Ruth Heilbronn

School-Based Induction Tutors: A Challenging Role

Since September 1999, all Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) in England who wish to teach in the maintained sector have to complete an induction period. In the light of the introduction of this statutory policy, this article critically examines the key role of the school-based induction tutor in managing the process. It draws upon an analysis of the governments induction circulars (DfEE 1999, 2000; DfES 2001) and uses empirical data from a large, national DfES-funded project which evaluated the implementation of the policy. It is argued that, for the majority of schools the work of the induction tutor within the whole school context, including management by the headteacher, is the major factor in the success of the policy. Further, it is argued that there remain some tensions in the policy between the professional development and the assessment agenda.

Improving induction : research-based best practice for schools

1. Introduction - the Research Project and an Explanation of the Induction Regulations 2. Why we have a Statutory Induction Period 3. How Schools Manage Induction 4. Induction in Distinctive Settings 5. The Induction Tutor Role 6. How Appropriate Bodies Work 7. The Career Entry Profile and Setting Objectives 8. The Reduced Timetable and How it is Used 9. Observing NQTs 10. Assessment Against the Induction Standards 11. Induction and Continuing Professional Development

Re-assessing variability of induction for Newly Qualified Teachers: statutory policy and schools' provision

Abstract Since September 1999, all newly qualified teachers (NQTs) in England who wish to teach in the maintained sector have to complete an induction period. In the light of the introduction of this statutory policy, this article critically re-examines a central, long-standing perceived failure of previous induction policies, namely the variability of provision between and within schools. It draws upon an analysis of the governments induction circulars [Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), 1999, 2000; Department for Education and Skills (DfES), 2001] and uses empirical data from a larger DfES-funded project to evaluate the implementation of the policy. We argue that, for the majority of schools, induction provision has become less variable and more coherent due to the introduction of statutory induction. However, there remains a significant minority of NQTs whose reported experience does not reflect this. An attempt is made to map out the distinctive settings and circumstances where specific aspects of statutory induction are not consistently received by NQTs.

Wigs, disguises and child's play: solidarity in teacher education

It is generally acknowledged that much contemporary education takes place within a dominant audit culture, in which accountability becomes a powerful driver of educational practices. In this culture, both pupils and teachers risk being configured as a means to an assessment and target-driven end: pupils are schooled within a particular paradigm of education. The article discusses some ethical issues raised by such schooling, particularly the tensions arising for teachers, and by implication, teacher educators who prepare and support teachers for work in situations where vocational aims and beliefs may be in conflict with instrumental aims. The article offers De Certeaus concept of la perruque to suggest an opening to playful engagement for human ends in education, as a way of contending with and managing the tensions generated. I use the concept to recover an idea of solidarity for teacher educators and teachers to enable ethical teaching in difficult times.

The National Strategy for KS3 and Its Application to Modern Foreign Language Teaching.

This article critically examines the KS3 Framework of Objectives for FL, placing it in the context of the National Strategy for FL at KS3 (DfES, 2003b), and other policies, and relating it to a theoretical and research perspective on FL acquisition. The idea that FL teachers should be entitled to continuing professional development based on principles rather than to the specific promotion of one view of teaching and learning FL is explored. FL professional development is advocated which relates to critical reflection on theory and practice.

Philosophy for Teachers (P4T) – developing new teachers’ applied ethical decision-making

Abstract Teaching, irrespective of its geographical location, is fundamentally a relational practice in which unique ethically complex situations arise to which teachers need to respond at different levels of ethical decision-making. These range from ‘big’ abstract questions about whether or not what they teach is inherently good, through to seemingly trivial questions about everyday issues, for example whether or not it is right to silence children in classrooms. Hence, alongside a wide range of pedagogical skills, new teachers also need to develop personal qualities, knowledge and understanding that will enable them to navigate successfully these professional ethical demands. ‘Philosophy for Teachers’, or ‘P4T’, is one promising approach to teachers’ pre-service professional preparation which has been piloted in England, adapted from the more familiar idea of ‘P4C’ (Philosophy for Children). Drawing on the model of learning through dialogue within a community of fellow enquirers, an ethical retreat was set up which established a ‘community of practice’, comprising new teachers, education studies students, teacher educators and philosophers. The purpose of the retreat was to enable new teachers to think ethically about dilemmas they had faced, based on their early experience of classroom practice. It enabled facilitators to blend theoretical perspectives on education and systematic ways of thinking about it at an introductory level with examples of complex and potentially difficult classroom situations cited by participants. The experience provoked a series of significant insights – in particular, that a characteristically philosophical concern with the ethics of behaviour management offers an important alternative perspective to the psychological approach which tends to dominate conventional teacher education in the English system. We identified an urgent need among new teachers for facilitating space and time for critical reflection away from the ‘busy-ness’ of school, addressing not only practical concerns but the existential anxieties which beginning teachers face when dealing with challenging behaviour by their pupils, including burnout, sustaining motivation and a sense of ‘moral purpose’.

Ethics education in initial teacher education: pre-service provision in England

Abstract Ethics education exists in most professions internationally, yet is less prevalent in teacher education. This article reports on research exploring how ethics education is provided in university courses of initial teacher education (ITE) in England that was conducted as the second phase of an international survey study which considered the prevalence of ethics education in teacher education in five countries. Participants from the initial survey, all involved in the delivery of ITE programmes in English universities, were interviewed for this second phase of the research. Our key findings are that ethics is not offered as a stand-alone course in any institution, but is embedded in various ways within the curriculum. Ethics education is diffused among different areas of the curriculum and the activities used to develop ethical understanding are diverse. Barriers to providing ethical education include student resistance, lack of time, the complex nature of the provision and external demands.

Dewey and Culture: Responding to "Extreme Views".

Dewey famously believed that we learn through experience, through which we build up habits. Education should be about developing good habits. Experience for Dewey, is not an individual possession but grows out of social interaction, which always takes place in a given culture. Deweys views on culture are significant in relation to a current issue in education in England, namely the legal requirement for teachers to report students who express ‘extreme views’, under the Prevent Strategy. The article first gives the current context in recent policy implementation in England and discusses how it raises ethical dilemmas which profoundly affect what it means to be a teacher. This is then illustrated through a vignette, a narrative of a newly qualified teacher living a dilemma raised by the policy. Consequences for the development of democratic education and education for democracy emerge from considering Deweys views on experience and culture in relation to the teachers dilemma. The conclusion suggests some ways forward in the face of the difficulties raised by the Prevent strategy reporting requirement.

Freedoms and Perils: Academy Schools in England.

Can Deweys Moral Principles in Education throw light on a contemporary policy issue in education, namely the privatisation of education through the establishment of academy schools in England? The article first considers what the policy entails, in terms of its conception of education as a market commodity. The next section suggests an alternative conception, drawing particularly on Deweyan claims for the fundamentally normative and relational nature of teaching, through his definition of democracy as ‘a form of associated living’ and the school as a place for such association. The third section relates the two conceptions of education and in their light considers tensions and conflicts in the academisation policy concerning inclusion, equity and social cohesion. The article concludes that the establishment of academy schools compromises these values and constitutes a danger to the commons, that is, to socially consensual and equitable ways of being together.