Mind Your Language

How we talk about schools, teaching and leadership and why it matters.?

“Words... They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good any more” ?Tom Stoppard

A quick trawl of the internet reveals a great deal about how education and schools are reported across our media.? Negativity works as clickbait and bad news sells.? Consumers tend to reinforce their prejudices. The use of pejorative terms is more provocative.? Whatever the explanation, “naming and shaming”, “failing” and “zero tolerance” appear with great frequency in articles about our schools.? As a professional whose career in education stretches back to the early 1990s, this is baffling as well as frustrating.? Over the decades, I saw and helped to lead a story of progress and success.? This was often despite the influence of media, politics and inspection, rather than because of it.? The vast majority of schools focused on doing their best to provide an all-round, meaningful experience for every individual, whilst battling great adversity, poor resourcing, changes in policy and criticism.? Staff and leaders displayed great resilience, humour, camaraderie and character by swatting aside negativity in order to pursue the cause.?

“Inspection”

Why do we “inspect” schools?? What are we trying to find out and why?? Dictionary definitions of “inspect” describe a verb that is used to examine and check critically for damage and shortcomings.? Various incarnations of the inspection framework created a cumbersome, wordy and impractical list of goals for schools, hard to follow and impossible to achieve.? Schools were often judged in a way that lacked consistency and were often felt to be at the mercy of a particular lead or team.? A whole industry was built around preparing schools for inspection, providing interpretations of the latest HMI’s or Secretary of State’s demands, or finding the magic formula to a successful outcome.? The whole venture became a huge distraction from the lived experience of schools and staff.? While schools found themselves dealing with significant challenges around pupils’ mental health, family poverty, behaviour or crumbling buildings, they were vulnerable in inspection to a lack of sequencing in the curriculum or a gap in safeguarding paperwork.?

Conversations with school leaders reveal a form of Stockholm Syndrome in which fear of inspection has become so ingrained that they worry that without the inspection regime, they would not be able to run great schools.? This lack of self-confidence leads to a collective inability to stand up to the received norms and practices of school inspection.? As a profession, we are stronger, wiser and more experienced than those who judge.? We are the experts and should have the confidence to say so.?

Without inspection, in its current form, or even allowing for the changes that are planned, our schools will continue to advance.? School leaders crave rigour and they thrive on it.? For evidence of this, look at how many schools sign up to review by peers and national organisations.? Challenge Partners is a prime example and there are others.? The outstanding work of PiXL was once dismissed as “game playing” but the thousands of schools, staff and leaders who attend their events know differently.? They travel miles to events or bring in associates to review their work and progress.?

The manner in which schools have been inspected has probably damaged recruitment, retention and morale.? In its current form, it is also very expensive.? It could be done better for less.? The solution is much cheaper and more effective and, as always, the answer lies within and across our schools.? A self-regulating, self-evaluating system of peer review builds trust, reduces costs and achieves more honest and accurate evaluation.? Leaders willingly share their areas of concern with their reviewers because in return, they receive ideas and strategies for development.? Nobody likes to be “done unto”.? People appreciate collaboration, sharing, honesty and trust.? This builds confidence.? They feel safe and so they share the load and work together to achieve solutions.? Everyone wins.? Most importantly, the children and their families benefit.?

Mind your language:

Many of the terms we use to describe or evaluate our schools started off with good intentions but they took on additional nuance and meaning to the point where they became counterproductive.? Few people feel good about being put on a “support” plan or being reminded of “expectations”.?

“Improvement”.? The meaning of “improvement” in schools has taken on an implication of deficit.? It can be misused to the extent that it creates fear and insecurity.? A School Improvement Plan (which replaced a School Development Plan in many schools) reinforces this.? Lengthy, “catch-all” documents arise from the notion of “improvement” and the insecurity it creates.? They are rarely used, ending up as sticks with which to beat schools and their beleaguered leaders.

“Accountability”.? This word leads to insecurity and fear because it implies sanction, reckoning or consequence.? Of course, there has to be a form of accountability, given the importance of schools in all of our lives.? However, “holding to account” is too threatening.?

“Challenge”.? We all love challenge and the feeling of triumph when we overcome it.? However, there is an unchallenged (ironically) assumption that leaders should be challenged repeatedly and continuously.? Challenge is undoubtedly appropriate on occasions but it is a one-trick pony and it lacks imagination.? Challenge and “support” are often paired in the same way as “carrot and stick”.? It can leave leaders feeling isolated and judged.? With a more collaborative approach to education, challenge could be seen more as something shared, to be overcome together, as teams.?

“Resilience”.? This is an admirable virtue but over time the word has come to be misused in education.? There is an implication of weakness in someone who “lacks resilience” in the face of challenge.? Yes, leaders and all school staff have to be resilient, but we have to be aware of wellbeing, mental health and the wider influences on people’s lives. ?We have to be vigilant against “resilience” being used as a more modern way of telling people to “toughen up” when they have a genuine need for help.

?Language changes over time.? It has to be reviewed.? Terms that were introduced in order to replace outdated or offensive ones, took on additional meaning to the point that they themselves became outdated and offensive.? This is the nature of our evolving language.? We have to think carefully about why we use particular terms in education and be mindful of their impact.? There was a marked sense of pride and purpose when Ofsted replaced “satisfactory” with “requires improvement”.? It was sold as zero tolerance towards mediocrity.? This is partly because the positives of the word “satisfactory” had been lost over time and replaced with notions of complacency and lack of ambition.? In reality, the term “requires improvement” created a host of problems for inspectors and led to a system of reporting that lacked consistency.? Now, the single-term “judgements” have been dropped completely.? Catching leaders unawares with a lengthy phone call and expectation that everything else is put on hold for the purposes of inspection have also been dropped.? These are positive moves and there are logical steps next steps that would prove beneficial:?

·?????? Deal in the professional

·?????? Give experts a voice

·?????? Listen to practitioners

·?????? Encourage schools to evaluate and develop together

·?????? Support the sharing of good practice and ideas.?

Language can empower but it can limit.? It is time for a new language in education, one that is more nuanced, intuitive and intelligent.? We need language that builds confidence and inspires trust, whilst removing insecurity and fear of threat.? A good way to develop language is to listen.?

The answers will always come from within the profession itself.? Ownership, personal investment and belonging lead to successful implementation and better outcomes, in all areas, for every individual.

?

#Education #PiXL #Challenge #Accountability #Schools #Partnership #Collaboration #Together #Share