Helen – Secondary School Principal
Helen faced a different situation in some ways to John. She knew that there were requirements for secondary school graduation to meet State defined standards and the entry requirements of Universities and the Vocational tertiary education providers.
She was determined to create a teacher in-service opportunity where she would lead a seminar where the pre-reading would be:
· Best Careers for the Future 51 Jobs;
· The blog post, What Does a future With No Jobs Look Like;
· The Executive Briefing by McKinsey Global May 2017;
· Fullan Michael, “The nuance of academic achievement” Australian Educational Leader, Vol 41, Term 1, 2019, pp 8-10.
The purpose would be to inform the teaching team of her school and to attempt to draw out implications for implementing the Western Australian version of the Australian National Curriculum(WAANC). Her student population covered the school years 7 to 12. She knew she would have Leopards, Jaguars and Panthers. She had faith in classes being cross set for learning. She worried that in year 10 students would need to make a choice abut the path they would follow for university entrance, for entering the vocational education and job market stream or the general course stream for students who did not want to take up either of the other two pathways. This latter was like a middle option.
She had heeded the warning in the McKinsey, May 2017, Executive Briefing that “The disruptions to the world of work that digital technologies are likely to bring about could pose significant challenges to policy makers and business leaders, as well as workers.” She had taken note from this Briefing that education systems and learning needed to evolve “…for a changed workplace” and that “Policy makers working with education providers (traditional and nontraditional)”……had been advised that they “….could do more to improve basic STEM skills through the school systems, put a new emphasis on creativity as well as critical and systems thinking, and foster adaptive and life-long learning.”
During the mid 1980s she had been inspired by the education guru Michael Fullan as she valiantly tried to achieve a better understanding of how to bring about successful change in education. Lo and behold she had now come across the guru again in an article “The nuance of academic achievement” in the Australian Educational Leader, Vol 41, Term 1 2019, pp 8-10. Could this assist her introspection about how the WAANC might be implemented in her school in a context of a future partially predicted, but much of which was unknown.
Fullan’s central argument was that we had gone overboard in emphasising academic achievement and had paid scant attention to ‘connectedness’ or being ‘good at life’, wellbeing if you will. Fullan postulates that the two go together and if they are treated together academic achievement and connectedness will feed off each other and be achieved at a high level. Helen, like school Principals across Australia, had experience with the compulsory literacy and numeracy testing required annually by all years3,5,7 and 9 students. This was the NAPLAN system. Politicians at the federal government level seemed for many years to be obsessed with Australia’s poor ranking in literacy and numeracy and science with other OECD countries.
Fullan writes of ‘deep learning’ the key goal of which is to ‘engage the world, change the world’. Fullan writes”
“Our six core learning goals similarly encompass academic and connectedness goals through the 6Cs:character, citizenship, collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. The strong pedagogy of our four pillars of learning (partnerships, engaging pedagogy, stimulating learning environments, and leveraging digital), are also in the service of centring on both academic and wellbeing goals.” (p10)
Helen reflected how the McKinsey Briefing revealed elements that resonated in the context of what Fullan proposed:
“Educational systems have not kept pace with the changing nature of work, resulting in many employers saying they cannot find enough workers with the skills they need. In a McKinsey survey of young people and employers in nine countries, 40 percent of employers said lack of skills was the main reason for entry-level job vacancies. Sixty per cent said that new graduates were not adequately prepared for the world of work. There were gaps in technical skills such as STEM subject degrees but also in soft skills such as communication, teamwork, and punctuality.”
Helen was comforted as she reflected on the purposeful student, staff and parent wellbeing programs working effectively across her school community.
Helen wanted to implement the policy of mastery of basic skills and knowledge that were prerequisites for the next step in learning within key subject areas such as: English literacy, mathematical numeracy, digital and design technologies. It would be heads down and get the job done and all this within the context of the broader life understanding and participating subjects like the Humanities and the Arts, especially the performing Arts. She had a sense too that some study of ethics would be vital as students faced the exponential rate of change that now existed and would exist into the future. The Western Australian Curriculum (WAANC) for years 11 and 12 had a Philosophy and Ethics offering the difficulty would be to enable every student to partake of this.
The organisation for learning in secondary schools had traditionally been specialist subject teachers working each within their speciality with not much scope for integrated across-subject studies. Helen wanted to make some adjustments within this speciality regime, especially within the STEM fields as the evidence was mounting that practical integrated study with life applications was an effective approach. The challenge was whether within that structure the mastery principle could still be applied.
Helen reflected on a set of underlying principles and skills that must be evident across the learning program. In no particular order these were:
· Curiosity – utilising and encouraging this student trait;
· Enthusiasm – utilising and encouraging this in students and not just for school learning but for life in the wider sense;
· Critical thinking – developing in students a high level of skill in this vital area
· Lateral thinking – applauding and encouraging this.
· Collaboration and teamwork – this would be vital for detailed across-subject integrated practical studies – also there would need to be an awareness creating about the dangers of ‘group think’ and that there is a place for mavericks who think laterally;
· Creativity – fostering this at every opportunity;
· Adaptive and lifelong learning – developing this within each student;
· Communication – so vital for learning and living in general; educating about the dangers of the social media grabs and the power of social media for good and evil;
· Validity of information – building a caution to always want to prove the validity of each source of information, refusing to accept vague and unproven materials; primary and secondary sources are the specifics of this – the internet can carry a lot of false and invalid information;
· Digital excellence – digital literacy needed to be leveraged at all costs;
· Connectedness and being good at life;
· Ethical awareness – educating how this is an essential measure to be applied throughout life to all sorts of situations;
· Self awareness – being comfortable in one’s skin – being able to reach a position on the ultimate nature of reality such that one is comfortable and not continually troubled – suggesting that a base for such reality is the loving relationships that one has with close loved ones and friends – it’s also okay to be Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish; Christian, Muslim as long as one avoids fundamentalism to the extent that one wants, even insists, that all others to be like them – fostering the Australian way of a ‘fair go’ for all, and the Australian mateship that defines us as a people;
· Humour – develop and nurture a sense of humour in students.
Helen wanted desperately to have all her teachers identify positively with the above list with each ensuring that these principles are reflected in their teaching. This would be a major in-service commitment, a venture not to be hurried. She was not going to be a radical change agent who is seen to want to be rid of the values of the traditional specialist teaching approach rather she wants to adjust for more flexible learning organisational structures. She knows how thrilling it is to sit at the feet of an inspirational specialist teacher, a guru.
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I would relish the opportunity to be back as a school Principal educating my staff about the contexts for the future and how our curriculum implementation might take this into account.
May the Force be with all school Principals who have one of the most important jobs on this planet in whatever country they live.
GD
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