Session Information
19 SES 03, Network 19 Session 3
Paper Session
Time:
2008-09-10
14:00-15:30
Room:
A1 316
Chair:
Carl Bagley
Contribution
The emphasis of this paper is on the learner: the life experiences, dispositions and identities that the individual brings to the teaching-learning interactions they experience in school. This emphasis is derived from a unique longitudinal ethnography of nine children, who have worked with the researcher, in England, from the ages of three to seventeen. The study is now at a time point where it is possible to overview each individual learner trajectory throughout the years of compulsory schooling. Consequently, the study makes a good fit with the conference theme, ‘From teaching to learning?’, and the suggestion that the role of the teacher is set to change, to function more as a tutor ‘guiding learners in their individual pathway to knowledge’ (quotation from information about ECER conference theme). The idea of the individual pathway or trajectory accords with the recent policy emphasis on ‘personalised learning’. This policy concept has acquired a strong presence in English educational policy and in other European countries too (Shuayb and O’Donnell; 2008). Critiques of this concept focus on the contradictions inherent in the various ways it has been harnessed and interpreted, (Pollard and James, 2004), and a debate has now developed as to its plausibility within educational climates that emphasise standardisation. The shift to personalised learning is linked to another key term that is increasingly apparent in policy; the ‘well-being’ of children and young people. This term manages to draw together economic, health, psychological and educational goals regarding children’s lives , acting as a policy ‘glue’, a way of sticking together the varied professional goals of those who work with children and young people. A number of commentators suggest that these recent policy emphases on individual learning needs echo the child-centred ideologies of the sixties and seventies (Shuayb and O’Donnell; 2008). In this paper I explore the value of these policy concepts and their usefulness for the future by reflecting on the outcomes from the longitudinal ethnographic study. This allows me to ground the policy debate within the real-life experiences of nine individuals. I look back over their lives asking how far educational policy has impacted on their well-being and educational outcomes.
Method
The first phase of the study took place when the children were aged three to four years old and lasted until the second year of compulsory schooling. I interacted with the children, observed them in pre-school and school and interviewed their parents and teachers. I then tracked down and re-visited the children when they were in the second year of secondary school (aged twelve). I have met with them, and interviewed them at various intervals since that time. The focus all along has been on their construction of identity and how this has influenced their learning and well-being in school.
Expected Outcomes
The young people are now aged seventeen and their stories represent a range of educational outcomes including, on the one hand, traditional academic success and likely continuation into higher education, and, on the other, school absenteeism, early withdrawal from school and a lack of academic qualifications. I will examine their stories in the light of current policy goals and examine policy in the light of their stories.
References
Pollard, A. and James, M. (2004), Personalised learning. A Commentary by the Teaching and Learning Research Programme, London: TLRP Publications. Shuayb, M. and O’Donnell S. (2008) Aims and Values in Primary Education: England and other Countries. Interim Report. NFER , University of Cambridge and Esmee Fairburn
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