Professional Attributes and Practice

Meeting the QTS Standards

Mike Cole

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136765384
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Éducation générale

Drawing on the success of the first, second and third editions of Professional Values and Practice for Teachers and Student Teachers, this fully updated, comprehensive and accessible fourth edition provides practical advice to help student teachers and teachers prepare for their professional life.

This new edition contains completely new chapters in response to the changing Standards and an updated chapter by the editor, Mike Cole, entitled Education and Equality: some conceptual and practical issues, which takes into account the major changes in equalities legislation. This will enable readers to situate the topics discussed in the rest of the book, which deal with the DfES Professional Attributes Standards needed to meet the 2007 Standards for the award of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).

CHAPTER 1
High expectations, achieving potential and establishing relationships

Camilla Baker and Maud Blair

Q1 Have high expectations of children and young people including a commitment to ensuring that they can achieve their full educational potential and to establishing fair, respectful, trusting, supportive and constructive relationships with them.

Learning objectives

To raise awareness of:

▪ the need for cultural sensitivity in the school context;

▪ the different learning needs of pupils from diverse backgrounds;

▪ the need for readers to reflect on their own development needs in relation to 'race' and ethnicity.

In addition, this chapter will provide practical examples to support teachers in achieving these standards.

Introduction

THE PHRASE, 'EDUCATION FOR ALL' became a slogan for 1980s' multiculturalism in schools. In Britain, this new ethos was heralded by the Rampton (1981)/Swann Report (1985). For the first time a major official inquiry highlighted the extent of racism that was affecting a significant number of British children in schools. Although multicultural education had been a feature of many schools in the 1970s, this was the first time that an official report recognised the importance of preparing teachers to acknowledge and cater for diverse cultural needs in the classroom. This led to the setting up in local education authorities of centres for multicultural education and the subsequent implementation of anti-racist training initiatives for teachers. Although many mistakes were made in the name of multicultural education (Cole 1989, 1998; Cole and Blair 2006) and anti-racist education (Macdonald et al. 1989) and severe critiques were levelled at some of the training initiatives (see Sivanandan 1985), the Swann Report could be said to have been the first official document to set standards for a more inclusive system of education.

Two recent high profile cases have prompted the Government's move toward expectations of schools to ensure equality and provision for the 'whole' child. First, the racially motivated murder in 1993 of Stephen Lawrence, a black teenager living in south-east London, and the subsequent lack of a conviction prompted an inquiry into the police. MacPherson's report cited institutional racism as a principal cause. His official definition was included as part of the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000, which requires all schools to have a Race Equality Policy which is acted on and regularly monitored. Second, Victoria Climbié, a Nigerian girl in the legal care of her aunt, died in 2000 after suffering a series of traumatic child abuses. Lord Laming headed a far-reaching inquiry which found that public services had failed in their duty of care.

Consequently, local authorities are required to work together to ensure all public bodies are communicating clearly so other cases such as this do not slip through the net. This new move to encompass the 'whole child' is given the banner 'Every Child Matters' and has required local authorities to work towards integration of social services, health and education provision for children and families. The new standards reflect this change.

There is of course an assumption behind the setting of standards that teaching is a moral enterprise underpinned by a set of commonly accepted truths. Although there are some who would question the validity of such an assumption and indeed whether there can ever be agreement about what these standards should be, an increasing number of writers and commentators endorse the need to identify a set of working principles which guide teachers and other professionals in their work, especially in relation to work with children (Soltis 1986; Halpin 2000; DfES 2004a). The relativism that surrounds debates about ethics, values and standards has been dismissed as ignoring the real need for teachers to have guidance in an increasingly complex profession (Campbell 2000). Teachers, it is argued, need to work within a set of common principles not only to safeguard their own professional identities, but in order also to protect children's rightful entitlement to education.

The Standards for the Award of Qualified Teacher Status (TDA 2006) can be seen as building on the Every Child Matters agenda. Under the 2004 Standards, beginning teachers were expected to provide evidence that: 'they have high expectations of all pupils; respect their social, cultural, linguistic, religious and ethnic backgrounds; and are committed to raising their educational achievement' (emphasis added). Two aspects of the 2004 Standards remain largely unchanged, and we believe the third is inferred within the last phrase of the new wording. Where previously teachers were expected to show 'commitment to raising achievement', teachers now must provide evidence of 'a commitment to ensuring that [pupils] can achieve their full educational potential' (emphasis added). This alteration reflects the recent statistics which show that, while the achievement gap is narrowing, progress is too slow (DfES 2006a). Total equality would be proven only when the gap is fully closed, so schools and staff should strive for 'maximum learning' (see Cole's introductory chapter to this book).

