School of Education Research & Scholarship Conference 2017 Monday 26th June 2017 Nicholson Building
Contents.
Welcome - 3 Programme - 4 Parallel Session Details - 5 Abstracts - 10
University of Birmingham School of Education Research and Scholarship Conference 2017 Welcome… This is the School of Education’s Fourth Research and Scholarship Conference. Over recent years the Conference has become an important and enjoyable part of the School’s calendar. It is a valuable space for colleagues to come together as a community and exchange ideas and interests. We are delighted this year to have a rich programme of papers. It gives some indication of the diverse range of research in which colleagues are currently engaged and we are delighted that so many have taken the opportunity to share their work, whether it is based on published research or, as is often the case, based on work in progress. The day is organised around parallel sessions, giving time for presentations and discussion. We also have presentations by Tania Anne Woloshyn from the College Research Support Office and Catherine Phipps the Managing Editor of Education Journals at Routledge. I hope you enjoy the day. Particular thanks go to Dan Hayes and Lily Ilic for their roles in organising the event. Best wishes on behalf of the School’s Research & Knowledge Transfer Committee.
Deborah Youdell
Research and Scholarship Conference 2016 PROGRAMME 09:30-09:45
Welcome - Head of School
Nettlefold Room
Julie Allan
09:45-11:00
Parallel Session 1
11:00-11:15
Coffee
11:15-12:30
Parallel Session 2
12:30-13:15
Lunch
13:15 -13:45
How to maximize the impact of your research
Nettlefold Room
Catherine Phipps (Managing Editor, Education Journals, Routledge)
13:45 -14:00
College Research Support Office
Nettlefold Room
Tania Anne Woloshyn
14:00-15:10
Parallel Session 3
15:10-15:20
Tea
15:2020-15:30
Closing Remarks
Nettlefold Room
Deborah Youdell
Parallel Sessions (Capacity) Sessions 1A, 2A & 3A - Guest Room (30) Sessions 1B, 2B, 3B - Keen Room (30) Session 2C - Hope Room (10) Session 2D - Kynoch Room (10)
9.45 – 11.00 SESSION 1A (Chair: Mike McLinden)
Who Selects Whom Angela Bowes
Special Educational Needs Coordinator a vocation or a career? Graeme Dobson
Specialist teachers of learners with vision impairments as agents of change: An analysis of personnel preparation through a bioecological systems theory Mike McLinden
SESSION 1B (Chair: Francis Child)
School based play interventions for children with autism: a systematic literature review Lila Kossyvaki & Despina Papoudi
Research and the UoB School: an update Frances Child
Transitions from higher education Kalwant Bhopal & Clare Pitkin
Parallel Sessions
11:15 - 12:30 SESSION 2A (Chair: David Gillborn)
Exposing the racism in statistics - QuantCrit David Gillborn
Leaving ‘No (White) Child Left Behind’ Claire Crawford
Senior and executive leader habitus and networks in a ‘selfimproving school system’ in England. Simon Asquith
SESSION 2B (Chair: Michael Hand)
Autobiographical histories: the history of biographies Jane Martin
On the distinctive educational value of philosophy Michael Hand
Parallel Session
11:15 - 12:30 SESSION 2C (Chair: Ian Davison)
Randomised controlled trials as both gold standard and educationally damaging: steps towards resolving this tension Ian Davison
Mixed attainment grouping Tom Francome
SESSION 2D (Chair Tom Harrison)
Cultivating cyber-phronesis : A new educational approach for dealing with online moral dilemmas Tom Harrison
Socio-Emotional Functioning of Deaf Adolescents: A Qualitative Study Emmanouela Terlektsi
Parallel Sessions 14:00 – 15:10 SESSION 3A (Chair: Deborah Youdell)
Gender and the Holobiont: can we do feminist biosocial work in education? Deborah Youdell
The Male Body: An Intersection of Masculinity and Physical Education Joanne Cliffe
The Mental Health of Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Neil Hall
SESSION 3B (Chair: Julie Allan )
Declaring disability: Culture, care and Kazakhstan Julie Allan
The Pupil Premium policy: funding decisions and perceptions of impact Rebecca Morris & Graeme Dobson
Moving the focus of school readiness measures from the child to the community and school: a study into ways to support pre-school children with disabilities in Malawi Anita Soni & Paul Lynch
SESSION 1A: Abstracts Who selects whom? Angela Bowes In the ever changing landscape that is Teacher Training School Direct (SD) has been playing an increasing role since 2010. In 2010 the Schools White Paper, The Importance of Teaching (DfE, 2010), ‘raised fundamental questions about the future role of the university in teacher education, heralding the most radical reforms to the sector in several decades’(Orchard and Winch, 2015, p.9). This allowed many different and increasingly different and complex routes into teaching including University based courses to evolve, Teach First and SD. SD gives schools control over the recruiting and training their own teachers of the future. The introduction of School Direct has meant a shift away from universities where Schools of Education may merely quality assure a course and the role of universities with their teaching of theory could be considered to have been downgraded. For the first time for the academic year 2015/16 more than half of teacher of post graduate trainees will begin their training on school based routes (TES Nov 27th 2015). In my research I am interested in finding out why students select a particular school to undertake their training, what they are looking for and also what schools are looking for when they appoint SD trainees.
