Future of Teaching Profession - Education International

Education International Research Institute

Faculty of Education

Future of Teaching Profession

John MacBeath

2012

Education International Research Institute

Faculty of Education

FUTURE OF TEACHING PROFESSION

Professor John MacBeath

Professor Emeritus, University of Cambridge - 2012-

LEADERSHIP for LEARNING The Cambridge Network

FUTURE

OF

TEACHING

PROFESSION

FOREWORD

"Teaching is a profession that lies at the heart of both the learning of children and young people and their social , cultural and economic development. It is crucial to transmitting and implanting social values, such as democracy equality, tolerance cultural understanding, and respect for each person's fundamental freedoms."

("Building the Future Through Quality Education." Policy Paper on Education adopted unanimously at the 6th Education International World Congress 2011.)

At its 2011 World Congress in South Africa Education the largest Global Union Federation in the world, Education International agreed to a ground breaking policy for the future of the teaching profession. Representing thirty million teaching and education staff, Education International decided that it was vital to develop a comprehensive programme which reflected both the evidence about how to achieve high quality education and coherent policy proposals for the teaching profession. All who took part in the debate in South Africa agreed that EI's policy paper provided the right framework but its strength was that it was a "work in progress". EI's development of its teacher policies needed to draw on the latest evidence.

As part of this process EI's Research Board decided to commission Professor John MacBeath Emeritus Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge to carry out a review of the available evidence on the relationship of the teaching profession to societies and governments globally. He was asked to reflect on possible next steps governments, communities and the teaching profession itself could take to enhance the learning, efficacy and status of teachers. It was an extraordinary and Herculean task, and Education International is profoundly grateful to John for producing such a powerful and coherent study.

The study contains profound insights into the nature of teacher professionalism. It explores an enormous range of research on education policies which turn teachers into "satisfiers" or "disatisfiers". Debates on the policy directions in education in the past decade have been increasingly focusing on learning outcomes and effectiveness indicators in search of the "hidden truth" or the "holy grail" of what makes an effective school. While effectiveness and efficiency have become the "call-of-the-day" not only in education, but in other public sectors, too often attempts to capture what defines student achievement and teachers' contributions to it, have often been narrow, one-sided and limited, leading to distorted policies affecting the efficacy and morale of teachers.

3 Drawing on the evidence on what it means to be a teacher in the 21st century this

study begins with an analysis of the current situation in differing countries of the world.

EDUCATION INTERNATIONAL

It examines the policies which frame teachers' work and the underpinning assumptions on which those policies rest. It illustrates how policy has been shaping the nature of practice, often with effects that limit teachers' professional judgment and which may, in the process, constrain student achievement. Most importantly, drawing on the evidence from international research and fact-finding this study offers alternative propositions for system redesign, illustrating these with vignettes of breakthrough practice from around the world, drawing out the key principles that characterize such practice. The world, despite globalization, is still very diverse also in terms of education and teachers, their issues and priorities. Given the enormous body of practice and knowledge available, a body which is constantly changing and evolving, like EI's Education Policy, this study can only be a work in progress; a work which reflects the impact on school communities of education policies and systems. Primarily, this is a profoundly practical study, there to support teachers and their organisations in their arguments to place the voice of teachers centre stage in the arguments around shaping the teaching profession in the 21 century. For EI the study will be profoundly important in carrying forward its dialogue with global partners such as OECD. The jointly sponsored seminar in February 2012 with Cambridge University, OECD, Education International and the Open Society Foundation on the Future of the Teaching Profession with this paper providing the template for debate is evidence of EI's determination to open up the debate globally on this issue. The reasons for this are self-evident. The future happiness and success of children and young people and of the societies in which they live depend on schools and the teachers and staff within them.

Fred van Leeuwen General Secretary

4

FUTURE

OF

TEACHING

PROFESSION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 - To be a teacher ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Schools are better places for everyone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 A sense of identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Who wants to be a teacher? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Satisfiers and dissatisfiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Becoming a professional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Chapter 2 - Understanding and addressing the dissatisfiers . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Policy, school and social context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Five key factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Reciprocity and returns on investment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Chapter 3 - From magnificent myth to the rise of school effectiveness . . 38

Remember when . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Efficiency and effectiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Inside the black box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Effective for whom and effective for what? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 The peer effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Learning in captivity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Measuring what we value: wellbeing and a sense of self . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 A theory of learning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Chapter 4 - Getting a measure of teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Evaluation ? effective, fair and reliable? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 In search of an effective `science' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Accounting for the out-of-school effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 The accountability paradox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Five cautions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 The Enlightened Eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 An ecological perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 School self-evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Inspection and external review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Questions of voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Chapter 5 - Stories of change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Expectations, challenges and processes of change. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Do schools have a future? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 The probable and the desirable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Three horizons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Four quadrants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 An alternative scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Challenging the `fossilised' curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Schools as anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Open spaces: beyond curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Chapter 6 - Changing minds: towards a professional future . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Being and becoming a `professional'. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Changing minds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Where the water meets the ice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Room to grow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Looking in the wrong places. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Turning the tables on targets and testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Maps and map makers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Between the rock and the whirlpool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

5

Making the connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

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