The Autumn term is passing like a whirlwind, partly because of the number of conferences that seem to be taking place here and overseas. The home grown variety seem to be linked to the impending election; pretty much everyone wants to offer dos and don’ts to the incoming government of whatever stripe. Our e-news explores practice and evidence about some of the more interesting ideas I have come across.
Future of the profession – there is a lot of support for focussing on this –and some frustration about the lack of government willingness to fund the inception of and infrastructure for a national (Royal or otherwise) College for Teachers. At the OECD event in Paris, where this was a hot topic for every country , there was a widespread international thirst for putting evidence informed practice at the centre of such developments. You can see both my presentations on this here.
Yes events like RSA’s very helpful look at what can be learned (good and bad) from the history of the GTC to inform the development of the College points up starkly that it needs independence from Government. Yes it is great that smart people are trying to raise charitable funding and to put a business model
The other themes emerging for lots of conferences are all future related too. See for example, David Putnam’s thought provoking piece on helping to develop citizens who can develop social, economic, psychological and social identities in whatever world turmoil they find themselves - a fabulous presentation at OECD. together. But Government also needs to show the way by telling us about the powers it will give up. It would be fantastic to start a debate now about how professional standards developed by such a college might help promote and scaffold professional learning or help us to tackle the ever increasing teacher supply challenges. Certainly our current standards look very thin when compared with the very vibrant ones developed in Australia. We were really pleased to help them develop a strategy for evaluating their implementation both formatively and summatively. You might be interested to know that John Hattie is the Chair of AITSL, the organisation responsible.
In the FES sector The world Class skills competitions have all been won by students whose employers focus not just on skills but upon helping students develop as citizens and family members as well as employees. In the exceptional schools we worked with for Teach First, and the many schools now researching what their practices mean for them, the central focus is on understanding students’ lives deeply and creating educational experiences that are meaningful and challenging to them. In 1988 a headteacher described the narrowing of the curriculum based solely on metrics thus “ I used to know what my job was. It was to help young people become wise and good. All I am asked to do now is make them clever.” There are a lot of head teachers and leaders of Teaching School Alliances worrying about how to avoid such traps in the current system and about the absence of an infrastructure to help our many powerful leaders create a whole bigger that the sum of what have become increasingly small parts. fascinating round table convened by Blue Wave swift offer another take on building a better future. It challenged us to consider how we might manage some of the short term crises facing schools if, at the same time we committed ourselves absolutely to developing exciting middle leaders focussed on the kind of world and educations system we all (including employers) want to see that treats students, pupils, teachers, their leaders and the communities they serve in the round.