Professional Educators and Administrators' Committees for Empowerment (PEACE)

Agenda

Insert Date Here

Time 16.00–17.30

• 1. Welcome

• 2. Apologies

• 3. Minutes of previous meetings approved, matters arising

• 4. Time for building pedagogical relationships in the classroom

• 5. Time for providing Assessment for Personal and Social Learning (APSL)

• 6. Time for students responding to feedback in the classroom

• 7. Time for students and teachers talking about how APSL informs planning

• 8. Time for students and teachers talking about behavior empowerment (ABCDE)

• 9. How do teachers and students include parents in the behavior empowerment (ABCDE)

• 10. How do teachers, students and parents ask questions about applying ABCDE for behaviour empowerment?

• 11. Any other business

Dear

I am writing regarding the proposal for a pilot we talked about for The Professional Educators', and Administrators' Committees for Empowerment (PEACE) meeting. I am inviting you to be a facilitator for a Pilot of PEACE meeting(s) in primary and/or secondary schools.

The focus of the PEACE is for professional educators and administrators to have grass roots up dialogue with a clear agenda. The agenda maps to the chapter (see attached agenda and chapter) that explores Assessment for Personal and Social Learning drawing on Dewey which is from my book I am submitting to the publishers on Monday, 12 August.

The chapter is not suggesting ‘this is what you do’; it is a stimulus for thought to bring some focus on the attached agenda items and is open for criticism and rejection.

So in sum I attach:

1. A formal letter inviting you to be a facilitator for a Pilot of PEACE meeting(s) in primary and/or secondary schools.

2. The chapter on Assessment for Personal and Social Learning (Dewey inspired)

3. The agenda for the Professional Educators', and Administrators' Committees for Empowerment (PEACE). The agenda is the same for each PEACE meeting. Please note that the discussion for each agenda item from each PEACE meeting can take as long as colleagues need, but the minutes need to be reduced to three statements for each agenda item.

4. The terms of reference for the Pilot Professional Educators' and Administrators' Committees for Empowerment.

5. An article that provides the rationale for PEACE and ABCDE, but we are only focusing on the feedback from professional educators and administrators in schools at this stage.

The time frame is to have one pilot PEACE meeting complete for each school participating by…………

You can have one school in your pilot, or as many different schools participating as you think is feasible to capture different characteristics such as rural, urban, suburban, SES, representation of students of color, those recognised as having Special Educational Needs and so forth.

I recommend that if you want to conduct PEACE meetings in primary schools, you have a maximum of five schools.

If you want to conduct PEACE meetings in Secondary schools, you may hear more voices if you have a PEACE meeting in each department, and therefore a set of minutes for each department, which may mean you only have one or two secondary schools involved in the pilot.

As facilitator you may wish to ask the PEACE members if you can attend the PEACE meetings, and you may wish to nominate another/other facilitator(s) to attend so that you share attendance at PEACE meetings. For issues of balance I suggest only one facilitator attends a PEACE meeting if the PEACE members agree to your attendance.

The terms of reference suggest that the PEACE choose a Chair, and that the Chair rotates, possibly for each meeting of the pilot.

The three key statements for each agenda item minuted from each PEACE meeting need to be approved by the members of the PEACE and sent to me by the end of ………

I will then collate all minutes from all the PEACE meetings with an aim of having three statements for each agenda item. I will send these collated minutes to the PEACE meetings and aim to present these to the policy makers at the DfE for feedback.

The collation of the PEACE minutes to a one-page document keeps the submission to the DfE/policy makers manageable, whilst still representing all voices from each grass roots up PEACE meeting. I will send the reduced document back to you in your role as facilitator, to share with your PEACE.

I have applied to attend a meeting at the Houses of Parliament and I will find out if my application has been successful on the ………… The meeting aims to enable me to secure a meeting with the DfE and policy makers to report the collated minutes from the PEACE meetings.

