John Smyth

Teachers’ Work and the Politics of Reflection

There has been a plethora of material written in recent times on reflective approaches to teaching and teacher education, but a dearth of material that looks behind these studies or asks why these reflective approaches are enjoying such popularity. This article tackles what has really become a major policy issue in the literature in four ways. First, it argues that the rhetoric of devolution and practitioner forms of knowledge may not be entirely altruistic and that such calls are occuring in contexts that display significant moves to bolster central control. Second, it proposes that this apparent contradiction is only explainable when we look at wider structural adjustments occurring in Western capitalist systems. Third, it argues that reflective practices, far from being emancipatory for teachers, entrap them within the New Right ideology of radical interventionism. Finally, the article concludes by describing what a more socially, culturally, and politically reflective approach to teaching might look like.

‘When students have power’: student engagement, student voice, and the possibilities for school reform around ‘dropping out’ of school

It is no coincidence, that disengagement from school by young adolescents has intensified at precisely the same time as there has been a hardening of educational policy regimes that have made schools less hospitable places for students and teachers. There can be little doubt from research evidence that as conditions conducive of learning in schools deteriorate through emphasis on accountability, standards, measurement, and high stakes testing, that increasing numbers of students of colour, from urban, working class, and minority backgrounds are making active choices that school is not for them. When students feel that their lives, experiences, cultures, and aspirations are ignored, trivialized, or denigrated, they develop a hostility to the institution of schooling. They feel that schooling is simply not worth the emotional and psychological investment necessary to warrant their serious involvement. This paper argues that producing the circumstances necessary to turn this situation around requires invoking a radically different kind of ethos and educational leadership—one that encourages and promotes the speaking into existence of authentic forms of student voice.

‘Coming to a place near you?’ The politics and possibilities of a critical pedagogy of place-based education

It may seem something of a paradox that in a globalised age where notions of interdependence, interconnectedness and common destinies abound, the ‘local’, with its diversity of cultures, languages, histories and geographies, continues to exercise a powerful grip on the human imagination. The ties that bind us have global connections but are anchored in a strong sense of locality. This paper explores the theoretical foundations of place-based education (PBE) and considers the merits and limitations of current approaches with particular reference to Australian studies. The authors argue that there is a place for PBE in schools but contend that it must be informed by a far more critical reading of the notions of ‘place’, ‘identity’ and ‘community’. The implications of pursuing a critical pedagogy of place-based education are discussed with reference to curriculum, pedagogy and teacher education.

Educational leadership that fosters 'student voice'

This special issue focuses on a controversial topic that has been kept off the official agenda for far too long in educational circles. The question of how to pursue forms of leadership that listen to and attend to the voices of the most informed, yet marginalized witnesses of schooling, young people, has to the most urgent issue of our times. It is no coincidence that disengagement from school by young adolescents has intensified at precisely the same time as there has been a hardening of educational policy regimes that have made schools less hospitable places for students and teachers. There can be little doubt from the accumulating research evidence that as conditions conducive to learning in schools deteriorate through emphases on accountability, standards, measurement, and high stakes testing, that increasing numbers of students of colour and those from urban, working class, and minority backgrounds are making active choices that school is not for them. When students feel their lives, experiences, cultures, and aspirations are ignored, trivialized, or denigrated by school and the curriculum, they develop a hostility to the institution of schooling. They feel that schooling is simply not worth the emotional and psychological investment necessary to warrant their serious involvement. If we want evidence that muscular policies of testing, scripted and prescribed teaching, an ethos of competition, along with dehumanized and irrelevant curricula are not working for large numbers of students, then we need look no further than the 30‐40% of students in most western countries who are not completing high school. The proportions of students of colour, those from working class families, and minorities for whom schooling is a diminished, humiliating, unsatisfying, and an unrewarding preparation for life, is even larger. Policies of fear, punishment, and retribution are a recipe for marginalization and exile. For all our futures, we need to explore the kind of options being advanced by the authors in this issue. To borrow from Australian sociologist Bob Connell, we are living in dark times in which the current policy direction in schooling can only be characterized as being an ‘amorphous mess’ (Connell 1985: 73). The notion of teaching as ‘a gift relation’ (Connell 1996: 6) founded on the notion of ‘a public rather than a private interest’, is under siege and possibly

The disaster of the ‘self‐managing school’ – genesis, trajectory, undisclosed agenda, and effects

Sometimes an educational idea is inexplicably adopted around the world with remarkable speed and consistency and in the absence of a proper evidence base or with little regard or respect for teachers, students or learning. This paper examines what has arguably been the most contentious and virulent educational reform of the past half‐century. Variously labelled, in what amounts to the self‐managing school, what this reform has done is virtually dismantle public education and privatise it without public debate or proper scrutiny. This paper considers the alleged claims by the enthusiastic proponents and examines what has subsequently transpired, particularly in respect of the most disadvantaged students and the broader mission of improved learning.

International Perspectives on Teacher Collegiality: a labour process discussion based on the concept of teachers’ work

Broadly defined as teachers conferring and collaborating with other teachers, collegiality is becoming something of a new orthodoxy so far as educational policy makers are concerned. The implicit presumption behind such schemes as those of the ‘lead teacher’ programmes in the USA (and its derivatives in other countries) is that the team concept has the potential to unleash the kind of teacher creativity necessary to produce the kinds of educated labour required for economic recovery. This paper argues that this approach is flawed in that it takes scant account of teachers’ preparedness, or otherwise, to engage in the forms of contrivance and shallow participative pretence being suggested. Drawing on international literature the paper argues that as a policy option collegiality may appear to satisfy the requirement of accessing teachers’ knowledge and understanding, but it falls far short of being the effective mechanism touted in some quarters for educational and economic revitalisation.

A critical pedagogy of classroom practice

‘Education is a matter of learning the ropes, not of untying them or discovering who is holding them’ (Harris 1979:81)

What's Wrong with Outcomes? Spotter planes, action plans, and steerage of the educational workplace

Educational outcomes have descended on schools with a ferocity unimaginable a few years ago. We have reached the point where outcomes rhetoric is so deeply embedded in the official discourses of schooling that it appears to be ‘the only game in town’. This paper outlines the economic rationalist origins of outcomes orientations, and uses an Australian background to expose the pervasive myth about the relationship of outcomes to aspects of teaching and learning.

Whose Side Are You on? Advocacy Ethnography: Some Methodological Aspects of Narrative Portraits of Disadvantaged Young People, in Socially Critical Research.

This paper is primarily interested in opening up a strategy to counter the increasing silencing of perspectives resulting from the press towards “evidence-based” forms of research. We argue that all researchers have interests, declared or otherwise. What we advance in the paper is an approach to ethnography that is inclusive of the lives, perspective, experiences, and viewpoints of the least powerful. Methodologically we demonstrate something of how we have explored the intellectual craft and possibilities of portraiture as a way of advancing the notion of advocacy ethnography.

Social capital and the ‘socially just school’

This paper argues that growing inequalities make it imperative that schools reinvent themselves around the issue of social justice. Through a case study of an Australian primary school, teacher‐based forms of social capital are explored revealing progressive pedagogies to be an important precursor to the ‘socially just school’.