Raising Teachers’ Voice on Achievement in Urban Schools in England: An Introduction

Abstract

There are intense policy pressures on urban schools and teachers working with different cohorts of disadvantaged students to ‘raise achievement’ and ‘close the gap’ in England. Known in the academic literature as disadvantage schools, in government policy circles they were formerly labelled ‘challenging schools’ now ‘under-performing schools’ or ‘socially-deprived schools’. These urban schools are compelled to meet external policy expectations in regards accountability (national benchmarks and floor targets) or face sanctions. This editorial begins with this extant school policy on achievement and describes a school–university partnership initiative in a northern city that brings together teachers, school Heads and assistant Heads with academic partners, currently without system support, to address disadvantaged students’ lives, learning needs and schooling experiences. The article then canvasses what has been done over 3 years with this first cohort to engage in teacher research activity informing school improvement oriented to equity and social justice, and introduces their work now made public in this journal. The intention of this special edition is to showcase these teachers’ voice, honed by the practical–pedagogical work done against the odds to advocate more realistic policies and practices that are locally sensitive and contextually specific. It is an example of one local struggle.