I'm a constructive discontent. My friends have accused me of wearing the 'black hat' too often.
Schooling was designed with deliberate intent. To sort children for a contribution to an industrial world. The brightest to be offered higher levels of education so to be captains of industry, and to lead the church or military. The discarded, those who didn't 'make the grade' were destined to work in the mines, field and factories.
Six years after leaving school, during which time i worked in finance, I received a Diploma of Teaching and three years further on I added a Bachelor of Education degree. Any redemption for my learning inadequacies wasn't felt. There was still a shame attached to my school results and a drive to prove 'them' wrong.
There is another thread to my schooling story that also reduced my confidence. The transition from a small primary school where I knew many of the students as friends, to what was at the time the largest secondary school in Queensland, was difficult.
I am an introvert and, like many I suspect, have felt the insecurities that come with not being seen, and the debilitation of the imposter syndrome.
My Dad passed away recently. He slowly declined over years with the cruel theft Parkinson's Disease inflicts on the body. It was a devastating decline for a sportsman and journalist. In life Dad was a gentleman and a gentle man and to a large extent risk adverse. I felt his dreams were not realised and aspirations not met. I wonder what his contribution might have been.
I have been challenged to go deeper as I reflect on what may have contributed to me inhibiting my full creative potential. I have attempted to prove myself through career promotions and collecting qualifications. But what still persists is a feeling my potential is yet to be fully released, and my dent in the universe is still to be made.
Schooling is a social construct and the often described lack of change to how schools have been constructed and operate can be attributed to our collective understanding of what schools 'look like'.
In 1903 the first powered flight took place in Kitty Hawk, a small town in the United States. The Orville and Wilbur Wright story is folklore, and the story of flight illustrates human capacity to innovate. Within four decades of that first flight advances had enabled the production of the powerful, 700 km per hour, highly manoeuvrable P-51 Mustang fighter. It was an amazing and beautiful piece of human engineering.
Many years ago I was offered the opportunity to contribute to a new innovative teacher education program
I find being perfectly clear about one's purpose is no simple a task. My childhood dream was to be an architect. I didn't get accepted in the first round offers and accepted a university place in business. Before finishing I had a job in finance and it was a couple of years later I returned to university to prepare for teaching.
When I talk about an ‘aligning of the planets’ I’m referring to that rare occasion in which a number of factors, perhaps seemingly unrelated, support a particular outcome. Securing a new position created by the Queensland Association of State School Principals (QASSP) was such aligning of the planets for me. The new position brought together my passion for learning, my experience as a principal, my business experience and qualifications, nearly four years in the tertiary sector and a love of design. I believed this new role was made for me.
What I find great meaning in is being in the service of others, and in particular of their learning, and especially when that learning is collective.
Introverted as I am, I've always enjoyed leading others to experience learning. Discovering things, and then sharing that discovery, is a joy to me. An example, and fond memory of mine from my past, is taking groups on night walks in the tropical rainforests of North Queensland, getting everyone to turn torches off, and listening to the responses of wonderment and awe as eyes adjusted and the luminescent fungi dominated the forest floor.
Learning Generosity is a willingness to facilitate a colleague's professional curiosity. It is to say ‘yes’ to a request for information, knowledge, to share. It does means taking a risk, to be vulnerable, because opening a school to outsiders has the potential for assessment, evaluation and judgement.
