I define myself as a critical, impatient, optimist. I am critical. Everyday I am reminded that our education system is well and truly past its ‘best before’ date. I am impatient. I have experienced personally how it could be made better, for everyone, right now. But I’m also optimistic. That’s because I get to witness a special kind of magic in the classroom everyday, as a result of making radical changes to the way I teach. If I can be successful, then so can others.

And now perhaps, there is reason to be a little more optimistic. The year is 2018 – the year that New Zealand school teachers have been given consent to do the right thing. Communities of Learning (CoL) | Kāhui Ako have come to town. The introduction of this initiative is an acknowledgement that things could be better. The education sector is being encouraged to evolve and be more effective. Change is essential, we are told. Because the World has changed a lot since the current education system was created. Because failure is creating a social and economic burden on society and it’s failing some more than others. CoLs provide impetus and offer a pathway for that change.

Getting teachers to acknowledge and change their beliefs and biases about their teaching practice and about the children they teach, is the biggest challenge faced by education.

And the talk is good. Words and ideas like:- putting the learner at the centre of their education. And, empowering teachers to share, to lead, to challenge current thinking and practice, to enact best practice by implementing the best research and using the best data to make the best decisions for their learners. At least now, with the creation of these CoLs and what they represent, teachers can feel empowered to be brave and bold. But of course, while the talk may be good, there is no guarantee that the desired change will be achieved – of helping all students reach their full potential. And I should know. It is the raison d’être of this site – highlighting the need for change, the resistance to change and, providing experiences that give me hope that change is possible.

Over the years I have become fully aware of the meaning of inertia. Getting people to acknowledge, let alone, change their beliefs and biases is extraordinarily difficult. Getting teachers to acknowledge and change their beliefs and biases about their teaching practice and about the children they teach, is equally difficult. And while I understand that the CoLs are a new initiative and need to be given some time, I believe there is insufficient understanding and/or ‘buy-in’ among teachers. I don’t think the need for change has been articulated well enough and therefore, not universally understood.

This should come as no surprise. Education suffers from a vision deficit. Sure, schools are as good as any organisation at creating vision statements. But in reality, these vision statements can be interpreted as mere platitudes because they are not supported by the essential actions that will allow them to be realised. A worthy vision would generate a strong emotional connection and would require an emotional leap of faith. Imagine the response, both negative and positive, to a statement such as “no child left behind”. Unfortunately, I suspect that this kind of statement is likely to be interpreted as unhelpfully provocative. That’s because it would require a light to be directed into lots of dark and uncomfortable places. It would challenge all those beliefs and biases that drive current teaching practice.

But if education is to move forward, if the CoL initiative is to be successful, it is that kind of vision that is needed. With that kind of vision in place, the ‘means to attain the ends’ could be implemented. At the moment though, teaching works the other way around. Variations of the same ‘means’ are implemented in the expectation that different or better ‘ends’ will be achieved – education remains as a research/evidence free zone.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that education is in desperate need of leaders who are willing and able to set bold goals and turn talk into action. It needs people who can lead. And please note that leading is not the same thing as managing. It needs people who understand the task at hand is fundamentally about building relationships and human connections. It needs leaders who are able to inspire others to break with the status quo, transform boundaries, create and manage dissonance, hear and act on other perspectives, develop creative and thinking people. And most importantly, do the right thing for the children.

“What is lacking today is not knowledge about leadership, but the courage to convert such knowledge into actual performance. But courage does not come just by wishing – it only happens as a consequence of one’s level of consciousness, one’s inner experience, one’s self identity.” Jagdish Parikh

It is that kind of leadership that would allow and encourage teachers to remove the shackles; to be able to question the current way of working and be, as Jan Robertson says, “open minded and vulnerable”. Teachers would then be free and rewarded to choose to be a part of the process of ‘undoing’ the current failing model – a model that has hardly changed since it’s introduction. Unfortunately, the changes that have taken place so far are merely variations of tinkering at the edges. Teachers need to be invited to recognise the power and privilege they possess in their role; to recognise the huge influence they have over the children in their care. They need to be invited to recognise the huge potential they have in being a part of creating transformative change.

Of course, being prepared to take up this exciting opportunity will require a willingness to tolerate discomfort and dissonance. Challenging and disrupting the status quo is not easy. Finding the courage to speak up is not easy. The cost of speaking up – socially, emotionally and financially, is very high. Being critical makes you a target – the messenger to be shot. In contrast, being quiet, saying nothing, having low expectations of oneself and others is comfortable. But it is this comfort that maintains the status quo. I suggest that there is a test for determining whether it is appropriate or not to speak up. Is what you want to say accurate, defendable and said with love and good intent? Then you should feel free to say it. Besides, teachers are paid professionals. Being critical and being critiqued is an essential part of a professional teaching environment.

A vision without action is like a yacht without a sail. The intent of the CoL initiative may appear earnest and bold but success is far from guaranteed. Time will tell.

Ease Education: Teaching at a human scale.

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Inspiration and analysis for this blog post can be found at the links below.

Communities of Learning: https://core-ed.org/research-and-innovation/ten-trends/2017/communities-of-learning-kahui-ako/

Ted Talk: https://www.npr.org/player/embed/606023250/606094631

Jan Robertson on leadership: http://edtalks.org/#/video/leadership