Teacher Representation 2.0 – The media, global education and the unions role.
In my previous blog, the first of 2019, I outlined the
difficulties that I see for teaching as a profession in Australia, with a
specific focus on teacher representation and leadership. Based on what can only
be called an impressive response, I have now learnt many things that add to and
challenged my earlier thoughts. The exploration of these ideas may well be
something that I continue, as I feel that too frequently ‘teacher voice’ and ‘teacher
representation’ are things cited freely without the associated awareness of the
difficulties and complexities that are present. These difficulties and complexities
need not be explored because the likelihood of a sudden change of direction
that allows teacher voice to be possible or allowed is not within sight.
A special thanks to Jelmer Evers and Howard Stevenson, whose
work reminded me of something I completely failed to mention, the role of the Education
Unions. This is something I will redress here in what follows and something
which I simply took for granted in my earlier piece, as tacit knowledge rather
than a conscious choice.
I believe the earlier argument still holds, that:
‘teachers cannot, in their current formation and working
conditions, be truly representative of their profession without further
training, professional and personal development and with the support of the
Department of Education through further funding, scholarships, and/or time
release.’
I outlined four broad
spheres of knowledge that Teachers could potentially be aware of. The following
being arranged from closest to their core business to furthest:
Teaching
– School-level – Policy – Politics
In addition, through
discussion and debate, or as Eacott (2017) would present it “argument-refutation”,
it is clear to me now that there are spheres beyond that, that are also worth
considering. They are:
Teaching
– School-level – Policy – Politics – Popular
Media – Global Education
These new spheres raise many
questions worth considering, especially teacher emergence into the limelight,
such as Eddie Woo and Gabbie Stroud (and notably, no one else). The relatively
new concept of the ‘Global Teacher Prize’ broadens out this trend into a global
space and brings with it a range of new challenges and ideas, worthy of further
exploration.
Within popular media sits
the subset where we are most active, that of Social Media. Beyond that, there
is also the question of Global ideas, movements such as the ‘Global Education
Reform Movement’ (Sahlberg, 2006; 2016), the roles of ‘edu-business’ (Hogan,
2016) and the move towards a new ‘Collaborative professionalism’ (Gilliland &
Stevenson, 2015) in a truly encompassing and global way.
The Political sphere appears
to be becoming aware of the forces of demoralisation among teachers and
beginning to act to redress this, albeit in its own slow, hierarchical and
red-tape swamped manner. All actions aiming to address this demoralisation and
dissatisfaction will require policy-makers to address the concept of
‘teacher-agency’ (Stevenson, 2015) and allow teachers more influence and
personal choice. This would mean a move towards ‘small-data’ (Sahlberg &
Hasak, 2016) rather than monolithic ‘Big Data’ and numbers generated by
standardised tests as well as a range of other pieces that would aim to bring
the humanity back into teaching (Reid, 2018). At a local, Australian level, it
would also mean a move away from Visible Learning and the ‘What Works’ agenda (Hammersley,
1997; Olson, 2004: Slavin, 2002; 2004) towards a more humanistic and artistic
view of education.
Yet, whilst adding onto
these original four spheres, the complexity of the educational landscape
becomes all the clearer, so now it seems timely to include the role of the
unions in promoting, training and allowing teachers to enter into these six
spheres, not merely as onlookers, but as empowered and impassioned
participants. In short, the unions role is not only as representatives on behalf
of, but also trainers and promoters of teachers into other spheres being those
commonly attributed to them (‘pedagogy’ and ‘school-level’). This is undoubtedly
a difficult and truly monumental task.
Though it still stands that
it is impossible to be across these four, let alone six, spheres, the union can
and does cover many of these areas, whilst also allowing space and time for
teachers to engaging beyond those spheres most naturally suited to them (‘Teaching’
and ‘School-level’).
