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Why is this child in special education?

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Tracey Colville discusses the systemic change in a local authority decision-making process (DMP) for allocating specialist resources for children with complex educational needs in a local authority in Scotland.

Image courtesy of interviewee. March 13, 2024

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This video video outlines a study focused on improving public services, particularly in the context of educational decision-making for children with special educational needs. It emphasizes the complexity of current public services and the need for a deeper theoretical understanding of systemic issues and transformational change.

The study used Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as a framework, highlighting the importance of understanding how systems evolve and the contradictions within them. The researcher, an educational psychologist, collaborated with senior managers from a local authority to analyze and improve their decision-making practices regarding children's access to specialized educational resources.

Key principles of the research included:

1. **Object of Activity**: Understanding the focus of collaborative work (e.g., child assessments).
2. **Diverse Voices**: Acknowledging competing perspectives within the system.
3. **Historicity**: Recognizing how past practices shape current systems.
4. **Contradictions**: Identifying tensions within the practices to foster transformation.
5. **Interventionist Research**: Collaboratively engaging with practitioners to enact change.

Through a series of workshops, the participants critically analyzed their existing processes, recognized power imbalances, and identified ineffective practices. Ultimately, they developed a new model for assessing children's needs that emphasized inclusive practices and aimed at improving outcomes.

This video video underscores the necessity for educational leaders to actively engage with theoretical frameworks to implement effective changes in public services. There’s a call for educational psychologists to utilize such frameworks to promote critical engagement and transformation in professional practices, ensuring systems are more efficient and effective in meeting the needs of children and families. The study's findings advocate for continued reflection and adaptation within public service frameworks to avoid repeating past mistakes.

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The context of the study is around the complexity

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of working in public services at the moment.

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And part of that problem is that as researchers,

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we feel we need to better theorize

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how public services function, how do managers manage,

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how do leaders, improve the work

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of the people they work with?

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So what we are thinking is we need a more nuance

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understanding of the systemic problems

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and how to enable transformational change within systems.

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And we need to understand

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how senior managers develop new ways of learning

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and working and leadership.

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So the cultural historical activity theory approach would

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say we need to have an archeological dig into these systems

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to understand better where the problems are coming from,

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usually from the past, the effect the present,

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and the main impact on your future.

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So my research focused upon collaborative research

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with senior managers who were responsible

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for a local authority,

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special educational needs decision making process

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for assessment of children

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and their access to specialist educational resources.

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So why was I focusing on that particular topic?

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So in this local authority,

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this large urban city local authority, they were

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doing a review of, of their own practices and work,

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and they realized that this process, very complex process

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with lots of professionals working with parents,

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that it wasn't working, that it was inequitable,

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that it was taking too long,

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that some children were given specialist placements

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and some children weren't.

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So I was an educational psychologist working in this local

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authority, and I was asked to work with the senior managers

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to help them review their work practices

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around this decision making process.

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So I chose to use cultural lic activity theory

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and developmental work research.

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What is chat Cultural lic activity theory

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and developmental work research.

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So activity theory

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or cultural historical activity theory

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is located in the works of critical theory in the work

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of Marx by Gosky

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and the, the dialectical traditions

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of critical social theory.

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So it activity theory started in the 1930s, was the work

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of Vygotsky and Leon Tiv, a lot

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of these great Russian psychologists whose work was very

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much impeded by the Stalin ish regime at the time.

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And it wasn't until the 1960s that we really became aware

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of the work that we had been doing.

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Um, so Vygotsky's idea was that we need to show

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how individual learning is mediated by cultural tools.

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And then Leon Tim Strom projected that idea onto, well,

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can we ask the same questions of how systems learn?

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How do people learn within systems

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and not just at the individual level?

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So Engstrom is the, the world leader now on this approach,

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and he has developed three generations of activity theory

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to show how different systems interact with each other

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in complex work settings

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and public services such as education

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and health, are very complex,

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social, structures.

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And this is a perfect approach, to understand

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the contradictions

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and tensions that exist within these complex work settings.

