Professor David Pedder (University of Leicester) - Title: Values-practice dissonance in professional and organisational learning in schools

Teachers tend to learn and work in contexts of values-practice dissonance. Individually and/or collectively they may simply choose to live with the dissonance between what they do and what they value. Alternatively, conflict between values and practices can prompt teachers to re-examine their professional learning practices and/or the values they place on those practices in order to bring practices and values into closer alignment. Awareness of dissonance can result in a change-provoking disequilibrium. However, if the dissonance is too large, teachers may dismiss new ideas as inappropriate to their situations. Since the resolution of dissonance involves the reconstruction of current values, beliefs, and knowledge in ways consistent with change messages, dissonance may lead to rejection rather than adoption of new learning. At the organisational level, collective awareness of dissonance between values and practices by leaders and teachers at school can become a very powerful catalyst for school self evaluation, organisational learning and change. Feeding back values-practice gap data to schools has often acted as a powerful resource for organisational learning and school self evaluation, supporting school leadership teams develop more penetrating, critical, and reflective understandings of current patterns of practices and values among teaching staff, feeding through in some cases to school improvement planning. I will examine the theme of values-practice dissonance with reference to three research studies I have been involved in: Schools and CPD: the state of the nation study; Learning how to learn in classrooms, schools and networks; and Consulting pupils about teaching and learning.