We need a policy!

Is the first step to genuine systemic change

Last week I talked about the need for changing the nature of the teacher-student relationship for the 60% of educators who are disengaged from their work, and that the nature of the change is to step back and allow the development of student autonomy.

The effort to achieve this new level of self-management develops the capacity for perspectival knowing.  I have described various aspects of this form of knowing here, here, here and here and why it is a necessary component of twenty-first-century skills.

This leads naturally to posing the question: how do we develop greater levels of self-management in educators – which means them engaging - when they are already disengaged from their work?

The first answer is a policy one.  We need to make the development of student autonomy a recognised good that the system produces (along with traditional knowledge and skills) and then lay out how autonomy is supported by educators and provide the professional development to ensure that these capabilities are progressively more in place.

Positioning this first as a policy decision signals to anyone who wants to become a teacher that the capability to support student autonomy, and the need to work on the self-management required to do this are parts of normal teacher practice.  In other words, the practice of engaging fully is part of the practice.

When policy is clear, teacher training organisations can then provide opportunities for aspiring teachers to begin their development in this new domain.

Ensuring full engagement of all staff in their work seems like a worthwhile goal for systems to work towards.

Next week I will discuss what can be done in-school.

 Click here to sign up for a 60-minute Q&A via Zoom on 29th October: Curriculum, Pedagogy … and Behaviour?  You can still download a pdf version of Why We Teach here.

John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation. At the core of this work is the practice of encounter.  Earlier blogs can be found here.

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