Flagship Volume 3 - 2021

Flagship Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

2019

Issue 3

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Flagship

Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice Issue 3 Published by Aylesbury Grammar School 2021

Aylesbury Grammar School Walton Road Aylesbury Bucks HP21 7RP Assistant Headteacher Vanessa Beckley vbeckley@ags.bucks.sch.uk

AGS Research Team @AGSResearchEd AGS Headmaster @AGSHeadmaster www.ags.bucks.sch.uk

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Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

Foreword by the Headmaster “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” Helen Keller At a time of rapid change and challenge, education stands more clearly than ever as the gateway to a brighter future.

The honour and responsibility of nurturing our young people with the character, knowledge and skills to lead humanity to a sustainable future is a challenge upon which we all thrive. The rewards are boundless, and drive us all to seek solutions and capitalise upon the opportunities that evolve before us.

The third edition of Flagship is compiled at a time of unprecedented change, but also with unprecedented commonality of vision: to collaborate, learn and provide the solutions so that our students, families and communities can positively affect tomorrow through learning today.

The continuation of the global pandemic, the moral and ethical challenges to our humanity and the simple kindness and respect we all expect have created a multifaceted spike in our understanding of the world around us. Flagship provides us with the hope of a better world, through research, application and collaboration. It gives rise to professional growth that, when passed to our community, develops exponentially with a profound and lasting impact in our quest to ensure all our students flourish in their lives.

This is not just within our School community. At AGS, we study and embrace national and international solutions. Our continuing work with the International Boys’ Schools Coalition through the Research Programme and the Task Force on Equality, Inclusion and Diversity has enabled our humble School to be a part of a real drive to seek global solutions to local issues. The power of togetherness and the strength of differing perspective ensure we benefit from the globalised nature of our experiences.

As a state funded School in rural Buckinghamshire, our leadership in research, contribution to the global community and belief in the inherent goodness in young men, enable us to give our students the courage to be who they want to be in life, the strength of character to lead in challenging times and for us all to lead happy, fulfilled lives.

Enjoy this edition of Flagship.

Mark Sturgeon Headmaster AYLESBURY GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Through our success as a Character Kitemark School, with human flourishing at the heart, our motto continues to resonate: Floreat Ailesburia.

Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

EDITOR’S NOTE On 4th May 2021, Tom Haigh, CEO of the Association of Character Education, and Gary Lewis, Chair of the Association of Character Education and Senior Research Fellow at the Jubilee Centre, Birmingham University, confirmed that Aylesbury Grammar School has met the exacting standards required to be awarded the “School of Character Kitemark Award”.

A successful character programme requires strong leadership and a clear vision. Our Kitemark award recognises that Aylesbury Grammar School has both of these. The AGS Learner, which was launched in 2014, explicitly links the development of character to successful learning, and is now thoroughly embedded and understood by all students, teachers and leaders. Now is the time to progress to the next phase of the character programme with the growth of character as a means to develop a moral framework that encompasses emotional intelligence and wellbeing. The School’s Personal Development curriculum encourages students to discuss what skills they will need, beyond academic study and results, in order to thrive, be happy and purposeful during and after their time at school.

As we emerge from the pandemic, through the AGS Learner, we should allow ourselves to reimagine the possibilities of education.

An education which, at AGS, supports positive masculinity – where boys and young men can express a wide range of emotions such as fear or kindness, can develop healthy relationship skills and which facilitates “connectedness, motivation and authenticity” (M. Wilson et al. 2021).

The Kitemark recognises the “exceptional use of internally developed action research” published here in Flagship, and its role in supporting the advancement of character education at AGS. Several articles in this edition focus on diversity, and the representation and inclusivity in our text books, topics and teaching force. Three of our staff reflect on their journeys as life-long learners and the challenges and rewards of conducting extensive research alongside their teaching roles during a pandemic. Another is completing action research with the International Boys’ Schools Coalition evaluating how gamification can facilitate effective learning. What is apparent in this third edition of Flagship is the value of rigorous research to allow the AGS community to successfully navigate a complex and rapidly changing world.

Vanessa Beckley Research Lead AYLESBURY GRAMMAR SCHOOL

REFERENCES OUP accepted manuscript. (2021). Health Promotion International.

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VANESSA BECKLEY Vanessa Beckley is Assistant Headteacher responsible for all areas of Professional Learning. She is committed to enabling both teaching and support staff to access personalised professional development at every stage of their career. When staff are engaged in high quality, evidence-informed learning, they are more likely to inspire and nurture students to fulfil their potential and define for themselves their place in the world.

She is excited to edit this year’s edition of “Flagship” and to share the powerful research carried out by the team of AGS researchers. Vanessa’s recommended read is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Danger of a Single Story”, an entreaty to resist making one story the only story, but instead authentically connect with humans as individuals.

JAMES TAYLOR James Taylor is a teacher of history and classics at AGS, having joined in 2019 following completion of a BA in history at the University of York. During his NQT year, he has enjoyed being part of the Research Working Party, conducting research into diversity and inclusion in the history curriculum with Year 8, and more specifically student voice and perceptions of the embedding of non-British perspectives into the classroom.

This has unearthed multiple benefits in outcomes and engagement among the students and led to some interesting questions about how the wider curriculum could extend these further in the future, to fully represent the students of AGS. James is rarely without a book on the go, and when not tucking into something more historical (currently ‘Black and British’ by David Olusoga) has recently enjoyed ‘Teaching in the Online Classroom: Surviving and Thriving in the New Normal’ by Doug Lemov.

NEIL GIBBS Neil Gibbs is the newly appointed Leader of Academic P.E. and an experienced teacher who has been teaching at Aylesbury Grammar School for 15 years. Recently, Neil completed a piece of Action Research through IBSC and was fortunate to travel to Montreal, Canada, where he collaborated with fellow researchers across the world. He is about to embark on his second piece of research which will look at the role of digital learning in physical education. Neil’s recommended reading is, “The Art of Classroom Inquiry: A Handbook for TeacherResearchers” by Ruth Shagoury Hubbard & Brenda Miller Power.

KELLY CHALK Kelly Chalk has been teaching at Aylesbury Grammar School since 2003 and as well as teaching business and economics, is currently a Head of House, PSHE Leader, Young Enterprise Centre Lead and EPQ Supervisor.

Kelly regularly delivers subject specialist training courses and has authored a Teacher Resource Guide for an international business qualification. She has recently completed her Master’s degree in education exploring the use of cross-age peer assisted learning between GCSE and A Level students as a way of improving outcomes of those involved. Kelly also enjoys learning about issues in pastoral leadership and has found, ‘Boys Don’t Try? Rethinking Masculinity in Schools’ , written by Matt Pinkett and Mark Roberts to be an incredibly useful and practical text to read in this area.

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Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

Meet The Research Team

JULIETTE WISE Juliette Wise has just finished her PGCE in classics, after graduating from Cambridge with a BA in Education with Classics and MPhil in Education and Psychology. This year she completed her placement at AGS, where her research took place. She is focused on creating an anti-racist environment in school life and used her research to explore the ways schools and teachers can help to create an inclusive environment in every classroom. Juliette is also interested in the diversity of the Ancient World and discussing the huge range of individuals and civilisations that existed. Juliette recommends reading Joseph-Salisbury’s (2020) work, “Race and Racism in English Secondary Schools” and Zuckerberg’s (2018) book, “Not all Dead White Men”.

AMBER FINN Amber Finn is a teacher of physics and computer science and has recently joined the school’s group of digital learning leaders. From a background in research encompassing biophysics, neuroscience and computational modelling she has a keen interest in using technology and research in her teaching. This has led to interest in investigating how technology can be best used to improve learning. She has been selected by the International Boys’ Schools Coalition to conduct an action research project on “Boys and Technology: New Horizons, New Challenges, New Learning”.

KATRINA BLUNT Katrina Blunt is a teacher of mathematics at AGS and is also Head of Year 7. She has enjoyed being part of the Research Working Party for another year, as she embarked on a dissertation to complete the final year of her MA Education. As you will read in her section of the Flagship journal, her research went through a number of iterations as COVID-19 impacted the data collection methods she was able to use and the topic area she could study. She has spent a lot of time reading this year for her studies but one book that stood out for her was “Embedded Formative Assessment” by Dylan Wiliam.

ALEX GRUAR Alex Gruar is a teacher of classics at Aylesbury Grammar School. She believes that the study of the ancient world is for everyone and has previously been involved in a project for the University of Oxford providing Latin GCSE lessons for teenagers who would not otherwise have the opportunity. This year, influenced by Sleeter and Grant’s article, “Race, Class, Gender and Disability in Current Textbooks”, she has focussed on how changing to a more representative course book can improve student awareness of the existence of BAME people in the Roman world.

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Contents 10

JAMES TAYLOR Embracing diversity: does incorporating non-British perspectives into the history classroom positively impact progress, attainment and engagement?

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NEIL GIBBS How action research can improve your teaching

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KELLY CHALK My MA Journey

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KELLY CHALK Do specific personality types elicit a better experience from cross-age peer assisted learning than others?

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JULIETTE WISE In what ways does AGS create an anti-racist environment without having a representative staff force?

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AMBER FINN Creating an adaptive revision resource for GCSE physics

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KATRINA BLUNT Conducting remote research on the challenges of remote teaching

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ALEX GRUAR The impact of a change to a more diverse KS3 Latin course book in student perceptions of BAME people in the Roman world

Embracing diversity: does incorporating non-British perspectives into the history classroom positively impact progress, attainment and engagement?

ABSTRACT As it stands, the history National Curriculum is under scrutiny and debate for its representative nature, and the narrative it teaches students of Britain’s history and what constitutes a British identity. The curriculum as a whole indicates that students need to “provide pupils with an introduction to the essential knowledge that they need to be educated citizens. It introduces pupils to the best that has been thought and said; and helps engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement” (DofE, 2013).

That said, it has been discussed in recent years the implications this wording has on the teaching of history in particular, in that what constitutes ‘essential’ knowledge and the ‘best’ of human ‘achievement’ can narrow the historical narrative to a nationalistic, Anglo-centric celebration, which may not truly represent Britain as it is today. In fact, it has been identified that it may be inevitable that such hotly contested discussions take place around the ethical visions of the curriculum, given that it at least initially in most cases comes from a national and ‘top-down

James Taylor

Teacher of History

agenda’ (Alexander, Weekes-Bernard and Chatterji, 2015).

Embracing diversity: does incorporating non-British perspectives into the history classroom positively impact progress, attainment and engagement?

There is, though, greater indication of what could be

In recent years the student body has become increasingly

in the history curriculum itself, with encouragement of

diverse, with the most recent analysis showing that

developing a “coherent knowledge and understanding of

54% of the student body identify as BME (i.e. other than

Britain’s past and that of the wider world”, which “helps

White (British and other)), This represents an upward

pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives,

trend over years; for example, only 10 years previously,

the process of change, the diversity of societies and

the proportion was only 23%. Thus, compounded by

relationship between different groups, as well as their own

students coming to the school from around eighty

identity and the challenges of their time” (DofE, 2013).

feeder primary schools from a broad catchment area,

The wording here certainly implies that the inclusion of broader multicultural British histories can be covered in the classroom at Key Stage 3 (McIntosh et al., 2019), although

students enter the school in Year 7 with a range of backgrounds, identities and experiences which ought to be represented and valued as part of the curriculum.

scholars have pointed out that this, while providing

The history Scheme of Work is taught across the Department

opportunities, still places little emphasis on internal racial

to all classes, with Key Stage 3 classes in Year 7 and Year 8

and ethnic diversity within Britain itself, indicating that

taught in their tutor groups. Each teacher is able to teach

diverse histories are ‘out there’ rather than relevant to the

the course as they prefer, providing that key questions

‘here and now’ (Alexander and Weekes-Bernard, 2017).

and topics are covered, and that students complete

The aim of this research project is to investigate whether

their three summative assessments for the year.

teaching and incorporating a greater diversity of non-

In 2020, following a curriculum review in response to and

British perspectives into the history classroom improves

reflection of the wider discussions of the curriculum and its

student outcomes, in terms of their engagement with the

representation, there was an addition made to the Year 8

subject, their attainment and their overall progress as

curriculum with a unit on Migration, which sat alongside the

part of a wider curriculum. Within this, it is also evaluating

established topics in the year (the British Empire, the Slave

the success of the newly-added Migration unit in Year

Trade, the Industrial Revolution and the First World War).

8 as an opportunity to incorporate and celebrate the diversity of perspectives that reflect the student body, and establish some key viewpoints from student voice. By comparing their engagement, attainment and outcomes to the previous term, where students learnt about the Industrial Revolution and the Slave Trade, completing an exam in this, the research can provide some indication of the progress made using this as a baseline assessment.

This unit comprised a focus on four case studies which explored migration to the UK from a variety of perspectives: Irish, Jewish, Commonwealth and the Indian subcontinent.

This was then assessed through the completion of individual research projects on a topic of their choice, which could be one of the four examples, or another topic that may be more relevant to the student.

With conscious reflection on the curriculum, it is

CONTEXT Aylesbury Grammar School is a selective boys’ grammar school in Buckinghamshire, founded in 1598. It prides itself on not only achieving outstanding results at both GCSE and A Level, but offering a wide ranging extra-curricular provision to encourage access to a full and expansive curriculum. This is underpinned by a commitment to nurturing character development through the wider AGS

important to establish whether increasing non-British perspectives in the history classroom, with units such as this, have positive implications for engagement of all students, their attainment, and their outcomes.

It is highly desirable for students to experience a curriculum that poses interesting questions about the past, but is also one that students feel represents them and equips them with key skills for their future.

Learner ideal, comprising the five broad characteristics of Ownership, Courage, Resilience, Innovation and Motivation.

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LITERATURE REVIEW CURRICULUM AS A STRUCTURE

interesting questions about the history they study, but also find themselves represented within this curriculum.

In order to consider how the curriculum can be adapted

THE ‘ABSENT’ CURRICULUM

and what possibilities may exist in incorporating

All of this is important to consider at all levels of curriculum

and interweaving diversity, it is vital to establish the

design and implementation, and this is something that has

curriculum and its design as it exists today. According

been identified as the concept of the ‘absent’ curriculum

to Young (2014), in many ways, it is best to view the

(Wilkinson, 2014). Existing on three levels (null curriculum

curriculum as a ‘structure’ that is always treading a line

at policy level, unselected curriculum at school level, and

between opening up new possibilities and exploring

unenacted curriculum level), it highlights the totality of the

areas for embellishment and interweaving stories,

curriculum that could have been, but has not been taught.

alongside the many persisting constraints in place when it comes to curriculum development. These include

Whether conscious or unconscious, the choices we

time constraints, with limited lesson time, access to

make at all levels about what is included as ‘essential’

resources, and teacher experience and knowledge.

knowledge and what may be left out of that picture should be carefully considered to ensure that students

Such possibilities are reflected in the growing discourse

similarly do not feel ‘absent’. Wilkinson’s study in

around progress made in the ‘wider disciplinary domain’

particular found that Muslim boys appeared especially

of history and the decision-making process when it

disilluisoned with their curriculum, and did not feel

comes to intent and implementation of the secondary

that the choices that were made in what they were

school curriculum (Bailey-Watson and Kennett, 2019).

taught were designed to appeal to or recognise them.

However, while there is a growing amount of diversity being explored in history at university level, a gulf exists between that and the secondary school curriculum designed in part to encourage and prepare students for future study (Royal Historical Society, 2018).

Part of the enjoyment students find in history is the complexity and variety of interesting stories and interactions, so there are growing calls to integrate some of the discipline’s advancements into the curriculum by interweaving a variety of stories and moments (Lyndon, 2006). This creates a more connected and expansive narrative, and students ought to recognise that history is a “knotty and complex tapestry and not a series of discrete topics” (Apps, 2019).

HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE AND ITS BARRIERS This encourages further discussion on the importance of historical knowledge and how to equip students to write effective historical analysis. Historical knowledge is explored here in two strands: the essential topic knowledge that signposts the curriculum, which then sits alongside the wider period knowledge (Hammond, 2014). The danger here is that neglecting to provide students with a rich picture of the past and its period may ultimately restrict their ability to not only ask

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CRAFTING A ‘DECOLONISED CURRICULUM’ - THE BENEFITS There are numerous strengths that teaching diversity within and through the curriculum can bring to teachers and their students. As part of the wider curriculum goals to create British citizens and build an understanding of the variety and diversity of human experiences, scholars often point to the need to learn the histories and experiences of other cultures as vital knowledge as foreign languages (D’Avray et al., 2013). If there forms an interwoven narrative, incorporating diverse stories across a variety of subjects, Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

Embracing diversity: does incorporating non-British perspectives into the history classroom positively impact progress, attainment and engagement?

it is more likely that students will create links with their existing knowledge, and less likely that teachers might view it as periphery and less important (Gay, 2009).

The Runnymede Trust is one group that promotes the benefits of a diverse and reimagined curriculum, and emphasises that placing diversity at the core of the curriculum rather than on the margins reflects a more inclusive sense of what Britain is, and what it means to be British in light of its multiculturalism in the 21st century (Alexander et al., 2015). It will truly allow students to find their identity and experience represented and reflected in the classroom, and bring some of these stories and dialogues into discussions, enabling students to learn from one another.

Thus, an inclusive curriculum appears to benefit all students, and increase engagement across the board.

POTENTIAL CHALLENGES AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES While implementing diversity is likely to bring benefits to all students, as well as bring those from ethnic minorities into the curriculum discussion, there are pitfalls and challenges that need to be avoided.

