A New "Vision" for Teaching

Meaningful and sustainable education reform cannot be just a new way of doing; it has to be a new way of seeing that leads to new ways of doing.

It seems well understood amongst teachers that reform initiatives are too often something akin to fashion: quickly admired, and just as quickly replaced, season after season.  

When I began teaching, my veteran colleagues were eager to share their understanding of this cycle.  While sitting with me at “trainings,” seasoned, somewhat weary souls would say things like: “Its just the next new thing,” or “______ is the same as _______ that they pushed ten years ago,” or “same trick, different package.”  I certainly heard these words as somewhat cynical and defeating, as they, indeed, were.  I mean, I was just starting my career, full of idealism and creative energy.  This is a great gig!  Let’s get on the boat, people!

Of course, it’s true, as I’ve learned while, year by year, I have become a seasoned veteran myself.  More often than not, new initiatives are rolled out with a great deal of enthusiasm from district central planners and state lawmakers and committees; bought and sold, pre-packaged and over-hyped, they come as the next great “research-based” program to teach reading, or the activity that will powerfully promote college aspiration.

Now, I have to be careful here, lest I let cynicism betray me as well.  This cycle I’m describing, somewhat stereotyped for purposes of inquiry and discussion, is certainly well-intentioned, and odds are, occasionally effective. So its important to keep this in mind: good work is always happening somewhere.  However, my sense is that these mostly ineffective “runway-reforms” are the result of years of institutional habit and routine, and has something more to do with the way companies market to states and districts, how these pitches are evaluated (or not), how districts hire teachers to become trainers, as well as the demands on teachers and how their time is scheduled, rather than a collective professional understanding of best practices. 

And in the end, these efforts tend to focus on new or recycled ways of doing.  I think this is a mistake.

In my view, real educational reform -- efforts that are truly transformative for systems, classrooms and students -- cannot be just a new way of doing.  It must be a new way of seeing that leads to new ways of doing.

Karl Rahner, the well-known German theologian, writes about “the inadequacy of everything attainable.”  He was talking about things religious and spiritual, to be sure, but I find that this notion resonates profoundly when applied to the classroom.  We must know (don’t we?) that our practices (teaching) as presently applied according to current industry standards only scratch the surface of human development (learning).  I sense a great hunger amongst us that longs to dig deeper and be more honest about what we know and, more importantly, what we don’t know.  

To this end, what if our entire profession entered into a sort of “study period” for a defined length of time? (A year?  Maybe two?)  While continuing to teach as we know how to, we put an exceptional amount of individual and collaborative time into watching, listening, reading, and discussing.  All professional development during this time would go towards learning how to watch, listen, read, and discuss.  We would learn to be researchers of our kids and our practices, and rigorously inquisitive about the mysterious depths of teaching and learning.  We would adopt a stance of “what does this all mean?” rather than “this is the way.”  We would live the questions before answering.  Imagine the deep, rich conversations that would arise.  I want to be a part of those conversations!

I think this move could have two important effects.  First, maybe adopting such an open and curious stance would, in and of itself, improve teaching and learning in significant and surprising ways.  Whatever the methodology, our approach to kids would be more inclusive and aware.  Maybe we would learn that attitude has, indeed, a greater positive effect for kids than just methodology alone.  

Second, the vision of our work having been transformed from all we’d seen and wondered about and concluded, we could develop (adopt, revise, create) the methodologies our profession and our country craves.  And maybe these would be meaningful and sustainable instead of merely fashionable.