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So activity, theory, chat,

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cultural historical activity theory has five key principles.

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The first one is really important.

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It's the object of activity that is the unit

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of analysis in this research.

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It's what is it that everyone is coming together

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at this point in time to work on?

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So for example, that could be the assessment of a child

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who has very complex medical needs

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that involves professionals from different backgrounds,

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different services to come together and try

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and work in partnership to improve outcomes for that child.

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The second principle is that there are lots

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of voices in these systems

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and they often compete with each other

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and they're often contested

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and people have to negotiate

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what the rules are in these systems.

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The third principle is that,

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this word called historicity,

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and it's the understanding

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that current systems didn't just appear randomly.

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They have evolved from past practice.

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So we need to understand past practice

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to understand the problems in the present so

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that we can shape the future practice in a more productive,

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effective way.

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Another key idea in activity theory is KO's idea

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that all open messy systems are inherently embedded

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with contradictions,

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and that we need this type of research to surface

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and cover what these contradictions are in order

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to transform practice.

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The fifth principle is the interventionist aspect

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of cultural historical activity theory,

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and that is called developmental work research.

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And that is when the researcher

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or a group of researchers work in collaboration

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with key workers in any given context to allow them

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to use activity theory tools to get a better understanding

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of their own work context

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and then help them transform their own practice.

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So the role of the researcher in this type

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of research is very different.

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It's very, interactive

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and we are part of that, that which is being studied.

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So it's quite interesting. So how does it work?

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So we assume that all activity systems go through cycles

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of expansive learning.

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So all open systems will go through periods of change

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and flux and stability and things need to change.

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Again, DWR developmental work research

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artificially intervenes in these work context to work

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with the key players.

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In that context, the managers, the leaders to consider

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the potential for change in the systems

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that they are working within.

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And it's very much about the role

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of the researcher being an active participant.

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The learning is at the individual and the collective level,

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and its collaboration between the researchers

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and those participating.

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And we look at,

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we bring in ethnographic data into workshops, change labs,

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they're called, and we use case studies, publish papers,

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anything that's considered ethnographic data.

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And we use that together with the, the tools of chat

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to help the participants get a more theoretical

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understanding of the context they are trying to change.

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So in Vygotsky's words, he would say,

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these are mediating tools.

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They're serving as second stimuli

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to improve the understanding of the,

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the leaders in the field that they are managing.

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When you plan this type of research in, in a system,

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in a complex system, they, you need an intervention part.

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So that was the part where I worked every six weeks

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with a group of very senior educational managers

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and we, I led them

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through the understanding of their practice.

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I introduced them to cultural still activity theory

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and the tools that we have.

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And then we met every six weeks to look at case studies,

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problematic, outcomes for children, policy documents,

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legislation, looked at everything in that context.

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And I took the participants through a 10 month period of

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studying, analyzing, critiquing

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everything we had in the room with us.

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And then the whole point of that was

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that they then considered themselves what was the potential

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for change and as a very complex system

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to have better outcomes for the children

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and young people who had very complex educational needs.

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So at the end of the intervention process,

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the participants had developed a brand new model

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for practice, for the whole local authority for children

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and young people being assessed so

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that they could access the appropriate educational resources

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that they required in a, a proportionate and timely manner.

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So, so at the end of the intervention process,

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they had developed a new model for practice.

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The second phase was the implementation of this model

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that took place over 18 months where

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the educational leaders were going out,

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describing their new model

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to everyone else in the local authority planning,

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how people were going to develop different work streams.

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There were work plans for different work streams

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and there were evaluation points to gather data so we can,

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we could evaluate the longitudinal impact

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of the intervention.

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And we were also evaluating the usefulness of chat

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as an approach to engage senior managers

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in this kind of work.

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So the, the two phases together probably took over

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about two and a half years.

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And so the intervention phase informed

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what would happen in the implementation phase.

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The participants in this research,

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it was a self-selecting group

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because I wanted to focus on the vet,

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the most senior educational managers

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who had power control agency budgetary

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control over the whole process.

