1. The negotiation of complexes of complexity
Enhancing student experience on a mandatory M-level accreditation programme for Special Educational Needs Coordinators
The NASENCO: National Award for Special Educational Needs Coordination
The negotiation of complexes of complexity
Dr Liz Done & Mandy Andrews
Plymouth Institute of Education
20th April 2018

2. The Department for Education 2015 Special Educational Needs
& Disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice marks a SENCo role shift
from:
Strategic leadership
Ensuring inclusive
ethos and practice
Managing change
In-house expert
Repository for
SEND-related matters
Teachers now responsible for SEND-designated pupils in their class
School are non-compliant if a new to role SENCo does not have NASENCO accreditation within 3 years of appointment

3. NASENCO course syllabus assumes a connection between M-level study and the strategic nature of current SENCo role
Writing skills
Investigative skills
Research skills
Dissemination skills
Leadership styles
CONFIDENCE-BUILDING
Emphasis: using their own research to support and drive change in their setting
Assessment: 2 M-level research-based assignments
(plus Local Authority-assessed portfolio)

4. Specific constraints:
Common challenges:
Diverse student settings
Varied starting points (teaching / academic experience)
Obstacles to learning / completion (SENCo workload)
Specific constraints:
Local authority contracted to deliver compliance-related material
On-campus student days dominated by LA-driven content (SEND-related data generation / management and administration)
Tension between accountability-related taught content and assessment (academic production)
Minimal opportunity to introduce theory / critical perspectives / contextualise (politics of inclusion) / foster independent thought
High stakes nature of the NASENCO inhibits pragmatic experimentation

5. Conceptualising the teaching role:
Negotiating complexes of complexity (Massumi 1998)
Competing discourses
Political imperatives
Institutional imperatives
Programme imperatives
Student experience / prior learning
Pedagogic values
Every identified
component
is an area (complex)
of complexity and
subject to change
(as the latest
statutory guidance
for SENCos
demonstrates)

6. Independent learning / M-level assignments
Teaching practice as a creative process (complexes in continuous variation) (Massumi 1998; Murphy & Done 2014)
Constraints limit rather than prevent change as programme delivery is repeated (Deleuze 2004)
Improving student experience through raising awareness of starting points and obstacles to learning / completion
Confidence-building through …
Getting students writing early
Identifying the defining features of academic writing
Explaining criticality
Provision of writing guides to aid structuring of content
Front-loading tutorial support (comprehensive / constructive feedback)
Transparency around assessment criteria (sample marked assignments)
Emphasising understanding of process
Framing first module assignment as formative
Structure /
support
Independent learning / M-level
assignments

7. Enhancing student experience
Sensitivity to workloads / learning curves:
Pulling all programme resources into single DLE site (including module-specific reading lists)
Revisiting initial skill training (e.g. 2nd library-led problem-solving session)
Assessment practices:
Discussing assessment practices at management meetings to ensure supportive / useful feedback
Modifying campus day scheduling to increase M-level content
Preparation for MA / Ed.Doc. study:
Supporting aspirations towards further PG study
Introductions to the peer-reviewed journal publishing process

8. Deleuze, G. (2004) Difference and repetition. London: Continuum.
References
Ball, S. J. (2001) Performativities and fabrications in the education economy: Towards the
performative society? In D. Gleeson & C. Husbands (eds), The performing school: Managing, teaching, and learning in a performance culture, pp. 210–226. London: Routledge Falmer.
Deleuze, G. (2004) Difference and repetition. London: Continuum.
Department of Health & Department for Education (2015) SEN Code of Practice 0-25 years. Nottingham: DfE.
Done, E.J., Murphy, M. & Knowler, H. (2015) Mandatory accreditation for Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators: biopolitics, neoliberal managerialism and the Deleuzo–Guattarian war machine. Journal of Education Policy, 30(1),
Massumi, B. (1998) Sensing the virtual, building the insensible.
Murphy, M. & Done, E.J. (2014) Autism and intuitive practice as the art of the prevailing middle. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs 16(4),