Including in your framing for your readers your methodological approach: Relating your conclusion to the most up to date educational research and policy.

Jack's notes in response to the Tuesday evening MA conversation on the 22^nd April 2008.

While these notes have a focus on writings from primary classrooms I am hoping that the points I am making about 'framing' your writings in relation to your own unique methodology and about ensuring that your conclusions relate to the most advanced theories and policies of the day, resonate with educational writings from all sectors of education.

The main assumption I make in my tutoring for the masters units and dissertation is that it is possible and desirable to bring your embodied knowledge as a master educator into the Academy in your master's degree. I am also assuming that as you do this and engage with improving your own professional practice and engagement with the ideas of others you will be extending and deepening your educational knowledge.

In evaluating the quality of master's unit writings for accreditation I use the University of Bath criteria. What I have noticed is that in most draft writings the critical use of knowledge and experience to inform the methodology (criterion i) of the enquiry and its conclusions (criterion ii) could be strengthened for an assessment to be made in the higher grades. Here are the first four criteria. I am concentrating on the points about methodology and conclusions in i) and ii).

i) Made critical use of literature, professional experience and, where appropriate, knowledge from other sources, to inform the focus and methodology of the study or enquiry.

ii) Made appropriate critical use of the literature and, where appropriate, knowledge from other sources, in the development of the study or enquiry and its conclusions.

iii) Demonstrated an ability to identify and categorise issues, and to undertake an educational study or enquiry in an appropriately critical, original, and balanced fashion.

iv) Demonstrated an ability to analyse, interpret and critique findings and arguments and, where appropriate, to apply these in a reflective manner to the improvement of educational practices.

I hope that my own pedagogy is consistent with what Dadds and Hart refer to as methodological inventiveness and I want to stress the importance that you are creating your own unique way through your research and that this is your methodology:

" The importance of methodological inventiveness

Perhaps the most important new insight for both of us has been awareness that, for some practitioner researchers, creating their own unique way through their research may be as important as their self-chosen research focus. We had understood for many years that substantive choice was fundamental to the motivation and effectiveness of practitioner research (Dadds 1995); that what practitioners chose to research was important to their sense of engagement and purpose. But we had understood far less well that how practitioners chose to research, and their sense of control over this, could be equally important to their motivation, their sense of identity within the research and their research outcomes." (Dadds & Hart, p. 166, 2001)

"If our aim is to create conditions that facilitate methodological inventiveness, we need to ensure as far as possible that our pedagogical approaches match the message that we seek to communicate. More important than adhering to any specific methodological approach, be it that of traditional social science or traditional action research. may be the willingness and courage or practitioners – and those who support them – to create enquiry approaches that enable new, valid understandings to develop; understandings that empower practitioners to improve their work for the beneficiaries in their care. Practitioner research methodologies are with us to serve professional practices. So what genuinely matters are the purposes of practice which the research seeks to serve, and the integrity with which the practitioner researcher makes methodological choices about ways of achieving those purposes. No methodology is, or should, cast in stone, if we accept that professional intention should be informing research processes, not pre-set ideas about methods of techniques.."(Dadds & Hart, p. 169, 2001)

I am suggesting that you should include a statement about your methodology in your 'framing' of your writings for your readers. I'm also suggesting that Marie's idea of a living theory methodology, Jean Clandinin's ideas on narrative inquiry and Jean McNiff's writings on My Story Is My Living Educational Theory, could help with the framing of your writings. I'm hoping you will exercise your critical judgments now because I'm going to include a couple of paragraphs of my writing about methodology within Vicky's writings to show the kind of 'framing' I've got in mind. I'm thinking of you exercising your critical judgment and creativity in writing your own unique 'framing' for your writings.

Here is Vicky's framing in her latest draft:

A response as to how my involvement with the Gifted and Talented programme initiated by Bath and North East Somerset has made me re-assess my living educational values and beliefs, thus influencing my delivery and provision for the SEBD students with whom I work.

As I consider the issues implicit within the above statement I am aware that many will be bewildered by any connection between Gifted and Talented and SEBD students. I too, find it hard to think in terms of highly motivated able, gifted and talented students when I look around the SEBD provision within which I spend on average ten hours five days a week!

However "Higher Standards, Better Schools for all" [White Paper 2005] clearly sets out the government's ambition for every student – they should have the right personalised support to reach the limits of their capabilities and later states,

"We will legislate to prescribe curriculum entitlements for learners aged 14-19."

