Along with the work of William Jeynes, another researcher who addresses my third research question is Ruth Deakin-Crick.
Deakin-Crick et al. (2004) develop a measure of learning power entitled the ‘Effective Life Long
Learning Inventory’, or ELLI. This technique was also employed, in part, by Jelfs (2008) in her study of a group of primary and secondary schools within a diocese in the South West of England. ‘Learning power’ is a mix of factors which enable learners to be more effective in their learning. Specifically, Deakin Crick and Jelfs (2011) define it in the following way:
“Learning power’ is a complex mix of dispositions, lived experiences, social relations, values and attitudes that combine to influence how an individual engages with particular learning opportunities. The seven empirically derived dimensions of learning power are: changing and learning; meaning-making; curiosity; creativity; learning relationships; resilience and strategic awareness.” (ibid., p.200)
The seven dimensions of learning power identified by Deakin Crick are similar, or at least capable of being linked to, the nine learning habits used by Jeynes (2003). However, the seven dimensions place a greater emphasis on underlying values as opposed to the practices in learning. For example, while Jeynes’ (ibid.) work considers the practice of handing work in on time; the work of Deakin Crick (op.cit.) may explore the value of justice. The extent to which certain values underpin certain learning habits is not directly addressed in the work of Deakin Crick.
There is another aspect to the broad dimensions used by Deakin Crick. The nature of the data lends itself to a more qualitative analysis than the research carried out by Jeynes which made extensive use of regression analysis on a large data set involving over 18,000 students. A small scale qualitative study was employed in Deakin Crick’s earlier research on faith and learning which followed a case-study approach in a secondary school in the West Country.
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Deakin Crick (2002a) is a significant piece of research for this thesis because it makes the bridge between ethos, values (and habits), teaching and learning and educational outcomes.
Deakin Crick (ibid.) explored the ideas and practice of ‘values’ in education and schooling by
drawing on a particular case-study of a Voluntary Aided Church of England school in Bristol. In the research study, a team of 4-8 teachers developed policy and practice with regard to Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) education and citizenship education over a period of 4 years. As with any case-study, it is not possible to generalise these results for all schools, but there are many ideas which emerge to throw light on the role of ethos in Church of England Voluntary Aided secondary schools. For example, prior to the study, there was a reluctance from teachers of all subjects apart from RE and PSHCE for any (Christian) values to permeate the curriculum within their subject area. Following the values audit and the values intervention in subject delivery, the teachers felt that a new dimension had been added to their teaching. The teachers felt that the pupils were more engaged with their learning and some of the pupils reported that it was ‘some of the best work they had done’. The teachers said this was because the pupils were engaged on a more emotional level.
The great strength of this study is that it tells a story of one school’s attempt to bring the concept of ethos into the foreground of school development planning. Beginning with a community-wide consultation, the study explains the precise impact of the school’s values on teaching and learning in the classroom which, in turn, impacts on educational outcomes. As a piece of research it is interesting in that it moves between quantitative and qualitative research methodology and also between school policy and classroom practice.
The significance for Church schools is that they are well placed to benefit from these seven dimensions mentioned above if there is a strong spiritual dimension to their ethos. This is not to deny that other schools might also benefit and, indeed, may also be spiritual places. Indeed the research by Deakin Crick et al. (2004) is not specifically focused on Church schools. However it is, nonetheless significant that much of the research (Deakin Crick 2002a; 2002b; Deakin Crick and Jelfs, 2011) in this field is focused on a Church of England secondary school and one where the headteacher and governors were very keen to promote a spiritual aspect to the education at the school. I briefly revisit this research in chapter 9 section III part b.
IX. Summary of the literature on schools
with a Christian ethos
The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the link between Christian ethos, learning habits and educational outcomes of maintained Church of England secondary schools. While there is a good deal of literature on a wide range of schools available, care must be exercised when making comparisons. For example Catholic schools have a different purpose to Anglican schools and the newly formed academies are not managed or resourced in the same way as an Anglican Voluntary Aided secondary school. Moreover, when analysing schools overseas it is
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important to note the sometimes very different framework in which they operate. For example all religious schools in the United States (but not Canada) are private schools. There are no State funded or public schools in the US which have a religious character since this would be in contravention of the American Constitution. Nonetheless, the survey of all the literature above gives valuable insights into this whole field of the Christian ethos effect, or the ‘extra dimension’ of Church of England secondary schools and their ilk.
This study addresses the specific questions of how the purported link between ethos, as judged by SIAS inspectors and educational outcomes as judged by Ofsted inspectors is perceived by stakeholders in Church of England secondary schools. This study also seeks to explore what light is brought to this topic by the work of William Jeynes on learning habits.
