Continuing Professional
Development: Innovative
Practice in a Context of
Tumult and Constraint
Teacher Education Advancement Network Day
Special Educational Needs: Changing Perspectives
13th January 2012
Christopher Robertson
Outline
 I will refer to practice that is based on some of my direct
recent experience and that of schools, teachers and local
authority services I work with.
 In doing this I want to highlight the value of collaborative
practice.
 Exemplification will focus on continuing professional
development (to avoid overlap with other presenters from the
University of Cumbria and the excellent practice they will
comment on).
 I will include some ‘grit’ in the presentation to reflect the
context in which continuing professional development takes
place.
Inclusion: a retrospective
“We have got on to slippery ice where there is
no friction and so in a certain sense the
conditions are ideal, but also, just because of
that we are unable to walk. We want to walk:
so we need friction. Back to the rough
ground!”
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Inclusion: a radical overhaul?
“We are like sailors who on the open sea
must reconstruct their ship but are never able
to start afresh from the bottom. Where a
beam is taken away a new one must at once
be put there, and for this the rest of the ship is
used as support. In this way, by using the old
beams and driftwood the ship can be shaped
entirely anew, but only by gradual
reconstruction.”
Otto Neurath
Theory
Henri Lefebvre in The Production of Space argues that space
[e.g. the space in which schooling takes place] is a social
product, or a complex social construction – based on values,
and the social production of meanings - which affects social
practices and perceptions.
Lefebvre’s argument implies the shift of the research
perspective from space to processes of its production; the
embrace of the multiplicity of spaces that are socially produced
and made productive in social practices; and the focus on the
contradictory, conflictual, and, ultimately political character of
the processes of production of space. [The space in which
continuing professional development is produced]
The social production of space is commanded by a hegemonic
class as a tool to reproduce its dominance.
Change is in the air and on the
ground*
Ideological change
Inclusive education policy
Broader education policy and the concept of
autonomous schools
Parents as choice makers and ‘in control’
‘Front-line’ services
Voluntary and community ‘sector’ (VCS)
involvement, leading or selling ...
Economic change
* Reference here is to change in England
“This word cloud offers a visual representation of
the main themes of the SEN Green Paper. The
larger the word, the more heavily it features”
Inclusive education?
Living in interesting times
Fast forward ...
6 months, 3 years
navigating ...
without a map
Exemplification 1: Government
funded SENCO CPD

Partnerships that are genuinely collaborative involving local
authority (LA) advisory service personnel, the university and
schools: planning, teaching and learning, monitoring, reviewing
and evaluating (micro, meso, macro perspectives)

Face-to-face teaching and learning (alongside blended/online
activities) with time and space to work with - and learn from peers in the same professional role (consistently well
evaluated), acknowledging professional isolation and context
specific concerns (e.g. no time to carry out SENCO duties)

Working with ‘joint cohorts’ from neighbouring LAs (with
different policy and organisation of provision)
Government funded SENCO CPD
(continued ..)



Reflecting on and critically appraising policy and practice, in
relation to, for example
• the over identification of needs narrative
• the ‘end of individual education plans’
• the deployment of teaching assistants whispers loosely
based on research (cascade / dissemination)
• Achievement for All as a ‘good value’ project purchase or
commonsense approach
Reflective writing as a counterbalance to an outcomes focused
and potentially prescriptive programme of study (assignment)
Development projects* that are personally meaningful,
professionally relevant and shared with peers (assignment)
*need to know > readiness > problem centred >
with a balance of internal and external motivators
Exemplification 2: Networked
learning and support

The SENCO-Forum e-discussion group providing ‘rapid
response’ help and advice in real time and the real world (“I
need to do a presentation at the staff meeting on Thursday
about provision management – help wanted”; “I am on an
interview panel to appoint new TAs – what questions should I
ask?”; “I’m a SENCO in a primary school with 560 pupils. How
much non-contact time am I entitled to?)

Local SENCO networks that use ‘bottom up’ rather than ‘top
down’ agendas and meeting/activities that draw on practitioner
experience and knowledge rather than external ‘expertise’ (this
has a place)
Relevance or otherwise of higher education
involvement?
Exemplification 3: Schools and
support services




Cinderella is not invited to the ball!
Struggling to manage budget cuts (are they valued
‘front line services’?)
Need to trade services in a system that is ‘opened up’
to competition with independent providers, special
schools (including academies and free schools)
Need to work in competition with other services a
school may wish to buy, for example educational
psychology and advisory services including those run
by voluntary and community sector organisations
Relevance or otherwise of higher education
Involvement?
A clear and effective framework for
outreach, in-reach and support



In addition to any frameworks already in use it might
be worth reviewing and adapting Quality Standards
for Services (DCSF, 2008)
The Quality Standards cover 16 dimensions of
support and outreach organised under 2 headings:
o outcomes standards
o service management and delivery standards.
The standards are designed to be used as suggested
markers against which services provided can be
evaluated
A SENCO (Inclusion Lead) perspective
SENCOs may, when using the Quality Standards:
 want to consider whether their school or setting has sufficient access
to services
 want to identify how service support and guidance has contributed to
improved outcomes, or how they think it might do so in the future
 wish to reflect on the nature of support, whether they think is
sufficient, and how it impacts on individual learners
 challenge and support services to work in ways that they consider to be
most effective in classroom contexts
 wish to contribute to discussions about how to disseminate advice to
teachers and teaching assistants and to collate feedback for services
on collaborative support practice
 wish to be included in a self-evaluation feedback cycle and to share
their views on specific aspects of it
 have important things to say about capacity building and how this
needs to be balanced against work overload and the
over delegation of responsibilities.
Reflection
The examples outlined are drawn from a context
where there is a strong compliance and ‘technical’
orientation, a high level of prescription and overload
and this needs to be worked with rather than ignored,
but there may also be a need for supportive
subversion (e.g. ensuring/enabling new to role
SENCOs to achieve required outcomes in a
professional training programme).
The examples may also raise issues about the
‘binary’ distinction between teaching and research
and whether we need to make space for activity
between these in universities.
Returning to teachers ...
Guy Claxton’s emphasis on slower ways of
learning seems to me to be particularly
important and involves: immersion (‘just
looking, messing about’); imagination (‘mental
rehearsal’); intuition (‘letting your mind go
soft’ and ‘allowing things to come to you’); as
well the more familiar intellect are at the heart
of this approach.