Transforming Education

Reimagining Learning, Pedagogy and Curriculum

Miranda Jefferson, Michael Anderson

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781350130098
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teacher Training

Working away from trends in government policy, this book takes a future-oriented re-imagining of schools with a focus on four innate human capacities: collaboration, critical reflection, communication and creativity. Miranda Jefferson and Michael Anderson draw together examples of practice from around the world to provide a reimagining of education. They show how our schools can be sustainably transformed to be places of support, challenge and joy in learning, responsive to students' needs and the needs in our workplaces and wider society. Readers are empowered to use knowledge and experience to create the reality they would like to see in their school, building engaged, innovative and active learning, pedagogy curriculum and leadership. Key ideas are summarised at the end of each chapter along with an extensive referencing and bibliography, and a supporting glossary.

1

Transforming education for the infinite game

A thought experiment… Transforming Education

Who is this book for?

Finite and infinite games

Developing infinite education

Transforming Education

What is successful transformation?

What are coherence makers?

The 4Cs enable transformation

Transforming schools

A thought experiment… Transforming Education

If you could reimagine the education system from the ground up what might that look like? Could we:

•imagine deep learning enabled by creativity, critical reflection, communication and collaboration?

•imagine values that drive and guide deeper transformative learning?

•imagine coherent learning that builds agency through intrapersonal, interpersonal and cognitive dispositions for lifelong learning?

•imagine an agile curriculum that connects learners to their world?

•imagine pedagogy that is broad, deep and contextually developed and fosters agency for students and teachers?

•imagine teacher education that is sustained and focused on each teacher’s needs and context through reflection, experience and inquiry?

•imagine leadership as collaborative and creative?

This ‘imagination experiment’ helps us to understand our priorities and consider what features of education go to the heart of the reason for education. Imagination gives us the power to aspire to something beyond what we have at the moment, to think creatively about what schooling could be. Our ability to reimagine what schools and education can be is the first step in making the changes required to ensure our community has the education system it needs to face the challenges of the present and the future. This book is a work of educational imagination with a twist. Transforming Education: Reimagining Learning, Pedagogy and Curriculum responds to these imaginings but explores how we move from imagining to reimagining to reality. The twist is, unlike this imagination experiment, it is not possible to begin from a blank sheet of paper. We can’t magically uninvent centuries of education practice and policy. The complexity of education has long been bemoaned, discussed and sometimes used as an excuse not to change anything. We want to consider how we might reimagine and transform education given the existing resources and challenges.¹

In 2017 we wrote Transforming Schools, where we laid out our blueprint for transforming schools based on our experience with schools over decades. Since that book we have generated long-term partnerships with more than fifty schools on creating sustainable transformation through an organization we formed called 4C Transformative Learning.² In 2019 when we wrote Transforming Organizations, we took our understanding of transformation in places of learning (such as early learning centres, schools and universities) and applied it to organizational contexts. Our approach is focused on learning not training, agency not hierarchies and inquiry not transmission.

In this book, Transforming Education, our ambition has broadened. How do we imagine an ecosystem of education that meets the needs of our citizens and our community in uncertain times? Instead of considering education in its component parts, our work here considers the transformation of education through building capabilities in our students, teachers and school communities. Our research and experience have taught us that by communicating across, between and over silos in education (including age, stage, culture, space and modality), we enrich rather than constrain discussions. Context is critical (and we have more to say about that), but there are key features of a reimagined education system that connect everyone interested in deep and authentic learning throughout education.

Who is this book for?

In a book called Transforming Education, you can expect a substantial discussion of what needs to change in education. Up front we want to acknowledge that teachers, school leaders and students have been involved in the transformation of education over many years. We are not suggesting here that deep learning and transformative pedagogy is nowhere to be seen. On the contrary, we could only write a book like this if these practices were evident. We have referred throughout this book to examples of practice around the world that evidence this. Our aim in this book is to provide examples from this practice, academic research and our own work as an insight into the how of transformation. In that sense this book is the third of a trilogy. If you would like to learn more about the why and the centrality of the 4Cs – creativity, critical reflection, communication and collaboration – Transforming Schools is a good place to start. If you would like to understand how educational transformation might enrich organizations and leadership inside and outside education, the second in the trilogy, Transforming Organizations, might serve as an introduction. This book is for those who are convinced that the 4Cs are critical for learning and are ready to be challenged. It is for those who are up for the challenge of reimagining the capabilities for transformation in education including:

•values,

•learning,

•pedagogy,

•curriculum,

•teacher education, and

•leadership.

Before we discuss more of the ‘how’, let’s look at the big picture of education through the metaphor of games.

Figure 1.1 Crafting infinity, Wahiba Sands, Oman.

Finite and infinite games

Theologian James P Carse³ uses the metaphor of finite and infinite games to explain how he thinks the world (including education) works. A finite game has a winner and a loser. An infinite game has no ending, no beginning, no winner and no loser. The aim of the infinite game is to keep the game going and to keep everyone participating actively in the game. Corporate leadership expert Simon Sinek, who recently popularized the discussion of infinite and finite games in business, claims that there are examples everywhere of finite mindsets distorting infinite games. He argues:

When we lead with a finite mindset in an infinite game, it leads to all kinds of problems, the most common of which include the decline of trust, cooperation and innovation. Leading with an infinite mindset in an infinite game, really does move us in a better direction. Groups that adopt an infinite mindset enjoy vastly higher levels of trust, cooperation and innovation and all the subsequent benefits.⁴

Examples of infinite games include health, education and international diplomacy. Finite games include cricket, football and, in the educational context, standardized tests. Paradoxically, infinite games often have embedded finite games. These finite games often have great value when they support the infinite game. The damage is inflicted in education when we don’t realize when finite games detract rather than strengthen the infinite game. What happens when a finite game takes over the infinite game and all our energy is taken by a spelling test or a numeracy exam rather than deep learning? Fundamentally, education should be about learning in its broa...