One key challenge is managing the transition into secondary school from primary schools, where there is strong evidence to suggest that there may be greater challenges implementing diversity into the curriculum at primary level (Bracey, 2016). This places greater emphasis on secondary school teachers, especially in schools with a varied catchment, to consider how to address this effectively across the whole secondary curriculum, but also whether there may be ways to support primary schools in preparing students for the greater range of diversity that may be present in a secondary school environment.

This is particularly an area that affects future prospects such as university, especially in the case of history, where 11.3% of history undergraduates come from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) background; this stands in stark contrast to the 23.9% of the overall undergraduate population (Royal Historical Society, 2018).

Growing engagement in secondary schools will also have more immediate benefits, as currently student numbers opting to continue studies at GCSE and A-Level are notably lower than similar subjects (Alexander and Weekes-Bernard, 2017). In this case, there seem to be potentially great advantages in reflecting the full diversity of human histories, to cultivate interest in these students to further their studies and expand their skills.

What constitutes ‘essential’ knowledge and the ‘best’ of human ‘achievement’ can narrow the historical narrative to a nationalistic, Anglo-centric celebration, which may not truly represent Britain as it is today That said, there is just as much that needs to be considered

How this benefits all students is by opening up pathways

carefully within the secondary school classroom as well.

for more interesting and critical discussions of the

Diversifying the curriculum, particularly that of the history

knowledge they are learning (Bailey-Watson and Kennett,

curriculum, is a complex task that needs to reflect a

2019). If our students are encouraged to more consciously

variety of experiences - it should not be constricted to

reflect on their topic knowledge alongside a wider

the odd moment. Bradshaw (2009), in his exploration of

contextual understanding, there is great opportunity

progressing pupils’ thinking of diversity at Key Stage 3,

to reflect upon alternative perspectives and cast their

found that the stories and experiences brought into the

topic of study in a more critical light. Only then, as

classroom should be able to occur at any context, stating

Apps argues, would students be able to understand history, for example, as a ‘knotty and complex tapestry and not a series of discrete topics’ (Apps, 2019).

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If we box diversity into such narrow terms, some departments will see it as a box to be ticked (Bradshaw, 2009).

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Rather than ‘doing’ diversity in brief moments, and in

Unfortunately then, the opposite can be true, in that

ways that can appear tokenistic, it is suggested that in

a lack of knowledge or negativity and scepticism act

the case of history, the Black British experience be fully

as clear obstacles to successfully teaching diversity in

integrated and embedded into curriculum plans (Lyndon,

the classroom. It is pertinent, therefore, for teachers to

2006) to enable students to effectively make the links

consider and seek to address the challenges that they may

and build upon existing knowledge, and ensure that

face when implementing diversity into the curriculum.

students feel represented by all facets of the curriculum.

Diversity in the curriculum should not need to be restricted to the realms of Black History Month, as some schools may use this as the mechanism through which they can ‘tick’ the diversity box, but there needs to be a greater sense of groups and experiences previously neglected being welcomed into the mainstream narrative (Sheldrake and Banham, 2007; Tickly et al., 2004).

Ultimately, as Wilkinson’s concerns of the ‘absent curriculum’ suggests, successfully and fully embedding diverse stories and experiences into lessons depends on the confidence of the teachers to deliver them, otherwise elements will continue to be ‘unenacted’ in the classroom in practice. History teachers in England have a strong belief that pupils should have the opportunity to study a broad curriculum encompassing diverse histories, according to a Historical Association survey (Burn et al., 2018), but much research about the implementation of diversity in the classroom argues this will only be successful if teachers feel fully equipped to deliver the content (both in confidence of knowledge and access to resources) (Gay, 2009).

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STUDENT VOICE AND DIVERSITY Whilst there is great discussion about how students should be taught and the content they should receive, less appears to be certain about how students relate to the past that they are taught. Many students identify history as a subject they enjoy and find interesting, yet many fail to fully explain its value, and particularly in the case of students from a minority ethnic background, feel a lack of personal connection to the narrative they are experiencing (Harris and Reynolds, 2014).

This is a clear mandate across the school from our students that it is important to them that diverse experiences can be recognised and are an integral part of their studies.

Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

Embracing diversity: does incorporating non-British perspectives into the history classroom positively impact progress, attainment and engagement?

There have been numerous studies that highlight the divide in student appreciation and engagement with the curriculum. Traille (2006) found that topics that had traditionally sought to emphasise diversity within the history curriculum such as the slave trade have an alienating effect on some students, with many bemoaning the implications of the primary presence of diverse perspectives under the control and power of white British settlers.

The stark divide between students from a BAME

MIGRATION IN EXPLORATION One route into exploring and embedding diversity into the history classroom is identified through the study of migration as part of a National Curriculum.

It is also one where the dangers and challenge of speaking to student experience are present:

The arrival of migrants is often presented as a modern day story and one of the ‘challenges’

background and their white counterparts is also

faced by post-war society. The long-standing

present in the studies of Epstein (2009) in America and

movement of people to and from Britain

Hawley and Prior (2011) in the UK, with a clear sense of

during previous centuries is often missed

dissonance between responses to curriculum content,

altogether (Sheldrake and Banham, 2007)

with a sense of discomfort felt by those that didn’t feel included or represented within the curriculum.

This is a vital point that is sometimes overlooked

Hawley and Prior further noted that in the case of

schools, and as Robert Winder argues:

by studies into migration in secondary

some ethnic groups, there was a conflict of narratives and historical experiences between the content of the

We do not always think of Britain as a

curriculum in school and their received family histories at

country settled at a deep level by immigrants.

home (Hawley and Prior, 2011). This supports the notion that

We prefer to construct mythologies

students do not enter the classroom as ‘empty vessels’ and in fact are potentially going to find mismatches compared to their background (Harris, 2013) - this presents a clear

of the national character as something stable (Winder, 2004)

need to be sensitive and careful to alternative perspectives

A study of migration can demonstrate how diverse the

in content selection and presentation in the classroom.

majority population actually is. Indeed, it is often a

It is also where there may be merit to embrace these family stories and global histories as a means of exploring more sensitive topics, such as migration, in that it recognises the notion that families and oral histories are a key point of transmission for key aspects of culture and identity (Thompson, 2000), while also providing a bridge and link between the past and the present for our students (Vlachaki and Kouseri, 2020).

The concerns identified when exploring student voice and feedback provide useful information for considering how teachers can reinterpret and refocus their curriculum to better represent and develop a deeper personal and collective identity (Harris and Reynolds, 2014).

surprise that the first recorded black presence in Britain dates back to the Roman occupation predating even the Medieval Period. It is therefore of concern that in some cases, school history only encounters the experiences and interactions of these groups in the context of examples such as the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which can cause alienation and fails to incorporate those groups as part of the wider narrative (Traille, 2006; Harris, 2013).

The Runnymede Trust 2019 report on teaching migration supported these notions, arguing that migration and empire should not be treated as a niche aspect of the narrative, but is fundamental to understanding and appreciating the diversity of British culture (McIntosh et al., 2019). As such, the stories of migration to, from and within Britain should be explored over an extended period of time, in which students are able to fully appreciate the change and continuity over time, and challenge these misconceptions surrounding current discourse around immigration.

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RESEARCH QUESTION The aim of this research is to establish whether increasing and incorporating non-British perspectives into the curriculum has a positive impact on students’ progress, outcomes and engagement in history. This will give greater insight into how diversifying the curriculum can create successes and improve students’ understanding and appreciation of the past. While students may already be achieving in the subject,

The overall process was conducted as follows: 1) Students completed a survey following their Autumn Assessment, and before the Migration Unit 2) All students were taught six lessons remotely (Jan-Feb 2021), firstly introducing the concept of migration and establishing the longer narrative from 1066 onwards, and followed by four distinct case study lessons exploring the following groups

and engage positively in its content, it is important to

a. Irish migration

examine their perspective of the curriculum and identify

b. Jewish migration

potential areas where this could develop further.

The following questions helped guide this research: 1) How do students respond to different perspectives and diversity in the history curriculum? Do they engage with diverse perspectives and experiences?

2) Does this positively impact on their attainment and progress compared to previous assessments?

3) What can be learnt from the history curriculum’s journey that can be applied across the school?

Overall, the research seeks to see any improvements and

c. Commonwealth migration d. Indian sub-continent migration 3) Students had a lesson to research one of these topics further, or a topic of their choice around migration, in preparation for completing their projects 4) The projects were then completed as an extended homework assignment and handed in - students were given a universal guide of information to include and equal time to complete the assessments 5) Following marking, the students completed a

positive changes in engagement and attainment, and

second survey, combining reflections on the

gather valuable qualitative data from student voice.

project process, as well as repeated questions from the first survey. This was to see how and if

METHODOLOGY The study was focused on a series of lessons in Year 8 around the newly-implemented Migration Unit. In this, three classes were used in order to gain a larger sampling size and enable any relevant comparisons to be made across the cohort. Data was collected through two surveys, pre- and post-unit to gather data on engagement and

their opinions on the curriculum and representation had changed and altered in light of their recent studies The surveys contained a variety of questions, both closed statements asking for a score on a scale of 1-5 (1 being strongly disagree and 5 being strongly agree), as well as spaces for further explanation in writing that could be drawn from as qualitative data.

student voice on the curriculum. Only students who

The project was marked using the Departmental mark

completed both surveys were included in these final

scheme, which places assessments on a mark scale of

results (75 students). Attainment data was gathered,

0-25 marks, which is then translated to a grade from

using their Autumn Assessments (a closed exam on the

9-1. Both of these data points were compared to their

Industrial Revolution and the Transatlantic Slave Trade)

baseline assessment, scored in a similar fashion.

as a baseline, which following marking of the Migration project assessment was used to measure individual student progress and achievement, as well as whole class data.

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Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

Embracing diversity: does incorporating non-British perspectives into the history classroom positively impact progress, attainment and engagement?

As part of the second survey, students were asked to reflect on their projects, in the following ways: Students were asked to identify their chosen topic and choose three reasons from a selection that best described their motivation for choosing that topic Students were asked to identify what they had enjoyed about the project Students were asked to identify what they felt they had gained from the project Students were asked whether they felt learning about

Students are likely to be more motivated if they perceive value in a certain topic or subject, which appears far more likely if they are able to see their perspective and background valued

migration had been interesting and important within their study of history, and to elaborate further on their reasoning This provided a variety of quantitative and qualitative data, valuable both for tracking shifts in engagement and attainment, but also to gain a greater understanding of student voice and feedback through the comments received.

FINDINGS Going into the migration unit, the expectation was that as the unit was interweaving diverse perspectives into the classroom, following a study of slavery and empire, it would be a successful embedding of diverse perspectives and that it would either maintain or increase the student engagement with the subject. There was also the hope that this would in turn see an uplift in attainment, which would be reflective of a term of progress in the subject alongside this increased positive engagement.

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CHOICE OF TOPIC

The results here also show that 4.4% of pupils chose a

Part of the key to establishing engagement and the impact that diversity in the curriculum had on this, was in exploring the students’ choice of topic and their reasons for opting for a certain area of the overall subject of migration.

The findings demonstrate firstly the variety in responses to the question ‘Which of these best describes your ethnicity?’ and point to the fact that in these classes, 60% of pupils identified as other than White British, confirming the importance of embedding a greater range of experiences in the classroom where a majority may not fully identify with a Eurocentric narrative.

Therefore, the variety in choices for the migration project itself were interesting, with a fairly even spread of the four options chosen across the classes. Breaking this down further, the most popular choice amongst all students was Irish migration, with 31.1% of students choosing it, but among students that identified as BAME the most popular

topic of their own choice, which did not fall under the four case studies in class - they had therefore independently found appropriate resources and research materials from scratch to produce a project more closely aligned to their interest. All of these students (five in total) were from a group that identified as other than White British.

WHY DID STUDENTS CHOOSE THESE TOPICS? Perhaps more important than their choice of topic is why students opted for them. All students had a variety of motivating factors behind completing their project, and the survey gave them numerous reasons to select from, including extrinsic motivations such as a good result, and one topic having the most resources available, to more intrinsic factors such as a desire to explore a different perspective, or one that related to and represented the student or their family’s background (Middleton, 2014; Blackburn and Armstrong, 2017).

choice was Commonwealth and Indian sub-continent

With both the whole population, and the BAME student

migration with 29.6% each. Notably, in this group, Irish

population, the most popular factor was ‘It was a topic

migration was the third most popular choice, demonstrating

that I felt most confident I would produce a good project

that students appeared to be exploring perspectives

with’, chosen by 60% of students as one of their top three

further afield to a story closer to their ethnic identity.

reasons - it is not too surprising that students are motivated at least in part by a desire to achieve a good result, often

Choice of topic

All students (90)

BAME students (54)

Irish

29

9

topic that was representative of themselves and/or their

Commonwealth

24

16

family, and 34.4% selected the topic they felt had the most

Indian sub-continent

17

16

important story to discover. This indicates strongly that a

Jewish

15

8

Other

5

5

labelled as a ‘fixed’ or performance-based mindset (Dweck, 2017). Of all students though, 22% of students chose a

sizable portion of the classes embraced the opportunity to find themselves or their stories in the curriculum content, and that students were consciously identifying with certain perspectives and experiences more than others. Students are likely to be more motivated if they perceive value in a certain topic or subject, which appears far more likely if they are able to see their perspective and background valued (Anderman, 2004; Guay et al., 2019).

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Embracing diversity: does incorporating non-British perspectives into the history classroom positively impact progress, attainment and engagement?

Reason for choosing topic

All BAME students students (%) (%)

I felt most confident I could produce a good project with the topic

60

55

I found the topic the most interesting during lessons

52.2

42.6

I understood the topic most from lessons

42.2

37

I had heard about the topic but wanted to know more

35.6

37

It had the most important story to discover

34.4

37

It appeared to have the most resources available

30

35.2

It was representative of myself and/or my family

22.2

26.2

It was something different, or a different perspective to what we usually study in lessons

18.9

22.2

STUDENT REFLECTIONS ON THE PROJECT Students reflected positively on their work on migration, with 80% agreeing or strongly agreeing with the statement ‘Learning about migration was interesting and important as part of history’. While some students, when asked to elaborate on their answers, felt that they identified and found more interest in our previous units and in topics such as the First World War, the vast majority recognised the importance of migration: “I think it is important because it tells us a lot about Britain’s population and the diversity between other countries as well” “Migration is important to learn about since it makes up so much of our present day culture and gives over lots

Students also spoke of their enjoyment in completing the project, identifying a number of positives: “The ability to choose nearly anything on the subject” “Learning lots of things about people from my country” “I liked that we got to learn more about how migrants contributed to this country which I didn’t know much about before” When asked what they felt they had gained from the projects, students came up with some really interesting and sophisticated responses: “I feel I gained more respect for the people that lived years ago from the struggles that they faced” “I gained an insight into my origin” “I learned many different perspectives and took a deep insight into the racial injustice I’d never seen or believed until now”

The danger here is that neglecting to provide students with a rich picture of the past and its period may ultimately restrict their ability to not only ask interesting questions about the history they study, but also find themselves represented within this curriculum.

of influence” “Not enough people were educated about the struggles of the migrants and the journeys they take, and the reason they take the journeys, and still deal with prejudice and discrimination when they arrive there”

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ATTAINMENT

It also demonstrates a demand from students for

When comparing raw scores (0-25), the findings demonstrate an uplift in all classes from their Autumn exam result to the Spring migration project. When translated into grades (9-1), there was an uplift across all three classes. Below shows the average grade for each assessment, and the average grade difference counted by each student.

incorporating diverse voices and perspectives into the classroom, with 92.2% agreeing or strongly agreeing that it is an important issue. This is a clear mandate across the school from our students that it is important to them that diverse experiences can be recognised and are an integral part of their studies.

Statements (numbers indicating % agreeing or strongly agreeing)

Before

After

I enjoy learning about history

77

83

I feel it is important to study history

85.3

87.7

I feel represented by the history curriculum we have learnt so far

48

51.1

History lessons explore diverse perspectives regularly (e.g. race, ethnicity, gender)

72

74.4

It is important to incorporate diverse voices and perspectives in history lessons

92

92.2

Your history lessons so far have given you sufficient knowledge of black history and racial diversity

73.3

76.7

work and good progress made across the board.

I enjoy the opportunity to research independently in history

60

69

That said, it is hard to establish the reliability of this

I am motivated to learn about history independently

56

61.1

Table showing average grades for assessments in each class from Autumn (exam) to Spring (migration project) (9-1)

Class

Exam

Project

Grade difference

1

6.93

7.36

+0.43

2

7.16

7.61

+0.45

3

6.97

7.58

+0.61

In the three classes, on average 87.4% of pupils either improved or maintained their overall grade from Autumn to Spring. It seems clear that students were able to complete the projects to a higher standard and demonstrate their understanding and learning more effectively through this unit, resulting in high quality

data, considering the Autumn assessment was completed during a period of remote learning, and the fact that it is hard to differentiate the migration project grades from standard progress over a term. There is also the question or assessment method, as many students pointed to the fact that they preferred being assessed through a research project with a more open-ended nature than a closed exam with more prescriptive questions.

STUDENT FEEDBACK ON THE CURRICULUM Within all of the data collected, it was important to

Perhaps then, there remains possibility and room to progress this further, with slightly lower corroboration that students feel represented by the history curriculum so far, with only just over half (51.1%) sharing this view. Whilst the unit itself appears to have galvanised these perspectives and encouraged students to find a space to represent themselves in their history work, student voice indicates that there is a wish for further embedding and interweaving of diverse perspectives into the broader curriculum as well.

establish whether the embedding of a greater range of diverse perspectives had affected student perceptions of history and the curriculum. Based upon data collected from the two surveys before and after the migration unit, there is some interesting data to extract.

