In the past two days there has been a volley of articles expressing anger, sadness and even downright rebellion.
The latest Education Schools Partnership study shows the consequences for teachers’ mental health, and Colin Harris, in an article entitled ”Teaching dog safety? That’s just barking”, makes a belated appeal to the government to curtail (pun intended - an opportunity too good to miss!) its tendency to add yet more to the teachers’ to-do list,
It could be that the mid-term break allows us all to take a step back and see more clearly the larger pattern of events and their consequences. Holidays might be a time when there is more emotional and creative energy around. I have only just begun to relax and appreciate sunsets over the sea (Tuesday night’s was spectacular), read books unconnected to the curriculum and, with great reluctance, turn my attention to the housework.
Seeing how cluttered my home is makes me realise how cluttered teaching has become. A thorough review and reordering is needed for both. Because as the children’s author of the wonderfully philosophical Mouse and Mole series points out:
“The problem you see, Mole, is stuff… You can have stuff, or you can have space, Mole. You can’t have both.” (Joyce Dunbar, Tidying Up)
Our house needs space for us to live in. And teaching needs space for us to think in. So as the dusters and vacuum cleaner are employed and things returned to their rightful places, there’s time to consider the stuff that clogs our pedagogy:
1. Competition and league tables
Does rivalry really drive up improvement? Information gleaned from days out or “word on the street” results in additional burdens from new (usually time-consuming - almost always additional) things other institutions are doing: introductory phone calls to parents, revision sessions in lunchtimes, after school and in holidays, Shine Saturdays … add your own here. Whatever the political ideology, pitting school against school has resulted in escalating workload, and contributed to an exodus of good teachers from the profession. Time for a rethink at the highest levels.
Far too much of Ofsted’s early rhetoric lacked nuance: it was negative and derogatory to teachers, and simultaneously self-promoting. Inspection is a quality control mechanism, which shouldn’t take precedence over schools’ inputs; it cannot be allowed to dictate how schools conduct their business. How many teachers are still serving the rationale of “this is what inspectors like” at the cost of a more streamlined strategic approach that will actually improve the way schools educate pupils? It’s time to listen to Amanda Spielman and Sean Harford debunking the unhelpful myths arising out of speculation about what helps schools achieve a judgement of “outstanding”.
3. The quest for results
Sadly, high grades and educational substance don’t go hand-in-hand - as the inspectorate is now discovering. The excessive scaffolding and mechanisation of thinking is getting in the way of a more challenging and open style of education in the classroom. It’s better to teach an approach rather than a set of predetermined responses for candidates to trot out in controlled conditions. That way the candidates do the work for themselves.
4. Ofqual
The regulator has a legitimate role in ensuring that qualifications are equivalent in level of demand, and that exam boards provide a fair, equitable marking service. But its dominance has made most “reformed” qualifications somewhat uninspiring. Compliance is the order of the day; assessment objectives now crowd out the content and skew the direction of questions. Do we spend more time teaching the skeleton of assessment than the content and concepts it purports to judge? No wonder the hamster wheel is spinning faster.
5. Emails
The constant drip and occasional torrent of emails is not a good use of anybody’s time, and it needs a strategic restructure. The honourable exception is the weekly email from my head of year, who sends a cheery Sunday epistle to alert her team to key events in the week ahead. I often refer back to it. Before this technological “boon” there were very few contacts made between home and school. This filtered out some of the more trivial matter at source simply because of the time-scale involved. The sad truth is that the more rapid the response-rate, the higher the volume of correspondence. A clear email policy communicated to all parties - and adhered to - would allow us all to address the most important issues.
6. Information Technology developments
How many of the latest whizz-bangs make us better teachers? And how many absorb teachers in even more bureaucratic tasks (book ordering, pupil records including CPoms, trip administration, trip evaluation, room bookings, calendar additions, health and safety SEFs, add your own…)? Just taking a register entails two different log-ins, a distraction from teaching and pastoral dialogue.
7. Health and Safety regulations
The latest Johnny English film has a satirical take on regulations. Yes they are very important - so is common sense! Teachers only have so much space in their working memories. Reading long H&S documents is time-consuming and, sadly, it’s not possible to commit all aspects to memory. It would be best to have the documents clearly signposted for reference.
8. Marketing pressures
We all like to share the best of what we do with the outside world. But are all the changes to displays so necessary? The heart sinks as another display board appears in the corridor - how many hours will that one take to fill?
9. Government quangos, pressure groups and research bodies
They always have something to say; occasionally some of it is useful. But as Professor Dylan Wiliam points out, nothing works all of the time. Teachers know what works for them and how to rescue a lesson when “good practice” isn’t working. Outside groups usurp the central role of teachers, which is to decide what the curriculum should be and how it should materialise in the classroom.
10. Tracking
Traffic lights are great for controlling streams of vehicles and preventing accidents. In education systems, they cause feelings of failure and stress for the teacher inputting the data and the pupils on the receiving end. Too much time is taken up with “strategies” for individual students when strategies for all with similar issues would be more productive and the benefits more widespread. Wouldn’t it just be better to concentrate on teaching the material and skills in the classroom? Spending more recent English departmental time on A-level strategies and aspects of texts has been much more invigorating and productive.
Joyce Dunbar’s story ends with both Mouse and Mole squeezed out of their house by the stuff they have accumulated. It’s a warning for teachers of what is already happening as we too are being squeezed out by the stuff trampled in by outside bodies with their own agendas. The challenge for senior leaders and middle managers is to get a grip by selecting and streamlining what is productive - and ditching the rest. Teachers can then reclaim the space to think and teach.
Yvonne Williams is a head of English and drama in the South of England and a member of the post-16 committee for the National Association for the Teaching of English
