Transcript Document

REFLECTIONS ON
ETHOS AND CULTURE
JOHN MACBEATH
University of
Cambridge
ETHOS
CULTURE
ETHOS
CULTURE AND
STRUCTURE
PISA The learning
Environment and the
organisation of Schooling
(2003)
Ireland
US
UK
Finland
50
100
0
% of variance in performance explained by ethos and
socio-economic factors
Television camera
AntI-truancy
illuminated panels
Full length walls and
doors
Smoke alarms
Hand driers
Concealed works
AN
ETHOS
OF ACHIEVEMENT
A CULTURE OF
LEARNING
THE LEARNING WEDDING CAKE
System learning
Professional learning
pupil learning
HOW GOOD IS OUR ETHOS?
Learning
What do we know?
What do we not
know?
What would we like
to know?
How might we find
out?
A Culture of
learning
DOING SCHOOL
Imagine yourself on a ship sailing across an unknown sea,
to an unknown destination. An adult would be desperate
to know where he is going. But a child only knows he is
going to school...The chart is neither available nor
understandable to him... Very quickly, the daily life on
board ship becomes all important ... The daily chores, the
demands, the inspections, become the reality, not the
voyage, nor the destination.
(Mary Alice White, 1971)
Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
Copyright 1993 Watterson/ Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate
TAMING THE WILD…..
‘Children come to school with
a hundred languages and leave
with one.”
The Carpe Vitam Project, 2002
…AND WILDING THE TAME
THE HOLE IN THE WALL
Research papers by
Sugata Mitra on MIE
Pavan at a Madangir kiosk with his goat
Girl in village Kalse, Sindhudurg district, and her painting after 3
hours of seeing a computer for the first time.
Intelligence is
knowing what to do
when you don’t
know what to do
Jean Piaget
CONFIDENT UNCERTAINTY
Learning starts from the joint acknowledgement of
inadequacy and ignorance…There is no other place
for learning to start. An effective learner, or
learning culture, is one that is not afraid to admit
this perception, and also possesses some confidence
in its ability to grow in understanding and
expertise, so that perplexity is transformed into
mastery… (Claxton, 2000)
CONFIDENT UNCERTAINTY
How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?
If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy
her friends?
What happens if you get scared half to death
twice?
Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?
Why do kamikaze pilots wear helmets?
OK, so what's the speed of dark?
DISTRIBUTED INTELLIGENCE
“Neurons connect parts
of our brains with one
another but no cables
made of neurons drape
from person to person.
We talk about ideas. We
share insights. We pool
recollections.” (Perkins,
2004 p.22)
DEVELOPING A LEARNING CULTURE
Delivering the curriculum
Discussing purposes and objectives of learning
Pupils devising indicators of achievement
Pupils as assessors their own and others’ work
Pupils as determiners of learning
Pupils as learning partners
Social Capital
• Social bonding
• Social bridging
• Social linking
Warum muss Ich in die Schule gehen?
“In school you meet people from different from yourself from
different backgrounds, children you can observe, talk to, ask
questions, for example someone from Turkey or Vietnam, a
devout Catholic or an out and out atheist, boys and girls, a
mathematical whiz kid, a child in a wheelchair... I believe
whole heartedly that the open school is there first and foremost
to bring young people together and to help them to learn to live
in a way that our political society so badly needs.”
(Von Hentig, p.47)
Human capital
A CULTURE OF LEARNING
Making learning an
object of attention
Making learning an
object of conversation
Making learning an
object of reflection
Making learning an
object of learning
The force field
A
culture
of
learning
TOXINS
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
ideas rejected or stolen
constant carping criticisms
being ignored
being judged
being overdirected
not being listened to
being misunderstood
Southworth, 2000
NUTRIENTS
•
•
•
•
•
•
being valued
being encouraged
being noticed
being trusted
being listened to
being respected
Southworth, 2000
THE TREASURE WITHIN
“Somehow educators have forgotten the
important connection between teachers and
students. We listen to outside experts to
inform us, and, consequently overlook the
treasure in our very own backyards – the
students.”