This data shows positive responses to almost all of the statements by the end of the migration unit, with particular increases in their enjoyment of history (6%), and their enjoyment and motivation to learn about history independently (9% and 5.1% respectively).

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CONCLUSIONS It was clear that throughout this unit, students thrived when provided the opportunity to study a variety of diverse perspectives. Students were able to explore a topic of their choice in more depth, while still having the opportunity to learn about the other case studies in the previous lessons, but also in discussions and sharing of projects in their reflection lesson. This brought about some fantastic

This has also led to interesting discussions since, with students keen to find out more about these groups during the First World War, and their experiences. Their engagement with the subject certainly hasn’t decreased, and while students pointed to areas of the curriculum that could be further diversified, they were in near universal agreement that the migration topic was interesting and useful to learn about as part of their Year 8 studies.

opportunities for students to share their learning with one

In terms of what can be learnt for the future, and

another, and to benefit from each other’s research. It was

some further questions that might be explored,

especially pleasing to see that students had approached

there are some areas for consideration:

the projects in a variety of ways, and for a variety of reasons - students that were motivated by a topic that

- Exploring how diverse histories and

represented their family background often brought their

perspectives could be further infused into

own unique stories into the projects, and shared these with

the history curriculum across all year groups

the class.

It makes sense that students find history more engaging when they are given the freedom to explore topics in their own way and in a variety of approaches, but it was also reassuring to see that this ultimately saw benefits

- Across all subjects, considering how diverse authors, texts, experiences, perspectives and accomplishments currently feature in the curriculum and reflect upon what scope there is to expand and reconstruct - Explore how subject areas can be diversified and

additionally in their attainment. Projects were completed

demonstrate greater representation in small steps.

to a high standard, and the quality of their written work

Revisit resources to see how they could be adapted,

had improved, resulting in overall higher attainment when

consider the variety of the curriculum and how

compared to their Autumn assessment results. The uplift

marginalised groups could be celebrated and

across all classes, and almost all students improving

represented further

their overall attainment, provides some good evidence that this approach benefitted students in providing a way for them to showcase their ability more effectively.

That said, it cannot be fully determined that diversity in the curriculum was the sole factor in this change, and students had been making natural progress over the term prior to this, and many students stated that they preferred being assessed by projects rather than exams.

What is clear though, is that the migration unit was a good example of how embedding diversity into the curriculum can be achieved effectively. Students placed the topic and case studies in their correct context, drawing from prior knowledge of the British Empire, and were able to ask interesting questions in their discussions about the implications of this on the modern day and history as a

- Continue to incorporate and engage with student voice and feedback on the curriculum as these changes are implemented over time

It is highly desirable for students to experience a curriculum that poses interesting questions about the past, but is also one that students feel represents them and equips them with key skills for their future.

whole. Their responses and reflections on the project were sophisticated, and drew from a diverse range of ideas of the benefits and advantages of learning about the topic.

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Embracing diversity: does incorporating non-British perspectives into the history classroom positively impact progress, attainment and engagement?

REFERENCES Alexander, C. and Weekes-Bernard, D. (2017) ‘History lessons: inequality, diversity and the national curriculum,’ Race Ethnicity and Education, 20:4, pp.478-494 Alexander, Weekes-Bernard and Chatterji, History Lessons: Teaching Diversity In and Through the History National Curriculum (2015) Anderman, Lynley H. (2004) “Student Motivation across Subject-Area Domains” The Journal of Educational Research 97, no.6, pp.283-285 Bailey-Watson and Kennett, ‘Meanwhile, elsewhere..’: harnessing the power of community to expand students’ historical horizons (Teaching History 176, September 2019) Blackburn, Barbara and Armstrong, Abbigail. (2017) “Setting the Stage for Intrinsic Motivation” ASCD Express: Avoiding Motivation Missteps 12, no. 23

Lyndon, D. (2006) ‘Integrating black history into the National Curriculum’, Teaching History, 122, Reconstructing History Edition McIntosh K., Todd, J., and Das, N., (2019) ‘Teaching Migration, Belonging, and Empire in Secondary Schools’, TIDE-Runnymede report, accessed 23/06/2021 on https://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/publications/pdfs/ TIDERunnymedeTeachingMigrationReport.pdf Middleton, Michael and Perks, Kevin (2014) “Motivation to Learn: Transforming Classroom Culture to Support Student Achievement”. SAGE Publications: London.

Royal Historical Society (2018) ‘Race, Ethnicity and Equality in UK History: A Report and Resource for Change’, accessed 22/06/2021 on https://files. royalhistsoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/17205337/RHS_race_report_ EMBARGO_0001_18Oct.pdf Sheldrake, R. and Banham, D. (2007) Seeing a different picture: exploring

http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol12/1223-blackburn.aspx

migration through the lens of history, Teaching History 129, pp. 39-47

Bracey, P. (2016) ‘Shaping the Future,’ Black History and diversity: teacher

Thompson, P. (2000) The Voice of the Past: oral history (3rd edition), Oxford:

perceptions and implications for curriculum development Education 3-13 44:1,

Oxford University Press.

pp.101-112 Bradshaw, M. (2009) ‘Drilling down: how one history department is working towards progression in pupils’ thinking about diversity across Years 7, 8 and 9,’ Teaching History 135: pp.4-12 Burn, K., Harris, R., and Sazarin, M. (2018) Historical Association Survey of History in Schools in England 2018, accessed 22/06/21 from https://www. history.org.uk/secondary/categories/409/news/3698/survey-into-history-inenglish-secondary-schools-2 Department for Education (2013). The National Curriculum in England accessed 23/06/21 from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/ system/uploads/attachment_data/file/840002/Secondary_national_ curriculum_corrected_PDF.pdf

Tickly L., Caballero, C., Haynes, J. and Hill, J (2004) Understanding the Educational Needs of Mixed Heritage Pupils, Nottingham: DfES Traille, E.K.A (2006) School History and Perspectives of the Past: a Study of Students of African-Caribbean Descent and their Mothers. London University PhD thesis Vlachaki, M., and Kouseri, G. (2020) ‘Family stories and global (hi)stories,’ Teaching History 178, pp. 56-66.

Wilkinson, M. (2014) ‘The concept of the absent curriculum: the case of the Muslim contribution and the English National Curriculum for history’, Curriculum Studies 46:4: pp.419-440 Winder, R. (2004) Bloody Foreigners: the Story of Immigration to Britain, London: Abacus

Department of Education (2013) National curriculum in England: history programme of study, accessed 24/06/21 from https://www.gov.uk/ government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-historyprogrammes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-history-programmesof-study Dweck, Carol S. (2017) Mindset: changing the way you think to fulfil your potential. Robinson: London.

Guay, F. et al. (2019) “Teachers’ relatedness with students as a predictor of students’ intrinsic motivation, self-concept, and reading achievement” Early Childhood Research Quarterly 48, pp.215-225 Hammond, K. (2014) ‘The knowledge that “flavours” a claim: towards building and assessing historical knowledge on three scales’ Teaching History 157, Assessment Edition pp.18-25 Harris, R. (2013) ‘The place of diversity within history and the challenge of policy and curriculum’. Oxford Review of Education 39:3, pp.400-419 Harris, R. and Reynolds, R. (2014) ‘The history curriculum and its personal connection to students from minority ethnic backgrounds”. Curriculum Studies 46:4, pp.464-486)

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How action research can improve your teaching

Do you ever find yourself looking at a classroom problem, with not a clue in the world about how to fix it? No doubt, teaching in a constantly changing world is difficult.

Sometimes the issues we face don’t have easy solutions.

One method that is worth looking into is action research.

In action research, a teacher takes the time to analyse a problem and then cycles through specific steps to solve it.

If you’re struggling with a problem in your classroom, this might be the perfect strategy to try! This is exactly how I

Neil Gibbs

Leader of Academic P.E.

found myself getting into educational research.

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Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

How action research can improve your teaching

WHAT IS ACTION RESEARCH? Simply put, action research describes a research methodology used to diagnose and address problems. In a school setting, the teacher plays the role of the researcher, and the students represent the study participants. Action research is a meaningful way for a teacher to find out why students perform the way they do. The term “action research” was coined in 1933 by Kurt Lewin to describe a scenario in which a researcher and participants collaborate to solve a specific problem. Donald Schön developed this idea further with the term “reflective practitioner” to describe a researcher who thinks systematically about their practice. Educators have taken both of these ideas into the classroom to better serve their students.

Here is a look at the basic structure of an action research cycle: The teacher thinks about possible reasons students are having trouble.

The teacher collects and analyses data.

The teacher comes up with solutions to try.

The teacher analyses the solution.

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In this model, if the first solution is not effective, the cycle starts over again. The teacher recognises what remains of the problem and repeats the steps to collect more evidence and brainstorm new and different solutions. In view of the fact that the process is cyclical, the teacher can loop through the steps as many times as needed to find a solution.

Perhaps the best part of action research is that teachers can see which solutions have made a real impact on their students. Action research can be as informal or formal as you need it to be. Data is collected through observation, questioning, and discussion with students. Student work, photographs of your classroom at work, video interviews, and surveys are all valid forms of data. Students can be involved throughout the whole process, helping to solve the problem within the classroom.

I was able to show them that teachers can be lifelong learners, and that inquiry is a powerful way to enact change within the classroom.

25

HOW CAN ACTION RESEARCH BE IMPLEMENTED IN YOUR CLASSROOM?

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF ACTION RESEARCH? Using action research in my classroom allowed me to

I discovered action research through the International

involve students in the curriculum process. They were

Boys’ Schools Coalition (IBSC) research programme. Using

actively more engaged within the classroom and felt

action research allowed me to find real solutions for real

ownership of their learning.

issues in my classroom and enabled me to confidently drive through curriculum changes in KS3 P.E. The issue I chose to address was motivation in Year 8 P.E. and to see whether increasing student voice and choice would positively affect motivation. I developed a project based learning curriculum in which students were given an increased amount of choice in how they learnt and the outcomes they produced.

Students used Chromebooks to produce learning resources for primary school children. During the project, they were entirely self directed and were able to choose how they were going to present their work. To gather data, I observed and conducted student interviews. I found that using this style of curriculum increases student motivation, with many of them citing the increased responsibility and the freedom to choose as being the determining factors.

I was able to show them that teachers can be lifelong learners, and that inquiry is a powerful way to enact change within the classroom. The students cheered me on as I was writing and defending the results of my study. Plus, I was able to connect with them on a personal level, as we were all students. Furthermore, my teaching practice became more confident, and my understanding of education theory deepened.

Conducting action research also allowed me to become a leader in my community. I was able to present a way to be a reflective practitioner within my classroom and model it for other teachers. I shared my new knowledge with the other P.E. teachers in my school and invited them to try their own informal studies within their classrooms. Action research provides a way to use your new knowledge immediately in

Using action research in my classroom allowed me to involve students in the curriculum process.

They were actively more engaged within the classroom and felt ownership of their learning.

26

your classroom. It allows you to think critically about why and how you run your classrooms. What could be better?

This research and subsequent reflection process has opened up the opportunity for further research in this area, thus showing the truly cyclical nature of action research. As one question is answered, another is asked.

Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

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27

My MA Journey

Taking some time to reflect after my recent MA experience, I realised how many challenges I had overcome to actually get there. My journey started back in September 2004. I had been teaching for a year and began to be interested in my career moving towards a role involved in careers education, so decided to learn more about the area and an MA in Careers Education, Development and Guidance seemed like the best route. Two years into the course, my career path was taking quite a different route than I had initially thought and when it came to writing my dissertation, I realised it was not something I could get passionate about, so I made the decision to leave the course and was awarded a Post-Graduate Diploma.

Then, in 2008, I was presented with the opportunity to study for an MA in Advanced Educational Practices, which seemed like an interesting prospect. I had always wanted to do a Master’s degree and one focused on developing my teaching skills seemed like a valid option not achieve enough marks in an assignment to proceed with the course and needed to leave. I was disappointed, but looking back, I was not committing enough time to the course and it was not really the right time for me as I had just been promoted to a new leadership role.

Kelly Chalk

Head of Paterson House, PSHE Leader, Teacher of Business and Economics

so I went ahead with it. Sadly, in the second year I did

Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

My MA Journey

I had convinced myself at this point that maybe a Master’s qualification was not for me. I have always been a ‘middle-of-the-road’ student – never top or bottom of the class - and thought that a Post-Graduate Diploma was probably the furthest I was academically capable of.

However, in 2019 I started to look for a new challenge for myself and the idea of giving an MA another go would not leave me, so I decided to apply for an MA in Education at the University of Buckingham. I was particularly drawn to the course as it was part-time, distance learning and did not have pre-prescribed modules. I got to choose what areas of my practice I wanted to explore, and I found this aspect of freedom really exciting. It took some time to get back into good study habits and to remember how Harvard referencing worked again after 10 years away from study, and having a national lockdown start three weeks into your research project that involved outcomes for that year’s GCSE cohort was not ideal … but I adapted and embraced the unusual challenges that 2020 presented in educational research. Not only did I complete my MA, but I was awarded a Distinction, something I am incredibly proud of.

My MA journey reminds me a little of the story of Goldilocks

DOES IT TAKE A LOT OF TIME COMMITMENT? Yes. There is no denying that. I would say I spent about 10 hours a week working on course materials, reading, researching and writing up assignments but a lot more when it came to writing up the dissertation.

However, it did not feel like a chore – I found that the more into my chosen study area I got, the more I wanted to read and explore, and I actually really enjoyed the time I spent working on the course.

HOW DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE BENEFITTED? Throughout the process of obtaining an MA I have failed a few times but kept trying and I think this is a really positive message. Sometimes we fail because it’s the wrong time or the wrong task – that doesn’t mean we are a failure and that was a huge lesson for me to take away as I have always struggled with areas of self-doubt.

I have learnt that I am more capable than I give myself credit for and I feel so much more confident as a teacher now, not necessarily just within my area of research, but in general, and I have really felt a difference in myself in the classroom over the last year as a result.

and the Three Bears – the first attempt was not the right subject area; the second attempt was at the wrong time and the third attempt was just right. I am now currently exploring a new research project as I am finding that I am missing studying, something I have unexpectedly developed a real passion for, and want to set myself a new challenge.

WHY DO A MASTER’S DEGREE? This is probably the question I have been asked the most. Everyone will have their own reasons for doing one. I think each time I have pursued an MA it has been for different reasons – to learn more about an area of interest, because I thought I had to learn more about how to teach to be successful but really, the

My MA journey reminds me a little of the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears – the first attempt was not the right subject area; the second attempt was at the wrong time and the third attempt was just right.

most important reason was that I wanted to do it to prove to myself I could and give myself a challenge.

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Do specific personality types elicit a better experience from cross-age peer assisted learning than others?

ABSTRACT This dissertation is an investigation into the relationship between personality type and the experience elicited from a cross-age peer-assisted learning programme.

The main focus investigated surrounds the increase in academic improvement measured through the use of Sander and Sanders (2006) Academic Behavioural Confidence (ABC) scale. Real-world research was conducted with students studying either business or economics at GCSE or A-level at a secondary level school in the UK. The project was impacted by the COVID-19

Kelly Chalk

Head of Paterson House, PSHE Leader, Teacher of Business and Economics

pandemic of 2020 and this is discussed throughout.

Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

Do specific personality types elicit a better experience from cross-age peer assisted learning than others?

Participants were asked to complete a pre-programme

All students study at least 11 GCSEs in Key Stage 4, and in

survey which allowed their personality type to be

the Sixth Form, students will study three or four A level

identified, as well as their baseline scores on the ABC

subjects, plus undertake enrichment courses such as MOOCs

scale recorded. At the end of the cross-age peer-assisted

(Massive Open Online Courses), EPQ (Extended Project

learning programme participants were asked to complete

Qualification) and AS (Advanced Subsidiary) qualifications.

a post-programme survey to identify their scores on the ABC scale, as well as provide qualitative data on their experiences of being involved in the programme. The study revealed that whilst there is no clear relationship between personality type and areas of increase in ABC scale measurements, the findings did suggest that personality type can influence those who participate in voluntary peer-assisted learning programmes. The student responses to the post-programme surveys indicate that the experience elicited from the cross-age peer-assisted learning programme should be measured in other ways than through the use of the ABC scale, as the quantitative and qualitative data gathered contained areas of contradiction.

The project provides recommendations based on the data analysis conducted, as well as offering suggestions of areas for further development and research.

INTRODUCTION ‘He who teaches others teaches himself’ Comenius (1623) cited in Bowermaster (1986, p. 20) BACKGROUND TO RESEARCH PROPOSAL In my role as a teacher of business and economics, I exclusively teach examination level classes (GCSE and A level) and consequently, one of my main roles is to fully support my students to help them achieve the best academic attainment possible. From initial research into peer-assisted learning programmes, I identified that they were often attributed to leading to increased academic gains. I became interested in exploring how to introduce a successful peer-assisted learning programme within my department to help meet my aim of supporting my students with their academic progress.

SCHOOL SETTING My school setting is a selective single-sex (male) state grammar school accepting students from the top 35% ability range in the UK. There are approximately 1250 students in Years 7-13, which includes around 400 in the Sixth Form.

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Peer-assisted learning programmes are a very common feature throughout the school. Many departments in my school setting use more capable or older, more experienced students to provide support to those who need it to assist with increased academic performance.

These programmes are available throughout Years 7-13 in subjects including Mathematics, History, Chemistry and Spanish. Each department manages its own programme to meet the needs of their learners.

I have discussed peer-assisted learning with colleagues who speak positively about the programmes they offer within their departments, yet no formal research has been done about the impact of these on the students involved. Anecdotally, teachers have said that they find the assessment grades increase in those being supported by a peer, but I have often wondered if these programmes do work or if other factors would lead to any increases in grades achieved by participants.

