Challenging categories and changing contexts :Challenging categories and changing contexts Harry Daniels The Centre for Sociocultural and Activity Theory Research h.r.j.daniels@bath.ac.uk


Slide 2:need, drives, innate patterns , biological urges, physiological conditions stimuli, reinforcers, punishers, social rules, mores, taboos, cultural patterns, social conditions Internal Forces External Forces Interaction Psychodynamic Theorists Behavioural Theorists Biophysical Theorists Sociological theorists Eco-systemic approaches


Slide 3:Child’sneeds intervention INSTITUTIONS PARENTS PROFESSIONALS ???????? Adoption of category Justifying ‘knowledge’ Processes of categorisation


OECD Statistics and Indicators. Cultures of categorisation :OECD Statistics and Indicators. Cultures of categorisation Category A refers to the educational needs of students where there is substantial normative agreement concerning the nature of the special need - such as blind and partially sighted, deaf and partially hearing


Number of students in cross-national Category A as a percentage of all students in primaryand lower secondary education :Number of students in cross-national Category A as a percentage of all students in primaryand lower secondary education *Public institutions only France and the United States: estimated figures Turkey: data refer only to compulsory school period ((ISCED 1)


Sociocultural, historical processes and categorisation :Sociocultural, historical processes and categorisation Females in secondary special education represented a different combination of abilities and disabilities than males. As a group, females were more seriously impaired; even among males and females with the same disability category, females had marginally greater functional deficits than males. (Wager, 1992, pp.33-34) National Longitudinal Transition Study of Special Education Students - (USA)


Sociocultural, historical processes and categorisation :Sociocultural, historical processes and categorisation The incidence of ADHD in Australia is demographically perplexing. Differential rates of diagnosis between states and regions suggest that there may well be some degree of diagnostic predisposition connected with the incidence of the syndrome. Slee 1998 p. 133


Cultural historical transformation of categoriesRutter on Incidence of Autism :Cultural historical transformation of categoriesRutter on Incidence of Autism Over recent years there has been a major rise in the rate of diagnosed autism. The main explanation for this is to be found in better ascertainment and a broadening of the diagnostic concept. p.231 Rutter. M. (2005) Aetiology of autism: Findings and questions Journal of Intellectual Disability research Vol 49, Pt 4 pp 231 - 238


Slide 9:‘… Ritalin no more ‘cures’ ADHD than aspirin cures toothache. Masking the psychic pain that disruptive behaviour indicates can provide a breathing space for parents, teachers and the child to negotiate a new and better relationship, but if the opportunity to do this is not seized, we will once again find ourselves trying to adjust the mind rather than adjust society.’ (Rose, 2005 p. 263) Rose, S. (2005) The 21st-Century Brain: Explaining, Mending and Manipulating the Mind. London: Jonathan Cape.


Slide 10:many services are shaped by their histories and organised for the convenience of the provider not the client (Cabinet Office, 2001).


Slide 11:Direction, Coherence and Cohesiveness 2


Slide 12:Behaviour management Policy Parents SMT Teaching Staff Pupils Support Staff Governors Participation and voice 6


Slide 13:School + staff development plans Curriculum and Pastoral development cycles Assessment, recording and reporting policy Behavior management policy Admissions and exclusion policy SEN policy, IEP procedures DO REVIEW LEARN APPLY Development of Ownership + Policy Legitimation Attitudes Values + Principles in ebd related practice --awareness of rights and responsibilities --focus on capabilities 4


Exclusions study - key concerns :Exclusions study - key concerns Lack of ‘joined up’ working Insufficient attention to needs led planning Prevalence of service led formulation of need Relationship between placement and expectations and aspirations Social capital Boundary crossing ‘knotworkers’


Social world structures thinking Any function in the child’s cultural development appears twice or on two planes… It appears first between people as an intermental category, and then within the child as an intramental category :Social world structures thinking Any function in the child’s cultural development appears twice or on two planes… It appears first between people as an intermental category, and then within the child as an intramental category


