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ACTION RESEARCH AND CHANGE: A CASE STUDY

By Charles Sarland

INTRODUCTORY In the original proposal for the research we had hoped to undertake five case studies of practitioners in order to establish both how their research had impacted on their places of work, and how it had impacted on their professional lives. In the event, for reasons that I cannot now remember, only one was carried out and it is the subject of this chapter. It exemplifies both the complexity of change and innovation, and the difficulty of providing any straightforward causal account either of its origin or for its development. The practitioner in question was a teacher in a 5 - 9 yrs first school, and her research had been concerned with children's behaviour, with bullying, and with the innovation of a technique of discussion with and by the children known as 'quality circles'. The case study was conducted by me, so you will find a bit of me in it. CASE STUDY Working as an outsider researcher in a small first school provides some interesting problems. In any small school 'everyone knows everyone' as the saying goes, and in every such school there will inevitably be a unique blend of personality and micro-politics that make up the staffroom pool. An outsider researcher steps into such a pool at his or her peril. Representing it is an almost impossible task, and any representation runs the risk of exacerbating personal difference and sending unexpected and unwanted ripples across the surface. Let me put these thoughts into the context of the specific instance. I was doing a case study of a particular teacher. I wanted to know how her research had impacted upon her work and her career. I had interviewed her, but to further explore such questions I needed to get inside her place of work, and to try to get some other perspectives on her research and the impact that it had had. I too was no cipher entering into such a milieu. I had my own views, my own educational values even before I started. So let me come clean straight off. I had read the teacher's M.Ed. dissertation and responded very positively to it. She had worked with 8/9 yr. olds on the issue of bullying and she had used a particular technique, 'quality circles', to get the children to work in small groups to explore the issue. One of the features of the technique was the value it gave to the children's own perspectives, to their own voices. The children had in addition been involved in researching the issues themselves by observing the playground and making notes of the child/child

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interactions they observed there. I warmed very strongly to this privileging of the children's perceptions and voices. It coincided with my own educational values. When I subsequently interviewed the teacher I found a person who seemed to embody the values that I had responded to in her dissertation. She was very enthusiastic about her work, and I found it fascinating to talk with her. When it came to identifying someone who would be suitable for a case study on the TAR project I was pleased to put her name forward, and pleased to be able to do the case study. The teacher, A......, who was the focus of my study, worked as the manager of a newly opened nursery unit in the school. At the time of her research she had been the reception class teacher but she had worked with older children in the class of another teacher who had also operated as the 'critical friend' on her dissertation. I interviewed this teacher, and another teacher in the school. I also interviewed the head. I interviewed a group of lunch time supervisors. I asked two girls, and then two boys to show me round the playground and tell me all about it. A..... also worked part time at a local college of higher education. It was there that she had done her M.Ed., and there that she was hoping to register for a Ph.D. I interviewed the person who had been her tutor on her M.Ed. and who was now her colleague teaching on an INSET BEd course. I interviewed some of the students who worked with her on that course. Finally I interviewed a person who had been a lunch time supervisor in the school herself. This same person had also had three children through the school and had been chair of the PTA. She had worked as a child minder for other children who had also been in the school and had also worked as a classroom assistant in A......'s class. Currently she was yet another INSET BEd student of A......'s. I was interested in pursuing three strands of enquiry. The first concerned the impact of A......'s research on her own practice. The second concerned the impact of her research on her place of work. The third concerned the development of her career since the completion of her M.Ed. some three years previously. All the people I interviewed had candid views about all three of these strands. All the people that I interviewed, including A...... herself, had concerns at one stage or another about the confidentiality of their views. I had an interesting ethical problem, therefore, since as a researcher what I wanted to do was to use the data in order to construct an analytical narrative which I hoped would reveal the complexity of the case, but I also hoped to use the data in such a way that it did not drop a boulder into the particular pool of people who had made me so welcome, and all of whom were so willing to assist me in my research.

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Clearance can be a partial solution, but data in which people express opinions about each other can provide problems of clearance anyway. Sending transcript and transcript notes to individuals may appear to be a solution, but it is surely as important to see how that transcript data is going to be used within the wider context of the case study as a whole. In the event I cleared parts of the case study with the individuals who had had a specific contribution to make and then submitted the whole study for clearance to the individual whom it centrally concerned. The completed study was then sent for final clearance to every one concerned. In addition, since I also had to think about staffroom ripples, I used other strategies of anonymisation. For instance nineteenth century novelists often blank out surnames and town names with the effect that, paradoxically, they give the impression that what they are recounting is not fiction but fact, but that they can't reveal too much for fear of upsetting the sensibilities of the supposedly real people whose lives are portrayed between their pages. I was in the reverse quandary but adopted a similar solution.

