+ Alfred Deakin Professor Jill Blackmore Deakin University Feminist perspectives on socially just school governance and leadership in post- colonial, post-modern times Please cite as pressentation Commonwealth Council of Educational Administration and Management Conference Fredericton, June 7 2014
72
Embed
Alfred Deakin Professor Jill Blackmore Deakin University
Commonwealth Council of Educational Administration and M anagement Conference. Fredericton , June 7 2014. Alfred Deakin Professor Jill Blackmore Deakin University. Feminist perspectives on socially just school governance and leadership in post- colonial, post-modern times - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
+Alfred Deakin ProfessorJill BlackmoreDeakin University
Feminist perspectives on socially just school governance and leadership in post- colonial, post-modern timesPlease cite as pressentation
Commonwealth Council of Educational Administration and Management Conference
Fredericton, June 7 2014
Positioning myself ‘Hanging off the edge’ and critiquing the
centre. Australia is geographically distant from its historical origins in
the UK, previous economic dependence on USA, and ambivalent political (and I stand here and condemn the border protection policies against refugees ‘arriving by boat’) but increasingly economic relationship with Asia.
Australia is both colonised by white settlers and coloniser, typical of other settler-nation states such as Canada, the USA and NZ. As an Australian I am complicit in colonisation and therefore recognise our traditional owners in Australia, as I recognise First Nations people here in Canada.
As a feminist, I speak from the margins as a teacher and academic in advocating gender equity in schools, universities and workplaces as this promotes new possibilities for different masculinities as well.
Gender and the politics of difference Gender is not the only form of difference that matters.
“Race’, ethnicity and class matter, as do location (North /South, urban/rural)
In Anglophone nations, gender differences in educational achievement amongst boys and girls are greater based on socio-economic background (often proxy for ‘race’, rurality and ethnicity) than gender differences between boys and girls as ‘unified groups’. This is not necessarily the case in many developing economies.
Education is the site of contestation over the changing social relations of gender. Changing traditions and gender power relations within families, communities and workplaces confronts tradition, religious, cultural belief systems and male dominance, .
Violence against women and girls is an epidemic across all societies – domestic, as a tool of war, or religious and terrorist extremism
Feminist critical policy analysis
Identifying and critiquing the embedded assumptions of any theory or methodology
Questioning any policy by asking ‘what is the problem here’, why is it defined this way and why at this time? (Bacchi The Politics of Policy)
Seeking theories and data that have strong explanatory power about social change and equity
Focusing on who benefits, who decides, and with what effect with respect to social justice
Also means focusing on gender-, ‘race’- and class- privilege (Joan Eveline The Politics of Advantage)
Privilege and WhitenessAs a white female professor in education I am Advantaged by my
whiteness and also what has become my class position
Disadvantaged by gendered and racialised divisions of labour within organisations, within labour markets, within families and between the ‘public’ (work) and ‘private’ (family) domains.
Positioned within universities dominated by masculine forms of corporate ‘leaderism’ and knowledge hierarchies privileging ‘hard’ science over humanities and social sciences. (Blackmore 2010)
A glass escalator rather than aglass ceiling?
Critical feminists as hoodiesUsing the ‘Critical’ word is becoming increasingly difficult in the English context, and as such people like us are increasingly positioned as a ‘hoodie’ research gang. At best I am seen as a necessary eccentric who is listened to politely but then ignored, and at worst my work is missing from official government websites that recommend reading for practitioners, and/or harassed as dangerously feral by neo-liberal knowledge workers.
Being critical and doing critical work, is not new or dangerous or necessarily oppositional, but it is vitally important in these neo-liberal hard new times (Gunter, H. 2009 The ‘C’ word in educational research, Critical Studies in Education 50(1) 90-101 p. 94)
Worrying notions of post-colonialism, globalisation… As a historian by training, notions of ‘post’ are questionable –
whether post- colonial, post-modern or indeed ‘post- feminism’- as past legacies inform and frame present and future possibilities. History matters!
‘Post colonial theory focuses on place, identity, difference, the nation and modes of resistance whereas the sociology of globalisation focuses on it as a justification and as an ideological tool to spread capitalism’. Context matters.
‘While postcolonialism raises issues of domination, transnational networks require new narratives of colonisation’.
‘But contemporary globalisation cannot be disassociated from its roots in European project of imperialism . We cannot understand how the economic logic of neoliberalism has come to dominate without considering the post colonial legacy’.
