Browsing by Person "Oates, Catriona"

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Accessing the field: methodological difficulties of research in schools
(University of Aberdeen, 2016) Oates, Catriona; Riaz, Nighet Nasim
This paper aims firstly to situate educational research in the current policy context and discuss the accounts of two early career researchers where accessing the research field has been problematic. Secondly it aims to explore the ‘relational ties’ of early career researchers as they attempt to gain access to the research field and co-operation of research participants, using their experiences and literature to explain difficulties encountered in their fieldwork. Gaining access to the research field is an essential step for researchers but can be overlooked in literature and underestimated by researchers. Concern with fieldwork is typically more focused on the subsequent stages of data generation and analysis rather than with the preliminary but fundamental stage of entry which is sometimes underplayed in the research process. Some literature supports this contention (Schatzman and Straus, 1973; Johnson, 1975; Shaffir, Stebbins and Turowetz, 1980). Friedman and Orru (1991) discuss how fieldworkers have long acknowledged the problems of access but often failed to analyse them in a systematic manner. Although access and cooperation are sometimes conflated in literature (Wanat, 2008) they must be clearly understood as two distinct processes (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1995; Glesne, 1999; Bogdan and Biklen, 2003; Rossman and Rallis, 2003). Indeed, gatekeeper approval for access does not de facto guarantee cooperation (Shaffir and Stebbins 1991) which can lead to tension in researcher-participant relationships. Main findings suggest that although helpful in advancing understanding of the access issue, there is still work to be done to minimise mistrust of external researchers and for them to build social and cultural capital to better negotiate spaces in the research field.
‘I didn’t think I would ever recover from failing’: tutoring to reduce the poverty-related student attainment gap.
(Sage, 2025-04-10) Oates, Catriona; Bainbridge, Alan
This article adds to the developing contemporary research base on the provision of 1:1, or small group tutoring, to overcome the academic attainment gap for under-resourced young people. Using open-ended interviews this research explored the rich lived experience narratives of participating students, tutors, and stakeholders. The tutoring programme was designed and delivered against the background of COVID-19 and the policy focus, in Scotland, on the poverty-related attainment gap. Students reported a number of benefits; such as being able to make mistakes and ask questions they might not in the classroom; and the pace and atmosphere of tutoring was more conducive to their learning, compared to the classroom. This article adds to the developing contemporary research base on the provision of tutoring, to m the academic attainment gap for under-resourced young people. Using openended interviews, this research explored the rich lived experience narratives of participants in the programme. Analysis reveals that students were highly appreciative to be offered tutoring; that the importance of effective learning relationships between tutor and tutee is paramount; that good tutor/tutee/stakeholder relationships enabled misconceptions to be identified, monitored and individual learning needs met and supported. Attendance and engagement were particularly high for care-experienced, or previously non-attending students.
Instructional rounds: how the Scottish experience can inform the international debate
(2013) Oates, Catriona; Philpott, Carey
Learning Rounds and the development of teacher agency: an empirical study in Scottish schools
(University of Edinburgh, 2014) Philpott, Carey; Oates, Catriona
"[T]he problem is not that schools don't have access to knowledge. The problem is that they don't have a process for translating the knowledge systematically into practice" (City et al 2009, p.9). Learning Rounds has become a high profile method of teacher learning in Scotland. Learning Rounds was initially informed by the Instructional Rounds developed in the USA by City et al (2009). However, Learning Rounds practice emphasises classroom observation over other aspects of Instructional Rounds such as the 'theory of action'. A theory of action is a "story line that makes a vision and a strategy concrete" (ibid, 40). This needs to be kept open ended or it "ceases to function as a learning tool and it becomes a symbolic artefact, useful primarily as a tool for legitimising ... authority" (City et al 2009 p. 9). This paper uses transcript data from Scottish teachers' Learning Rounds to explore differences in how teachers' observations reflect on what is promulgated as good practice. That data is drawn from four transcripts of Learning Rounds debriefs from four different schools each in a different local authority. The debriefs involved twenty six teachers in total. In some data ideas of good practice are largely unquestioned. In other data teachers reflect on how their observations might refine ideas of good practice; they feed into a developing theory of action. The implication is that increased focus on developing, rather than accepting, theories of action in Learning Rounds will promote teacher agency and challenge the "rhetoric of conclusions" (Clandinin and Connelly, 1995) emanating as theories of action from other sources that can limit this agency.
