Lesson(in)Action 500 words

Contested Spaces – Schools

‘The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done’ [i]

It is a given that school is a site of education and learning. In what Friere calls the banking model of education that has taken over the English education system learning is seen to exist only when it is measurable. To reduce knowledge to that which is measurable reduces, indeed removes what is essential about human knowledge and perception. Measuring pupils and students also means measuring teachers. This in turn leads to the safe delivery of ‘knowledge’ to classes. This means pupils and students are able to recite details when tested, to in turn ensure that individual targets are met and results are maintained, thus ensuring the circle remains unbroken. When the coalition government shared their white paper on teaching in 2010 they stated:

‘…in the education debate what really matters is how we’re doing compared with our international competitors’ [ii] 

It is easy to see how in the current neoliberal version of the banking model of education we have lost the role that play and fun have to motivate and explore, to take risks, to learn, and to be creative. It is also easy to see how the arts are suffering in this climate as:

‘The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity.  Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds’ [iii]

It is through play we learn how to learn. Burghardt says that play contributes to developing ‘effective systems for learning’ rather than particular learning outcomes (2005, quoted in Lester and Russell 2008: 128)

The Unlesson Manifesto aims to network like-minded educators who are frustrated with having their creativity and professionalism undermined by bureaucratic procedural correctness at the expense of pupils needs. We encourage educators to share it with other teaching friends and acquaintances they have who are keen to peel back the years of political prescription teaching.

The Unlesson Manifesto questions what is knowledge and how we learn within the current neoliberal educational model.

The Unlesson Manifesto demands educators to reflect on their pedagogical approach and find new ways to make the intangible tangible.

The Unlesson Manifesto will avoid rigid lesson directives and involve students in lesser-known learning experiences.

The Unlesson Manifesto has created a space in where teachers can document and share learning activities and conclusions.

We are three Art teachers in three secondary schools, which will initially influence our pool of contact. In time we hope that teachers across all subjects will share their enthusiasm for creating more inventive educational experiences.

'We forge a school adventure, a school that marches on, that is not afraid of the risks, and that rejects immobility. It is a school that thinks, that participates, that creates, that speaks, that loves, that guesses, that passionately embraces and says yes to life. It is not a school that quiets down and quits.’ [iv]

 Tomorrow is the first Lesson(in)Action. Please post comments and feedback to any of the blogs currently on this site. We are excited. We hope you are too. 

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[i] Jean Piaget.  Education for Democracy, Proceedings from the Cambridge School Conference on Progressive Education. 1988.

[ii] Schools White Paper: The Importance of Teaching 2010 page 3

[iii] Eisner, E. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind, In Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach and How It Shows. pp. 92. P 2.

Burghardt, GM (2005) The Genesis of Animal Play: Testing the limits. Cambridge, Ma: The MIT Press. quoted in Play for a Change

 Lester and Russell 2008: 128)

[iv] Paulo Friere: Teachers as Cultural Workers: letters to those who dare teach 1998

Marching with the NUT

Recent excellent article tells us what its like in the 'Exam Factory'
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/mar/14/teachers-life-inside-the-exam-factory#_

The Age of Measurement

‘Whereas once we referred to the age of enlightenment, we now live in the age of measurement. There are real worries connected to that about how we expect young people to perceive the world and enjoy it’ 

Tony Little (Headteacher of Eton)

Sitting on the train home the other night I overheard a phone conversation where the person talking said he had to be in work early the next day as he was being audited. This culture of measurement is permeating all aspects of life. It is even affecting our children in their first years. Measuring progress is our yardstick. We have set entry points and we proceed to gauge how well one does from them. It begins quite innocently – how fast before our child crawls, walks and talks in relation to other children but very quickly it pervades everything; learning to read, write and spell. If ones child is not seen to be developing at the expected rate, one begins to worry that maybe there are underlying problems and these worries are magnified in the goldfish bowl of toddler life. Once a child enters education these degrees of measurement increase. I’m not protesting against all forms of assessment or demanding their removal, just that we need to take the implications of how they measure ones development with a pinch of salt. An example of my reasons for this can be seen in the contrasting two statements from the former DES (now the DfE) and the coalition government’s Schools White Paper:

