Printed copies have arrived

We have been notified that printed copies are back from the printer. Exciting!  The publisher Crown House says:

I am pleased to advise that we have just taken delivery of your book and it looks great!

Your presentation copies will be sent out to you today, for delivery tomorrow, and the pre-publication reviewers will also be sent their complimentary copies.

We have received advance copies here with the bulk of the stock being delivered in to our distributors. In view of this we will make the book available on our web sites today and Tweet etc.  to make people aware that they can purchase advance from us and will amend the publication date on Amazon (currently 28^th of September) to the 15^th of September, to allow for delivery and distribution of the book. Up to the 15^th we will be Tweeting daily regarding the book and Tweet on the 15^th availability on Amazon. The e-book files are currently being worked on, so hopefully they will be live by the 15^th of September too.

Over the next few weeks we will be issuing a Press Release and sending out review copies.

Do let us know what you think of the printed version.

With very best wishes

The Authors

Our book explores the dynamics of schools and classrooms and in particular the effects of over-authoritarian attitudes. The authors are
Dr. Sean Warren, secondary school senior teacher in a mixed comprehensive, who successfully achieved his PhD for the research
Dr. Stephen Bigger his supervisor who led him through critical questions about pupil motivation, developing self-reliance, self discipline and citizenship development by adopting non-authoritarian practice. You can find more on Stephen's ideas here and his publications here.


Sean learned to base his work in school on mutual respect and collaborative learning. He explores his successes and his challenges.

Sean tells the story of his own education in East London which provided him with few options upon leaving school. A product of a broken home, he experienced himself as both vulnerable and resilient. He overturned his lack of qualifications by adult study at night-school leading eventually to teacher training. His subject, Physical Education provided a platform to convey his assertiveness as an adult in charge. In his third school he changed to Religious Education, a subject which has the potential to be challenging in that the RE teacher tends to meet the whole school for one lesson a week without the carrot of a qualification to come out of it. After his own life experiences, he found class discipline unproblematic and gradually rose to be in charge of whole school discipline. Conclusions from his Masters informed his proposal to start a part-time Doctorate. He considered himself a good disciplinarian and wanted to research how he might disseminate his habitual approach. But then cracks began to appear – he became increasingly aware of a gnawing sense of dissatisfaction but was unable to articulate it. Was he too controlling? Were his tried and tested disciplinary methods too authoritarian? Did they compromise his relationships? Was his professional practice incongruent with the values he claimed to hold? He began to wonder if there was a better way, where authority could be maintained but in a context of respect and cooperation? Involving 16 classes and 6 colleagues, this began a four year research project which is crystallized in this book.


Stephen entered secondary school teaching in 1973. He had finished his BA and studied for PhD in 1970-73. Married, and planning for a family, a job with a salary was imperative. The school was an overnight amalgamation of a boys' grammar and a secondary modern. The modern school became years 1-3 (7-9 in today's terminology). If you now fear the worst, multiply by ten. The year is referred to (not affectionately) as ROSLA, standing for 'raising of the school leaving age' to 16. In other words most of year 5 (year 11 today) had hoped and expected to have escaped but had been dragged back. By November my head of department had a breakdown - I found him crying in the toilets - and in all my inexperience I took his place. Out of teaching a 34 lesson week,  I taught 24 different classes and had to write reports for them all. Where I had more than one lesson a week, it was with ROSLA classes. No examinations were on offer. I remember looking up to one teacher, a disciplinarian, who cnfessed to me later he couldn't sleep on Sunday night for fear of Monday. A PE teacher liberally used his plimsol in the store cupboard. Despite this being my first year in teaching, I had no mentor or anyone to relate to at all. When a 5th year threatened me with a broken bottle he was made to apologise, but the one who ran in when drunk, smashed tables, chairs and a wall, was I gather dead within two further years of drunkenness.  I returned a few years later and the whole school had been blotted out. I have just read Charlie Carroll's On the Edge: One Teacher, a Camper Van, Britain's Toughest Schools and much seems familiar. I remember saying to a pupil leaving without qualifications having  signed to play for Everton, what happens if you break a leg when you are 25? He did break a leg when he was 25 and it ended his football career.

