Thinking research Tomorrow’s Schools 20 years on... Edited by John Langley Tomorrow’s Schools 20 years on... Edited by John Langley Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 3 CHAPTER 1 Dr. John Langley 5 Introduction CHAPTER 2 Harvey McQueen 19 Towards a covenant CHAPTER 3 Wyatt Creech 29 Twenty years on CHAPTER 4 Howard Fancy 39 Re-engineering the shifts in the system CHAPTER 5 Elizabeth Eppel 51 Curriculum, teaching and learning: A celebratory review of a very complex and evolving landscape CHAPTER 6 Barbara Disley 63 Can we dare to think of a world without special education? CHAPTER 7 Terry Bates 79 National mission or mission improbable? CHAPTER 8 Brian Annan 91 Schooling improvement since Tomorrow’s Schools CHAPTER 9 Margaret Bendall 105 A leadership perspective Published by Cognition Institute, 2009. ISBN: 978-0-473-15955-9 CHAPTER 10 John Hattie 121 ©Cognition Institute, 2009. Tomorrow’s Schools - yesterday’s news: The quest for a new metaphor All rights reserved. No portion of this publication, printed or CHAPTER 11 Cathy Wylie 135 electronic, may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without Getting more from school self-management the express written consent of the publisher. For more information, email [email protected] CHAPTER 12 Phil Coogan and Derek Wenmoth 149 www.cognitioninstitute.org Tomorrow’s Web for our future learning 1 Acknowledgements The Cognition Education Research Trust (CERT) has a growing network of people and organisations participating in and contributing to the achievement of our philanthropic purposes. There are many who have enabled and contributed to this first thought leader publication on ‘Tomorrow’s Schools Twenty Years On’. They include: • The Cognition Education Limited Trustees: Stewart Germann, Keith Goodall, Chris Morton, John Hattie, Carol Moffat, Ian Cordes and John Langley • The CERT Trustees: Stewart Germann, Keith Goodall , Wyatt Creech, Russell Bishop, Janet Kelly, Margaret Bendall, Nola Hambleton, John Langley and Terry Bates • Members of the International Congress of School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI), and in particular Louise Stoll, Tony Mackay, Lorna Earl, and Jenny Lewis • Paul Goren of the Spencer Foundation in the United States of America • Fulbright (NZ) and in particular Mele Wendt, Val Leach and Martin Boswell • The authors of each of the essays: ä John Langley ä Wyatt Creech ä Howard Fancy ä Elizabeth Eppel ä Barbara Disley ä Brian Annan ä John Hattie ä Cathy Wylie ä Margaret Bendall ä Terry Bates ä Derek Wenmoth ä Phil Coogan • Editor of the publication, Anne Else, and proof-reader Margot Schwass • Publishing and design: Martin Fowler and Roxanne de Bruyn from Cognition Education, and Maria Dounaeva from Phil O’Reilly Design. • Members of the Cognition Education Team: Nicola Meek, Jonathon Beveridge, Chris Sullivan, Lana Goodwin, Fiona McQuatt, Adelle Hendersen, Ian Cordes, Sarah Petersen and Lisa Gin. CERT is indebted to you all and respectfully asks that you view this acknowledgement as an indication of the high value we give to your participation and contribution to CERT’s intent and purpose. As the Executive Trustee, I hope that your involvement will continue into, and long beyond, the establishment of the Cognition Institute. Thank you. Mary Sinclair Executive Trustee Cognition Education Research Trust 2 3 Chapter 1 Introduction Dr John Langley ONZM New Zealand has a Every so often I am asked to do something that is an long and established tradition absolute pleasure, and introducing this collection of essays on of social initiatives seeking to Tomorrow’s Schools and their outcomes is one such task. This enhance the social wellbeing is because the contributors understand that education is about of its citizens. An essential the lives and aspirations of individuals and communities, and part of these initiatives was an how they view themselves and their places in our world. The emphasis on the importance of events outlined and commented on in these essays marked a education. juncture in the history of education in New Zealand that will resonate for decades to come; but as these authors know, the ideological arguments that continue to swirl around them are irrelevant when viewed against a background of the hopes and aspirations of our fellow citizens. If we are to believe in the importance of education as a means of enhancing the lives of individuals, communities, countries and civil society, then the way in which we conceptualise, implement, analyse and organise education must be seen as a matter of great importance. In the end, though, it really comes down to one thing – the impact education has on individuals, and, as a result, how those individuals function as human beings and how they function in relation to those around them. This can include a myriad of complex behaviours, from increasing simple knowledge and skills to how we view others and, in turn, how we come to see the world and