‘At the heart of the educational process lies the child’ 

DES 1967

‘…in the education debate what really matters is how we’re doing compared with our international competitors’ 

Schools White Paper: The Importance of Teaching 2010

Clearly the measurement of the child is seen as more important than the actual child. In a recent conversation, a few friends were discussing how invaluable it is being a parent who works inside the educational institution. We are fortunate to have a better understanding of the external factors that often force the educational agendas. We are then more able to choose what to focus on as parents of children within the school system. Parents who are not privy to such insights are more vulnerable to trusting professionals working within such a quantitative institution.

Measuring pupils and students also means measuring teachers. This in turn leads to the safe delivery of ‘knowledge’ to classes. This means pupils and students are able to recite details when tested, to in turn ensure that individual targets are met and results are maintained, thus ensuring the circle remains unbroken. The threat of salary cuts and implementation of educational austerity has swept through the education sector at a ferocious speed since the coalition came to power and the result is a tightly controlled banking model of education. Friere coined this term (no pun intended) and offers this description:

‘Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiqués and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorise, and repeat. This is the “banking” concept of education, in which the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits’ 

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

In reality the pervasive nature of this approach has quickly resulted in teachers who are frightened to take risks. This is coupled with being managed by a new breed of business minded headteachers who, at worst, have little or no understanding of critical and reflective pedagogy and bang the government drum for rote learning and target driven data. NQT’s and experienced teachers are both offered inset and training where it could be argued that they are encouraged to be conscientious and reflective in their practice but under the current DfE regime we are offered these opportunities in words only as our curriculum, the ebacc and the academies programme all divert these approaches to learning down a dead end street. We are one step behind the United States where:

‘Although we consistently argue for the benefits of critically conscious educators who engage in reflective practice, our accreditation policies, as well as the policies that inform classroom praxis, disallow the successful implementation of a critical pedagogy’ 

Critical Teacher Education and the Politics of Teacher Accreditation 2011

And as a result ‘What is being created is the most personally centralized education system in western Europe since Germany in the 1930s – each school contracted directly to the secretary of state…’ (Richard Pring, Oxford University). We are losing a generation of children to the age of measurement and we need to remain proactive in creating spaces of resistance for their sake and encourage the value in a holistic education that helps nurture the entire child.

To conclude I want to present another example of the dangers that are quietly and pervasively creeping across our education system. It comes again from the United States and it begins to tell a story that should be a call to arms for all educators, parents and anyone who values the powerful service that is the comprehensive education system:

‘America has long been known–despite our problems–as the country of freedom, innovation, and wealth.  There are several reasons for this, not the least of which is our democratic and free public education system.  Prior to NCLB in 2002 and Race to the Top eight years later, standardization was limited to SAT and ACT tests, NAEP and PISA tests, and graduation exams for Advanced Placement courses.  We valued music, art, drama, languages and the humanities just as much as we valued science, math, and English (for the most part). We believed in the well-rounded education.

Now, the Common Core State Standards has one goal: to create common people.  The accompanying standardized tests have one purpose: to create standardized people.  Why? Because the movers and the shakers have a vested interest in it. It’s about money and it’s about making sure all that money stays in one place.

It’s been happening for a few years already. StudentsFirst, ALEC, the Walton and Broad and Gates Foundations, and other lobbying groups have created a false crisis in American education. They want you to believe that America is in sad educational shape so that they can play the hero. However, what they’ve begun is a snowball effect of legislation that devastates public education, teachers, and an already underfunded school system so that they can replace the public system, the unions, and the government employees with private systems that promise to pay less, bust unions, and remove benefits and pensions.’ 

