#ACRE2016 - abstract accepted: Rhetoric and policy: the values stakeholders attribute to curriculum subjects

Last year I presented at the Edge Hill University Annual Conference for Research in Education, which I thoroughly enjoyed - great key note speakers, making new friends and catching up with old friends. This year the topic, values in education, meshes beautifully with my PhD thesis about the value different people ascribe to design and technology.

This research is important to me as the changes to school measures and the new curriculum begins to be implemented. The conference gave me an opportunity to explore a different angle to my research, I was curious about how government ministers talk about D&T compared with what D&T teachers. I think its important for others to help them understand the tensions between policy that affects D&T and how teachers feel their subject, which they are passionate about, is affected.

My title, abstract and references are below:

Rhetoric and policy: the values stakeholders attribute to curriculum subjects

As recent changes to curriculum policy (DfE 2014) begin to be implemented in schools this research compares government ministers’ and school teachers’ rhetoric about the value of design and technology (D&T), a curriculum subject significantly affected by these changes (Hardy 2015).

A range of factors contributes to the interpretation and enactment of policy (Maguire, Braun and Ball 2015), including a teacher’s values (Priestly, Edwards and Priestly 2012). Drawing upon government ministers’ speeches and interviews with teachers, I identify the values ascribed to D&T by these two stakeholder groups. These values were compared with two sections of the National Curriculum: firstly the National Curriculum’s overarching aims, and secondly the purpose and aims of D&T (DfE 2014).

Following the analysis of the two groups’ values using the two National Curriculum aims as a framework (DfE 2014), I demonstrate a disparity between the two groups’ views of the value of education. Comparison with the D&T National Curriculum reveals that teachers and ministers advocate some of the values ascribed to D&T in the National Curriculum, but there are noticeable differences. Generally, teachers place greater emphasis on D&T’s value to pupils’ learning and development in school, whereas ministers focus on how D&T engenders both personal and national economic benefit. I suggest that these findings imply a discord between these two key stakeholders about the contribution D&T makes to the whole curriculum and a pupil’s education.

By comparing the positionality and political perspectives revealed in the rhetoric of government ministers and teachers about one subject, this research provides a new approach to anticipating different interpretations on curriculum policy. It also offers a way for exploring how different stakeholders value other school subjects and education; it could help those involved in other marginalised subjects explore how policy makers and class teachers value the subject.

The next stage to this study is to explore how the government’s rhetoric about the new curriculum, and the values discovered in this study, are enacted in classrooms.

It also needs to be resolved what the source of stakeholders’ values of school subjects. Eccles and Wigfield  (2002) have demonstrated that a person’s experiences and parental influence shape their values towards subjects such as maths and science; the next stage is to examine whether this is true for other subjects, including D&T.

References

DfE, 2014. National Curriculum in England: framework for key stages 1 to 4. London: Department for Education.

Eccles, J.S., and Wigfield, A., 2002. Motivational beliefs, values, and goals. Annual Review of Psychology, 53 (1), 109-132.

Hardy, A., 2015. Why has the number of teenagers taking design and technology GCSE dropped? Available at: http://bit.ly/1JtlOY7 [Accessed 6/2/16]

Maguire, M., Braun, A., and Ball, S., 2015. ‘Where you stand depends on where you sit’: the social construction of policy enactments in the (English) secondary school. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Policies of Education, 2015. Vol. 36 (4), 485-499.

Priestly, M., Edwards, R., Priestly, A., and Miller, K., 2012. Teacher Agency in Curriculum Making: Agents of Changes and Spaces for Manoeuvre. Curriculum Inquiry, Vol 42 (2), 191-214.

Thanks to Jennifer Jones for the idea for this blogpost

Publishing & reading D&T research in the UK: where next?

Eddie Norman is asked a number of pertinent questions in his blogpost last month, here I will attempt to answer some. Feel free to comment below, Tweet to me, or email with your thoughts and ideas; standing still at the fork in the road is not an option. 

I want to respond to Eddie's questions at the end of his blogpost:

However, who in England (apart from the teacher training survivors in HE) is now conducting research in D&T? And who is reading about the research that has been completed? It has to be time for some serious discussions and meetings of minds, or where will the tradition that John Eggleston started and many have supported go next?

1. What is currently happening in education research that involves teachers?

There are two parts to consider here: where is the research being shared and who is generating it?