our place in it. Outside family life, no institution has a more significant impact on the shaping of our societies and world than our education system. Too often in recent years, education and its goals have been described in purely functional and economic terms. How Dr John Langley ONZM often do we hear catch cries about ‘globalisation’, ‘generating a Chief Executive Officer knowledge economy’, or ‘catching the knowledge wave’? Cognition Education 4 5 All of this seems to imply that the major role education plays Background to the reforms in our society is simply to increase knowledge and skills in certain areas, so that the recipients can go forth and produce. New Zealand has a long and established tradition of social This has tended to be the basis of the policy frameworks of initiatives seeking to enhance the social wellbeing of its successive governments. It is not only conceptually wanting, it citizens.2 An essential part of these initiatives was an emphasis is also boring. on the importance of education. The educational structures built up from the 1930s consisted of district governance with The truth is that, along with our whanau, education plays the central regulation and funding in order to ensure, as far as major role in sustaining, understanding, changing and renewing was possible, that the system promoted fairness and equal our communities and lives. To see it as having any less opportunity.3 Within this dominant, central bureaucratic influence than that is simply to misunderstand both its power structure, teachers were part of a large public service and its impact. organisation, with human resource policies and procedures More than anything else, it is education that sustains and controlled by central government or its local agencies. improves our democratic way of life. Democratic states have many goals, but three are common to all: freedom to lead our The fact that by the 1980s, the education system was overly The truth is that, lives unfettered by repression and persecution; prosperity, in bureaucratic, top-heavy, bound by regulation and in sore need along with our whanau, order that our citizens may lead dignified material lives; and of reform was clear to most of those who worked within it and education plays the major role social justice, in order for prosperity to be spread equitably dealt with it.4 Many also argued that the education system did in sustaining, understanding, and all citizens to be treated in a fair and even-handed way by not involve communities of interest to the extent necessary changing and renewing our the laws and conventions of our society. None of these three for effective delivery, and hence was slow to respond to the communities and lives. To key ‘legs of the democratic stool’ can be attained without an changing needs of a modern, dynamic society and economy. see it as having any less effective education system. influence than that is simply to Towards the middle of the 1980s, three key forces began to misunderstand both its power The essayists featured in this publication not only understand emerge with regard to the education system: and its impact. the true importance of education, they also understand the nature and importance of reform processes in education and, in • There was frustration at the local level that the system the case of the Tomorrow’s Schools reforms, the very real shifts was too centralised, too slow to respond to the needs of and changes that were made. Most importantly, all grasp the children and communities, and too constraining. Freedom essential question to ask, in order to determine whether any from these constraints was sought.5 reform is successful: has it made a real difference to teaching and learning, and how do we know? • A number of influential stakeholders supported government’s view that teachers and schools were not As all the authors here acknowledge, the administrative sufficiently accountable for what they did, and that the changes of Tomorrow’s Schools were long overdue. The Picot level of performance of many in the sector needed to be Report1 targeted organisation and administration. It assumed lifted.6 The limited and indirect involvement of parents that by getting these into better order, the benefits would ‘trickle down’ into more effective teaching and better learning. and communities was often confined to fundraising-type However, it could be argued that we started at the wrong end. activities through parent-teacher associations. 6 7 • New Zealand was undergoing a period of radical Agency Specific Role/Responsibility economic reforms in the private and public sectors. The Labour Government elected in 1984 had set about Ministry of Education (MoE) 1. Policy advice to Minister of Education reforming the economic and political landscape in a way 2. Allocation of funding that had not occurred since the reforms instituted by their New Zealand Qualifications Quality assurance and qualifications first counterparts in 1935.