How do primary schools enact policy? The case of assessment without levels

Thesis

This thesis conveys the importance of understanding how school leaders engage in sensemaking to comprehend why a policy has been enacted in a particular way. Through interviews with headteachers, teachers, school governors, parents, and pupils, that were conducted in 2017/18 and in 2019, this thesis has sought to document differences and synthesise similarities on the enactment of the policy of Assessment without Levels (AwL) in six primary schools in England and to treat this as an indicative case of how schools respond to and enact a significant policy that reforms aspects of schooling such as curricula, pedagogy and assessment. This thesis presents how AwL was enacted in these schools both in-terms of the new progress capture and feedback processes, and also in-terms of changes to pedagogy to enact Assessment for Learning (AfL) and mastery learning. Where there are similarities between the systems, analysis discusses why the national environment of schooling in England may make that so; and where there are differences, discussion on stakeholder influences, headteacher values, and other local factors is offered. What emerges is that the enactment of AwL tells the story of many of the challenges of improving educational outcomes for pupils that schools across England were likely to be encountering during that period. This thesis concludes that the enactment of AwL was successful in the six participant schools and a heuristic as to why that was is offered which credits the clarity of the communication of the policy intentions, coupled with the latitude for headteachers to design the policy and for teachers to believe in the changes, together with strong national accountability systems that ensure standardisation. Finally, very detailed recommendations for future research on topics such as feedback, performance indicators, mastery learning, and the narrowing of the curriculum are offered.

Authors: Popat, S

• Alternative title: An exploration of policy sensemaking in primary schools
• DOI: 10.5287/ora-2zqey5vnd
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: sensemaking; leadership; schools; assessment; policy enactment; stakeholders
• Subjects: Educational Assessment; Educational leadership; Implementation Science