RELEVANCE TO PRACTICE In a time where schools are measured on student outcomes including progress 8, and 16 -18 performance scores (Department for Education, 2016), peer learning methods provide a relatively inexpensive way of supporting those students who may be at risk of underachievement. Boud (2001) comments that ‘At a time when university resources are stretched and demands upon staff are increasing, it [peer learning] offers students the opportunity to learn from each other’ (p. 7). Although this quotation relates to university resources, the same can be said for secondary schools. With the demands on teachers and their time increasing (Tapper, 2018) every available resource needs to be used to maximise the skills students are gaining during their time in education. I have personally witnessed the increasing demands on teachers’ time and resources over my 17-year teaching career, and peer learning methods seem to offer a tool for educators to use to provide additional assistance to students on an individual basis around current teaching requirements with minimal impact on time. McMaster et al., (2006) 31

states that ‘Peer tutoring makes use of one of the greatest

We are becoming more aware of the students’ own

resources in our schools, the students themselves’ (p. 22).

capabilities to be active participants in their education

NATIONAL PRIORITY In 2016, the Education Secretary Nicky Morgan set out her priorities for Character Education in schools (Morgan, 2016). By November 2019 this had been developed into DfE guidance for schools where character was identified through a range of enabling traits which can improve educational attainment, engagement with school and attendance. (Department for Education, 2019, p. 7).

These traits include motivation, honesty, integrity, selfefficacy and resilience. My school setting, in recent years, has introduced a learning strategy used by teachers to develop the character of our students and support them in preparation for future life. One aspect of this strategy relates to the students taking ownership of their learning.

Peer support interventions have been linked to

(Fogarty and Wang, 1982).

Peer-assisted learning creates a link between national priorities for developing character, the learning strategy based on this within my school setting and the belief that students should be involved in their educational progress.

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT The aim of this project changed following the literature review, a development that is a normal part of the research process (Thomas, 2017). I initially set out to learn about best practice when running peer-assisted learning programmes to support my attempt to set up a new programme to support my learners’ academic progress. However, when reflecting on the literature review, potential research methodologies and my own developmental priorities, I found my questions and interest in peer-assisted learning shifted.

increases in students’ ownership skills (Williamson and Becejac, 2018; Johnson, 2011; Boud, 2001) due to the collaborative learning opportunities they present.

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Do specific personality types elicit a better experience from cross-age peer assisted learning than others?

The research questions for this project are as follows: Main question: 1. Do specific personality types elicit a better experience from cross-age peer assisted learning (CAPAL)

This significantly impacted the research phase of the project. This issue is addressed further in the limitations and ethical consideration.

Scan this QR code to access the full research paper.

than others?

Sub research questions: a) Do specific personality types benefit in different Academic Behavioural Confidence (ABC) statements when involved in cross-age peer assisted learning? b) Do changes in ABC statements for mentors and mentees with the same personality type correlate when involved in cross-age peer assisted learning?

It is important to note that this project was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. This resulted in a national lockdown with educational establishments moving from physical teaching to remote teaching in the vast majority of cases. The GCSE and A level examinations for the June 2020 session were cancelled and the educational landscape changed overnight.

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In what ways does AGS create an anti-racist environment without having a representative staff force?

LITERATURE REVIEW Research highlights the importance of diversifying the teaching force in order to provide more varied role models for students and raise attainment (Maylor, 2009).

But how important is this for schools to implement?

Aylesbury Grammar School is a diverse school, with 54% (Table 1 and Table 2) of the current student population from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds.

However, only 3% of teachers come from ethnic minority backgrounds. In this research, I explore the additional ways AGS aims to create an anti-racist environment to explore whether teacher representation is as important as earlier studies have suggested. This report explores the relevant literature and details the data collection and ethics, before discussing the findings and concluding with some further research recommendations. I structure this literature review from micro, exploring notions

Juliette Wise

Teacher of Classics

of race, to the macro, looking at racism in schools.

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Entry year

05

06

07

08

09

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

% BAME

10

18

18

17

22

23

27

28

27

29

37

31

45

45

57

54

Table 1: 1 Breakdown of student population

Sept 2020

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

White (British and other)

42

42

53

51

68

61

66

Asian (Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani, other)

38

40

30

31

19

25

22

Black (African, Caribbean, other)

6

8

7

9

3

7

4

Mixed

8

7

6

4

7

5

5

Chinese

2

2

2

1

2

0

1

Other

2

0

0

2

0

0

0

Not specified/refused

2

1

2

2

1

2

2

Table 2: 2 Breakdown of student population by year group

DEFINING KEY TERMS It is important to acknowledge that notions of race are socially constructed and are hard to define. Due to the length of this report, I will bypass the discussions about language when referring to racial groups, specifically the frequently used acronyms BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) and BME (Black and Minority Ethnic). These terms are widely criticised for their totalising nature, as they combine individuals of different behavioural, cultural, social and geographical backgrounds and assimilate them into one group (Bunce, 2019). Using the appropriate language in this area is controversial, and thus I will use ‘ethnic minority groups’ (EMG) when discussing wider ethnic groups, and specific groups by name. In line with the Department of Education (2018), I will use the major groups: White, Black, Mixed, Asian, Chinese, and Other.

Britain is now more ethnically, racially and religiously diverse than ever (Byrne et al. 2020). The recent census (ONS, 2011) noted that under 20% of the UK’s population

Throughout this research I refer to anti-racism, defined as an “active and conscious effort to work against multidimensional aspects of racism” (Patterson cited in CCR Global, 2021). The evolving usage of anti-racism is rooted in action and goes beyond being ‘not racist’.

These include empowering teachers with the tools to challenge racial injustices, providing teaching resources for educating for equality, diversity and tolerance and instigating a national dialogue about racism in the education system.

self-identifies as something other than White British. The DfE (2018) note that 26% of all primary and secondary schools are made up of Black students, in contrast to the 6% reported in the 2011 census. It is important to acknowledge that the most recent census is now 10 years old as the next one is due in 2021, where statistics will likely change again.

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EDUCATIONAL DISADVANTAGE Historically, ethnic minority students have faced significant educational challenges compared to their white counterparts, specifically seen through academic attainment in exam results. Whilst some Chinese and Indian pupils are now seen as the highest performing in statistics from exams, Kirby and Cullinane state that “Black pupils are the lowest performing major ethnic group”. Chinese pupils are the highest attaining ethnic group, whereby 75.3% of students achieve 9-5 in English and Maths at GCSE. In contrast, 38.8% of Black students (Figure 1) achieve the same (DfE, 2019).

Other explanations for the underperformance of EMGs are seen through the culture and curricular norms.

Concerns over representation in the curriculum are shared in many communities, for example, in the ways the National Curriculum depicts (or does not) Black history and colonialism (Kirby and Cullinane, 2016). This is corroborated in Joseph-Salisbury’s (2020) research in the Greater Manchester area. Through interviews with teachers, he emphasised that the school curricula often failed to reflect the diversity of contemporary society and racist underpinnings of Britain.

When looking at educational disadvantage, it is also important to consider how these inequalities are exacerbated by intersectional constructs, such as gender, social class, disability and sexual orientation. Byrne et al. (2020) emphasise that “we have an increasingly complex and fragmented tapestry of inequality within and between EMGs; a picture further fractured by intersectional considerations” (p.10). It is important to consider the disproportionate outcomes for different EMGs and how these could be affected by racism.

Figure 1:1 Percentage achieving 9-5 English and maths by major ethnic group (DfE, 2019)

EXPLANATION OF THE ATTAINMENT GAP Kirby and Cullinane (2016) suggest that there are three explanations for attainment differences by ethnic groups:

There is a clear disparity with the background of teachers in schools and the students they teach

parent/pupil aspirations, socio-economic inequalities, and cultural norms. Greater parental and pupil involvement with schooling can positively impact attainment, particularly parents with high aspirations, for example, through the increased usage of private tutors. However, aspirations are limited by socio-economic inequalities.

Using Bourdieu’s (1986) lens of cultural capital, environments that contribute a positive attitude towards schooling are more commonly found in middle class homes. For example, having spaces with low levels of noise for schoolwork, the presence of books around the home, provision of home computers and affording private tutors. This has become particularly prominent during the COVID-19 pandemic, where students have had vastly different experience of remote learning, dependent on their access to technology (Bayrakdar and Guveli, 2020).

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RACISM IN SCHOOLS

TEACHER REPRESENTATION

Schools are a key site where “both the maintenance of

It is important to note that the teaching workforce is not

entrenched racial stereotyping and discrimination, on the

proportionate to the students they teach, described by

one hand, and anti-racist activism, on the other” (Byrne et

Joseph-Salisbury as “overwhelmingly white” (2020, p.2).

al. 2020, p.94) occurs. Racism in schools is still a significant

According to the Department for Education (DfE, 2018), 86.2%

issue (Haque, 2017), manifesting on structural, institutional

of the teacher workforce are White British and 92% of head

and interpersonal levels. In line with the Race Equality Act

teachers in state-funded schools are White British. The

(2010), schools must ensure “pupils of all races are not

NASUWT and Runnymede Trust report (Haque, 2017) referred

singled out for different and less favourable treatment”.

to the “chronic shortage” (p.9) of BME teachers. BME teachers

Structural and institutional racism persists through the processes and procedures that disadvantage certain groups and their educational attainment. Byrne et al. (2020) emphasise that “structural barriers have prevented ethnic minorities representation and visibilities across institutions (p.125). For example, seen through an ethnocentric national curriculum, “hidden culture” of schools, discriminatory practices of uniform as well as a lack of a diverse teaching staff and leadership team (Joseph-Salisbury, 2017).

Interpersonal racism is seen through the relationships students have with each other and with their teachers, poor

are significantly underrepresented in British schools, with sparse literature on Black teachers (Wallace, 2020, p.346).

This is supported by Rhodes (2017) who detailed that only 13% of teachers in state-funded schools are from a BME background compared to the 27% of students that attend them. There is a clear disparity with the background of teachers in schools and the students they teach. Haque (2017) further adds that there is a significant geographical variation, and areas with diverse pupil populations are missing out on BME teachers. For example, in the North East, the proportion of BME students is up to “eight times more than the BME teachers in the area” (p.19) (Figure 2).

teacher expectations, stereotyping and higher levels for exclusions for certain EMGs. Bulman (2018) reported that the number of hate crimes in or around school increased from 568 in 2017 to 919 in 2018. We cannot attribute this increase to just a greater number of crimes, as this could also reflect a wider shift and acknowledgment of racism, and therefore the significance of hate crimes. There is limited quantitative data detailing the extent and frequency of racism in schools.

The intersection of all three levels of racism is seen explicitly through EMG teachers. Haque (2017) emphasises that whilst they are ‘passionate’ about teaching, they are struggling with the conscious and unconscious racial discrimination they face in schools. The reported incidences of interpersonal discrimination suggest that racism pervades “the teaching profession, and indeed the education system as a whole” (p.20). The recommendations Haque makes includes “challenging all forms of racism and discrimination in the workplace” across the education system. These include empowering teachers with the tools to challenge racial injustices, providing teaching resources for educating for equality, diversity and tolerance and instigating a national dialogue about racism in the education system.

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Figure 2: 2 Diversity gaps between BME teachers and pupils across the regions (Haque, 2017 p.11)

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There is further disparity in positions of leadership, markedly seen between the percentage of white males (18.3%) compared to BME males (8.7%) who are in senior roles. In an annual survey, recording responses from over 12,000 teachers, Haque (2017) revealed that 62% of teachers did not believe that schools treated BME pupils fairly and 60% felt schools do not respect BME teachers. The real-life impact of this is seen in Joseph-Salisbury (2020)’s study as every interviewee discussed the lack of racial diversity in the teaching staff, and the implications within their schools.

It is also important to ensure that representation is seen on all levels, including leadership teams. Wallace (2020) refers to this as the “diversity trap” (p.346) as whilst there is an emphasis on increasing the diversity of teachers, many are confined to roles within social and care roles.

TEACHERS AS ROLE MODELS Teachers can play an integral role in shaping experiences and outcomes of BME students (Crozier 2005, Maylor et al.

2006, Maylor 2009). Since the Swann Report (1985), many argued that government and school officials used Black teachers as appropriate role models for Black students as they are “better able to handle black pupils” (Evans 1988, p.184 cited in Wallace 2020 p.349). Whilst teachers can be an essential role model and can raise aspirations (Carrington and Skelton, 2003) for BME students, it is important not to feed into tropes that BME students have low aspirations and lack role models. Maylor (2009) found that the recruitment of BME teachers does not automatically mean that they are accepted or recognised as appropriate role models by all Black pupils.

This is supported by Wilkins and Lall (2011) who state that even when BME teachers are not in lower-level leadership roles, they are regularly expected to serve as role models for Black students to raise aspirations.

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It is often assumed that recruiting Black teachers to match

Moreover, it is central that all teachers understand

the students is seen as the “panacea” (Carrington and

that being anti-racist is an ongoing process of learning

Skelton, 2003, p.253) to solving Black underachievement.

and unlearning, and not simply reading texts.

But this is flawed as it assumes that all Black teachers are committed to improving Black students’ aspirations and teachers to serve as role models for positive masculinities is

DEVELOPMENT OF RESEARCH QUESTIONS

“a largely compensatory and micro-level practice to redress

As Joseph-Salisbury (2020, p.4) noted, the majority

historic racial inequality” (Wallace 2020, p.350). The notion

of academic research focuses on racial disparities in

that Black teachers will improve Black pupils’ outcomes

educational attainment and exclusions. The main focus of

is grounded in racial essentialism (Maylor, 2009). This

this policy centres on the perceived ‘underachievement’ of

highlights how often the responsibility of racial disadvantage

certain EMGs. This is usually linked to a deficit model of EMG

and educating about anti-racism is placed upon those who

pupils. However, the purpose of schooling and education

experience it. Wallace (2020) concludes that “it should never

is not simply exam results, and it is important to examine

be assumed that each and every teacher of ethnic minority

education beyond attainment with a more holistic lens.

achievements. Wallace argues that relying on Black male

origin will be able or willing to accept this role” (p.603).

There is particularly limited research that explores the One of the most significant issues of institutional racism

everyday reality and lived experience of these students

is seen through the expectations of teachers regarding

in education, and the racism they face. Byrne et al. (2020)

pupils’ behaviour and attainment. There are “long

capture this, concluding that “ethnic inequalities persist

standing concerns… on teachers’ stereotypes and low

across the education system in Britain, despite changing

expectations, particularly of Black Caribbean students”

demographics in UK schools” (p.124). AGS is a great example

(Byrne et al., 2020, p.109). This is particularly pertinent

of a changing demographic, as the current Year 7 cohort has

with no exams in 2020 and 2021, due to COVID-19, and

four times the number of EMG students as the current Year

students’ grades being determined by teachers.

13 (Table 2). With a 55% EMG population, I was interested

TEACHER TRAINING AND RACIAL LITERACY However, Joseph-Salisbury (2020, p.7) adds that simply increasing the number of teachers from BME backgrounds cannot be seen as a “panacea” (p.7) for solving deep rooted

to see what the experiences of these students were and how they were supported in a school with only a 3% EMG teaching staff. This led me to the following questions: How does Aylesbury Grammar School create an

institutional racism in education. He argues that without

anti-racist environment?

“increasing the racial literacy of all teachers” (2020, p.2),

Is there any impact of having a disproportionate

no real change will be made. He defines racial literacy

diversity between the student and staff body?

as “the capacity of teachers to understand the ways in which race and racisms work in society” (2020, p.2). It is the responsibility of every teacher to educate on antiracism within the community, and not solely the job of BME teachers. Joseph-Salisbury (2020) found through interviews that teacher training experiences varied significantly in how they addressed race. This supports work by Alexander et al. (2015) and Bhopal and Ramie (2014) who found that trainee teachers were often ill-equipped to negotiate race, equity and diversity in school settings. Therefore, teacher training needs to include readings and sessions educating about the pervasiveness of structural racism.

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ETHICS AND DATA COLLECTION ETHICS

Using this data, I devised a list of interview questions.

Four members of the ACE agreed to participate including two classroom teachers and two members of the senior leadership team. I conducted a 40-minute interview online,

In line with the standards stipulated by King’s College

using semi-structured questions to initiate a conversation.

London, I have ensured that the research conducted

As this was not recorded, I took notes throughout. Using

was ethical. Ethical considerations are an imperative

these notes, and initial findings, I adapted the set of

consideration when conducting any research (Cohen et al.,

questions to use as prompts for the interview with

2007). I obtained informed oral consent from all interview

students. Three students volunteered to participate.

participants in the study. All participants were made

Two of these students are Black and one is White.

aware of their rights to withdraw at any point and the right to refuse to answer any question they did not want to.

The names of all participants have been anonymised to ensure their identity is protected. As all interviews were conducted online due to remote learning, no recordings of

Although I had semi-structured interview questions pre-planned, I wanted to create the space where participants could digress and discuss wider issues beyond the specific question asked. I therefore structured the questions for

the interviews were made to ensure identity protection.

teachers in three sections: asking about their teacher

DATA COLLECTION

for Equality (ACE). For the students, questions were

For this study, a combination of qualitative and quantitative

structured around their experience at AGS, Anti-racism and

data was collected and analysed. The research questions focused on the experiences and lived reality of students, and therefore is predominately qualitative, aiming to fill the knowledge gaps that quantitative data has. The interview method was chosen as interviews provide a more in-depth insight into individuals’ thoughts and feelings, as well as room for explanations. Hochschild (2009) highlights how interviews enable us to explore issues in

training, pupil support in school and the Action Committee

racial literacy, and representation in the school. These will be explained in detail in the findings section.

