The Power of the Status Quo

Schooling is a social construct. The often lamented lack of change in how schools have been constructed and operate can be attributed to our collective understanding of what schools should 'look like' and the history of their evolution. Everyone has an opinion because, at least in the western world, we all experienced 'school' through our important early and foundational years. In recent years 'Success' has been attributed to, unfortunately, a narrow academic set of measures.

This collective understanding, including by politicians and policymakers, results in forces that maintain the status quo in schooling. Traditional values and customs of schooling manifest in cultural forces like the 'old school tie,' which seemingly still attract a premium price as evidenced by the existence of elite high-fee independent schools. Unfortunately, these attitudes also protect privilege and result in ongoing societal inequalities. More unfortunate is the maintenance of school as we know it is not preparing our children for the future.

We also perpetuate some powerful myths about learning. It might even be suggested that it is the profession itself holding us back because of the False Sanctuary classrooms and schools can become. Teachers and school leaders are largely Compliant Learners - successful in 'playing the game' of the education system that we now maintain. Increasingly this maintenance is also draining life from us and our students, jeopardising our potential for a thriving future.

Changing schools is also constrained by the evidence we use in our drive to improve them. We spend significant resources Measuring the Wrong Things, or at least not measuring the correct ones, and have a narrow focus on Rear Vision Research of 'what works' in education. In addition, the pedagogical False Dichotomy educators often default to also brings unhealthy debate that inhibits progress. I don't want to diminish the importance of such knowledge – I've been an advocate for, and consumer of it for most of my career. I was calculating effect sizes well before John Hattie's 'Visible Learning' become part of the lexicon in schools. But the prevailing mindset has locked us in a vicious cycle of seeking incremental 'improvement' at the expense of authentic learning.

This lack of change in schooling is despite the Loose Bricks in education, including that nearly a quarter of children in the OECD don't complete high school! In effect, they are still being 'sorted', in the case out of these children, out of education itself!

What does surprise me is how quickly change can happen. Recent human history confirms this as technological innovation has disrupted many aspects of how we live. The emergence of knowledge related to learning coming from outside the field of education, from neuroscience, medical imaging of the brain, quantum physics and mathematics, is offering even faster change! What we have learned is when we challenge the prevailing mindsets about improving learning, change in schools can also be very fast. For example, the learning cultures in the technology industries that delivered transformative impacts on our lives have application in schools. What is needed though is for us to stop trying to improve a model that we sense is past its use-by date.

Next: Fast and Remarkable