(Soo Hoo, 1993, p. 389)
Tuning in to the secret harmonies
Pupil representatives at staff meetings
Pupils graffiti board in staffroom
Pupils produce learning, assessment, careers booklets
Pupil representatives in staff meetings
Pupils on staff selection and appointment panels
Pupils on inspection teams
Headteacher parliamentary questions
The Bubble Box
The ladder of
participation
Pupils decide.
Adults support.
(from Shultz in
Democratic
Learning,
MacBeath and
Moos.)
Adults and
pupils decide
together
Adults consult and
take pupil views
into account.
Adults consult
pupils then
decide.
participation
consultation
decoration
Adults use pupils
as decoration
Adults decide.
Inform pupils.
manipulation
A GLOBAL MOVEMENT
Government intervention
Local school management
A GLOBAL MOVEMENT
Government intervention
Intermediate support and moderation?
School autonomy, school choice
A GLOBAL MOVEMENT
Government: provider and quality assurer
The accountability improvement interface
School: compliance and subversion
LIFE IN A PSEUDO ENVIRONMENT
• The Manufactured crisis
• The improvement illusion
• The magnificent myth
• The post truth political environment
The improvement illusion
“Nine and a half our days, class on Saturday, school
during the summer and two hours of homework each
night are non-negotiable...”If you’re off the bus you’re
working” says Feinberg...... Each morning students
receive a worksheet of maths, logic and word problems
for them to solve in the free minutes that appear during
the day.”
Teachers carry cell phones with toll free numbers and are
on call 24 hours a day to answer any concerns their
students might have. “Ten calls a night may sound like a
drag”, says Feinberg,” but everyone goes to bed ready for
the next school day.”
(No Excuses, Lessons from High Performing Schools)
HOW MYTHS GAIN INERTIA
‘In the 70s and 80s nobody was interested in
achievement in schools’. (ht secondary school)
‘Not long ago there was a time when teachers
took no responsibility for children’s learning at
all. They had no expectation of them at all.’
(primary ht)
‘Look at any school mission statement and you
will find an inverse correlation between
achievement and caring’
PISA The learning
Environment and the
organisation of Schooling
(2003)
Ireland
US
UK
Finland
50
100
0
% of variance in performance explained by ethos and
socio-economic factors
GREEDY WORK
The task of leading a school in the twenty first
century can no longer be carried out by the
heroic individual leader single handedly turning
schools around. It is greedy work, all consuming,
demanding unrelenting peak performance from
superleaders and no longer a sustainable
notion.
Peter Gronn, The New Work of Educational Leaders: Changing Leadership
Practice in an Era of School Reform, 2003
THE POST TRUTH POLITICAL
ENVIRONMENT
Public opinion is shaped in response to people's
maps or images of the world, and not to the world
itself.
Mass political consciousness does not pertain to
the actual environment but to an intermediary
pseudo-environment.
When deals must be struck and compromises
made on behalf of large purposes, Presidents tend
to prefer deception over education.
Eric Alterman, The Nation 2004
THE SUNDAY TIMES
July 13, 2003
LET PUPILS HIRE THEIR TEACHERS
says Labour adviser
Pupils should be given power to apoint their own
teachers, according to one of the government’s most
senior education advisers.
LIVING WITH PARADOX
self evaluate
apply given criteria
take risks/innovate
avoid mistakes
think long term
deliver results now
be flexible
follow the rules
collaborate
compete
share leadership
retain control
encourage teamwork
assess individuals
SEVEN KEY PRINCIPLES
1. Justice .. as a first unalienable principle
2. Reciprocity.. Observing the me-too-you-too principle
3. Steadfastness….in holding on to what matters
4. Solidarity… in the strength of the collective
5. Diversity .. The enrichment of difference
6. Stewardship.. .Active concern for the shared resource
7. Accountability …for the moral imperative
“Not everything that counts can
be counted. And not everything
that can be counted, counts.”
Albert Einstein