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So chat would say that to effect real

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transformational change, researchers need to be interacting

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with the people who hold the most power

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and who hold the agency to effect change to make it happen.

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So I invited all of the senior educational managers

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who were part who, who were responsible,

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who managed this process.

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So they included head teachers

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of some of our special schools and specialist provisions.

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They were part of the decision making process

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that was under question, very senior,

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educational and legislative leaders

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who oversaw the process from the legislative perspective,

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the overall manager

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of all the educational services in the local authority.

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There were some educational psychologists, the managers

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of educational psychologists as

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they were often the key professionals

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who would assess the child for this specialist provision.

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So in my group, I had all the key people who

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managed the specialist provisions,

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who participated in the decision making process

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and who managed the decision making process.

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The first part of the intervention

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with these senior managers was to do a critique

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and analysis of their own process.

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So using activity theory tools, it's often,

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it's often depicted as a triangle.

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So a system and activity is depicted as a triangle

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and it has various nodes on the triangle.

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So for example, what are people's roles in this activity?

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How do people know how to work together?

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What tools do they have to work together?

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So for example, what kind of assessment tools were used

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to assess the children to be prioritized

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for these specialist provisions?

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What kind of legislative policy either hinders

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or facilitates this process to work?

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And the most important aspect of it was how are people

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managing to work together

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and to what extent are there problems with that?

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So their analysis of their own system showed us

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that there were problems with partnership with parents.

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There was a real power imbalance

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between the professionals involved in the assessment

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of children and the parents' views

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and children's views were absent from the whole process.

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There were lots of conflict with multi-agency working.

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So teachers, educational psychologists, social workers,

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speech and language therapists, pediatricians,

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they were all expected to come together to work

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to assess a child.

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But there were problems with who decided what to do

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and people using different assessment methodologies.

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It was very difficult to get everyone

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to agree on the best needs for the child.

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That was very problematic.

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Um, educational psychologists in particular were using

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different assessment methodologies,

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and that then caused problems for the decision making group

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because they couldn't interpret the different,

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assessment outcomes

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and what the, what the recommendations

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that educational psychologists were making.

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There were also problems with deficit models of learning.

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So when children were being assessed,

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negative categorizing labels were being used and,

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and the assessment methodologies were often involving

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standardized assessment tools that bore no relation to,

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to trying to understand the needs of the child.

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So there were problems at the legislative level,

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the local authority policy practice level,

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the way professionals try to work together,

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the way the power imbalances

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between parents and professionals.

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And all of this came together such

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that the outcome of this decision making process

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to place children in specialist provisions was

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that sometimes children were inappropriate

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and placed in provisions.

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Some children would expect it

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to be supported in mainstream schools,

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but the parents felt they should have been in a main,

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a specialist school.

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And often there were disputes that went to formal,

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additional support and tribunal processes.

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So the whole, the whole system,

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the whole process was fraught with tensions, dilemmas

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not achieving good outcomes for children.

14:37.835 --> 14:42.815
And it was long and drawn out and nobody was happy with it.

14:43.515 --> 14:46.855
So the participants taking part in this process,

14:47.115 --> 14:49.135
it was very, very important for them.

14:49.845 --> 14:52.045
They gathered lots of reflective data from them

14:52.275 --> 14:55.925
that this was the first time they'd actually looked at the

14:55.925 --> 14:57.725
whole process in its entirety

14:58.425 --> 15:01.405
rather than just looking at the procedural

15:01.555 --> 15:03.085
aspects of the process.

15:03.785 --> 15:06.445
So once they had achieved this analysis

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and the outcomes, they then went on to talk about,

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so we understand the problems now,

15:13.695 --> 15:15.105
what does the future model

15:15.205 --> 15:17.145
of this decision making process look like?

15:17.885 --> 15:22.625
So the next part of the result was that using the tools

15:22.765 --> 15:25.545
and principles of cultural historical activity theory,

15:25.965 --> 15:29.385
the group of participants journeyed

15:29.385 --> 15:32.945
through various turning points in their thinking using the

15:32.945 --> 15:35.105
tools of chat, actually changed

15:35.885 --> 15:37.345
how they were thinking about the,

15:37.345 --> 15:38.825
their own problems in their workplace.

