How can teaching and learning experiences of secondary school teachers and students in England change so well-being can improve?

Rothwell-Warn, Natalie

Abstract

This research contributes to the body of knowledge that currently exists around teacher and student well-being in secondary schools in England. It achieves this through the perceptions of both teachers and students and their joint engagement in conversation on this subject. This empirical research brought secondary school teachers and Year 12 students (16-17-year-olds) together to talk about their experiences of teaching and learning, the impacts of these on their relationships and respective well-being and to explore how experiences could change so well-being may improve. The methodology was underpinned by Critical Realism (CR) and, Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and Triple Loop Learning (TLL), which serendipitously, complemented CR’s three domains of reality, combined to form a tool to structure conversations with teachers and students. The conversations were grounded in values such as appreciation, respect and recognition and produced deep insight into the participants’ experiences, the events that formed these and the causal mechanisms and power that organised their daily encounters. The analysis through retroduction and abduction showed how teaching and learning experiences impacted on the participants, their relationship and their respective well-being. Through these and the Dream phase of AI, absences in the lived experiences emerged, triggering a move into dialectical critical realism. Recognition theory contextualised the absences and this informed an ethical theoretical perspective for change in teaching and learning experiences which could improve the well-being of students and teachers. A key outcome of the study indicates that if well-being is to improve and be sustained there is an urgent requirement for education policy and practice in England to adopt an ethic of care, concern and respect by treating students and teachers fairly and to realign policy agendas with the shared values of students and teachers.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Dec 11, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 23, 2024
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11512747
• Award Date: Aug 23, 2024