The Context I shall start by outlining the context of A......'s research. K...... First School sits on the edge of L...., a small town situated very much on the tourist route of the English river which, as a nineteenth century novelist might well have written, it bestrides. The school, which has some 200 pupils, serves a predominantly private estate with some council housing. In the estate there are well kept gardens, plenty of green, and there is a countryside feel to the place. The school itself is set in comparatively spacious grounds, including a school field, and looks over a little valley of fields in one direction, and over the houses in the other. I stayed in M......., a larger town just ten minute's drive away, that was once well known as a centre for the manufacture of carpets. My visit coincided with good weather, so I saw the school at its best as another saying goes. This is no idle observation, since the focus of much of my visit was the playground and the facilities that were available to the children at playtime and lunch time. Arriving at the school at 3 pm, hometime, on Tues. June 4th there were lots of cars, and children in uniform all looking cheerful, relaxed and well behaved. There was no sense of the children being dragooned in any way. The nursery where A...... worked was housed in a well appointed temporary building separate from the school. A...... had an office within the building, and there was a kitchen area, plus spotless loos etc. Administratively A...... was still answerable to the head teacher of the school, though the nursery served a wider catchment than did the school itself, and not all the children who attended the nursery went on to the school.

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I didn't spend much time in the main school building. I did get a glimpse of the staffroom which struck me as almost preternaturally tidy. The National Curriculum was cut up and pasted all over one wall with arrows linking all the level indicators to each other and so on.

The Children Since the children's behaviour was the focus of A......'s study I wanted to get an idea of the sort of children that there were in the school, and pursued this with a number of people. "I think our children are very well behaved," said one, and she told me that outsiders also commented on the good behaviour of the children. She suggested that, while the catchment area was mixed, there was only a very small number of free meals children. These views were re-iterated by everyone I talked to - the children were well behaved children anyway, and presented few problems. Indeed there had been concern at the time of the research that A......'s interest in bullying might give the impression that the school had a bullying problem. Everyone that I spoke to was at pains to point out that all schools have a bit of bullying, and that K...... First School was no exception. But it was not a major problem in the school and indeed was seen by some as being no more than a bit of casual name calling. This did not mean that the odd child wasn't a problem. While I was there, for instance, one boy was on some sort of report for kicking another boy and injuring him. The boy, I was told: "..needs a bit of help ... if he does something stupid he wont admit it. His older bothers are quite sort of violent."

Institutional Change 1: The Playground It is at this point that the evidence starts to be interestingly complex, and to sketch in some of the reasons for this complexity I need to indicate the longer history of A......'s study. While the focus for the TAR project was on A......'s M.Ed., it is helpful to see that M.Ed. within a longer perspective. A...... came into the profession late. Once arrived she proceeded to do an INSET B.Ed at the local college of higher education. She moved on to do a Higher Diploma, before going on to do her M.Ed.. Her interest was always early childhood education, and she continuously related what she learned on the courses to her own practice. Wherever possible she had researched her own practice, and action research was not so much an enthusiasm of hers as the very ground of assumption from which she worked. As indicated above she was hoping to register for a Ph.D. As a result of A.......'s studying in the college, one of the tutors got to know her. He too was interested in children's behaviour and was looking for a site for his own Masters research, and his contacts with her led him to the school. Once there he worked with the lunch time

