of being’ due to the pressure of policy.

For me it is more important to be curious and use literature and enquiry to improve your practice, demonstrating an ‘enquiry as stance’. Most people agree that curiosity is a must, in fact it should be considered as a required disposition, but then this should be followed by engagement in a process of enquiry with outcomes.  So enquiry can be a ‘tool’ to support critical reflection to support teachers to identify and explain their own practice, underpinned by literature and research. There are stages that teachers need to be supported with, to confidently engage in, and lead, enquiry. The stages would include ‘deep personal [reflection] then collaborative thoughts and action planning on improvements, then research’, this would build capacity and support progression to an enquiring profession as espoused in policy.

An interesting debate, which left me with more questions than when I started, the sign of a good conversation. 
P.S. @mrs-leitch also recommended a book, and look what arrived this morning

Sunday 15 May 2016

Reflections on teacher leadership inspired by Carol Campbell (@CarolCampbell4)

At the excellent SCEL inaugural Teacher Leadership conference the keynote in the afternoon was given by Carol Campbell who hails all the way from Argyll and Bute via Canada. As Gillian Hamilton (@CEOScel) said in her introduction, it is good to break free from the well-kent faces and bring in new ones. Carol was fantastic and inspiring, her presentation really resonated with me, the messages being very similar to the messages from the PU evaluation, thoughts on practitioner enquiry from the PL network, from the ‘Kelly report’ and through talking with teachers across Scotland.
Although the focus of the conference was on teacher leadership, I thought that Carol widened the scope to teacher professionalism, how this is situated in policy and practice and what this means to teachers across the country in terms of their leadership and professionalism. The following discussion is based on the tweets I tweeted out during the keynote.
How do we keep people at the centre of our education system?
Carol argued that humanity should be at the heart of any education system, the reason for our existence is to support, develop, and educate young people to improve their life changes. Carole asked “What are you passionate about in and for education?” My own view resonates with hers, in that I believe education is a people industry and as such is built on relationships, how we interact with each other. Our purpose is to support teacher to be the best they can be, so kids get best chances. Within this, it is critical that we create the conditions for all to be learning, I love the tweet from @robfmac who tweeted that “Teachers working conditions are children’s learning conditions”. I know I am probably altering the original intention of the tweet but changing the word working to learning and then I think it becomes even more powerful, as we explicitly link professional learning to pupil learning.
Teacher leadership - go public with your teaching and learning
Although formal leaders are key to supporting and promoting teacher leadership, leadership can be defined as the exercise of influence. Influence is not a matter of formal position or status. Informal leader are those who can have influence without position, as it is more about professional learning and knowledge. Teacher leadership influences through professional learning; having a vision for your learning journey, reflecting on where you have been and what you have learned, sharing your experiences and knowledge, challenging and being challenged to improve you professional practice.
Teacher Leadership needs to be evidence enriched and supported by professional judgement
The next message that resonated with me was the positive response from teachers who engage in enquiry. Carol discussed how this model of professional learning, due to its impact, becomes a sustained model for teacher learning and can help building capability in teachers. Teacher focused on their own learning and students learning leads to “awesome teachers”. This raises the question as to what supports are in place to help experienced teacher to undertake self-directed professional learning, like enquiry. GTCS has lots of resources on the GTCS website and are supporting local authorities to engage all teachers, not just probationer teachers. Teacher leadership through enquiry can support professional capital and decision making. Professional judgement has been highlighted in the OECD report (2015) where it was discussed as Effective professional judgment……..results from deliberate processes and structures of preparation, continuous learning, and collegial interaction in communities of learning. Professional judgement is established and improved through investing in teachers’ professional capital.” The report goes on to describe professional capital being composed of human capital, decisional capital and social capital (Hargreaves and Fullan, 2012).
Knowledge exchange - how can we share better, more often, make it meaningful?
Teacher agency is about using past experiences, envisaging future possibilities and is enacted through professional actions, professional learning and teacher leadership. Teacher agency matters if we are to re-conceptualise what it means to be a teacher in Scotland and move to a more research enriched, enquiry based profession. Carol discussed how this works best through professional networks and collaborative communities of learning, where teachers are supported to become both creator and consumer of research. Through collaboration practical things can be shared which improves teacher practice and has a positive impact on pupil outcomes.
There will always be the challenges of time/workload and other priorities, these things don’t go away but have to be managed to support teachers to develop leadership as part of their professional identify, it won’t be easy but is do-able or as Carol finished off by saying
“Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can”

Wise words indeed.

Sunday 8 May 2016

Evidence based practice - reflection on TEAN keynote

On day 2 of the TEAN conference the keynote was given by Carey Philpott, the title of the keynote was ‘Cultivating through evidence based teaching: possibilities and pitfalls’. I hope to give a flavour of this excellent key note as it discusses evidence based practice and in particular evidence based practice grounded in medical models of learning. 

What is evidence based practice?
When we discuss evidence based practice what do we really mean? And do we mean the same thing? Evidence based practice has been a much lauded mode of professional learning for the last few years in the guise of Learning Rounds (LR) or Teacher Learning Communities (TLC).
These approaches have been extensively rolled out across Scotland as 'good practice' to support teachers in collaborative professional learning.
In Scotland after Teacher Scotland Future called for a reculturing of professional learning, models of learning from other professions were brought to the fore, which raises the question: Why a medical model? What is the provenience of this model? Will this support the transformational change wished for to an evidence based teaching profession?

