Change is a word often used towards school. Whether it’s a shift in the method, ideology, direction, technology – the last decade has created a perpetual twilight for change. Tommorrow, things will be better – if only we can overcome some barriers.
The barriers to change are at best vague and at worst driven by individual or group dislike, distrust or disagreement with other individuals or groups. The last decade has been one in which false binaries, myths and downright lies have been created, shared and re-tweeted in pursuit of this change. But do people really want change? I tend to think they like the idea of it, in the same way we might like a better car or to feel more at ease with the huge societal and cultural changes going on. Fake new, radical pedagogy – whatever the buzz-of-the-day we can rely on someone talking about change.
Is education really as bad as we’re told? Are the opportunities as amazing as some claim – and why, if you don’t agree are you immediately labelled negative or a non-team player? I was brought up to ask questions and not to blindly agree. I don’t agree that education is rubbish or that schools kill creativity. I also don’t agree with brands provoking change as their incarnation of ‘better futures’ without a scrap of real evidence – because we all have rights and unlike children, our digital rights are deeply wrapped up in corporate spreadsheets and dubious tracking of our every move.
The worst thing about change is that people who are a) not in the classroom b) not actually teachers and c) have no academic relationships with students are driving the ‘change bus’ – and alsmost always present what teacher do from a deficit position. We know all adults know what schools are like – as they all went to one. We also know parents want the best for their kids and bombarded with ‘death of childhood’ and ‘decay of youth’ messages in the media. But what exactly do they want to change? Do they want brands to change education or do they want education to change brands?
I like to think the latter. The idea of living in a technologically deterministic society where machine learning and A.I. drives what children learn is very scary to me. I don’t think ‘most’ people want this either – but it enables the perpetual twilight where we flirt with technologies, identity and digital cultures which we IMAGINE are ‘good’ for us (and kids) when in fact the change never happens. Just like a gambler loses track of time in a casino because of their design – so we find ourselves in EdTech. Change is the vital element needed to sell products but is yet to demonstrate it improves learning or the lives of students. But if you want to be a thought-leader or get yourself a happy-clappy fanbase on social media – you gotta push the change-cart and tow the line.
Or not.
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