(now NOIIE) In early 2016 a fortuitous meeting occurred at Queensland’s Noosa Heads. Learning First had just released the report Beyond PD: Professional Learning in High Performing Systems (Jensen, Sonnemann, Roberts-Hull & Hunter, 2016). This report had identified British Columbia as the highest performing English speaking jurisdiction in the PISA rakings (first for reading, second for mathematics and third for science, above the Canadian average and well ahead of Australia) and had attributed this high performance to the collaboration and professional learning app
The 2017 QASSP International Study Tour that travelled to British Columbia to learn more about NOII highlighted the similarities between the province and my state of Queensland. Similar populations, socio economic circumstances, colonial past impacting first nations people… the ah ha moment came when considering the motivation for improvement. The ah ha moment for me came when considering the motivation for the improvement in British Columbia. The Networks of Inquiry and Innovation were self-organizing, independent and unfunded groups of educators across
This was another fortuitous meeting for me. This one occured in April 2019 in Dayton, Oregon. I had organised QASSP's third study tour to the USA to investigate the impact of technology on education. The tour had visited Apple Park, the ALT School and Stanford University, and was to visit the University of Oregon, and Microsoft and Amazon in Seattle.
Following the success for the 2019 QASSP Study Tour, and the wonderings about what was experienced in Dayton, the 2020 Study Tour was to investigate how schooling systems were responding to a changing world, investigating collaboration, agile, inquiry and design thinking. We had planned to have Thompson Morrison and Jami Fluke meet the group in San Francisco.
Designed inGenuity (DiG) is a ‘Learning framework for the creative mind’. It’s an approach that emerged from Thompson and Jami’s partnership, and the classroom of a teacher named Jenni Shilhanek. Granted the permission to experiment, Jenni developed what was then called The Dayton Practice: fast, iterative learning cycles that help students find the purpose and meaning that exponentially accelerate the rate of their learning.
Psychological safety is an important factor in team performance. Its how members of the group feel about their contribution to the group without fear of damage to their self image, status or career. That is is safe to take risks giving individuals the courage and confidence to act.
What have I learned from opening Multiple Windows into what's happening out of sight over the last few years, and especially from the windows opened on study tours? There are some key learnings for me and the most obvious is schooling is not the same as schooling.
Schooling was designed for sorting children to meet the needs of an industrial society. It has been evaluated by measuring a narrow range of outcomes, be that students, or schools, by measurement and rankings. The international movement to improve schooling basically underpinned by economic drivers, is focused on application of particular strategies, often decided upon at a policy or system level. It requires convergence on a particular outcome and my experience is this places principals and teachers in an environment of control and compliance.
As discussed earlier British Columbia is a high performing system. One of the features of this system is the existence of a voluntary network of educators with a clear purpose. The networks use a 'spiral of inquiry' in a drive to understand an identified issue and improve learning and life outcomes for their students. It is an iterative process of checking, scanning, focusing, developing a hunch, learning and taking action.
The macro level in education is where politicians play, and where bureaucrats set policy and funding methodology. It is the place where standardised testing, improvement initiatives, system comparisons have become important, and therefore where the performance of principals and teachers is considered. The macro in our education systems is largely about control, compliance and setting direction. Its born of an industrial worldview. By its DNA it overlooks the potential in the middle levels of the education system to actually deliver the learning because o
I am reluctant to promote a new leadership model. When I walk through the isles of 'Leadership and Management' in the local book store the panacea for 'better' leadership are abundant. In education also there are many to consider: Instructional Leadership, Imperfect Leadership, Participatory Leadership, Student-Centered Leadership, Fierce Leadership, servant Leadership...
Its no longer what you know that is important, its how fast you learn with others that will make the difference in our world. The outdated belief we can engineer an outcome, take a top down, directive approach, is no longer the way forward. It may have severed us well but we are no longer in the industrial age. The world has changed and the evidence is clear that its not improving outcomes for students, not in a way that warrants the level of investment of human and financial capital.
The power of story telling is evident throughout human history. Human beings are literally hardwired for narratives. For millennia, stories have bound communities, transferred traditions and built culture.
Picasso said the path to youth takes a lifetime. I've found my youth, and with a wisdom that is building confidence. This newfound courage at this stage of life's journey delights me. It's the rediscovery of the Beginners Mind, a liberation that has come with rediscovering the joy of being a learner rather than striving to be a knower, of being surprised and delighted by great ideas when good ideas collide. When learning comes alive.