Children with social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties cover the range of ability found in mainstream schools, but generally behave unusually or in an extreme and sometimes violent fashion to a variety of social, personal, emotional or physical circumstances. [Nicholson 2005]

Here is the kind of 'framing' for your methodological that I've got in mind – it could go between paragraphs two and three in Vicky's draft and I'm suggesting you put your own methodological framing early in your framing.

"We will legislate to prescribe curriculum entitlements for learners aged 14-19."

"The emergent methodology (Dadds and Hart 2001) in my enquiry draws insights from Clandinin's (2007) ideas on narrative inquiry and mapping a methodology where individual researchers generate narratives of their lives and learning. McNiff (2007) has explained how such narratives can becoming the individuals living educational theory and this is the approach that resonates most closely with my own. I take a living educational theory to be an explanation of my educational influences in my own learning and in the learning of my pupils/students (Whitehead, 1989). I shall also refer in the conclusion to some implications of my study for the education of the social formations in which I live and work, especially in relation to enhancing the educational experiences of young people."

Having emphasised the importance of including in your 'framing' of your writings references to your methodology I now want to focus on your critical use of knowledge from the literature and other sources (your embodied knowledge) in your conclusions.

Here is the conclusion to Claire's educational enquiry 3 to show how evidence from literature, including recent policy initiatives should be included in your conclusion to show your capability of writing in the higher levels of the criteria. Claire question for EE3 is:

How am I integrating my educational theorizing firstly with the educational responsibility I express in my educational relationships with the children in my class, and also with the educational responsibility I feel towards those in the wider school community?

Here is Claire's conclusion:

Conclusion

How is it that I can combine such feelings of exceptional fallibility and prowess? Surely these feelings are mutually contradictory? Or do they in some strange way derive from the same root? (Rayner, 2007)

Rayner's words strike a chord deep within me because I see my role as an educator very much in terms of prowess and yet fallibility. On the one hand I feel the joy in relationship with the children in the Samuel Pepys video clip when, as I wrote earlier:

Throughout those first two or three minutes I look so relaxed and happy - I really wish that I could hold onto that feeling in more of my teaching – I just look like I'm being the real me!

I also recognize the pleasure in educational responsibility shown by F as I explained earlier when:

All around him was noise and bustle as the busy day came to a close, yet he was completely unaware of any of it in his desire to solve the problem. I barely had time to say "Great thinking! Well done."

Yet my feelings of fallibility are all too apparent when, as I explained previously:

I felt very frustrated at some of the behaviour that had prevented the children from really using this game to practice their use of "properties of materials" word skills.

Towards the end of Primary Review Report 1/2 (Aims and Values in Primary Education) is a section about the years 2000 – 2006. The words Excellence and Enjoyment and personalized learning feature frequently but are qualified by Alexander's point that:

....enjoyment sits unconvincingly with the parallel requirement, which has been a significant feature of primary education in England for the last decade, that schools should continue to focus on raising standards (p.19)

The words personalized learning are also qualified by Hartley's definition as:

... personalised standardisation: a personalised pick-and-mix of pedagogy and curriculum, but only from the standard menu, which is drawn up by the Government. (p. 20)

The report concludes rather sadly that the aims and values of primary education today are:

expressed primarily in terms of economic and social goals. (p.25)

Although there appears to be a focus on aims and values in the Primary Review reports I have read, there is no awareness shown of the dynamic, loving educational relationships which I and other educators know to be vital to children's learning and wellbeing and which I seek to express through educational enquiries such as this. I will continue to try to integrate my educational theorizing with the educational responsibility I express in my educational relationships with the children in my class because I believe in the value of what I am doing. I am ...at the edge of my own knowing (Scholes-Rhodes, 2002) and it is a good place to be, especially:

.... if it is conceded that education is not just about the transmission of knowledge, skills and values, but is concerned with the individuality, subjectivity, or personhood of the student, with their "coming into the the world" as unique, singular beings. (Biesta, 2006, p. 27)

I like the way Claire includes in her conclusion the references to Rayner's, Biesta's and Scholes-Rhodes' ideas and related her writings to the 2008 Primary Review. Other references you might like to draw on are the Special Issue of Educational Action Research of September 2007 on Young Peoples' Voices – I think your emphasis on showing your educational influences in your pupils/students learning as you respond to what they say and do with insights about their educational needs, could inform the Primary Review on how to improve the educational experiences of young people. I think you could also suggest that your writings are showing a way of enhancing pupil's learning, not only through listening to pupils' voices but also responding in a way that can be shown to be having an educational influence in their learning.

Hoping that the notes are helpful.

Love Jack. 23/04/08.