How policy impacts on practice and how practice does not impact on policy

The TLRP project reported on in this article attempts to understand how the Learning and Skills sector functions. It traces how education and training policy percolates down through many levels in the English system and how these levels interact, or fail to interact. The authors first focus upon how policy impacts upon the interests of three groups of learners: unemployed people in adult and community learning centres, adult employees in work‐based learning and younger learners on Level 1 and Level 2 courses in further education. They focus next upon how professionals in these three settings struggle to cope with two sets of pressures upon them: those exerted by government and a broader set of professional, institutional and local factors. They describe in particular how managers and tutors mediate national policy and translate it (and sometimes mistranslate it) into local plans and practices. Finally, the authors criticise the new government model of public service reform for failing to harness the knowledge, good will and energy of staff working in the sector, and for ignoring what constitutes the main finding of the research: the central importance of the relationship between tutor and students.     

Mundane Autobiography: some thoughts on self‐talk in research contexts

The paper considers the status of autobiographical interview data in life history and biographical research. Interviews tend to be treated, it is suggested, as ‘sacred’ texts‐‐as contemplative and authoritative versions that are as free as possible from the biasses and desires that ordinarily animate (and ‘contaminate') personal stories and anecdotes. It is argued here that, on the contrary, interview accounts are as mundane and pragmatic as any other kind of self‐talk. People use identity for practical ends‐‐to make sense of their conduct, to establish allegiances, to justify moral positions and defend educational ideals. The paper ends by examining a fragment from an interview. Using concepts from discourse and conversation analysis it shows how a teacher, Karen, constructs a particular professional identity and thus engages in an act of mundane autobiography.     

Making a crisis out of a drama: the relationship between English and Drama within the English curriculum for ages 11–14

This paper critiques a recent initiative arising from the British Government's National Literacy Strategy for secondary schools. The initiative focuses on Drama within the English curriculum for 11–14‐year‐olds (Key Stage 3). Taking issue with the imposition on Drama of the objectives‐led curriculum model of the Key Stage 3 Framework for teaching English, I examine whether the ‘focus on Drama’ during 2003/04 has led to a higher profile for Drama within English and facilitated curriculum collaboration between English and Drama teachers, as claimed. The article draws on evidence from a small‐scale research project involving student teachers of English and Drama on teaching practice in London schools. I conclude that the KS3 Framework model of curriculum development and training does not promote collaboration in English and Drama teaching that is genuinely creative, and I identify some approaches which could offer an alternative.     

Written expression performance in adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

We examined written expression performance in a sample of adolescents with ADHD and subthreshold ADHD using two different strategies: examining performance on standardized measures of written expression and using other indicators of written expression developed in this study. We examined associations between standardized measures of written expression, cognitive processing measures (working memory, processing speed, language, fine motor ability, and reading efficiency) and behavioral ratings of ADHD by parents and teachers. We also developed a coding scheme for a writing sample to measure productivity and the ratio of self-corrections to errors. The results indicated that written expression performance was most consistently associated with cognitive processing measures and not behavioral ratings of ADHD, based on correlational and simultaneous regression analyses. These results were consistent in the analyses with both the standardized measures and the coding scheme measures of written expression. Findings generally remained robust, regardless of whether participants who met criteria for a learning disability were included or excluded in the analyses. The current results suggest that written expression difficulties in adolescents with ADHD are attributable to processing difficulties that may be associated with ADHD, not to ADHD reported symptoms. Implications for assessment and intervention are discussed.     

Towards a new emphasis in monitoring

In the Open University, a sample of each tutors marked assignments is monitored to assess the quality of teaching and grading. Sue Cole and Maggie Coats, Assistant Staff Tutors in Social Science in the East Midlands Region and Helen Lentell, Assistant Director, Regional Academic Services respectively, focus on the tutor‐monitor dimension, and present the case for viewing monitoring in terms of performance improvement, not just performance appraisal. The views of readers on this controversial subject are welcome.     

The offence of theory

Theory frequently offends. The paper argues that this is its strength: the value of theory lies in its power to get in the way. Theory is needed to block the reproduction of banality, and thereby, hopefully, open new possibilities for thinking and doing. However, I also note that theory has become somewhat disengaged from its objects, diminishing its power of productive interference. I argue for ‘exemplary’ practices, in which theory proliferates from examples. Caught in the minutiae of the example, yet also open to unexpected connections, theory might develop more productive ways of offending. Or to put it differently, of producing wonder.     

Reading and Comprehension: a longitudinal study of ex‐Reading Recovery students

The paper reports the results of a longitudinal case study conducted in Australia and New Zealand. The study compares the reading and comprehension age of children in their fifth and sixth years in school. Reading and comprehension ages of 121 children who had Reading Recovery intervention at age 6 were compared with those of a Comparison group of 121 children, drawn from the same classes who, at age 6 years, had been better performers in literacy. Reading and comprehension assessment was conducted with the use of the Neale Analysis of Reading and analysed by means of a t‐test. Results show that the mean reading age of ex‐Reading Recovery children was nearly 12 months superior to that of the Comparison group and that the mean comprehension age was nearly 13 months superior at very highly significant levels. The results strongly suggest that Reading Recovery tuition at age 6 years enabled the 121 ex‐Reading Recovery children to make greater progress in literacy than children in the Comparison group.