Here are the 5 to Try for October the 8th 2023. This week we have great blog on supporting students to ‘read the question’ from Dr Jo Castelino, a short selection of provocations from Nuffield Foundation trustees as part of their 80th Anniversary ‘Changing Lives for the Better’ programme, the first post in a series from legal commentator David Allen Green on Post Office Horizon scandal and the presumptions those make about computers, a great album from Sufjan Stevens and an incredibly interesting journal from the British Journal of Educational studies on ‘Policy Mortality’.

1) BLOG – “Read the question carefully!” by Dr Jo Castelino – https://drcastelino.wordpress.com/2023/10/07/read-the-question-carefully/

A great blog which opens with an eye opener that as teachers we quite often fall into the same traps we tell our students to avoid. It has some great analysis of why learners often fall into issues when reading questions and some strategies of how to scaffold and support in their development. 

2) NUFFIELD FOUNDATION RESEARCH PROGRAMME – Provocations: What are the issues shaping tomorrow? – https://indd.adobe.com/view/04660b60-0523-43a3-ac29-0bcc15de7b97

A short read from four of the trustees of the Nuffield Foundation discussing what they believe are the defining issues in Britain today. There is a focus on inequalities, housing inequalities and digital inequalities – from a speech by Professor Ann Phoenix – which is powerful. The section from John Pullinger, the Chair of the Electoral Commission on the need for trust in and the importance of trustworthy institutions gives a lot to think about. Which brings us to number 3 in the “5 To Try”…

3) BLOG – ‘Computer Says Guilty’ – an introduction to the evidential presumption that computers are operating correctly by David Allen Green – https://davidallengreen.com/2023/09/computer-says-guilty-an-introduction-to-the-evidential-presumption-that-computers-are-operating-correctly/

Purely from a citizens point of view, the fact more and more is still coming out about the personal and systemic failures at the heart of the Post Office prosecutions scandal is mind-blowing. The focus of this introductory blog is about legal presumptions, and the presumption in court that computers are always operating correctly (and the path that led to this in 1999) putting the burden of evidence on the defendant to illustrate that it is working incorrectly, which realistically as an end user you are not going to be able to access the evidence for. 

Whilst miles away from consequences of the Post Office false prosecution, there are warnings here for education (and other sectors) as well. As we drive towards more glossy GUI/BI dashboards, often designed by those who don’t have a working understanding of the context of the statistics housed within it, to be interpreted by senior leaders and stakeholders who are far from the source of the information – where is the auditing and clarification in the accuracy of this information? More data is accessible for scrutinising, but the data sourcing and confidence in accuracy is getting further away.

4) JOURNAL ARTICLE – Helen Gunter & Steve Courtney (2023) Policy Mortality and UK Government Education Policy for Schools in England, British Journal of Educational Studies, 71:4, 353-371, DOI: 10.1080/00071005.2023.2193066

A thought provoking article. In this context the authors describe ‘Policy Mortality’ as the organisational or systemic ‘death’ that is built into and expected into an educational reform. The idea that whilst the proposed goal is success, every reform requires for certain professionals, schools, students and parental stakeholders have to ‘fail’. There is a lot to unpack, and hard to illustrate succinctly, but this paragraph really shines a light on essentially 30 years of educational policy.

Calculated failure is premised on what Hood (2002, 2010) identifies as blame avoidance, where the depoliticisation of public-service decision-making into private arenas and relentless ‘re-disorganisation’ (Pollitt, 2007) means that the government cannot be blamed for the processes or outcomes of ‘governing by numbers’ (Rose, 1991). As Tomlinson (1997) argues: ‘for schools to be designated as failures means they have lost badly’ (p83), and this provides clarity regarding who are the ‘blamers and blamed’ and, how ‘blame-shifters and blame-shiftees’ operate (Hood, 2002, p. 17). The government acts a blamer and blame-deflector due to what Hood (2002) identifies as: first, ‘impression management’ (p16) where metrics and the narrative that gives meaning to the numbers are selected in order to claim failure and who is responsible; second, ‘policy strategies’ (p16) are adopted so that the government can be seen to win and so not be blamed, and hence the removal of headteachers became de facto the best way to resolve a failing school; third are ‘agency strategies’ (p17), whereby activity is relocated to organisations (e.g., MATs; National College for School Leadership; Ofsted) or contracted with the private sector (e.g., consultancies), that allows credit to be taken but where the use of delivery delegation means that the government can outsource blame.

5) MUSIC – Javelin by Sufjan Stevens – https://youtu.be/LqLflZ3EOQ0?si=yllNFgD02bBZOHa1

Released on Friday, the new Sufjan Stevens is outstanding. The artist has been through significant tragedies and hardships in recent times which are hard to separate from the music produced here. A great album.