The most dramatic change in the 2006 Standards is the removal of the phrase which expects beginning teachers to 'respect (pupils') social, culture, linguistic, religious and ethnic backgrounds'. The need for respect of pupils' backgrounds has not evaporated, but has been incorporated in a more generalised standard of 'establishing fair, respecting, trustful, supportive and constructive relationships with (pupils)'. Teachers are implicitly expected to understand, respect and value their pupils' backgrounds but also to act on these principles constructively. Shifting from a passive 'reflection' to more active 'relationship building' moves the focus for teachers away from the details of their teaching and instead concentrates on the product of their work: the learning they effect in their students. Ofsted lesson observations now parallel this shift, by looking at progress made by the students, not only a 'tick-list' of technical skills.

It could be argued that standards are particularly important in an ethnically diverse and changing context. The historical experiences of pupils from minority ethnic groups within the British school system would indicate that a code of practice is essential. The last 50 years have not delivered the educational successes on which Asian, black and other minority ethnic families had built their hopes when they left their homes in various parts of the diaspora to come to Britain. At the time of writing, black (Caribbean heritage) pupils and pupils of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage, still occupy the bottom end of achievement tables (Gillborn and Gipps 1996; Gillborn and Mirza 2000; Bhattacharyya et al. 2001; Ison 2005). The over-representation of black pupils in exclusions from school highlights the tenacity of problems faced by black pupils and the official malaise in dealing with these difficulties.

The proportion of children from minority ethnic backgrounds is likely to increase.¹ Issues around respecting different backgrounds should be seen as an issue for all educational institutions, not only those with traditionally diverse student populations (e.g. urban schools, settings and certain universities). A report on supporting minority ethnic pupils in 'mainly white' schools states that 'the great majority of teachers across the country may now expect to work with minority ethnic pupils at some point in their career'. Social and religious backgrounds will vary between and within communities, and isms/phobia (see the introductory chapter to this book) around sexuality may also impact teachers' relationships with their students. The picture is made more complex by the presence of children from diverse refugee and asylum-seeking families (Myers and Grosvenor 2001), the differing yet related issues surrounding second and third generation pupils (Gregory and Williams 2001), and those from dual-heritage backgrounds. Then there are local education contexts which reveal difficulties faced by certain white minority ethnic groups such as Turks and Portuguese (Peters 2002).

How are teachers, and in particular beginning teachers, to fulfil these requirements in the face of such complexity? This chapter is written for them and is an attempt to provide some pointers as to how best one can translate these abstract requirements into practice.

Self-reflection – coming to grips with professional values

In discussing the standards set out by the DfES above, we explicitly accept their validity, but do not shy away from acknowledging the difficulties faced by beginning teachers in their attempt to comply with them as a basis for obtaining their teaching qualifications. Indeed, pupils in schools would undoubtedly benefit from all teachers at any point in their careers reflecting on their practice in the light of this new wording.

The idea that teachers need to reflect on what they do is by no means new (Stenhouse 1983). Reflection is a powerful tool, but one normally only used for when things are going badly. Beginning teachers have structured opportunities to reflect on their practice both during their student days and whilst a NQT, with the support of a mentor. Some reflection of why one is in teaching, particularly where a teacher's experience is different from the pupils they meet in the class, is essential for a starting point which might reveal areas of potential change that might help the individual take control of their situation. Moreover, reflection should be not only about methods of teaching but also be concerned with the 'being' of teaching. The 'being' of teaching requires an examination of one's values in relation to a range of factors to do with one's world view and whether one is equipped mentally and emotionally for the job. With the shift from teaching to learning, self-reflection needs to include the ways in which we as teachers identify and relate to our pupils.

In the introductory chapter Mike Cole adapts and expands, at length, Haberman's (1995) five steps in overcoming our 'isms/phobia'. He explains that 'step five is the phase in which one lays out a plan explicating what one plans to do about one's ism/phobia. How do I propose to check it, unlearn it, counteract it and get beyond it?' His step six is a commitment to sharing what one has learnt in a public forum. In the following sections, we examine the issues for reflective teachers to address and practical ideas to support these last important steps in developing one's own pedagogy for equality.

