Building Sandcastles in the Sky?

After the United Call for Education Systems Reform was published in Spring 2024, I reached out to a number of colleagues that I thought would be likely supporters. Many of them, in fact, were quite supportive. I think the document is a solid aspirational statement of what education could be and how schooling is currently coming up short. I am proud to be one of several authors. Now I’m hoping that the statement becomes more than just a statement, of course.  

Not everyone was willing to sign the call. In most cases I’ll never know why. But in three cases I asked why. There was a theme to the responses I received that goes like this: 

I’m weary of calls for education reform. They are a dime a dozen. I think our time is better spent working on personal demonstrations of alternative approaches. 

Fair enough. I remember a faculty member at my own school, no doubt tired of reform efforts, emailing all faculty with a quote from John Dewey to show that what we were discussing in a whole faculty professional development session was suggested a hundred years ago. The subtext: lots of talk, and nothing ever changes. I thought about emailing, in response, a quote from Comenius, written centuries before Dewey, in a tit for tat fit of one-upmanship that would get us nowhere, other than perhaps making us feel even less able to reform.  

Lots of talk, nothing ever changes.  

We can all empathize. For several reasons, the status quo of schooling doesn’t budge easily. While we like to talk about change, we gravitate to easier adjustments, things that we might actually be able to change, like small adjustments to the timetable or the school uniform or course requirements or the policy manual or the mission statement, all while avoiding the meatier issues (e.g. how can we significantly increase student choice and self-dependence, are we ensuring that students are learning how to collaborate, how to be project managers, how to think entrepreneurially)? 

My colleagues who expressed how tired they are of talk that seldom seems to lead to action are all involved in serious, high-quality, long-term efforts to introduce the type of reform they most believe in. These are efforts involving years of work, lots of time and resources, lots of people. These are not people who are afraid to step into the fray. On the contrary. These are people who have stepped into the fray so many times without compensatory results that they have, very rationally, decided to go ahead and work on their own initiative, with everything they’ve got, to demonstrate a different path. To create working models for others to grab on to, to cite, to practice, to emulate. So ... kudos to them.  

I still wish they had signed. We’re stronger together.  

Then again, in the third section of The Call is this quote by Buckminster Fuller: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete” (Sieden, 2012). So maybe they are onto something. Let’s work on our models of education we would like to see, the learning we would like to participate in. Proofs of concept. Pilots. Trials.  

Here’s one I’ve been working on, with colleagues spreading across the world. Just a quick introduction to the idea and then we’ll go right into what we are doing. 

Too often, professional development seems to be done to teachers instead of with teachers. Sure, there are times when an entire faculty needs to build some competence in something - perhaps a procedural piece of administrative work. Deep reflection on learning and teaching are most likely to be directly associated with one’s daily educational context. You get better at accomplishing what you are trying to accomplish by experimenting with ways to accomplish it. It is personal, classroom situated, autonomous, unique. You need someone who has your back, who supports your interest in trying things out. Someone who might recommend another educator you should talk to, a resource you don’t know about, a twist on what you are doing to get you unstuck. Secondly, you need other people to talk to about what you are doing. People who are interested show up out of curiosity, not merely because attendance is being taken or donuts are being served.  

This is a simple formula for success. It’s also a restatement of Justin Reich’s general recommendation for innovation as a teacher. See his latest book, Iterate: The Secret to Innovation in Schools, or listen to him on an EdSurge podcast.  

Another important consideration for teachers is their wellbeing. We hear a lot about social emotional learning for students and are concerned about their wellbeing, things we should indeed be mindful of. Similarly, if we would like young adults to continue entering the profession, and fewer experienced teachers to be leaving, we should be concerned about their wellbeing, too. Alexander and Perche (2024) add to our radar the intellectual wellbeing of teachers. The spaces in which teachers think, and in which they can act on their thinking, are also important.  

So, create that space. Give teachers the freedom and support they need to experiment and to talk with others about what they are learning by doing so. Simple as that. We’ve done it for over a decade at my boarding school by supporting individual passion projects. The idea grew up in tandem with the innovative Centre for Inspiring Minds of ACS International Schools. Now, with some forward-thinking colleagues and curious educators from around the world, we’ve created an online version. We support teachers (and administrators) virtually as they build their sandcastles. They know we value their experimentation. They know they can share their success and hurdles with us and with each other. Easy as that.  

It’s like an online class without grades, without rubrics, without a requirement to attend. It is the minimal organization to provide connections between like-minded educators, committed to improving. There are mentors and participants, but you are just as likely to hear a mentor getting advice from a participant as the other way around. Side by side we look out at the horizon of possibilities, how we might improve, how we might do things differently, how we can learn from each other. That’s something that I would like to see more of in school. That’s the kind of education I feel comfortable with.  

It’s called Sandcastle, not because it is futile, as in building a sandcastle in the sky, but because it is doable. Make a tower, a moat, windows and walkways. Don’t like that tower? Tear it down and build a new one. Work in short iterations. Learn from mistakes. Make another sandcastle tomorrow, based on what you learned by building the one that the tide washed away. Imagine a whole beach of sandcastles, all of us educators out there building, learning from each other. Imagine calling for education systems reform based on multiple demonstrations of what could be.  

This is what the Call for Education Systems Reform is all about. Agreeing that change is needed - and being brave enough to lead with examples. 

If you are interested in reading the Call for Education Systems Reform and joining us as a signatory, please give the document a read at https://honouralllearning.ecolint.ch/united-call-to-action.  

Alexander, P. & Perche, J-O. (2023). Intellectual wellbeing: the pursuit of freedom in the professional learning of teachers, Professional Development in Education. 1-12. 10.1080/19415257.2024.2371852 

Magnuson, P., Harrison, R., Mattiace, J., Reeves, N. J., Carl, Alison, Tung, T., Hughes, C., Lupu, I. (2024). United Call for Education Systems Reform. Ecolint. https://honouralllearning.ecolint.ch/united-call-to-action#h.em8spkb9j18 

Reich, J. (2023). Iterate: The Secret to Innovation in School. New York: Jossey-Bass. 

Young, J. (Host). (2023, June 27). Why Do Some Schools Get Better Quickly and Others Get Stuck? [Audio podcast episode] EdSurge. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-06-27-why-do-some-schools-get-better-quickly-and-others-get-stuck 

Sieden, L. S. (2012). A Fuller View: Buckminster Fuller’s Vision of Hope and Abundance for All. Divine Arts Media. ISBN 9781611250091 

 

 

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