I moved on to a school which taught GCE and A level and all together taught in secondary schools for eight years. I recall some pupils getting a GCE pass for me and for no one else, to accusations that my subject must be easy. The truth was I made the subject interesting and relevant, trying to enthuse and not humiliating pupils who were struggling. I was taking with a long standing teacher friend who told a similar story, having been placed in a socially deprived area with extreme belligerence from pupils at first, but persisted by being nice to them. They surprised her in the end by putting together a leaving party and telling her she was the only teacher who had shown them respect. Some pupils of course were bad then and are still bad now. I remember a Facebook message from a naughty pupil then who managed to insult me and my wife  five times in ten lines. She was of course shown the door. We are not naive - some pupils were nasty and remain nasty. But not all.

Our simple message is to respect pupils as much as possible. Some may be difficult, and this is no magic bullet, and some may need to learn in a non-school setting. But it remains true that where good order is disrupted, it may be the teacher doing the disruption. John Holt saw this in the 1960s, as did Ivan Illich later. John Dewey argued earlier that democracy and pupil voice was better than dictatorship. In my school visits on teaching practice, a saw a great deal of good practice and happy relationships; but I also saw some abusive practice. Shouting, sarcasm and shaming for me should never be a normal disciplinary strategy. I took part in a programme with disengaged pupils (see Viv Bartlett, Nurturing A Healthy Human Spirit which I was happy to provide a Preface to). This essentially befriended pupils who had written themselves off, and offered them strategies to succeed, some even moving from complete failure to university degrees. Turning pupils around from failure to success is not part of today's agenda of quantifiable appraisal (league table) though it is the most educational of all school processes. 

More reviews

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.

Proofs are out

To Crown House Publishers. 31st July.

1.
Warren and Bigger present a compelling and highly engaging account of a personal journey, from an authoritarian approach to discipline to one founded in respect and care: moving from discipline imposed by teachers, to developing pupils’ self-discipline that is the result of self-learning.  This is a powerful challenge to the ways in which schools work, underpinned by research and personal reflection.  Sean Warren’s sense of being a product of the education system, becoming a servant of the system and it’s agent and ultimately a reflective practitioner is made all the more powerful by the real life stories from young people and teachers, and from Sean himself.  The move from compliance and confrontation to cooperation and care is compelling in its challenge to readers to review their professional practice and relationships.

Dr Richard Woolley

Head of Centre for Education and Inclusion

Deputy Head (Research) in the Institute of Education

University of Worcester

2.

This book is an intelligent, sensitive and socially situated antidote to the macho, authoritarian ‘what works’ publications in education that cocksurely proselytize about what needs to be done to improve teaching and learning and how this needs to be done. In conceptualising teaching as a moral and ethical practice, Warren and Bigger’s book seeks to illuminate and confront some of the complexities involved in dealing with the thorny issues of behaviour and discipline in schools. But rather than providing spurious, short term solutions, this book takes the reader on a journey of critical reflection and self-learning as the authentic experiences of the authors’ professional lives are openly interrogated. The richness, sensitivity and depth of thought with which this book examines matters relating to behaviour and discipline in schools makes it very unique from many other publications.

Dr Matt O’Leary

Reader in Education

Birmingham City University

Philosophy as a school ethos

"Philosophy can give young people the skills and confidence, not only to question and challenge purported facts but also to see through the current attempts in some quarters to discredit the very notions of fact, truth and expertise."

Philosophy for children (and young people) encourages and enables clear lucid thinking and challenges misinformation, dubious information and indoctrination. It is not an occasional school lesson but a way of thinking across the whole curriculum. It requires a respectful school ethos in which teachers and pupils are able to engage in meaningful dialogues.

Harold Rosen, respectful teaching and researching.

I wish to share the insights of Harold Rosen given by the Institute of Education London here. This refers to a new collection of his life work published here

Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award

Wise words from Philip Pullman, who received the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2005:

Children need art and stories and poems and music as much as they need love and food and fresh air and play. If you don’t give a child food, the damage quickly becomes visible. If you don’t let a child have fresh air and play, the damage is also visible, but not so quickly. If you don’t give a child love, the damage might not be seen for some years, but it’s permanent.

But if you don’t give a child art and stories and poems and music, the damage is not so easy to see. It’s there, though. Their bodies are healthy enough; they can run and jump and swim and eat hungrily and make lots of noise, as children have always done, but something is missing.

Susan David, Emotional Agility, 2016

Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life

“Emotions are absolutely fundamental to our long-term success – our grit, our ability to self-regulate, to negotiate conflict and to solve problems. They influence our relationships and our ability to be effective in our jobs,” said David, author of the book ... Children who grow up into adults who are not able to navigate emotions effectively will be at a major disadvantage.”

