POLICY AND PRACTICE Levers of change


within the system and a market is a good way of providing that. However, a market supports success because it allows some to fail, which isn’t acceptable in a system that needs to deliver success for everyone. Accountability mechanisms have served us well, but there is a problem in that we risk valuing the things we can measure and undervaluing the things we can’t. Creativity, inspiration, good citizenship, and working well together are all diffi cult to measure and teachers, parents, and pupils sometimes feel they are not valued. Pedagogy is a powerful lever for change but at the moment there isn’t a structure to support it. There is no evidence base of what works; the relationship between research and education is not as strong as it should be. Although these levers are different to those available to teachers, both make an essential contribution to raising standards in the classroom. It is essential that the discussions between politicians and teachers recognise this. If teachers oppose a particular part of the accountability system they are thought, by politicians, to be against accountability measures themselves. This means that professional debate about the details of how we hold schools accountable doesn’t take place. Too often debate concentrates on misunderstandings rather than substance.


Taking pedagogy forwards Potentially, the most important of the political levers is pedagogy, but the relationship between education and politics on pedagogy needs addressing. Although in the past politicians have sought to infl uence things outside the classroom (eg, admissions or resources), over the past 30 years there has been a signifi cant change, with political policies being directed inside classrooms (eg, the National Curriculum, testing, and more recently the numeracy and literacy strategies).


The Inaugural IEE Conference attracted more than 100 policy makers, practitioners and researchers to learn more about empowering educators with evidence.


What we know


● Education and politics are interdependent, but the debate between them is often unhelpful.


● There are four key levers available to politicians to bring about educational change.


● Pedagogy is potentially the most important lever, but we need an improved structure to support it.


● The relationship between politicians and researchers, and between schools and researchers, must be improved.


that have become political policies. Of my four levers the three that have been used the longest – structural change, the market, and accountability – cannot by themselves create good teachers, or turn average teachers into excellent ones. The


The debate between politics and education is often destructive rather than constructive, and displays a misunderstanding of the contribution each can make


However, politicians have assumed that it is they who can make the decisions about pedagogy, and have done so. There is an argument that pedagogy has fallen on the wrong side of the divide between education and politics. We now have policies from government on setting in classrooms, on synthetic phonics, on how much homework children should do, on how children should sit in a classroom, and on how we should use computers. These are education policies


fourth lever of pedagogical change is essential if we are to achieve those ambitions. On this more than anything there needs to be a proper and professional discussion between politicians and others in education. We need to debate who does what


in exercising this lever of pedagogical change. We need to both acknowledge the importance of pedagogy and together build a structure in which all teachers can learn from improved pedagogy.


We need a strategy of realising the power of pedagogy in all schools, and I would


suggest the following: ● Improve the relationship between politicians and education researchers. Research is the great unreformed part of education, largely untouched by the reforms of the last 30 years. Too often, politicians don’t use the best research to inform policy making. Equally, researchers need to refl ect on the education changes and the needs of schools and policy makers. They must take responsibility for making sure that their work contributes to the standards agenda.


● Government should look at how public money is spent on education research and make sure that this valuable resource is providing value for money.


● Government can help by providing a structure that brings schools and educational researchers closer together. Government can help build links between teachers and researchers.


● Teachers need to know the quality of the research they read. A form of “kite mark” would help them to do this.


● Effective ways of disseminating research to teachers must be established, and teachers need the time and opportunity to study it, refl ect on it, and support in implementing and evaluating it. Education has a good record of delivering what society asks of it, but the enormity of the demands now means that we need a better way of framing the discussions between practitioners, researchers, and politicians.


● See Estelle Morris’s speech in full online at www.york.ac.uk/iee


winter 2012 Better: Evidence-based Education 5


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