Cymraeg 2050 - The challenge we are facing!

 

Guest Post by Mathias Maurer

Welsh in English-medium primary education:

Cymraeg 2050 - The challenge we are facing

Introduction

In this series of three blogs, I will make the case that, if we want to improve the outcomes for Welsh in the English-medium (EM) primary sector in order to meet the EM target for Cymraeg 2050, we need a core Welsh language progression, a well-resourced, evidence-informed core curriculum based on this language progression, and targeted high-quality professional learning that underpins both.

I will make the point that, if we provide a carefully resourced core curriculum, professional learning can focus on effective language pedagogy, novice and less confident EM primary teachers in particular will benefit from using worked examples: drawing on high-quality, carefully sequenced teaching activities that follow a coherent evidence-informed core Welsh scheme will allow them to deepen their pedagogical understanding and become increasingly confident and independent as teachers of Welsh in EM primary schools.

I will argue that this strategy offers a far greater chance of achieving the required sector-wide change than an approach where the task of designing language progression, curriculum and resources is left to individual schools and teachers, without an expert-made, evidence-informed core supported by high-quality professional learning.

Finally, I will try and show how this approach will support all schools without limiting any of them, as confident and capable teachers will be able to go further, adapt and build on the core curriculum to suit their own skills and the needs of their context and pupils.

 

Part 1: Cymraeg 2050 and the role of the English-medium sector

Cymraeg 2050

In September 2022, Curriculum for Wales will become mandatory for all maintained primary schools in Wales.  I would like to use this moment to take a closer look at the current situation of Welsh in the English medium primary sector, and the challenges we will need to overcome if we want to achieve the goal of one million speakers by the year 2050, as outlined in the Cymraeg 2050 strategy paper (Welsh Government, 2017).

Welsh medium immersion education is an essential pillar of the Cymraeg 2050 strategy: It is explicitly mentioned as the “principal method for ensuring that children can develop their Welsh language skills, and for creating new speakers.” Whilst I welcome the resources and initiatives directed at Welsh medium education, I believe that the English medium sector must an can be given more thought and support as well because of the equally crucial role it has to play in the Cymraeg 2050 effort.

An imbalance in the attention both sectors receive is for example reflected in the number of mentions of ‘Welsh-medium’ versus ‘English-medium’ in two key papers, Cymraeg 2050 (57 versus 4) and the Welsh Language commissioner’s 2016 to 2020 5-Year report (178 versus 19). Furthermore, Estyn’s focus over the past 15 years has very much been on Welsh in the WM sector: Since 2008, seven thematic reports for Welsh in WM and bilingual education have been produced, spanning all phases from Foundation Phase up to A-Level and Further Education. Only one thematic report for Welsh in the EM sector has been produced during the same period, about Welsh Language Development in the Foundation Phase (Estyn, 2013).

This matters, because Cymraeg 2050 provides a target for the English medium sector that is as ambitious as it is specific:

To reach a million speakers, we need to transform how we teach Welsh to learners in all other schools [ie non-Welsh medium schools], in order that at least half of those learners report by 2050 that they can speak Welsh by the time they leave school. (Welsh Government, 2017)

To re-phrase: It is the responsibility of the EM and bilingual sectors that, by 2050, half of all EM and bilingual education pupils describe themselves as Welsh speakers by the time they complete their GCSE.

In the bigger picture this means that from the 70% Welsh speakers we want to leave education by 2050, nearly half will have to come from the EM sector. This is the challenge, and I fear that by not providing the EM sector with the specific support it requires, we seriously risk missing the overall Cymraeg 2050 goal.

 

The Welsh language commissioner’s 5-year report

In his 2016 to 2020 5-year report, the Welsh Language Commissioner picked up the theme of transforming how we teach Welsh in the EM sector. Here is what he described as one of the three main work streams in Cymraeg 2050 that are relevant to the education sector:

Transforming the way Welsh is taught in English-medium schools to significantly increase the number of pupils that can speak Welsh by the time they leave the education sector. (Welsh Language Commissioner, 2021a)

While the Language Commissioner referred to government plans and strategies according to which

the introduction of a new curriculum for Wales will drive these changes to the way in which the Welsh language is taught in English medium schools (Welsh Language Commissioner, 2021a)

he implicitly acknowledged that the new curriculum on its own might not be enough to affect the desired change, and that more support was needed for EM schools and teachers. In his 2020 to 2021 annual report for example he stated that he looked forward to

the publication of the Welsh language framework to support English-medium schools and teachers so that they can contribute fully to the Welsh Government's target that 70 per cent of 15-year-olds will be able to speak Welsh by 2050 (Welsh Language Commissioner, 2021b)

As stated above, the EM and bilingual sectors’ contribution to the overall 70% (which includes WM learners) amounts to about half of all EM learners describing themselves as Welsh speakers by the time they leave school. 

