Category: Post- 16
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Flexible working in teaching: what’s good for the goose is good for the gander
‘ Teacher supply in England remains in a perilous state.’ (NFER, 2023) Whilst effective flexible working in schools has traditionally been a part-time working pattern associated with women teachers with caring responsibilities, this can be stigmatising. But, new legislation means a request to work flexibly is now an option for all, and from the first…
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Speaking volumes and silent echoes: uncovering government priorities for disabled young people in the SEND review
“Language exerts hidden power like the moon on the tides.” Rita Mae Brown (2011) In a recent paper from the Right to Review project, we analysed the SEND Review (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities), a Green Paper that set out the government’s proposed reforms for the SEND system. Our aim was to interrogate “the hidden…
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Teachers of the world, we salute you!
To celebrate World Teachers’ Day 2023, colleagues at the Sheffield Institute of Education recall the teachers that meant the world to us. Mr Eskdale, Gosforth East Middle School, Newcastle Upon-Tyne, 1976-1979Mr Eskdale understood, as I look back at it now, that if you take an interest in a child, they will be motivated to do…
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To decolonise or to diversify? Untangling the terminology of emancipatory curriculum design
“You cannot take authority over things that are not named.” Thus spoke Professor Udy Archibong, Pro-VC for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Bradford, at a conference on the ethnicity degree awarding gap that I attended earlier this year. She was responding to the idea that some universities might prefer to talk about…
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The poetry of reflection
We love poetry and we love teaching. But is it possible to combine the two? We came across an article in the Times Higher Education (Illingworth, 2022) that did just that, and decided to try it. This post describes our experiences of using poetry to widen the horizons of our trainees, showing them how they…
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P is for Preconditioning
How to support your HE students to ‘unlearn’ “All they ever want to know is how to do the assessment task!” “They’re not interested in my feedback, only in their grade.” “They never volunteer answers in class, and I’m not even supposed to ask them direct questions!” “It would be great if they could even…
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To praise or not to praise: is that the question?
Two years ago a casual conversation with a colleague about my experience of what I call the ‘deficit model of praise’, that is “what is the point of telling someone they have done well? If they are not told that they are wrong then it is obvious that they have done OK” provoked an unexpectedly…
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When is an NQT not an NQT? Trials and tribulations for post-16 PGCE graduates
At the end of another phone call from a confused head teacher, I find myself pondering the challenge that our PGCE in Post-16 and Further Education graduates face as they take their first steps into employment. This stems from the disjointed management of our education system at Government level, where a 16 year old in…