Active social location in schools: professional development for the whole school workforce?

The workforce in English schools has changed over recent years; there are more categories of staff to be found in English schools and the relative sizes of the categories have altered. Alongside these changes, the Every Child Matters reform programme implies the need to pay attention to the importance of all categories of staff to the welfare of children. However, there has not hitherto been an adequate characterisation of the nature of the practice of workers other than teachers . This paper attempts to characterise the position of school workers other than teachers to better understand the distinctive nature of their practice. We focus on Teaching Assistants, Caretakers and Lunchtime Supervisors as three groups which are sufficiently different to enable us to develop a richer theoretical account of identity in the school workforce than has hitherto been available. We have argued elsewhere (Coldron and Smith, 1999) that a teacher’s practice and his or her development of that practice can best be understood as a process of active social location. In this paper, we apply the same theoretical understanding of practice to the work identities of these three groups of school staff. By better understanding the identities that their different positions and associated resources make available, we aim to provide a richer picture and a way of thinking of the work identities of staff in school who are not teachers, one that is not colonised by the ways of thinking about the higher status teacher group.</p

Beyond Antagonism? The Discursive Construction of ‘New’ Teachers in the United Arab Emirates

The UAE, which celebrated independence in 1971, is a rapidly changing environment where aspects of traditional Bedouin culture co-exist with the immense changes being wrought by the forces of globalization and the wealth brought about by the development of the oil industry. Emirati nationals are a minority within the UAE, comprising approximately 20% of the population, and the majority of the schoolteachers are expatriates drawn from other Arabic speaking countries. Within this context, the Higher Colleges of Technology's Bachelor of Education degree in Teaching English to Young Learners prepares young UAE national women for English language teaching positions in local government schools. The research presented in this paper is drawn from this two-year study of student teachers and explores the discursive construction of the students' systems of knowledge and belief. The paper concludes with a critical consideration of the study's implications and some possible recommendations for teacher education in the UAE that may also have resonance for teacher education programs in other contexts

The positions of primary and secondary schools in the English school field: a case of durable inequality

In interviews as part of a research study of structural reform in England, some tension between primary head teachers and their secondary peers was evident. This was symptomatic of a long-standing difference in status between the two phases. At a time when relations between stakeholders in local systems are subject to change, we seek to understand anew why that might be the case and how the tension we found was evidence of a current difference of power within interactions between representatives of the phases. We analyse differences of size, resources, workforce, pedagogy and history, and how they have resulted in different, and differently valued, practices and professional identities. We explore how attributes of the two phases have been counterposed and how, in complex interaction with wider discourses of politics, gender and age, this process has invested the differences with meanings and values that tend to relegate attributes associated with primary school. By focusing on the activation of cumulative inequality in interactions, we contribute a complementary perspective to studies of perceived relative status and highlight the implications for understanding school positioning in local arenas as the role of local authorities is reduced

Secondary school admissions in England 2001 to 2008: changing legislation, policy and practice

The distribution of pupils amongst schools is fundamental to concerns about equality of educational opportunity and it is for this reason that the process by which pupils are admitted to schools is of significance. This paper focuses on admissions criteria and practices used by English secondary schools in 2001 and 2008 in light of changes to legislation and the regulatory context. In 2008, unlike 2001, virtually all schools gave priority to children in care and very few used interviews. In a minority of schools, predominantly those responsible for their own admissions, criteria designed to ‘select in’ certain pupils were used, with partial selection by aptitude/ability increasing over time. An analysis of ‘supplementary information forms’ revealed that a minority of schools requested information that was prohibited and unrelated to admissions criteria. Notwithstanding some positive impacts, further changes could make the admissions process easier for parents/carers and enhance equality of educational opportunity