Schools must now 'build back better' to free teachers and students from old regimes



Schools must now 'build back better' to free teachers and students from old regimes
By Steven Kolber
Community contribution / May 14, 2020

For this Victorian teacher, returning to school at this time feels appropriate, considering all other jurisdictions have already returned to face-to-face teaching.
A ‘build back better’ move would be to allow a portion of students’ load to be delivered remotely, giving teachers and students some space for variety in their schedule, and freedom from the byzantine and industrial timetable of schools.
The luxury of having a staged return to school is thoughtful and appropriate.
Having a pupil-free day to collect thoughts and approaches is also a good decision. This will allow for some respite to prepare, plan and reflect, as called for previously. The fingerprint of AEU Victoria in pushing for these measures is clear and deeply appreciated.
Health and safety concerns on site
Realistically, schools will only look slightly different: teachers will sit farther apart than normal, cleaning will be ramped up, parents will be less welcome on school grounds and their school drop-offs will be more tightly controlled and monitored (which is especially important in primary settings). Enforcing staggered break times are impossible in most secondary schools.
Yet, we teachers cannot socially distance in public schools, within staffrooms and common areas nor within the classrooms. The work of teaching is not only an exchange of ideas, but also objects, novels, pens, books and so on. Staffrooms are rabbit-warrens of human activity and interaction, more akin to a Christmas dinner table, elbow-to-elbow, than any vision of a well-lit open-plan office in private industry. 
This inevitably exposes a hypocrisy, where teachers are asked to model best practice social-distancing and hygiene everywhere besides within the classroom - and then must return to their cramped staffrooms to attempt a mere pretence of these measures.
The optics on this are important and we teachers will do our best to pretend these things are possible, so that we can model best practice to our students. The reality will not always be ideal.
Has remote learning been a 'success'? 
This form of online delivery has been as successful as could be expected in the circumstances. None of this is ideal, and I can’t imagine any other industry or workplace being asked the same question. Has any human endeavour been able to achieve any form of ‘success’ in this situation? I would suggest not.
Student disengagement has emerged as an issue that needs addressing as the weeks have worn on, with schools doing the best that they can with limited funding and time to support those with the greatest needs. Time that is being sapped even more now due to online learning requirements, which has always been a very time-intensive endeavour.
Teachers have made the best of what they have access to, as always, in the spaces where they are. Rural and remote schools will have vastly different experiences of this than inner city, urban areas. Australia-wide internet penetration is near 88%, a long way from complete coverage. Students who are disadvantaged have remained disadvantaged and remote learning is not likely to be a salve for some of the issues that they carry with them. Results will vary dramatically across the system, which is something that PISA data consistently shows. A move to universal internet access, of an appropriate standard, is something that needs to be considered going forward, as well as a more consistent funding model for cushioning the impacts of social disadvantage within schools.  
Teacher workload has increased dramatically, with many studies confirming that a transition to online learning is a dramatic impasse on our time. These studies note this trend under normal circumstances, let alone under the additional stress, anxiety, risk and concern of our current plight.
However, teachers and students have both learnt just how flexible and adaptable they are.
Lessons from remote learning
Rebecca Winthrop, co-director at the Center for Universal Education, notes that one of the core principles of education during a crisis is to ‘build back better’. The staged return to school and pupil-free days means some moments to breath, but at an organisational and system level, will much thought be given to this?
As a result of this situation, teachers’ toolkits have expanded exponentially. Ways of teaching not commonly attempted by most teachers have now been trialled – and for an extended period of time. Are there elements of this that could become mainstays of our education system? Let’s consider a few options:

  • More flexible teacher and student work, including from portions from home
  • Less testing and emphasis on standardised tests, such as NAPLAN and PISA
  • A reduction in class time, to allow for choice and agency to continue to develop

