Police Knowledge Exchange: Summary Report

[Executive Summary] This report draws on research commissioned by the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and the Home Office to investigate cultural aspects of knowledge sharing across the police service. The research reviews literature and police perceptions to identify the enablers and barriers to effective knowledge exchange and sharing within and between police forces and police partners, including the public. Data were collected from 11 police forces; 42 in-depth interviews/focus groups and 47 survey responses. The literature-guided analysis identified four core research themes: who, why, what and how we share. Detailed findings are presented in the full report; this summary report presents the core research findings. Recommendations from this study will inform the next phase of activity for the Board. The research identified that cross-force, cross-organisation, national and international sharing relies on a culture supporting individuals who have an independent and reflective sharing approach. A key enabler to police sharing is that, regardless of police rank and role, they all have a strong collaborative nature, through a deep motivation to share, that benefits the wider social community. This collaborative nature is driven by processes that reveal reciprocal benefit and safe sharing, as well as how to effectively ‘get the job done’ and foster professional learning. A key barrier to police sharing is a strong hierarchical culture that does not encourage the independent nature of sharing. Whilst police officers and staff act independently within the confines of their prescribed roles, they rarely independently share beyond this. This hierarchical culture means that innovations in sharing are often initiated or approved top-down and tied to leadership. Hierarchical structures are seen to support a competitive culture combining concepts of risk aversion and blame. The hierarchical culture is also perceived as providing poor clarity on what is of value to share and how to effectively share. There are two key recommendations to overcome this barrier: one long-term and one short-term. Long-term: ‘Become independent sharers’ by changing the nature and culture of the police to encourage this independent nature, so that specific sharing barriers are effectively solved by individuals. Professionalising the police and working collaboratively with academia are steps towards this long-term goal. Short-term: ‘Guide and authorise independent sharing’ by using the hierarchy to scaffold/support and direct police towards effective and approved sharing approaches. This will show the police, through the hierarchy, how and why this independent sharing nature is safe, effective and valued

Police Knowledge Exchange: Full Report 2018

[Executive Summary] This report was commissioned to explore the enablers and barriers to sharing within and between police forces and between police forces and partners, including the public. This was completed from an interdisciplinary review of international literature covering sharing, knowledge exchange, learning and organisational learning. The literature broke down into four main factors; who, why, what and how. An introduction to the literature is presented with ‘Who’ is sharing which considers both personal identity and different institutional issues. The ‘Why’ literature covers issues of cultural and community motivators and barriers. The ‘What’ segment reviews concepts of data, information and knowledge and related legislative issues. Finally, the ‘how’ section spans face to face sharing approaches to technologies that produce both enablers and barriers. A series of 42 in-depth interviews and focus groups were completed and combined with 47 survey responses . The aim of the interviews, focus groups and survey was to show perceptions and beliefs around knowledge sharing from a small sample across policing in order to complement the findings from the literature review. The survey was adapted from a standardised questionnaire (Biggs, 1987). The Biggs questionnaire focused on what motivated students to learn and how they approached their learning. Our adapted survey looked at what motivated police to share, and how they approached sharing. The responses showed a trend, across the police, towards a motivation for sharing to develop a deeper understanding of issues. However, the approaches and the strategies they used to share with others, which were primarily driven by achieving and surface approaches (to get promoted and get the job done). According to Biggs (1987) this could leave them discontented as they never progress to a deeper understanding of issues. Scaffolding sharing within the police through processes that are clearly defined, effective and valued could help to overcome these issues. Within the interviews and focus group findings a similar structured approach to sharing was adopted. Within the ‘who’ section some key aspects around personal relationships, reciprocity and reputation were identified. The ‘why’ the police share was one of the largest discussion points. Not only was there a deep motivation to solve key policing issues there was an approach of reciprocity. Police sharing was deeply motivated to support ‘good practice’ in the prevention and detection of crime. However, a sharing barrier was identified in the parity of value given to different types of knowledge for example between professional judgement and research evidence knowledge. Sharing was achieved when there were reciprocal benefits, in particular with personal networks or face to face sharing which was noted as ‘safe’. Again, this was inhibited by misunderstandings around the ‘risks’ of sharing, frequently attributed to data protection legislation; producing cautious reactions and as an avoidance tactic to save time and effort sharing. However, a divide was noted between technical users and those who avoided any online systems for sharing; often due to poorly designed systems and a lack of confidence in how to use systems. The police culture was identified as being risk-adverse, and competitive due to multiple factors, a lack of supported time to share, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) reviews and promotion criteria. The result was perceived to be a poor cultural ability to learn from mistakes and a likelihood to repeat errors. A set of strategic recommendations are given and include the use of a sharing authorised professional practice for HMIC reviews, sharing networks and training. A further set of operational recommendations are given such as; sharing impact cases for evidence based practice, data sharing officers and evaluating mechanisms for sharing. This full report is supported by the Police Knowledge Exchange Summary Report 2018 which gives an overview of the findings and recommendations