(Rizvi and Lingard 2006)
Projects of globalisation Globalisation not new: Asian globalisation, European imperialism
late 19thC What is different is the scope, scale, speed and mobility facilitated
by technology ie. network society (Castells) Globalisation is an ideology (e.g. neoliberalism), an imaginary
(cosmopolitanism), and a historical and material manifestation of postmodernity and fast capitalism
Multiple contradictory economic, political and social processes that articulate differently at transnational, national and local levels
Involves multiple actors- globalisation from above (governments, NGOs, multinational businesses,
consultants, transnational bodie e.g. World Bank, IMF, WHO, UN, OECD) and globalisation from below (social movements such as feminism, Occupy,
Greenpeace, social media networks of Arab Spring…)
+My caseCritical historical moment for the field of education: as a discipline; as a profession and as a site of emancipatory hope, that requires rethinking Educational Leadership, Management and Administration.
ELMA as a field is under threat with regard to its purpose, language and practices as the field is being transformed by the rise of edu-capitalism, global
policy forums and ‘governance by numbers’ distinctive disjuncture between the policy rhetoric of 21st Century
learning and the realities of practice in schools and classrooms leadership practices in schools are shaped by global/local articulations
in context specific ways tension between who provides education and how access, participation,
equity and high quality teaching (conditions for 21st C learning) can be achieved
Education for All by 2015 : nominal deadline of universal access to quality education for all learners in shortest time frame within a framework of decent work for highly trained professional staff (Fyfe ILO 2007, 1)
Target 3.A Millenium Development Goals Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education in all levels of education by 2015
Even as countries with the toughest challenges have made large strides, progress on primary school enrolment has slowed.
Globally, 123 million 15 to 24 year olds lack basic reading and writing skills. 61 per cent of them are young women.
Gender gaps in youth literacy rates are narrowing. (95 literate young women for every 100 young men in 2010)
Women now 40 /100 wage-earning jobs in the non-agricultural sector in 2011.
BUT Poverty is a major barrier to secondary education, especially among older
girls. Women continue to face discrimination in access to education, work and
economic assets, and participation in government: less secure jobs, fewer social benefits.
Violence against women and girls continues to undermine efforts to reach all MDG goals.
Globalisation from below
Women’s movement Feminism has familial
resemblances cross nationally supporting localized practices and supported by transnational organisations e.g. UNIFEM
works with and on the master’s tools to hold nation states and global policy forums accountable e.g. Gender Development Index , IWD Beijing 1995 informed MDG
Transnational advocacy groups
e.g. Global Education Action• zero child marriage;• zero child labour; • zero discrimination against girls;• zero exclusion from education.
Social justice Claims made upon the nation state and global
forumsFraser, N. (1997) Justice Interruptus: Critical Reflections on the
"Postsocialist" Condition. Needs: basic food and from violence, child support, health, education, and welfare etc
Interests : recognition of group discrimination, oppression, disadvantage
Rights: to vote, travel, work, own property, to be listened to, to be heard and to be educated.
Women’s claims have largely been successful only when based on needs (for their children as women’s interests aligned with their family) and/or when aligned with national (economic) interests.
Otherwise women’s claims are treated as ‘particularist’ interests.
Sen : ‘positive freedoms’ ie right to have the capacity for agency (education)
Nancy Fraser’s principles of social justice Distributive justice: socio-economic processes.
Maldistribution arises from class inequality.
Recognitive justice: cultural processes, recognition of difference (bilingualism and learning). Misrecognition arises from hierarchical ways in which cultural
value is accorded to individuals and groups (gender, race, religion, disability, class, language…)
Representation: political processes and participation. Misrepresentation is when individuals or groups do not have an
equal voice in decisionmaking that impacts on their lives.
These are interconnected: as class inequality (maldistribution) often derives from gender and race inequality (misrecognition) and often leads to or is the result of misrepresentation and vv.
+DilemmasDilemmas arise from often conflicting principles – ‘bivalent collectivities ‘ of ‘race’ and gender e.g. recognition of a cultural group can have unequal effects on women and girls and lead to maldistribution or misrepresentation.
Parity of participation: beyond the token representative the quality of material conditions and of social
relationships ie. representation alone is inadequate, as need to be heard, respected, and have influence.
