Kia ora e te whānau

Do you experience a sense of powerlessness about how education works—how the system is organised and resourced; and what the system pays attention to? Do you feel that no matter how hard you rail against current reality change will never occur?

If you do, then reject that supposition. Change is possible!

Top of my list is to reclaim teaching and learning from those that seek to organise and control it as if they were running a production line in a factory. You know - inputs and outputs, all measurable and linear.

Every experience I have had over 30 years working with young people tells me that teaching and learning is beautifully complex—that humans defy categorisation and control.

That was why I was so incensed by National Standards. I was appalled that such a simplistic and stolid structure was applied to humans to categorise, control and ultimately judge achievement.

It was the worst example of the tail wagging the dog. Children’s learning subjugated to politics. Never again.

Let’s be clear—we are exiting the age of a technicised cognitive culture, but we still see the scattered remnants of this culture in our schools.

Ideas like:

Acceleration that emphasises vertical gain in learning as if vertical gain is a virtue. How about horizontal breadth and depth? Acceleration is a hangover of the march to see every student ‘at’ or ‘above’ standard. We may have removed the terms ‘at’ or ‘above’, but the idea of ‘standard’ remains. It is just expressed in a different language. The frenetic pace at which teachers are now asked to work is wrong.  It is damaging the patience required to engage students in deep learning and thoughtful reflection.

The continued emphasis on reading, writing and mathematics to the detriment of other curricula. No-one argues that these three aren’t important. In an age when capability in multiple learning domains can create extraordinary futures, we still want to squeeze students into this straitjacket. Reading, writing and mathematics are part of the educational journey for students and so are all the other learning areas. So, let’s pay other curricula their due.

The dominance of hard data expressed in quantitative terms as a measure of school quality and educational success. Let’s stop the nonsense in our charters and Kāhui Ako achievement challenges that show deference to data goals as the ‘only’ true measures of progress and achievement. What utter nonsense!

The almost complete decimation of the arts in our schools—particularly dance, drama and music. These curricula can’t be easily measured in quantitative terms and nor should they. They express the essence of being human. Their demise is ironic in an age when we want young people better connected to humanity. The arts have fallen out of favour in our technicised culture—more emphasis is now given to coding than it is to dancing.

Let’s search out the remnants of this technicised culture in our schools and eradicate it! Let’s grow schools that embrace broad, creative and innovative approaches to teaching, learning and assessment. Simplistic, system led, top down ideas will never improve achievement. It is principals and teachers exercising professional freedom to implement ideas that work for different learners that will ultimately best serve young people.

The job of ERO and the Ministry of Education is to remove barriers to serving young people and to actively build relational trust. These must be clear, unequivocal goals. The damage to professional trust and confidence has been immense and only by ditching ‘big brother’ dogma and accountability regimes will we achieve professional renaissance.

I am determined that we will regain our rightful role as pedagogical leaders in our schools and communities. Professor Thomas Sergiovanni calls us to ‘moral’ leadership. This is leadership of practice that deep down you know is right. It is leadership by the profession not by political imperative or by bureaucrats.

Let’s get cracking. Be brave. Let the renaissance begin!

COVID-19
Please note the excellent advice received from the Secretary of Education regarding COVID-19 through the Ministry Bulletin for Sector Leaders and Special Bulletin as circumstances dictate. We play a critical role in building confidence in our communities that we have appropriate procedures in place and will act in accordance with the advice we receive.

Principals’ Advice and Support Scheme (PASL)
Do you know about PASL? About half of all principals in New Zealand belong to the scheme. You can subscribe to the Principals’ Advice and Support Scheme, which offers principals - who are members of NZPF - up to $25,000 in legal fees and a legal hotline should it be required. We recommend the scheme to members. Do follow this link to learn more.

NZPF 2020 Subscriptions
Please note that the 2020 subscription has been emailed to principals not to office staff. If you haven’t received your 2020 subscription notice then please contact NZPF and we will arrange to get another notice to you. My thanks to all of you who have paid your subs so promptly.

Ngā manaakitanga

Perry Rush
perry@nzpf.ac.nz