Trainee Skills for Life teachers at the research, policy, practice nexus

Fig 1 Pedagogic subject: constructed by confluence of policy, new learning (diploma), values and beliefs, practice

It doesn’t always fit in. It’s great theory; it’s good. You know, we’ve talked about how to contextualise it and the wheel, all of that.  It was very refreshing. But my [manager], all she’s interested in is, ‘Oh! He failed. Can we get him back in?’ Not, ‘Can we develop this individual?’ ‘Can we get him back in? What do you think he failed on?’ And that’s the environment we’re in. And with the contracts coming up for renewal.                                     

Joseph, Literacy Teacher, Prison

This paper emerges from an ongoing ethnographic study into the ways in which trainee PCET teachers undertaking a specialist University Diploma in Skills for Life (ESOL and Literacy) construct literacy as a pedagogic subject. Joseph, one the eleven trainees to take part in the study, articulates with striking familiarity the contradictions and tensions practitioners often experience when defining their pedagogy. Echoing the conceptual framework from within which this paper is written, Joseph positions himself uncomfortably between the ‘economy of performance’ and the ‘ecology of practice’ (Stronach, 2002)p109. Stronach et al present and then resist the presentation of this tension as a polarity between what policy requires practitioners to do and what in their own judgement they feel the situation requires.  Their use of the metaphor of the tightrope walker captures the danger and dexterity of Skills for Life professionalism but invites further complication with multiple conceptualisations of literacy which is further filtered through the intuitive values, beliefs and commitments that practitioners bring to their role.

Joseph, in the quote above based on a recording and transcription of a tutorial, references each of these tensions and filtrations.  He is refreshed by his learning, and seems to reframe a recently undertaken exercise in assessing literacy using a clock with his own holistic wheel metaphor. He then positions himself as being at odds with is manager – who responds to a student failing a literacy test – in target defined terms.  Her interest, unlike his own, is a distilled interest in identifying the specific core-curricular referenced points required by the student to pass the test. His broader developmental needs are not mentioned. The quote ends with a fragmented sentence. The contract Joseph refers to are those that enable his organisation to deliver literacy in Yorkshire and Humberside prisons. It requires little elaboration. The renewal of the contract is based entirely on performance and the passing of tests.

STRONACH, I. 2002. Towards an uncertain politics of professionalism: teacher and nurse identities in flux. Journal of Education Policy, 17, 109.

Literacy as: skills, practices or pedagogic subject

Start with an illustrative quote that sets the framework and focus for the piece. That allows you a way into talking about the themes you want to explore.

It doesn’t always fit in. It’s great theory and it’s good. You know, we’ve talked about how to contextualise it and the wheel, all of that.  It was very refreshing. But my mentor, all she’s interested in is, oh, he failed, can we get him back in. Not, ‘Can we develop this individual?’ Can we get him back in? What do you think he failed on? And that’s the environment we’re in. And with the contracts coming up for renewal.

This quote is one of several quotes drawn from interviews, tutorials, reflective statements and classroom discussions that exemplify what Stronach (Stronach, 2002) refers to as the tightrope professionals walk between the economy of performance and the ecology of practice. It is interesting because this is an in service trainee teacher who has worked in literacy teaching for about 10 years.

He is used to the SfL regime with its steers and levers.  He’s clearly engaged and stimulated by the course and the new ideas about literacy he in encountering, but experiences a clear dis/connect between these ideas and approaches and a regime that does not share the aspirations that seems to underpin what he is coming to understand as a trainee.

He ask the question – can we develop him as a trainee. This is not a phrase I have used in sessions or one that I am aware of in the literature.  He also refers to the ‘clock’ exercise as a wheel. The metaphor appears to be one that values a holistic view of literacy learning. That treats literacy as an aspect of the student; there is a hint that teaching is about addressing developmental needs along many planes – not just the skills deficit that emerge from having failed a L1 or L2 test.

He is clear that this is target drive and inked to funding and this creates a specific environment. Note that here it is not the harshness of a penal regime that creates an ‘environment’ but the actions of his mentor.