Able to question the value of those social goods
+ Globalisation from above:Project of neo-liberalism
Economic ideas originating from Chicago School of Economics and promoted by IMF and World Bank
Dominant since 1980s in Anglophone nations (UK, NZ, Australia) and some Commonwealth countries(South Africa) after tested in Chile and Mexico in 1970s
Rapid circulation of neoliberal ideology exemplifies rise of global policy arenas and networks of transnational policy actors(governments, faith based organisations, NGOs, policy makers, consultants, philanthropists…OECD, World Bank IMF) (Lingard and Rizvi Globalising Education Policy 2010)
+ Neoliberal theory Advocated if not imposed through World Bank, IMF
etc and OECD during 1980s: structural adjustment Small ‘thin’ government Reduced public expenditure Pay national debts (back to IMF and World Bank..) User pays Market principles to distribute educational goods and
service e.g. parental choice between competing self managing schools
Human capital theory : individuals make rational choices to maximise
their individual outcomes more education leads to greater rewards in the
labour market Economic growth prioritised as wealth will trickle
down
+Neoliberalism
Economistic, Westcentric and androcentric in its assumptions
Instrumentalist view of education as the production of the entrepreneurial self-maximizing individual who is gender, class, ‘race’ and culturally neutral
(Fraser 2013)
+Mechanism: New managerialism and corporatisation of education as field
New Public Administration Mantra (1980s in Anglophone states) Private sector management more efficient and effective than public sector Generic manager: not to be confused by expertise or experience in the
field of education Producer capture: professionals self interested and should not inform policy
but be controlled (professional standards, performance management, payment by results etc)
Governance based on subsidiarity ie. devolve all risk and responsibility down to the individual school, leader, teacher and student with the self managing school (free schools, charter schools, self governing, academies…)
Competition in the market will produce both quality (and equity?) as bad schools fail
Equity is equated to individual choice as if everyone has same capacity (resources, knowledge, time….) to choose
Global and national scale: governance by numbers e.g. public ranking and comparison through nation states through PISA and nationally standardised testing to ‘facilitate choice’
(Special Issue Journal of Educational Administration and History 45(4) 2013)
+ Scalar Politics of Edu-capitalism ‘New education philanthropy and social capitalism’ :
Multi-national corporations such as Pearson now offer the ‘full deal’ from teacher and leadership training through to curriculum and assessment packages, buildings and technology infrastructure in both developed and developing economies .e.g. Public Private Partnerships (Ball 2012: 68).
Multinational Policy actors: ‘Cartography of belief and advocacy’ through a ‘generative network promote particular solutions
(GERM), closely associated with philanthro-capitalists (Gates Foundation) and big business (Pearson)
Re-gendering of education as a global field Education capitalists embody transnational masculinity:
white, male western policy makers, entrepreneurs, consultants and philanthropists. Women constitute the majority of casualised teaching force.
Changing contexts for field of ELMA
Education investment by the state as a public and individual good
Education had intrinsic value for citizenship and social cohesion/identity
Teaching was a vocation and tenured career
Teachers advocates for education for social change ie emancipatory intent
Strong teacher unions linked to professionalism
State now mediates education markets (National Quaification Frameworks)
State less a provider and more a regulator ie privatisation
Individuals responsible for their own education as a positional good to gain comparative advantage ie. Possessive individualism
Professionalism redefined as expertise for hire ie contractualism, casualisation and feminisation
preference for weak voluntarist collectivism (philanthropy) rather than strong collectivism (unions)
21st Century : Edu- capitalism’s global project ?
20th C Modernist (Westernised) democratic education project?
Context Rising risk and educational anxiety
Generalised anxiety focusing on education – push for retaining (middle classes) or gaining (aspirational classes) comparative advantage eg. private schooling, international credentials, rise of IB as forms of distinction
BUTThe promise of education no longer fulfilled even for middle classes as increased unemployment of professional classes is emerging with the massification of higher education
(Brown, Lauder 2010 The Global Auction)
Globalised educationIncreased mobility and uneven flows inter-
nationally and intra-nationally people (student and teachers); images of the norm of a ‘good school’; products : curriculum(IB), learning technologies,
money (outsourcing education research KPMG or Boston Consulting, Pearson)
policies (e.g. school choice) and GERM
+ GERM : Global Education Reform Movement (Sahlberg 2011 Finnish Lessons): epidemic infecting education
GERM promotes models of school effectiveness and improvement (SEI) that interlinks with the emergent architecture of global governance including the IMF, World Bank, OECD, UNICEF and UNESCO. Curricula are standardised to fit to international student tests; Students around the world study learning materials from global providers Travels with pundits, media and politicians. Education systems borrow policies from others and get infected. Schools get ill, teachers don’t feel well, and kids learn less.
+Symptoms1. Claims: Quality of education improves when schools compete
therefore schools need more autonomy, and therefore more accountability.
Evidence: when schools compete they cooperate less.
2. Claims: school choice positions parents as consumers empowering them to select schools for their children promising equal access to high-quality schooling for all.
Evidence: decline in academic results and an increase in school segregation in advanced economies.
3. Claims: stronger accountability and related standardised testing to improve.
Evidence: leads to teach to test, narrows curriculum and converts pedagogy into mechanistic instruction.
Healthy school systems are resistant to GERM and its inconvenient symptoms.
+Limits of SEI paradigm
Reluctance to engage with other research paradigms Too strongly focused on short term (student achievement
rather than student progress over time)(change takes up to 7-8 years for schools and students progress and regress) and difficult because of context to sustain improvement!
Focus on individual school as schools now work in complex partnerships and arrangements as centre of networks
Methodology inadequate: multilevel modelling reinforces dichotomies between school classroom and pupil factors least of all between school, networks , families and communities.