SESSION 1A: Abstracts Special Educational Needs Coordinator a vocation or a career? Graeme Dobson The third iteration of the SEN (Special Educational Needs) Code of Practice (DfE, 2015) states that all maintained mainstream school should employ a Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo). It is now 20 years since the introduction of this career pathway. During this time, there has been considerable debate over what this role entails and who should be performing it. Early literature focussed in detail on the specified role (Cole, 2005; Layton, 2005). Later studies have started to provide analysis of the potential difficulties of combining the SENCo and a leadership role (Oldham and Radford, 2013; Tissot, 2013). However, there are no studies on why people choose to undertake this complex role in the first instance. In the study described here, a simple semi-structured questionnaire was distributed to a group of 88 teachers on the National Standards SENCo course asking them why they became a SENCo. Early findings are presented. The results from this piece of work will inform my doctoral studies.
SESSION 1A: Abstracts Specialist teachers of learners with vision impairments as agents of change: An analysis of personnel preparation through a bioecological systems theory Mike McLinden This session presents an analysis of the personnel preparation of trainee specialist teachers of learners with vision impairments to enable them to understand their role as an ‘agent of change’ (NCTL, 2015) in a changing ecology of inclusive education. A bioecological systems theory is used as a lens through which to analyse the personnel preparation of the specialist teachers. The analysis draws on the United Kingdom as a case study and is illustrated with reference to the respective national specifications for England and Scotland. A conceptual model is proposed to illustrate how, through the lens of a bioecological systems theory, these trainee teachers can be suitably prepared to act as ‘agents of change’ working within, and between, the respective systems. It is argued that a bioecological systems theory offers a suitable holistic framework for educators involved in personnel preparation to explicitly engage with the trainee teachers in this role. Further work is planned to develop and refine the conceptual model through consultation with stakeholders, and to examine it potential relevance to the personnel preparation of practitioners who support learners with other needs.
SESSION 1B: Abstracts School based play interventions for children with autism: a systematic literature review Lila Kossyvaki & Despina Papoudi Play is fundamental in children’ s socio-emotional and cognitive development. However, play in children with autism may be restricted when compared to that of their non-autistic peers of similar age and abilities. Although children spend most of their time in school, play is often neglected in school practice. Methodology: This systematic literature review identified empirical studies (from 2000 to 2014) using interventions to develop play skills in children with autism at school. Results: Within the 14 reviewed studies a total of 82 children with autism received play interventions. The age of participants ranged from 2.5 to 12 years old and the duration of play interventions ranged from 2 weeks to 6 months. Nine studies employed teaching staff to conduct the interventions and seven were conducted in mainstream settings. The play skills explored ranged from social play interactions, symbolic/pretend play to teaching play scripts and actions. There was a great variation in the research designs employed and seven studies explored the generalisability of the learnt skills. Conclusions: Reviews aiming to translate academic research into school practice are very relevant and needed.
SESSION 1B: Abstracts Research and the UoB School: an update Frances Child TBC
SESSION 1B: Abstracts Transitions From Higher Education Kalwant Bhopal & Clare Pitkin There is evidence to suggest that students from diverse backgrounds (based on ethnicity and social class) experience different disadvantages when making transitions from higher education (Khambhatia and Bhopal, 2013; Nielsen, 2012).This paper will outline a research project currently in progress. The project explores young people’s transitions from higher education. Surveys have been distributed to students who are in their final year of undergraduate study on education/ social sciences degrees in three universities (post-1992, Russell Group and non-aligned). In addition, we have also conducted several interviews with respondents. This paper will explore findings to date and examine how the research can contribute to academic debates in the area of higher education and transitions (via publications in international peer reviewed journals, media outlets (such as The Conversation and the LSE Impact Blog and contributions at national and international conferences).
