ABSTRACT
("Challenging pPolicy, sSchool and cClassroom pPractice") begins with the notion of "repurposing", finding a new purpose for practices or ideas that have outlived their usefulness or relevance. The starting point is with an understanding of the systemic constraints which bind school leaders and teachers to legislated and legitimated practice. This requires a close reading of any policy document with a critical pause, to stop and consider the language, the choice or words, phrases and metaphors infused with cultural assumptions, views, values, and ideologies. Without a serious challenge to the rhetoric, it is argued, the ideologies that drive policy into practice soon become too commonplace, too invisible. This can be countered, however, by maintaining an unshakeable focus on professional integrity, seeing leadership as practice, thinking differently about learning and teaching, and continuing to work on the issues that enhance professionalism. This is what we understand as "connoisseurship", a high-level and complex skill equipping us to challenge policy because it stems from a deep understanding of the way a student learns and the way that learning changes over time. With a grasp of the complex, developmental nature of learning, it leads inexorably to a revisiting and transforming of teachers' own practice. This is the basis for professional advocacy at its best but at the same time it enables leaders and teachers to understand and embrace "critical dissent" and challenge counterproductive policies.
