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Pupils talking about their learningmentors: what can we learn?Richard Rose a & Mary Doveston aa Centre for Special Needs Education and Research , University ofNorthampton , UKPublished online: 18 Apr 2008.
To cite this article: Richard Rose & Mary Doveston (2008) Pupils talking about theirlearning mentors: what can we learn?, Educational Studies, 34:2, 145-155, DOI:10.1080/03055690701811222
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Educational StudiesVol. 34, No. 2, May 2008, 145–155
ISSN 0305-5698 print/ISSN 1465-3400 online© 2008 Taylor & FrancisDOI: 10.1080/03055690701811222http://www.informaworld.com
Pupils talking about their learning mentors: what can we learn?
Richard Rose* and Mary Doveston
Centre for Special Needs Education and Research, University of Northampton, UKTaylor and Francis LtdCEDS_A_281186.sgm10.1080/03055690701811222Educational Studies0305-5698 (print)/1465-4300 (online)Original Article2008Taylor & Francis342000000May [email protected] use of learning mentors to provide additional support to pupils who experience barriers to
learning has become a feature of many schools in recent years. Mentoring places learningwithin a social context and recognises the necessity to ensure that students feel bothcomfortable with and in control of the learning process. This paper describes research whichsought the views of young people who, having been identified as having social difficulties, hadbeen supported by learning mentors. Their personal interpretation of mentoring and its impacton their lives is discussed and illustrated through use of their own words. Students intervieweddemonstrated an ability to rationalise their own situations and behaviors and provide anindication of the important role that learning mentors have played in their lives.
Keywords: mentoring; learning support; pupil voice
The term Learning Mentor is used in the UK to refer to salaried non-teaching school support staffwho work with school and college students and pupils to help them address barriers to learning(DfES 2000). These barriers can be wide-ranging and often personal to the individual student.They include the need to develop better learning and study skills, personal organisation andcoping strategies to deal with difficulties at home, behaviour, bullying or just general disaffectionand disengagement from learning.
Exploration of the work and the effectiveness of learning mentors is timely because it issuggested that these professionals may play a significant role in liaising with other support agen-cies to achieve the five key every child matters outcomes for their pupils: being healthy, stayingsafe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution to the community and economicwell-being. (DfES 2005). Furthermore, learning mentors may potentially demonstrate in theirengagement and dialogue with students, a significant role in facilitating students in the identifi-cation and expression of their individual needs and through planning appropriate strategies toachieve these as part of the personalised learning agenda. (DfES 2004). It must, of course, berecognised that the role of learning mentor is embedded in a broader social agenda and cannot ofitself solve problems rooted in the school culture and social system (Colley 2003), but what alearning mentor may be able to do is to help students to explore, understand and deal with theissues that arise from day-to-day living.
A relationship for learning
Its not so much what you do – the most important thing is the way you do it. (Zinkin 1991, 60–1)
The learning mentor role is one of guide not master and key theoretical influences haveinformed the way in which the mentoring relationship has developed to promote learning
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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through a process which engages and empowers the student to develop problem-solving skills.Egan’s person-centered theory focuses on the helping relationship as a working alliance tohelp the client “develop more options in their lives” (Egan 1990, 7). It is possible to see in therelationships between students and their mentors, described later in this paper, the enactmentof Egan’s four values which are respect, empathy, genuineness and empowerment. Helpingand problem-solving skills are regarded by Egan as being as important for pupils’ learning asliteracy and maths skills. This is compatible with recent English government initiatives ineducation such as Excellence and enjoyment: A strategy for primary schools (DfES 2003) andPedagogy and practice: Teaching and learning in secondary schools (DfES 2004), whichhave shifted the focus towards increased attention for individual pupil needs. Within thisrealigned approach problems are interpreted within a positive learning context and, ratherthan simply being viewed as obstacles, are seen as opportunities for personal growth anddevelopment.
In addition to Egan’s perspective of a values-driven approach, a further key influence isthat of Dewey (1916), who warned of the dangers of separating formal learning activities fromthe social and cultural context in which students operate. He emphasised that learning is asocial activity in which ongoing reflection grounded in experience promotes personal growth.Vygotsky (1962), like Dewey, positions learning in a social context highlighting the role ofthe adult in the zone of proximal development where the student’s potential to problem solveis recognised in the transference of control to the learner, the role of the adult being tofacilitate learning through scaffolding the experience. Post-Vygotskian researchers, such asLave and Wenger (1990), and their proposals situated around learning theory, have helped toshape the type of engagement which is commonly seen between mentor and student. Thefocus is therefore on learning through social collaboration addressing real problems in the hereand now.