The main conclusions from this review of the current research which are relevant to this study are summarised below (see also Green, 2009b, pp.77-8):
1. Arriving at a single definition of ethos is problematic due to the complexities and ambiguities associated with the term;
2. With regard to a specifically ‘Christian ethos’, the guidance offered by the Church of England for its schools is too broad to be of use to most headteachers. Partly as a result of this, there is a lack of common understanding about what a distinct Christian ethos actually is and how it can be achieved amongst Church school leaders;
3. Despite this, headteachers do consider a Christian ethos, however defined and achieved, to be significant. However, the bold claims made by some headteachers about ethos impacting on educational outcomes need to be substantiated with recourse to empirical evidence;
4. There are, nonetheless, some persuasive a priori reasons why the ethos of a Christian community, like a school, can influence the values, habits and outcomes of that community;
5. However, some recent research on values suggests that the values held by pupils in Anglican secondary schools are fundamentally no different to the values held by their peers in non-religious schools;
6. The statistical data on the academic achievement of Church schools relative to non- Church schools is inconclusive. While the data would suggest that Church schools out- perform non-Church schools, the gap is significantly narrowed when the differing socio- economic status of the pupils is factored in;
7. The research on Roman Catholic schools echoes most of the findings from Church of England schools. It might be the case that, because of the greater emphasis on the ‘domestic’ function of Catholic schools there is a slightly stronger Christian ethos in these schools. However, the impact of this potentially stronger ethos on outcomes is not fully addressed in the literature;
8. Some research on non-denominational Christian academies finds a strong Christian ethos commensurate with high academic achievement. This includes such schools serving communities with high economic and social deprivation; thus addressing the
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debate about social privilege. However, some research suggests that the intended ethos, in some of these schools does not correspond with the experienced ethos, amongst the pupils and some staff. In addition, there may be issues of sustainability with some of these schools;
9. The work of William Jeynes in the United States provides empirical evidence of why religious schools out-perform non-religious schools, based on the notion of learning habits;
10. The research does not appear to be able to disentangle the impact of home, school and Church on pupils’ attainment. Although the concept of a ‘school effect’ is critical, it is not clear how this can be measured;
11. The work of Cardus in North America is important in understanding how the ethos of private religious schools might differ from public schools in terms of values formation. The studies give useful insights into possible learning habits inculcated into the graduates;
12. Research by Ruth Deakin Crick and others makes an important bridge between Christian ethos, school values, teaching, learning and educational outcomes based on a case-study of a Church school in the West Country;
13. Apart from Deakin Crick, there is nothing within the literature about learning habits within the context of Church Schools in England. As such, there is a gap in the literature here;
14. There appears to be no quantitative study which draws a connection between Christian ethos as measured by SIAS inspection grades and educational outcomes as measured by Ofsted grades.
The fourteen points listed above remind us that the field of Christian education research is far from homogeneous. As a result, any generalisations are difficult to make. In this sense empirical research is often best carried out within a specifically defined field or even at an institutional level. This situation has coloured my research which focuses on a specific area and uses one case-study school and a selected sample of Church school stakeholders.
What is slightly surprising with all the research into the Christian ethos of schools, is that relatively little has been of a qualitative nature. The term, ‘Christian ethos’, is a complex one which doesn’t readily lend itself to quantitative analysis. It would appear that a variety of research methods may need to be employed to understand the concept of Christian ethos more fully. It is this whole area of methodology that I now address.
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5. Not Everything that Counts
“Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted
counts.” William Bruce Cameron attrib.
I. Introduction and overview of
methodology
This chapter outlines the reasons for the choice of methodology to address the 3 research questions posed in chapter 1 section 1:
1. To what extent does the correlation between SIAS and Ofsted inspection grades support the view that ethos contributes to educational outcomes in Church schools? 2. What are the perceptions of key stakeholders in one Church school and the
headteachers of a sample of Church schools as to the connection between the ethos and the outcomes in their respective schools?
3. What contribution does the research on learning habits by Jeynes (op.cit.) in the United States make to explaining, understanding and interpreting the perception of these stakeholders about ethos and outcomes in Church schools within England?
The first research question is relatively routine and involves a statistical exercise with inspection grades. This is covered in the next chapter – chapter 6. Although this statistical exercise is both important and significant in terms of providing an entrée for the remaining research questions, it is less problematic.
Research questions 2 and 3 are more complex and require a more refined methodological approach together with a clear and coherent justification for both the choice of research methods and research instruments. To this end, I have divided this chapter into 9 sections:
I. Introduction and overview;
II. Positioning the research;
III. Reflexivity;
IV. Methodological framework – The Integral Inquiry Approach;
V. Ethnography – including auto/biographical methods;
VI. Triangulation, validity and reliability;
VII. Ethical issues;
VIII. Coding the data;
IX. Summary and a re-visiting of the original structured plan.
At the end of the chapter, in section IX, I draw together all these sections in order to arrive at a structured sequence of events, or plan, which I then followed in order to collect, analyse and present the data. Data collection is outlined in chapter 6; data analysis in chapter 7 and the results are presented in chapter 8.
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II. Positioning the research
In chapter 1, I outlined some of the under-pinning philosophical assumptions for my research. I rejected ontological anti-realism and epistemic absolutism. In chapter 3, I propounded my own Christian worldview as the lens through which the research was conducted. I revisited my philosophical assumptions and described myself as an epistemic relativist, philosophical idealist, ontological realist and Trinitarian monotheist. I stated that I rejected a model which saw value as subjective and, instead, subscribed to a Christian worldview which might best be described as a ‘reformed Protestant Christian’ worldview. In this section, I build upon these statements by explaining the implications of them for my choice of methodology within social science research.
Although my research includes quantitative aspects, it is, in the main, a qualitative study. Qualitative research is now a well-established method of social science research and allows the researcher to see the world from different perspectives (Denzin and Lincoln, 2003; Silverman, 2004). In social science research it is possible to identify three broad paradigms. Each paradigm accords in large part with a sociological worldview with its attendant epistemological assumptions. I explore each of these in turn below: