Climbing the Mountain.

It comes as no surprise that this term has seen considerable, and often animated, discussion and debate amongst educators both online and face to face. These discussions have centered on just what direction education in Aotearoa is heading.

Sometimes, in the noise around curriculum, AI, social media, staffing and assessment [to name but a few], it is useful to take a step back and try to simplify the issues down to ensure that our focus remains on what is important.

What follows today, and later this week, is a simple persons [me] simplistic attempt to clear some of the ‘wood from the trees.’ 

Currently polarization is a bit of a  problem and it seems that there are certain political decisions around education that are actually [intentionally or not] encouraging this  polarization amongst educators. The polarization often seems to focus on WHAT we teach on one side and HOW we teach on the other [I said this was going to be simplistic].

The reason this is dangerous is because it runs the risk of creating divisions and a preoccupation with a certain theory or approach which could mean we take our eyes off what is really important, that is the empowering of young people to be the very best that they can be.

Think of teaching and learning in terms of climbing a mountain.

I do believe that everyone [teachers, leaders, whanau, academics, politicians, students etc.] involved in education has the same reason for climbing this mountain. All of us want to lift young people to be the very best they can be. This is the peak for all of us. We all want to empower our students to make the world a better place.

This is our peak, this is our WHY, our purpose, our goal.

The problem that we are currently facing is that if we believe that the best path to the top of the mountain is by focusing on content, the WHAT is being taught. Then we are destined to fall short of our goal. We will focus [as we currently are ] on what is linked most closely to content and make changes there, primarily curriculum and assessment. 

All of this is vital and important, but a focus on content will not achieve our shared goal. It will inevitably be ‘done to’ teachers and not ‘done with’ teachers, and this will lead to confusion, suspicion and frustration. In classrooms [to borrow Owen Eastwood’s phrase from ‘Belonging’] it will, at best, achieve a climate of conformity which may well lift assessment results but will not allow for the full flowering of a creative, empowered and agentic young adult. It is likely to create classrooms where students, at best, survive school but rarely truly thrive.

On the other hand if we focus too much on the other path, the HOW of teaching and learning, then we are more lilely to focus on creating inclusive, safe, learning environments prioritizing positive and mutually respectful relationships [ako] where manaakitanga and kotahitanga are at the heart of the school experience. 

Now I would be the last one to denigrate this approach, in fact it is the camp that I naturally feel more at home in. 

The danger though is that we run the risk of losing academic rigor and challenge in our attempt to make sure at all are included. We will create a culture of belonging [to borrow again from Owen Eastwood].

So this path will also only take us halfway up the mountain. The reality is we need both paths. Belonging and conformity are not mutually exclusive. The HOW and the WHAT need to complement each other if the WHY is to be attained.

Importantly the HOW and the WHY have to respect each other and weave together, my fear is that this is not happening currently on an national level.

All of this is pretty obvious eh.

But here is where I think we need to pause and reflect and remember what we all know.

The start of the path must focus on the HOW. Pedagogy, practice, relationships, winning trust, listening. prior knowledge, creating safe respectful classrooms that focus on ako and manaakitanga must precede the WHAT in any meaningful and sustainable change process. Then they need to weave together, carry and support each other to scale the mountain. 

I have looked at the new English curriculum and I don't necessarily have too many problems with it [apart from the fact it appears overwhelming and is pitched at an aspirational level that currently is unobtainable for many of students]. But it is destined to fail because it has not been preceded by a strong enough focus on those who will make it work, teachers. 

Education is not an academic exercise, it is not as simple as a standardized assessment system, a textbook or a list of texts, it stands or falls on people, it stands or falls on community, it stands or falls on a teacher in a room inspiring and developing creative young minds.

So if I had a magic wand, or if I had the power to make anyone listen, I would beg for a focus on helping schools and teachers, regain the trust of their students and provide time, money and resources in approaches that will allow individuals to thrive not just survive. A focus on what happened in the classroom before what is learnt in the classroom.

A culture of belonging is vital if we want to be able to push academic and learning barriers, they are not exclusive, they are interwoven and interdependent.

My fear is that in all of this maelstrom of change that nothing will be achieved unless we reassess how we start our journey up the mountain.

For schools, what can we do now? Look inward, focus on the classroom, focus on the power of the teacher to change lives, focus on and maintain your systems that support and nurture. Identify what makes an effective, cohesive and inclusive classroom that supports academic and personal excellence in your context, protect it, nurture it, take pride in it and celebrate it.