The research project
The evaluative research reported in this paper was commissioned by a cluster of schools within asingle English local authority. A scheme whereby trained learning mentors were used in bothprimary and secondary (schools N = 13) had been in operation for a period of two years. Througha formal process of referral individual pupils who were perceived to be under-performing orhaving social difficulties within school were allocated a learning mentor who worked with themto enable them to gain confidence in their schoolwork with a focus upon improved attainment andthe development of positive attitudes towards learning. The introduction of learning mentors wasan important strand in a range of initiatives, which included the establishment of learning supportunits to meet the stated priorities of the schools. Specific objectives had been obtained through anaudit conducted across the schools, which identified the perceived barriers to learningexperienced by pupils across the cluster. These were:
● To raise standards and achievement of children and young people;● Family-centred learning;● Engaging outside agencies more effectively;● Providing effective early intervention;● Providing a safe haven;● Improving social skills;● Improving attendance and punctuality;● Reductions in exclusion;● Students more able to organise themselves;● Supporting children and young people in family trauma.
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The data collected showed that the role of the learning mentor was well defined and consistentlyinterpreted within the cluster, although there were clear operational differences resulting from theindividual nature of schools.
Over a two-year period data were collected through the use of semi-structured interviews thatadopted a narrative approach (Elliott 2005) in which interviewees were encouraged to expresstheir own opinions and articulate their experiences of the mentoring process conducted in theschools. In addition, a scrutiny of documentation, including school policy documents,performance indicator statistics and records maintained by learning mentors, was conducted inorder to verify information obtained through interviews. The sample for this research waspurposive, with efforts made by the research team to ensure that a good cross-section of individ-ual service providers and recipients were interviewed.
Interviews were conducted with a range of individuals who had direct involvement with thelearning mentoring process (Table 1). However, for the purpose of this paper the writers willfocus only on the views expressed by the pupils in order to gain insights into their experiencesand perceptions of being in receipt of learning mentor support.
Listening to the voices of pupils: – a useful process or tokenism?
The reporting of “pupil voice” as a means of gaining insights into their learning experiences hasbecome a common practice in recent years (Davie and Galloway 1996; Lewis 2001; Burke andGrosvenor 2003). Advocates of this process suggest that pupils can provide a unique perspectiveon their experiences as learners and that this can serve to inform teachers and others about theways in which they may become more focused upon addressing pupil needs and thereby becomemore effective. Teachers who have endeavoured to seek the views of pupils in order to gaininsights into their educational experiences have reported benefits. Munby (1995) suggests thatwhen pupils are encouraged to assess their own performance, they gain a greater understandingof the ways in which they may manage their own learning needs and that this can lead to improvedperformance. Similarly, the work of Cooper (1993) and Wise and Upton (1998) indicates that apreparedness on the part of teachers to listen to the views of pupils described as having social,emotional and behavioural difficulties can positively influence their behaviour and attitudestowards learning. McLaughlin (1999), in a study of a personal tutoring scheme, concluded thatyoung people whose views were sought and appreciated developed high levels of respect for theirteachers. This view is endorsed by Jones (2005), who suggests that pupils who are divorced fromconsultation about their own needs are more likely to become disengaged from learning.However, there is some suggestion that while teachers and researchers have become morecommitted to eliciting pupil opinions, this approach is not always deployed in a manner that iseither meaningful or helpful. Some writers (e.g., Gersch 1996; Cook-Sather 2002) haveemphasised the need to guard against the kind of tokenism which encourages pupils to expresstheir views and then fails to either analyse what is said or use the information to influence change.
Table 1. The project interviews.
Interviews conducted with
• 36 learning mentors from across the cluster.• 33 pupils who were receiving or had previously received the support of a learning mentor. These were
identified by the schools• 11 parents/carers of students who had received support from learning mentors• 11 governors from schools within the mentoring programme• 3 staff from Learning Support Units
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In the context of the research discussed in this paper, the researchers pursued the explorationof pupil voice for two purposes. Firstly, as an illuminative process whereby the views expressedby the pupils could be used to verify data obtained through other means. The research heredescribed was designed as a hermeneutic process (Becker 1996), which was concerned to developa narrative based upon the experiences of the individuals at the heart of the learning mentorscheme under consideration. Equal weighting and respect was given to the views of all respon-dents, along with a recognition that each player in the learning mentoring process would have apersonal perception based upon experiences both during and prior to the mentoring experience.Transcripts from interviews with pupils were analysed alongside those obtained by interviewingother parties, including teachers, parents/carers and learning mentors. Through this approach theresearchers were able to compare the opinions of different respondents and to extract a correlationof views across these.
