When the Pendulum Swings

By Steve Saville

Illustrated by Steve Saville

I made a decision to not say too much online about the current storm raging around our profession. Mainly because others were articulating the concerns much better than I could and so I saw very little need to add more ‘noise’ that would risk clouding the picture.

So first up, I would like to thank again the brave voices who have been pushing back on our behalf.

However, reading recent posts from the likes of Kylie Hogan and Bee Thomas [and others] on Disrupted and other forums I do now want to add my contribution.

One way or another the pendulum will swing back. Be it by general election or resistance or common sense the pendulum will swing back to a more rational, inclusive and sensible approach to educational reform, review and change. When that does happen we, as educators, need to have a clear idea of what we want to base future progress on. Having stopped the flood, we need to have clarity about what foundational blocks we want to put in place for the future.

What do we want to build educational reform on?

This conversation has already started, posts are now starting to look at what we want, rather than pushing back and questioning what we are having forced upon us.

What do we want?

Can I suggest three big concepts that I see as being vital for meaningful, aspirational, sustainable and relevant reform and change in the future.

1. Vision

   
   

What we need is a unifying vision. A shared vision of what teaching and learning in Aotearoa is.

This is currently missing and this is one of the reasons why everything feels so disconnected, random and incoherent right now. This is why assessment is being discussed before curriculum, this is why phrases like ‘knowledge rich’ are widely bandied about but not fully defined or universally understood. Nothing seems to fit together. The pieces of the puzzle don’t seem to logically fit together.

Sad thing is… vision…we had it. We just hadn’t had the time to unpack and ‘own’ it fully.

Mātai ki te rangi, homai te kauhau wānanga ki uta, ka whiti he ora. 

 Look beyond the horizon, and draw near the bodies of knowledge that will take us into the future.

The guiding kaupapa of Te Mātaiaho was pretty near perfect as a unifying, inclusive, guiding vision.

The seven components that form the whakapapa of Te Mātaiaho provided us with a framework to achieve this aspirational vision. 

Before all of this current  nonsense kicked off we were working towards a shared  understanding of this guiding vision and the associated components.

We were starting to unpack, starting to contextualise, starting to own.

We needed time to fully explore how this nationwide vision looked in our kura, what it meant for a Year 2 learner, what it meant for a Year 13 leaver, what it meant for leadership, staff, whanau, community. We needed time to explore how it sat with our own vision and values. 

We needed time to make this connection but there is not a single vision in any school in Aotearoa that is not aspirational and seeking what is just beyond the horizon for our learners. There is not a single vision in any school in Aotearoa  that does not seek to bring that horizon close. We just needed the time to contextualize and unpack it in order to own it, in order to be empowered by it.

What is important though is once the vision is embedded and owned/understood by all then all change is accountable to, and filtered through, that vision. It is the vision that becomes the gatekeeper through which change, reform, review and innovation has to pass.

Without this unifying vision we run the risk of adopting that next shiny idea that washes up on our shores or seeps out of the latest academic theory. We are at the mercy of whichever way the pendulum swings.

With it though we have our banner, our rallying cry that unites us and sustains us.

We have our purpose defined, we have our aspirational ‘why?’

2. Emphasis on Pedagogy.

   
   

Moving forward we need an understanding and commitment that the key to improving the learning experience for all of our children lies in what happens in a classroom when a passionate teacher works with curious young minds. It is that chemistry that inspires, and lifts. 

No new curriculum, new theory, glossy text book, roadshow, assessment regime or  physical space even comes close to being as important as the academic and caring relationship that exists in a warm and demanding classroom.

Professional development moving forward should be centered on teachers sharing practice, having time for reflection, having  opportunities to collaborate, communicate, and learn from each other. 

It is what we have done poorly in the past. All too often PLD has been ‘done to’ and not ‘done with' those who make learning magic…teachers in the classroom.

We need the time to see change as something that can be owned, that relentless improvement is a good thing. We need to see good practice in the room next door and we need time and space to share our planning, our successes, our failures, and our personal pedagogy with our colleagues. 

Sustainable and meaningful growth [personal and institutional] comes through this efficacy.

Trouble is that this is time consuming and therefore expensive, it also places academics and the MOE on the sideline, supporting and assisting but not directing and defining, that could result in some pushback.

We need to fully define what effective classroom practice and planning looks like in our context . We need to define it in our kura then filter it through the seven components of  Te Mātaiaho to ensure accountability to the national vision. 

This is where ownership, hope and commitment comes from because it has, at its heart, our akonga, not a theory, not an assessment, not a directive. Yes, the heart leads the head but the head will always follow the heart.

We need to have time to honour teacher efficacy and learn from the real experts [teachers]. Of course this all be informed by research, international trends etc but all of that will be filtered through the vision and therefore able to be contextualised for our world.

3. Take education away from the politicians. 

   
   

Lastly and possibly most importantly, as I fear that the first two points can't be sustained without this third factor becoming a reality, we need to take education out of the political arena.

Currently we are tied into a three year political cycle. Education is regularly used as  a political football. It is tied to the whims of the Beehive and whoever has their ear of those that inhabit its offices. We lurch around in this whirling storm that is not sustainable or sensible. It is exhausting. Meaningful change in education takes more than three years.

We need an independent authority [not a government department] making the decisions. An independent body, not appointed or selected by politicians, but one set up to include academics, teachers, students, whanau etc.. A wide ranging group of independent educators who have the time, the mana,the integrity and the trust of the profession to develop a long term sustainable educational plan that will work for the kids in Taihape, Kerikeri, Epsom Cashmere, Papakura. 

An independent body who work with the Government and the Ministry but are ultimately answerable to the shared vision.

Leave building maintenance, admin, salaries to the unions,  politicians and the bureaucrats but let's take teaching and learning out of that arena and place it with a body that knows what it is talking about. Yes of course this ‘plan’ will be research based, of course it will be rigorous, or course it will be ‘knowledge rich’, or course it will seek to empower learners and learning. It will become the ‘head’ that follows and listens to the ‘heart.’

We need to not only look forward to the pendulum swinging back but also to what has to change to ensure the cycle is not repeated .

Rant over.