Home Archived Research corner Back Research corner 6th March 2015, 12:00am Tes Editorial Share Research corner https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/research-corner-45 Copy Link ` “They kicked him out”: teachers’ student stories as counterstories’ by Downey, C A, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 461: 1-18, January 2015 (Council on Anthropology and Education)Most teachers tell stories about their students. C Aiden Downey’s research explores how they do so and what that says about their professional identity.The paper is based on three years of research at an anonymous US high school. Because of its low standardised test scores and high dropout rate, the school was ranked as one of the worst in its city and was branded as “failing”.When teachers talk about badly behaved students, Downey notes the way they “may shield their own identities by focusing their account almost exclusively on students and their actions”. This, he argues, is a rhetorical ploy - by removing themselves from the anecdote, they evade the suggestion that they could be held responsible for a student’s poor behaviour.On the flip side, teachers who feel that they have succeeded in “turning around” a difficult pupil give themselves a more prominent role. Downey wonders, “Could teachers’ presence in their stories about successful students serve to attribute the success to them?”He says the ways in which staff identify themselves are important in the context of a “failing” school because they highlight the struggle against the perception, right or wrong, that flaws in the system are teachers’ fault. Emphasising where their interventions have made a difference counters the blanket assumption that bad schools are full of bad teachers.“Teachers’ stories can work as counterstories when they repudiate or push back on larger cultural or master narratives that may impinge or infringe upon teachers’ identities,” Downey says.Alexander TyndallShare your views by tweeting @tesHot off the pressReflective Teaching in Early Education by Jennifer Colwell et al (Bloomsbury)ISBN 9781441172044Written by a team of educationalists and practitioners, this book provides practical guidance on building relationships, inclusion, curriculum planning and teaching strategies to offer support for reflective practice in early years education.England’s Queens: from Boudica to Elizabeth of York by Elizabeth Norton (Amberley Publishing)ISBN 9781445642338Nearly 80 women have sat on the throne of England, either as queen regnant or queen consort. This volume charts the course of English queenship from Boudicca, the earliest named queen, through Anglo-Saxon times and the Wars of the Roses to Elizabeth of York, whose marriage to Henry VII in 1486 brought peace after years of conflict.Voice of Fables by Professor M R Ali (Troubador)ISBN 9781784621285This collection of poetry for children focuses on the voices of the animal kingdom and those of imaginary characters living in Deltaville, an ideal village of virtue. Each poem explores the connection between the animals and a particular characteristic, such as loyalty in dogs and memory in elephants.For book queries, please email chloe.darracott-cankovic @tesglobal.com Want to keep reading for free? Register with Tes and you can read two free articles every month plus you'll have access to our range of award-winning newsletters. Register Log in Keep reading for just £1 per month You've reached your limit of free articles this month. Subscribe for £1 per month for three months and get: Unlimited access to all Tes magazine content Exclusive subscriber-only stories Award-winning email newsletters Subscribe now Read more Weekly round-up: Capita loses Sats and GCSE fears Tes Editorial • 18th April 2024 Reception Baseline Assessment: what you need to know Gráinne Hallahan • 3rd April 2024 Weekly round-up: Teacher pay drop and school moves Tes Editorial • 28th March 2024 Weekly round-up: Teacher pay and staff shortages Tes Editorial • 21st March 2024 Recent Most read Most shared 5 basic errors that ruin teacher job applications Analysis 23 April 2024 Changes to sexual harassment law schools need to know Leadership 23 April 2024 Starmer: Halt ‘damaging decline’ of PE News 22 April 2024 CfE: Secondaries ‘starting again’ as pupils lack ‘common knowledge base’ News 16 April 2024 What does the gap in Progress 8 mean for schools? Analysis 18 April 2024 MAT chiefs warning over ‘unaffordable’ teacher pay rise News 19 April 2024 3 in 4 primary schools having to cut TAs News 19 April 2024 Exam revision: What is the best way to revise for GCSEs and A levels? Teaching & Learning 17 April 2024 Why wellbeing should drive policy and practice in schools Analysis 21 April 2024