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supervisors to look at the lunch time activities in and around the playground. He completed his Masters research just as A....... was starting hers. When I asked in the school about the impact of A......'s research I got a very clear message that it was to be seen at playtime: "The biggest and most obvious benefit I think was the difference that the whole project made to our playtimes. That is absolutely staggering." "Because of the work that shed done she persuaded (the head) and the PTA and the staff ... that really we need to provide activities and structure for childrens playtime because that way, if theyre occupied and enjoying themselves, the opportunities for bullying are reduced." "A lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of money went into structuring playtime and lunch time, and its made an amazing difference to playtimes. Children go out now, theyve got things to do, things to play with." "Her main focus was to encourage us as a staff to look at the outside environment, and to make it as effective as we possibly could by providing an environment that was ... as effective as possible to assist the children in their social interaction." Thus alerted I asked the head to show me the playground, and also took the opportunity to get some children to show me around too - two boys during one break, and two girls during another. The changes that had occurred in the playground were seen in terms of having moved from an "empty space" playground to a playground which contained activities that would "help their (the children's) communication". Consultation about the changes had involved talking to teachers, lunch time supervisors, the school secretary, the children themselves, everyone in fact who might have had views. The following features of the outside provision were drawn to my attention by all whom I talked to. There was first of all a 'quiet' area of grass with tables and logs to sit on. 'Quiet' meant no running or chasing. A couple of child monitors were present in the area and their job was to supervise the distribution of the books and games which were available. Then there was an activity area, also on grass. In the activity area there were hillocks, a natural habitat area - "long grass and silver birch and things." There was shade, and seats, a funny shaped log, a couple of tractor tyres, and a car area - a bit of concrete for toy cars etc. There were little fences delineating the boundaries of each area. For all that they were on grass I was assured that both the quiet area and the activity area still operated in the winter, weather permitting. In addition, again weather permitting, there was the field.

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On the main tarmacked playground there were toys, skipping ropes, bats and balls, tricycles and bouncy hoppers, and the playground was marked up for games of one sort and another. Most recently two big wooden walls had been erected which the children used for ball bouncing games and so on. There was a separate area of the playground that was reserved for the two youngest classes. The little ones could go into the main playground but not vice versa. The little ones' playground had the tricycles and bouncy hoppers. The 8 yr. olds took it in turns, in pairs, to act as monitors to supervise these Each pair did a weeks stint. My own observation notes at the time read: 'On a warm summer day most of the kids were on the field. The tyres are great, two big tractor tyres. There is a seat built around a tree - very popular. There are little shady benches down the back, very much occupied by the girls in pairs. The systems are clearly up and running, with the kids managing the quiet area and the bikes. The playground itself (has) hopscotch, noughts and crosses, circles and points of the compass.' There was considerable physical evidence, then, of change at playtime and lunch time, and it was towards these changes that I was directed in discussions with the staff and others. However, as I pursued my enquiries it emerged that in fact the higher education tutor working on his Masters research with the lunch time supervisors had focused on the physical environment, though A..... was the link who brought him in. It was suggested to me indeed that there was no thought of improving the playground until A...... had been to college and the higher education tutor came and did his work with the lunch time supervisors: "It was as a direct result of A......'s work and her involvement with (the higher education tutor) because he was doing a study at the time on playground ?use?, and the status of lunch time supervisors, and he was coming in and meeting with the lunch time supervisors." The tutor himself confirmed that he became involved with the school when he was A......'s tutor on the B.Ed. When he came to do his own Masters' research he needed a welcoming environment and he found it at K...... First School. He worked with the lunch time supervisors, with A...... having a role as facilitator in that process. Once the tutor had done his initial work there had been a big staff meeting to which the lunch time supervisors had been invited, and at which everyone contributed their views. A...... and the head then got down to the detail of the design. The higher education tutor continued to visit the school while the work was being done and, as he suggests: "By the time I'd finished, most of the physical features (of the playground) were down."

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The playground changes then were the result of a number of interlinked processes, the tutor's work with the lunch time supervisors, the contribution of ideas from staff, and A......'s work with the head on the playground design. A..... herself admitted that the higher education tutor had provided the impetus for the playground changes but, given A......'s role, it was not surprising, perhaps, that, from the school's point of view, the changes to the playground were seen as being the result of her work, rather than being the result of the higher education tutor's work. The physical changes in the playground were inextricably linked to changes in the children's behaviour at playtime: "Weve got a structure which we feel has really enhanced the childrens activities." "Without a doubt there is an absolute big improvement in the interaction of children outside." This improvement was also related to another factor, and that was the change in personnel and the continuing involvement of the lunch time supervisors in the running of the playground. In the first place it was suggested that the current lunch time supervisors were "much more children friendly" than the previous ones used to be. In addition it was suggested that behaviour in the playground had improved particularly because of the training of the lunch time supervisors to help them deal with problems and conflicts. They had come in in their own free time for training. It was suggested that the head worked well with them and made them feel valued, and this perspective was confirmed when I talked with the lunch time supervisors themselves. Here are extracts from my journal/notes of my interview with them at the time: 'The head is very accessible, they can always take problems to him. If he doesn't agree he explains why.' 'One tells of being hit in the eye by a low branch: within two days county are round, trimming the trees.' 'They certainly contributed ideas to the design of the playground.' It was clear, then, from all whom I talked to, that the head had a strong and ongoing commitment to sustaining and nurturing the playground provision and a continuing concern for the quality of the playtime experience for the children. It had been an interest of his from the very beginning. As well as everything else he had done quite a lot of the physical work