Social media users will be familiar with the surgency of Teachmeets and ResearchEd, two movements that I believe are filling gaps created by the decline in HEIs involvement in teacher training and education research, and funding for CPD in schools. 

Teachmeets are fun, interactive and a place to learn new tips and ideas for use in the classroom but very few of the ideas shared are based in rigorous research. ResearchEd's focus is on 'working out what works' in education research; still embryonic in some ways but rapidly growing, gaining voice and authority as it helps teachers make sense of the plethora of education research. Its maybe too early to measure their impact but there is a groundswell of support for them - they are teacher driven, immediate and practical aligning to John Eggleston's call for research that is 'immediate, practical and relevant'.

These two are about sharing education research but where is the research coming from? I think there are three worth considering here. Firstly most university trained teachers now have the opportunity to achieve Masters credits, which will have come from them probably conducting research about their own practice and usually involves action research. Secondly schools are receiving funds for research from the DfE and organisations such as EEF to try out and test ideas. Thirdly there are teachers completing their Masters, groups of like-minded teachers getting together formally and informally in schools, sometimes working with university lecturers, to question and explore what is happening in the classroom. But where does this research go? Where is it published, interrogated and shared?

2. What  is happening in D&T education research?

This week I am attending PATT29 in Marseille listening to over sixty papers presented by researchers (teachers, academics, postgraduate students) from all over the world; all of these papers are about design and technology education in pre-school, primary, secondary, tertiary and higher education. Twelve papers are presented by UK based researchers with twenty different named authors. But how many UK D&T teachers know this is happening? Unless you're one of the four teacher-authors or have been following my #patt29 on Twitter you probably don't. You're missing out on some great stuff and I would encourage anyone to access them when they are made freely available on the ITEEA website; the papers have involved pupils, D&T teachers, trainee D&T teachers and senior school leaders, with some great ideas to help D&T teachers in the classroom; ranging from thinking about the history and possible future of food teaching in schools, why pupils should talk about robots in D&T, how demonstrations are used in D&T lessons, global perspectives in D&T, and so on - inspiring. And I haven't mentioned the other 51 papers from places such as Sweden, NZ, Canada, South Africa, Israel and France. 

As I wrote in my comment on Eddie's post, there is also local, small scale, classroom based research happening by D&T practitioners (teachers on MA courses and those who are studying for their PGCE/BSc in D&T ed) but what happens to this work - who hears about it? Their departments, peers and family is the probable answer. This is where I think Teachmeets and ResearchEd have captured teachers' imagination - its quick  and accessible; getting your work published in peer reviewed journals is time consuming, mentally challenging and can seem complex to the uninitiated - if you're a teacher is it worth the effort? Yes. One way a subject gains and retains its credibility is through sharing its research. Research needs to be read, critiqued and used in the classroom or to inform policy. 

So we have the research being done and there are potential traditional (such as DATE:IJ) and new (Teachmeets and ResearchEd) research outlets so how can these be brought together? And who will read the research?

3. What of the future?

This is where my thinking is still developing, I can only consider scenarios and possibilities that I'm happy to discuss, explore & throw away.

Firstly I think it's important to keep the DATE:IJ open access (I.e. Free) but it needs more promotion both by those who publish it and those who feature in it. I'm not sure many D&T teachers even know it exists.  As I wrote in my comment: some work needs to be done to see who reads it now and then social media used to share the research, A quick look on Twitter and I have a list of over 200 D&T teachers who are on Twitter with maybe another 100 D&T departments using it to share their students' work, on Facebook there are 2522 members of the D&T teacher group, D&TA's Facebook page has 3000+ likes - surely this network can be used to promote and share the D&T research?

Secondly I think the research can be inaccessible. The advice we give to students is 'read the abstract to check if it's useful for you' but so many abstracts are inaccessible to not only trainee teachers but also academics. Maybe a synopsis of the research could be published on a Facebook page or blog?

Thirdly face to face sharing is important but where is this done in the UK? With no UK D&T research conference or space at the D&T events there is no outlet for this. Maybe a new approach is needed and the teachmeet, researched or three-minute thesis models could be used at the D&TA and TeachDesign conferences?

I know the impact the research I have read and done has had on my teaching both in schools and higher education, I thrive on the mental stimulation it gives me as I question why and how, so this post is written from a selfish position. I believe in the importance D&T to pupils and society but I particularly value good D&T and I believe D&T is good, and can be even better, if we carry out, publish, read and use research. Eddie's questions must be debated as D&T and teacher training in England goes through significant changes.