Slide 16:SCRIPT Actor 1 Actor 2 Actor 3 object 1 object 2 object 3


Slide 17:Shared Object Actor A Actor B Actor C SCRIPT


Slide 18:Shared Object Script Actor A Actor B Actor C


" Creating networks – changing cultures" :" Creating networks – changing cultures" The development of collaborative cultures at the school level in which working in teams with the other teachers is highly valued; in which the head and teachers work together to focus on student performance and on what it takes instructionally and otherwise to make continuous improvements; Fullan Infrastructure is all


Changing CulturesWithin Schools :Changing CulturesWithin Schools


Teacher Support Teams :Teacher Support Teams School based problem solving system Teachers help and support each other in generating strategies for problematic situations It can be used for many problems in the workplace


Aims of TST :Aims of TST To enable teachers to discuss common concerns affecting professional life To provide opportunities for reflection and problem solving To enable the exchange of ideas on curriculum teaching methods and ways of dealing with student behaviour To develop approaches to classroom management Rogers (1990)


What is a TST? :What is a TST? Teacher support teams usually consist of 3 members of staff The members meet on a regular basis The teacher seeking assistance arranges a meeting in confidence with the team The teacher then selects from ideas developed jointly by the group


Training Sessions :Training Sessions Training is for 3 people covering 2 days Team building activities Problem solving activities Role play Listening and communication skills Organising TSTs for your own workplace


Teacher Support Teams :Teacher Support Teams TSTs are based on the belief that “Teachers have vast knowledge and talent that is often not shared with others” “They create a forum for allowing professional educators to share problems and solve them” Pysh and Chalfont


Elton Report :Elton Report A peer support group Provides regular opportunities for sharing experience and skill Breaks down the tradition of isolation in the classroom and builds up trust and confidence Reduces occupational stress


TST :TST Conceptual framework --quality professional working conditions depend on teachers finding time to share their problems with each other in contexts which enable problem airing, analysis and solution or management


Boost mean or reduce variance :Boost mean or reduce variance Tolerance Active engagement


Support Teams Research and Development :Support Teams Research and Development Enfield -- North London Primary Schools -- ERSC Secondary Schools DfEE Andalucia Primary and Secondary Schools Nurses in Mental Health Trust Support Service / Psychological Services -- West Midlands Brazil -- Rio Grande du Sul in collaboration with Politicians Civil Servants and Schools Armenia with UNICEF


A study that aimed to evaluate TSTs: :A study that aimed to evaluate TSTs: the processes of setting up and maintaining TSTs the short term effects and perceptions of its usefulness. Baseline assessments were compared with follow-up assessments in order to assess any changes which might have resulted from TSTs.


Mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods which were focused on several dimensions relevant to schools' approaches to SEN :Mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods which were focused on several dimensions relevant to schools' approaches to SEN This included aspects of the schools' curriculum, behaviour and support systems; the teachers' approaches to teaching, behaviour management and work with outside support systems; the training of TST members and the setting up process; the actual working of the TSTs; and the case outcomes and perceptions of TST usefulness.


Slide 32:finland june Daniels Visser and Cole 1999 32


division of labour :division of labour The use of tools mediates the activity in specific and objective ways that are realized historically in and among collectives, through a developing cooperation and/or competition in the specialized use of tools arising from the social division of labor (Leont'ev, 1981, p. 2).


Vygotskyschool as an institution. :Vygotskyschool as an institution. His particular interest lay in the structuring of time and space and the related system of social relations (between pupils and teacher, between the pupils themselves, between the school and it surroundings, and so on)(Ivic, 1989).


Slide 35:We need to understand the ways in which a particular problem-solving activity is embedded in a set of cultural practices and institutions at a specific point in their historical evolution. Thus the physical and institutional context of an activity, the social roles and status of the individuals involved, the cultural mediators available, and the prevalent cultural values and beliefs about the activity support and constrain the participants’ attitudes, goals, understandings, and actions. Forman and McPhail pp 214 215