What is the purpose of education?

In the run up to the Scottish Learning Festival this week, I have been thinking a lot about professionalism and values and why these are so important. This then led me to the biggest question of all, which is, what is the purpose of education? How do values and professionalism tie in with the purposes of education? So here are some thoughts.

In discussing the purpose of education, there is often a narrow view about the products of education and the current theories of learning are insufficient to capture what education is about. Education can be described as multi-dimensional. The multi-dimensions that it serves are economic, social, spiritual, cultural and political aspects of individuals lives. Education for the masses was originally about promoting a literate society, which has evolved to a learned society where educators are being asked to prepare young people for their futures in a rapidly changing world and to enable them to compete in a global economy.  Politicians often discuss education in terms of economic capital, being a cornerstone of society and essential for developing life skills.

Key documents in Scottish Education such as those relating to the Scottish Attainment Challenge, the National Improvement Framework and Curriculum for Excellence all have as a central tenet that the purpose of education is to create a more successful country with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable economic growth. This is to ensure that all our children and young people are equipped through their education, to become successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens, the 4 capacities of Curriculum for Excellence.

According the Biesta (2010), the point of education is “not that students learn but that students learn something, that they learn for a reason, and that they learn it from someone”, [original emphasis]. This can be restated as students need to learn - content with purpose within a relationship. The purpose of education is multi-dimensional and Biesta (2010) has suggested three domains of purpose which are interdependent and these are;

·         Transmission

o   qualifications (the acquisition of knowledge, skills and dispositions)

·         Socialisation

o   traditions and ethical norms for their culture

·         Subjectification

o   impact on the student as their own person

Learning is more about developing skills and capacities to keep pace with the changing global economy. When we are born we have innate instinct that can keep us alive but our ability to learn and to continue learning is what makes us human. We learn to continue to feed our brains new experiences, creating new connections and to reinforce existing connections. However, most of what we learn before, during, and after attending schools is learned without its being taught to us. We learn more from independent study, play through interacting with others informally, sharing our learning and through trial and error.

The language of learning is insufficient for expressing what matters in education and has moved teachers and learning into the abstract of ‘supporting’ or ‘promoting’ learning, while discounting the ‘of what’ and ‘for what’ in the learning. ‘Learnification’ is a term coined by Biesta (2010) to describe the ‘new language for learning’ which has been created in the discourse. This ‘learnification’ has moved the language to everyone being described as ‘learners’, schools becoming ‘places of learning’ and adult education becoming ‘life-long learning’.

So the purpose of education can be considered from two different world views. The first, the formal world, which consists of schools, further and higher education, creating a standardised model of ‘21^st century learners’. The second, the informal world, where knowledge, information and skills are transmitted to the willing by the wise.

References

Biesta, G. (2015); What is education for? On Good Education, teacher Judgement, and Educational Professionalism: European Journal of education, Vol 50, No.1

http://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2012/08/15/what-is-the-purpose-of-education/#59e54d563566

http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_update/eu201207_infographic.pdf

http://www.ascd.org/publications/newsletters/education-update/jul12/vol54/num07/What-Is-the-Purpose-of-Education%C2%A2.aspx

http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningandteaching/thecurriculum/whatiscurriculumforexcellence/thepurposeofthecurriculum/

http://www.gtcs.org.uk/TeacherJourney/scotlands-education-system.aspx

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0049/00491758.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-purpose-of-education

Research in the classroom - Reflections from ResearchED

At ResesarchED this weekend, teachers, academics and 'others' gathered to share, debate and present ideas around research in education, schools and classrooms. 

One of the sessions I attended was presented by James Murphy (@horatiospeaks) the title of which was 'Research design you can use in the classroom'. The title resonated with me, as I have been thinking a lot recently about enquiry and research, particularly with the #SCELenquire events coming up soon, here, for which I am doing the keynote for the Edinburgh event, but also leading a learning conversation at each of the other events.

At GTCS, we are strongly focused on teacher professionalism and teacher identity, and how to support teachers to engage with research to develop an ‘enquiry as stance’ disposition through undertaking practitioner enquiry and other activities. One of the issues with this aspiration, is how to make enquiry and research meaningful but manageable for teachers, so they can engage with research to inform their practice but also generate their own research. So off I went to James’s session to try to find out more about how to support teachers research in their classrooms.

James's session challenged the myths about the need for large scale research in classrooms and offered a discussion on single subject 'quasi-experimental' research design to support teachers to be consumers and creators of research. 

Large scale research like random control trials (RCT), I would suggest are not the way forward, as for teachers they have more limitations than benefits. Firstly, there would be an issue with scale. The sample size would not be practical i.e. the number of participants needed would be in the thousands, this is unmanageable both in terms of access to that number of participants but also the time involved in doing such research. Secondly, cost, both monetary and time, for RCT is prohibitive for teachers. Finally, the depth of analysis i.e. separating out the variables is very difficult, RCT usually reports on a whole programme, not one variable, making this type of research very difficult given the multiplicity of factors that influence people and learning.

