Attitudes, inclusion and widening participation: a model of interactive teaching and leadership

Abstract

Interactive whole-class teaching is championed by the English National Curriculum and the accompanying National Literacy and National Numeracy Strategies. Inspection of the related literature, however, reveals no corresponding pedagogy, which is also lacking in earlier 'interactive' initiatives. The paper considers how traditional 'hierarchical' perceptions have undermined the 'practical' prescriptions given and neglected attitudinal influences. It argues that this practical deficit, aspects of teacher education and institutional leadership/culture have historically made it difficult for teachers to fully 'unlearn' authoritarian 'transmission' practices which the UK Government recognizes work against inclusion and performance at all education levels. Research undertaken in the 1970s provides a practical model of inclusive interactive teaching, training and leadership and this is considered to be one of three related requirements necessary to overcome the reported implementation failure of an interactive approach. Finally, the paper considers the example of a headteacher whose collaborative 'interactive' attitudes enabled an inclusive learning ethos, increasing accessibility and pioneering routes to widen participation for the traditionally excluded.

Schools and Institutional Leadership in Action: A Systematic Literature Review

“…It was found that engaging them early on has a significant impact on implementation. School leaders in the Jones’ (2004) study not only engaged parent stakeholders but widened their participation by finding ways to collaborate with mothers, and not only fathers.…”

“…Much of the literature described how institutional leaders interact with the people in their institutions. They start by creating structures that support the functioning of the institution (Bürgin, 2018; Jones, 2004). Successful leaders create a balance that facilitates communication across the institution (Elezi & Bamber, 2018), ensure that constituent units do not operate as ‘silos’ (Mitchell, 2018) and do not allow one unit to have unbalanced power over the institution (Gurd & Helliar, 2017).…”

“…Effective leaders listen to the feedback of their staff as well as other stakeholders (Castel & Friedberg, 2010; Taylor, 2005). Jones (2004) found that school leaders were able to find solutions to problems when they trusted the expertise of staff and adopted their suggestions. Newton (2002) also found that respecting the expertise of staff was a feature of strong leadership.…”

“…The final category of themes that emerged from the literature was that of actions which institutional leaders carry out within themselves without having a direct effect on others, they could be described as personal behaviours and are related to the independent interactions in James et al’s (2020) framework. One behaviour that was repeatedly mentioned was being a role model (Jones, 2004; Taylor, 2005, 2013). It is also worthy of note that the studies that mentioned the need for leadership to take an active role and not delegate all responsibility to departments came from an academic context.…”