I purposely did not tell the participants what the exact focus of the study was, to minimise any confirmation bias that could occur. I introduced the study in its broadest scope of exploring students’ experience of AGS in the context of anti-racism.

depth, “finding out how people frame their views, why

Using the notes, I coded the data using the thematic

they hold those views, and how they make connections”

framework approach. The framework approach can be

(p.125), doing what quantitative data cannot do.

adapted to a deductive, inductive or combined approach

When I first approached a staff member who was part of the Action Committee for Equality (ACE), we had an informal interview discussing the nature of the committee and what they had done so far. They gave me the latest data the ACE collected as part of their own research. I started off analysing these numbers and seeing what patterns could be interpreted, for example, whether there were any links between reported ethnicity and academic results, sports team representation and prefects.

to data (Gale et al., 2013, p.3). I firstly deductively used themes established in the literature review to find key themes in the interview notes. I then went through the notes and inductively identified further themes that emerged from the discussions (See Appendix 2.2).

WEAKNESSES OF METHODOLOGY Due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, the nature of this research changed significantly. I conducted online interviews with a volunteer group of teachers and students in their lunchbreak. However, this may have limited the number of participants willing to volunteer, as the interviews took up the “break” from screen time they had. The number of students who participated was very small and therefore their opinions cannot be generalised to the wider student population.

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Moreover, due to safeguarding, the student interviews took

that there are no significant data differences in terms of race

place online but with a staff member present. Although the

and academic grades and outcomes. This is not surprising

staff member had their video turned off and was muted,

given the school is an academically selective grammar

their presence could have influenced what the students felt

school. But what is the data missing and what isn’t visible?

comfortable saying and discussing.

Due to the recent conception of the committee, the first

I must also acknowledge my own biases of investigating

step the ACE did was to conduct a thorough investigation

issues of race, as a white woman, and that speaking to

critically analysing the processes and norms in place. This

EMG students is already subject to researcher bias. Despite

was initiated through the introduction of a curriculum

trying to create an honest and judgement free environment,

review across every department. Through discussions and

students may have predisposed beliefs, ideas or thoughts.

preliminary data, the ACE also created a list of research

There is also an inherent difficulty of this study, as whilst I tried to reduce the amount of bias, all participants were part of the ACE and therefore already have an interest in this area. This presents a self-selecting group of volunteers.

questions and potential areas to explore. Whilst the curricula review is ongoing, it is up to teachers to update and adapt their presentations and reflect critically on their subject and how they can make it more inclusive.

As all participants were already aware of and invested in anti-racist discussions, this cannot be generalised to all staff members and students.

FINDINGS, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION I will discuss the findings with a thematic structure to mirror my literature review. The perspectives of students and teachers will be discussed alongside each other, triangulated

It is clear that AGS is able to provide an environment that celebrates open and honest discussions.

with the data from AGS. I will structure the findings by first explaining the school structures that interrogate anti-racism, before exploring the student experience of racism in AGS and how the school responds and supports students.

ACTION COMMITTEE FOR EQUALITY After the murder of George Floyd, AGS posted a commitment to racial equality through forming the Action Committee for Equality (ACE) in September 2020. The committee aims to make actionable progress on the “equity of opportunity from disadvantaged backgrounds” with a different focus each year. The focus of 2020/21 is race. It consists of a staff committee of 12, a student committee of 12 including the Year 13 leadership team and anyone else interested, and an alumni consultation. The staff committee explores potential issues, devises research questions and aims to challenge the traditional norms and values. The student committee is centred on discussion and education of peers, with a Year 10 focus group to consult. AGS uses a range of stakeholders to maximise impact, but most importantly puts student experience at the core, ensuring they have space to talk and are listened to. The staff committee conducts research and data analysis within the school. They report w: ags.bucks.sch.uk

41

TERMINOLOGY AND RACIAL LITERACY

EXPERIENCE OF RACISM IN SCHOOL

In both interviews, it is clear that the terminology used

Supporting Byrne et al. 2020 research, it transpired

in discussions about racism must be clearly defined.

throughout the interviews that AGS is a site that pursues

Supporting Bunce (2019), the student interviews exposed

anti-racist activism yet discriminatory incidents take

that terms like BME are too wide and encompassing. One

place (p.94). When asked if they thought AGS is an anti-

student remarked, “BME is a lot of people of different

racist school yet, all students hesitated for a long time,

races, and each group experiences differently and has

before one student said, “No, I don’t think so. If anti-

different challenges”. The data provided by the School

racism means to actively stop it, then I guess no. But I

uses BME as a marker but acknowledges that this is a

don’t think it is a racist school…it is just not anti-racist”.

problematic construct. Data is also categorised in line with

Another student echoed that whilst the staff are making

the DfE Major groups: White, Asian and Black. The school

concentrated efforts, “the school is made up of more than

self-reports that 54% of students are BME in 2020, over

the staff…I don’t believe all students are anti-racist…”.

double that of 2010 (23%). The increase of students from ethnic minority backgrounds is significant and therefore requires the appropriate language to discuss inequalities.

However, the students interviewed believed that racist incidents at AGS didn’t come in the form of “explicit attacks”. All students discussed that racism

Joseph-Salisbury argues that it is imperative to increase the

is experienced through “informal, covered remarks

racial literacy of all teachers (2020) in order to enact real

or preconceptions…. mostly microaggressions”. One

change and an anti-racist environment. When asked what

student remembered comments made by peers in a

the racial literacy of staff at AGS was like, staff were quick

geography class that relied on racist preconceptions. It

to note that it varied. Whilst the ACE is acutely aware of the

was noted that this was mostly an age-related experience

importance of improving racial literacy (they describe this

where younger students understand the meaning and

as a central aim of the committee), there are others who do

implication of racism in a less sophisticated way.

not realise the value. Each teacher interviewed explained that they experienced no direct preparation or discussion

OPEN AND HONEST CONVERSATIONS

about issues of race, equity and diversity on their training

The aim of the ACE is to create an anti-racist school. This

routes. This supports research by Bhopal and Ramie (2014)

has been primarily developed by creating an atmosphere

that trainee teachers are often ill-equipped to negotiate race

that encourages open and honest conversations. During the

in school settings. As one teacher remarked, “First teachers

interviews, teachers remarked that “It is really important to

need to have some element of knowledge and training”,

challenge the norms and create the space and forums for

which AGS aimed to do through targeted INSET days and

discussions”. Through the formation of the ACE, Year 10 and

professional development sessions. The PSHE and Personal

13 discussion groups, AGS has aimed to provide room for

Development curriculum also evolved to ensure student

real conversation and actual change. Members of the ACE

and staff understandings of key terminology, and racism

saw their role as “attacking the roots of racism rather than

went beyond surface level discussion. The ACE presented

just supporting students”, highlighting that members of the

their research and findings at the start of Spring term. One

ACE are focused on making AGS an anti-racist environment.

teacher explained they are at “the start of the journey”, and that they are beginning to develop the racial literacy

Both teachers and students discussed how Year 13 students

of each individual, and that progress has been made.

have used their role as leaders of the school effectively

Wallace (2020) concludes that it is the responsibility

he gave to each Year 8 form following a racist incident. He

of every teacher to address racism and it should never

explained how he tried to hit a balance of educating and to

be assumed that every teacher of ethnic minority

“set a principle that they need to understand”. The assembly

origin will take responsibility for educating. AGS

was praised greatly by staff members and seen as a positive

takes this in their stride, aiming to appropriately

and engaging way to create an anti-racist environment

educate and train every member of staff.

amongst students. The student explained that students “are

with younger students. One student described an assembly

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as it hit 2-3 people out of 100, it’s had a positive impact”.

Students discussed the importance of having conversations as “it is only through conversations that people’s minds can change…. best for students to try and understand each other more and to reflect on their own faults and opinions”.

This highlights the importance of creating a school culture with open and honest conversations, and how AGS has utilised passionate students to create that change.

ROLE OF TEACHERS AND ROLE MODELS One of the central deductive themes of this research project is the role of teachers in shaping experiences and outcomes of BME students (Maylor et al., 2009). During the interviews with teachers, I asked them what they saw their role and priorities as. Each teacher focused on the “individual relationships” and forming connections with students, listening to their experiences in order to look after and understand the needs of the individual. Given the context of AGS, where only 3% of teachers are identified as EMG compared to 54% of the students, are they actually able to listen and understand the needs of their students?

The teachers interviewed believed that students have “a lot of confidence in all the teachers that they have… they trust and respect members of staff whatever their background or

TEACHER REPRESENTATION Without wanting to disclose the focus of the study, I delayed asking students whether they noticed, “A different demographic of teaching staff compared to the students” until the end of the interview. After a very long pause, one student said there are more female teachers than male teachers. As AGS is an all-boys school, acknowledging the different gender of teachers is not too surprising. I had assumed that students would have recognised the lack of diversity of teachers, particularly students from Black and Asian backgrounds. After an even longer pause, one Black student exclaimed that there are “not many ethnic teachers… I can only think of three”. When I asked if they had thought about this before, both Black students said it had “not crossed my mind” and “hasn’t affected me”. AGS currently has three teachers who come from Black or Asian backgrounds – 3% of the total teaching staff. Research assumes that Black students rely on Black teachers for role models and positive relationships (Maylor et al., 2009 and Wallace, 2020), however at AGS this does not appear to be the case for these students. Although, this could explain subconsciously why not all students felt comfortable confiding in their teachers.

origin”. This is corroborated by students who felt they had a lot of academic support from teachers and that when they confided in teachers, they responded in the desired way.

However, one Black student remarked that he could not confide in teachers outside of school subjects: “I can’t discuss things with them. I don’t feel comfortable… it wouldn’t be the first people I confide in”. Although he did not explain why, could the lack of Black teachers subconsciously influence this view? Although Maylor (2009) found that having Black teachers does not automatically mean they are accepted as role models by Black students, it is interesting to consider whether this student would have been more comfortable with a Black personal tutor.

AGS is acutely aware of the lack of diversity amongst the teaching staff and have changed job vacancy descriptions to focus on to focus on recruiting teachers from EMGs.

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CONCLUSION Even though AGS has a disparate number of staff from

FUTURE RESEARCH RECOMMENDATIONS

EMG backgrounds, they aim to create an anti-racist school

Future research might want to explore the impact of creating

environment through other measures. It is interesting

an anti-racist environment where the majority of students

that none of the students interviewed were aware of or

are white. In AGS, the diversity of the student population

noticed the representation of teachers. It is clear that

means that Black, Asian, Mixed and Chinese students make

AGS is able to provide an environment that celebrates

up half the population. This might explain why teacher

open and honest discussions. Creating this culture is one

backgrounds are not focused on so much in AGS, as students

of the recommendations by Haque (2017) to address and

may have never felt isolated or like a “fish out of water”

challenge “all forms of racism and discrimination”. When

(Reay, 2009). However, schools with a higher percentage

I asked the students what the most impactful ways to

of White students may experience higher levels of racism

talk about anti-racism is, the first thing they said was to

and have lower levels of support within the peer cohort.

“define microaggressions, anti-racism, racial literacy for all the students – this is the first step”. Although these students are part of the ACE, they openly admit to not knowing or understanding what all of these terms really meant a year ago. This supports work by Joseph-Salisbury (2020) who advocates that racial literacy is of central importance to creating an anti-racist school. This is

This is also a case study of one school, with a very small sample size and therefore cannot be generalised to wider schools. Due to the COVID restrictions, I was only able to talk with a limited number of students – future research should consider the opinions of more students and centralise the experience of ethnic minority students.

another central focus of the ACE and is being incorporated into PSHE and Personal Development curricula.

The creation and action of the ACE is at the core of creating an anti-racist environment. The committee is aware of their place, and understand it is a continual learning process, they are at the start of the anti-racist journey. One member commented that they are “in awe of just creating the committee and creating some kind of strategy and evaluating what the school does and having the honesty”. It is clear that AGS has made progress and addressed pertinent issues of racism within the school. However, this is a continual process, and although progress has been made it is only the start.

It is the responsibility of every teacher to educate on anti-racism within the community, and not solely the job of BME teachers

Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

In what ways does AGS create an anti-racist environment without having a representative staff force?

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Bayrakdar, S. and Guveli, A. (2020). ‘Inequalities in home learning and schools’ provision of distance teaching during school closure of COVID-19 lockdown in the UK’. ISER Working Paper Series, No. 2020-09, University of Essex, Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), Colchester Bhopal, K. and Rhamie, J. (2014). ‘Initial teacher training: understanding “race,” diversity and inclusion’, Race Ethnicity and Education, 17(3), pp. 304–325. doi: 10.1080/13613324.2013.832920.

Bourdieu, P. and Richardson, J.G., (1986). Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. The forms of capital, 241, p.258 Bulman, M. (2018) ‘Bulman, M. (2018). “Hate crime numbers in and around schools and colleges up 62% in a year, figures show”, The Independent, 29

Haque (2017). Visible Minorities, Invisible Teachers: BME Teachers in the Education System in England. London: NASUWT/ Runnymede Trust.’

Hochschild, J.L. (2009). Conducting intensive interviews and elite interviews.

Workshop on interdisciplinary standards for systematic qualitative research.

National Science Foundation.

Joseph-Salisbury, R. (2017). ‘Black Mixed-race Male Experiences of the UK Secondary School Curriculum’, The Journal of Negro Education, 86(4), p. 449. doi: 10.7709/jnegroeducation.86.4.0449.

Joseph-Salisbury, R. (2020). ‘Race and Racism in English Secondary Schools’, p.28.

Maylor, U. (2006). Black teachers in London. London: Greater London Authority.

Maylor, U. (2009). ‘“They do not relate to Black people like us”: Black teachers as role models for Black pupils’, Journal of Education Policy, 24(1), pp. 1–21. doi: 10.1080/02680930802382946.

January, Available from: www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/ hate-

Maylor, U., Great Britain and Department for Children, S. and F. (2009). Black

crime-schools-colleges-uk-education-rise-racism-lgbt-raceethnicity-a8183061.

children’s achievement programme evaluation. Nottingham: DCSF.

html (accessed 20 January 2021).’

Office for National Statistics, (2011). Census: Digitised Boundary Data (England

Bunce, L. et al. (2019). ‘Experiences of black and minority ethnic (BME)

and Wales) [computer file]. UK Data Service Census Support. Downloaded

students in higher education: applying self-determination theory to

from: https://borders.ukdataservice.ac.uk/

understand the BME attainment gap’, Studies in Higher Education, pp. 1–14. doi: 10.1080/03075079.2019.1643305.

Byrne, B. et al. (2020). Ethnicity, race and inequality in the UK: state of the nation. Available at: https://whel-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/ openurl/44WHELF_BANG/44WHELF_BANG_services_page?u.ignore_date_ coverage=true&rft.mms_id=991004899684402422 (Accessed: 20 January 2021).

Carrington, B. and Skelton, C. (2003). ‘Re-thinking “role models”: equal opportunities in teacher recruitment in England and Wales’, Journal of Education Policy, 18(3), pp. 253–265. doi: 10.1080/02680930305573.

Cohen, L., Manion, L. and Morrison, K. (2007). Research methods in education.

6th ed. London ; New York: Routledge.

CRR Global. (2021). World Work - CRR Global. [online] Available at: <https:// crrglobal.com/about/world-work/> [Accessed 6 February 2021].

Reay, D., Crozier, G. and Clayton, J., (2009). ‘Strangers in paradise’? Workingclass students in elite universities. Sociology, 43(6), pp.1103-1121 Rhodes, David (2017). ‘Schools need 68,000 extra BME teachers to reflect population’, BBC News, 12 July. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/ukengland-40568987 (Accessed: 3 January 2021).

Sims, J. P. and Joseph-Salisbury, R. (2019). ‘“We Were All Just the Black Kids”: Black Mixed-Race Men and the Importance of Adolescent Peer Groups for Identity Development’, Social Currents, 6(1), pp. 51–66. doi: 10.1177/2329496518797840.

Swann (1985). ‘Lord Swann, Education for All: The Report of the Committee of Inquiry Into the Education of Children from Ethnic Minority Groups, 1985’.

Wallace, D. (2020). ‘The diversity trap? Critical explorations of black male teachers’ negotiations of leadership and learning in London

Crozier, G. (2005) .‘“There’s a war against our children”: black educational

state schools’, Race Ethnicity and Education, 23(3), pp. 345–366. doi:

underachievement revisited’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 26(5),

10.1080/13613324.2019.1663977.

pp. 585–598. doi: 10.1080/01425690500293520.

Wilkins, C. and Lall, R., (2011). ‘You’ve got to be tough and I’m trying’:

DfE (Department for Education) (2018). ‘School teacher workforce’. www.

Black and minority ethnic student teachers’ experiences of initial teacher

ethnicity-facts-figures. service.gov.uk/workforce-and-business/workforce-

education. Race Ethnicity and Education, 14(3), pp.365-386.

diversity/school-teacher-workforce/latest#history DfE (Department for Education) (2019). Key stage 4 performance (2019) (revised) (2019) GOV.UK. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/ statistics/key-stage-4-performance-2019-revised (Accessed: 3 January 2021).

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Gale, N.K., (2013). Health G, Cameron E, Rashid S, Redwood S. Using the framework method for the analysis of qualitative data in multi-disciplinary health research. BMC Med Res Methodol, 13(117), pp.1-8.