The second motivation for eliciting pupil views came from the commitment of the researchersto endorse the idea that participation in research can be an emancipatory process whereby thoseinvolved come to feel valued and respected and recognise that their opinions may influencechange (Siraj-Blatchford and Siraj-Blatchford 1997). However, it is recognised that this secondmotivation becomes reality only at a point where the views of the individuals concerned begin toshape policy and effect change. It might be argued that a frustration for researchers undertakingthis kind of evaluation-focused study is that, once a report is delivered, the researchers have noinfluence over the implementation of any recommendations made. In the context of this study,the researchers would contend that such factors should not detract from a commitment to provideresearch participants with an opportunity to engage directly with and thereby influence the inter-pretation of the research process. While claims of tokenism may be levelled at the involvementof pupils in research of this nature, we would dispute these and argue that it is only through directengagement with pupils that the respect which is due to them as the “subjects” of research can befully afforded.
Gaining pupil perceptions
Informed consent was sought from both pupils and their parents/carers prior to conducting semi-structured interviews with pupils. Interviews were conducted by researchers who were them-selves experienced teachers and were held in surroundings familiar to the interviewees. All pupilsinterviewed were offered the opportunity to listen to recordings of the interview or to receivecopies of transcripts if they so desired. Interviews varied in length from ten minutes to more thanhalf an hour and interviewees were encouraged to speak freely without interruption from theinterviewer.
A range of issues arose from the interviews which provide insights into the experiences whichpupils gained through working with learning mentors. These form the basis of discussion withinthis paper and were also valuable in informing schools and the local authority about the effective-ness of the learning mentoring system.
Providing choice
Learning mentors are in a unique position to exert considerable influence over pupils’ attitudesand behaviour through a directive style of intervention in a one-to-one context, and Egan (1990,2002) Colley (2003) and Crudass (2005) warn of the dangers inherent in this type of helpingrelationship. This concern was discussed in the research of Jekielek et al. (2002), who noted theimportance of mentees being volunteers rather than conscripts. The researchers were thereforeinterested to note the extent to which pupils in this research felt they had a choice about whether
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they were mentored and were informed about how the system would operate. An importantconsideration for secondary-aged pupils (11–16-year-olds) was that mentoring support wassomething which they believed they “bought into” rather than an intervention which was imposedfrom above. In the illustrative comments presented here the pupils clearly regard participation inmentoring as an invitation:
I didn’t get pushed into it, I got offered it…
While it appears from the following comment that learning mentoring was, initially, recom-mended by teachers rather than chosen by the pupils themselves and that it was implementedbecause of a problem situation with which the pupil was unable to cope, a personal empowermentto manage the problem more effectively was perceived as a positive outcome of the intervention.In terms of Egan’s model, this pupil moved from a position of “problem management” to“opportunity development”.
After a few times I knew what it were about, and it gradually got into more depth of talking andsolving stuff, and I wasn’t just coming thinking, oh, I have got to go to the learning mentor. Then itwere, I want to come, ’cause I want to solve this, and that is how it started coming.
Pupils in key stage 1 (aged 5–7 years) and in the early years of key stage 2 (aged 7–8 years) didnot generally differentiate the role of learning mentor from other adults who “helped them” inschool, including teachers, head teachers, lunchtime supervisors, friends and teaching assistants.All pupils, however, saw the adults who played the role of learning mentors as more of a criticalfriend than a person in a position of authority:
she is kind … she doesn’t bite … she helps people.
The practicalities of managing learning mentors within the observed scheme mean that, in reality,adults were prioritising which pupils should be offered this type of support. However, it becameclear that pupils were offered choice both in respect of the type of support provided and in beingable to “opt out” if they felt that this support was not meeting their needs.
