A learning journey: Reflections at the end of a career in education - PART ONE

Fertile ground

Having worked in education without interruption for thirty-four years, my decision to retire feels like a reasonable one. As a result, a reflective mood is now an almost constant stance. There is a sense of change with a new Labour administration which is encouraging us to look forward again. However, we should not overlook the past and how we have experienced it in education in the hurry to ring the changes. When I reflect on my work as a teacher, teacher educator, researcher and education community builder I dance between the past, the present and the future with ever-growing ease.

It was suggested recently by a friend that we can become comfortable with the legacy of our work by believing it has had enough impact to allow the next generation to take the reins. This resonated. After all, neither of us have worked in education to become gurus, heroes or indispensable. We have given these decades of our lives to roles which shaped the futures of others.

Goodness though, it has gone in a flash. A decade in secondary schools, a decade as a ‘chalkface’ teacher educator, and more than a decade in a range of hybrid roles in universities; blending lecturing, programme design, partnership work, research, doctoral supervision, leadership and participation in and co-development of a range of national and educational networks and communities.  

Of course, memorable moments stand out, critical and creative relationships with colleagues left their mark, interactions with individual students and the rewards of ensuring cohorts experienced success made me who I am as an educator. My professional identity has always felt fluid. As a teacher, I was also a research participant and action researcher. As a teacher educator, I was drawing on my teaching knowledge, expertise and vulnerabilities. As a leader, I was working collectively with others. As a researcher, I could not quieten my growing activist stance. 

In her wonderfully refreshing and reflective book ‘Turning to each other: Simple conversations to restore hope to the future’ Margaret Wheatley wrote:

‘The future doesn’t take form irrationally, even though it feels that way. The future comes from where we are now. It materializes from the actions, values, and beliefs we are practicing now. […] If we want a different future, we have to take responsibility for what we are doing in the present.’ (Wheatley, 2009, p68)

As I look to the future and seek to intentionally shape what comes next, I know that it will be deeply connected to my past and the present. So, I will spend a bit of time in my past, to consider what has influenced who I have become and what I still might be. I use early memories from my first two decades as an educator, reflections on how my work became about sense-making in its third decade, and a consideration of who I am now and where this may lead me. 

Foundations 1990-2010

I have never kept a coherent journal or diary as a record, my past work is badly archived in dozens of working notebooks and in a digital filing system which relies heavily on search tools rather than neatly defined folders. Therefore, I have snapshot memories, which are all authentic, but do not tell the whole story. Following each memory is the briefest of reflections.

Teacher as designer

I was teaching about globalisation. I enjoyed creating meaningful learning from the combination of the broad brushstrokes of geographical and environmental thinking, principles and concepts - finding good case studies and exploring technical details of processes. I wanted my teaching to connect to the real worlds that the students experience and the wider world that their learning reveals. 

I developed a passion for conceptualising and creating curriculum and a pedagogic repertoire which has lasted into my university roles.

Working collaboratively

I wrote field notes from the piloting of teaching thinking skills lessons to share with the ‘Thinking Through Geography’ network. We met regularly to talk about the resources and lessons we are designing. We shared, tried out and adapted each other’s ideas in our own schools. This productive collaboration gave me a sense of pedagogic ease. Best of all, it gave me a chance to work with the National Curriculum in ways that were flexible and creative. 

Shared purpose and active participation beyond the boundaries of my own settings has always enlivened my work.

Early coaching

I coached a science teacher as part of a regional research project. It is a privilege to co-plan, observe and then reflect together on a series of his thinking skills lessons. Being around the science labs with him also helped me forge new relationships at school. Learning about coaching and working with others to develop appropriate approaches were valuable in enhancing my mentoring of student teachers too.

Mentoring and coaching have been part of my professional life for nearly three decades – probably the greatest constant companion.

Provocations and tensions

I sat with my new colleagues in the university staffroom. One of the other PGCE tutors was talking about his upcoming lecture on assessment, and the phrase ‘you don’t fatten a pig by weighing it’ was offered by another colleague as a means of helping students make sense of the role (and limitations) of assessment.   

Observing and exploring the tensions between policy, practice and research has been a fascinating way in to understanding and negotiating the dilemmas of education.

Possibilities and obstacles

Soon after I got my first university post, I shared a car journey with an uncle who was a medical doctor and honorary professor. I told him of the expectations on me to complete a doctorate alongside being a full-time teacher educator. He was sceptical. I couldn’t decide whether he doubted me, or the nature of the education sector that I was getting myself into.

In some ways he was right to be sceptical – I had been a teacher educator for 15 years before I finally completed my doctorate.

Authentic accountability

The Ofsted inspector graded the Geography PGCE ‘Outstanding’. It took him seven months, from the first day he stepped into my Geography PGCE room. He watched hours and hours of my teaching, then the students teaching on placement, and their mentors doing their stuff, as well as digging into documentation, assignments and placement reports. It was a proud day but a huge relief when it was over. 

Being vulnerable and open to critique has always been necessary, and not always comfortable.    

Practitioner research

I worked with colleagues to develop a new module for the PGCE programme through which we asked student teachers to video or audio record parts of a lesson that they taught, and to transcribe a section to allow them to analyse features of their explanation and questioning. This gave me a chance to explore how the use of the video impacted mentoring practice and student teacher learning and subsequently to co-write a peer-reviewed research paper.

Adopting a practitioner enquiry lens allowed me a way into becoming a researcher, and also ensured that I developed a more nuanced understanding of the impacts of my work as an educator.  

Working mother

I became a mother through adoption of a sibling group. I remained in my university post as they joined and grew up in my family.   

Balancing acts are common in family lives, and ours was additionally complex because of how we formed our family. 

For two decades I worked to develop a repertoire for teaching, a foothold in research and ways to navigate parenthood with work. These were crazy, busy years. But they were affirming as well as challenging. I was good in my jobs. The contexts I worked in, politically, professionally and academically were not perfect, but they made sense to me. I was able to take responsibility and to make a difference.  

This concludes the first part of Rachel Lofthouse’s reflections. Stay tuned for the second part, where Rachel delves into the sense-making years of her career.

Reference

Wheatley, M.J. 2009. Turning to each other: Simple conversations to restore hope to the future (2^nd ed), Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. Oakland, CA