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himself. I was told, for instance, that he was: "absolutely brilliant, he got parents involved, he did a lot of work himself,", and he himself told me, "Dads and myself, we actually did the physical work." It is also not surprising that the changes to the playground had such a high profile in the consciousness of the school since they had attracted the attention of a wider constituency, other heads in the area for instance, and I was told that in the LEA inspection in 1994 the playground had been singled out as the best in the county. Since the site of A.......'s investigations of child/child interaction was also the playground, her work can be seen as concerned with the quality of playtime experience for the children. Given that I was asking people to cast their minds back four or five years, it again seemed perfectly reasonable that the physical changes to the playground with which the higher education tutor had been involved, and concern with bullying and child/child interaction with which A...... had been involved should both be seen as parts of the same playground focused narrative. There were, however, other stories to be told.

Institutional Change 2 :'Quality Circles' a) The children at the time A......'s dissertation had only very peripherally been concerned with the playground. Centrally it had focused on the technique of 'quality circles', a technique of some considerable prescriptive detail which gave children a structure to discuss and analyse issues that concerned them. The dissertation contained a lot of the children's written work done as a result of this technique. I talked to others about the impact of the work on the children at the time. It had been very positive. They had been a noisy group and as a result of the work they had calmed down considerably in the classroom: "I dont know whether the quality of their work improved necessarily ... but they were more aware of each other and they were much more aware of each others needs." They had been very enthusiastic about the project. "The children were very exited about what they were doing." "I think because A...... gave them the opportunity in a way that I suppose that most teachers try to and not necessarily succeed, to express themselves and to have the time to listen carefully to what theyre saying."

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I was told of one child who had been involved at the time: "She really enjoyed doing the work ... working in groups, she said she liked listening to the other children and what they thought." But another child to child comment overheard at the time, "You've got to go and play pass the pussy again," suggested that some of the children might have been more cynical. A...... had made a video about what she was doing and had shown it to parents. There had been a problem as a result of this in relation to one particular child, and in pursuing the question of the general impact upon the children at the time this particular child is referred to. "The work that A...... did, it didnt focus on the child in any way at all, but it did make it a great deal easier to handle. The children were then able to almost handle it themselves." "I certainly wouldnt have been able to handle it as well." Despite the problem with the video when it was shown to parents, positive comments were made about it. "I remember thinking this is wonderful stuff. This is great that somebody is interested in our children." "I remember thinking it's just great that these kids have been given the opportunity to work through this themselves, there's nobody telling them, you know, bullying isn't very nice, they thought through the whole process themselves, and what they came up with was their work, their ideas." Finally it was repeatedly suggested to me that a highlight for the children was when they went out in pairs and researched in the playground themselves, looking at child/child interactions and identifying situations that might possibly develop into bullying. b) The rest of the staff and subsequent development So how much was the technique of quality circles taken up by the rest of the staff? While on the one hand I was told: "The teachers took up the concept of quality circles." On the other hand: "I would say that ... it wouldnt have been picked up by the whole school."

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It was suggested that the concept had been taken up with the younger classes in which it took the form of more structured circle time, with children given the opportunity to air their problems. The older classes in the longer term had not taken it up. Even the top class of key stage one had not done it. For some, 'quality circles' had been seen merely as another name for the standard infant practice of news time. In talking to a number of people the impression that I had was that the innovation did not seem to have been taken up in its detail, the impact seemed rather to have been that of giving the children the opportunity to air their problems in circle time. One teacher who told me that she had taken it up had found that pressure of time had meant that she had not been able to sustain it. "Sadly Ive let it lapse."

