• Changing Times, Changing Lives: a new look at job satisfaction in two university Schools of education located in the English West Midlands.

      Rhodes, Christopher; Hollinshead, Anne; Nevill, Alan M. (London: Routledge (Taylor & Francis), 2007)
      This article reports on the outcomes from an initial study to explore the job satisfaction of academics in the light of changes in higher education in the UK. The study is placed in relation to attendant concerns that the job satisfaction, motivation and morale of academic staff may be being tested. A questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used to secure academics perceptions from two Schools of Education located within chartered and statutory universities in the English West Midlands. Thirty facets perceived important in impacting upon job satisfaction were identified and from these, key facets deemed either deeply satisfying or deeply dissatisfying to academics were established. These key facets have the potential to impact upon academic's motivation and morale as well as their job satisfaction. A typology based on the balance between key facets is presented as a means to enable manager-academics to further reflect upon possible actions within their Schools and institutions. The study captures insights relevant to informing the future research agenda and highlights the possible consequences of a laissez-faire stance to these important issues.
    • Empowering Students through Learning Space Design

      Rhodes, Jonathan; Green, Mathew (JISC RSC, 2014-03-25)
    • Equal opportunities or affirmative action? The induction of minority ethnic teachers

      Basit, Tehmina N.; McNamara, Olwen (Routledge, 2004)
      Currently in the UK there is much pressure to increase the recruitment and retention of ethnic minority teachers, not only to respond to the continuing shortage, but to develop a teaching force that reflects the diversity in the UK population and provides role models for ethnic minority students. There is, however, little research on how ethnic minority teachers cope with the demands of the profession, especially in their first year. The introduction by the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) of an induction period for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) in 1999 was an attempt to create a programme of individual support and monitoring to provide NQTs with a bridge from Initial Teacher Training (ITT) to becoming established in their chosen profession. We believe it is now timely and important to examine how ethnic minority beginning teachers experience these new arrangements. In this paper we, therefore, explore the induction experiences of British teachers of Asian and African Caribbean origin in three Local Education Authorities (LEAs) in the North West of England. We conclude that the NQTs are being provided with equal opportunities by their employers and that affirmative action may have been undertaken by a few of these employers during the recruitment and selection process, although some anecdotal evidence is also presented of discrimination. Further, the paper suggests that the majority of the NQTs find their schools and LEAs supportive and the induction process valuable, although it highlights the need for additional support in some individual cases.
    • Learning through networks: trust, partnerships and the power of action research

      Hadfield, Mark; Day, Christopher (Routledge, 2004)
      In England school teachers and head teachers are faced with a myriad of challenges in coping with the pressures of managing the dynamic and diverse institution which is their school within an imposed, centralized, standards-driven change agenda. It could be argued that many of the national policies and initiatives over the last 15 years have directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously undermined the traditional autonomy of teachers. As a consequence, many feel little ownership of a curriculum that is regularly policed through national pupil assessment at ages 7, 11, 14, 16, 17 and 18, school inspections and competency frameworks related to role specification, and are consequently insecure in making decisions about pedagogy. As part of governments' drive to ensure the effective and efficient implementation, they have been inundated also with demands to attend professional development courses dealing with imposed initiatives, but have little time or energy for reflection on their practice and reflection on the impact that imposed change is making on pupils, motivation, learning and achievement. It was in this context that the Primary Schools Learning Network was formed through negotiated partnerships between a group of self-selecting schools, the local education authority (district), and the Centre for Research on Teacher and School Development at the University of Nottingham. Its aim was to give ownership for development back to teachers through collaborative action research with a view to improving schools and raising pupil attainment.
    • Patchwork E-Dialogues in the professional development of new teachers

      Hughes, Julie; Hulme, Moira (Ideal Group Publishing, 2006)
      In this chapter the authors contend that the encouragement of reflective writing within professional learning programmes is not new. They suggest that electronic technologies, however, afford exciting opportunities to develop this practice to support participative and collaborative learning beyond barriers of time and place. This chapter explores the value of asynchronous dialogue in creating and sustaining communities of practice, with particular emphasis on the role of the e-mentor.
    • Perceptions of the influence of Adults other than Teachers on PE and School Sport in West Midlands Primary Schools