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APPENDICES

STUDENTS

APPENDIX 2.1 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

EXPERIENCE OF AGS

Ethics

16. Please can you introduce yourself, your subjects/positions/extracurricular

This is not being recorded, but I am making notes

17. What is your experience of AGS so far?

All data is anonymised

18. Do you feel supported?

You have the right to withdraw at any time and you do not have to answer any question

ANTI-RACIST ENVIRONMENT

Verbal consent to participate

19. How is your relationship to the ACE committee?

TEACHERS

20. What do you understand by the term anti-racist?

1. Were race and diversity discussed during your

21. Do you think AGS is an anti-racist school?

training programme?

22. How much goes unreported?

2. Do you feel it prepared you for any issues you would encounter whilst

23. What do you understand by racial literacy?

teaching?

3. What do you see your role as a teacher as? What are your

OPEN COMMUNICATION

main priorities?

24. Do you feel able to communicate openly with your teachers?

4. How do you feel racial literacy is used amongst staff?

25. If there was one thing you were able to change?

5. What kind of things do you do to create psychological safety?

26. What is the common room/break time discussion like? Do you feel you can communicate openly with your peers?

PUPIL SUPPORT

27. When discussing race and ethnicity what do you think about terms such as

6. What patterns of race do you notice?

BAME and BME?

7. Do you think BME students feel supported here? How do

TEACHER REPRESENTATION

you know?

8. What do you think is the most important thing the school does to support Ss? 9. Have you noted a shift in discourse around race/ethnicity/disadvantage

28. What have you noticed about representation?

29. Have you noticed a different demographic of teaching staff compared to the students?

since last summer?

30. Is that something that you’ve thought about or not crossed your mind?

10. Do you think Ss notice/are aware of the teacher diversity/representation?

31. Do you think that makes a difference for younger Ss

Do you think it affects them?

32. Were either of you involved with the assembly?

11. How do you think remote learning influences teacher

33. Do you think with more of those opportunities AGS would become more of

assessed grades?

an anti-racist school?

ACE COMMITTEE

34. What are the most impactful ways to talk about antiracism?

12. Obviously the existence and role of the ACE Committee is already a step

35. Do you feel listened to?

in interrogating racism in the school – what future do you see? What do you

36. Any lasting comments or remarks about anything we’ve spoken about?

hope to achieve?

13. What do you see your main function is?

14. What are your biggest successes/things you’re proud of?

15. Any final thoughts?

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In what ways does AGS create an anti-racist environment without having a representative staff force?

APPENDIX 2.2 THEMATIC ANALYSIS

Research Questions:

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Creating an adaptive revision resource for GCSE physics

ABSTRACT Here I present a novel online revision tool for GCSE revision.

CONTEXT This is my second year as part of the AGS research group.

Having looked at using adaptive questioning last year I decided to extend this, creating automatically generated quizzes that adapt based on student progress. This gives students individual sets of questions that will change to provide new questions to them.

Previously, I found that students did well on module tests after having used adaptive questions to practise, although the effect was not statistically significant. However, these questions only branched to a few levels and didn’t automatically add more questions, leading to students all finishing at different times. I also wanted to include a way for students to get feedback on which questions they got wrong or right.

I chose this context as, in physics, use of practice questions is a commonly used method of revision. Doing questions acts as retrieval practice, where students have to recall previously learnt material in order to answer. It enables students to test their own knowledge, to find gaps and to become familiar with answering questions. The downside of using practice questions for revision is that it can be hard to source plenty of questions to meet the needs of students at a variety of levels. It can also be hard for students to choose the appropriate level of questions where choice is given. Thirdly, going through the answers to all

Amber Finn

Teacher of Physics and Computing

the questions can take up valuable time or alternatively

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giving the students access to the answers from the start can lead them to give up and look at the answers.

By the end of Year 10 most of the GCSE course content has already been covered during the preceding two years. This means that all of the equations that students are required to memorise can be tested in their exams at the end of Year 10. Most of the definitions of keywords are also covered by the end of Year 10 and can also be asked in the end of year exam.

Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

Creating an adaptive revision resource for GCSE physics

It has been shown that using technology in education can have a moderate positive effect on learning (Education Endowment Foundation, 2018), although also with a

INTERNAL

LITERATURE REVIEW

moderate financial cost. To be effective it is important to consider how the use of technology fits within the content and pedagogy of the existing curriculum. This is formalised by the TPACK framework (Harris et al., 2009), where TPACK stands for Technology, Pedagogy and Content Knowledge. The diagram in figure 1, shows how the three areas of knowledge are essential in order to use technology for learning effectively, such that the most appropriate technology is chosen to support

EXTERNAL

the pedagogy and enhance the content learning.

TOOL

USER

Tool Design

User Characteristic

Progress through modeling,

Prior knowledge

coaching, and weaning

Prior preparation

Provide scaffolding

Motivation to learn cognitive/

Develop adaptability

metacognitive skills

Include elements of

Self-efficacy and other

productive struggle

affective characteristics

Use formative assessment

Epistemological beliefs

Tool mplementation

User-Environment Interaction

Features to get student buy in

Self-management

Embed motivational features

Maximizing important

within self-study tools

activities that may not appear

Couple learning of

to be urgent (e.g. working on

different students via

a self-paced learning tool)

learning communities

Balancing coursework

Make explicit connection

and/or work

between self-paced learning

Family encouragement

and in-class activities

and support

Incentivise students to engage

Support and mentoring from

via motivational factors

teachers and support staff

Support students to manage their time Support students’ self-efficacy beliefs

Figure 2: Framework adapted from SELF (Self-Study for engaged learning framework) (DeVore et al., 2017)

This shows that an implementation should consider student buy in and motivational features among other things. It also shows the students’ previous knowledge Figure 1: TPACK Framework for effective use of technology in education (Matthew Koehler, 2012)

The use of some technology based tools has led to improved learning, such as in DeVore’s 2017 study:

and the support they need to be taken into account.

Other studies have also shown the effectiveness of digital learning to improve student outcomes such as Kulik and Fletcher, 2016 and Steenbergen-Hu and Cooper, 2013. The latter, however, showed that students with low previous

a self-study tool resulted in a statistically

attainment made less improvement, showing that digital

significant increase in average student

learning tools are not a panacea in and of themselves.

performance (DeVore et al., 2017).

However, in the same study they also found that students who are more likely to benefit from extra study time are also less likely to be motivated and lack the selfregulation skills required to engage with self-study tools. This emphasises the importance of not only how the tool is designed but also how it is implemented. A framework for tool design and implementation is shown in figure 2, based on the SELF framework from DeVore. w: ags.bucks.sch.uk

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One area that is rapidly advancing in digital technology

Using a Google Apps script, a Google form is populated

and being used in educational tools is the development

with questions from the spreadsheet. These are a

of knowledge graphs. Knowledge graphs are networks

mixture of equation and definition based multiple

of information, where concepts are connected together

choice questions. When the student completes a set of

to show their relationships. They are usually generated

questions and clicks submit, a mastery value for each

from an existing written body of knowledge using

question answered is changed if they answer correctly.

artificial intelligence. This automatically connects

New questions are then generated by the spreadsheet

key terms with their relationships. Devices such as

and the form is repopulated with new questions. As the

Amazon Alexa can make use of knowledge graphs to

mastery level of the student increases, more possible

understand questions and generate responses.

questions and rearrangements of equations are selected

Physics contains many related concepts, many of which can be thought of as variables, that is a quantity

from. The questions are weighted so that students will more often be asked questions they are getting wrong.

whose value can change. These variables are related

A knowledge graph of variables and the equations

to each other by equations, such that unknown

(as they occur in GCSE core text) was created, with

quantities can be calculated from known ones.

each variable linked to all the equations they occur

Creating knowledge graphs of educational content is an area of active research (Qin et al., 2020). Knowledge graphs are also being used in physics to analyse large data sets generated by experiments and deduce physical relationships

in. This was used to propagate variable values, such that the value for force was always equal to the value of mass times by acceleration and the value of work done equal to force times distance covered.

between variables (Cranmer et al., 2019). Knowledge graphs can also be used to analyse students’ answers to questions in physics tests and to give them feedback and recommend further learning (Yongxian et al., 2021).

METHODOLOGY THE TOOL

APPS Google Sheet

Google Form

Generates questions based on equations, definitions and student progress

Displays questions and returns student responses to Sheet

Figure 4. A visual representation of part of the knowledge graph of the GCSE physics equations. Variables are shown in yellow and equations in blue.

When the Google form quiz repopulates with new questions, as well as seeing new questions on the Google form, the student will also have their answers

Figure 3: Schematic diagram of the three parts of the tool and how they interact with each other.

to the previous set of questions marked and correct answers given. There is a video item at the start of the form, which will be changed to a video about a

A Google sheets spreadsheet was created that generates

subtopic on which they got a question wrong.

questions based on the equations students are required to use for GCSE physics. Random numbers are used so that the questions are not the same twice. The spreadsheet also contains a bank of key word definitions and videos covering the course content. Each item is labelled by which topic and subtopic it relates to.

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Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

Creating an adaptive revision resource for GCSE physics

IMPLEMENTATION

RESULTS

The adaptive quiz tool was tested with Year 11 students

OBSERVATIONS

initially to check that it would work with a group of students and so feedback could be used to make improvements.

To test the use of the tool as a revision aid, it was used with a class of Year 10 students in the run up to their end of year physics exams. It was used in four consecutive lessons. Each student was set their own adaptive quiz, as the questions would change depending on their answers each time they submitted the form.

During the lessons I observed that most students were engaged with the task and that it enabled them to continue working at their own pace for as long as needed. However, students who I knew to be more motivated usually, were also more engaged with the task in this situation.

FUNCTION OF THE TOOL There were bugs in a few of the questions that meant they did not provide a correct option in the multiple

As students worked on the quizzes I could monitor their

choice questions; this meant this particular equation

progress. For this, data from the students’ individual

could not be used. There were rounding errors in some of

spreadsheets was pulled into a single spreadsheet showing

the options for the multiple choice equation questions

their average mastery for each subtopic. This was then used

which meant none of the options was exactly the right

to spend short periods (5-10 minutes) revising topics as a

answer, but the correct option was still close to the

whole class where more students were getting questions

real answer and so this posed little issue once the

wrong. As the questions were used for revision, and not

students were instructed to choose the closest option.

under test conditions, students were given assistance as requested and were consulting other sources of information, such as the course textbook, when they were stuck. Students were also able to complete the questions at their own pace.

It was clear from the data that some students completed sets of questions quicker than others. Other students also took breaks from doing questions to complete other revision tasks, such as making notes and reviewing content.

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It enables students to test their own knowledge, to find gaps and to become familiar with answering questions.

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EXAM RESULTS The end of year exam results showed that the test class had a lower average (normalised against their average test results for the year) compared to other sets although the difference was not statistically significant (Fig. 5). This shows that the implementation of the adaptive quizzes did not raise test scores.

Many students were satisfied with their progress and would use the tool for their own revision (Fig. 7). Some students in particular found it helpful, with one commenting:

on the whole, I would say that it was a great revision tool. I fully appreciate the time and effort you have invested into this.

Keep going with these adaptive revision quizzes Another student commented:

in general … it was really helpful and a resource I think I’ll find much more helpful in future revision

Figure 5: Scores on end of year exam 1 divided by their average test score for Year 10 (excluding end of year exams), error bar is the standard deviation of the averages for each set.

FEEDBACK Students in the test set were asked to fill in a survey about their participation. They were given statements and asked whether they strongly agreed, agreed, neither, disagreed or strongly disagreed.

When given statements about the level of the questions (Fig. 6) students mostly agreed or strongly agreed with statements implying that they could do the questions with little difficulty. This was consistent with the fact that most students were getting high scores on the questions, with an average of 9 out of 10 on the first set of questions.

Figure 7: Students’ response to two statements related to their use of the tool

However, many students didn’t agree that the feedback and videos that were included after a student submitted their answers were useful (Fig. 8). The majority of students neither agreed nor disagreed with the statement “I found the videos useful after I got something wrong”, but also many students were getting very few questions wrong. For the feedback given, which consisted of the student’s score and their marked answer for each question, most students disagreed that it was useful.

Figure 6: Students’ response to three statements on the level of difficulty of the questions (strongly agree and agree were pooled, as were strongly disagree and disagree)

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Figure 8. Student response to statements on the usefulness of individual feedback and videos

Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

Creating an adaptive revision resource for GCSE physics

CONCLUSIONS

NEXT STEPS

The use of the adaptive quizzes did not have a positive

I plan to continue to improve the tool, by improving the

impact on exam results. This could be due to the tool

feedback and support given when students get questions

itself or its implementation. Some of the limitations of the

wrong. More demanding questions will be included

tool that may have contributed to this are: the absence

by adding questions involving multiple equations and

of more difficult multi-step questions, and the lack of

steps, as well as by adding questions on diagrams.

diagram based questions. Also with current technology it is not yet possible to automatically mark longer written answers to questions meaning that this is not practised when using the tool. As was clear from student feedback, the use of videos to help students in areas where they made a mistake and the feedback given to students

To improve the implementation, I will research best practice for using technology in education. I will then plan a module of learning for a GCSE topic, which will integrate the use of technology throughout, and if appropriate use the tool within that for practice.

may not have helped them to improve as intended; this could be due to a lack of detail and specificity.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The implementation with the test set may also have

Cranmer, M. D., Xu, R., & Battaglia, P. (2019). Learning Symbolic Physics with

not been optimal. Although there are frameworks for

Graph Networks. ArXiv. Learning Symbolic Physics with Graph Networks

implementing technology in education (TPACK and SELF),

DeVore, S., Marshman, E., & Singh, C. (2017). Challenge of engaging all students

research on what good pedagogy using technology looks

via self-paced interactive electronic learning tutorials for introductory

like is very limited. Possibly, it would be better to use a

physics. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 13. https://doi.

single tool like this one less intensely but over a longer period of time.

org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.13.010127 Education Endowment Foundation. (2018). Teaching and Learning Toolkit Digital Technology. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-

Some students did get on well with using the tool, possibly

summaries/teaching-learning-toolkit/digital-technology/

as it allowed them to work at their own pace, giving them

Harris, J., Koehler, M., & Mishra, P. (2009). What Is Technological Pedagogical

a greater sense of control. The initial level of questions

Content Knowledge? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher

was good, but it could be more adaptive to support

Education, 9. Research gate.

students who find the questions hard and increase the

Kulik, J. A., & Fletcher, J. D. (2016, March 1). Effectiveness of Intelligent Tutoring

level of demand further and quicker for some students.

Systems: A Meta-Analytic Review. Review of Educational Research, 86(1).

One area that is rapidly advancing in digital technology and being used in educational tools is the development of knowledge graphs.

https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654315581420 Qin, Y., Cao, H., & Xue, L. (2020). Research and Application of Knowledge Graph in Teaching: Take the database course as an example. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1607. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1607/1/012127 Steenbergen-Hu, S., & Cooper, H. (2013). A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of intelligent tutoring systems on K–12 students’ mathematical learning.

Journal of Educational Psychology, 105(4), 970-987. https://doi.org/10.1037/ a0032447 Yongxian, W., Guozhu, J., & Ling, L. (2021). Design of Evaluation and Recommendation System for High School Physics Learning Based on Knowledge Graph. 2020 International Conference on Modern Education and Information Management. 10.1109/ICMEIM51375.2020.00183

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Conducting remote research on the challenges of remote teaching

INTRODUCTION The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on education over the past two academic years. I have experienced the disruption both as a teacher and also as a student. As a teacher, moving to remote teaching without notice, returning to School with restrictions, and teaching students in the classroom and via a webcam simultaneously. As a student I have experienced the impact COVID-19 has had whilst studying for my MA Education.

This academic year I have been completing my dissertation which is worth a third of my master’s degree. I expected this to consume a lot of my time, but this has been compounded by another period of remote teaching, designing remote data collection with face-to-face options being prohibited

by UCL, and the vast literature search and reading list with an ever-changing research topic. The moves in and out of remote teaching caused some ambiguity for me when deciding what to research for my dissertation, which then delayed my ability to focus on my final area of research.

Despite these challenges and having conducted Action Research in the past, I have found the rigour of the dissertation proposal, ethical considerations and data collection and analysis at master’s level to be a rewarding experience that has helped me to grow as a researcher

Katrina Blunt

Head of Year 7, Teacher of Mathematics

and teacher.

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Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

Conducting remote research on the challenges of remote teaching

My dissertation is entitled “The perceived challenges of adapting formative and summative assessment for emergency remote teaching: the COVID-19 pandemic in a UK Secondary Grammar School”. At time of writing, I have submitted a draft copy to UCL Institute of Education and so that I do not plagiarise my own work, I will be writing about my dissertation here

JANUARY TO MARCH 2021 Shortly after deciding on my area of research, the UK Government announced that schools would close to the majority of students again from 5th January 2021. This meant that I would likely have limited access to students which could make data collection more difficult.

rather than publishing any of it. This article will share

As I had experienced certain challenges when teaching

my experiences of studying during the pandemic.

remotely, I felt I wanted to look at this in a wider context

OCTOBER TO DECEMBER 2020 October 2020 saw the launch of the dissertation module and I had a good idea about the research I wanted to undertake. Throughout my course I had become interested in the number of assessments that students do throughout their schooling and whether firstly they are in position to thrive in this environment, and secondly if there is any link between test anxiety and performance in examinations that may impact their outcomes. I have explored these areas in two of my MA assignments and I had planned to conduct my dissertation in this area too.

However, circumstances changed when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. With external examinations being cancelled last academic year, I felt there was a risk it could happen again this year so it would not have been sensible to start a dissertation requiring examinations to happen if they could be cancelled, leaving me conducting a study which was not viable.