Quasi-experimental research, to use James’s description can be used by teachers in classrooms to enquire into and inform practice. There can be limitations with this type of research as these enquiries can have limited transfer. There is also an issue with the sample size, as it can range from a few individuals to a whole class, so can it be valid research? I would argue that it is valid, if it is contextualised and informs the teachers’ practice to support improved outcomes for young people and children with whom they support. To increase validity and the possibility of transfer, it would be valuable to be able to replicate the intervention/strategy. It is the responsibility of the teacher when they share their enquiry to describe their intervention/strategy clearly enough, for replication for themselves and other teachers. The data collected may also be questioned as often enquiry in classrooms relies on qualitative data. Qualitative data can be interpreted differently depending on the researchers’ bias, so it may be of interest to other teachers but it needs to be understood that the impact is highly contextualised with these pupils, within that classroom, at that time. There is also a further caution in that the relational data generated may show correlation between the intervention and impact, but without further study it does not give causation. Correlation taken as causation, can be dangerous, so in sharing and reporting findings teachers must acknowledge the limitations of their enquiry. Another consideration when carrying out an enquiry is the ethical dimension. The removal of an intervention/strategy to have replication has ethical implications, if we have removed an intervention/strategy where we have some evidence that works, it would be unethical to remove this just to show correlation or causation, depending on the research question. Using control groups also has ethical implications, I suggest it would be unethical to prevent one group of pupils receiving an intervention/strategy, that has some evidence that works to show impact and causation. An alternative to this would be to use students as their own control, this allows isolation of the variable and the teachers to do a comparable study of pupils, before and after the intervention/strategy as evidence of impact.

To finish the session James offered a simple enquiry framework, see below.

I would add to this the literature review, which should underpin any enquiry. Once the enquiry question has been defined, the teacher should find out what is already known about this. If you are a GTCS registrant, you can access academic journals and ebooks through the GTCS website, here, to help you.

I was asked to say why I was attending ResearchED, I wrote,’ I want to learn about new ideas and methods to support teachers to become enquiring practitioners and research informed’, I think this session perhaps did not give me anything new, but made me ask more questions about how the GTCS can support teacher professionalism and teacher identity through helping teachers to engaging with research and enquiry.

Getting it right for girls

Last week the EIS launched a report entitled ‘Getting it right for Girls’. This report shares findings about misogynistic attitudes in education and offers advice on how we, as an education system, can address this.

Misogyny, defined as -dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women - is influenced by factors such as the home environment, advertisement and the media. We have only to look at the recent media coverage of the Olympics to see misogyny in action, here. It is also true that there is a disproportionately low level of participation of women in public life and female politicians (and other prominent female figures) are routinely subjected to sexist comments in the press and via other media sources. I really liked to recent article in the Metro, here, which discussed Teresa May’s husband in the terms that are usually reserved for the female partner of a prominent male public figure. This piece perfectly highlights misogynistic reporting by the media.

The Legal Context

Misogyny can vary from overt sexual bullying to casual sexual comments or failing to conform to gender ‘norms’, which is often trivialised as humorous. The 2010 Equality Act identifies gender as a protected characteristic and as such schools and colleges are bound by the terms of the Public Sector Equality Duty, part of the 2010 Equality Act to;

·         eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation

·         promote equality of opportunity

·         remove or minimise disadvantages to meet the needs of the people from protected groups

·         encourage participation of protected groups

Misogyny should be challenged throughout the education system to modify behaviour and attitudes.

Misogynistic attitudes and behaviour

There are many types of misogynistic behaviours and attitudes all of which should be challenged. Some are developed in the home environment and through entrenched views, some are societal prejudices which are allowed to perpetuate and some are cultural. The following list in not exhaustive but gives some ideas of the daily prejudices against women;

·        Common use of misogynistic language such as ‘girly’ or overt sexualised and derogatory language

·        Dismissive or contemptuous attitudes towards females

·        Objectification of women and the use of social media to target sexual innuendo at females – which can be describes as bullying

·        Mockery and derision when women or girls adopt non stereotypical gender roles – this can leave the victim feeling rejected and the psychological effect can be long lasting

·        A double standard which criticises young girls who are sexually active

·        Physical violence is an extreme but commonplace expression of misogynistic attitudes, such as;

o   Physical, sexual or psychological violence

o   Sexual harassment or intimidation

o   Commercial sexual exploitation

o   Dowry related violence

o   Female genital mutilation

o   Forced or child marriages

o   Honour crimes

Gender pay gap

The effect of misogynistic attitudes and behaviours can be a significant hindrance to personal and social development. Statistically men are commonly the perpetrators and women and children more commonly the victims. Allowing the perpetration of dismissive, contemptuous attitudes towards women to go unchallenged can contribute to the persistence of the associated gender pay gap. The report shares a table of the percentage of male and female teachers in different roles (p10), below.

It is very interesting that Secondary, all grades is 63:37 (female to male) but secondary head teachers is the opposite proportion of 39:61 (female to male).

Strategies

Changing attitudes and fostering community level intolerance and sanctions towards such misogynistic behaviour are required and all education establishments have a role to play in this.

Education establishments could;

·        Create a whole school policy with very precise language as to what is and is not acceptable

·        Have a school mission statement which safe guards against gender stereotyping

·        Have zero tolerance to misogynistic language and attitudes

·        Work with partners and support parents to tackle misogynistic language and attitudes

·        Considering how misogyny as gender stereotyping may impact on student subject choice and take steps to address this

·        Facilitate Equality and Diversity training for teachers which is linked to the values heralded in the Professional Standards and which underpins professionalism of teachers.

Misogyny has no place in the Scottish Education system or in society and is an issue that needs to be addressed. Education is well placed to move this agenda forward.  I recommend this report to you and you can access the whole report here.