Perceptions of learning mentoring in terms of outcomes
Learning mentors were one strand of what was often a coordinated range of support to meet theaims of the schools which were essentially focused on raising student attainment in school. Crud-das (2005) warns of the dangers that can accrue from this: “There is also the risk that learningmentors will become the instruments to impose institutional goals on young people in ways thatare experienced by them as diminishing and destructive rather than engaging and enabling”(Cruddas 2005, 3). The researchers were interested in examining the extent to which pupils wereable to set their own agenda for support, and the ways in which their own needs could be mappedagainst the priorities set by the cluster. This was considered important because of the key indica-tor of effective mentoring, as identified by Egan (1990), of clarifying key issues and identifyingblind spots which prevent personal growth.
The following example illustrates how one secondary pupil was facilitated to do this:
With my food lessons, I used to go in looking for an argument, if there was something bothering me,[I would] cause disruptions in class which meant other pupils weren’t working and then the teacherobviously every time I went into classroom would expect me to be like it so I weren’t getting no extrahelp off her because she weren’t going to give her time up for me when I were just abusing lessontime. And then since I’ve been sorting problems out now she’s got all the time for me, dinner-time,after school and in lessons, and now my course work’s up to date.
We [learning mentor and pupil] go through the cycle of me going into the classroom and beingangry and abusive and then why the teacher comes back at me with an argument and then I just go
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back again and we go through a cycle that works out why the teachers mad at me and how they aregoing to feel after I embarrass them in front of the class by shouting back at them which then makesme think about if I change the way I am towards teachers, because I really intimidate them whenI’m shouting at them in front of all that many pupils, they’ll have time for me to work through mywork.
In this example, the learning mentor had helped the pupil to understand how her feelings andresponses were contributing to the creation of barriers to her learning and participation and, morebroadly, an appreciation of how important positive working relationships are in the learningprocess. Cruddas (2005) refers to the role of learning mentor as a learning discourse guide:“Learning mentors help to make the rules of participation in the learning discourse(s) explicit andbroker access to learning through participation” (Cruddas 2005, 11). The above example indicatesthe ways in which a learning mentor is able to fill an intermediary role, by identifying potentialsources of conflict and barriers to learning and supporting a pupil in taking greater control of theirown situation.
Within Egan’s model an emphasis upon gained independence is seen as paramount in judgingthe success of an intervention programme based upon mutual respect: “Helpers are effective tothe degree that their clients, through client–helper interactions, are in a better position to managetheir problem situations and/or develop the unused resources and opportunities of their lives moreeffectively” (Egan 1990, 5). In terms of the priorities set by the cluster, this successful mentoringrelationship had helped the pupil to raise her achievement in Food Technology and to preventexclusion.
Improving school attendance was an important priority for the cluster, and this was clearlyunderstood by many pupils:
If you don’t go to school your mum will go to prison. (pupil aged 7)
If people are late for school then she [learning mentor] comes and fetches them and takes them toschool. (pupil, aged 8)
Certainly in the practices observed during this project there were examples of learning mentorsintervening to ensure that pupils did get to school. But attendance has to be viewed in a broadercontext of how far pupils feel they belong to a school community and are engaged in learning.Some learners need a one-to-one relationship in order to discover themselves as learners (Rogersand Freiburg 1994), and within the context of this project, the role of the learning mentor in re-engaging pupils in education was a recurring theme. Younger pupils appreciated the opportunityto enjoy one-to-one time with an adult who played games, made things, read, listened and talkedwith them, while older pupils valued a critical friend who would listen, ask questions andchallenge their perceptions in a safe environment that enabled them to make their own sense ofdifficult and challenging situations:
I had a lot of problems which caused me to be having problems in me lessons with me work and learn-ing and concentration, with me anger. And when I come to [learning mentor] we have gone throughways and why I am angry, to sort them out, which led me to sorting the work out and getting thingsin on time and why I were getting angry with teachers and to sort my relations out with teachers whichwas starting to improve my work.
the main thing were trying to help me read … sometimes they [teachers] say read this paragraph andI didn’t like it: I used to try and get out of it. So like I never used to do a lot so eventually I got intotrouble for it…
… I didn’t get pushed into it [mentoring], I got offered it … because I was expected to get like a low5 or maybe a 4 and in my SATs [English], I came out with a 6. (Pupil, aged 14)
The above student’s words powerfully illustrate the value of reflection on an experience which“opens the door to real learning” (Cairn 1991, 77). The learning mentor was able to facilitate the
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process of reflection through helping the student to share their experience, discuss what washappening, and plan more effective responses.
Daniel (not his real name), aged 14, defined a learning mentor as someone:
that helps you stay out of trouble and tells you what to do and all that.
