Schooling was designed for sorting children to meet the needs of an industrial society. It has been evaluated by measuring a narrow range of outcomes, be that students, or schools, by measurement and rankings. The international movement to improve schooling basically underpinned by economic drivers is focused on the application of particular strategies, often decided upon at a policy or system level. It requires convergence on a particular outcome and my experience is this places principals and teachers in an environment of control and compliance.
We urgently need to apply a new mindset to schooling. The world has changed and will continue to do so, and the cost to humanity for trying to maintain our current system can't be sustained. The growing crisis in teacher shortages should be the canary in the coal mine.
New understanding about learning from fields including exciting breakthroughs in medical imaging, biological science and neuroscience, in particular, point to the fact that if we were designing a system to educate our children from scratch, we would not start with schools as we currently know them.
There are many who acknowledge this proposition to be a truth and hundreds of initiatives across the world attempting to address this very issue. Most have merit and the message is clear... its about learning not schooling. Whilst we have extensive investment in an existing model, the challenge we have is to reimagine education from within. This challenge involves the meso level leadership in profound ways and is a point I will visit in the pages ahead.
When we shift our mindset we acknowledge that a learner's identity as a learner is the focus of efforts. In doing so each student learns more about themselves in a way that increases their Creative Courage and brings about Deeper Learning.
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