Unfortunately, I have been unable to find current precise data on the number of EM learners leaving school who describe themselves as Welsh speaking. Various age brackets are available in the Annual Population Surveys and in the 10-year census data, but no data that would allow us to take precise stock of where we are now in the EM sector in relation to the 2050 target.

This concerns me. If we want to do our best to achieve the 2050 target, then it is crucial we make the right decisions and choose the most promising path as soon as possible. This means understanding and acknowledging the scale of the challenge in the first place and tracking the impact of our measures.

So, if there is data that is directly comparable to the 2050 target, I would be grateful if someone with more knowledge of the matter could point me towards it. Otherwise I would strongly recommend we start collecting this data at regular intervals from now on, allowing us to track our progress towards the target as precisely as possible, with the option to rethink and adjust our approach should the data suggest this is necessary.

In the 2020-2021 Annual Report, the Welsh Language Commissioner mentioned the new Welsh language framework to support English-medium schools and teachers (Welsh Government, 2021). This is a welcome initiative. It addresses the fact that current outcomes in the EM primary sector are far from satisfactory, and that Curriculum for Wales on its own is unlikely to provide sufficient support to improve the situation on the scale required.

In my opinion, improving our performance in KS2 across the whole EM primary sector is key to facilitating a smoother transition from primary to secondary schools, which in turn will be essential for achieving the ambitious 50% Welsh speakers target by 2050.

To get a better understanding of the EM primary sector’s current performance, it is worth taking a look at Estyn’s 2019 to 2020 Annual Report, the last one that uses pre-pandemic data.

 

Estyn’s Annual Report 2019 to 2020

Consider Estyn’s 2019 to 2020 Annual Report: While on the one hand reporting that

In many English medium primary schools, pupils develop a positive attitude towards learning the Welsh language (Estyn, 2020)

it also raises considerable concerns regarding progress in KS2 in particular:

In most schools, pupils use their Welsh speaking skills appropriately, but the progress they make between the foundation phase and the end of key stage 2 is often limited.

The report provides little indication as to what Estyn would consider effective steps to address this situation, but the connections it makes between ethos and outcomes might offer a clue:

In the few strongest schools where leaders prioritise Welsh and ensure that it is valued as part of the school’s ethos, pupils understand the importance of being bilingual or multilingual, and the importance of the Welsh language to our national identity. In these few cases, pupils make particularly good progress with the development of their Welsh language skills, using it regularly outside of specific Welsh lessons and as part of the daily life of the school.  (Estyn, 2020)

 

There appears to be a theme linking attitudes and ethos to progress and outcomes, perhaps leading some readers to the conclusion that progress and outcomes are best improved by focusing resources on promoting the use of Welsh, and by improving attitudes and ethos. While these are certainly important elements of a successful language environment, I am concerned that the actual teaching of Welsh, the pedagogy of delivering a high-quality curriculum, does not receive the attention it requires. Why might this be? Personally, I suspect that, in our efforts to improve EM outcomes we might be tempted to imitate the highly effective immersive learning environments of Welsh medium schools.

In my view, this is problematic because circumstances in WM primary schools are fundamentally different from those in EM primary schools, making it impossible to transfer significant elements of the WM immersion approach to the majority of schools in the EM sector. In 2019, according to the EWC, the number of teachers able to teach through the medium of Welsh stood at 26.9%. If we assume that the vast majority of these teachers work in the WM sector, then it is reasonable to conclude that the number of EM primary teachers who are able to teach through Welsh is very low indeed, ruling out any efforts to improve outcomes on a sector wide scale through creating a semi-immersive learning environment modelled on the WM sector.

It is essential that any efforts to improve EM primary sector outcomes take into account the Welsh skills of the current workforce. In my opinion, not enough research and effort have gone into finding out how we can support our current EM primary teachers, especially in KS2.