I explored other possible areas of study including student anxiety caused by the pandemic and whether different year groups had different levels of anxiety. For example, Year 7 students missing out on the usual transition to secondary school, Year 10s starting their GCSE courses having missed part of in-school teaching in Year 9, Year 11 anxiety regarding GCSE grades and how they would be awarded, the same for Year 13 students and their A-level grades, and Year 12s

and research the challenges other teachers had experienced too so I decided to focus my dissertation in this area.

Working with my tutor to finalise my research proposal and get it signed off took from December to March.

Whilst this felt like a long process, getting really clear and focused on my research topic helped me later with my literature review and data collection.

I planned to conduct the data collection when teaching was being carried out remotely, for example online lesson observations and teachers keeping diaries of their experiences. However, because of the time it took to complete my research proposal form, have it signed off by two tutors and also complete a full ethics process, teachers had returned to in-school teaching.

I have found the rigour of the dissertation proposal, ethical considerations and data collection and analysis at master’s level to be a rewarding experience that has helped me to grow as a researcher and teacher

starting their A-level courses having not sat their GCSEs. This felt like a broad topic area and one which I would need to focus down into a particular area of study.

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Whenever I have conducted research before, I would never have done anything intentionally unethical, however there are a number of areas that I had not previously considered fully from an ethical perspective. These included considering any implications of research participants being from the same school where I teach. As I would be sending out questionnaires and interviewing teachers at the school, some may not feel comfortable providing answers to me.

To mitigate against this, all participants were made aware throughout the research process that they could leave out

MARCH TO BEGINNING OF JULY 2021 The COVID-19 pandemic restricted my data collection options as UCL stipulated that face-to-face data collection methods must not be used this year. I therefore decided to use online questionnaires and semi-structured interviews using Google Meet. This was partly because I was familiar with these systems but also because the participants in my research were also familiar with them, removing the need to set anyone up on any new system.

questions that they did not want to answer, and they could

In June, after receiving consent from the Headmaster that

withdraw from the study at any time and have their data

I could conduct the research in school, the questionnaire

removed. I was also clear that any answers they gave me

went live. The questionnaire was used to collect quantitative

either on their questionnaire or during an interview would

and qualitative data, which gives me the numbers I crave

not be shared in any way that could be linked back to them.

as a maths teacher from the quantitative research and

I made it clear to the participants that the research was not

the rich insights that can come from the qualitative

designed to judge them in any way. Questionnaires were

methods. I sent the questionnaire to all teaching staff

to be conducted using Google Forms and responses were

and 31 teachers completed the questionnaire.

to be collected anonymously. The only question where respondents could be identified was a question asking if they would be willing to volunteer to be interviewed, but I provided an alternative method for people to contact me if

The questionnaire was split into a number of sections including questions about the respondents’ views on the purpose and feasibility of remote teaching, the

they did not want to put their name on their questionnaire.

purpose of formative assessment and strategies used

Consent was gained at a number of points in the

assess students formatively during remote teaching.

research process: consent for the research to go

There was also a section with questions about teachers’

ahead at AGS, consent from the questionnaire

use of summative assessment, again contrasting this

respondents and written consent from the

with any summative assessment that was carried out

interviewees prior to the interviews taking place.

remotely. The aim of the questionnaire was to ascertain

Another important consideration was the safety and security of data. Working at a school I had always assumed that anything saved on the school system was secure, however for the ethics process I had to make

in the physical classroom contrasted with the ability to

the challenges that teachers perceived, how they overcame them and whether their adaptations were successful. The questionnaire also had the aim to recruit participants for an interview stage of the research.

sure this was the case. I spoke to the IT department

The interviews took place in July via Google Meet and

about keeping the questionnaire data and interview

they gave me the opportunity to ask questions and

recordings safe and secure, and this included finding out

hear the experiences of teachers from a number of

the location of data centres where the data is stored.

different departments across the school. One area

The dissemination of results has to also be considered from an ethical perspective, ensuring that participants cannot be identified, and that if any data is used for further studies that participants are aware of this up front.

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I felt was lacking from the questionnaire was how successful teachers felt their assessment had been during remote teaching, as I did not include enough questions on this. I therefore ensured that I asked about this when collecting qualitative data during interview.

Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

Conducting remote research on the challenges of remote teaching

MID-JULY TO SEPTEMBER 2021 At time of writing, I have submitted a draft dissertation of just over 14,000 words and I expect to receive some feedback from my tutor by the end of July. I know there is a lot of work to do to get the final version written (20,000 words) which will include further analysis of the data, transcribing interviews, writing up the quantitative and qualitative results and insights, and I sometimes wonder how I will complete it in time for the 2nd September deadline.

When asked if I would recommend doing a master’s degree in education, there are certainly days when I wish I wasn’t studying but I know that when it’s complete and I (hopefully) graduate, it will all be worth it in the end!

The aim of the questionnaire was to ascertain the challenges that teachers perceived, how they overcame them and whether their adaptations were successful

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The impact of a change to a more diverse KS3 Latin course book in student perceptions of BAME people in the Roman world

INTRODUCTION The representation of black and minority ethnic students has received increased attention in the past year since the murder of George Floyd and the increase in prominence of the Black Lives Matter movement. This has been reflected in classics teaching, where there is a tension between the history of a discipline employed as a gatekeeper for elite, male privilege and the opportunities afforded by the potential of a subject centred on the Mediterranean, and thus touching on not just Europe but also the peoples and civilisations of Africa and Asia.

The classics department at Aylesbury Grammar already opts for less Eurocentric options where possible in GCSE Ancient History, where Hannibal, the Persian Empire, and Alexander the Great’s expedition are all featured, and the diversity of the school population is routinely represented in our Key Stage Four and Five classrooms. However, the majority of our students will not stay with us beyond Key Stage Three, where classical studies is compulsory in Year 7, and Latin in Years 8 and 9. It is therefore pressing, for the sake of those who will stop at that point as much as for those who are considering continuing their studies and whose decision might depend to some degree on how inclusive we make

Alex Gruar

Teacher of Classics

our teaching, that we consider representation at this stage.

Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

The impact of a change to a more diverse KS3 Latin course book in student perceptions of BAME people in the Roman world

An opportunity arose for us to research this as we began

Although Hands Up Education does not have a Black

the process of changing our Key Stage 3 teaching materials

Lives Matter Statement per se, the course creators claim

to the new reading-based course, Suburani. Our Year 8

(Delaney et al. 2021) that they planned for students to

students started with Suburani at the beginning of the

“see the full diversity of the Roman world”, comment

year, and will continue with it into Year 9, while the year

on “the need for new materials for teachers of Latin to

above are continuing with our former scheme of work

better represent diversity” and acknowledge that,

using Cambridge Latin Course Book 1, the fourth edition of a reading scheme first published in 1970. This group

...isotopic analyses of teeth and bones have

had also used Imperium, a more grammatical textbook,

brought to light a much more ethnically diverse

during Year 8, but this is no longer in use at the School.

Roman population than has traditionally been

Although the Cambridge Latin Course has been popular in the UK and United States for five decades, it has been criticised both for its lack of representation of women (Amos, 2020; Sawyer, 2016) and of ethnic minorities (Bracey, 2017). It is important to note at this point that the edition to which I will refer throughout is the fourth, in its British version, as this is the variant in wide use in the UK and used at School (both in printed copies and the online web book). The publishers, Cambridge Schools Classics Project, implicitly acknowledge this criticism in their Black Lives Matter Statement with the promise:

‘The new UK/International 5th, and all future editions, will better represent people of colour and promote critical engagement with matters such as imperialism, slavery and cultural subjugation.’

Further advice for teachers has been provided by the CSCP during the course of this academic year on how to engage with these issues, both in the form of a revised online teachers’ guide and blog posts (all nine of which, at the time of writing, either feature BAME Classicists or directly address the issue of representation, decolonising the curriculum, and Critical Race Theory). However, this needs active engagement on the part of the teacher to seek this out and implement it. The legacy 4th edition, and all accompanying resources

portrayed, in both the city of Rome and the Empire.

Illustrations are in colour as a default and, in contrast to the CLC, faces are drawn as different ethnicities from the start, rather than being drawn as white with colour added in a later edition. Two individuals are worthy of particular mention: Gisco, first appearing in Chapter 2, is identified (Delaney et al, 2021) as Numidian, from North Africa, (although this is not explicitly stated in student resources at this stage), and Julia, a minor character appearing in Chapter 3 but not shown in “cast” images of recurring characters, is represented as Black.

No student should feel that people with whom they can identify are excluded from the corpus of what is deemed worthy of study, and especially not of those parts that are celebrated with loaded terms such as “classics”.

as presented to students, represent all but one named character in the first book (Syphax, the slave-dealer) as white European. Moreover, although the online 4th edition book has tinted illustrations with a variety of skin tones used for background figures, all characters in the printed copies are represented by black and white line drawings, decreasing the potential visibility of diversity of skin tones.

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LITERATURE REVIEW Before we attempt to improve the diversity of our own resources, we must have a clear idea of why diversity is

status and regard within her community. Thus the Roman citizen body could be described by Beard (2015) as “the most ethnically diverse there ever was before the modern world”.

necessary in the classics classroom and what role textbooks

There is, nevertheless, a persistent tendency among the

have in the creation of the classroom climate. The reasons

anglophone public to underestimate this ethnic diversity

for representing the ancient world as diverse fall into two

of the Greek and Roman world, a trend stoked by the

broad groups. The first is our duty to our subject to teach

appropriation of classics by the Alt-Right. As Donna

accurately and to the best of our knowledge, including

Zuckerberg has argued in her call to arms, Not All Dead

the clear evidence that the Roman Empire, not least the

White Men (2018):

city of Rome itself, was a diverse place. The second is our responsibility to our students to choose engaging and

Anybody who has an interest in the Classics

appropriate resources that reflect the diversity within

or social justice should not ignore this trend,

our school community and in the world for which we

which has the potential to reshape what ancient

are preparing them. The second was the main driver for undertaking this research, but, as it became clear during my reading and in discussions with them that the first was little understood by non-specialists and an impediment to engaging with the second, that is where I will begin before reviewing the literature on the creation of inclusive classrooms and the use of textbooks within that.

The ethnic diversity of the Roman empire during the imperial period is well established, although how this population might have defined their own ethnicities is a far more complex question. I have therefore used the term “BAME” throughout, for reasons explained in my methodology.

Ancestral DNA analysis (Antonio et al., 2019) of 48 imperial era individuals typified this period as one of, “Substantial ancestry shift towards the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. Highly variable ancestry across individuals”.

Nor was Rome the only area impacted by this, as Olusoga comments regarding the Black presence in York:

Greece and Rome mean in the twenty-first century while simultaneously promoting dangerous and discriminatory views about gender and race.

An example of this framing of the classical past as an artificially white reality was seen in the backlash that followed two BBC productions: Roman Britain (2014, BBC Schools) and Troy: Fall of a City (2018) . The former, a 6-minute schools video depicting a Black Roman officer in Britain loosely based on the career of the real-life Quintus Lollius Urbicus, a 2nd-century governor of Britain, of North African descent, resulted in several days of abusive tweets directed towards Mary Beard for having described this as “pretty accurate” (Beard, 2017 tweet). The casting of several Black actors as both heroes and deities in Troy: Fall of a City once again brought strong criticism for “Blackwashing” on both Twitter and Youtube, this time countered by Tim Whitmarsh (AG Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at the

The mobility that was a feature of the late

University of Cambridge, 2018). In this context, we should be

Roman Empire may well have meant that

alert to the possibility that depictions of BAME individuals

parts of 3rd-century Eburacum may well have been more ethnically and racially diverse than parts of York today in the 21st century.

in our teaching materials, especially those in high status positions, will be perceived as unrealistic unless supported by clear evidence from historical and archaeological sources.

BAME people were not restricted to the lower ranks of society, despite the involvement of the slave trade and deployment of military recruits from colonised areas to elsewhere in the empire, such as the unit of Aurelianic Moors stationed at Aballava on Hadrian’s Wall (Olusoga, 2016). He also cites the example of the Ivory Bangle Lady from York, whose grave goods and expensive burial testify to a high

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Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

The impact of a change to a more diverse KS3 Latin course book in student perceptions of BAME people in the Roman world

Before I could evaluate the importance of inclusive materials

Ambrose et al. (2010) created a classification of classroom

to my students, I took the time to begin evaluating my

climates for college classes, which can be applied to

own privilege and the way in which my own background

classics teaching at school level to evaluate the level of

as a white British person had influenced my approach

marginalisation or inclusion, and the mechanisms (actively

to the subject. The following two statements on Peggy

teacher-led or passively permitted) by which this operates.

McIntosh’s autobiographical list of her own experiences

The explicitly marginalising class is one in which material is

of privilege in “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”

drawn exclusively from the white, elite, male perspective.

(McIntosh, 1989) resonated particularly with me and were relevant to the non-inclusive teaching of history: 6. When I am told about our national

The implicitly marginalizing class excludes more subtly (for instance by treating other perspectives as digressions which should be avoided). The implicitly centralising class accepts

heritage or about “civilization,” I am shown

such perspectives, but leaves the onus on the students, and

that people of my color made it what it is.

the explicitly centralising plans and allows time for these

7. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.

These both fall into her category of “unearned entitlement” that should, in a just world, be extended to all: no student should feel that people with whom they can identify are excluded from the corpus of what is deemed

perspectives. Gellar-Goad’s 2015 article applying Ambrose’s work to Greek and Latin teaching in the American college context raises a particular challenge for our discipline:

A centralizing climate requires extra care to achieve when teaching a language and literature like Latin or Greek whose

worthy of study, and especially not of those parts that

survival has by and large depended on a

are celebrated with loaded terms such as “Classics”.

canonization process controlled by elite men.

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Although this might initially seem to apply only to our

Sleeter and Grant (1991) also argue that the ways in which

older age groups, accessing literature as part of assessed

textbooks create and project symbolic representations

courses with prescribed original texts, it can be seen as

of society are hidden and not explicit to the viewer:

trickling through into the composition of stories adapted for reading even at earlier ages, such as the apparent

...symbolic representations in the curriculum

influence of Roman comedy on the “Happy Slave” motif

represent socially constructed relations as

observed by Dugan (2019) in the Cambridge Latin Course

natural; subjective interpretations of reality

inter alia. He singles out textbook choice or, failing that,

and value judgements are presented as fact.

contextualisation of problematic representations within the textbook, as ways of avoiding marginalising climates.

This is particularly acute in the case of the school-

American teacher John Bracey (2017) also included

age learner, who, when compared with the scholar

poor choice of resources as a contributing factor in his

and teacher, is less likely to access resources

article “Why Students of Color Don’t Take Latin”.

that show differing perspectives. The content of the textbook is likely to be a highly partial view

It is easy for even the most well-intentioned Latin teacher to inadvertently alienate students of color — for example, by centering a course around a textbook that speaks glowingly about how much Roman occupation improved the lives of their subjects and also contains no images of people of color.

Thus the choice of coursebook is a key element in constructing an atmosphere that is inclusive of all.

from the perspective of the more privileged:

Usually controlled and produced by dominant groups, materials and other media confirm the status of those groups whose culture and accomplishments are deemed important enough to write about.

This is broadly confirmed by Sleeter and Grant’s analysis of 47 American textbooks for 1st to 8th Grades (Years 2-9) published between 1980 and 1988. Although illustrations

There are good reasons for arguing that representation

and stories featured a variety of ethnic groups, women

in a textbook is more important even than

and people with disabilities, common flaws included

representation in literary and historical sources, which

gender stereotyping and including the visible markers

are more likely to be contextualised and questioned

of difference (such as skin tone) without authentically

by the teacher and class. Edwards (2008), writing

reflecting the lived experiences of different groups (such

as a history teacher, observes that the ubiquitous

as cultural differences, or the economic realities of working

textbook is surprisingly unexamined by teachers:

class life). Minorities were frequently seen in passive roles (such as those with disabilities merely sitting in

...we continue to treat textbooks as if they

illustrations, without being engaged in the action, or the

were sources of ‘safe’ knowledge and we put

infrequency with which Asian American, Hispanic and native

aside our customary need for a critical

Americans were depicted as solving their own challenges).

stance. We hand out to our class sets

Moreover, collective identities and the roles of dominant

as if they were immaculately conceived

groups in perpetuating racism were glossed over.

and somehow miss the point that they are constructed too and as such are partial.

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Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

The impact of a change to a more diverse KS3 Latin course book in student perceptions of BAME people in the Roman world

Adding minority figures to illustrations or the narrative of a Latin reading course is necessary, but not sufficient, to create an inclusive course. This is a point made

by Sawyer in “Latin for all Identities” (2016):

Simply adding a minority character to a textbook storyline, for example, is not a successful means of positive representation and inclusion. You may have heard the phrase ‘diversity is counting people; inclusion is when

ongoing process, and the year was already constrained by lockdown teaching, it was necessary to focus on one narrow element: the presentation of BAME individuals in Roman society. The term “BAME” was kept throughout despite the problematic way in which it implies that the experience of all non-white people is parallel, owing to the difficulty of mapping more precise modern ethnic groups onto the Roman population and, in particular, to the depictions in books. The term BAME would enable

can do.

us to sidestep the ongoing debate between Afrocentrist

an unrepresentative course, referring to the inactivity of the female characters, and the failure of Book 2 to fairly replicate in its choice of characters the diversity that it discusses in Roman Alexandria. She places the burden of redressing the balance with more diverse images in their own examples and using the faults in the textbook as “teachable moments”.

I also looked for guidelines on decolonising the curricula of comparable disciplines, particularly those with historic links to imperialism. Those produced by SOAS, although intended for tertiary education, are applicable also to secondary. “Decolonising SOAS: Learning and Teaching Toolkit for Module Conveners” (May 2018) poses the following applicable questions: Who is represented as an ‘Other’ in my teaching and how?