Daniel was clear about his personal target:
time out card, use that instead of getting into trouble. Show teacher and walk out of class
and his strategy for dealing with an anxiety attack:
stand outside for a bit … if someone torments me, I take five deep breaths … think about having apool outside or a beach and then just laying on beach.
Sessions with the learning mentor helped Daniel to explore the reasons why he had been sent outof lessons:
I try to behave but my body goes right funny then I end up being naughty – like I’m losing my temperbut nobody has done ought to me.
The behaviours which Daniel described led to an educational psychology assessment, inSeptember 2005, which identified a pattern of learning difficulties associated with dyspraxia andnoted the high anxiety levels experienced by Daniel. He was issued with a statement of specialeducational needs and given 10 hours of additional in-class support. In this case, the identificationof a barrier to learning and the provision of support was facilitated through the learning mentorenabling the pupil to verbalise and make sense of his experience.
It became clear to the researchers that the learning mentoring process was not just aboutengaging pupils, but also pupils’ families. Several pupils appreciated the joint interest of parentsand learning mentors in their learning progress:
Researcher: Do you tell mum and dad what you have been doing with your learning mentor?Pupil: Yes, because when my mum and dad help me do my words, my mum sees that I get my
words right.
For some pupils, the learning mentor was seen as providing a “safe haven” within the socialcomplexity of the school environment:
Researcher: Can you give me – perhaps think about one particular way in which you have beenhelped?
Pupil: Coming back to school as I was off for three months, and she [learning mentor]persuaded me to come back.
Pupil: ‘What sort of things were done to help you get back in?Pupil: All the support she said she was going to give me which she has. Like sitting at the back
of the class for a couple of days. Helping me to get away from other students because Iwas getting bullied.
This notion of a provision of security was of considerable significance to many pupils who alsoappreciated having a person to whom they could go when the classroom environment felt hostileand stressful. They appreciated the availability of a person to visit, not just a place to retreat to.For one young boy this was occasioned by writing tasks, an activity which he hated and tried toavoid:
Researcher: What sort of things makes you a bit “het up” then?Pupil: Teachers … as soon as they go on about something, they don’t stop … I don’t get as
angry now. If I get told off, I can just come straight to Mrs S [learning mentor] withoutgetting told off any more.
In this situation, the learning mentor was “acting as a temporary container for the excessiveanxiety [of her pupil] … at a point of stress” (Salzberger-Wittenburg et al. 1999, 60).
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But the role of the learning mentor was not just about providing a “safe haven”. Their jointallegiance to school authority as well as being a critical friend to their mentee required a “toughlove” stance as learning mentors interpreted and communicated the school behaviour code ofconduct and helped the pupil to develop a modus operandi:
Researcher: So how do you cope when the teacher asks you to do some writing?Pupil: I just write … I got used to it now with Mrs S [learning mentor] and do it. Learning
mentor just told me what I would get if I refuse and punishment.When I come and see her when I have been naughty, she like, calms me down and …if I get into trouble, she can help me out, like she tells me to go and apologise and stufflike that.
The opportunity to set up “conditions for respectful dialogue with young people and families”(Cruddas 2005, 9), discuss issues in confidence and to receive assistance with difficulties inrelationships at home was a feature of several interviews with pupils. The value of mentoring inhelping young people “to come to terms with difficult family relationships” has been highlightedby other writers (Philip, King and Shucksmith 2004; Rose and Jones 2007) and was illustrated inan interview with Amy, aged 15.
Amy described how the learning mentor offered her the emotional support which led toimproved self-esteem and the re-establishment of her relationship with her mother, which hadbroken down during a period when her parents were in the middle of an acrimonious divorce:
Amy (not her real name): I was having trouble with my mum and it was just someone to talk to sothat I could get more confidence out of myself. I were just having a lot of trouble with my mum.
It was, sort of, getting self-esteem out of myself and get more confidence when speaking to otherpeople.
We used to meet, like, once a week and then we slowly got it down to, like, once every fortnight andwe just gradually stopped doing it.
The mother, in a separate interview, told the researcher that mentoring:
made a lot of difference to her [Amy’s] behaviour and personality. She tells me she loves me now,which she didn’t before. If she sends me a text message, she says she loves me … it’s made thingsbetter at home. She’s not as moody. It’s made us a lot closer. Before, we didn’t get on. We have hadno problems now for past two years.
As Jekielek et al. (2002) noted, mentoring in improving parental relationships can improve ayoung person’s self-worth.