(D. Muijs 2010 Effectiveness and disadvantage in education. In C. Raffo et al Education and Poverty in Affluent Countries)
Feminist and critical analysis of SEI
SEI aligns with neoliberal agenda of privatisation and markets focuses on standardised learning outcomes and quantitative
research (‘policy by numbers’) (Lingard 2012); Focus on individual schools in competition with each other
fragments a sense of education as a‘ public good’ ‘Effective schools’ are treated as having the same
characteristics, and so comparisons can be made between ‘like’ schools as in MySchool (Australian website) (Thomson) .
Downplays the significant role of context and social mix of students in terms of what a school community, leaders and teachers can do (Thrupp and Lupton).
Ignores the intersections and multiplier effects between educational underachievement and spatial injustice, poverty, community lack of infrastructure and jobs, social exclusion due to race, class, gender differences and culture (Blackmore 2012)
Furthermore SEI Devolves risk and responsibility onto individual schools, teachers,
parents and students facilitating a failing school rather than a failing system discourse (Goldstein)
Misuse of notions of ‘autonomy’: more about schools doing more with less rather than facilitating professional judgement and autonomy (Gronn)
Leads to’ leaderism’ :a good leader is all that is required. Easy to blame leaders not systems. But hero leaders are not enough (Gunter).
Positions teachers (predominantly female) as the solution to educational underachievement (Hattie 2003, 2009). Ignores teachers’ work being casualised and standardised (de-professionalised)(Hargreaves 2012)
Equates success (and equity) to quantifiable outcomes of academic educational underachievement (Lingard).
Produces a thin curriculum and pedagogical diet with little regard for aesthetic, physical, affective and ethical outcomes (Blackmore et al 2012)
Elaine Unterhalter: Beyond Access Gender Equity Project : Oxfam, UNESCO in developing economies
Historically, ELMA fails to address how the ‘lived experience’ of injustice impacts on girls and other marginalized groups and their capacity to learn (e.g. racial or sexual harassment); or to make connections between the dropout of girls and the gender dynamics of households, school and societies’; or to link pregnancy to ‘household and social, political or schooling processes’ (Unterhalter 2013).
The gender dynamics of exclusion and the interaction between private and public sites of discrimination require closer examination.
Social justice continues to be seen to be ‘the other’s’ concern and not that of mainstream ELMA, despite the claims to be addressing educational inequality.
+
Paradoxes of educational inequality and policy
+Paradox 1: Increased polarisation between rich and poor students, schools and communities in affluent countries (Raffo et al 2010)
Market claims to deliver equity through parental choice, ‘principal autonomy, devolution
BUT
Little evidence linking structural reforms (Charter Schools, Free Schools, Self Managing Schools or Academies) to improved student learning outcomes.
Fragments not nurtures social cohesion. (Musset 2013 Review of School Choice OECD)
+Place and context matter : Australia PISA shows Anglophone nation states see a more direct
relationship between ses background and wider gap in learning outcomes in more marketised and devolved systems E.g. Australia
Place matters due to locational disadvantage: educational underachievement is associated with high levels of poverty, intergenerational unemployment or underemployment, poor community health and well being, inadequate infrastructure (transport, health, educational and community service) concentrated in particular regions e.g. Australia (Teese et al Educational Inequality 2007; Blackmore 2014) ie maldistribution
Parental choice has institutionalised social divisions. People, given a choice, like to be with people like themselves: ‘homophily’ or ‘homosociability’ (Blackmore 2006)ie misrecognition”
Blueprint aimed at rebuilding Victorian public sector of schooling after 7 years of radical neoliberal restructuring towards a market system because students ’slipped through the cracks’
Blueprint leadership capacity building at all levels
(beginning teacher to principal) through school based research activities
Strong research and policy division e.g. Linkage grants, partnerships with universities
Included schools in community capacity building projects together with other departments of community, health…
Invested in well designed built environment premised upon sound pedagogical principles
‘Had to do something significantly different for those struggling schools in high poverty areas’(Senior bureaucrat after evaluation)
Enabling policy encouraging bottom up innovation : Leading Schools Fund
Required public schools within a locality to examine provision of schooling (K-12)
Innovative buildings linked to pedagogical purpose
Principals and teachers encouraged to travel, innovate and plan
New built environment linked to neighbourhood renewal and precincts (e.g. health, welfare, employment and education facilities in proximity)
Major reconfiguration of schooling in areas of locational disadvantage: senior/junior campuses, K-12, work annexes, science and technology schools on university campuses….
