The world of education isn’t changing to the Harvard business model of corporatism in education management that is apparently now firmly entrenched in many districts in North America. And in these places change is in the wind…
In other parts of the world the narrow emphasis on marks and grades has been and is being moved towards thoughtful experience and learning. Universities are moving away from a grade average as the only measure for entrance. Most research is reflecting this and the models of teaching in the Scandinavian and most continental European countries in the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) reflect this through the elimination of high stakes ‘objective’ testing, as do systems in Asia and South America. This has deep ramifications for the increasing professionalism and ethics in teaching and learning. Do we hang on to the ever calcifying old ideas of corporatism of end results through management versus labour or reach for the new ideas of a sustainable cooperative world?
Only the US, Alberta and some developing world countries stagger along under the mostly dead and outdated weight of the corporate model. Our lauded and exploited high results of Alberta students in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) exams are not being reflected back in higher standards of post secondary education. There are not more doctors, scientists, architects and engineers, teachers, philosophers or writers being produced than before. We have only successfully produced good high stakes test writers, a ‘within the box’ skill with cookie- cutter commensurate knowledge and attitudes increasingly unneeded in a new diverse world unfolding before our eyes. Scandinavian countries with no high stakes testing in their educational programs consistently outperform all other countries in all subject areas.
Having the instant gratification of high grades is a self fulfilling prophecy that only justifies it’s own process, poorly reflects the real world and has limited effect on the people that really matter, the students in grade school or in post secondary schools and their learning experiences for life long enjoyment of useful engaging informed learning. And this system of instant gratification and emphasis on immediate measures of worth are more a reflection of the failed and hollow consumerist economy than the society that actually exists in the real world. High stakes testing limits ‘out of the box’ innovation, constrains freedom of thought and learning, negates diversity and leaves students unprepared for a world that is economically and socially changing at an unprecedented rate.
While todays remnants of the Thatcher-Reagan classical liberal view of economy requires immediate and continuous growth through the cult of efficiency and benchmark measures, it is now coming under review after the economic moral and ethical failure and crash of 2008 that: continuous growth is an impossibility; benchmark measures are wholly inadequate in describing a person’s knowledge; and efficiency only leads to a dumbing down and flattening of knowledge to essentials and trivializes honest good work and negates ethically honest, innovative and divergent thinking.
In that light it behooves us as teachers of the next generation, to keep an informed pulse on reality, lead youth to their futures and not stoop to reacting to mere perception and so perpetuate lost hopes through intangible and untrue fears of a long gone past. Perception is largely managed in the mind through interpretation via past memories and experiences. At the moment in educational jurisdictions still under the mesmerizing influence of corporate management, perception is something to be controlled and managed and administered from those above to those below. As shown in law, perception is highly suspect as a measure for truth as every eye witness is internally self motivated to interpret things differently, thus through perception each individual’s truth is different and each, by any measure, equal in strength. So, other ideas, such as open discussion among all those involved, are needed to prove a perceived truth than merely relying on the voice of an authority.
Perceptions, whether rationally, logically or emotionally self motivated, are inescapable, and these perceptions need to be shared and openly talked about to keep a check on unreasonable, misdirected or skewed versions of truth commanding more value than another. Turning these subjective issues into rational imperical ones diminishes context and narrows the scope of understanding to mere essentialism, as near an untruth as one can get with out lying. Clever autocrats, both political and corporate, have command and control via their manipulation of perception among the public. There are plenty of historical examples of both negative manipulation, Hitler for one, and positive manipulation, say FDR.
A consensus of perception among all perceptions must be attained as following only one individuals version of perception leads to struggles for power and the slippery slope of increasingly authoritarian measures to maintain control of a single perception against all others, suppression of dissent (which are only other perceptions needing a voice), and psychologically weak people being attracted to such power to embolden their own perceptions, all of which undermines consensus and purpose creating an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. How the discussion among perceptions is handled, autocratically or democratically, leads the way to how a society operates.
Educators are, well read, caring, community leaders, and are the people parents entrust to show the way to the future for their children. Educators should be helping parents as well as their children to steer away from easily manipulated perception and face the reality of what is and imagine the future of what may be through a dialogue that clears out erroneous or skewed perceptions. The parent is not always right and those that are not must be convinced otherwise for the long term health and promise of their children. In terms of their own children parents have the most skewed perception of all, while being very realistic with other people’s children. In the same vein, educators are not always right, nor are administrators in the higher echelons of education. Dialogue must be continuous and equal in respect. We must all be as proactive as possible, rarely reactive and that positive professional atmosphere must be preserved at all costs and at all levels. Top down leadership and blindly following one commanded perception can only end in failure as we have seen over and over.
Like the lifespan of oil, classical liberal methods of measurement and the continuous need for measurable profit and growth is coming to its peak. The ‘client’ and the ‘investor’ are not always right. The neo-conservative protected terms and processes of a failed bygone era, competition, individualism, efficiency, accountability and collaboration are waning in importance. And it has been clearly shown that education cannot be rationally and successfully guided by corporate institutional principles and practices. Education remains a highly social institution guided by social principles and practices. New measures are required, such as happiness, fulfillment, hopefulness, helpfulness, innovation and cooperation. They are the new buzz words in global education.