EQI at ESAI 2020
Researchers from EQI took an active part in the ‘Virtual’ ESAI 2020 conference held online from September 3rd-5th 2020. DCU researchers Martin Brown, Denise Burns, Sarah Gardezi, Shivaun O’Brien, Joe O’Hara and Craig Skerritt were involved in four presentations that covered a diverse range topics including culturally responsive leadership, stakeholder involvement in evaluation and Irish teacher experience in the UK. Summaries of some of the papers are included below with more information on www.esai.ie.
Craig Skerritt delivered a presentation entitled ‘High-stakes accountability in England: Irish teachers’ experiences’ where he discussed his published research on Irish teachers’ experiences and perceptions of autonomy and accountability in schools in England.
Despite many teachers from Ireland taking up teaching positions in English schools in recent years, very little aside from anecdotes has been known about their professional experiences but this qualitative research helps to bridge this gap and offer voice to an under-researched but common group of teachers in England. The participants had overwhelmingly negative experiences and perceptions of the English education system; they reported enduring a very one-sided autonomy/accountability balance and unsustainable workloads, and they consequently experienced a range of negative emotions due to the critical and unsupportive manner in which they were judged, scrutinised, and held to account. Notably, while there was a strong desire to return to Ireland in the future, the participants were reluctant to do so if Ireland adopted or introduced similar accountability policies.
This research will be of interest to practising and pre-service teachers in Ireland, and researchers and policymakers in both Ireland and England. The full research paper can be found here (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02671522.2018.1493741)
Dr Denise Burns presented a paper on the literature underpinning the Erasmus + project, Supporting Culturally Responsive Leadership and Evaluation in Schools . This systematic literature review was conducted with the purpose of identifying the key issues addressed by international literature on culturally responsive school leadership. For this activity, the following definition for culturally responsive school leadership was adopted: All levels of school leadership that engages students, staff, parents and communities in ways that positively impact learning and student development by honouring the diverse cultural heritage of students. The phrase “culturally responsive school leadership” was inserted into Google, Google Scholar, ResearchGate and Academic. This resulted in millions of results in a wide range of genres, mainly journal articles. The data bases of the seven journals that most frequently included articles on the topic were then searched. Screening for relevance and mapping the field indicated the literature comes from a range of countries, is very recent, mainly empirical, and addresses a variety of issues. The findings were categorised in four groups:
A: What is culturally responsive leadership?
B: The absence of culturally responsive leadership
C: Extending the practice of culturally responsive leadership
D: Further research.
The literature considers that school leaders are crucial in implementing the vision for culturally responsive leadership, particularly in their leadership of staff. School leaders need the knowledge and skill to lead reform in teacher discourse and teacher practice. Therefore, the preparation of school leaders is addressed at some length in the literature, emphasising that culturally responsive leadership is pedagogically centred. That is, such leadership focuses on staff and student learning incorporating the principles of effective teaching and learning, whether for adult staff or for young students, drawing on the experience, language, identity, values, beliefs and ways of knowing of the learner. In conclusion, the systematic literature review showed clearly that culturally responsive school leadership is topical in many countries; the issue is based on the principles of effective learning; it is a matter of justice; it involves a significant challenge which should not be underestimated.
More information on the CRELES project can be found at https://creles.eu/