‘Schools within larger schools’ : pastoral care and belonging, interdisciplinary rich tasks, teams
Yuille Park Community College• Regional Community Hub• P-8, lifelong learning • Multi age Learning Pods (3)• Inquiry driven• Team teaching• Stephanie Alexander kitchen garden,
‘with chooks’
+ Leadership• Principles of deliberative democracy rather than
distributed leadership: flat structure of staffing, shared decision-making and high level of commitment to renewal by teachers and community
• Teacher leadership and research, team teaching and planning possible because of flexible grouping within 3 learning multiage- learning pods
• Dedicated planning time• Experimentation and evaluation• Planning renewal over 7-10 years• Focus on improvement relative to advancement of
each cohort group not just test outcomes
Victorian Lessons on School Reform• Community consultation to redesign school
provided opportunities for teachers and leaders to create new partnerships and imagine new pedagogical possibilities
• Changing teacher practice through encouraging experimentation and professional learning preceded changes in student learning
• Required changing school and systemwide cultures to support professional learning
• Significant input at regional level of additional resources e.g. literacy and numeracy coaches
• Community responded to recognition of individual needs and community interests as felt valued by government
• Community reciprocated with increased voluntarism and engagement with the school, pride in and care of building, high payment of levies, monthly market, garden
School as a social centre of community
+ Policy issue: innovation and politics The issue is not about identifyng and scaling up models of
‘innovation’ or ‘effectiveness’ as measured against short term outcomes but about building local capacity for schools and communities to undertake sustainable reform
Balance between system support through enabling policies and resources to encourage systematic inquiry in schools
Mutual accountability between schools and systems for all students
Next conservative government changes policies :refusal to recognise past governments success
Neoliberal federal government refusing to fund states to maintain public sector quality of provision
www.learningspacesportal. 12 OECD Case Studies of Innovative Learning Environments Review of literature on Built learning environments LEEP project (OECD) linking built environment to school improvement
+ Paradox 2Ongoing privatisation agenda despite lack of
evidence regarding improved learning outcomes
Low fee private schooling: for-profit or philanthro-capitalism is expanding transnationally as local governments in many developing economies cannot afford to massify schooling and meet Education for All or Millenium Development Goals (Unterhalter 2006, 2008; Srivastava 2013).
a shift from ‘palliative to developmental giving’ to developing economies by the ‘joining up of epistemic, financial and policy endeavours’ instituted by transnational organizations e.g. Pearson, Gates Foundation. (Ball 2012: 68)
‘Low-fee Private school promise’
Real choice even to parents with disadvantage therefore equitable
Provides schooling in rural areas where difficult to staff
Efficient and effective in terms of better learning outcomes than public schools
Treats education as investment for family
higher familial wealth, more likely to attend private schools;
poorer families select boys as perceived better investment and due to cultural norms (Pakistan, India, Ghana, Nigeria and Nepal)
take out loans which reducing household and other children’s opportunities (Ghana)
Investment in academic girl’s education to become low paid teachers in LFPS (Lahore)
Caste, wealth and social status are reproduced Choices of lower castes and religious groups
discrimination higher association between ses, LFPS and
secondary schooling Private schools facilitate ’jumping the queue’ Residualises public schools
Claims Emerging Evidence
Teachers public schools have better paid and more qualified and experienced
teachers LFPS have more untrained teachers, poorer buildings, greater
insecurity etc. than government schools e.g. Pakistan Precarious employment means less teacher absenteeism, more
responsive to parental communication and student needs Lower pupil teacher ratios and Teach to test Lack of regulation makes claims difficult to assess Teachers LFPS supplement income through homework classes
Private tutoring effect the largest variable determining test scores(as in China, Japan and South Korea)
Sources: MacPherson, S. Robertson, and G. Walford. Eds (2013) Education, Privatisation and Social Justice. Case studies from Africa. South Asia and South East Asia.
P Strivasrava & G. Walford eds.(2007) Private schooling in Less Economically Developed Countries. Symposium Books.
Elite Independent Schools: going global
Global ethnography of one school in a number of former British colonies – Australia, Barbados, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, South Africa, Cyprus
Elite schools descended from the British ‘public’ school model are responding to globalisation and the implications for their social purposes; to serve the more privileged and powerful sectors.
Elite schools face competition from new elite commercial private schools e.g. India
Strategies of recruitment are now global Students are agile, entrepreneurial, socially committed ie elite schools
producing next generation of globally mobile corporate entrepreneurs and philanthro-capitalists that have more nuanced racialised and gendered subjectivitiesSourceKenway, Fahey et al (2011-4) Elite Independent Schools in Globalising Circumstances: A Multi-Sited Global Ethnography Special Issue: Globalisation, Societies and Education 2014 12(2)
mitigates disadvantage and/or is just another form of neo-colonialism (Srivastava 2013)
Production of global less ‘racialised’ and ‘gendered’ elite as evident in social mix of cohorts of students in British elite schools (Kenway et al 2012)
Can increasingly contractualised educational relations (e.g. public private partnerships) provide increased access and equity as well as qualified, well supported and innovative teachers?
Implications of rise of both low fee private schools and consolidation of elite schooling for majority in government schools?
