Progression - What Are the Issues

Progression - What are the issues? A Critical Reflection

(Please note, this piece has been edited to protect identities)

I arrived at the session a little late (10 .30) and so you had already started. What’s interesting to reflect on is why this has happened as I have a disabled son and that morning the care staff that look after him were delayed, which of course delayed me. I am lucky to be able to arrange and manage care packages but I recognise that others are not, and this additional burden may also be a barrier to progression for all sorts of learners in the LL Sector that remains unseen and often unspoken about

So I arrived late to a very full room (this was a happy surprise, so many people and it felt vibrant and alive with discussion) I quickly found a seat and just wanted to listen to what was going on, it was the snakes and ladders exercise concerning what helps and hinders progression. (I like this as a teaching tool and decided to use it in my own work, also how did you get that flip chart paper to be sticky?(I am impressed already)

I listed a lot of comments I expected,mainly around policy, practice and funding, what seems evident is that manybarriers to progression appear to be external to the process of teaching and learning. They are put in place for other reasons mainly attached to external accountability systems that remove the focus from the teacher and the learner. So you expect ideas around policy, funding and organisational systems to be mentioned, and they were. What also emerged was that teachers themselves stop learners from progression by the very strategies that they use to teach with. I guess this was always known to me but it still feels uncomfortable to see it acknowledged by teachers around the room and makes you think of how often in your own practice you may have been guilty of doing this even subconsciously. Aspects of the teaching and learning process that inhibited progression seemed to be around poor resources, lack of imagination in teaching technique (always using the same pattern of delivery) and lack of focus and classroom based management on behalf of the teacher. It reminded me that when we remove our focus from the learners we are in danger of preventing learning and therefore stopping progression

Another interesting point that was discussed was how being overloaded as a teacher with administration, concerns about funding and class numbers(bums on seats) became a reason to ‘keep learners with you’ and so prevent them from progressing in order that the class would be viable. This is really challenging to hear as it appears some tutors are deliberately not progressing students to enable the group to remain. A sort of ethical battle emerges where individual autonomy is less important than the notion of ‘beneficence’ and as I would always chose ‘autonomy’ as my compass this really challenges my values and beliefs concerning the responses teachers are able to make

The secondexercisefocused on two case studies. I really enjoyed reading this and I know that I read it through the eyes of a therapist (which I am as well as a teacher educator) I had already reminded myself that ‘progression’ for me concerned ‘movement’ and that this could be both positive and negative movement that we could look at as well as linear and sideways shifting. It was interesting to note all of the different ‘movements’ the person in the case study had made and the strategies she and others had put in place to help or hinder the progressions she was making.

I noted movement that was physical (house, school) and movement that brought her into communities and groups (offending, substance abuse,) and that these were progressions into harm, that may appear negative from the outside but in fact provide the person with a community to belong to. Eventual progression out of these communities came about through the power of education were she was fortunate enough to eventually experience a positive successful outcome to some of her learning and were we need to acknowledge that funding through EMA initiatives enabled her to stay. Having been successful boosted her self esteem that then allowed her to begin to offer support to others. Despite this I am reminded that in her transitions and progressions she is experiencing many changes that result in a vulnerability of her ‘self construct’ that she is ‘fragile’ and to continue to be successful future progressions also need to be positive and successful ones were she is supported appropriately

I reminded myself throughout the day’s events that we are all vulnerable when making progressions and meeting changes and that the experience can knock us off our feet. What aids progression for some then must be the ability to be metaphorically ‘held’ and supported through periods of progression either by people or by appropriate systems and procedures that support our movements

Lunch was good, and it was nice to meet up with colleagues I had not seen for a while and meet new faces. I am impressed people have come so far to be here, (Scotland) and also the passion I hear as discussions take place, passions for teaching and learning and people and what can be achieved yet also a realisation that we are worn down at the moment by a history of reduced funding, services, constant change and a removal and erosion of professional autonomy. There appears to have been imposed on us an external accountability for our practice which is eroding the very heart of being a teacher.Despite this constantbattle between the motivationand the passion and the dreary wearing challenges being faced by people in the room the passion seems to be winning. Which is hopeful?

So it is I return after lunch with hope that the presentation will be stimulating and insightful into the needs of the participants in the room and that the representative from DIUS will have embraced the real meaning of the morning’s discussion. So I start off positive and very quickly become agitated and mildly angry, I am hearing the same old story and some people in the room seem to have heard it for even longer than I have. We are told about data bases, targets, unique learner numbers, measurement and that ‘ministers are only interested in one type of measurement’. It becomes very clear that in their short term focus ministers want figures that show that everything is working, progressing and moving in order to support their own progression within government. They are focused away from the present and into their next job. How frustrating, the morning discussion is all about the process of progressions and the human being undertaking that process and the afternoon is all about the measures we can use to count the learners heads as they go forward, or backward, or sideways, as long as they are not standing still. We are talking about accountability that is accounts not responsibility and I am reminded that the view of government bodies is to put the systems in place and give out the money and then run away so that we can do the real job

But the room is getting heated and there are challenges taking place, some of us are clearly at our wits end, we are fed up with the same old story, the speaker is upset and feels that her visit was meant to be pleasant and we are turning it into a debate. I am glad that this is happening although I do not want to be impolite. I love some of the heated discussion; reference to research that has taken place and the real issues around progression that have been identified.

The whole day was a surprise to me, I came wanting to be quiet and listen but I was fired up to speak ( I always wish I hadn’t) I go home feeling energised but remembering that teaching and learning and progression is all about people and relationships and it is messy and unpredictable. I am reminded as always that the easy bit is setting up a data base and collecting information but the hard bit is doing the job. I am glad I am on the ‘doing the job side’ and sorry that some participants are so worn down with everything that has gone on in the sector over the last year. I wonder if we will ever ‘get through’ but then I remember the power of the people in the room and the energy and the passion and I think yes we will, both collectively and individually we will do it.