GCSE day

The usual sound bites around GCSEs are so dispiriting sometimes. I know that policy makers attend to the quick fix, and the popularist narrative. After all, they have but a short time in power to make an impression. As educators and researchers we need to do more to shift the narrative, and highlight research carefully.

I  have had a mixed history with the GCSE results day, personally. I enjoy seeing young people succeed and despair at successive governments making pronouncements which seem to put down teachers and students in equal measure. Given the current economic climate and the harsh realities for many, I think I would today just like to ponder the role of self in all of this. Identity, self and motivation does seem like an introduction to one of my MA courses! What helps young people (and even teachers?) do well and want to do well? If we pause and become anecdotal, we can come up with as many different stories for 'why I did well/badly at school' as there are people. Was it Latin that made the difference? one special teacher? both? neither? My mixed history suggests complexity where eldest son managed to stutter down the phone 'My results spell FUDGE', which denotes some knowledge of the English language and anagrams, although not hard work, despite the much vaulted parental support. He was not willing to buy into that help, nor that of the school. Some six years later, he has got a place at Ruskin College to study law, suggesting he is not without some academic merit but was not able to succeed at school. This is what intrigues me about learning and understanding yourself as a learner: the very thing (arguing) that got son 1 into trouble at school, has seen him successfully through an industrial tribunal, and is a plus for law.  In this interesting article, Carrie Leana discusses human and social capital, and it makes for points to ponder, as the blame game yet again erupts around the GCSEs:

 http://schoolsthatcan.org/wp-content/themes/stc/downloads/article-stanford.pdf

As to my mixed history, son two, in my eyes did well in his GCSEs last year, working really hard to get Bs and Cs in his chosen subjects only to hear Mr Gibb and co suggest they were not 'good' GCSEs. Today, he got a C in his Science resit- a big increase on last year's E. The reason - he saw the point of working hard at it because he needs it for the next course he wants to do. The crunch for me comes when we see examination success as a reflection of who we are-and how we judge others. There are second, and even third chances to study, and enjoy doing so for its own sake. I just hope that more of today's young people will want to study in the future and not be put off learning, whether they be A students or D students.