In England, an established, and Germany, an emergent neoliberal policy context, we compare how head teachers and teachers in comprehensive and selective schools, understand and make use of various education knowledge traditions to inform their practice, and consider the implications of this for students.

Professional knowledge in education in England has two dominant sources of production: one academic, and the second practical. The first, what Whitty and Furlong (2017) call the new science of education, promises to find out ‘what works’ through the application of rigorous research, typically in the form of randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews. This is an example of what Bernstein (1996; 1999) calls regional knowledge. The second includes the ‘competencies and standards’ model ascendant under neoliberalism; what Bernstein calls generic knowledge. However, in Germany, a singular knowledge tradition of hermeneutic educational thought has traditionally dominated, where professionalism has remained relatively autonomous, emphasising reflective decision-making. More recently, whilst some continue to resist the use of test data to discern ‘what works’, evidence-based practice has become increasingly valued, and represent the emergent position.

Using Bernstein’s pedagogic device (1990, 1996, 1999), we analyse how education knowledge and professionalism discourses shape pedagogic mathematics discourses. Bernstein divides pedagogic discourse into, on the one hand, instructional and regulatory discourses, and on the other, vertical and horizontal discourses. Whilst the instructional and regulatory discourses account for the form and content of teaching, the vertical and horizontal discourses relate to the nature of the subject and its development. Clearly, these are interrelated. By focussing on them, we can better understand how the challenge of subjects increases, an important concern for those seeking to support low attaining students.

In this study, we use a combination of classroom observations and teacher and student interviews to ascertain the dominant mathematics pedagogic discourses in comprehensive and selective schools in England and Germany, the knowledge traditions informing them and the consequences for students. We contrast these with the knowledge traditions espoused by school leaders and teachers in interviews to identify areas of consensus, inconsistency and tension. Our aim is to understand how teachers mediate between professional knowledge traditions, establish why some traditions dominate and identify the implications for students.

Four state schools, two comprehensive and two grammar, in each of South West England and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany were selected as representing a similar geographical, sociocultural and economic diversity for each country. Two mathematics lesson observations followed by teacher interviews were conducted in one class of 13 year old children in each school over a two month period to ascertain the dominant instructional and regulatory discourses in classroom curriculum and pedagogy (Bernstein, 1990; 1996). Sixteen lessons were observed and audio recorded during the spring and summer terms, when classroom norms and routines were fully established. On each occasion, both the teacher’s planning and samples of the pupils’ work were collected. Following each lesson, the observer’s notes, audio recording of the teacher in the lesson, planning and children’s work provided the basis for lesson analysis. Immediately after each lesson, a detailed interview was used to explore and illuminate the varied goals and broader expectations which oriented teachers’ work, how they made sense of them and what they did to achieve them. School managers, teachers and students participated in an extended semi structured interview following the second observation. Pairs of students, selected by their teachers as above, at and below average attainment for the class (where attainment is their anticipated test score level), were interviewed to explore their understanding of and response to the lesson. Interviews with senior manager and teachers explored their thinking and decision-making relating to teaching and learning. Later, participant validation tested the verisimilitude of the resultant descriptions. To maintain appropriate awareness and sensitivity in this education policy research collaboration between researchers from England and Germany, joint observations and interviews were conducted by insider researchers, familiar with cultural norms and local circumstances and native speakers of English or German, and outsider researchers. The team then brought their various perspectives and experiences together in a process of comparative data analysis. Our analysis uses ideal types based on the existing literature on pedagogic discourse to explore the place of professional knowledge alongside the subjective experiences of students in each country, considering how the professionalism discourse shapes vertical and horizontal mathematics discourses. We contrast student groups and school types. We do this to understand the effect of each professionalism discourse on inequalities student achievement.

Early lesson analyses suggest England is characterised by a strongly neoliberal pedagogic discourse in comprehensive education, but less so in grammar schools which are more humanist in form. This leads to a form of responsive professionalism in comprehensives, facilitated by the tests and associated technologies. As such, whilst the use of regional scientific research evidence to guide professional practice is regarded as important by senior managers and mentioned by teachers in interviews, it has had little direct influence on comprehensive school classroom, where practice is mostly informed by a generic, practical understanding, developed and adapted through experience. Germany maintains some aspects of humanist pedagogic discourse in both Gymnasium and Realschule, although there is a clear recognition of increased neoliberal pressures in both. These lead to a privileging of teachers’ professional experience within the teaching of traditional subjects, albeit with an increased emphasis on application especially in Realschule. As in England, though, there is less evidence either of the continued influence of singular principles of traditional German educational thought guide professional decision making or of the emerging influence of regional scientific research evidence to guide professional practice; instead, professional practice appears to be influenced more by teachers’ generic experience.

Bernstein, B. (1990) The structure of pedagogic discourse, London, RoutledgeFalmer. Bernstein, B. (1996) Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: theory, research, critique, London, Taylor Francis. Bernstein, B. (1999) Vertical and horizontal discourse: an essay, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 20(2), 157-173. Whitty, G. & Furlong, J. (Eds) (2017) Knowledge and the Study of Education: an international comparison, Symposium Books, Oxford.