Paradox 3Performative or knowledge building
pedagogies: Singapore Countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Shanghai,
Hong Kong and Finland ranked highly on international league tables so promoted as models elsewhere.
Discourse of 21st Century learner-earner or global knowledge worker educated to acquire the capabilities of critical thinking,
analysis, creativity, innovation, teamwork, digital and emotional literacy, intercultural sensitivity and good communication etc…
teachers as researchers, knowledge builders.
Singapore, Japan, South Korea have policies advocating these characteristics as system wide aims e.g. reduced cramming
Singapore’s ‘performative pedagogy’ (David Hogan) Instructional regime is underwritten by
a distinct historical cultural and institutional commitment to a nation-building narrative of meritocratic achievement and social stratification, ethnic pluralism, collective values and social cohesion,
a strong, activist state and economic growth Highly prescriptive national curriculum and tightly coupled
textbooks National high stakes assessment system
Public school system is highly integrated, well funded and coherent, with extensive curriculum resources and support from Ministry
Dedicated, well trained, highly competent, school leadership progressively decentralized environment that preserves sufficient
autonomy at the school level to ensure responsiveness to local circumstances and the professional judgement of teachers.
+Pervasive folk pedagogy
“teaching is talking and learning is listening”
authority is “hierarchical and bureaucratic” assessment is “summative” knowledge is “factual and procedural” classroom talk is teacher-dominated and
“performative”
Performative pedagogy:
Highly scripted, uniform across all levels and grades, pragmatic, fit for purpose, drawing on both Eastern and Western pedagogical traditions
• Covers factual and procedural knowledge in preparation for tests• Functional cognitive activities (recall, memorize, practice, revision,
drill)• Procedural and representational fluency / automaticity / mastery• Worked examples (Mathematics: 60%+ class time)
‘Stick to the textbook’
Limits to reform in Singapore Aversion to risk and innovation Press for curriculum coverage and teaching to
the curriculum generates a pervasive tension between performativity and curriculum depth
Perverse instructional incentives: tight coupling of performative pedagogy rather than knowledge building instructional practices and student achievement
This results in restricted attention to knowledge building /
21st century instructional tasks Limited integration of technology Task Implementation not Task Design
+ Limited use of what Western research calls ‘high
leverage’ techniques such as metacognitive approaches : learning how to learn checking prior knowledge critical feedback other than answer is right or wrong
Streaming generates perverse effects in legitimating deficit discourses and compounding social class inequalities in student achievement:
Long tail of low achieving students
D. Hogan 2014 Singapore’s Pedagogical Model and Its Implications for London (Former Dean Centre for Pedagogy and Practice, National Institute of Education, Singapore)
Policy Dilemma
Aim to develop a reformist knowledge -building pedagogy without repudiating performative pedagogy to achieve national goal of positioning Singapore at the interface of ‘cutting edge’ innovation into Asia
Long term success is possible because of policy making processes, leadership, capacity for renewal and cultural self ie unique
Paradox 4Teachers as leaders :compliance or professional judgement
quality and equity? Global re-professionalisation discourse for teachers :
to be leaders, researchers and innovators raising status and investing in professional learning increase their pedagogical repertoire to address personalisation; depth of learning to develop critical thinking etc….
BUT….
Increased standardisation of profession e.g. national professional standards not same as quality
Driven by narrow external accountabilities (standardised testing) that are counterproductive
Flexibility of individual schools relies heavily on casualisation, feminisation and greater differentiation between teachers
teacher education being pulled out of universities… de-professionalisation?
+ Finnish Lessons (Sahlberg 2011) Finnish system not infected by the market-based competition and
high-stakes testing policies. Competition, choice or standardised testing not seen to be best for
student learning and even counterproductive Focus on ‘sample based testing, thematic assessments, critical self-
reflection’ Finnish politicians do not mis-use PISA results and schools do not
focus on them. Finnish authorities encourage schools to undertake their own
responses as centres of learning Culture of mutual trust and respect between government and schools
and teachers with light touch accountability based on peer review. Consensus and collaboration to redesign schooling over 30 years i.e.
change takes time Finnish history and culture promotes ‘A social democratic discourse
and redistributive policies support families, students and schools’
+Finnish Reform Well prepared (and paid) teachers, pedagogically
designed schools, and good school principals, a relatively homogenous society, an inclusive national educational vision, and an emphasis on special education needs’, with low levels of poverty(Sahlberg 2011: 126).
Fraser’s principles
redistribution (investment in schooling, built environments and teacher professional development),
recognition(respect of difference amongst teachers and students; mutual trust etc )
representation (consultation with students and teachers imparting ownership and commitment)
democratic ethos conducive to inclusive cultures and more likely to lead to parity and quality of participation.