Evidence Cafés and Practitioner Cafés supported by online resources: A route to innovative training in practice based approaches

Current radical changes in the Police service internationally and in England and Wales are being driven by movements to adopt an Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) approach to policing. However this poses a challenge as early adopters have experienced resistance to EBP, a relatively unknown, and more importantly misunderstood approach for policing (Sherman, 2015). This resistance is not limited to police with international research highlighting implementation issues for evidence based medicine (Altman, 1996; Fairhurst & Dowrick, 1996; Murphy and Adams, 2005), evidence based management (Adams & Sasse, 1999; Rousseau, 2012), and evidence based teaching (Beista, 2007, Perry & Smart, 2007; Adams & Clough, 2015). One reason is the lack of training in EBP, which is coupled with recent concerns over the general quality of training and level of professionalism within UK police organisation (Davies et al, 1996). There have been international initiatives aimed at increasing learning around evidence based practice (Rousseau, 2012; Hall and Roussel, 2014). Some UK police forces have adopted approaches from other domains to counteract these problems (e.g. champions, enquiry visits). Mapping clear pathways that link training, experience and evidence-based practice is crucial to developing the capacity for an evidence-based workforce. This paper presents evidence from recent research that used Evidence Cafés and Practitioner Cafés connected to online resources as a route to increase understanding and awareness of evidence based practice amongst frontline police officers. Evidence Cafés are coordinated by a knowledge exchange expert with an academic and a police practitioner who facilitate the translation of research into practice. This paper presents evidence of the benefit and limitations of these events. Analytics and learning analytics of events’ online resources also provide insights into these approaches and identify triggers for increased engagement across a wide geographical context

A narrative study of the experience of feedback on a professional doctorate: ‘A kind of flowing conversation’

Feedback has an important role in supporting learning. It is through feedback that learners can actively construct and clarify understanding, monitor their performance and direct their learning. Despite attention on feedback in higher education, limited research exists exploring the role and experience of feedback within doctoral programmes. This article focuses on student experiences of feedback during a professional doctorate in England. Analysis of the narrative of one recent Doctorate in Education graduate reveals several inter-related themes, illustrating the role of peers in supporting the move to autonomous researcher. This intensive focus on one student’s experience narrative contributes to a reconceptualization of feedback as dialogic, revealing feedback through the doctoral journey as an ongoing dialogue, with the doctoral researcher taking increasing responsibility for orchestrating the conversation. I argue that such a perspective moves beyond the traditional view of doctoral learning through the support of a supervisor to encompass both formal and informal learning experiences within a community of research practice, emphasising the active participation of the doctoral candidate in this community. I discuss the potential contribution of student experience stories to the development of doctoral relationships and practice

Is anyone listening? Women mathematics teachers' experiences of professional learning

This study explores women secondary mathematics teachers' experiences of professional learning. Life histories were elicited through semi-structured interviews in the form of guided conversations, supplemented by time-lines of mathematics and of professional learning. Analysis focused on constructed personal experience narratives. Although research demonstrates the features of effective professional learning, teachers' experiences of learning throughout their careers remains under explored. A particular focus in this study is on the ways in which professional learning is supported, providing opportunities for reengagement with mathematics, a subject frequently viewed as inaccessible and masculine. The women's stories are peopled with significant others who provide both models and encouragement, frequently drawn from their own school days and early professional experience. Much professional learning is informal, arising from unstructured reflection on teaching, with teachers accorded neither agency nor consistent support for their learning. The women's narratives provide a perspective on lived experiences of professional learning. Frequently learning is unsupported and spaces to discuss mathematics learning and teaching limited. Teachers appear isolated in restrictive school environments which contribute to a perception of reduced agency. Where opportunities for collaborative professional learning exist, women participate actively in the wider mathematics education community. Analysis of the narratives suggests that teachers' agency over their professional learning needs to increase to create spaces for women to collaborate on mathematics focussed professional learning. The allocation of resources to teacher professional learning should be prioritised. These glimpses reveal the restricted landscape of women mathematics teachers'learning opportunities. Despite these restrictions, however, teachers push at the boundaries. The narratives will support teachers who may draw on the voices of others to help them to make sense of their own development. Further research is warranted to explore the way individuals might develop and utilise their own professional learning narratives