      Benton, Victoria (2015-01)
      What is the perceived influence of Adults other than Teachers on PE and School Sport in West Midlands Primary Schools? – By Victoria Benton. Over the last decade a body of academic literature has emerged, suggesting that PE is in a state of neglect. As a result of this, numerous researchers state that the National Curriculum for Physical Education (NCPE) is therefore being delivered ineffectively in primary schools. This thesis makes a contribution to the knowledge produced by recent studies by examining the perceived influence of Adults Other Than Teachers (AOTTs) in West Midlands Primary Schools on PE and school sport. The data were collected within the West Midlands area between January and July 2011. Nine schools and nine coaching companies participated in the study and data were collected using questionnaires and follow up interviews for selected participants. In keeping with previous studies on PE and school sport, foundation chapters are concerned with the factors affecting teacher’s confidence and competence to teach PE and school sport and the consequent increase in the number of AOTTs to combat this. Closer scrutiny highlights a number of emergent themes which provide basis for more detailed discussion later in the study. Data indicates that the use of AOTTs is perceived to impact PE and school sport in the West Midlands area and in support of previous research, the use of coaches continues to be widespread. Similarly, like previous research, key factors such as poor childhood experiences, lack of motor ability, poor Initial Teacher Training (ITT), insufficient content knowledge and a negative attitude towards the subject remain issues surrounding the implementation of AOTTs. With an ever changing curriculum, schools are facing constant battles to achieve set curricular demands. This research therefore suggests how teachers and coaches, in this case study, could best be utilised to ensure a high quality of PE and school sport is delivered in their schools in the future.
    • Teachers' perspectives on effective school leadership

      Harris, Alma; Day, Christopher; Hadfield, Mark (Routledge, 2003)
      This paper considers teachers' perspectives on effective school leadership. It draws upon the findings from a study of effective leadership conducted by a research team from the University of Nottingham [1]. This research study considered effective leadership from the perspectives of different stakeholders within the English schooling system. This provided an opportunity to analyse leadership in a holistic way and to consider leadership from a variety of different perspectives.
    • Valuing and supporting teachers: a survey of teacher satisfaction, dissatisfaction, morale and retention with an English Local Education Authority

      Rhodes, Christopher; Nevill, Alan M.; Allan, Joanna (Manchester University Press, 2004)
      his study focuses on schoolteacher job satisfaction, dissatisfaction, morale, and facets of professional experience likely to lead to retention or exit from the profession within five years. It was undertaken in an English local education authority which has experienced difficulty in recruiting and retaining teachers. Forty facets of professional experience likely to impinge upon job satisfaction or dissatisfaction were created in a focus group phase and are shown to be valid using a Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. A subsequent questionnaire survey of 368 teachers invited respondents to specify which of the facets they found most or least satisfying. A rank order of the relative importance of the facets, along with rank orders of factors likely to lead to teacher retention or exit from the profession within five years, was created. Chi-square tests of independence were used to identify differences in the five top-ranked factors likely to lead to retention or exit by gender, sector and years of service. The outcomes are used to suggest LEA and school leadership interventions designed to improve professional experience and increase both satisfaction and retention.
    • ‘We just have to get on with it’: Inclusive teaching in a standards driven system

      Duncan, Neil; Manktelow, Ken; Brown, Zeta (University of Wolverhampton, 2013-09-18)
      Q-methodology was used alongside semi-structured interviews with primary school teachers to explore their positions on two key areas of education ideology: inclusive schools and standards in education. The study explored in depth the views of 26 teachers in 6 schools, selected through purposive sampling to give a range of individual and institutional demographics. Key statements were compiled from the literature that offered a wide spectrum of personal and professional positions on the two issues of standards and inclusion in education. These statements were produced as sets of cards for participants to arrange in order of strength of agreement or disagreement. The results were factor-analysed via Q-method software to render visible factors of items that had statistical significance for the participants (Brown 1997). These factors were then interpreted in the light of subsequent semi-structured interviews and returned to the participants for discussion. The study found that teachers developed their own ‘practical’ notion of inclusion, in which specialist systems, such as p-scales, are needed for the inclusion of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN). These teachers held contrasting views on whether they felt constraints or experienced flexibility when implementing the strict standards objectives. Crucially, in considering the agendas simultaneously, these teachers suggested that the practical implementation of the inclusion and standards agendas is as disparate as their objectives. The agendas are seen as separate entities, with standards assuming an apparent dominance, ensuring that the inclusion agenda is implemented within a standards driven system.
    • You need tits to get on round here: Gender and sexuality in the entrepreneurial university of the 21st century.

      Fisher, Ginny (Sage Publications, 2007)
      Drawing upon five open-ended interviews with academic staff and two years of participant observation, this article presents an ethnographic study of gendered and sexualized work cultures in the Business School of a large British university I shall call Maxi which is struggling to find a place for itself in the new managerialist climate of early 21st-century British higher education. Despite significant increases in the number of female academics and academic managers, women in this organization are still subject to unfair and differential treatment, attitudes and expectations by (some) men. Women academic managers are still seen as `other' whilst men academics and managers represent the norm.