Jean Rudduck

Student voice and the perils of popularity

In this article we suggest that the current popularity of student voice can lead to surface compliance—to a quick response that focuses on ‘how to do it’ rather than a reflective review of ‘why we might want to do it’. We look at the links between student consultation and participation and the legacy of the progressive democratic tradition in our schools and we look also at the difference between teaching about democracy as an investment for the future and enacting democratic principles in the daily life of the school (a commitment to the present). The tension between institutional gains (the school improvement perspective) and personal gains (confidence, a view point and the shaping of identity) is discussed and three of the ‘big issues’ are identified that underlie the credible development of student voice: power relations between teachers and students, the commitment to authenticity, and the principle of inclusiveness. Finally we reflect on some of the organizational implications of developing student voice: finding time and building a whole‐school culture in which student voice has a place.

Academic performance, transfer, transition and friendship: listening to the student voice

Abstract Research and practice have tended to focus on the “entrance and exit” years in schools. Transfer (that is, the move from one stage of schooling and from one school to another) has received more attention than transition (that is, the move from one year to another within the same school). Transition emerges from interviews with students as a neglected but important experience, reflecting the difficulties some students have in sustaining their commitment to learning and in understanding continuities in learning. Similarly, the relationship between friendships and student progress is given attention at transfer but tends thereafter to have a low profile. Interviews with students suggest that there is much that we can usefully learn by listening to students talk about the link between friendship and academic performance.

Teacher research and research‐based teacher education

The paper argues for a redrawing of the relationship between research, teaching and teacher education. One obstacle is the view, still held by many teachers, that research has little relevance for everyday practice. At the same time the teacher‐researcher movement is flourishing. If the movement is to be more than an energetic but divisive challenge to the tradition of university‐based research, then the notion of ‘research’ as conducted by practising teachers and its possible contribution to the common store of educational knowledge needs to be examined and clarified. Teacher research ‐or the less challenging but possibly more realistic habit of reflection‐on‐action through classroom enquiry ‐ is an important means of sustaining professional curiosity and focusing professional dialogue. Attitudes and habits supportive of research need to be encouraged in courses of initial teacher education which are all too often dominated by concerns of short‐term survival rather than long‐term professionalism.

The past, the papers and the project

For his own article, Meighan (1978b) sought permission from schools to ask pupils questions about effective teaching and he singles out a couple of responses: ‘Children are not competent to judge these matters’, and ‘Children are not mature (enough) for this kind of exercise’. We still, occasionally, hear similar comments and our data, as do Meighan’s, challenge such easy dismissals. He found, as we have found, that pupils are generally thoughtful, insightful and cooperative in talking about teaching and learning. In the 1978 Special Issue, Penelope Weston and colleagues interviewed pupils about their expectations at secondary school, making the distinction that has recently surfaced again between pupils as consumers and pupils as clients. Peter Woods’ article highlighted the importance of teacher–pupil relationships to pupils’ commitment to school. Barry Wade’s data underlined the importance for pupils of teachers’ personalities as well as their pedagogic skills. Lynn Davies presented the girls’ view of teaching and learning but acknowledged that she had reservations about the focus: ‘It is rather like highlighting the lions’ view of captivity: it implies that this is demonstrably different from the tigers’ view, and thus draws attention

The Language of Consciousness and the Landscape of Action: tensions in teacher education*

Abstract The recruitment crises which have buffeted the world of teacher education over the last few years have provided an opportunity for central policy‐makers to launch alternative structures and consider different patterns of responsibility. Within such a climate it is important that policy‐makers and others understand the distinctive contribution that higher education and schools make to both pre‐service and in‐service teacher education. The paper briefly reviews the situation and argues that teacher educators in universities and colleges do, and should, offer student teachers something different from what teachers alone can offer: a perspective that shapes consciousness in schools and classrooms and provides students with a variety of frameworks for making sense of what is happening. The development of a capacity for critical reflection should be supported by the development of competent and confident practice: these are complementary concerns which, in the present climate, are set in tension in a w...

Exploring and Explaining ‘Dips’ in Motivation and Performance in Primary and Secondary Schooling

a particular aspect of schooling that needs attention – ‘dips’ in progress in years 3–4 of primary schooling and in year 8 of secondary schooling. Where the Chief Inspector identifies the dips on the basis of performance data we identified them on the basis of interview data, and where he explains them largely in terms of ‘unsatisfactory teaching’ we think there are grounds for broadening the explanation to include issues of school organisation and pupil motivation. In this article we argue that, at particular stages in their school career, both secondary and primary school pupils’ commitment to learning can become vulnerable. During post-transitional periods in particular – when pupils have adjusted to a new regime – organisational features of schooling can combine with developmental features to produce a restlessness which may affect motivation and performance. In exploring these issues we use Goffman’s concept of ‘school career’. Its value, as Goffman (1961, p. 119) explains, is its ‘two-sidedness’: one side is linked with such things as ‘image of self and self-identity’ while the other concerns the relationship of the individual to the ‘institutional complex’. Hence pupils’ time in school can be looked at not only in terms of chronological movement where the yearly passage to another class promises academic pro gressionbut also in terms of social progressionand whether pupils’ enhanced sense of social competence and maturity is being recognised and respected in the day-to-day encounters of school and classroom.

Pupils Helping other Pupils with their Learning: Cross-age tutoring in a primary and secondary school

The study describes cross-age tutoring in two very different settings: a rural primary school and an urban secondary school. In each setting the aims were social as well as academic; the academic focus was on language work, including reading. In the primary school, Year 4 pupils (aged 8-9 years) worked with reception pupils (aged 4-5 years) to produce story books with illustrations and a text which incorporated individualised key words. In the secondary school, Year 9 pupils (aged 13-14 years) worked with Year 7 pupils (aged 11-12 years) whose reading age made it difficult for them fully to access the curriculum. In the primary school both boys and girls were involved; in the secondary school, only boys. There was no clear pattern of improvement in the language skills of either group of tutees but both felt more positively about reading. There were some indications that relations between younger and older pupils were developing in positive ways. In both projects the tasks were clearly defined and even the 8-year-old pupil tutors had a sound grasp of what the tutoring process entailed.

The improvement of the art of teaching through research

*Given as the 1984 Lawrence Stenhouse Memorial Lecture, University of East Anglia, July 1984. The lectures have been organised by former students of the Centre for Applied Research in Education at the University of East Anglia. The first lecture was given in 1983 by Malcolm Skilbeck.

Enlarging the Democratic Promise of Education

*Presidential Address to the British Educational Research Association given at the University of Oxford, September 1994, to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Association

Practitioner Research and Programmes of Initial Teacher Education

Abstract * This paper is based on a presentation made at the AERA Annual Conference, San Francisco, April, 1989.