Learning rounds through CPD
(2012) Oates, Catriona
Learning rounds: a study of a migrated practice in Scottish schools
(2014) Oates, Catriona
An international focus on the link between teacher quality and student outcomes (Programme for International Student Assessment; McKinsey; Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development; Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study etc.) has directed a spotlight on methods and practice in teacher education and development. Teachers’ individual and collective capacities are seen as key to promoting school improvement (Harris and Jones 2010). Teacher professional learning communities (PLCs)could be understood as a dimension of this which is seen universally positive development, and significant research evidence has been generated to support this view (Cordingley et al. 2005; Stoll et al. 2006, 2 007; Edwards 2012). Observational practices such as Learning Walks, Learning Triads or Power of 3 are increasingly advocated in education and other professions as a means of supporting home-grown professional learning situated in the workplace. However, Watson (2012) and Fullan (2007) warn that the growing tendency to see the PLC as almost de rigeur is problematic in its own right. Servage (2009) goes further to add that they serve as neo-liberal sites of micro-management of teacher learning and performance, and Fendler (2006) warns against the dangerous assumptions of assimilation and heterogeneity within the notion of community in professional learning. The PLC debate is clearly polarised by conflicting arguments and further empirical knowledge is vital to inform practice in this area. There is a need for further knowledge to fill this gap by generating deeper understanding of the processes involved in professional learning communities, and their emergent effects. Learning Rounds as an instance of PLCs is now being developed in Scotland and is gaining currency having enjoyed a healthy endorsement from educational policy making bodies in spite of a serious lack of empirical research into the process, either in its Scottish version or in the Harvard-based original one (Oates and Philpott, forthcoming).Using a case-study methodology and borrowing some key concepts from Archer’s social theory (analytical dualism) this study will examine the processes at work in Learning Rounds in action. The study will take place over a period of approximately six months across two sites. Questions will focus on what teachers do and what events occur as part of this process.Methods including interviews, observations and narrative enquiry will generate data for this study.
Learning Rounds: what the literature tells us (and what it doesn’t)
(Brill, 2015) Philpott, Carey; Oates, Catriona
Learning Rounds is a form of professional development that has gained widespread currency in Scotland. It has received official endorsement from Scottish Government funded agencies and has spread as a practice through at least 24 out of 32 local authorities, in part through popular adoption by teachers. However the literature on Instructional Rounds that informs Learning Rounds is not as well known in Scotland as the practice of Learning Rounds itself. An earlier small scale study of Learning Rounds in Scotland suggests that practice varies significantly from school to school and from the original practices of Instructional Rounds. This literature review provides a critical survey of the existing literature on Instructional Rounds and Learning Rounds. This is intended to enable educators to be more informed about whether to adopt the practice and how to develop and evaluate the practice if they do.
Methodological difficulties in research: accessing schools as sites of research
(University of Aberdeen, 2015) Oates, Catriona; Riaz, Nighet
This paper aims firstly to situate educational research in the current policy context and discuss the accounts of two early career researchers where accessing the research field has been problematic. Secondly it aims to explore the ‘relational ties’ of early career researchers as they attempt to gain access to the research field and co-operation of research participants, using their experiences and literature to explain difficulties encountered in their fieldwork. Gaining access to the research field is an essential step for researchers but can be overlooked in literature and underestimated by researchers. Concern with fieldwork is typically more focused on the subsequent stages of data generation and analysis rather than with the preliminary but fundamental stage of entry which is sometimes underplayed in the research process. Some literature supports this contention (Schatzman and Straus, 1973; Johnson, 1975; Shaffir, Stebbins and Turowetz, 1980). Friedman and Orru (1991) discuss how fieldworkers have long acknowledged the problems of access but often failed to analyse them in a systematic manner. Although access and cooperation are sometimes conflated in literature (Wanat, 2008) they must be clearly understood as two distinct processes (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1995; Glesne, 1999; Bogdan and Biklen, 2003; Rossman and Rallis, 2003). Indeed, gatekeeper approval for access does not de facto guarantee cooperation (Shaffir and Stebbins 1991) which can lead to tension in researcher-participant relationships.