Institutional Change 3: Listening to the Children In assessing the impact of A......'s work on the school, it should by now be clear that it was often impossible to find one to one cause and effect accounts of the changes that occurred. One specific feature of her influence, though, was the establishment of lines of communication with the children themselves. "Initially A...... steered us in the way of also consulting with the children." "I feel sure that if a child went to (the head) and said, 'Why dont we have...' he would give it serious consideration." One innovation that could be seen to be a direct result of A......'s work was that a couple of assemblies a term were put aside to consult with the children. In those assemblies the head asked the children if the playground was working, what the problems were and so on. When I went round the playground with two girls they offered me two anecdotes which confirmed this perspective. Here are my notes from the time: 'They had positive views about their feedback on the playground, particularly in the assemblies. The children had suggested, 'Why don't we get a monitor for the games' so they did. The kids suggested there should be a book so that everybody who took a game could be checked off. So now they have a book.' 'The girls weren't getting their share of the footballs. They raised it in assembly and now there are girls' footballs and boys' footballs. Three each.' The head was seen as being very child centred: "He is very child centred. He's so much for the children," and the brief observations that I made of his dealings with the children were certainly in accord with such a view.

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Institutional Change 4: Children's Behaviour and Bullying A......'s work with the children in her M.Ed. research used the quality circle technique to focus on child/child interaction and the potential problem of bullying. While there was still apparently no formal written policy in the school with regard to bullying, a number of people reported that there was an increased awareness of the problem. "I think we are all very much more aware of exactly what constitutes bullying" There was a recognition that teasing could be the first indication of bullying. With increased awareness of the problem of bullying came the recognition that not every incident that the children reported as bullying necessarily was bullying. When A...... was doing the work, for instance, there had been a lot of media attention on bullying, and parents had been asking children if they were being bullied. Some children claimed that they were being bullied without really knowing what it meant. While bullying was a concern, it was seen within the wider context of child behaviour, particularly at playtime and lunch time, and innovations had been introduced specifically to emphasise the positive aspects of children's behaviour. In the first instance there had been weekly special assemblies in which children had been nominated by staff and by lunch time supervisors for especial praise, and awarded certificates. Secondly there had been a 'Happy Lunch Time Book', otherwise known as the "Happy Playtime Book". The staff certificates, the Happy Playtime Book and the lunch time supervisor awards had all been intended to record good behaviour, a child being helpful to another child or playing nicely and so on, and all had been taken very seriously by the children. The head also used to read the names out of the Happy Lunch Time Book at assembly. All seemed to have been very effective. To quote from someone who wrote about it at the time: In the corridor of (K...... First School) we have a "Happy Playtime Book" in which lunch time supervisors enter the names of children who are seen to be enjoying playtime, and at the end of each playtime children gather to see whose name has been written in the book. And on the day it was introduced a lunch time supervisor wrote in her diary: 'Children thrilled with happy playtime book'. Evidence of the effectiveness of the lunch time supervisor certificates comes from the same source: 'J & R, C & J all desperate to get L.T. certificate. Keep asking at playtime when they are going to get one'

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The happy lunch time book had subsequently been discontinued, though there were plans to resurrect it. The certificates rewarding good behaviour were originally specially printed but this had been discontinued because of cost, though the lunch time supervisors had tried to redress that problem by getting one of their number who was something of an artist to design their own. One child had recently suggested that the certificates themselves were not as nicely done as they used to be, that they were no longer a "proper certificate": "The children don't value that the same as they do a proper certificate." The work on bullying was seen by some as important in the school, and in the wider constituency the head himself had talked to the schools above them in the pyramid about the work that had been done.

The Politics of Influence Before leaving considerations of institutional change I want to discuss what I might call the politics of influence. Innovations get take up or not taken up in schools for a variety of reasons, many of which will be related to the sort of institutional support that is available. I have noted, above, the continuing enthusiasm of the head for the maintenance and development of the playground provision and his continuing concern for the quality of the playtime experience. And there is no doubt that A...... had had substantial input in the developing awareness that had informed that concern. She was in addition seen as being an important influence in the school in general. While A......'s research was certainly seen as being "A......s thing" she was seen as an ideal person to bring in new ideas. She was described as quite a "purposeful" character who "will be forceful amongst the peer group." Her involvement with the college and her own development had meant that: "The impact on the school ... was very very considerable." "Without her going to college, and without her moving ahead in the way that she has, then a lot of things that were doing in school at this moment wouldnt be here." As we have seen, however, some innovations did not get taken up, and some did but were then discontinued. While it was clear that the playground story was a success story, the quality circle story was a different matter. Certainly the pressure of wider national policy at the time did not provide particularly fertile ground for innovation in the classroom. The National Curriculum was a continuing pressure, and as indicated, was a noticeable visual presence in the staffroom. The quality circles work ate into classroom time and was