Artistic participatory video-making for science engagement

This paper uses theatre to frame reflexive discussions on the use of participatory video making for science engagement. The ‘JuxtaLearn’ research project is presented as a case-study that focuses on performance concepts such as audience, purpose, improvisation or final production as a lens for supporting technology-enabled creative exploration. Three different approaches were taken to creative participatory video making processes: co-creation by learners, as a communication tool for researchers and as a public engagement tool. Differing expectations about the timing and aim of the research process created considerable debate among the research team regarding the control of and purpose of filmmaking. It was not the topic of debate within the film that was deemed controversial, but more who, when and in what ways these debates occurred. Theatrical and HCI concepts of audience, performance ownership, improvisation and storyboarding, boundary object creation, participation and boundary creatures are foci of debate within the project

Possibilities for mathematics education? : Aphoristic fragments from the past

Our contribution to this special issue is not intended to offer a theoretical argument in conversation with the papers which form The Disorder on Mathematics Education (Straehler-Pohl, Bohlmann and Pais, 2017). It is informed by much of the thinking contained therein and driven by a similar concern with the institutionalisation (and therefore the inevitable co-option and colonisation) of the socio-political dimensions of academic research in mathematics education. However, it is intended to sit alongside as a disorderly and comparatively uninvited guest at the conversation. Rather than advocating a specific set of approaches to the teaching and learning of mathematics for social justice, we are striving after a disorderliness of format to allow the advancement of a (somewhat utopian) imagination and hope, to unsettle ourselves and others and to offer the occasional, penumbrian glimpse of 'the speculative could' (Straehler-Pohl, Pais and Bohlmann, 2017, p. 3). We present research fragments collected as part of an activist project without introduction or comment; however, alongside these, we offer more conventional text on neo-liberalism, the need to historicise the present, aphoristic thinking and the need for "somewhere" to b

Workshop report: Using data from a history of Smile to overcome 'historic loneliness'.

In England, the neoliberal political agenda has created an environment in which teachers are constantly subjected to a discourse of marketisation, managerialism and performativity. It is also part of the neoliberal project to cut us adrift from our past and to de-historicise our lived experience of the present. We are suffering from what John Berger has called a sense of ‘historic loneliness’. Many teachers are engaged in re-storying themselves against this audit culture. We are currently exploring using stories from the past – in this case, recollections of Smile, a teacher-led mathematics curriculum project with roots in inner London in the 1970s – to combat this ‘historic loneliness’ and to create a space in which to understand, interrogate and oppose the dominant discourses. We have conducted extended interviews with groups of Smile teachers from an earlier era and are now looking at ways to make these data perform this potentially transformative function. In this workshop, we presented a small part of the data in three different ways – as edited transcript, as story and as aphoristic fragment – and invited participants to compare and contrast the effectiveness or otherwise of these forms of presentation

“Now There’s Everything to Stop You”: Teacher autonomy then and now

Globalisation and neoliberal political agendas currently dominate educational policies and practices in, amongst others, many Anglophone and northern European countries including England, with discourses of the market and performance circulating widely and having become established regimes of truth. This demands sustained critique of hegemonic, taken-for-granted understandings and an exploration of how the lived experience of neoliberalism can be disrupted. In this chapter, we utilise the tools of genealogy to develop a history of the present, focussing particularly on the variation in autonomy revealed through a study of mathematics curriculum development. Juxtaposing stories from teachers involved in the Smile mathematics curriculum development project in England in the 1970s and 1980s with responses from currently serving teachers to the experience of performativity we highlight differences in teacher autonomy over time. We conclude by discussing the possibilities for teachers to mobilise such stories in their resistance to dominant, neo-liberal discourses