Yes.  And I refer to the social aspects of literacy [...] say that I subscribe to her, her little resume of what adult literacy teaching and writing should be, and she talks about providing a context.  She talks about interaction between the teacher and the learner, and she talks about feedback and she talks about the value of talk, and I must say that I’ve tried to live by those in this exercise. 

This quite is quite different. This tutor is pre-retirement and at the end of a career in school based education has shifted to teaching literacy in adult education. She works in a one-to-one open access workshop. Here she is talking about completing the work required for an assignment. The sense of what she says in is=n stark contrast in as much as she does not articulate any sense of disconnection between what is theoretically sound and what the environment affords. I note with interest that she says ‘what adult literacy should be’. Ads oppose to a more forceful – what it is.  This student is none-the-less immersed in the ideas and experiences no tension in implementing them at all.

ii             Theoretical Framework

Broadly competing theorisations of literacy at the heart of the discussion and the significance these have for the teaching of the diploma course.  Acknowledge that this distinction is inevitably too stark that it does not capture the multiple constructions. More importantly – it is how teachers think and feel about this that forms the basis of this study. These are research or policy based ideas.

a) that trainee teachers will have their own constructions of literacy as a pedagogic subject. I am reminded here of Ellis, that they have not a Venn construct of literacy / pedagogy with a bit in the middle where they overlap as ‘literacy pedagogy’. But actually they have a single construct called literacy that defines the material they draw upon in their teaching

b) that my sense is that they see these constructions as having entirely different domains. These may be commons sense distinctions. That theory and practice are separate. But – there is literacy out of school and literacy in school rather than literacy - articulated in different ways and treated in distinct ways in these domains and the schooled treatment of home literacies creates a difficulty for learners.

Kell and Wilson have suggested that literacy as skills and literacy as social practice do exist in relation to each other. Scottish adult literacy, the wheel; metaphors of literacy.

iii             More direct exposition of these explored: lit review        a) b) & c)

iv            Methods – research participants and sites; data sources & procedures 

(interview protocol); researchers positions; data analysis

v             Research findings:  A)            i.              ii.             B)            i.              ii.             C) etc

vi            Discussion and implications                a) b) & c)

STRONACH, I. 2002. Towards an uncertain politics of professionalism: teacher and nurse identities in flux. Journal of Education Policy, 17, 109.

Literacy as the space between thought and text

With this, I suggest a view of literacy that is seen in different ways by different people. Partly because they have different desires, aspirations, projects that they wish to pursue and literacy becomes part of that endeavour.

So – when teachers talk about language and about literacy, they are familiar with different ideas about literacy

·         literacy as a series of individually possessed skills – grammar, punctuation, spelling – that is either correct or incorrect and to learn it – writers need to acquire through practice the rules

·         literacy as one resources amongst a whole series of communicative repertoires shared within communities – so – graphically (here I echo an idea about learning)  

There is possibly a third construction. (to be fair there are several (Rassool, 2009)

·         literacy as a pedagogic subject – a subject that is taught – that leans towards skills but is perhaps something distinct

This is now descending into my own blur and it is time for me to pause and come back to this tomorrow:

teachers of literacy may view literacy as a slightly different entity depending on where this literacy is located. They nay view it in their class in own way. They may view it in the lives of learners outside of their class in another way, they may view it in their own person lives in a different way altogether that may not connect to any of these other views of literacy.

This may sound confusing because I am confused and not sure of my ground or what (if anything) I’m trying to say.

But I’m pushing towards a stronger distinction then  perspective.

This is more than being daughter, wife, teacher, sister, friend or on-line participant in different places but a central narrated self – that the space between thought and text – has a different being in these places. Being is the wrong word because in hints at consciousness.

The perceptions of literacy – what it means to be literate – is fundamentally different in these places. More – literacy has a different set of boundaries in these places. The connections between thought and text are different in these places. Again – literacy is embedded in a different set of relationship sand what is required changes. One construction is able to accommodate variance; the other aspires to monolithic status.