 

Professional learning and effective pedagogy

This matters because both Cymraeg 2050 and the commissioner’s 5-year report specifically mention the ‘how’ and the ‘way Welsh is taught’ as targets for improvement, not school ethos and pupils’ attitudes to learning Welsh (although these are of course important in their own right). Furthermore, I am of the opinion that, although well-intended, the Framework for Welsh in EM Education (recently published as draft, out for consultation) is not sufficient on its own to support schools in addressing the ‘how’, the ‘way Welsh is taught’.

The key to improving pedagogy is high quality professional learning. No framework, no high-quality curriculum are likely to succeed unless the teachers delivering it have the necessary pedagogical knowledge and professional understanding underpinning it.

It is my strong believe that, if we want to raise our expectations in the EM primary sector and improve outcomes on the scale necessary to aspire to the Cymraeg 2050 challenge, we must think deeply about what kind of professional learning we need. How can we use our available resources and tap into the already available pedagogical expertise to support the process and maximise benefits for the whole sector? 

For supporting resources and professional learning to have impact, they need to be targeted to the specific needs of the workforce.

In my opinion, there are three distinct issues affecting the EM primary sector: 

1.    a considerable variation in the Welsh language proficiency of EM primary teachers
2.    a considerable variation in the pedagogical knowledge and skills of EM primary teachers
3.   the variation in knowledge, skills and capacity to design an evidence-informed Welsh language curriculum in the EM primary sector

Different schools and teachers will be affected by these issues in different combinations and to different degrees. Some might not need any support at all, but it is my strong believe that any attempt at addressing the current problems on a sector-wide scale will have to consider each of these points, in a way that can realistically be delivered to all schools and teachers in need of support.

 

Conclusion Part 1

So far I have described the challenges we face in the EM primary sector, and why we might not yet be on the right path to achieve the goal in the Cymraeg 2050 strategy paper. I have shown why I think the approach in the EM sector needs to be distinctly different from the approach in the WM sector and suggested that we should focus our efforts on three key issues: teacher proficiency, teacher pedagogical knowledge and curriculum design. 

In Part 2 of this blog I will look at these three key issues in more detail and explain why I believe they are so crucial and must be addressed urgently. Part 3 then will suggest what I consider would be a realistic approach to tackling the challenges and set the EM primary sector on the right track for Cymraeg 2050.

Thank you for reading!

 

References

Estyn, 2020. The Annual Report of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales; available online at: https://www.estyn.gov.wales/system/files/2021-12/ESTYN%20Annual%20Report%202019-2020.pdf [last accessed on 07/01/2022].

Welsh Government, 2017. Cymraeg 2050: Welsh Language Strategy; available online at: https://gov.wales/cymraeg-2050-welsh-language-strategy [last accessed on 07/01/2022].

Welsh Government, 2021. Framework for Welsh; available online at: https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/consultations/2022-02/draft-framework-for-welsh-in-english-medium-education-consultation-doc.pdf [last accessed 22/02/2022]

Welsh Language Commissioner, 2021a. The Position of the Welsh Language 2016–20: Welsh Language Commissioner’s 5-year Report; available online at: https://www.welshlanguagecommissioner.wales/policy-and-research/research/the-position-of-the-welsh-language-2016-20 [last accessed on 07/01/2022].

Welsh Language Commissioner, 2021b. Annual Report 2020-2021; available online at: https://senedd.wales/media/spnnawvk/agr-ld14508-e.pdf [last accessed on 07/01/2022].

Curriculum for Wales - The Hidden Curriculum - Revisited

The Hidden Curriculum - Revisited

In a previous blog post, we attempted to articulate some of the underlying factors regarding Curriculum for Wales, and education in general, that broadly reflect the need to address attitudes to learning, dispositions, or competencies alongside the content and skills we map out in schemes of work and lesson plans. We referred to this as The Hidden Curriculum as it’s enshrined in the ethos and culture of an organisation in the form of routines, language, expectations and so forth. There were some very interesting responses against the use of this term as some stated it mystifies these important underlying aspects of learning and education in general. Others made the point that these dispositions, attitudes to learning, or competencies can and should be taught explicitly if viewed as declarative knowledge and modelled as how to do something. In this sense, you could also argue that these dispositions or competencies sit within the skills aspect of the curriculum. Regarding things such as reflection, resilience, problem solving or being attentive, for example, this is indeed true. However, the focus of this second post is to counter that it’s hidden because it is in fact the realm of tacit or implicit knowledge and is rooted in the humanity, interactions, history, ambition and destiny of an organisation.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines tacit knowledge in this way:

In this Ted Talk, Richard Brock talks about the importance of tacit knowledge in education. There’s an interplay between implicit and explicit knowledge in all of us but this looks different between expert and novice, or teacher and student if you prefer. The tacit knowledge of an expert is different from the learner as they’re novices. This can sometimes cause learners to experience difficulties gaining explicit knowledge later as their experiences and resulting tacit knowledge can impact future learning. However, the point here is that all of us possess tacit knowledge and this has implications for learning and it is developed based on a whole range of experiences, interactions, observations, conversations, intuitions and insights over time.

