What does success mean to you? Perceptions from across the English education system

What it means to be successful, both in life and in education, is an essentially contested concept, characterised by diverse, varied and often conflicting definitions. Trying to prescribe a single idea of educational success is at best naïve and at worst damaging, both to individuals and to systems. In particular, overly prescriptive definitions of success, including those prescribed by systems of assessment and accountability, engenders a form of education which is not easily distinguished indoctrination. This study explores the multidimensional phenomenon of educational success and its intersections with educational-assessment and identity-construction by examining how success is defined and determined. It investigates the diversity of individuals’ perceptions and examines the consequences of tensions and contradictions in these perceptions. The research was exploratory and participatory, consisting of a photo-voice project and intensive interviews with 30 participants from across the English education sector: 13, pupils, 7 teachers and 6 policy-makers. Data was analysed inductively, drawing on constructivist grounded theory, to construct two main themes. The first theme examines the roles of systems of assessment and accountability as mediators of extrinsic and intrinsic definitions of success. It investigates how definitions of success vary at different levels of the education system and illustrates the controlling influence of externally defined definitions of success. The second theme explores the time-dependent nature of educational success as pupils co-construct their identities and negotiate their own definitions of success. This theme reveals the exploratory nature of becoming independent and emphasises the need for a degree of self-direction in education. The thesis concludes by suggesting the importance of allowing an element of uncertainty in education as a fundamental aspect that enables education to be emancipatory rather than indoctrination.