If literacy is ‘space’ then it is what happens within that space that defines it. It is how this ‘space’ connects to other ‘spaces’ that needs to be explored. Including how it is experienced, perceived, constructed in its various spaces.  

The idea I am grasping for – of course I echo my literacy heroines – is ‘affect’ the idea of literacy in these different places as an ‘affect’ and outcome of a series of ‘socio-material relationships’ the produce a specific outcome. This of course – is too much hand-holding – and so I push it – how do teachers produce these different affects in their pedagogy, in their practice and their engagements with policy.

Well – I think I have a question.

RASSOOL, N. 2009. Chapter 1, Literacy: In search of a paradigm. In: SOLER, J., FLETCHER-CAMPBELL, F. & REID, G. (eds.) Understanding Difficulties in Literacy Development: Issues and Concepts. London: Sage Publications Ltd.

Meme #1 #WResearcher 1 ‘What do people talk about when they talk about literacy?’

The Meme

Thinking about either a small segment of a current research project or the overall scope of a current research project, your invitation here is to

• write in plain English, let the academese lapse for a while – maybe novel words, stronger verbs, sassy sentences will find their way in,
• write to develop a single idea or concept, or to convey a novel insight, or to describe the project overall.
• write for an audience who would not ordinarily encounter this idea – an interdisciplinary colleague, your cousin or gran, a friend since primary school who took another path, or a person in government, industry, community organizing who you want to be in conversation with about a shared concern, or write (in turn, not all at once) for multiple audiences,
• write no more than two pages, ideally about one page (250 words/page),
• write before looking at samples: Research in Plain English,
• write generatively – this is about pushing, finding, exploring an idea.

And post – click on the hyperlinked How here or go to the How tab to learn the details on joining in part of the process.

‘What people talk about when they talk about literacy?’

This was the title of my MA thesis. It echoes the title of a collection of short stories, by Raymond Carver, that at the time I was reading and loved: ‘What do people  talk about when they talk about love?’

 My area of research is adult literacy.  I completed my Doctorate while worked in FE am now working in HE (holding on by my fingertips). I am acutely aware of my minority status as one of the 1.2 BMEworking in HE. And – because I am a woman - determined to open my own doors.

I am now getting started with a research project with my students at University of Hull registered on a University Diploma course. I want to explore their ideas about teaching language and literacy.  

I am curious about ‘What people talk about when they talk about literacy’. Depending on who is speaking they may talk about

·         illiteracy or lack of (functional) literacy – politicians and policy makers are keen on this

·         falling standards in reading and writing – they never define precisely when standards started falling and from what to what – politicians and policy makers and the press like this

·         the rogue apostrophe, to which my response is always http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm2OzAX86JU (one of the things I like about literacy is subverting it - this is a popular one that educated people talk about and Linda Truss)

·         the desire to be educated, good parents or to see their children do well (students often talk about this)

·         the frustration they feel at having to reconcile the irreconcilable  - what students want, what they as teachers feel their students need and what they are required to do (teachers often talk about this)

·         the space between thought and text (me! But not mine I just think it a beautiful definition and share it with other researchers – it should be more quoted)

All writing is derivative. It prefer ‘holding hands’ to ‘standing on shoulders’. I am conscious of ideas and voices woven so completely into my own that I can at times no longer discern where my own voice starts and stops. 

webs of association, tangled metaphors, and forgotten referents

‘Meanings tend to be caught up in complex webs of association, tangled metaphors, and forgotten referents.’ Davis & Sumara 2006: 38

The study focuses on a small number of students and this analysis if based on an account of a tutorial with one student. A retired manager – she has decided to develop a career in teaching literacy on a part-time basis. She teaches on a Tuesday evening in a literacy workshop for her local college. This analysis is based on a tutorial in which I am offering advice for her final assignment.