SESSION 2A: Abstracts Exposing the racism in statistics - QuantCrit David Gillborn Quantitative research enjoys high esteem among policy-makers, media and the general public. Whereas qualitative research is frequently dismissed as subjective and impressionistic, statistics are generally assumed to be objective and factual. These distinctions are wholly false; quantitative data is no less socially constructed than any other form of research material. This paper draws on my work with Paul Warmington (University of Warwick) and Sean Demack (Sheffield Hallam University) that seeks to apply the principles of Critital Race Theory (CRT) to the analysis and use of quantitative data – an approach we call ‘QuantCrit’. Key elements include (1) the centrality of racism as a complex and deeply-rooted aspect of society that is not readily amenable to quantification; (2) numbers are not neutral and should be interrogated for their role in promoting deficit analyses that serve White racial interests; (3) categories are neither ‘natural’ nor given and so the units and forms of analysis must be critically evaluated; (4) voice and insight are vital: data cannot ‘speak for itself’ and critical analyses should be informed by the experiential knowledge of marginalized groups; (5) statistical analyses have no inherent value but can play a role in struggles for social justice.
SESSION 2A: Abstracts Leaving ‘No (White) Child Left Behind’ Claire Crawford Contributing to the project of scholarship aspired to by Critical Race Theory this paper critically examines the role of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Florida’s response to it (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test - FCAT), in the active structuring of inequality and segregation in the state’s schools. Drawing on standardised testing data from 2003-2015, the paper shows how NCLB served to further privilege ‘whiter-wealthier’ students in Florida, and preserve White hegemony.
Although inequity of opportunity and increased racial segregation may not have been a premeditated goal of NCLB, and Florida’s response to it, neither was it fortuitous. As suggested by Derrick Bell, there is willingness by policy makers and school administrators to disregard the suffering of young Black people in the U.S., as proven through the passage of laws such as NCLB that enable and further entrench injustice against them. The patterning of White racial advantage via FCAT is structured in domination, and its continuation represents an inferred racist intentionality on the part of Florida legislature.
SESSION 2A: Abstracts Senior and executive leader habitus and networks in a ‘self-improving school system’ in England. Simon Asquith A sociological approach is taken to the positions verbalised both publicly and privately by senior leaders working within what many are referring to as a new ‘middle -tier’ in the education system in England. Bourdiesian approach (1977) enables identification of perceived and actual fields and important aspects and contributions of actor habitus, capital, misrecognition and violence. Activity theory (Engeström 1999) and its five key principles provide additional perspective to analyse the networks within which these actors work. The focus is therefore on actors in system leadership roles (Higham, et al, 2009) – multi-academy trust (MAT) Chief Executive Officers, executive headteachers and heads of school and lead headteachers in Teaching School Alliances (TSAs) – working in MATs and TSAs. I consider how these actors see themselves positioned within the contested sectoral context of the ‘self-improving school system’ (Hargreaves, 2011; 2012). I report on early work in which I am interviewing school leaders in the above roles and contexts as well as analysing the discursive messaging in their organisation websites with particular emphasis on text specifically attributed to the leaders interviewed. Present research focuses at a case study resolution and is based on a MAT within one Regional Schools Commissioner’s region and which has an associated TSA.
SESSION 2B: Abstracts Autobiographical histories: the history of biographies Jane Martin TBC
SESSION 2B: Abstracts On the distinctive educational value of philosophy Michael Hand Should philosophy be on the school curriculum? It certainly has general educational value: like other academic disciplines, it cultivates a range of intellectual virtues in those who study it. But this may not be a good enough reason to add it to the roster of established school subjects. The claim I will defend here is that philosophy also has distinctive educational value: there are philosophical problems that feature prominently and pressingly in ordinary human lives and that all children should be equipped by their education to tackle. Among these are the problems of justifying subscription to moral, political and religious standards. The significance of these problems for everyone is sufficient to warrant the introduction of compulsory philosophy in schools.
SESSION 2C: Abstracts Mixed attainment grouping Tom Francome Mixed attainment grouping and teaching is relatively uncommon in the English secondary education system, despite research evidence suggesting it could yield more positive outcomes than traditional ‘ability’ grouping strategies (Ireson et al., 2002; Boaler, 2008) and significant evidence demonstrating that attainment grouping is detrimental to certain groups of students (Ireson & Hallam, 2001; Kutnick et al., 2005; Higgins et al., 2015). Despite this context of evidence, ‘ability’ grouping strategies have been strongly favoured by successive Governments, as well as by practitioners, and they now predominate in English schools. This paper draws on research carried out to investigate the effects of grouping practices on teachers’ beliefs and practices and on teacher and student mindsets. Research was conducted to compare two schools, one teaching mathematics to students in mixed attainment groups and the other teaching mathematics to ‘ability’ set groups. Questionnaires were completed by 286 students and 12 teachers and triangulated with lesson observations and interviews. There was some evidence that students and teachers engaged in mixed attainment grouping had stronger growth mindsets than those engaged in setting and constructed mathematics learning and teaching in different ways.