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concerned with personal and social education rather than with central curriculum issues. While the general principle of giving the children a voice does seem to have made its impact on the school a whole, the quality circle technique was not taken up in many classrooms and even where it was, it subsequently lapsed. Other innovations that were taken up at the time also gradually faded. The Happy Lunch Time Book was discontinued, and the good behaviour certificates seemed no longer to have quite the status with the children that they once had had. The special assemblies, however, had survived and were still going strong. It was clear that A...... put a lot of her own time into her work, and other teachers don't necessarily have such time. Change always makes demands upon people's time and energy, and there has to be a commitment to the change if it is to stand any chance of success. Not everyone is committed to change: "I think you have to take into account that there are always people who will not feel happy about ... change." The quality circles technique involved privileging the voices of the children in ways that are not often seen in school classrooms, and A...... herself was a very enthusiastic proponent of such child centred approaches, but they may not have suited the teaching style of some teachers. People need good reasons to change "what they perceive to be their own good practice". In any case they have enough on their plates already in their day to day work: "Although everybody was going to use that (quality circles), very very quickly it lapsed, people didn't have time to do it." A...... worked together with the head a lot, and she spoke on a number of occasions about the way that she had felt supported by him. Others too saw that: "(The head) spent a lot of time with A...... talking over things." Indeed I got the impression that the head consulted A....... about a wide range of issues generally, particularly while she was still teaching in the school itself, and even after she had moved out of the school proper and into the nursery. If people are not clear what the point of the change is, or if they feel that they are not involved with the innovation from the beginning, or if they feel that they are presented with change as a fait accompli, people will fail to see the relevance of the change to their own situation, and resentment can even occur. It was certainly suggested to me that, "I feel very much that some of the staff can't see why she's doing it," and it did seem that some staff at K...... First School

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did not feel as if they were part of some aspects of the innovations until they were well under way, and as a result, perhaps, "took it all with a pinch of salt". In addition, of course, staffroom culture can often appear somewhat cynical, and enthusiasm for privileging children's voices can be seen as running against such cynicism. As for special assemblies devoted to praising children's good behaviour: again it was suggested to me some staff may well have wondered how it could be possible to say anything nice about some of the children in their classes! On the other hand it was also suggested to me that the fact that A...... was a teacher in the school did mean that the innovations got much more taken up than they otherwise would have done. "Because she was one of us then it had more chance, even with the sceptics." If teacher research is directed at innovation within the school setting, and if the individual does meet resistance, then the higher education college itself may have to rethink in terms of the advice offered to students on courses. Perhaps: "They (the students) should avoid where possible any situation which is likely to lead to antagonism amongst their colleagues." A......'s work did achieve recognition in a wider constituency and while she was still working in the main school as a reception class teacher that class had had a "very good reputation in the county". That reputation had subsequently moved to the nursery itself, but within the school as a whole A...... was perhaps more isolated, despite a continuing role as the special educational needs co-ordinator. It was suggested to me, for instance, that as the children left the nursery they might not necessarily find the same approaches in the main school, and it was even suggested that they were "seen as difficult".

Individual Professional Practice: Change and Development Much of the evidence of A......'s continuing personal development and the impact of her research on her own practice in school was to be found in the interview I had with her in the previous January. From what she said then there was no doubt in my mind about her continuing professional development, and this was borne out by many comments that I received in the course of doing the case study. I did not observe much of A......'s own practice, either in the nursery or in the college of higher education. I have only one anecdote from the nursery itself which would exemplify her values in action. It occurred at the beginning of the day as I arrived at 9.05. The parents were still on the way out and the