Body of Evidence about School Reform • Research into “best practice” within current frameworks has no future as
no proven model’ of system-level challenges for innovation and transformation. waiting to be found, described, replicated, and implemented.
• Structural change does not produce improved learning outcomes. Cultural change is most difficult but cannot be achieved by schools alone without system and wider cultural shifts in attitudes to education
• Placing a high value on education will get a country only so far if the teachers, parents and citizens of that country believe that only some subset of the nation’s children can or need to achieve
• High poverty schools need to be social centres within wider networks of interagency collaboration supporting students, schools, families
• Built environment that affords new ways of teaching and learning matters as it is about place, recognition as well as flexibility for innovative pedagogies
Leadership Leaders create conditions of possibility for teachers: synthesise
ideas, encourage risk , allocate resources, lead from centre, buffer from cascading contradictory policies, advocate...
Teacher leadership, ownership, participation and efficacy will improve student learning outcomes within the limits of context and resources.
Investment in teacher professional learning cannot succeed over time without enabling policies and resources
Internal strong peer review, systematic inquiry, experimentation, and weak external accountability are more likely to lead to improvement of student outcomes (social, affective, physical and cognitive)than compliance to narrowly focused externally focused standardised assessment
Teachers and principals use multiple forms of evidence and definitions of success to make professional judgements : parent and student satisfaction, observation behaviour, multiple artefacts of learning, inclusion, parental involvement, quality of relationships, increased teamwork…
Fragility of education as a field of practice, research and policy
The post socialist condition is characterized by
an absence of an credible overarching emancipatory project despite the proliferation of fronts of struggle,
a general decoupling of the cultural politics of recognition from the social politics of redistribution, and
a decentering of claims for equality in the face of aggressive marketization and sharply rising material inequality(Nancy Fraser (2013) Scales of Justice, p. 3).
The post socialist condition:
Fraser : reframing social justice 1960s : equity policies in West redistributive justice :
rise of welfare state in West; education as a public good, economic growth
politics of difference and recognition with rise of social movements (1970s etc) of women, civil rights led to a focus on recognition of difference less so redistribution
1990s neoliberal policies focused on rights-based claims coincided with rise of social and religious conservatism also focused on rights based claims with middle class anxiety. E.g. parental choice
Social justice has been redefined as rights based claims and equated to individual choice
Future threats to the field of education Field of educational research and SEI in particular becomes
irrelevant Education as a discipline is being fragmented if not excluded from
academy Next generation of teachers and researchers see education as a
short term job because of conditions of labour and building a portfolio career rather than a vocation
Policy is made by those who do not do educational research or are educational practitioners e.g. multinational management firms eg, KPMG, Boston Consulting etc.
Multinational corporations, faith based organisations, individuals, philanthropists become dominant providers of education: professionalism and equity?
Big data: predictive researchthat lacks nuanced understandings of qualitative research about what matters in practice
Education markets premised upon profit, fear, anxiety, desire etc. do not produce greater equity
• ‘Social science is, at best, ambiguously democratic. The dominant genres picture the world as seen by men, by capitalists, by the educated and affluent. Most important, their picture of the world is seen from the rich capital-exploiting countries of Europe and North America- the global metropole. To ground knowledge of society in other experiences remains a fragile project’
• (Connell, R. Southern Theory p. ix)
+Re-theorising educational research sociology and social sciences have developed
universalising theories that have ignored the processes of imperialism and colonisation and association with patriarchy, ignoring cultural difference
Reading from the centre ie always related to existing literature, filling a gap etc.objectivism vs subjectivism which is a North-centric view of the world
Exclusion of references to alternative ontologies and epistemologies underpinning leadership research (indigenous, black, Asian, Islamic, post colonial feminist theorists in leadership) (See references) that address intersectionality of ‘race’, gender and class.
+Shifting the paradigm of ELMA Draw on research and theory outside the field: post colonial,
black, feminist, critical theory….. Recognise that no one paradigm or model ‘fits’ and that
systemic school reform based on systematic inquiry takes time and involves government and community
Address intersectionality of gender, ‘race’ , class and ethnicity within context
Research how context, culture and place matters Longitudinal life course studies of schools, communities and
students in order to address complexity of what schools do and how students live and how to make a difference
As leaders, practitioners, researchers and policy makers we need to focus on socially just policies, practices and outcomes based on principles of redistribution, recognition, representation ie. leadership with the purpose of social justice
+Globalisation and education
Stromquist and Monkman, K. (2014) Globalisation and Education
Rizvi, F. and Lingard,B. (2010) Globalizing Education Policy
Ball, S. 2003. Social Justice in the Head? Are we all libertarians now? In Vincent, C. ed. 2003. Social Justice, Education and Identity. London: RoutledgeFalmer.
Ball, S. 2007. Education plc: Understanding private sector participation in public sector education. London: Routledge.