15:39.285 --> 15:43.025
So for example, they started off the research by saying,

15:43.025 --> 15:45.185
we're going to review this decision making process.

15:45.935 --> 15:48.305
Then as the sessions unfolded

15:48.485 --> 15:52.065
and their analysis became clearer, they started to say,

15:52.295 --> 15:54.425
wait a minute, review

15:54.425 --> 15:57.145
of this process isn't really the right thing, is it,

15:57.205 --> 16:00.585
we actually need to broaden out the scope of this review

16:00.845 --> 16:03.305
and look at the wider systems around this process.

16:04.075 --> 16:06.825
There was lots of discussion and debate around that

16:06.965 --> 16:09.345
and looking at case studies of children again.

16:09.845 --> 16:13.425
And then eventually they arrived at the third turning point.

16:14.345 --> 16:16.185
Actually, what we need to do

16:16.725 --> 16:20.305
is build capacity in all our mainstream schools so

16:20.305 --> 16:22.065
that they have the needs

16:22.205 --> 16:25.705
and the skills to include more children in mainstream

16:26.285 --> 16:29.825
and that will avoid children being placed in specialist

16:29.825 --> 16:31.305
provisions when they don't have to.

16:32.045 --> 16:35.185
And then their final turning point was,

16:35.605 --> 16:37.865
it was at the point there was this new practice,

16:38.505 --> 16:40.665
national practice guidelines in Scotland called

16:41.305 --> 16:42.785
Getting it Right for every child.

16:43.645 --> 16:45.945
And the the participant group said,

16:45.965 --> 16:47.145
do you know what we need to do?

16:47.205 --> 16:51.305
We need to start afresh, look at this new practice model

16:51.885 --> 16:53.225
and start to think about

16:53.685 --> 16:56.665
how do we assess needs in a timely manner so

16:56.665 --> 16:59.585
that children can access their education in their

16:59.685 --> 17:00.705
own local school.

17:01.085 --> 17:03.985
So they, they traveled from thinking they were going

17:03.985 --> 17:05.665
to review a very specific process

17:06.365 --> 17:09.825
to completely transforming their whole approach to

17:09.825 --> 17:11.905
how children's needs are met

17:12.085 --> 17:15.065
and how children learn in mainstream schools.

17:15.205 --> 17:17.545
So it was quite a significant journey

17:17.765 --> 17:20.145
and transformation that they went through in their thinking.

17:20.965 --> 17:25.725
If they hadn't done that chat would predict that

17:26.475 --> 17:29.325
they would've maybe just produced the same process

17:30.005 --> 17:31.565
thinking it was actually different,

17:31.565 --> 17:34.805
but it had, it would have the same inherent problems in it

17:34.805 --> 17:36.325
because they hadn't been looked at.

17:37.145 --> 17:41.185
So the outcome of those turning points

17:42.325 --> 17:44.745
was they developed a completely new model

17:45.325 --> 17:48.465
for the local authority about meeting children's needs

17:48.605 --> 17:51.725
and how they were learning in mainstream schools.

17:52.395 --> 17:55.615
Once they had developed that model, they then went

17:55.635 --> 17:57.055
to the implementation phase

17:57.425 --> 17:59.335
where they had different work streams

17:59.355 --> 18:01.655
and different professionals working on different work

18:01.655 --> 18:04.295
streams so that all the different parts

18:04.295 --> 18:06.335
of the system were changing at the same time

18:07.275 --> 18:09.655
and everything was moving forward at the same time.

18:10.195 --> 18:13.655
We had various points, time points when we gathered data.

18:14.435 --> 18:17.135
And like all organizational change processes,

18:17.285 --> 18:19.535
it's not straightforward, it's not linear.