Models of medical practice 
There is obviously more than one type of medical practice and different aspects of medical practice, used evidence based learning in different ways. There is disagreement in the medical profession about the medical model yet teachers are being ask to adopt this. 
There are lots of different models of medical practice such as clinical practice, mental health, social health, public health to name a few. So why was a clinical model chosen above all others?
The clinical model diagnoses a problem then fixes it but cutting it out, manipulating it or defeating it with medication. How does this model fit with education? So for teachers, identify the problem and then find a solution to reduce or minimise the effects of the issue. This simplified model of clinical practice, does not try to understand the learning that needs to take place to support the change. This solution based approach does not interrogate the why but only asks about the what then gives the how to fix it.
Another limitation of this model is that it is a 'one size fits all' approach, when you go to the doctor with a problem everyone gets the same antibiotics, it does not recognise differences in time, place, knowledge, accessible and a plethora of other social factors.  Is this appropriate for education? 
What about other medical models? Perhaps we should be looking more towards a mental health model. This model starts with the needs of the patient and through developing a relationship of support and challenge, the individual is helped to learn new ways of thinking, the patient then has to commit to medical advice. This may be a model that more closely aligns with education, as we start with our students and try to find approaches that support and challenge them but it is not successful unless students commit to learning. 
Social Health may also give an approach which aligns better with education in the respect that it addresses society as a whole and the groups within society but is a social endeavour, like education. Teaching is a social process which depends on relationships.
Or are we more akin to Public Health in our aspiration to change or modify behaviour to reduce risk and improve outcomes for all members of society. However public health, in addressing behaviours, comes up against the same issues as education in using evidence based approaches as time, place and other social learnings has to be considered and it is not context free.
What about Community Health as a model for professional learning in education?
This would start with the needs of the community as defined by the community. This would lead to a number of different approaches across Scotland as a localised solutions are enacted. This would lead to a very different model of evidence based practice in the form of; this is what you asked for....evidence says....therefore we will do....
So why was a clinical model privileged over the others? And why are we adopting practice rather than adapt practice to fit with our needs and wishes to better the outcomes for our children?

Learning Rounds and Teacher Learning Communities
The Government developed and championed this approach in policy and it is a simple model that both head teachers and teachers liked. Unfortunately this model can lead to tunnel vision as we interrogate practice within our own limited context to make improvements, without questioning whether this practice has value. So it becomes an improvement outcome focused approach but does not question values or ideology. This adds to the technician model of teachers, delivering or finding ways to implement a curriculum without discussing what is worthy of implementation.
TLC's usually come with the title already in place and teachers are asked to sign for the PL opportunity that this will provide, but not doing so would possibly be misconstrued as unprofessional. The agenda for the TLC is 'controlled' by the HT with the aim of delivering the school improvement plan.
Teacher learning communities composed of individuals from across the school will be a mixed bunch with enthusiasts, pragmatists and conscripts. From the business sector evidence would suggest that the best learning comes from creative, innovative working groups who disagree and have differences. Schools tend to have a very strong social culture which can prevent professional learning from taking place as judgements and disagreements are seen as social criticism rather that professional critique. So we are all happier but are we learning?
There is also the long held and rarely challenged idea that collaboration is a good thing. Most people would agree it is a force for good but TLC's can become a form of enforced collaboration which does not support the learning of the individual or the group.
So is learning as part of a medical model a better way to learn or is it just a different way to learn? If an evidence based professional is desired then ministers would have to leave decisions to what the evidence says and not offer policy that produces conformity and tells teacher how to learn. Whatever way we choose to move forward into a more evidence based profession it is absolutely apparent that teachers will require more time, space and skills to develop this practice.


Sunday 1 May 2016

#WomedEd - Happy Birthday

This week I attended a first birthday party for #WomenEd at St Modan’s High School in Stirling. The birthday party was a national event organised by #WomenEd, our host was the lovely @MrsPert1.



To be honest I was a bit unsure as to what to expect. I was really pleased that #WomenEd is not about ‘girls together’ but is a grassroots movement which connects existing and aspiring leaders in education, who happen to be female. The partnership with Microsoft who's mission statement included a commitment to ‘support the empowerment of every person to realise their aspirations’ supports  #WomenEd in their aspiration for female leaders of the future in education.
The birthday party was pre-empted by a twitter chat on 21th April through #ScotEdChat.



I found myself feeling a bit unsure as the questions about the glass ceiling, leadership traits etc. which make me feel awkward, as I am a strong advocate of nurturing talent, whether that is found in a male or female, but perhaps this is more of a reflection of my own journey. I was interested in the slide from the presentation giving the % of female to male in the workforce and then leadership roles, see below.



Why is the percentage of the workforce not reflected in the percentage in promoted roles?

#WomenEd is based on eight values which are; clarity, communication, connection, confidence, collaboration, community, challenge and change, the 8C’s. For me personally, I are more interested in the #clarity element which raises lots of questions;
What are the issues? Why is there a gender bias (conscious or unconscious)? What about other bias? Is the issue greater for women (and men) of ethnic minority backgrounds? How can we make education more attractive to male graduates? What are the barriers for males coming into education? Why predominantly female? Why is there no partner organisation, MaleEd? What are the barriers? Is there a glass ceiling? (There are definitely differences in how male and female approach promotions and advancement in their career.) How can #WomenEd support and build capabilities, challenge impostor syndrome?

There is no quick fix, the challenges and barriers are complex and interconnected but #WomenEd is a good place to collaborate with like-minded individuals and build a community that can be the drivers of change.

If you want to find out more, the website site, here, has a load of information about the movement and is a good place to start. Both yammer and twitter are being used extensively to build the #WomenEd community. After 1 year there are now 4,500 twitter followers, 500 users on Yammer and 150+ blogs on StaffRm. Regional Leaders are being recruited to host small scale #Leadmeets and there is going to be an Unconference in August in Scotland.