Ball, S. 2012 Global Education Inc. New Policy Networks and the Neoliberal Imaginary. London: Routledge.
Blackmore, J. (2011b) Leadership in pursuit of purpose: social, economic and political transformation, In C. Shields (ed) International Handbook on Transformative Leadership Sage.
Blackmore, J. 2012 Gender and Educational Organisations: a feminist sociology In S. Ball and M. Apple (eds) Handbook of Sociology of Education, London: Routledge.
+Teacher professionalism
Gewirtz et al (2009) Changing teacher professionalism and ways forward. International atrends and Challenges. Routledge
Hargreaves, A. Professional Capital Seddon T. and Levin J. (2013) Educators,
Professionalism and Politics. Global transitions, national spaces and professional projects. Routledge
Blackmore, J. Barty, K. and Thomson, P. 2006 Principal Selection: Homosociability, the Search for Security and the Production of Normalised Principal Identitis Educational Management, Administration and Leadership 34(3) 297-317
+ References Islamic leadership
Shah, S. 2006. Educational leadership: an Islamic perspective, British Educational Research Journal. Vol. 32. No. 3, pp. 347-63.
Shah, S. 2010. Re-thinking educational leadership: exploring the impact of cultural and belief systems. International Journal of Leadership in Education 13(1), 27-44
Critical Race theory Collins, P. H. 1990. Black Feminist Thought. London: Routledge Chapman, T., Dixson, A., Gillborn, D. and Ladson-Billings, G. 2013.
Critical race theory International Handbook of Theories in Education,. North Carolina: IAP Press.
McMahon, B. 2007. Educational administrators’ conceptions of whiteness, anti-racism and social justice. Journal of Educational Administration, 45(6), 684–696.
Multiculturalism: Mabokela, R. and Madsen, J. 2005. ‘Color-blind’ and ‘color-
conscious’ leadership: A case study of desegregated suburban schools in the USA. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 8(3),
Mabokela, R. ed. 2007. Soaring beyond boundaries: Women breaking educational barriers in traditional societies. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Optlaka, I. and Hertz-Lazarowitz, R. eds. Women Principals in a Multicultural Society. New Insights into Feminist Educational Leadership. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
G. Ladson-Billings and D. Gillborn (Eds),(2004) The RoutledgeFalmer Reader in Multicultural Education, Routledge, London, pp. 71-83.
+Leadership
Blackmore, J. (2010a) ‘The other within’: race / gender disruptions to the professional learning of white educational leaders. International Journal of Leadership in Education. 13(1), 45-61.
Blackmore, J. 2010b Preparing leaders to work with emotions in culturally diverse educational communities. Journal of Educational Administration, 48(5), 642-58.
+Indigenous leadership and research Ngurruwutthun, Nalwarri. and Stewart, M. P. Ann. 1996. “Learning
to walk behind; learning to walk in front”. A case study of the mentor program at Yirrkala Community Education Centre. Unicorn, 22(4), 3–23
Aileen Moreton-Robinson 1999 Talkin’ back to the White Woman White, Nerida. 2010. Indigenous Australian women’s leadership:
stayin’ strong against the post-colonial rule. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 13(1), 7-26.
Ahnee-Benham, M. 2003. In our mother’s voice: a native women’s knowing of leadership in Young, M. and Sklra, L eds. Reconsidering Feminist Research in Educational Leadership. New York: SUNY Press.
Battiste, M. 2005 Leadership and Aboriginal education in contemporary education: Narratives of cognitive imperialism reconciling with decolonisation, in: J. Collard and C. Reynolds (eds) Leadership, Gender and Culture in Education. Male and Female Perspectives. (pp. 150–156. )Buckingham: Open University Press,
Tuhiwa-Smith Linda 1999 Decolonising Research Methodologies
+Social Justice Blackmore, J. (2015) Leadership and Nancy Fraser Routledge Blackmore, J. (2013). Social justice in education: a theoretical overview in Irby,
Brown, G. and Lara- Alecio, R. (eds) Handbook of Educational Theories, Information Age Publishing.
Fraser, N. (1997) Justice Interruptus: Critical Reflections on the "Postsocialist" Condition. New York: Routledge.
Fraser, N. (1998) Redistribution or Recognition? A Political-Philosophical Exchange. (co-authored with Axel Honneth). London: Verso.
Fraser, N, (2008) Scales of Justice. Reimagining political space in a globalizing world. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Lyman, L. Strachan, J. and Lazaridou, A. eds. 2012. Shaping Social Justice Leadership. Insights of women educators Worldwide. XXXX Rowman and Littlefield.
Shields, C. 2013. Theorizing Democratic and Social Justice Education: conundrum or impossibility. In, B. Irby, G, Brown, R. Kara-Alecio, S. Jackson. Eds. The Handbook of Educational Theories. North Caroliina: IAP Press.pp 1035-46.