Hawa has been working with a student over the period of a Module and is now writing up her assignment on the work she has done with her learner. She agreed a programme of work with her learner over a summer period that the learners agreed to but did not in the end undertake. Hawa has scored high grades with her assignments and has read about literacy as social practices and as she describes it

Yes.  And I refer to the social aspects of literacy [...] say that I subscribe to her, her little resume of what adult literacy teaching and writing should be, and she talks about providing me with a context.  She talks about interaction between the teacher and the learner, and she talks about feedback and she talks about the value of talk, and I must say that I’ve tried to live by those in this exercise. 

At times in her interview – social practices seems to be synonymous with literacy outside of college. This is where literacy as social practice happens. At other times – as in the quote above – the notion of literacy as social practice seems to be equated to the social relationship that exists between the teacher and student and the need to provide context for writing.  Here context is constructed as a broader frame that provides meaningful impetus for writing.

The relationship between student and teacher is significant her. One of the curiosities Hawa had about her student, was the work agreed but undone during the summer that was in stark contrast to the volume of work this student had undertaken since starting back at college for the autumn term. In part thi non-wrk is equated to lack of confidence, but this is also related to lack of contact with Hawa her teacher. Hawa mentions that she thought of giving the student her private mobile telephone number so that she could offer support during the summer.

If literacy outside college is associated with literacy as a social practice, it is also taken as a strategy. The literacy outside college provides a source of ideas, experiences, resonances that can be drawn upon to inform teaching.  Hawa recounts her student as a cook and a cleaner. She remarks with some surprise and disbelief and how well her student was able to write recipes given to her for homework. Her success with this piece of work was so surprising that Hawa made her do the same work again in class to check that she had not copied it.

In this sense drawing on out-of-college literacy as a strategy leads to great success in teaching and learning. But success is also an ambiguous concept. While an inability to remember previously learned concepts, skills, task is seen as characteristic of this student – she is able to remember this very stylised literacy associated with recipe writing with minimal input from her tutor.  The temporary nature of her accomplishment – may then be related to what she is being asked to remember rather than her capacity to remember as such.

So I’ve given an introduction of how I know her from last term.  I’ve talked about the difficulties and the sticking points that she had.  And then I’ve given a little reflecting on her difficulties and the things that we had tried, and even though she experienced success she wasn’t remembering it.  I go on to say that I’m going to make this work much more personalised and also the more realistic and interesting relevant writing tasks, writing opportunities.

Her out-of-college literacy is seen as a source of materials to inform Hawa’s  pedagogy and make the learning more successful. I the discussion Hawa slips easily from talking about her approach to the assignment and her students approach to written tasks. This is because the student is the subject of the assignment. So – sometimes – she goes meta and talks about her own understandings and approaches as she reflects on her students work and her own approach to analysing what she should be doing next and how successful her activities are.

Her recipe for success: personalised - realistic – interesting: when the task encountered in the literacy class have these qualities – learning is successful.  But there is a fault line here. T connects to the qualification attached to the course and the connection between the national test and functional skills. Hawa seems concerned that with the functional skills test being introduced that her learner will struggle even more, as she is already struggling with the national test at level 2. We did not explore this at all, but the leaner at this stage has been on her course for only 1 year – 2 hours per week – after having passed the level 1. There is a sense that success or otherwise is determined by the students capacity rather then the structural conditions that surround her learning.

Success is also noted for this learner as she writes a letter to a friend.

She also talks in some interesting ways about her own writing – “I’ve given” and “I’ve put some references and theories in”. 

This is based on an initial analysis of a single tutorial.  

What Davis & Sumara (2006) suggest is that qualitative data need not strive for the big hardness of quantitative method. Complexity does not decrease with size but the minutiae of social life is as complex as the entire populations.   The world has as many avenues for exploration whether looked at through a microscope or telescope. 

Complex phenomenon are more fractal-like than Euclidean. They are incompressible, recursively elaborated and often surprising: a challenge to the pervasive assumption of linearity. 

A fractal is scale independent and self-similar as well as 'relentlessly non-linear.'