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Living Contradiction: A Teacher’s Examination of Tension and Disruption in Schools, in Classrooms and in Self  Sean Warren and Stephen Bigger

Six more reviews have been received.

3. What I like most about this book is its collaborative nature and its honesty.  Sean Warren and Stephen Bigger exemplify a collaborative educational relationship. Bigger, as a doctoral supervisor, has enabled Warren to make explicit and evolve his embodied knowledge as a professional educator whilst sharing, without imposition, his own insights. The honesty is in Warren’s educational journey, from his steadfast adherence to institutional standards and expectations, to his recognition that he was losing some¬thing of himself in the process and then to his creative and critical responses to these contradictions, in living his values as fully as he can. I believe that Warren’s journey will resonate with your own experiences of the imposition of institutional power relations and  captivate your imaginations in Warren’s inspirational honesty and responses.

The book also shows how Bigger shared his understandings of critical theory. He encouraged Warren to see that autobiographical writings could produce a valid and academically legitimate contribution to educational knowledge in the generation of a living-educational-theory.  This contribution, whilst grounded in the embodied knowledge of the educator, engages with, and integrates insights from the most advanced social theories of the day.   I believe that this book will be of great value on initial and continuing professional development programmes in education and to all professionals in a wide range of workplace contexts who are facing their own contradictions in living their values as fully as they can.

Prof. Jack Whitehead

4. This is the book that I wish I had had when I embarked on a career as a teacher. The ‘living contradiction’ that is its starting point is painfully familiar to everyone who has stood in a classroom and wondered how they had ended up this way, with the energy-sapping task of keeping order becoming an end in itself. We had thought it was a precondition for learning, and we craved the respect of pupils and colleagues, but we had sacrificed the excitement that brought us into the profession. Sometimes we blamed our pupils for forcing us into an authoritarian role, for not sharing the love of learning that we were so miserably failing to instil in them. Sean Warren’s book breaks out of this sterile dilemma: discipline versus self-expression, strength versus weakness. He is no naïve idealist, and is well aware that teachers continue to be accountable to a regime that insists on measurable, quantitative and sometimes trivial outcomes. But he has been willing to reappraise every aspect of the professional skills that had brought a form of success and recognition, along with deep frustration, and to hold onto the conviction that a classroom can be a place where education happens. The breaking of familiar patterns is challenging for himself, for colleagues and for pupils. It is a rocky ride for everyone, but also an exemplary exercise in practice-based research. Armed with insights from educationalists, a rigorous methodology that enables him to analyse and interpret the results of his new approach, and fortified by a constant, questioning dialogue with Stephen Bigger, Sean Warren succeeds in changing the dynamic in his classroom, a hard-won achievement and a thrilling one. This is not an arid book – all teachers will recognise the day-to-day dilemmas, confrontations and compromises, recounted with honesty and wit. But it is nonetheless inspirational: here is someone who has had the courage to believe in his students, in himself, and in the power of education.

Dr. Ann Miller, University Fellow (Formerly Senior Lecturer), University of Leicester.

5. The first thing to say about this book is that it is deeply human. The second thing to say is that it is a model of how to turn a piece of academic research (a PhD in this case) into a beautifully written, highly readable, and truly inspirational book. This is a book for now and it addresses the urgency for a radical reassessment of what schooling should mean. Schooling it should be remembered is not the same as education but as this book so clearly demonstrates, too much schooling today provides an arid landscape that produces stressed out teachers and unhappy pupils.

With admirable self -awareness Sean Warren began to see himself as a living contradiction in that, increasingly, what was required of him professionally was in contradiction to his personal aspirations and values. He saw himself as a teacher moulded by an education system much of which he began to find incongruous with his own humanity. Being a well- respected and effective teacher with responsibility for pupil behaviour and discipline was the impetus to undertake the autobiographical research described and presented so well with his supervisor Stephen Bigger. So often in schools, discipline is seen as something ‘done to’ a child rather than a case of enabling pupils to develop self-discipline. Anyone who has spent large amounts of time in schools, particularly secondary schools, will be all too aware of the increase in what is termed ‘low level disruption’. As the authors state, ‘The very idea of questioning whether the relational and educational experiences offered might have contributed to the pupil’s objectionable behaviour is rare’.

Some of the source material, particularly extracts from pupils’ diaries are, frankly, shocking, and illustrate an alarming lack of respect for their human rights and dignity. Of course, not all schools are the same but all who are involved with the education of our young people will find here a fascinating and inspiring journey that grapples with the real issues of schooling and does not provide easy ‘off the shelf’ answers to complex problems. I’m certain that many teachers will, like me, find this a truly inspirational book; one that is deeply relevant to everyone involved in the education of our children.

Dr Geoff Teece, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Exeter Graduate School of Education

6. A fascinating insight into teaching and education. I can personally identify with so many of the aspects discussed. What is clear throughout, is that relationships in teaching are crucial. They underpin and determine the behaviour of students in our schools, whether we agree that this should be the case or not. I would recommended this as a read for anyone entering or already in the education profession.

Clare Gammons - Headteacher BSc, PGCE, NPQSL

7.  Fascinating, honest examination of that genuine contradiction faced by teachers – the effort to encourage young people towards independent critical thinking whilst simultaneously feeling a responsibility to instruct and insist on a particular behaviour.

As adults we entrust teachers with a significant influence over the futures our children will enjoy. It is good to know that there are thoughtful professionals prepared the think beyond the constraints of the curriculum and work hard to find a way forward that best benefits you ng people. It is heartening to read work that promotes empowerment and motivation over discipline and dictation whilst still insisting on a mutual respect. There is an acknowledgement that school itself is a community that can reflect the best, and worst, of the society we expect young people to fit into as adults and that teachers have a significant part to play in how that society can be influenced by the experience of young people in schools.

The methodology is robust, with a full discussion and acknowledgement of the benefits and constraints of autobiography in an academic research project.

 Interesting evaluation of the role of educational theorists set against the realities of teachers’ experience on the front line in schools, where years of academic research are set against the need to respond to a behaviour in a matter of minutes.

Thought-provoking use of the immediacy of blogging as a tool to record or diarise, and share, immediate experience. I would like to congratulate both Sean and Stephen on what is a ground breaking piece of work and of significant interest to educators and researchers beyond the field of education. It is a terrific piece of work. I certainly wish my son has had a teacher as thoughtful and committed as Sean.

Suzie Grogan  LLB (Hons) PGDip. Author of Shell Shocked Britain: The First World War’s legacy for Britain’s mental health  Pen and Sword Books 2014.

8. Drawing from a great wealth of research and the even greater wealth of their combined personal experience, Sean Warren and Stephen Bigger have written something rare - a book which not only deconstructs the thorny issues endemic in the British education system, but which also presents us with intuitive and achievable remedies.

'Charlie Carroll' (pseudonym), author of On the Edge about schools, and other books.