•

As decolonisation of the curriculum is a complex and

people count.’ Diversity is the very least we

She uses the Cambridge Latin Course as her main example of

•

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Is this potentially problematic and for whom?

To apply this to a story-based course, we need to ask ourselves whether there are characters rendered as outside the main group and unlikely to attract student empathy. The sole BAME character in Book 1 is potentially such a character: Syphax the slave-dealer, whose portrayal is limited to two main aspects: his ethnicity (Syrian) and his trade.

Adding minority figures to illustrations or the narrative of a Latin reading course is necessary, but not sufficient, to create an inclusive course w: ags.bucks.sch.uk

scholars who claim these peoples as Black, and those such as Snowden (1997) who use artistic depictions and Roman descriptions to argue that they were not. More practically, as only one character in either book is depicted unambiguously as Black, yet a plurality of individuals appear who are open to interpretation as people of colour, we would be losing the impact of this aspect on our students’ impressions of diversity. Finally, there was no strong reason to hypothesise at the beginning of this study that Black students were at greater risk of perceiving themselves excluded from a traditional Latin course than other minority ethnic groups, and owing to the voluntary nature of participation in the process there was a higher likelihood of gaining meaningful data if it were collected for BAME students as a whole. Opportunities were provided to self-identify with more specific ethnicities, however.

Quantifiable data was initially collected via a Google Form questionnaire sent to all of my classes and some of my colleagues’ during the second half of the spring term. This was kept brief to encourage high rates of participation and featured three Likert Scale questions: how many BAME people the student thought there were in Roman society, how many there were in their book, and how positively or negatively they were presented. To check the reliability of their answers, they were also asked if they could name any of the BAME characters in the book. All names that could be recognised were included regardless of variant spellings (“Lulia” instead of “Iulia”, for example): only names that could not be securely identified were excluded from results. To mitigate the impact of remote teaching on their recall, I used a pair of Kahoot quizzes the week prior to the survey, made as closely parallel as possible, asking students to match the names to the eleven characters

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displayed. Each of the responses on the Likert scales was assigned a number (for instance 1 for “very positively” to 5 for “very negatively”) so that an average score could be found for each year group’s answers to each question.

This enabled scores for Years 8 and 9 to be compared. Full tables with the numerical values and the averages are included in the appendix. In the course of one year it was not possible to control for other differences between the year groups (such as maturity): repeating the questionnaires the following year might therefore be desirable.

The second phase of the information gathering used focus groups to deepen the understanding of the impact on students of how the textbooks presented ethnic minorities.

A question was included in the survey asking whether students would be willing to participate in this, and those who replied “yes” or “maybe” were contacted via email with further details. Initially, these were scheduled for lunchtimes on return to school, late in the spring term. As

This was supported by their ability to name BAME characters: 27 Year 8s identified Julia and 7 named Gisco, but only 3 Year 9 students could name Syphax. This was partially reflective of a greater willingness to venture a name on the part of the younger group (52 answers, compared with only 5 from the older year). There was a surprisingly large number of votes for the (blonde) Quartilla, perhaps reflecting some confusion between the large number of female characters in the course.

turnout was too low to be viable, these were rescheduled with the assistance of form tutors for extended registrations in May. The sessions were necessarily short and question prompts focused on whether the depictions were felt to be realistic, whether this mattered to the students, and what, if anything, could be done to improve. As the focus groups were self-selecting, it was not possible to balance the representation of ethnic groups: this resulted in an overrepresentation of students who identified as Asian and no representation of Black students.

This difference appears to be reflected in the average

FINDINGS: SURVEY The average Year 8 student who replied to the survey was aware of one BAME person in their course book, whereas the average for the Year 9 students was between one and none. This was even closer to “none” among Year 9 students who identified themselves as BAME, although the answers did not differ for Year 8. Some 61% of Year 9 students, rising to 78% of Year 9 BAME students, were not aware of any BAME characters in their book. The comparable figures for Year 8 were less than half this: 30% and 29%.

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students’ estimations of BAME people as a proportion of Roman society. Both years thought this was a minority, but Year 9 believed it was closer to a small minority than Year 8). The results for BAME students mirrored those of the sample as a whole. Similarly to the previous question, the percentage of Year 8 students who believed that there were no BAME people in the Roman world (6%) was under half the percentage of Year 9 who held this belief (14%), and considerably less than the 25% of Year 9 BAME students who did.

Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

The impact of a change to a more diverse KS3 Latin course book in student perceptions of BAME people in the Roman world

...if this is set around the time of Mount Vesuvius destroying Pompeii it would be coming close to the time Rome would be at its height and in that case we would be seeing Britons, Anglos, Gauls… we would be seeing a lot more of ethnic groups from the span of the empire which obviously shows that there isn’t enough representation for them.

Year 9 student K I think it may actually not show a fair representation, as The average student judged that both courses represented

when you think about it there many multi-ethnic people in

BAME people relatively neutrally, but there were some

the Roman world from Greeks to Romans to people from

telling differences. Suburani was slightly on the positive

France and it doesn’t really show people from France and

side and Cambridge Latin Course on the negative. BAME

other cultures who came into the Roman Empire, it mainly

students were more inclined to perceive them positively

focuses more on Greeks and Romans.

than the overall sample, but as the numbers of those

Year 9 student G

who both identified as BAME and believed that BAME people were present in the book were limited, these

I think that in the Romans obviously they had quite a big

figures lack the reliability of those with a larger sample.

empire and also there were Persians there.

Year 9 student J

FINDINGS: FOCUS GROUPS In the Year 9 focus group, some students argued that the limited representation of BAME people was appropriate for the setting.

I think that it doesn’t show many BAME people in the book but that’s accurate.

Year 9 student F I don’t think there’d be many people from a different min... different ethnicities coming to like Rome or like Greece into those sort of areas so representation of these people in

One notable aspect of this discussion was the apparent lack of certainty regarding geographic origins of people expected to be found in the Roman empire: only one mention was made of Africa, but several to France, and some to Persia.

Students in the Year 8 focus group, in contrast, were aware of the representation of diversity and regarded this as a positive from the point of view of inclusion. ...if they’re different ethnicities it helps you relate more to the people.

Year 8 student D

these places as shown in the textbook so it is quite accurate

...there’s a lot of minority ethnic groups popping up, which

I think, what is shown in the textbook.

is good because it takes into account that there are these

Year 9 student H

kind of people in the world even though they’re a minority.

Others argued that it should have been higher. ...there must have been some BAME in like the Greek and

Year 8 student B Two students, however, regarded this as an inaccuracy.

Roman times, so, I just feel like I can’t see any of it really.

I feel like to improve the book they should of course

Year 9 student M

keep the ethnic minority groups in because that

They sometimes drew on background knowledge of the Roman Empire or recall of topics covered in Year 7 classical studies to justify this, with varying degrees of accuracy.

really helps balance and helps relate to the people who read the book but there should be some sort of disclaimer somewhere which says that it’s not exactly how Roman times would have been.

Year 8 student C

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This was echoed in the Year 9 group by an apparent

Indeed, both courses do use this approach, but students had

assumption that Roman and BAME identities were

not at this point read far enough to see it. A suggestion that

mutually exclusive:

lent itself to earlier application was to consider

...it’s a Roman textbook about Latin, so you probably expect

trading connections:

it to be about Romans, which is probably why it’s focusing

...when you’re in the trading part of the textbook we could

on Romans rather than BAME.

talk about French goods or like English goods from

Year 9 student F

other places.

Furthermore, some members of both groups expressed

Year 9 student G

the opinion that inclusion was not important to the core

Neither of these, however, would in themselves show BAME

function of Latin resources and therefore not particularly

characters in Roman Italy.

important to them: ...you’re not really learning about races, you’re learning about Latin so, to me, I don’t mind what kind of ethnicities I see in the book.

Year 8 student B

A second set of suggestions centred around showing culture as well as colour. One student suggested that the names of characters could be used to show differing origins: I don’t think it represents the, I guess, names that might be given to babies of like Asia or like Eurasia so that may be a factor that could be used to see how BAME people

I don’t really think that it matters whether we see

represented in the book.

different people of different ethnicities, coming to

Year 9 student H

be presented in the book because that’s not the purpose of the book the purpose of the book is to explain and show how Romans lived at that time and and also to teach the Latin, the language of Latin.

Year 9 student H Overall, these students seemed to assume that inclusion of ethnic minorities within the story was something artificial.

Given the prevalence of the assumption that Roman people were ipso facto unlikely to be BAME, it was unsurprising that when asked how teachers could improve representation, they suggested stretching the geographical extent of the course.

Another suggested religious identities could be explored: ...they could talk about what the religions of the ethnicities were.

Year 8 student E Although these are more complex than than the students are likely to have realised, owing to the name changes imposed by slave owners, the importance of the tria nomina for an individual acquiring citizenship and the syncretising tendencies of Roman religion, both of these requests show an enthusiasm for exploring the ways in which ethnic minorities expressed their own identities.

...what teachers more can do is that they can do maybe one or two lessons on showing different parts of the empire instead of just staying on the Italian peninsula.

Year 9 student K

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The impact of a change to a more diverse KS3 Latin course book in student perceptions of BAME people in the Roman world

CONCLUSIONS

REFERENCES

A diverse textbook is a vital tool for creating an inclusive

Amos, E. (2020). A case study investigation of student perceptions of women

classroom and makes a perceptible difference to student

as seen in the Cambridge Latin Course in a selective girls grammar school.

assumptions about the ancient world. However, an increase

Journal of Classics Teaching, 21(42), 5-13.

in the visibility of BAME people in pictures and stories is not

Ambrose, S.A., Bridges, M.W. , DiPietro, M., Lovett, M.C., Norman, M.K. (2010)

in itself sufficient. BAME individuals should have an impact

Why Do Student Development and Course Climate Matter for Student

on the plot to have an impact on perceptions. Even then, fictional characters alone are not enough to sway a tide of opinion: this can be interpreted as inclusivity championing at the expense of accuracy. The onus is therefore still on the teacher to draw links between the plot and the evidence available for ethnic minorities within the Roman empire.

Learning? How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching p153-187 Margaret L. Antonio, Ziyue Gao, Hannah M. Moots, Michaela Lucci, Francesca Candilio, Susanna Sawyer, Victoria Oberreiter, Diego Calderon, Katharina Devitofranceschi, Rachael C. Aikens, Serena Aneli, Fulvio Bartoli, Alessandro Bedini, Olivia Cheronet, Daniel J. Cotter, Daniel M. Fernandes, Gabriella Gasperetti, Renata Grifoni, Alessandro Guidi, Francesco La Pastina, Ersilia

Where possible, this should explore their experiences,

Loreti, Daniele Manacorda, Giuseppe Matullo, Simona Morretta, Alessia Nava,

actions and culture, and their interactions with other

Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai, Federico Nomi, Carlo Pavolini, Massimo Pentiricci,

Romans. Continuing this research the following year would

Philippe Pergola, Marina Piranomonte, Ryan Schmidt, Giandomenico Spinola,

enable the impact of such improvement measures to

Alessandra Sperduti, Mauro Rubini, Luca Bondioli, Alfredo Coppa, Ron Pinhasi,

be evaluated.

Jonathan K. Pritchard (2019) Ancient Rome: A genetic crossroads of Europe and the Mediterranean.

Science08 Nov 2019 : 708-714 Ball, S., Christensen, J, Duncan, A., Elmer, D. Hackney C.D., Kennedy, R.F., Lloyd, M, Ready J, Scodel R, Solez, K, Verano, R, Zapkin V., Zuckerberg, D. (2018) Scholars Respond to Racist Backlash against Black Achilles, Part 1: Ancient Greek Attitudes toward Africans in Pharos: Doing Justice to the Classics http://pages.vassar.edu/pharos/2018/05/11/scholars-respond-to-racistbacklash-against-black-achilles-part-1-ancient-greek-attitudes-towardafricans/ accessed 24th June 2021 Beard, M. (2015) SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Beard, M @wmarybeard this is indeed pretty accurate, there’s plenty of firm evidence for ethnic diversity in Roman Britain [Tweet] Twitter 25th July 2017 Bracey, J. (2017), Why Students of Colour Don’t take Classics Eidolon, https:// eidolon.pub/why-students-of-color-dont-take-latin-4ddee3144934 Accessed May 31st 2021 Cambridge Schools Classics Project Blog https://blog.cambridgescp.com/ accessed 23rd June 2021 Cambridge School Classics Project (2020) Black Lives Matter Statement https://www.cambridgescp.com/black-lives-matter-statement-cscp accessed 22nd June 2021 Decolonising SOAS Working Group (2018) Decolonising SOAS Learning and Teaching Toolkit for Programme and Module Convenors May 2018 https:// blogs.soas.ac.uk/decolonisingsoas/files/2018/10/Decolonising-SOASLearning-and-Teaching-Toolkit-AB.pdf accessed 22nd June 2021 Delaney, C., Smith, H., Tims, L., Smith, T., & Griffiths, W. (2021). Keeping the ancient world relevant for modern students with Suburani. Journal of Classics Teaching, 22(43), 64-67. Accessed 31st May 2021

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Dugan, K. P. (2019) The ‘Happy Slave’ Narrative and Classics Pedagogy: A Verbal

Sleeter and Grant (1991) Race, Class, Gender and Disability in Current

and Visual Analysis of Beginning Greek and Latin Textbooks. New England

Textbooks in Apple, M, The Politics of the Textbook

Classical Journal, 46:1, 62–87.

Snowden, F.M., (1997) Misconceptions about African Blacks in the Ancient

Edwards, C. (2008) The How of History: Using Old and New Textbooks in the

Mediterranean World: Specialists and AfrocentristsArion: A Journal of

Classroom to Develop Disciplinary Knowledge Teaching History, no. 130, 2008,

Humanities and the Classics

pp. 39–45.

Whitmarsh, T., interviewed by Ling, T. (2018) in No, the BBC is not

Gellar-Goad, T. (2015) How learning works in the Greek and Latin classroom,

“Blackwashing” Troy: Fall of a City https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/

part 7 https://classicalstudies.org/blogs/ted-gellar-goad/how-learning-

troy-fall-of-a-city-blackwashing-casting-black-actors-greek-myth/ accessed

works-greek-and-latin-classroom-part-7 accessed June 23rd 2021

23rd June 2021

McIntosh, P., (1989) Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (https://

Whitmarsh, T. (2018) Black Achilles in Aeon https://aeon.co/essays/when-

nationalseedproject.org/Key-SEED-Texts/white-privilege-unpacking-the-

homer-envisioned-achilles-did-he-see-a-black-man accessed 23rd June 2021a

invisible-knapsack) accessed 24th June 2021

Zuckerberg, D. (2018) Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the

Olusoga, D. (2016) Black and British: A Forgotten History (Macmillan)

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Sawyer, B. (2016) Latin for all identities The Journal of Classics Teaching https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-classics-teaching/ article/latin-for-all-identities/ABA26AD3FA0167FA2AEB2AA7C35B3202 accessed 31st May 2021

APPENDIX: SURVEY RESULTS Are there any BAME characters in your Latin course book? This question refers to your Suburani textbook/Activebook if you are in Year 8, and the red Cambridge Latin Course Book 1/ web book if you are in Year 9.

Year

0: no response

1: yes, more

2: yes, one

3: none

Total

Average

than one 8

1

38

35

32

106

1.9

9

2

14

15

49

80

2.4

8 [BAME only]

1

22

21

18

62

1.9

9 [BAME only]

1

2

4

25

32

2.7

Year

0: no response

1: yes, more

2: yes, one

3: none

Total

than one 8

1%

36%

33%

30%

100%

9

3%

18%

19%

61%

100%

8 [BAME only]

2%

35%

34%

29%

100%

9 [BAME only]

3%

6%

13%

78%

100%

Year

Iulia

Quartilla Gisco

Sabina

Rufina

Faustus

CATIA

total 8

27

11

7

4

1

1

1

total 9

2

14

15

49

80

2.4

68

Syphax

Melissa

Grumio 52

3

1

1

5

Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

How many Black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) people do you think were there in Roman society?

Year

1: a majority

2: about half

3: a minority

4: a small

5: none

Total

Average

minority 8

5

17

34

44

6

106

3.3

9

1

6

24

38

11

80

3.7

8 [BAME only]

4

8

23

23

4

62

3.2

9 [BAME only]

1

2

10

11

8

32

3.7

Year

1: a majority

2: about half

3: a minority

4: a small

5: none

Total

minority 8

5%

16%

32%

42%

6%

100%

9

1%

8%

30%

48%

14%

100%

8 [BAME only]

6%

13%

37%

37%

6%

100%

9 [BAME only]

3%

6%

31%

34%

25%

100%

If you answered yes, how do you think BAME characters are portrayed in the book?

Year

0: no

1 very

response

positively

2 positively

3 neither

4 negatively

positively

5 very

Total

Average

negatively

nor negatively 8

23

5

16

56

5

1

106

2.8

9

38

0

4

20

14

4

80

3.4

8 [BAME only]

12

3

14

29

3

1

62

2.7

9 [BAME only]

21

1

8

1

1

32

3.2

Year

0: no

1 very

2 positively

3 neither

4 negatively

5 very

Total

response

positively

positively

negatively

nor negatively 8

22%

5%

15%

53%

5%

1%

100%

9

48%

0%

5%

25%

18%

5%

100%

8 [BAME only]

19%

5%

23%

47%

5%

2%

100%

9 [BAME only]

66%

3%

25%

3%

3%

100%

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69

70

Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

Flagship

Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice

Issue 3 Published by Aylesbury Grammar School 2021

Perhaps the best part of action research is that teachers can see which solutions have made a real impact on their students.

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Flagship: Journal for Evidence Engaged Practice