This is a gentle musing on COVID-19 and Secondary Schools in Scotland. It is written from the perspective of a classroom teacher looking for focus and practical support over the next 18 months.
Where are we?
There is a cartoon where dinosaurs labelled as General Motors, Chrysler and Ford watch an asteroid fall and opine
“Don’t worry, we’re too big to be allowed to fail.”
11/15 Daily Tribune 2008 Cagle Cartoons.com
The potential parallels with Scottish Education are obvious but will we join Detroit as a metonym for hubristic mediocrity or seize the maxim that “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity?”
Where do we want to be?
Everything should be measured against the learners’ needs but how will August 2020 compare to August 2021?
In my humble opinion, as a secondary subject specialist, I suggest we should have two distinct missions.
1. Short term - to provide meaningful learning next session.
2. Longer term - to produce permanent arrangements that cushion all learners from micro and macro systemic shocks such as pandemics, illness and other reasons for extended absence..
Short term, teachers have collaborated on blended learning activities. As Brian Donlin[i] wrote recently, this work will not go to waste. Agency has been seized, if not given.
Longer term, the line of least resistance is to retreat back to the safety of SQA and HGIOS[ii] silos and resurrect the bureaucratic worker drones so beloved of the performativity priests. Worryingly, the signs are that a retreat to the status quo may be already in process.
PPE - Pupils, Parents and Educators!
A system that supports learners, parents and their teachers must evolve to value teachers for their expertise and not their ‘busyness’ and ‘presenteeism’.
Parents must be able to access real time learning materials and assessment to enhance their awareness of progress. Parents’ evenings can become relaxed social events and reports would become contemporary records. This requires major investment and some arm-twisting in decent hardware, software and training.
Switching all records to online with pupil codes to their individual files, parent codes to all their children's files, teacher codes to classes and senior leaders to all files made available and practicable.
How do we get there?
The majority of staff should be dedicated to meeting the needs of our current learners over the next 12 months. A smaller cadre should be tasked to curate and create a permanent support system.
SQA
· Publish clear guidelines on ‘achieving an award 2021.’ This must happen before August.
· Provide moderated pass level assessments.
· Write optional graded exams for those who wish to improve beyond pass level.
Education Scotland
· Gather teams to curate learner based courses (LBC) and assessments for school and home.
· LBCs can be used to mitigate pupil absence.
· LBCs should also offer the opportunity to achieve a pass level award.
· Place inspectors in Local Authority clusters to work in schools so that excellence in teaching and leadership can be modelled 'on the ground' and not in big green folders.
Scottish Government
· Trust (and fund) Local Authorities[iii] and schools to progress education in these critical circumstances. I’ve yet to work with anyone determined to fail.
· Cancel the need for Improvement Plans, PRD and any other bureaucratic time-soakers for this session. Our whole focus should be on 'future proofing' the curriculum.
· Promote Teacher Autonomy with personal budgets.
In Summary
As much time as is possible should be dedicated to allowing the profession to solve the issues of the next 10 months to five years. Material must be available on paper for those in digital poverty and online for those who cannot easily attend school.
Finally, I have no contemporary record of how the dinosaurs felt during their crisis but I can offer the motto of the City of Detroit:
‘Speramus Meliora: Resurget Cineribus’
We Hope For Better Things; It Shall Rise From the Ashes.’
We may not be able to avoid asteroids, but we can survive them.
Paul Cochrane
Chemistry Teacher,
SSTA Executive Member,
Writing in a personal capacity
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