More-than-human centred reflection: Addressing the fiction of reflective practice in teacher education
(SAGE, 2025-01-29) Oates, Catriona; Mynott, John Paul
This paper seeks to extend the debate around the contested concept of the ‘reflective practitioner.’ This concept has influenced practice-based learning across a range of disciplines, including social work, nursing and teaching and although assumptions are commonly made about its value to the developing practitioner, it has also been subject to critique. From the perspective of Scottish teacher-education, we propose moving beyond commonly accepted reflective practices to arrive at a reframing of it as a ‘more than human’ (Strom and Viesca, 2021) endeavour, in a way that decentres the practitioner from the process of reflection. We firstly consider some benefits and limitations of commonly used, human-centric models of reflection in teacher education; both in practice and in regulation. We then use two familiar classroom scenarios to demonstrate how these models of reflection can constrain the reflective process, and student-teachers’ agentic possibilities. We explore how a theoretical reframing of the problem through connectivism (Downes, 2007; Siemens, 2005), offers a fresh perspective that challenges the practitioner to reflect in multiple dimensions; on their means of connecting with others and the ‘matter’ of their practices – the material, physical and conceptual objects that are drawn into the orbit of the day-to-day work of teaching and learning. The proposed approach invites student-teachers to decentre themselves from their reality and consider a range of realities, allowing their reflections to more genuinely, critically and authentically reflect the realities of their experiences in the classroom. Although situated in the context of Scottish teacher education, this provocation offers fresh consideration of a problem that is currently of relevance to student-teachers and those involved in teacher education in both a UK-wide and international context.
The National Framework for Digital Literacies in Initial Teacher Education
(2020) Robertson, Derek; Atkinson, Tracey; Bradfield, Kylie; Coker, Helen; Donaldson, Peter; Easton, Eric; Mulligan, Aloyise; Munro, Judith; Oates, Catriona; Quigley, Claire; Robertson, Judy
Initial Teacher Education (ITE) institutes across Scotland play a central and formative role in the early career development of prospective teachers. It is in Initial Teacher Education where student teachers begin to “form habits of the mind, habits of the heart, and habits of the hand” (Shulman 2005, p. 59). This formative experience requires that the initial teacher education experience be one that is informed and influenced by integral partnerships between ITE providers, Scottish Government, the General Teaching Council of Scotland, local authorities and schools across the country. To this end, the National Framework for Digital Literacies in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) aims to detail how staff and students in ITE can support the Scottish Government’s aims and aspirations to: 1. Develop the necessary skills, behaviours and dispositions of prospective teachers to become effective practitioners with digital tools and spaces; 2. Address the digital literacies expectations of the Standards for Provisional Registration as maintained by the GTCS; 3. Ensure that digital literacies are embedded in the foundation skillsets of early career teachers as they begin teaching. Digital literacies and the digital tools and spaces that are available have become increasingly relevant to teaching and teacher education in contemporary times. The past two decades have seen the rise of digital tools and spaces to the extent that their ubiquitous presence permeates so much of modern life both within and outside of school. In education we have seen the advent of multimedia authoring (e.g. digital movie making, web design, and animation), web 2.0, cloud computing, shared document authoring, virtual and augmented reality, coding and social media tools being used in our schools. However, there is a commonly held assertion that “despite the pervasive nature of digital technology, its benefits are not always fully felt within our education establishments.” (Scottish Government, 2016, p.3). The Scottish Council of Deans of Education (SCDE), along with the support of Scottish Government, set up a working group with representatives from all the providers involved with ITE to develop ‘The National Framework for Digital Literacies in Initial Teacher Education’. Although it was very likely that there may have been different, yet wholly valid, versions of the ITE digital experience across the institutions, an agreed Framework could offer a consistent perspective and sharper focus in addressing “expectations that ITE providers instil the benefits of using digital technology to enhance learning and teaching in their students, in line with GTCS Standards for Registration” (Scottish Government, 2016, p.4). This will eventually lead to better learning outcomes for ITE students and the pupils they will teach during their probationary year and beyond, when they will then engage with the other Professional Standards related to their stage of professional development. The National Framework for Digital Literacies in ITE is designed to meet the Scottish Government’s vision of a relevant, ambitious and forward-looking framing of digital learning across ITE programmes (Scottish Government, 2016). It also seeks to acknowledge and actively promote the critical exploration of research informed pedagogy, the promise of the transformational effect of digital learning and how the everyday use of commercial and freely available digital products can implicitly impact on understanding and practice. It also aims to play its part in establishing the professional expectation of engagement with career-long professional learning in the digital learning and teaching domain for Scottish teachers.