There is potential for more flexible working conditions for teachers, who currently work from 8am to 8pm most days, with breaks for parenting, basic needs and little else.
A ‘build back better’ move would be to allow a portion of students’ load to be delivered remotely, giving teachers and students some space for variety in their schedule, and freedom from the byzantine and industrial timetable of schools.
If students were free to work - via the best technological means available - from their homes, teachers would be freed up to attend essential appointments, care for their own children, get their car serviced and all of those things that invariably pile up and get completed during school holidays. Students would have the time and space to continue to prove and develop their autonomy and independence.
The Australian education system is one warped by inaccurate and poorly understood testing regimes that have shown nothing but a consistent decline on these measures. When an intervention shows such a trend, any industry besides teaching would consider disbanding it and trying a different approach.
Now is that time for these conversations to be had and for alternatives to be developed.
We seek to develop students who are lifelong learners, but do not allow them any freedoms to do so, let alone time and space in which to reflect upon this concept. Reducing class time is the only way to achieve this, and would bring our system in line with those of countries around the world who consistently outperform us.
The key takeaway from this experience is that the vast majority of high school-aged students can be trusted to work independently at home.
This statement stands, whilst also admitting that students who are already disadvantaged need greater support, funding and intervention. This is as clear now, as ever.
Student voice, choice and agency is spoken of breathlessly in pious tones in secondary schools, but rarely are these ideas pursued beyond window dressing. Remote and blended learning delivered flexibly by our cadre of expert teachers proposes real possibilities for this to become not only a ‘new normal’ but a ‘build back better’ move.
There is the risk that without sufficient time to reflect and process on what we have learnt from the COVID-19 crisis, that many of the revelations for teachers and students will be forgotten.
The deepest reflection teachers do undoubtedly occurs during school holidays, so from a professional growth standpoint, having all of Term 2 set aside for remote learning would have been ideal. Yet to suggest this, shows a lack of awareness as the much larger and broader concerns at play.
There is a risk that this period is viewed as a fleeting, fever-like dream or as a conference that was interesting and uplifting but ultimately forgotten amid the cascade of work during the weeks following.
So, let’s build back better. Let’s empower teachers and students as the lifelong learners they are. Let’s free up space within timetables - initially through flexible use of digital teaching tools, but later through reductions in face-to-face teaching.
A profession and system at breaking point, where teachers are routinely lost to other careers, is not the one we want to see persist out of this period.
Instead, let a more flexible and innovative teaching profession emerge, where an increased emphasis is placed on student autonomy, choice and voice.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The fraught issue of teacher representation

Image
                                               Teacher activism and discussion has centred around the concept of improving the esteem of our profession and improving the reach of our profession’s voice. Teachers feel that for too long politicians have dictated terribly flawed and faulty policy ideas to our workplaces. Stripped of our agency, we feel powerless ad this contributes to our sense of burnout. Or as Gabbie Stroud would say, “not burnout, but Demoralisation”. We are demoralised and disempowered. The Parliamentary Inquiry into the teaching profession typifies this thrust from teachers into the public sphere, supported by the rise in status of Eddie Woo and the more recent emergence of Gabbie Stroud as our spokespeople. Stroud’s genius is the way that she has been able to put into words an idea that is understandable to politicians, shows strong fee...
Read more
Image
Ranting, raving and complaining Hattie and the tenor of debate within Education I agree with the contention that Australia is within the grip of a movement described as “the Cult of the Guru” with John Hattie as the visible figurehead and Visible Learning as the corporate and commercial arm. It is worth noting that the emergence of Hattie within Australia closely mirrors the rise of Dylan Wiliam’s in the United Kingdom and more recently the USA. Wiliams’ Classroom Experiment and Hattie’s Revolution School TV programs, Wiliam’s Learning Sciences International and Hattie’s Visible Learning bear much in common, though their agendas differ. So, it is clear that this is not merely an Australian trend, but one aspect of the broader ‘Global Education Reform Movement’ (Sahlberg 2006; 2016), a trend whose examples I am sure others more qualified than I could add to. The critiques of Hattie’s methods are numerous and robust (Bergeron & Rivard, 2017; Higgins & Simpson, 2...
Read more

Building a Custom Lightboard: Portable, robust and tall!

Image
Building a Custom Lightboard: Portable, robust and tall! My forthcoming National Education Summit presentation covers what I believe to be the full range of instructional video outputs and methods for creation. The goal of the presentation is to introduce teachers to the range of possibilities that exist and to consider which of these they are prepared, or already equipped to implement in their own settings. To support this, there are suggestions around tools that may need to be purchased and leading experts, besides myself, who would be good contacts in moving towards these methods. The ‘Forms of Instructional Video’ below are my current understanding of the available forms, in what must be considered an ongoing project of discovery: Forms of Instructional Video External Document Camera Phone as Document Camera DSLR and Tripod w/ Directional Mic Face-to-Webcam Camera Purcha...
Read more