SESSION 2C: Abstracts Randomised controlled trials as both gold standard and educationally damaging: steps towards resolving this tension Ian Davison Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are lauded as the gold standard for providing evidence of what works, have produced important, authoritative evidence and are beloved by policy makers. However, excessive focus on RCTs has been claimed to reduce educational attainment, perhaps partly because the way they are used and portrayed can be alienating and de-professionalising. Ways to resolve this tension are explored and we consider how teachers should engage with trial-based evidence and how such research should be structured. Research on which the paper is based: This is a theoretically driven paper, but is based on reading of trial-based literature across medicine, medical education and school-based education. Also, I have been trial co-ordinator for a trial in the Medical School and two studies in the Jubilee Centre. Where you want to take your work: I’ve drafted a paper, but need to resolve a few issues prior to submission.
SESSION 2D: Abstracts Cultivating cyber-phronesis : A new educational approach for dealing with online moral dilemmas Tom Harrison The invention of the Internet has brought with it new educational opportunities and challenges, some of which relate to children and young people’s moral functioning. The prevalence of moral concerns, such as cyber-bullying and plagiarism has brought new challenges for schools and should not be ignored by parents or teachers. The paper proposes that adopting a character-based strategy to deal with these concerns would bolster the current rules or consequences-based educational strategies that are currently prominent. There is a requirement to enable children and young people to become digitally wise through the development of cyber-phronesis (Harrison, 2016), understood as the ability to do the right thing, at the right time, in the right amount whilst online. The paper will highlight the results of a trial of an intervention designed to enhance two elements of cyber-phronesis; moral salience and virtue reasoning. It is hypothesised that the ability to identify the moral salience of a dilemma and then give virtue-based reasons for pursuing a particular course of action will help children and young people bridge the infamous ‘moral gap’ (Blasi, 1980) between possessing a knowledge of the virtues and actually practicing them online.
SESSION 2D: Abstracts Socio-Emotional Functioning of Deaf Adolescents: A Qualitative Study Emmanouela Terlektsi The invention of the Internet has brought with it new educational opportunities and challenges, some of which relate to children and young people’s moral functioning. The prevalence of moral concerns, such as cyber-bullying and plagiarism has brought new challenges for schools and should not be ignored by parents or teachers. The paper proposes that adopting a character-based strategy to deal with these concerns would bolster the current rules or consequences-based educational strategies that are currently prominent. There is a requirement to enable children and young people to become digitally wise through the development of cyber-phronesis (Harrison, 2016), understood as the ability to do the right thing, at the right time, in the right amount whilst online. The paper will highlight the results of a trial of an intervention designed to enhance two elements of cyber-phronesis; moral salience and virtue reasoning. It is hypothesised that the ability to identify the moral salience of a dilemma and then give virtue-based reasons for pursuing a particular course of action will help children and young people bridge the infamous ‘moral gap’ (Blasi, 1980) between possessing a knowledge of the virtues and actually practicing them online.
SESSION 3A: Abstracts Gender and the Holobiont: can we do feminist biosocial work in education? Deborah Youdell
This paper draws on the work of my recent British Academy Fellowship to explore the need and possibilities for feminist biosocial work in education. Engaging with the work of Judith Butler, Catherine Malabou, Elizabeth Wilson, Celia Roberts, Rosie Braidotti, and Gregory Schneider and Russell Winslow, I look across a range of fields that are grappling with or responding to new biological sciences, the biosocial and the posthuman, and ask what various of accounts of entanglements mean for thinking about gender and education. Working from the figure of the holobiont – a wholeness predicated on plasticity and plurality – I explore trans-domain biosocial thinking, spanning scales of granularity and foregrounding functionality and transformability. I take up Catherine Malabou’s ‘minimal concept for woman’ to suggest a persistent need for feminist analysis and a renewed, but transformed, engagement with sex in education.
