'Leave me alone and let me teach.' Teachers' views of Welsh Government education policies and education in Wales

Abstract

In Wales, 1197 teachers responded (66% out of 1812 eligible to do so). although around one in four respondents rated the Foundation Phase for 3-7 year olds as poor or very poor, the high proportion of secondary school teachers (around 66%) skewed this response -around 30% thought that it was poor/very poor while 26% thought the Foundation Phase was a good/very good idea compared to 55% of primary teachers. The extent to which secondary school teachers and those at key stage 2 see the Foundation Phase as not preparing young children sufficiently for the next phase of education needs to be explored further.

Planning v competition in education: outcomes and efficiency

“…In particular, he notes that 'accountability systems are still relatively crude and not linked to increased performance, there is a lack of a secure pedagogy that reliably leads to enhanced student learning, the standards of entrants to the teaching profession are lower than in equivalent systems and the architecture for sustained self-improvement is missing'. He also notes a mismatch between the needs of the system and the solutions proposed by politicians, the latter tending to be more bureaucratic than effectivea criticism also noted by Grigg (2016).…”

Tensions in current curriculum reform and the development of teachers’ professional autonomy

“…Teachers in Wales are used to the culture of responding and adapting their planning to prescriptive knowledge content curriculum and detailed frameworks, for example the Literacy and Numeracy Framework (Welsh Government, ). They are accustomed to strict accountability processes, including the systematic scrutiny of pupils’ books by consortia and inspection body Estyn (Grigg, ). They are used to a culture of rapid introduction of different initiatives, often with little time to gain a detailed understanding of the underpinning content, context or philosophy.…”

Improving the quantitative research skills of Welsh Baccalaureate teachers through university engagement

“…These findings, underscore the role that higher education institutions can play in bringing together and supporting teachers in learning how to effectively carry out research. Grigg (2016) asked teachers to rate the effectiveness of different education policies implemented by the Welsh Government. Almost 40% of respondents (66) ated the WBQ as a poo o e poo initiative.…”

“…The e ai i g teachers were neutral over the introduction and implementation of the WBQ. Grigg (2016) argues that the WBQ is just one of a number of initiatives that have been introduced to the Welsh education system in recent years, and that increasingly, teachers are feeling there are too many new initiatives to deliver on.…”