Professional learning communities as drivers of educational change: The case of learning rounds
(Springer, 2017) Philpott, Carey; Oates, Catriona
Many researchers claim that there is a compelling weight of evidence for the effectiveness of PLCs in promoting teachers’ learning and pupil achievement. However, others raise fundamental questions about their nature and purpose. Some of the uncertainties about the nature and purpose of PLCs relate to the ways in which the macro-context of neo-liberalism has shaped the practices of PLCs in particular ways. The fundamental questions raised about PLCs relate to the type of change they are intended to produce, the model of community they are based on and whether the right conditions and skills are in place for them to contribute to change. Some researchers argue that we need to pay more attention to shortcomings within existing PLCs and their internal dynamics. Others argue that little research focuses on the specific interactions of teachers inside PLCs. The research reported here goes ‘inside the teacher community’ of Learning Rounds to explore what the shortcomings of some examples of this model in practice add to what we know about how to assist PLCs to produce change in education.
School and university in partnership: a shared enquiry into teachers' collaborative practices
(2018) Oates, Catriona; Bignell, Carole
School and university in partnership: a shared enquiry into teachers’ collaborative practices
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2019-11-09) Oates, Catriona; Bignell, Carole
Although partnership working has been a feature of educational practice for some time, some recent reforms and developments have refocused educators’ attention on this phenomenon. Whilst there are many versions and interpretations of partnerships in education, the most common understanding of partnerships between school and university is as the arrangement to facilitate, support and assess student teachers in practical teaching experience. The aim of this paper is to critically examine the concept of partnership between school and university. We offer a critique of partnership as it is presented in literature at a macro and meso level, and we report on a collaborative enquiry between school and university staff in a (micro-level) secondary school setting. The project was structured around a series of workshops in the school setting to support and facilitate Learning Rounds. Using data from this project including field notes and semi-structured interviews, we will give voice to the often unheard testimony of the teacher in their lived experiences of partnership, and make a contribution to the ongoing debate around partnerships by highlighting some of the difficulties and tensions arising from partnership in practice.
School and university in partnership: a shared enquiry into teachers' collaborative practices
(2018) Oates, Catriona; Bignell, Carole
Teacher agency and professional learning communities: what can Learning Rounds in Scotland teach us?
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2016) Philpott, Carey; Oates, Catriona
Recently there has been growth in researching teacher agency. Some research has considered the relationship between teacher agency and professional learning. Similarly, there has been growing interest in professional learning communities as resources for professional learning. Connections have been made between professional learning communities and teacher agency, with professional learning communities seen as an affordance for the exercise of teacher agency. However, it has also been argued that there is little detailed evidence of what happens inside professional learning communities or of teacher agency in action. The research reported here focuses on a form of professional learning community from Scotland: Learning Rounds. It uses data from transcripts of post-classroom observation conversations to consider the extent to which Learning Rounds provide an affordance for teacher agency and the extent to which that affordance is utilised. This research makes a contribution in three ways: adding to an empirical understanding of what happens in professional learning communities; understanding how teacher agency is (or is not) exercised in practice; and considering what factors might affect the utilisation (or otherwise) of affordances for teacher agency. The article concludes with several recommendations for developing effective professional learning communities as an affordance for teacher agency.
Teacher agency in collaborative professional development; missing in action?
