Welcome to the Sheffield Institute of Education blog. Challenging education thinking and practise in the 21st century
The SIoE 2 years on
I find it amazing that I can write ‘two years on’ in this subheading. It still feels like I have just arrived and that we, the new Sheffield Institute of Education, have only just begun.
In many ways this is true – there is still so much to do and a lot to look forward to. However, there is also a lot that has been achieved and many things on which to look back and reflect.
One of the key things for me personally and professionally was to be part of a panel looking into routes into teaching known as The Carter Review. I reflected on this last week in a blog for BERA and I’m now going to do this briefly for the SIoE’s new blog.
As with my reflections for BERA on the Carter Review and implications for HEI, there are things that have happened in the last two years that give us pause for reflection on the future in both hopeful and concerning ways.
There is so much to celebrate in terms of internal progress and success. I continue to be impressed by the levels of academic and professional expertise, enthusiasm and commitment that are so evident across all areas of the SIoE and I still keep finding example after example of lights that are hidden under bushels and extraordinarily wonderful practice that people think is ordinary.
No organisational structures will ever create or substitute for this deep and broad bedrock of excellence that underpins the institute.
However I do think that through the different stages of our restructuring we are creating more permitting circumstances for this excellence to thrive.
We have outstanding people in the right positions at every level and we have more straight-forward ways of getting things done and making the right decisions in the best way.
When we are all located together this will be even better. I would be naïve to assume that our new arrangements (both structurally and physically) won’t encounter teething difficulties and there is clearly more to do in phase two. However I genuinely believe we will find things more enabling and straightforward. I also anticipate that very many creative innovations and developments will arise from this.
Externally there is a lot to think about – more than I can do justice to here.
The good news is we see so many pieces of evidence of the very high esteem in which we are held and this feels like it’s on an accelerating upward trajectory. This comes in many forms – new partnerships, new business, high NSS, excellent REF outcomes, strong recruitment in most areas, invitations to speak or comment, successful bids, increased numbers – I could go on.
However there are also very clear threats in our external environment that we would be foolish to ignore. At our advisory board earlier this week we were given two very depressing inputs by Sam Freedman (director at Teach First, formerly policy adviser to Michael Gove) and Jim Knight (chief education adviser at the TES, member of the House of Lords and formerly Labour Schools Minister) that both confirmed a very serious pending reduction of funding in all aspects of our sector.
This is bound to impact in a range of ways and certainly makes the challenges for our need to find new markets for CPD, research and Knowledge Exchange at the same time as holding on to all our current business particularly acute.
To end on a more positive note, these challenges always also create opportunities – clichéd as this sounds. The creativity, talent and positive mindset of members of the SIoE puts us in a great position to seize these opportunities and turn them to the advantage of our ultimate goal, which is to impact positively on the lives of children and young people at every stage and level.
You may also have picked up that I have now been asked to be on the Expert Panel that will support Tom Bennett’s remit develop materials and come up with recommendations to support Behaviour in ITE and beyond, securing coverage in the TES.
As with the Carter Review it will no doubt be a very political process. Once again I know I will be constantly drawing on the considerable expertise that resides across all the units of the SIoE and once again I hope it will raise our profile, help us make the case for why HEI is so important and bring us new connections and partnerships.
Please do take a look at the BERA blog and let me know if you have any thoughts about it or what I have said above. This is the first of what we hope will become a regular, monthly as a minimum, SIoE blog. We want all areas of the institute to contribute to it so let us know if you have some ideas.
Sam
Leave a Reply