The ownership which pupils can feel in respect of learning mentors is eloquently illustratedby the following quotation from a secondary pupil who was keen to ensure that the systemadopted by the school was retained:
and there were actually one lady [governor] that says there is no point in them … I goes, have youactually had a mentor? She goes, no, I’ve never needed one. Well, I say you can’t judge people, youcan’t judge actual work experience of the mentoring if you haven’t had it, and she goes, well, myfriend had it and it didn’t help at all, and I goes, well, it depends if people want it, what people dowith it.
This student expresses the empowering outcome of a mentoring relationship which has enabledher to participate in an important debate about the value of mentoring.
Can we learn from the views expressed by pupils?
Educational researchers need to exercise caution when using the voices of individuals, includingpupils, to illustrate research findings. It is beholden on researchers to avoid the pitfalls of taking
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the extremities of views expressed in order to make a political point, or to over-emphasise thepositive or negative aspects of the findings. Validity of interpretation is contingent upon the useof methods of analysis which endeavour to ensure that those extracts of pupil voice, which areused in reporting the research, are representative of the full range of opinions obtained.
In the research reported here a system of open coding was used to identify those issues whichwere consistently referred to by the respondent pupils. These were then considered alongside thedata obtained from other groups of interviewees (such as teachers or parents/carers) and withreference to school documentation (such as teacher records of pupil performance) in order to gainsome verification of the statements made. In this way, it was possible to build a picture of thepupils’ experiences of learning mentoring. While it is impossible to say that any data of this natureprovide a wholly objective truth (indeed we would suggest that this is in itself a contestedconcept), the measures taken to secure the statements used do enable the researchers to providean interpretation which can be verified through tracing back through the research data (Peräkylä2004).
Pupils interviewed during the research expressed a generally positive view of the role oflearning mentors and the impact which they had upon their lives. In particular, they articulatea view that the personal relationship which they had built with a mentor had served to increasetheir confidence and their ability to cope with the daily stresses of school life. Pupils talkabout learning mentors in personal terms. They clearly view their relationship to a mentor asbeing qualitatively different from that with other adults, including teachers. This reinforces theviews expressed by other researchers working in this field (Gibson 2003; Rose and Jones2007), who have also emphasised the qualitatively different nature of the mentor – menteerelationship from that normally associated with interactions with persons in authority posi-tions. A clearly emerging theme from the research is the perception of pupils that the learningmentor is able to focus upon them and their needs while teachers are, of necessity, moredetached because of their need to keep an overview of all pupils. Data obtained from pupilinterviews suggest that learning mentors are often privy to information from the pupils in theircharge which would not be shared with other adults. Similarly, there are instances when alearning mentor can act as an intermediary between the pupil and a teacher, the pupil andparent/carer or the pupil and his peers, in order to improve relationships, or to advocate onbehalf of the individual.
When considering the efficacy of the learning mentor scheme under scrutiny, it is of particularinterest to note that even the younger pupils interviewed were able to express a view about howa learning mentor had effected change in their lives. In many instances this included a consider-ation of how their school work had improved, as well as an increase in self-confidence, which hadenabled them to be more socially included into the classroom. Of particular note was the correla-tion of pupil views with those of teachers, who reported improved classroom performance, andthe parents/carers who suggest increased confidence in the school.
We would suggest that pupils can provide unique insights into their own experiences ofschooling when provided with a framework in which to do so. Our experiences of interviewing33 pupils over a two-year period led us to conclude that, in any evaluation of a scheme such asthis, a failure to incorporate the pupil voice would be a serious omission. While there are majorchallenges for the researcher in respect of analysis, interpretation and presentation of data frompupil interviews, there is also an opportunity to gain authenticity and to present ideas whichenhance our understanding of what happens in schools. However, while researchers may adopt apolicy of seeking and valuing the opinions of pupils, they will continue to have limited influenceupon the ways in which their findings are interpreted or those voices used. It is to be hoped thatpolicy-makers and teachers will share the commitment to listen to pupils and that this may helpthem in shaping the future schooling of children.
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Notes on contributors
Richard Rose is professor of Special and Inclusive Education and Director of the Centre for SpecialNeeds Education and Research at the University of Northampton. His recent publications include SpecialEducational Needs in Inclusive Primary Classrooms, with Marie Howley.
Mary Doveston is senior lecturer in special and inclusive education at the University of Northamptonand co-author of Becoming a Higher Level Teaching Assistant: Special Educational Needs with SteveCullingford-Agnew.
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