18:20.275 --> 18:22.375
And there were times when people thought things weren't

18:22.375 --> 18:27.015
moving quickly enough or things weren't radical enough and,

18:27.035 --> 18:28.575
and the changes that were being made.

18:29.115 --> 18:32.615
So as we, I gathered the data over various time points.

18:32.985 --> 18:35.135
There were times when people were frustrated,

18:35.525 --> 18:37.495
they didn't think it was moving quickly enough,

18:37.915 --> 18:39.455
but all this can be predicted

18:39.455 --> 18:41.535
by organization organizational change theory.

18:41.635 --> 18:45.935
It takes at least two years to do really embedded

18:46.525 --> 18:48.495
radical transformational change.

18:49.035 --> 18:50.095
And they achieved that.

18:51.025 --> 18:54.205
So what this approach told us was

18:55.025 --> 18:57.725
to have better theoretical understandings

18:57.745 --> 18:59.285
of complex systems like this.

18:59.945 --> 19:04.205
We need to be using this kind of theoretical framework.

19:04.345 --> 19:08.005
We need to be using this type of interventionist research so

19:08.005 --> 19:09.205
that educational leaders

19:09.345 --> 19:13.225
and managers can offer better systems

19:13.295 --> 19:15.305
that not only have better outcomes for children

19:15.325 --> 19:17.865
and families, but they function more efficiently

19:17.865 --> 19:18.905
and effectively as well.

19:18.975 --> 19:22.425
Because we know these public services

19:22.525 --> 19:26.265
and systems are very, very strained at the moment in terms

19:26.285 --> 19:27.585
of budgets and so on.

19:27.725 --> 19:31.545
So we need to be using these theoretical processes

19:32.205 --> 19:34.305
to not only improve how we all work together,

19:34.485 --> 19:35.865
better outcomes for children,

19:36.085 --> 19:39.305
but that it works more efficiently and effectively as well.

19:39.905 --> 19:42.985
I was an educational psychologist working in this

19:42.985 --> 19:44.185
local authority at the time.

19:44.825 --> 19:47.465
A key role of educational psychologists is

19:47.465 --> 19:49.185
that we are research practitioners

19:49.605 --> 19:51.505
and we undertake research

19:52.085 --> 19:54.545
in the educational systems within which we work.

19:55.345 --> 19:57.265
I would say one of the key aspects is

19:57.265 --> 19:59.385
that more educational psychologists need

19:59.385 --> 20:01.225
to understand this work so

20:01.225 --> 20:03.785
that when they are out there supporting schools,

20:03.835 --> 20:07.305
supporting teachers, supporting educational managers,

20:07.575 --> 20:10.665
they can use these tools, these theoretical frameworks,

20:10.665 --> 20:11.665
these concepts

20:12.005 --> 20:15.385
to engage people in a more critical transformational process.

20:16.005 --> 20:18.465
So I think the raising theoretical awareness

20:19.085 --> 20:20.225
of senior managers

20:20.225 --> 20:22.585
and leaders is essential so

20:22.585 --> 20:24.705
that they can develop the public services

20:24.705 --> 20:27.265
that are more effective and have better outcomes.

20:28.555 --> 20:30.165
Also, I think there's a need

20:30.165 --> 20:33.445
for critical engagement using the conceptual tools of chat

20:33.625 --> 20:35.845
to critique and transform

20:36.205 --> 20:38.245
professional practice and leadership.

20:38.665 --> 20:40.325
We can't have, there are lots

20:40.325 --> 20:41.925
of processes in local authorities

20:41.925 --> 20:45.205
and in public services under lots of review processes,

20:45.385 --> 20:46.685
but they seem to reproduce

20:46.685 --> 20:47.685
Themselves. We

20:47.685 --> 20:50.325
need to start engaging people in proper

20:50.885 --> 20:53.645
critical reflection to have transformational change.

