What Is Needed For Meaningful Educational Reform To Occur? Part Two: Schools As Reflections Of Society At Large.

As do many teachers, other stake-holders in society also believe that education and educational reform have either faltered, or have failed to evolve expediently. There is, in addition to this, the pervasively held belief that education can, and should, change simply for the sake of change.

I believe that both of these observations are warranted.

However, there are some points that we should be aware of if we are to avoid merely pushing through yet another educational reform doomed not only to fail, but to see all stake-holders further frustrated and tense.

Now, consider also that:

• Political pressures tend to trump, yet their motivation to do so is often focused on political--not educational--ends; and,
  
• Education has long seen by many as an area simply of untapped wealth; and,
  
• Teachers do, in fact, face such exasperating experiences as those I've mentioned, and they face them every day; and,
  
• This results, very often, with teachers and administrators alike being forced to find 'solutions' in ready-made, marketed, and for-profit, educational fads.

It should come as no surprise then as to why we find ourselves stalled, frustrated, and tense. This is hardly an environment conducive to learning, let alone an environment within which to support the collaboration required for meaningful educational reform to occur.

In fact, what environment we do have is one where teachers are held as being incapable, incompetent, and/or insufferable. An attitude as counter-productive as it is simply wrong.

We, as teachers, also find ourselves in a world where we are well aware that we are only one of many stake-holders but who are, on the one hand, singularly held responsible for education's failures, yet where we have little ability to affect change; and, on the other hand, when we do wish to affect change, very often it is the critics of the system--from all walks and institutions--who then move to impede our attempts to change.

Irony aside, this results in an impossible situation.

Such a situation, in turn, tends to lead to more drastic, digressive--if not outright destructive--and imposed "solutions," "solutions" that often take the form of some product--for sale (for profit)--which promotes much, but delivers little, or nothing (or worse).

Furthermore, by scapegoating teachers--who do, certainly, bear at least some of the burden of the problems--we're seeing the very people who are at the heart of the matter--and who are, thus, the best observers--excluded from conversations that seek to move to solve the problems.

It is in this ridiculous, finger pointing, scape-goating, situation that we, ALL, find ourselves.

So, what do we need for meaningful educational reform to occur?

1. We need to realize that there is no quick fix, no product to buy to solve the problems, and no one single stake-holder at fault...or, for that matter, free from fault;
2. We need to, then, establish a solid infrastructure that is well funded and well supported;
3. Such a well supported system would see a variety of inter-disciplinary conference--fully funded--whose purpose would be to exchange ideas, obstacles, and experiences so as to drive research and, then, disseminate information (including professional development);
4. Such a well supported system would see a variety of stake-holder input venues to exchange concerns over policies, funding, etc and also to act as a mediating ground between different and disparate cultural phenomenon (that is to say, to educate beyond the traditional students); equally, this would also allow not only for wider input of concerns, but also a wider input of support in the form of, for example, non-teaching mentors, deeper connections with government and business as a means to providing more experiences for students, and so on;
5. The driving approach would also have to be that of 'life-long learning', so that those who fall through the cracks--and people will always fall through the cracks--to be able to know and feel that they can return to education when they need to. This is, also a form of 'harm reduction' which, in turn, reduces strains across our systems (funding, resources, etc).
6. We need to allow the past to be left in the past--for bygones to be bygones--so as to open the doors for teachers to feel they can develop professionally;
7. Finally, we need to realize that such a project must be within the realm of the public for many reasons, but not limited to: the ability of only a government to support such an endeavour, to track such an endeavour, and to regulate such an endeavour. Such an inclusive model also has the well documented effect of balancing societal gaps in knowledge that often are the basis for ignorance and intolerance.

Such a 'solution' is an incredible endeavour, but a necessary one if we really wish to evolve education. Simply put, we've reached the limits of the ability for educational reform to work within the given and traditional confines we exist in now.

The time has come, not for reform--which operates within a set of established criteria--, nor for revolution--which merely tears down one system to replace it with another that looks much the same, and where one groups surges ahead at the expense of another--, rather for a complete societal transcendence.

Schools are merely microcosms of society-at-large, therefore, society-at-large must confront its short-comings honestly ad then, equally honestly, move to change as a whole.

Anything less is simply reinventing the wheel.

NEXT UP: Neuro-education, Educational fads, and Neuro-myths.


What Is Need For Meaningful Educational Reform To Occur? Part One: The View From Within. by Will Cullen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at evidencebasedteacher.blogspot.com.