This is How Democracy Ends – An Apology taken from 21^st Century Teacher

I went on the NUT march in London last Wednesday. It is the third time I have been on strike since 2011. I do not want to strike; I want to teach.  However, the silent privatisation agenda of comprehensive schooling in this country is deeply concerning. The little that it is being spoken about is full of encouraging signs but it is not enough. In the United States education is much further down the line of such a neoliberal movement and there are lessons to be learned and the provision of some very good articles evidencing the dangers of such an approach but this may be for another blog.

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Forge A School Adventure!

'We forge a school adventure, a school that marches on, that is not afraid of the risks, and that rejects immobility. It is a school that thinks,that participates, that creates, that speaks ,that loves,that guesses,that passionately embraces and says yes to life. It is not a school that quiets down and quits.
Indeed the easy way out in dealing with obstacles posed by governmental contempt and the arbitrariness of antidemocratic authorities is the fatalist resignation in which many of us find ourselves.......................

..........It is the position of those who renounce conflict , the lack of which undermines the dignity of life. There may not be life or human existence without struggle and conflict. Conflict shares in our conscience. Denying conflict we ignore even  the most mundane aspects of our vital and social experience. Trying to escape conflict,we preserve the status quo.
Thus I can see no alternative to educators to unity within the diversity of their interests in defending their rights. Such rights include the right to freedom in teaching, the right to speak, the right to better conditions for pedagogical work, the right to paid sabbaticals for continuing education, the right to be coherent, the right to criticise the authorities without fear of retaliation (which entails the right to criticise truthfully), the right to the duty to be serious and coherent and to not have to lie to survive.
We must fight so these rights are not just recognised but respected and implemented. At times we may need to fight side by side with the unions;at other times we may need to fight against them,if their leadership is sectarian, whether right of left. At other times we also need to fight as a progressive administration against the devilish anger of the obsolete ;the traditionalists, some of whom judge themselves progressive;and of the neoliberals who see themselves, who see themselves as the culmination of history.'

Paolo Freire-Teachers as cultural workers :letters to those who dare teach. (1998)

The rigours of data

Not Applicable!

Strength in Numbers

Dear colleagues,

The Unlesson Manifesto aims to network like-minded educators who are fed up with having their creativity and professionalism undermined and want to take this opportunity to thank you for seeking out our blog. We encourage you to share it with other teaching friends and acquaintances you have who are keen to peel back the years of political prescription teaching. Join us for one lesson on the 1st April, avoid prescriptive lesson directives and involve your students in unknown adventures in learning. Please share your activities on the blog. As Paulo Friere says:

“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” 

taken from Pedagogy of the Oppressed

We look forward to seeing many of you at the NUT rally tomorrow and to hearing about your Lesson(in)Action. 

The Unlesson Manifesto DEMANDS...

"The ideological project embodied in educational policies since the ERA [Education Reform Act] has introduced increased regulation of primary [and secondary] education and rapid changes that have contributed to a climate of uncertainty for schools. The threat of failure: for children, teachers, schools and education departments in universities, maintained by the government through policing by Ofsted, reductive league tables and a policy of public naming and shaming, is ever present. The current climate constrains risk-taking and experimentation and obstructs creative approaches to learning and teaching that could result in innovation and originality."

Clare Kelly, 2013

On Tuesday 1st April you are invited to take part in A Lesson of (in)Action 

The Unlesson Manifesto demands that you actively avoid:

Lesson Aims

Lesson Objectives

The 3-Part Lesson

Assessment for Learning

Pace

Differentiation

Measurable Progress

Learning Outcomes

Interactive Whiteboards

Seating Plans

Prior Learning

By removing the prescribed scaffolding of lesson planning, you are required to recalibrate your delivery. Michael Gove is working hard to ration every child's comprehensive educational experience and this is an opportunity to work creatively and actively avoid an approach that currently takes place every day up and down the UK. Through the avoidance of the structures listed above you will need to prepare one lesson that encourages you as the teacher and your students to take risks. For some of you it may be a challenge to work outside of these parameters whilst for others it may be a simple reinforcement of how you already deliver in the classroom. Either way it is an attempt at a more conscious approach to how you work. We want to hear about your inventive approaches and conclusions.