20:54.265 --> 20:57.525
So I would say what I'm doing now, what I do in my work

20:58.105 --> 21:01.725
is having conferences, doing interviews like this, we need

21:01.725 --> 21:05.725
to promote chat as an interventionist research framework

21:06.195 --> 21:08.125
that has practical relevance

21:08.505 --> 21:11.565
and theoretical rigor to understand

21:11.625 --> 21:15.565
and change complex work settings such as public services

21:16.185 --> 21:20.365
and in particular educational settings, which is my area

21:20.365 --> 21:20.845
of research.

Transforming Public Services Through Collaborative Research

00:00:00 - The context of the study is around the complexity of working in public services at the moment. And part of that problem is that as researchers, we feel we need to better theorize how public services function, how do managers manage, how do leaders, improve the work of the people they work with? So what we are thinking is we need a more nuance understanding of the systemic problems and how to enable transformational change within systems.
00:00:32 - how senior managers develop new ways of learning and working and leadership. So the cultural historical activity theory approach would say we need to have an archeological dig into these systems to understand better where the problems are coming from, usually from the past, the effect the present, and the main impact on your future. So my research focused upon collaborative research with senior managers who were responsible
00:01:03 - special educational needs decision making process for assessment of children and their access to specialist educational resources. So why was I focusing on that particular topic? So in this local authority, this large urban city local authority, they were doing a review of, of their own practices and work, and they realized that this process, very complex process
00:01:36 - that it wasn't working, that it was inequitable, that it was taking too long, that some children were given specialist placements and some children weren't. So I was an educational psychologist working in this local authority, and I was asked to work with the senior managers to help them review their work practices around this decision making process. So I chose to use cultural lic activity theory
00:02:08 - What is chat Cultural lic activity theory and developmental work research. So activity theory or cultural historical activity theory is located in the works of critical theory in the work of Marx by Gosky and the, the dialectical traditions of critical social theory. So it activity theory started in the 1930s, was the work of Vygotsky and Leon Tiv, a lot
00:02:38 - much impeded by the Stalin ish regime at the time. And it wasn't until the 1960s that we really became aware of the work that we had been doing. so Vygotsky's idea was that we need to show how individual learning is mediated by cultural tools. And then Leon Tim Strom projected that idea onto, well, can we ask the same questions of how systems learn? How do people learn within systems and not just at the individual level?

Understanding Complexity Through Activity Theory

00:03:12 - and he has developed three generations of activity theory to show how different systems interact with each other in complex work settings and public services such as education and health, are very complex, social, structures. And this is a perfect approach, to understand the contradictions and tensions that exist within these complex work settings.
00:03:42 - cultural historical activity theory has five key principles. The first one is really important. It's the object of activity that is the unit of analysis in this research. It's what is it that everyone is coming together at this point in time to work on? So for example, that could be the assessment of a child who has very complex medical needs that involves professionals from different backgrounds, different services to come together and try
00:04:16 - The second principle is that there are lots of voices in these systems and they often compete with each other and they're often contested and people have to negotiate what the rules are in these systems. The third principle is that, this word called historicity, and it's the understanding that current systems didn't just appear randomly. They have evolved from past practice. So we need to understand past practice
00:04:46 - that we can shape the future practice in a more productive, effective way. Another key idea in activity theory is KO's idea that all open messy systems are inherently embedded with contradictions, and that we need this type of research to surface and cover what these contradictions are in order to transform practice. The fifth principle is the interventionist aspect
00:05:19 - and that is called developmental work research. And that is when the researcher or a group of researchers work in collaboration with key workers in any given context to allow them to use activity theory tools to get a better understanding of their own work context and then help them transform their own practice. So the role of the researcher in this type of research is very different. It's very, interactive and we are part of that, that which is being studied.
00:05:52 - So we assume that all activity systems go through cycles of expansive learning. So all open systems will go through periods of change and flux and stability and things need to change. Again, DWR developmental work research artificially intervenes in these work context to work with the key players. In that context, the managers, the leaders to consider the potential for change in the systems