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children were settling down to circle time. We moved into start of the day rituals: 'hello everybody', then hello to each child who named her or himself, so it went: A......:'Hello..' Child, as it might be Adam Smith:'Adam Smith' One child, Anne, was in tears and had been since the start of the session. A...... passed over her: Well say hello for Anne shall we. Then she had her sit next to her, tried to ascertain the trouble, which was basically I want my mummy, and asked for another child to take her on. Two did: youre going to see your mummy at dinner time etc., and she promptly began to dry up. At the end of the morning, when she was one of the last to be collected she came up to me and said, you dont know my name. Im Anne. What struck me about this incident was the use of the other children to support the distressed child. It was clearly an expected strategy so far as the children were concerned, and was completely successful in this case. So far as A.....'s work in the higher education college was concerned, my evidence largely came from the two groups of students whom I interviewed. I have categorised it under two headings, style and content. Style The INSET BEd degree that was run by the college did not just recruit teachers. It also recruited classroom assistants, voluntary helpers, child minders, lunch time supervisors and so on. Many recruits had not seen the inside of an educational establishment as a student since they had completed training many years previously, or even since they had left school. Some had minimum qualifications and had come on to the course via an access course. It rapidly became apparent that A...... had an extremely supportive personal style. This led to a very strong feeling of what I can only characterise as personal indebtedness on the part of a number of students. "I think if it wasn't for A...... I would have given up," said one, and this was repeated by a number of them. One characterised it in terms of A......'s belief in enhancing self esteem, and this applied equally to the children and to themselves. They had a sense that she had been through what they were going through, and brought that perspective to bear upon her approach. In addition they suggested that she made the bridge between the apparatus of academic language and their own everyday experience. They had a sense that she worked very hard on their behalf: "She's a saint really! Just write that! That will probably cover it really."

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In addition her contribution was the stronger because it was based in practical research: "Her experience makes her so good," and they told me several anecdotes of how she related what they are talking about in the sessions to her work in the nursery. It was difficult to relate this personal style and support for the students' learning to any specifics in A......'s M.Ed. research. On the other hand, as they suggested, her approach to the students was much like her approach to the children in terms of valuing their experiences and perspectives.

Content So far as the content of her courses was concerned, the same generic interests emerged. There was first of all a complete commitment to action research. All of the students I talked to were investigating their own practice as a matter of course. Their approach was to find something in their work that needed improving, though of course some of them ran into problems in implementing the change. "And it's nice, a bonus if you're in a position to do something about it. Not all of us can actually go in and make the changes." So far as specifics were concerned, one student had tried quality circles with her own children. More generally though the emphasis of A......'s work was seen as being on understanding the whole child in all his or her contexts: "The most important thing I have learned since Christmas is 'ask the children'." The action research and child centred perspectives were exemplified in the assignments of one of the BEd students, who offered me her whole portfolio to read. Another feature of A......'s concern that emerged here was the importance of home school links. I collected quite a lot of evidence in the course of the case study about the importance of home school links, but I have not offered any sort of detailed account of this concern of A......'s since it was not a central concern of the M.Ed. research, nor did anyone suggest that it was a change that had occurred in the school as a result of A......'s work. It was very clear that A...... herself saw home school links as a high priority, and had devoted time and energy to them when she had been a reception class teacher in the main school, and continued to do so when she became manager of the nursery.

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Career Development One of the concerns of the TAR project was the future career development of teacher researchers. In the year in which I did the case study, A...... had been appointed to the management of the newly established nursery. While this gave her more autonomy, it had had the effect of somewhat isolating her from the rest of the school. In addition she herself, and others, indicated to me that she had been interested in deputy head/headship posts. She had ambitions to disseminate her work more widely and certainly enjoyed the wider constituency that was offered by her participation in courses at the higher education college. She suggested to me that she felt like something of "a monster" caught between two worlds, the school world and the college world, without really belonging properly to either of them. She had a strong commitment to the college work, and a strong commitment to further study in the form of a Ph.D. She had been doing some work for the LEA on self esteem and at one point there had been the possibility of a job in the LEA, but his would have meant abandoning her Ph.D. and possibly severing her connections with the college, neither of which was she prepared to do. These perspectives were shared by others whom I questioned. CONCLUSIONS Let me begin this concluding section by summarising what I see as the main findings of the case study. Change in the Institution In the course of the study I identified three central focuses for possible change in the institution, the playground, 'quality circles', and the behaviour of the children. So far as the playground was concerned there was evidence of considerable change. The direct catalyst for this change had been the work done by the higher education tutor, and the main agent for the continuation and maintenance of the innovation was the head. A...... had had an indirect role in the playground story, both in so far as it was through her that the higher education tutor had come into the school in the first place, and in so far as she was influential with the head, and was at one with him in his determination to ensure that the playground changes occurred and remained firmly in place. The physical changes in the playground, however, had nothing whatever to do with the subject of A......'s M.Ed. dissertation. Indeed they were substantially in place before she started it, but all who I talked with in the school saw A......'s research as instrumental in the playground changes. The explanation for this would seem to be found in her role in the school generally, in the extent to which the head valued her advice, and in her ongoing