Teaching
– School-level – Policy – Politics – Popular Media – Global
Teaching
Jelmer Elvers (2015; 2017) has
called for unions to become more involved with the direct, pedagogical and
teaching elements of the job of teaching. A thought mirrored by Howard
Stevenson (2017;2018), who suggests that the role of pedagogy cannot be removed
from the role of conditions, as they are so intimately intertwined. Both of
these thinkers draw out the solution to this fact as a renewed empowerment of
teachers and teacher autonomy, but without making it entirely clear where and
how these teachers would exercise this autonomy, the direct question being
addressed here. For their part, Unions generally shy away from the discussion
of pedagogy, due in part to the lack of clarity around ‘What works’ (Hammersley,
1997; Olson, 2004: Slavin, 2002; 2004) but also in part in the defence of
teacher autonomy. Where unions do, and indeed should draw the line in regards
to what denotes pedagogy and what elements of teacher work are directly
relevant to their intervention or influence is unclear and remains a contested space.
School-level
The discussion of school
leadership is an isolated element unto itself with few exceptions. Large
sweeping shifts within what Reid (2018) would call the ‘Reframe’ movement
within our education system are made broadly clear to outsiders. Examples such
as Peter Hutton’s Templestowe College (Longmuir, 2019) and the soon to be built
Lindfield school precinct (Baker, 2018) are clear to the broader public. But
beyond large Departmental and Governmental shifts. The majority of school-level
changes occur with a level of teacher consultation but not direct control or
leadership. As such, teacher-leaders are aware of change movements within their
region and their own individual schools. Yet holding this information clearly
in mind when also interacting with the other spheres provide above and below
can be a great challenge, in addition to the complexities of leadership (Heffernan,
2019)
Policy
Policy is by and large an
area that teachers are completely excluded from, besides their use of social media
to actively respond to new shifts in policy, or suggested policy. Through
industrial action they are able to exert some control, but by and large the
complexities of policy are things that teachers have little access to, and
therefore, or perhaps as a result of, have very little knowledge of. The
complexities of policy, especially the current trend towards ‘policy shopping’
from other powerful (read high-ranking) OECD countries is something that
further complicates this space. This requires of teachers not only a high level
of local political knowledge, but also an awareness of global movements and
trends within education policy around the world (Sahlberg 2006; 2016), which is
broadly lacking within the profession.
Politics
Unions have responsibility
for the political sphere, by-and-large, and empower their teacher members to
engage with political action and to become aware of politics as it relates to
education and therefore, though to a lesser extent, the society at large. In
Australia, there is a limited amount of non-union based activism around political
changes broadly, but especially so in regards to the politics of education
specifically. Examples of teacher representation are limited in the political
sphere as illustrated by their representation on such key decision-making
bodies as the AITSL board and even most amusingly on the ‘Inquiry into the
Status of the Teaching Profession’ of 1998 and 2019.
Popular Media
The wider, popular media is
indeed a fickle beast and the surprising nature of Eddie Woo, Gabbie Stroud meteoric
rise to popular media prominence is not something that can be relied upon in
any meaningful manner. The emergence of the Educational Guru as noted by Eacott
(2017) in reference to John Hattie in Australia is indeed a phenomenon worthy of
further consideration, yet it rarely emerges beyond the educational
echo-chamber to reach what can be broadly conceived of as the ‘popular media’.
Yet if we are to truly speak of teacher representation at all levels then this
sphere is worthy of inclusion but it also, perhaps, deserves, minimal focus,
due in large part to its very fickleness.
Popular Media (with social media, as a minor subset)
Both Morozov (2012) and
Elvers (2016) note the risks and empty vacuous ineffectiveness of Clicktivism, whilst
also noting some positive examples of it. It cannot be overlooked the way that
teachers are using social media to that support one another and show solidarity
in their shared difficulties. This could be a meeting place for a new teacher
autonomy and ‘democratic professionalism’ (Gilliland & Stevenson, 2015),
but it will not be where the battle for teacher status and representation is
won or lost.
