Exploring the Experiential Learning of Special Educational Needs Coordinators

Abstract

With a view to developing support for university accreditation, this small-scale study assisted 18 special educational needs coordinators (SENCos) to identify significant learning at work and consider possibilities for accredited learning projects. Participants wrote and shared narratives of critical learning incidents, assessed the contribution of a range of learning influences and identified five role variations with corresponding priorities, preferences and opportunities for structured learning. SENCos with management status and curriculum development roles suggested a greater range of potential learning projects, and were more confident of the involvement of others than those with heavy teaching and support roles who preferred topics in which their own action tended to be a focus for research and development. The author argues that, for too many SENCos, their experiential learning remains confined within selective school functions, rather than part of a planned exposure to school leadership in all its forms. Advancing their use of APEL arrangements will continue to require extensive university support and understanding.

Nobody tells you how to be a SENCo

“…There was also some divergence between participants with a dominant teaching orientation and those with a dominant management focus. Findings relating to ambiguities in policy (Kearns, 2003), ambiguities in status (Mackenzie, 2007) and role conflict (Kearns, 2003), along with Kearns's (2005) findings regarding SENCo model types, all reinforce the view that the development of SENCo models may benefit recruiters and trainers by providing them with examples of different ways of enacting the SENCo role.…”

‘I will be “fighting” even more for pupils with SEN’: SENCOs' role predictions in the changing English policy context

“…Investigating the professional learning of SENCOs, Kearns (2005) recognises varying approaches to the role, for which he provides a typology:…”

A Tale of Three SENCOS, post 2015 Reforms

“…This, in part, has drawn me to my research question. © 2019 NASEN of compliance' (Done et al, 2016a:14), a key player to enhance quality universal teaching rather than 'rescuing' an individual (Kearns, 2005). This in itself could be deemed to cause tension for the SENCO who is perhaps more comfortable working within a 'child centred pedagogy' (Lloyd, 2002) rather than directing strategic change (Done et al, 2016a).…”