(Corvinus University, 2015) Oates, Catriona; Philpott, Carey
Internationally there has been growing research in teacher agency (e.g. Masuda 2010; Sanino 2010; Ketelaar et al 2012; Riveros, Newton & Burgess 2012; Priestley et al 2012; Robinson 2012; Reeves & I'Anson 2014).Teacher Agency can be defined as "the power of teachers (both individually and collectively) to actively and purposefully direct their own working lives within structurally determined limits” (Hilferty 2008: 167). Priestley et al (2012: 196) remind us that “rather than agency residing in individuals as a property or capacity, it becomes construed in part as an effect of the ecological conditions through which it is enacted”. So the key questions are ““How is agency possible? and “How is it achieved?”” (ibid: 196). Similarly Biesta and Tedder (2007: 137) remind us that “actors always act by means of their environment rather than simply in their environment … the achievement of agency will always result in the interplay of individual efforts, available resources and contextual and structural factors”. Internationally, curriculum reform (rhetorically at least) is making growing use of teacher agency as a mechanism for reform (Priestley et al 2012; Robinson 2012). At the same time as growing international policy/rhetorical emphasis on teacher agency for curriculum reform there has been growing international emphasis on models of collaborative professional development for the same purpose (Riveros, Newton & Burgess 2012). Some have made a connection between the two, seeing teachers collaborative professional development as an important “ecological condition” or “resource” for teacher agency (e.g. Masuda, 2010; Lipponen & Kumpalainen 2011; Riveros, Newton & Burgess 2012; McNicholl 2013). In Scotland, Learning Rounds (based on U.S. Instructional Rounds (City et al 2009)) has been one of the most high profile policy manifestations of collaborative professional development. A key purpose of instructional rounds should be to develop a theory of action. A theory of action is a “statement of a causal relationship between what I do … and what constitutes a good result in the classroom … [i]t must be empirically falsifiable [and] [i]t must be open ended” (City et al 2009: 40, italics in original). Once a theory of action is viewed as finished it “ceases to function as a learning tool and it becomes a symbolic artefact, useful primarily as a tool for legitimising … authority” (ibid; 53). Similar to the “rhetoric of conclusions” (from government policy, ‘district’ policy or educational research) that Clandinnin and Connelly (1995) argue devalues the understanding of practice developed by teachers. The open ended and falsifiable nature of a theory of action is a “condition” for teacher agency. Once it becomes fixed and an example “the rhetoric of conclusions” it constrains teacher agency by serving to legitimise external authority. Despite the international popularity of instructional rounds and official support in Scotland for the learning rounds derived from them, there is little empirical evidence internationally on the effects of this form of collaborative development in practice. The research reported here analysed transcripts of four groups of teachers in Scottish schools engaged in discussions as part of collaborative professional development through learning rounds. The analyis seeks to determine the evidence that this form of collaborative professional development is providing the "ecologial conditions" or a "resource" for teacher agency.
Teaching in a post-pandemic world: narrative accounts of newly qualified teachers in Scotland, Hong Kong and England
(2020-11) Ferri, Guiliana; Campbell, Paul; Oates, Catriona
The power of placements: reflections on a joyful activity to empower teacher educators
(University of Aberdeen, 2025-09-15) Scholes, Stephen C.; Dey, Donna; Green, Christopher; Michael, Eluned; Oates, Catriona; Payne, Orlaith; Shirazi, Tara; Stevenson, Sarah
In Scottish university-based initial teacher education (ITE), university-based teacher educators support and assess preservice teachers during school placements. This work requires substantial knowledge and skills, rapid relationship building, and extensive travel. Teacher educators navigate emotionally demanding situations, balancing rigorous standards with individual growth when making crucial professional judgements. This piece positions school placements as a joyful and empowering experience. Through curated reflections from eight teacher educators across four Scottish universities, it explores key themes, demonstrating the empowering potential of placement practice. This contribution aims to foster a positive self-image among teacher educators and highlight the value of placement work. In doing so, it challenges institutional views that sometimes overlook the skill, intellectual rigour, and pastoral expertise essential to effective teacher-educators’ placement practice.
What Do Teachers Do When They Say They Are Doing Learning Rounds? Scotland’s Experience of Instructional Rounds
(Eurasian Society of Educational Research, 2015) Philpott, Carey; Oates, Catriona
This paper reports on research into the practice of learning rounds in Scotland. Learning rounds are a form of collaborative professional development for teachers based on the instructional rounds practice developed in the USA. In recent years learning rounds have gained high profile official support within education in Scotland. The research finds that what teachers in Scotland do when they say they are do-ing learning rounds varies widely from school to school and deviates significantly from the practice of instructional rounds. The implications of this for who is learning what in the practice of learning rounds is considered. The wider implications of the Scottish experience for the development of in-structional rounds practice in other countries is also considered as are the implications for promoting collaborative professional development practice more generally.