Active Research Collaboration for Transformational Change

00:06:23 - And it's very much about the role of the researcher being an active participant. The learning is at the individual and the collective level, and its collaboration between the researchers and those participating. And we look at, we bring in ethnographic data into workshops, change labs, they're called, and we use case studies, publish papers, anything that's considered ethnographic data. And we use that together with the, the tools of chat
00:06:55 - understanding of the context they are trying to change. So in Vygotsky's words, he would say, these are mediating tools. They're serving as second stimuli to improve the understanding of the, the leaders in the field that they are managing. When you plan this type of research in, in a system, in a complex system, they, you need an intervention part. So that was the part where I worked every six weeks
00:07:26 - and we, I led them through the understanding of their practice. I introduced them to cultural still activity theory and the tools that we have. And then we met every six weeks to look at case studies, problematic, outcomes for children, policy documents, legislation, looked at everything in that context. And I took the participants through a 10 month period of
00:07:56 - everything we had in the room with us. And then the whole point of that was that they then considered themselves what was the potential for change and as a very complex system to have better outcomes for the children and young people who had very complex educational needs. So at the end of the intervention process, the participants had developed a brand new model for practice, for the whole local authority for children
00:08:27 - that they could access the appropriate educational resources that they required in a, a proportionate and timely manner. So, so at the end of the intervention process, they had developed a new model for practice. The second phase was the implementation of this model that took place over 18 months where the educational leaders were going out, describing their new model to everyone else in the local authority planning,
00:09:01 - There were work plans for different work streams and there were evaluation points to gather data so we can, we could evaluate the longitudinal impact of the intervention. And we were also evaluating the usefulness of chat as an approach to engage senior managers in this kind of work. So the, the two phases together probably took over about two and a half years. And so the intervention phase informed

Engaging Senior Managers for Transformational Change

00:09:32 - The participants in this research, it was a self-selecting group because I wanted to focus on the vet, the most senior educational managers who had power control agency budgetary control over the whole process. So chat would say that to effect real transformational change, researchers need to be interacting with the people who hold the most power and who hold the agency to effect change to make it happen.
00:10:08 - who were part who, who were responsible, who managed this process. So they included head teachers of some of our special schools and specialist provisions. They were part of the decision making process that was under question, very senior, educational and legislative leaders who oversaw the process from the legislative perspective,
00:10:37 - of all the educational services in the local authority. There were some educational psychologists, the managers of educational psychologists as they were often the key professionals who would assess the child for this specialist provision. So in my group, I had all the key people who managed the specialist provisions, who participated in the decision making process and who managed the decision making process.
00:11:11 - with these senior managers was to do a critique and analysis of their own process. So using activity theory tools, it's often, it's often depicted as a triangle. So a system and activity is depicted as a triangle and it has various nodes on the triangle. So for example, what are people's roles in this activity?
00:11:40 - What tools do they have to work together? So for example, what kind of assessment tools were used to assess the children to be prioritized for these specialist provisions? What kind of legislative policy either hinders or facilitates this process to work? And the most important aspect of it was how are people managing to work together and to what extent are there problems with that?
00:12:14 - that there were problems with partnership with parents. There was a real power imbalance between the professionals involved in the assessment of children and the parents' views and children's views were absent from the whole process. There were lots of conflict with multi-agency working. So teachers, educational psychologists, social workers, speech and language therapists, pediatricians,

Complex Challenges in Child Assessment Practices

00:12:45 - to assess a child. But there were problems with who decided what to do and people using different assessment methodologies. It was very difficult to get everyone to agree on the best needs for the child. That was very problematic. educational psychologists in particular were using different assessment methodologies, and that then caused problems for the decision making group because they couldn't interpret the different,
00:13:15 - and what the, what the recommendations that educational psychologists were making. There were also problems with deficit models of learning. So when children were being assessed, negative categorizing labels were being used and, and the assessment methodologies were often involving standardized assessment tools that bore no relation to, to trying to understand the needs of the child.
00:13:48 - the local authority policy practice level, the way professionals try to work together, the way the power imbalances between parents and professionals. And all of this came together such that the outcome of this decision making process to place children in specialist provisions was that sometimes children were inappropriate and placed in provisions. Some children would expect it
00:14:18 - but the parents felt they should have been in a main, a specialist school. And often there were disputes that went to formal, additional support and tribunal processes. So the whole, the whole system, the whole process was fraught with tensions, dilemmas not achieving good outcomes for children. And it was long and drawn out and nobody was happy with it. So the participants taking part in this process,
00:14:49 - They gathered lots of reflective data from them that this was the first time they'd actually looked at the whole process in its entirety rather than just looking at the procedural aspects of the process. So once they had achieved this analysis and the outcomes, they then went on to talk about, so we understand the problems now, what does the future model of this decision making process look like?
00:15:22 - and principles of cultural historical activity theory, the group of participants journeyed through various turning points in their thinking using the tools of chat, actually changed how they were thinking about the, their own problems in their workplace. So for example, they started off the research by saying, we're going to review this decision making process. Then as the sessions unfolded