The meeting with policy makers is aimed to take place in ……… with feedback from the DfE coming back to each PEACE by ……….…

The PEACE will then have a second pilot meeting before the end of ……… to discuss the feedback from the DfE mapped to the agenda items, and to discuss the PEACE next steps.

Hopefully this will include further PEACE meetings that facilitate grass roots up policy making as well as policy enactment that includes the deep thinking that emerges from the PEACE meetings, stimulated by the readings.

I am very happy to come and do a 1 hour–1.5 hour twilight training session with the PEACE members at their school before they have their first PEACE meeting if this fits in with your schedule. I could discuss this with you via skype, or the telephone so that we can team teach the twilight training session as you wish.

The book is due for publication in ……… supported by a website and blog so there is potential to mainstream the PEACE meetings in more schools if this is feasible, supported with a tool box of resources.

I can send you a letter of invitation that you can send to the schools to develop the PEACE. Please note that these PEACE meetings are not research, rather they aim to build networks and infrastructure for grass roots up participation in policy making and enactment. Therefore the agenda has no engagement with salary, or the workload model, only on Assessment for Personal and Socialised Learning.

I also intend to share the collated minutes with a group of stakeholders including the Chartered College of Teaching, UCET and the Unions and aim to set this up once I have confirmation from you that you are happy to move forward with the pilot PEACE meetings.

Please let me know your thoughts by 15 August, and I very much look forward to the chance to work with you on this project.

Thank you again, Alison

Dr Alison Taysum

Guide for Focus Group Schedule for Superintendent and Leaders

1a. What do you enjoy about being an agent of change in your role?

Probe: Can you give me a concrete example of that?

1b. To what extent do you think young people are given opportunities to ask good questions about their lives and how their learning is empowering them to achieve their goals?

Prompt: Do you think young people connect their learning as a tool to empower them to become the person they want to be?

Probe: Can you give me a concrete example of that please?

1c. Can you tell me what challenges you face in developing young people's emotional, intellectual and moral virtues to empower them to be societal innovators for equity and renewal?

Prompt: Time and space for developing culturally relevant curriculums, and time and space for ITE and CPD to develop cultural alignment within education systems.

Probe: Can you give me a concrete example of that please?

2a. Reflecting on your answers (above), to what extent do teachers and students have time to talk about their responses to their own and each other's acts in the classroom?

Prompt: Can you tell me about the dynamics of power that might need to be navigated here?

Probe: Can you give me a concrete example of that?

2b. To what extent do teachers and students have time to talk about their priorities in terms of their health, family, friends, possessions and wealth?

Prompt: Is there formal support or informal support if teachers are concerned about going off the prescribed timetable to develop such communication as the hallmarks of relationships of trust with students?

Probe: Can you give me a concrete example of this please?

3a. To what extent do teachers and students have time to talk about the instruments of production of the goods and how this connects with their own lives, the lives of others and equity and renewal?

Prompt: What changes would you like to see happen to empower you to empower staff and students to develop bridging cultures to talk about these kinds of issues?

Probe: Can you give me an example of that please?

3b. To what extent do you think it is important to develop multicultural identities for community cohesion?

Prompt: Who needs to be involved to develop multicultural identities for community cohesion and peace?

Probe: Can you tell me more about how such a cultural change can be operationalised?

4a. To what extent are students encouraged to problem-solve using logic?

Prompt: Is logic taught discretely in the curriculum or integrated into other subjects such as English and grammar?

Probe: Can you give me a concrete example of that please?

4b. To what extent are students encouraged to use empirical evidence from different sources to problem-solve?

Prompt: What skills do the students have to be able to recognise the warrants for the claims are trustworthy or fake?

Probe: Can you give me a concrete example of that please?

5a. To what extent are students encouraged to use a moral compass when they problem-solve?

Prompt: Can they tell you where their moral compass comes from?

Probe: Can you give me a concrete example of that please?

5b. To what extent are students encouraged to use an ethical framework when they problem-solve?

Prompt: Can they tell you where their ethical framework comes from?

Probe: Can you give me a concrete example of that please?

Thank you very much for your time

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