Presentation for #BrewEdFlip thinking through how workload might be reconceptualised

1. Thinking about time in schools -
an alternative view on workload
Phil Wood
@HEReflections1
Oxford April 2018
#BrewEdFlip

2. 2000 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2013 2016
Primary
classroom teachers
52.5 52.0 52.5 50.5 50.0 52.0 52.5 51.0 50.0 59.0 55.5
(23.2)
Secondary
classroom teachers
51.0 50.5 50.0 49.5 49.5 49.0 50.0 50.5 50.0 55.5 53.5
(20.7)
Perceptions of workload %
Workload is a very serious problem 52
Workload is a fairly serious problem 41
Workload is not a very serious problem 5
Workload is not a serious problem at all 0
Don’t Know 2
Government Measurement of Workload

3. Assumptions
• Time is understood as ‘clock time’ – but highly abstract
• Workload calculations are less focused on time than economic cost
• Focus on ‘clock time’ can lead to a fixation with ‘efficiency’

4. Consequences • Accelerated existence – attempts to fit in
as much as possible in a given time slice.
Hence severe intensification of work
• State sanctioned black market in
professional time
• Reliance on the ‘ethic of care’ which is at
the centre of the values and philosophy of
majority of teachers
• Unsustainable timescapes being created –
retention and recruitment issues
Need to begin to think about time in other
ways……

5. Rhythms
Low
Temporal
Density
High
Temporal
Density
• Seeing time as rhythmic
• How do rhythms fit together across the
academic year?
• Increasing level of high temporal densities as
more ‘efficiency’ is sought
• Lack of low temporal density – less ‘slow’
time and ‘excess’ time

6. Time and Autonomy
• Constraint in work practices leads to a
feeling of time pressure
• Greater professional autonomy leads to a
lesser perception of time pressure
• Hence, giving teachers greater opportunity
to work collaboratively, and on issues they
feel are important, the less time pressured
they will feel

7. Temporal Crisis in Schools - and how to
begin to address it
Dialogic
Development
Rhythms
Effectiveness
over efficiency
Professionalism