Conyers Interview Report 1

Country Case Study: England

Interview Report
Bonnie Conyers
UMUC EDTC 645
Dr. Derby
 Conyers Interview Report 2

Introduction

The relatively slow pace of adopting and embedding new technologies in education has

been noted and studied for 20 years (Bruce, 1993). More recently, a deeper understanding of

the complex nature of school systems has shifted the focus of such studies from a simple

causal approach at the level of the individual or institution to a more subtle and multi-faceted

study of individuals and schools as components within ecological systems (Crook, 2010).The

purpose of this report was to cooperate with professionals of multiple experiences within the UK

educational system to gain knowledge and understanding of technology availability and

integration, and professional development opportunities in order to farther my global education

experience.

Interview Questions

1. What is the name and location of one of the schools you were teaching at?

Rationale: Due to England being such a large country, it is important to know the exact

area and school. This allows farther research to take place about the school and

population as well.

2. What were the demographics of that school? Race, Ages, FARMS, SPED?

Rationale: This question helps me to understand the school and student population. I

can compare to my school as well.

3. What was the technology availability at that school? Was it equal amongst all schools in

that district?
 Conyers Interview Report 3

Rationale: This was to help gather a better understanding the technology availability for

the interviewee. This also helped me determine what students would be able to have

access to for global projects.

4. What did professional development look like at that school? Did it revolve around

technology?

Rationale: This question was to determine teachers technology education and

readiness. Also, to see how teacher training occurred in comparison to my current

school.

5. What technology limitations do you think there are in the UK, if any?

Rationale: Being as both of my interviewees had taught in many different places, I

wanted to see where they felt the UK ranked with the implementation of technology.

This would also help me to connect with the above question on professional

development.

Strategy Used

Although several attempts were made through international blogs and via email to

teachers who seemed interested in connecting, there was little to no follow through with my

interview questions. Through one of my coworkers at school, I connected with her former

coworker, who is now part of Teach for America. Her connection then led me to my other

connection, although very grateful, it was a little late in the process. Communication was mainly

through Gmail, Google chats, and Facebook chats.

 Conyers Interview Report 4

Persons Interviewed

Wendy Oftedahl (Facebook Chat Interview)

A former Baltimore County teacher, Wendy decided to take her profession

international. She joined Teach for America, and was sent to England to work

with youth that has been put out of public schooling. While she has finished up

her stay, she will be returning to continue teaching at a private school in

Washington D.C.

Angela Laderach (Gmail Interview)

A 5th grade teacher of mathematics, English, Science, Social Studies, Art, and IT;

Angela is an extremely well rounder professional teaching just South of London.

Anglea is also very interested in global education, and will be continuing her

instruction this year in the Middle East.

Findings and Reflections

After my internet chat with Wendy Oftedahl, the extreme disconnect with the levels of

education seemed to be apparent. Wendy is responsible for teaching students that have been

put out of the public education system in London, England. While teachers met with students

in a public library setting and were able to use the technology there, students had no access to

technology when leaving this setting. This setting was also not appropriate for teachers to

model technology for students, or collaborative learning to take place. As far as professional

development, the program was focused on students being able to pass the appropriate tests to

earn their graduation requirements, and to therefor keep the program funded. There was no

professional development based around technology or its implementation.

 Conyers Interview Report 5

While this interview was rather shocking to me, the program truly was not that far off

from the GED programs that the US offers to students that drop out of the regular public

education setting. Unfortunately, this will not be setting the students up for much career

success, as they will not be confident with the use of technology, or comfortable working

together with peers on problem based tasks.

My second interview, with Angela Laderach was also very informative from a teachers

prospective, that has been in several different teaching environments. Angela teaches at a

primary school with a population of mainly low-income students. While there was some

technology in the school, there was not nearly enough for a 1:1 setting, or even enough for a

structured classroom with properly run collaboration stations to be effective. There was a

smartboard and teacher computer, so at least these students were able to see technology

modeled appropriately with the teacher, and could be interactive within that environment.

Unfortunately, low income schools struggle to afford the proper technology, and while there is

funding, it comes from SAT scores, which are usually not high enough from low income schools.

A positive piece that Angela shared was regarding technology for special needs students. It

seems that no matter which income level school these students attended, they were always

afforded the adaptive technology they needed in order to be successful. While Angela shared

that professional development did happen, like Wendy, she stated that it was not in reference to

technology or its implementation.