Another interesting discovery for us regarding tacit knowledge was the term tribal knowledge. Leonard Bertain, in his book The Tribal Knowledge Paradigm, defines it as “the collective wisdom of the organization. It is the sum of all the knowledge and capabilities of all the people.” This would suggest there is a collective, unwritten and intangible set of skills and experience in every school, and this may well be an important contributory factor for the individual context of each school. This knowledge is passed through the school through the day to day experiences of those in the community over time, and we would suggest this is heavily influenced by leadership and further transmitted through academic and wellbeing teams down to cohorts, classrooms and lessons. The culture, day to day experiences and collective ‘know how’ all contribute significantly to the overall success or shortcomings of any school, and by default how well the curriculum will be  enacted.

How does this look in a school? The culture at work in a school is a product of how clear the school vision is and how effectively it is enacted. In addition to this, we also need to consider the reasons why one individual would adhere to those cultural expectations and another might not. How a learner perceives specific rules, routines and authority are very often determined by their tacit understanding and experiences of such things in the past. Given negative experiences in the form of bullying, trauma, racism, poverty, domestic violence (etc) at one extreme and minor difficulties or one-off events in relationship with peers, family or teachers on the other, it is clear that perceptions and understanding of the purpose of school, rules, expectations and cultural compliance can be severely affected. I’m certain there are individuals in all schools, and at all ages, who are disaffected, uninterested and have very negative feelings and emotions about being in school. In addition to this, we have learners who do not buy into the whole premise of education, who don’t care about qualifications, getting rewards, being part of the community or becoming a citizen within it. No amount of expert instruction, technique and sequencing can address this issue, something else is needed.

To provide some examples, when training as a teacher and observing an experienced teacher at work, it is clear that much of the craft and skill of the teacher would be lost to the observer. This is due to the lack of tacit knowledge gained by the observer at this early stage. It is only as their own experiences in the classroom grow that they can begin to fully appreciate what they observed and some of the reasons why certain techniques were used and why? Another consideration is in the realm of cultural or linguistic references made by teachers or peers in the classroom. If the tacit knowledge of the learners has never encountered the reference, understood it fully or even gained a misunderstanding of the use of the reference, then this obviously creates a tension or disconnect with the learner. It has been and remains a serious pitfall when we assume the tacit knowledge we possess is also possessed by the learner. This is very dangerous ground indeed, as many have discovered along the way and unfortunately can be generational too.

We argue that tribal, tacit or implicit knowledge, whether we agree about its exact definition or not, is a part of the fabric of each and every school and is equally as important as the visible explicit knowledge, skills, and learning experiences we provide. The four purposes demand recognition of this fact and Curriculum for Wales cannot be enacted by neglecting to acknowledge or address its impact on school culture and ethos. Do we as educators, and now curriculum designers, fully understand the implications of this hidden knowledge? Do leaders fully appreciate the dangers of the knowledge silos which can result from ignoring its importance and place within the curriculum and stifle meaningful sharing of good practice? Do we as organisations plan to ensure transfer of information regarding the experiences that lead to some of the negative attitudes in our learners? Do we place enough emphasis on understanding the tacit knowledge of learners and their community? How can we ensure that those learners or new staff joining a school are supported to acquire some of this tacit knowledge effectively? How effective can curriculum design and planning really be if we do not have a deep understanding of the implicit knowledge our learners already have or don’t have? Would the curriculum need to be adapted in light of a growth in tacit knowledge within the community as we move forward?

At the heart of all of this are the learners! Motivation, self-regulation, self-efficacy, resilience, confidence, attentiveness, beliefs, attitudes, identity, belonging, behaviour and willingness to play their part in the community are essential aspects we need to address through our vision, ethos, culture, routines, expectations, rules, language, collaboration, values, interactions and efforts. This is the hidden curriculum that needs to become visible alongside all the planning, schemes of work, assessments, content and pedagogy.

15MFCymru