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Schools 'need a moral purpose
beyond exam results'
SCHOOLS are failing to set out a
coherent moral purpose for their pupils beyond the achievement of good
grades, academics from Edge Hill University claim. Professor Tim Cain,
Helena Knapton, Jill McKenzie and Dr Damien Shortt, speaking at a British
Education Research Association conference, said that education institutions
should be setting goals for the type of people they want their pupils to
become. Virtues such as curiosity, critical thinking and respect for
evidence should be the overall objectives, with good academic results then
seen as consequences of these aims, rather than the defining mission.
Instead, schools are presenting other possible outcomes of a good education
as important only in so far as they help pupils do well in exams. This may
leave them open to movements which seek to offer an alternative, more
explicitly moral, vision, such as the alleged attempted:- 'Trojan
Horse' takeover of schools in Birmingham, it is claimed. The
argument is set out in a paper drawing on evidence from statements on
secondary school websites which set out the justifications the schools use
in seeking to convince pupils to behave well in class.
The academics analysed the behaviour policies of a representative sample of
36 English secondary schools. They found that 34 of these provided
statements as to why pupils should behave well in class. Of these, all 34
offered the reason that pupils needed to behave in order to support their
own, or fellow pupils', "learning and academic achievement."
The researchers found that:- "A causal link between behaviour and
learning was explicitly made in most of the schools' behaviour management
policies; indeed some of the policies were explicitly labelled 'behaviour
for learning policies', and 1 school entitled its entire behaviour policy
the 'Ready for Learning Policy'."
The research team acknowledge that the concept that pupils needed to behave
well in order to do well in their studies sounds persuasive. But it has
flaws, they argue. These include that a drive for good behaviour among
pupils may emphasise qualities such as compliance and a willingness to
follow orders, when in reality the best learning draws on other
characteristics, such as being curious and questioning. Others include
the fact that not all pupils who behave well will, in reality, go on to
achieve well; and that a behaviour policy founded on the argument that good
behaviour supports achievement in exams will fail to offer a reason as to
why young people should continue to behave well as adults. This means,
say the researchers, that:- "the majority of [school] behaviour
management policies are unlikely to succeed in their stated aims".
Instead, they argue that schools should have as their overall goals the
development of 'virtues' associated with mastering particular
subjects: coherence of thought, respect for evidence and an "attitude
of principled critique" of arguments. These would both be
transferrable between subjects and useful in later life. Good academic
results would be achieved as a side effect of these aims, rather than being
the schools' overall objective.
The team concluded:- "From our analysis of schools' behaviour
management policies, it appears as though schools consistently miss the
opportunity to 1st establish a coherent and convincing narrative from which
they can determine the required virtues. Such a narrative would, in our
view, stand a much better chance of success because it will establish exam
grades as almost as a side effect by those who have been properly inducted
into the role of the school pupil. What, in many ways, provided the
opportunity for a hostile ideological takeover of schools was the absence of
a coherent moral narrative that articulated the school's position and goals.
If it is our desire, as a society, to establish a form of secular education
that is not divorced from all moral statements through its conscious and
political disassociation from all flavours of religion, then an excellent
place to start would be with the virtues of inquiry" as described
above, argues the paper presented to BERA.
Why be good? Axiological foundations for behaviour management policies in 36
secondary schools in England was presented to BERA by Professor Tim Cain,
Helena Knapton, Jill McKenzie and Dr Damien Shortt, all of Edge Hill
University, in September 2015.
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