High expectations

It is widely accepted that underachievement in pupils is related, among other things, to the level of expectation the teacher has of them (Blair 2001; Blair and Bourne 1998). How does a teacher check his or her own expectations of pupils? It is important to know the social class, ethnic, linguistic, gender and special needs profile of one's pupils and to ask questions, such as:

What attitudes do I have towards people of this or that background?

On what are my beliefs and attitudes based?

Dependent on age and disclosure, this also applies to sexuality.

The history of racism, social class, gender, disability and sexuality is imbued with notions of inferiority (Cole 2006). That teachers are no less affected by ist/phobic attitudes than other members of society is stating the obvious. In order to check such attitudes one has to acknowledge them. One method in this process is to ask the above questions, and reflect either alone or with colleagues on the common-sense understandings or stereotypes about this group and to what extent these stereotypes are taken for granted. Feeding one's guilt about these feelings is at best pointless and at worst counterproductive. It would be better to acknowledge the presence of normative and often unsubstantiated beliefs in society and in oneself, and resolve to move on from there.

In practical terms this means getting to know pupils as individuals and not assuming that their behaviour or performance is somehow caused by their particular class, gender or minority status. Various aspects of their experience may be caused by the social and political circumstances or dominant understandings of 'race' or ethnicity or gender, disability, sexuality or social class, namely, the way they are positioned in society, but not by the fact of difference. To this end, teachers would benefit from asking more individually specific questions, such as:

What do I know about each of the children and young people I work with?

Where did I get my knowledge?

How do I use this knowledge to support and maximise their learning?

Teachers need to know each pupil well by knowing the circumstances of that young person's life and how these realities may lead to fluctuations in behaviour or in performance on a day-to-day basis. We are asking teachers to reflect not only on their general attitudes and beliefs to groups as a whole, but also to consider the complexities of individual children. The truly reflective and practitioner will ask:

To what extent is my action influenced by realistic knowledge of the individual child and not by 'prior knowledge' of the ethnic group, special needs, gender or economic status/ social class of the child?

How am I identifying the barriers to learning faced by this individual?

How can I support each student to overcome these?

It is becoming increasingly accepted that having a clear picture of whether differential achievement occurs along ethnic, class, gender, disability or other lines, monitoring by ethnicity, class etc. is important. A school's self-evaluation forms the central tenet of the new Ofsted inspections, and achievement data (with contextual factors taken into account) is used as the starting point. The annual School Census requires schools to collect and update information on their pupils and report it centrally. For example, one is able to take attendance information about pupils from different groups and examine it against gender, special educational needs (SEN) and free school meals (as an indicator of social class) in order to provide a more refined picture of truancy in the school.² It may indicate that further work is needed to be done by educational welfare officers with appropriate interpreters, perhaps in explaining the importance of attendance and government's expectations and laws concerning parental/carer responsibility.

When examining an issue such as the disproportionate number of excluded black males (DfES 2006c), free school meals are, however, a crude measure of social class especially as some pupils (especially in secondary school) who qualify may not take up this service for fear of being ridiculed. It might be necessary therefore to take exclusion, set that against free school meals but also against knowledge of the pupil's family circumstances (single parent, poverty, housing, street code or address) and their previous achievement in school in order to get a better understanding of which black boys are most affected by exclusion. A similar exercise can be carried out in relation to information about other groups, such as truancy levels among white boys.

Schools are also supported with accessing their data through a new online resource, RAISEonline (www.raiseonline.org). This website gives password-controlled access for all schools and local auth...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgement
• About the authors
• Preface
• Introductory chapter: education and equality – conceptual and practical considerations
• 1. High expectations, achieving potential and establishing relationships
• 2. Demonstrating positive values
• 3. Statutory frameworks relating to teachers’ responsibilities
• 4. Communicating effectively
• 5. Development, well-being and attainment
• 6. Working with paraprofessionals: challenges and opportunities
• 7. Reflection and professional development: becoming a creative teacher
• 8. Innovation and improvement
• 9. Coaching and mentoring
• 10. Teaching, learning and behaviour strategies
• Index