I heard this from a student last year, following conference discussions about 21st century learners. His comment, “Don’t you realise that we are here now?” This reminded me that the changes needed in education are urgent, yet ongoing. We need to look to the future and get on with making changes.
This comment led to me facilitating two World Cafe events at the learning@school conference. The people who came to these sessions were ones who had been listening to the hype of 21st century learning, teaching and leading for some time and who wanted to challenge themselves and others to move forward. The World Cafe format allowed time to slow down, engage in dialogue and leave with some personal and professional ideas for the future.
Some of the overheard discussions during these sessions included:
- Where is the expectation that things will change?
- Just because we can’t do it doesn’t mean we should stop others from doing it.
- I’m looking forward to being made redundant as a teacher.
- If you believe in it you prioritize time.
- I don’t think it’s written anywhere “Thou must do it alone.”
- Schools should be laboratories for life.
Many of the comments focused around the need for changes in teacher practice and increasing the role of students in their own learning. If we really want to transform education we need to start with teacher change, otherwise students will not have a greater say. For teacher practcie to transform across an organisation school leaders must be committed to the transformation and lead by example.
One World Cafe participant jotted his thoughts clearly on a post-it, as shown below. I liked the quirky idea of a post-it on an iphone and also the call to personal action. I don’t think it is suggesting we will get change by riding over top of people. We know we need to build trust and gain commitment. We also know we can’t go at the pace of the slowest. The time for educational leaders to step up is now. We need to move beyond the rhetoric and start taking action. We could even involve students in the plan…
