Conceptions of effort among students, teachers and parents within an English secondary school

Andrew Stables; Kyoko Murakami; Shona McIntosh; Susan Martin

doi:10.1080/02671522.2013.878376

Conceptions of effort among students, teachers and parents within an English secondary school

Andrew Stables, Kyoko Murakami, Shona McIntosh, Susan Martin

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

‘Effort’ and ‘ability’ (understood as potential, intelligence or achievement) are concepts widely used in the everyday language of schooling in Britain but each term lacks clear definition of its use in the school context. Meanwhile, the assessment of effort, alongside that of achievement, remains widespread. This article reports on an exploratory case study of conceptions of effort among three major actors in an English secondary school. Qualitative and quantitative data from questionnaires and interviews with teachers, students and parents at an English comprehensive school were collected. Analysis reveals that understandings of ‘effort’ are not uniform. Rather, ‘effort’ is a shorthand term, which can be used variably, therefore can be construed as a tool of negotiation, or a form of investment in a set of aims distinctive to each group or individual case. There is a strong case for more sustained research into the operationalizing of such key concepts in schools and other professional and workplace settings.

Original language	English
Journal	Research Papers in Education
Volume	29
Issue number	5
Pages (from-to)	626-648
Number of pages	23
ISSN	0267-1522
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2013.878376
Publication status	Published - 20 Oct 2014

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10.1080/02671522.2013.878376

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abstract = "{\textquoteleft}Effort{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}ability{\textquoteright} (understood as potential, intelligence or achievement) are concepts widely used in the everyday language of schooling in Britain but each term lacks clear definition of its use in the school context. Meanwhile, the assessment of effort, alongside that of achievement, remains widespread. This article reports on an exploratory case study of conceptions of effort among three major actors in an English secondary school. Qualitative and quantitative data from questionnaires and interviews with teachers, students and parents at an English comprehensive school were collected. Analysis reveals that understandings of {\textquoteleft}effort{\textquoteright} are not uniform. Rather, {\textquoteleft}effort{\textquoteright} is a shorthand term, which can be used variably, therefore can be construed as a tool of negotiation, or a form of investment in a set of aims distinctive to each group or individual case. There is a strong case for more sustained research into the operationalizing of such key concepts in schools and other professional and workplace settings.",

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AU - Stables, Andrew

AU - Murakami, Kyoko

AU - McIntosh, Shona

AU - Martin, Susan

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Conceptions of effort among students, teachers and parents within an English secondary school

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