Collaboration, partnerships and agency across the education system in Wales: Symposium for British Educational Research Association

Collaboration, partnerships and agency across the education system in Wales
Mark Ford - Welsh Government

The new Curriculum for Wales (2022) offers the opportunity for a profound departure from traditional educational practice. It grants practitioners an unprecedented level of autonomy and gives them increased freedom to meet the needs of their learners. Such an approach places increased responsibility on practitioners to identify and develop the specific learning experiences that they believe would most benefit their learners.

The Talk Pedagogy Project was commissioned by the Welsh Government to support schools to explore the 12 Pedagogical Principles as set out in the Curriculum for Wales. The Project brings together Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across Wales and Scotland, Schools, and the Welsh Government. HEIs were paired up with three or four schools. Academics from the HEIs worked alongside head teachers and practitioners to develop a deeper understanding of authentic learning approaches related to the 12 pedagogical principles. To facilitate this, five themes were identified: Authentic classroom-based learning; authentic space/place learning; authentic outdoor learning; authentic problem/enquiry-based learning and authentic collaborative learning.

This symposium aims to discuss four of these approaches and key findings that emerged from this process. These papers represent a collective contribution to enabling practitioners to actualise better the new Curriculum for Wales.

Paper 1 – An examination of the process of partnership working through the lens of networks
Dr Bethan Mitchell, Dr Matt Hutt & Bethan Davies - University of South Wales

This paper examines the organisation and leadership aspects of the collaborative project by tracing the connections created by people and things to form networks. The methodology draws from praxiography and actor-network theory to include the fine-grained practices that were enacted during the process. Anecdotes (Adams and Thompson, 2016) were constructed as an analytical approach to maintain complexity and detail of the resulting assemblages and connections. Five key points (networks, materials, black boxes, difference and assemblages; Mitchell, 2021) were discussed to draw out different dimensions of the research through the theoretical lens of actor-network theory (ANT). The purpose of the theoretical exploration is to reflect authentically on the process and to identify points for learning going forward. ANT allows for the messiness, uncertainty and complexity of practice to be preserved, whilst drawing out resonances that can be translated for similar projects.

References
Adams and Thompson (2016) Researching a posthuman world: interviews with digital objects. London: Palgrave MacMillan
Mitchell, B (2021) Engaging with actor-network theory as a methodology in education research, Routledge, London https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429318634

Paper 2 - How HEIs can support research and enquiry in schools: the importance of meaningful collaborative relationships
Dr Sue Horder, Lisa Formby, Dr Karen Rhys-Jones & Tomos Gwydion ap Sion - Wrexham Glyndŵr University
Dr Richard Watkins - GwE, North Wales regional school improvement service

This paper examines how collaborative relationships can play an instrumental role in embedding and supporting research and enquiry in schools. While much research has been conducted on research summaries for schools (e.g., Gorard, et al., 2020; Rycroft-Smith, 2022; Sjölund, et al., 2022), little research has focused on how HEIs can play a more active role in this process, through an active and constructive dialogue around the evidence.

As part of a collaborative process, the University provided accessible research summaries for three schools on two pedagogical approaches, outdoor learning and collaborative learning. This was followed up by active and constructive dialogue sessions (talking about pedagogy). These summaries both affirmed what practitioners already knew and gave them the confidence to explore new directions, leading to a shift in thinking about alternative possibilities to develop meaningful learning experiences. The collaborative process represents a partnership approach where HEIs do ‘what they do best’ by building and supporting a research foundation for practitioners to explore and discuss, and the practitioners, doing what they do best, can embed their understanding within their context.

References
Gorard, S., See, B. H., & Siddiqui, N. (2020). What is the evidence on the best way to get evidence into use in education? Review of Education, 8, 570-610.
Rycroft-Smith, L. (2022). Knowledge brokering to bridge the research-practice gap in education: where are we now? Reveiw of Education, 10, e3341.
Sjölund, S., Lindvall, J., Larsson, M., & Ryve, A. (2022). Using research to inform practice through research-practice partnerships: a systematic literature review. Review of Education, 10, e3337.

Paper 3 - The experiences of implementing a 5-step process to create a total learning experience for learners.
Dr Amy Hulson-Jones, Adina Grigorie & Professor Carl Hughes - Bangor University
Gareth Rein – St Peter’s, Cardiff. Laura Taylor – St Joseph’s, Cardiff. Rachael Fisher – St Cadoc’s, Cardiff

This paper focuses on the theme of Authentic Classroom-Based Learning, exploring how three schools have developed and refined a 5-step learning progression sequence to ensure a total authentic learning experience for their learners integrating a range of pedological approaches: Engagement & immersion; knowledge acquisition; build up to writing; express & create; application & celebration. In the model, learners move along a continuum of learning that begins with engagement and motivation for the curriculum area, scaffolded teaching of key concepts, opportunities to practice and master knowledge and skills, until they are able to apply what they know to more abstract thinking and engage in successful problem-solving activities. This approach assumes that learners are motivated, understand the essential information they need, and have the individualised level of scaffolded support and guidance to create a total learning experience. This model of learning experiences integrates Rosenshine’s research-based principles (Rosenshine, 2012).

References
Rosenshine B. (2012). Principles of Instruction. Research-Based Strategies That All Teachers Should Know, American Educator 36 (1) pp. 12-19, 39.