Our book discusses how teachers can work alongside pupils to develop positive emotions together, talking calmly through crises, helping pupils get back on track rather than inflicting punishments that put them further off track.

Susan David describes emotional agility as “being aware and accepting of all your emotions, even learning from the most difficult ones” and being able to “live in the moment with a clear reading of present circumstances, respond appropriately, and then act in alignment with your deepest values.” Understanding emotions helps young people to make healthy decisions within positive social values.

Emotions are not good or bad. Everyone experiences difficult emotions — including sadness, anger and frustration. All emotions are normal and healthy.

“No emotion is here to stay,” said David. “You may feel really sad or really angry — but emotions are transient. Emotions pass.” Acknowledge them. Reflect on them nonjudgmentally. View your emotional responses with curiosity, gently asking, “Why am I feeling this way?”

Emotions are teachers. People can learn from difficult emotions. Ask yourself: What is this emotion telling me? How can I use this information to be stronger, better and more connected with the world?”

Courage is ‘fear walking’. “We are surrounded by people telling us to conquer our fears but fear is normal.” We should note it with interest but not let it stop us doing important positive things.

Values Affirmation is a recognition that core values are “the compass that keep us moving in the right direction”. Giving young people opportunities to affirm and articulate their values helps them in the face of inevitable challenges. They can talk about why school is important to them, who they want to be, what they care about, what they want to accomplish and what difference they want to make in the world.

A Stanford University project  found that asking minority (Black and Latino) middle school students to reflect on their schooling during stressful points in the school year resulted in significant academic gains.

It helps to develop what Susan David calls a ‘strong internal compass’. Teaching young people how to think, not what to think helps them work through emotionally charged situations. To support them, David uses the phrase: “I see you” — your emotions, your ideas, your strengths, your struggles, and your dreams. When pupils are very upset, the presence of an interested attentive person invites calm in.

Tranquility.

Meditation in school
This post from an American school describes simple meditation techniques used in school to give pupils calmness and emotional control. They report fewer discipline problems, detentions and exclusions. This is reported at http://www.womansday.com/life/a56446/school-replaces-detention-with-meditation/.


Tranquility
We did something very similar in England a decade ago. We called it Tranquility to avoid the religious connotations of meditation.

I was very pleased to be invited to write a foreword to Vivian Bartlett’s book. ...Motivated teachers and motivated pupils tend to go together, but authoritarian teachers are more likely to produce either timid or rebellious charges. ... For two years we worked closely with disturbed and disengaged young people on ‘Tranquility Zone’ and ‘Discovery Zone’ activities. The first group of 11-13 year olds was chosen by secondary schools as needing particular support. I interviewed several after the project as part of my work as project evaluator. CONTINUE HERE. 

Like all projects, it took some thinking through in the early states. Its purpose partly was to encourage calm minds which could come to terms positively with emotions like anger, temper, jealousy and envy. It did this through story, listened to in an ambient tranquil setting, with flowers, gentle lights and quiet music. The story encouraged thinking, reflection. Discussion afterwards surrounded topics of hurtful behaviour, selfishness, helping others, cooperation and such like. Vivian Bartlett, one of the designers, wrote it up here where you can read a sample - Nurturing a Healthy Spirit in the Young. I evaluated the programme and wrote a foreword for the book. I interviewed all of the early cohort, all troubled youngsters turned off from learning who said it had drawn them back from suicide, put them on the route to training and careers, and even moved them into a university course, All had once been written off as no hopers. One ten year old had been very disruptive, liable to savage outbursts, but the story she got something from offered her a mentor in the head, a wise auntie as it were. When trouble brewed, she took herself off to a quiet corner to talk things through in her head and calm down. She received a best behaviour prize the following year. The mindset encouraged was to be contributors not consumers - to contribute to the community around rather than just hoarding stuff. The project took youngsters into care homes and set up a drop in cafe for those who wanted to chat. Funded with almost nothing, it succeeded with these disturbed youngsters where highly funded institutions had failed.

Our book Living Contradiction comes out in late summer.

The Book.

Our book Living Contradiction comes out in late summer. In this blog we will introduce some of the ideas and discuss related issues and themes. For Sean Warren, it represents a decade of reading, thought and classroom developmental work. Throughout, Stephen Bigger was his mentor and PhD supervisor.