SESSION 3A: Abstracts The Male Body: An Intersection of Masculinity and Physical Education Joanne Cliffe
Body image dissatisfaction for adolescent boys is intensifying; causing personal anxiety and physical inactivity. The body was identified as paramount regarding male pupils’ experiences in their physical education lessons. To understand pupils’ relationships with their bodies is one way of understanding high quality physical education. This paper examines the social construction of the male body image at the intersection of masculinity and physical education from the perspective of adolescent male pupils. Specific areas of interest include: multiple masculine bodies operating in physical education; pupils’ experiences as a result of marginalisation (those with low opinions of their body image) by dominant bodies; and pupils’ views on how teaching impacts upon the hierarchy of masculine bodies. Data collection was via responses to questionnaires and photograph elicitation in both individual interviews and focus groups. Findings revealed pupils were constructing good, bad and sport specific male bodies. A ‘technically skilled body’ was the most preferred form of masculinity and an acceptable form of masculinity was linked to being able to achieve where others failed. Marginalised pupils developed low self-esteem and internalised negative feelings about themselves and their physicality. Pupils gave views on teaching, setting in classes, the use of fitness tests and lesson organisation.
SESSION 3A: Abstracts The Mental Health of Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Neil Hall Discussion about mental health in education has recently assumed a national significance in the UK without precedence and calls for concerted efforts to include teaching about the mental health needs of pupils are increasingly becoming prominent. Here in the School of Education, however, there appears to be little focus on mental health issues in teacher education. In regards to children and young people with SEND, moreover, a group well known to experience heightened levels of mental distress compared with their typically developing peers, there has been proportionately even less attention. DISN offers a range of SEND programmes for teachers working with CYP but none overtly provides a comprehensive approach to considering mental health and wellbeing issues. The research literature on CYP with SEND which reports on their mental health and wellbeing is limited; specific quality of life (QoL) issues for pupils with SEND rarely feature in research and professional discussion; and inter-relationships between cognition, learning, behaviour and mental health appear under-developed. Suggestions in this presentation are made about: (i) different theoretical and critical approaches to understanding mental health in education; (ii) the development of a training curriculum for teachers learning about the mental health of CYP with SEND; (iii) what might be included about mental health in current programmes provided by DISN; and (iv) an outline proposal for a new MEd programme of study titled ‘Mental Health in Education’ which could be offered by the School.
SESSION 3B: Abstracts The Mental Health of Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Julie Allan The Republic of Kazakhstan ratified the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Disabled People in January 2015 as part of a programme of ‘Future without Barriers’, aimed at improving the lives of disabled people This paper reports on research which examined the introduction and implementation of inclusive education in the educational system of Kazakhstan. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, conducted with Government and local officials, NGO representatives, school principals, teachers, school psychologists, parents and teacher educators within Kazakhstan. The analysis considers how disability and the rights of disabled children are constructed through and within Kazakhstan’s socio-political narration of itself. Hacking’s (2007; 2010) concept of ‘making up people’ is used to interpret the representation, particularly by government officials, of disability and of disabled children and the processes of identification and classification and decisionmaking about children’s educational placements are examined through the perspective of ‘nationalablism’ (Mitchell, 2015). The paper concludes with some considerations of the potential to safeguard the rights of disabled children by ‘cripping the curriculum through academic activism’ (Connor & Gabel, 2013, p. 100).
SESSION 3B: Abstracts The Pupil Premium policy: funding decisions and perceptions of impact Rebecca Morris & Graeme Dobson The Pupil Premium policy was introduced in 2011 as a way of providing additional funding to schools to support and improve the attainment of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Per pupil funding is allocated to schools for children in public care and those eligible for Free School Meals (FSM). This paper explores the issue of how this money is being spent. With the funding comes considerable freedom for schools to use the money in the way that they feel is most appropriate. Recognising and understanding the processes involved when schools are given such freedoms is valuable in itself, but is also an important step in drawing links between effective spending and outcomes. We are interested in the decision-making processes involved and the roles of those who hold some responsibility for determining how the funding is used. Our paper reports some early findings based on 22 in-depth interviews that we have completed with teachers, leaders, LA representatives, Ofsted inspectors and governors from a range of educational settings across the Midlands. We argue that recognising the processes involved is vital in helping us to understand whether the choices and actions associated with Pupil Premium spending are transparent and equitable. The full findings from this project will be reported in an academic paper which will be completed over the summer.
SESSION 3B: Abstracts Moving the focus of school readiness measures from the child to the community and school: a study into ways to support pre-school children with disabilities in Malawi Anita Soni & Paul Lynch This article reviews how school readiness is measured in low and middle income countries, with a focus on sub Saharan Africa, highlighting the difficulties faced by children with disabilities as a group vulnerable to being measured as being positioned as ‘not ready for school’. It examines how measures can be used where school readiness is recognised as a multifaceted construct with schools, communities and children being ready for all to participate. Our main focus in this paper is to identify a set of appropriate, culturally sensitive assessment tools which can be used at community level which will help to determine associated interventions that can increase the levels of participation for children with disabilities in mainstream school systems in Low Income Countries (LICs).
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