The daughter of a friend of mine, who is currently a newly qualified teacher (known as an NQT) recently texted him with this message. “I’ve got to revise my CKA and begin the PPW”. For those not in the know CKA is Core Knowledge Assessment (at least I think it is) which is assessing whether a teacher knows enough about the subject to teach it. But I am totally
The world of education is awash with acronyms and jargon. There’s EYFS (early years foundation stage), EWO, FSM G&T, SEN and EHCP. And that’s just schools. Enter further education and you are confronted with NEETs, ACL and the AoC . (For an explanation see the end of this article.) Don’t let me start on universities where the opaque language of academia is as impenetrable as a Amazonian jungle.
If you thought that education was all about Plain English and clarity of expression then think again. Welcome to the world of Planet Zog where a school or college is a learning centre, a teacher is a provider or facilitator and what they do is deliver learning outcomes.
To be fair, education and skills is not the only sector that is guilty of jargon. The IT profession has its bots, apps, LANs and URLs, whilst the legal profession will never use simple language where there is an alternative that can obfuscate and confuse. Their excuse is that it avoids ambiguity when in reality its main purpose is to ensure lawyers can charge extortionate fees for a translation. The business world is not averse to gobbledegook either, with phrases like “thinking outside the box”, “paradigm shifts” and “mission critical” used widely. And don’t get me started on the garbage emanating from some government departments.
In the early stages of my career as a press officer for an education quango I recall a meeting where colleagues were talking about curriculum frameworks for NEETs in need of ALS. Looking around the room to see nodding heads it was clear that I was the only one who didn’t understand what they were talking about. As a newbie, I was too embarrassed to ask. (For the uninitiated NEETs are people not in education employment or training and ALS is additional learning support. As for a curriculum framework, no-one has to date been able to explain what it is without drawing a diagram.)
The Plain English Campaign has an excellent example of eduspeak. Take this sentence. “High-quality learning environments are a necessary precondition for facilitation and enhancement of the ongoing learning process”. Need a translation? Children need good schools if they are to learn properly. No brainer.
Here’s an extract from a skills publication that I had to review. “This service is to be provided in support of the development of longer- term infrastructure support of key skills implementation in England. The key skills implementation group, where many of the appropriate partners are represented, has a remit that includes encouragement of co-operative working to aid the implementation and promotion of key skills”. By the way, did you count the number of times the word “implementation” was used?
This is one of my favourites, from the introduction to a book about education for sustainability that stressed the importance of using accessible language. It says ” .. a motivating vision of a healthy, sustainable community entails a mixture of radical parochialism, horizontal links across communities and vertical links all the way up to global structures.” Lego for eco warriors maybe?
People who work in education are often very precious about using the language that circulates in their own bubble. One of the challenges of communications professions is being able to translate jargon and gobbledegook into language that’s understood by the wider population.
Here are my five top tips.
- Understand the language that your audience is familiar with. Don’t assume that they will understand terms like work-based learning, curriculum framework or Key Stage 4 (ages 14 to 16 of compulsory education). They may not know what Ofsted is either. You should explain them briefly, either in the text or as a footnote. A phrase like “the education watchdog” for Ofsted should suffice.
- When communicating with journalists be aware of the language that makes them cringe, such as “learner”. (They prefer “student”.) They also hate too many capitalisations as well, so stick to lower case where possible.
- Always spell out acronyms unless they are universally recognised – like the NHS or CBI. You can always then use the acronym once you’ve explained it.
- Find examples to bring dry text alive. Instead of talking about implementation strategies and curriculum frameworks find the human interest story behind the language. Taking the key skills example, there is a powerful story about how a drive to improve adult key skills is making a real difference to the employment prospects of people with poor literacy and numeracy, but it’s hidden in opaque language.
- Don’t be afraid to ask questions and challenge people to explain what they mean. They may insist that their audience will understand what they are writing about. Go with your gut instinct. If you don’t get the meaning then the wider audience certainly won’t.
Glossary
EYFS Early years foundation stage
EWO Education welfare officer
FSM Free school meals (not flying spaghetti monster)
G&T Gifted and talented
EHCP Education health and care plan
SEN Special educational needs
NEETs Not in education employment or training
ALS Additional learning support
AoC The Association of Colleges
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