Transforming Approaches in Educational Needs Assessment

00:15:52 - wait a minute, review of this process isn't really the right thing, is it, we actually need to broaden out the scope of this review and look at the wider systems around this process. There was lots of discussion and debate around that and looking at case studies of children again. And then eventually they arrived at the third turning point. Actually, what we need to do is build capacity in all our mainstream schools so
00:16:22 - and the skills to include more children in mainstream and that will avoid children being placed in specialist provisions when they don't have to. And then their final turning point was, it was at the point there was this new practice, national practice guidelines in Scotland called Getting it Right for every child. And the the participant group said, do you know what we need to do? We need to start afresh, look at this new practice model
00:16:53 - how do we assess needs in a timely manner so that children can access their education in their own local school. So they, they traveled from thinking they were going to review a very specific process to completely transforming their whole approach to how children's needs are met and how children learn in mainstream schools. So it was quite a significant journey and transformation that they went through in their thinking. If they hadn't done that chat would predict that
00:17:30 - thinking it was actually different, but it had, it would have the same inherent problems in it because they hadn't been looked at. So the outcome of those turning points was they developed a completely new model for the local authority about meeting children's needs and how they were learning in mainstream schools. Once they had developed that model, they then went to the implementation phase
00:17:59 - and different professionals working on different work streams so that all the different parts of the system were changing at the same time and everything was moving forward at the same time. We had various points, time points when we gathered data. And like all organizational change processes, it's not straightforward, it's not linear. And there were times when people thought things weren't moving quickly enough or things weren't radical enough and, and the changes that were being made.
00:18:32 - There were times when people were frustrated, they didn't think it was moving quickly enough, but all this can be predicted by organization organizational change theory. It takes at least two years to do really embedded radical transformational change. And they achieved that. So what this approach told us was to have better theoretical understandings of complex systems like this.

Enhancing Public Services Through Interventionist Research

00:19:04 - We need to be using this type of interventionist research so that educational leaders and managers can offer better systems that not only have better outcomes for children and families, but they function more efficiently and effectively as well. Because we know these public services and systems are very, very strained at the moment in terms of budgets and so on. So we need to be using these theoretical processes
00:19:34 - better outcomes for children, but that it works more efficiently and effectively as well. I was an educational psychologist working in this local authority at the time. A key role of educational psychologists is that we are research practitioners and we undertake research in the educational systems within which we work. I would say one of the key aspects is that more educational psychologists need to understand this work so that when they are out there supporting schools,
00:20:07 - they can use these tools, these theoretical frameworks, these concepts to engage people in a more critical transformational process. So I think the raising theoretical awareness of senior managers and leaders is essential so that they can develop the public services that are more effective and have better outcomes. Also, I think there's a need for critical engagement using the conceptual tools of chat to critique and transform
00:20:38 - We can't have, there are lots of processes in local authorities and in public services under lots of review processes, but they seem to reproduce Themselves. We need to start engaging people in proper critical reflection to have transformational change. So I would say what I'm doing now, what I do in my work is having conferences, doing interviews like this, we need to promote chat as an interventionist research framework that has practical relevance
00:21:20 - and change complex work settings such as public services and in particular educational settings, which is my area of research.

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