Another useful interview to open my eyes to educational system in England, although I

would have really liked to have interviewed a teacher from a higher income school in order to

compare my findings. While it seems that England has the appropriate technology, they need to

find a better way to level the playing field and evenly distribute the technology to all schools in

need. Teachers also need to have the proper professional development in order to be

successful in the classroom, and gain the greatest results with student knowledge.
 Conyers Interview Report 6

Conclusion

Based on prior research and findings, I knew that England was well developed in terms

of technology in schools. The technology is there, and being implemented effectively, it is just

not happening in all schools. There needs to be a more efficient system for making certain that

all schools, regardless of income level, are provided with equal technology and an equally high

level of education. There also needs to be a system created to properly train teachers through

effective professional development, although this is an area in which all countries seem to

struggle. Hopefully we will continue to have educators such as Wendy and Angela, that dedicate

their life to sharing knowledge around the globe, and we also have teachers who dedicate

themselves to incorporating global education within their home classrooms. The more we open

doors and share information, the higher we all will achieve.

Communication

Angela Laderach

to me

Hi Bonnie,
Wendy told me you'd be in touch. I'm happy to help in any way that I can
Chat soon,

Angela

Bonnie
Conyers <bonnieconyers@gmail.com>
to Angela

Ok great. So if you don't mind, I would like to ask you a few questions about the UK experience. Thanks!!!

1. What is the name and location of one of the schools you were teaching at?
2. What were the demographics of that school? Race, Ages, FARMS, SPED? (estimate is great)
3. What was the technology availability at that school? Was it equal amongst all schools in that district?
4. What did professional development look like at that school, did it revolve around technology?
5. What technology limitations do you think there are in the UK, if any?
 Conyers Interview Report 7

Bonnie
Conyers <bonnieconyers@gmail.com>
to Angela

Just checking to see if you had time to answer my questions. It's just for a grad project...no pressure!

Angela Laderach

to me

Hi,
Sorry I got a little carried away with my two young nephews.

Sent from my iPhone

Bonnie Conyers <bonnieconyers@gmail.com> wrote:

Just checking to see if you had time to answer my questions. It's just for a grad project...no pressure!

1. What is the name and location of one of the schools you were teaching at?
Rushy Meadow Primary School, Carshalton, Sutton. (South of London)

2. What were the demographics of that school? Race, Ages, FARMS, SPED? (estimate is great)
The school was made up of mainly low income Caucasian families with some low & middle income families of
African and Caribbean descent. Approximately 300 pupils ranging from 4-11 years of age. There was a special
unit for children with hearing impairment and we had about 10 deaf students in our school. As much as
possible they were integrated in mainstream classes with their own sign language translator. The SEN register
also had numerous children on the autism spectrum. About 30% of the students were either in care or had
social workers working closely with their families to ensure that they were cared for. 75-80% of students were
entitled to free school meals. Also about 60 % of students had severe behaviour needs which resulted in all
staff being trained in 'positive handling techniques' (basically staff were trained on how to restrain a child that
was acting out in order to prevent self-harm or harm to others)

3. What was the technology availability at that school? Was it equal amongst all schools in that district?
The technology was pretty limited when I was there. Each class had a smart board and a pc for teacher use.
There was also 1-2 other computers outside each class for students to use for extension activities. Children
with hearing impairments that had hearing aids were equipped with sound banks that amplified the teacher's
voice

4. What did professional development look like at that school, did it revolve around technology?
The school had regular pd sessions but because of the make up of the students they revolved more around
behaviour management techniques and integration of Sen students rather than on technology. In the 4 years
that I taught at that school I didn't receive any of focused on the use of new technology.

5. What technology limitations do you think there are in the UK, if any?
 Conyers Interview Report 8

Schools in the U.K. Vary greatly as far as resources go. Schools in low socio-economic areas often struggle to
acquire the funding needed for new resources. Funding for schools is determined by how well they perform in
SATs and therefore often schools that could really benefit from additional resources are often the last to get.
Things may have changed in the last 5 years though because they have just recently implemented a new
curriculum with new means of measuring attainment.

Hope this helps.

Angela

References

Bruce, B.C. (1993). Innovation and social change. B.C. Bruce, J.K. Peyton, E. Batson (Eds.),

Network-based classrooms: Promises and realities, Cambridge University Press,

Cambridge (1993)

Crook et al., 2010. Crook, C., Harrison, C, Farrington-Flint, L., Toms, C. & Underwood, J.

(2010). The impact of technology: Value-added classroom practice. Final Report.

Coventry: Becta. <http://oro.open.ac.uk/34523/1/the_impact_of_technology.pdf>.

(5.07.2013).