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relationship with the higher education college and her more general commitment to the development of her practice via the succession of courses she had undertaken. The substantial subject of A.......'s M.Ed. research was the 'quality circles' innovation. This by contrast had had a minimal impact on the school, and had certainly died away by the time I came to do my case study. Though I had evidence that one teacher at least had implemented it for a while, more widely it was not clear to me to what extent the innovation in its detail was even fully understood in the school. Some staff felt that they had not been part of the innovation at its inception, were not convinced of the need to change what they perceived to be their own already good practice, and time pressure, the National Curriculum and the general climate of the time would certainly have militated against it. The third focus for change was the more general approach to the behaviour of the children and a related commitment to taking their views into account. This is a feature of A......'s dissertation, and of her practice more generally. It was also a feature of the playground innovation. Such approaches coincided with the head's own child centredness, and here there seems to have been a substantial if diffuse impact. This could be seen in the approaches of the lunchtime supervisors, in the special assemblies in which the head canvassed the children's views, in circle time in individual classrooms when children seem to have been encouraged to air their problems, as well as in more specific strategies such as the Happy Playtime Book, and the awarding of certificates for good behaviour, though it was proving difficult to sustain these last two. Personal Practice So far as A......'s personal practice was concerned it was clear that her practice had been informed by the succession of courses that she had undertaken. She had used action research approaches in all her work, since she had taken the original INSET BEd. and was advocating them to her students on the courses she was now teaching at the local higher education college. Her students bore vivid witness to her person centred approaches, and to her commitment to child centred education.

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Career Development A......'s continuing professional education had opened up opportunities for her in the local higher education institution, and presumably had led to her new position as manager of the new nursery unit in the school - though it may be noted that there was no higher pay scale attached to the post. When I talked to her it was not clear where she might go to further develop her career. Jobs are not available at the drop of an M.Ed. thesis, no matter how well received (nor, I may add in this day and age, are they available at the drop of a Ph.D. thesis). A...... was not anxious to move, and it was clear that further opportunities for A......'s professional development were limited both within the school and outside it in the higher education college. Perceptions Who or what is seen as responsible for change depends on the point of view of the observer. So far as the playground changes were concerned, I, as a fellow academic, might wish to emphasise the role of the higher education tutor in that particular innovation. So far as the school was concerned, it was seen as A......'s baby. She was responsible for bringing the tutor in, and but for her the changes would not have occurred. But then I was doing a case study of her, so the data would inevitably tend to accumulate around her. A fellow head teacher might, by contrast, have seen the head as the prime progenitor of the playground changes, and certainly one colleague who has read this case study has suggested that he emerges as the hero of that particular narrative. The quality circles story, however, would bring with it a different set of perceptions, in which factors such as the failure to involve all the staff in the inception of the innovation, or more unquantifiable factors such as the general educational climate of the time, the pressures of time and of the National Curriculum might be seen as having crucial roles. Here, finally, are my perceptions. It can be seen that tracing direct cause and effect relationships between a specific piece of action research and subsequent change is problematic. In this case study we have seen that change and innovation in the work place and in the practice of individual teachers is the product of a number of factors. In the first instance there was a teacher who was determined both to develop her own practice and to do it by ways of her own continuing professional education. Secondly, there was a symbiotic relationship between the availability of suitably action research oriented courses in the local higher education institution, and her own predilection for such approaches, and it

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transpired that that higher education institution and the structure of award bearing courses it offered supported her in her pursuit of the development of her own practice. In this particular case we have also seen that action research approaches led more generally to a beneficial relationship between the school and the local higher education institution which in turn led to a substantial innovation within the school. The conduit of contact was once again the teacher herself but, once that link was established, a number of other individuals were able to get involved. However it is also clear from this study that if an innovation is going to be more widely successful in the school, and most crucially if it is going to be sustained, then it needs the full support of the senior management in the school. When the innovation is a question of ethos rather than of specifics, then it is similarly clear here that the teacher's desire to promote child centredness was successful in so far as it had the support of senior management, and in so far as senior management was able to use its influence on the rest of the staff. Where other members of staff were not involved in the innovation from its inception, and where, in addition, they failed to be persuaded of the benefits of the innovation, then the innovation was not taken up.