Developing pedagogies in early years and primary school settings: opportunities and challenges

Join us for a discussion on what research and practice have to gain from working together.  More details on Sarah Chicken’s presentation on, Grappling with co-construction via a Reggio Emilian lens: young children’s participative rights in education in Wales and Alison Porter ‘s presentation on, Surfing the Policy wave: supporting Modern Foreign Language pedagogy in the primary classroom are below

What Matters in Education? Panel Discussion Series

This is part of the What Matters in Education? Panel Discussion Series, jointly organised by the UCL Institute of Education Pro-Director Research and the ESRC Education Research Programme (ERP). It aims to spark new thinking across education, social research and the wider social sciences on how research, policy and practice can most productively interact. 

Events will be online. Recordings and a summary of the key questions the debate raised will be made available on the ERP website afterwards.

Co-Chairs: Professor Gemma Moss, Director, ESRC Education Research Programme, Professor of Literacy at the UCL Institute of Education; Professor Lynn Ang, IOE Pro-Director and Vice-Dean Research; and Dr Becky Taylor, Head of Impact and Engagement at IOE.

Grappling with co-construction via a Reggio Emilian lens:  Reflections from an exploration of young children’s participative rights in education in Wales.

Abstract: This presentation reflects on a co-constructed approach to research and partnership working within a large-scale ESRC-funded investigation of young children’s participative rights in education within the Welsh policy context.  Informed by the principles of Reggio Emilian philosophy and Participatory Action Research (PAR), the research team worked closely with teachers from lower primary schools across Wales and an artist- educator to co-construct understandings of participatory pedagogies through a series of dialogic workshops.  Teachers were later supported in facilitating class-based projects with 3- to 7-year-old children to make visible the views of children on participative rights later reflecting on the process via  group Sharing Events and semi structured interviews.

We reflect on the opportunities and challenges researchers face when working closely with practitioners and problematise notions of co-construction in research bound by time, resources, and linear principles of professional development.  The discussion will focus on the temporal and relational dynamics of collaboration, note ongoing issues with power and knowledge and offer insights into the important role of context-bound enablers as well as barriers in practicing or implementing rights-respecting participatory pedagogies.  The presentation will be useful for researchers who are interested in adopting similar methodological approaches. 

Surfing the Policy wave:  Juggling strategic engagement and responsivity in education research

Abstract: This presentation explores balancing longer-term strategic engagement with stakeholders alongside real-time reaction to emerging policy stances.  Digital Empowerment in Language Teaching was tasked with supporting primary languages education through developing teacher expertise and enhancing children’s learning using digital tools.  Its final year aims to scale up change by offering professional development and classroom resources to a national (and international) audience.  These activities were underpinned by systematic and targeted engagement with a range of foreign language education stakeholders.  Then the interim Curriculum and Assessment Review arrived, with a focus on secondary curriculum choices and reducing curriculum content.  Primary languages is now, once again, fighting for its survival.

We will reflect on the challenges researchers face when working closely with policymakers and whether there are tensions in top-down and bottom-up stakeholder engagement. We will consider practical issues such as access, messaging and how the research team attempt to balance presentation of nuanced findings with the need for bold statements.