Global Education
As noted above in policy,
the homogenisation of educational decision-making means that these two spheres (‘Global’
and ‘Policy’) are increasingly complex and intertwined. The global element of
teacher representation is something that Sahlberg (2006; 2016), Stevenson
(2017; 2018) and Elvers (2017; 2018) feel is lacking, though the role of
Education International, as the global face of educational unionism has a role
to play here. The ‘Global Teacher Prize’ is a movement within the global sphere
that promotes and values educators but gives them only a brief and fleeting ‘15
minutes of fame’ with which to apply their personal voice and messaging. Even
in this most positive and valuing respect the teachers remain largely silenced,
though they are gifted a profile with which to promote their own ideas, though
this is based largely around their own initiative rather than any structured
process within the prize itself.
The addition of these two
new spheres or areas of interest, ‘Global Education’ and ‘Popular Media’,
further underlines the central premise of this piece:
‘teachers cannot, in their current formation and working
conditions, be truly representative of their profession without further
training, professional and personal development and with the support of the
Department of Education through further funding, scholarships, and/or time
release.’
If you believe you have a
way forward, a method to promote, train or groom teachers to hold true
representation in any or all of these spheres where we believe teachers ought
have a voice, please let me know.
References
Baker, J (2018) Rush to enrol in Lindfield learning
revolution. The Syndey Morning Herald, accessed on 23/2/2019, from: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/rush-to-enrol-in-lindfield-learning-revolution-20180706-p4zq0f.html
Bascia, N., & Stevenson, H. (2017). Organizing teaching:
developing the power of the profession
Eacott, S. (2017) School leadership and the cult
of the guru: the neo-Taylorism of Hattie, School Leadership &
Management, 37:4, 413-426.
Eacott, S. (2018). Ranting, raving and complaining: reflections
on working against orthodoxy. International Journal of Leadership in
Education, 1-9.
Evers, J., & Kneyber, R. (Eds.). (2015). Flip the
system: Changing education from the ground up. Routledge.
Evers, J. (2017) Leraren aller landen verenigt u! (Teachers
of all countries unite!) https://onderzoekonderwijs.net/2017/11/11/leraren-aller-landen-verenigt-u/
Available in English here: https://mrkolbersteaching.blogspot.com/2019/02/jelmer-evers-teachers-of-all-countries.html
Gilliland, A. & Stevenson, H. (2015) Teacher Unions at
the Heart of a New Democratic Professionalism. Howard Stevenson, Alison
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system: Changing education from the ground up. Routledge.
Heffernan, A. (2019). The ‘punk rock principal’: a metaphor
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governance, new privatisations and new partnerships in Australian education
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Patty, A (2019) The 'Uberfication' of education: warning
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Reid, A. (2018) Beyond Certainty: A process for thinking
about Futures in Australian Education. University of South Australia for the
Australian Secondary Principals Association.
Rycroft-Smith, L., & Dutaut, J. L. (2018). Flip the System
UK: A teachers’ manifesto. Abingdon: Routledge.
Sahlberg, P. (2006). Education reform for raising economic
competitiveness. Journal of Educational Change, 7(4), 259-287.
Sahlberg, P., & Hasak, J. (2016). Big data’was supposed
to fix education. It didn’t. It’s time for ‘small data’. Washington Post.
Retrieved from https://www. washingtonpost.
com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/05/09/big-data-was-supposed-to-fix-education-it-didnt-its-time-for-small-data.
Shirley, D. (2016). The new imperatives of educational
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Sahlberg, P. (2016). The global educational reform movement
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Stevenson, H (2017) Teacher union renewal: developing the
power of the profession. Retrieved on 28/01/2019, from: https://worldsofeducation.org/en/woe_homepage/woe_detail/15100/teacher-union-renewal-developing-the-power-of-the-profession
Stevenson, H. (2018) Flip. the. system? Get. organised! From:
Rycroft-Smith, L., & Dutaut, J. L. (2018). Flip the System UK: A teachers’
manifesto. Abingdon: Routledge.
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