Last week,Scot McLeod finally published the articlehe’s “always wanted to write.” In an open letter to educational leadership professors across the United States, he raised several issues and posed a variety of important question to the field. Namely:
- Our world is changing quickly.
- These changes dramatically impact learning.
- Schools have largely failed to respond to these overarching societal changes.
- This failure to quickly respond is dramatically damaging our profession.
- We, as educational leadership [and by extension,allwithin the profession], must do better.
I agree completely with Dr. McLeod andhave also said these things before. I think his article was very well researched and will play an important role in motivating many within the field toward a more intentional focus on contemporary needs and skills - while highlighting the role teachers and their behaviors play on influencing and preparing those that enter the profession. Because his article was published in a printed journal, I also think it has the potential of reaching a population of stubborn professors who may not have yet heard this message before.
Many, nevertheless, have heard this message - on a number of different occasions - and I believe the time to move beyond mere motivation has clearly come. Until we strategically attack each ofthe barriers that hold so many back, we will continue to move slowly, our schools will continue in (relative) irrelevance, and the faces of many-an-ISTE-goer will proceed through every shade of blue imaginable while singing this same sad tune. Additionally, I think some cultural circles will simply never adopt technology as a primary tool for instruction.
To be clear, I think looking to the knowledge gained in other fields, at this time, can drastically help ours as we continue to battle the sociocultural and other issues that obviously plague our population. Just as Dr. McLeod has called on his peers to clue in on "the largest transformation in learning that ever has occurred in human history," I call on these same peers and others to:
- Consider carefullyEverett Rogers' five intrinsic characteristicsof innovations that influence an individual's decision to adopt or reject an innovation. Is the technology we're expecting teachers to embrace during instruction adequately compatible with the curriculum they're expected to teach and the learning environments they're required to inhabit? If not, then what needs to change, and how? Is the technology's trialability sufficient and are teachers able tograciously learn from their mistakes? If not, then why are we really pushing so hard?
- Contemplate diligently the role ofsociocultural evolutionismand its parallels to the changes we hope take place in schools.Definedas "the creation and change of social roles through new knowledge that changes and creates social rules," sociocultural evolution "alters and enlarges a society in the two dimensions of social structure and culture." In other words, with new socialrules(i.e., we must change our traditional pedagogical practices in order to better prepare students), which essential socialrolesmight schools be lacking, such that more members of traditional education cultures will more easily evolve? Surely these roles must consist of more than mere motivators. (A combination of Break-fix and Ed-Tech support roles have begun to work very well in our new District!)
- Accept that in many areas of curricular focus, technology simply isn't the best avenue for providing beneficial instruction.Trust me:therearemany.
- Alternatively, explore the viability of punctuated equilibrium in the evolution of school cultures. While I remain unconvinced that our society is headed toward anintellectual event horizon (beyond which the future becomes impossible to comprehend), I do think that the cultural evolution in schools also exhibits a type ofpunctuated equilibrium. Is it not plausible that after a lengthy period of evolutionary stasis (i.e., the last hundred years), we'll eventually experience a dramatic and rapid shift? Are we not currently in the midst of thatshift? Moreover, if this be the case, is there really anything that can be done to prevent these phenomenal transformations fromeventually taking place? If not, then why are we still trying so hard tomakepeople change?
Sometimes I think we work too hard to push (force?) those along who will eventually - and very naturally - be left behind. Sometimes I also think that if we're really serious about making change happen more quickly in our schools, then we need to do a better job of understanding and helping the culture within these schools to change. Change a culture, and you've changed the future; for better or for worse.
- Why do you think change happens so slowly in education?
- Which barriers to change might we most easily overcome?
- Ultimately, what does it take to transform a culture – and is it even feasible on this scale and at this magnitude?
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Continue the conversation with Dr. Draper onTwitteror on hisblog. Let's learn together!
