The term Life Long Learning has been bandied about by educators for years. It is a term that has worked its way into Mission Statements of schools across our nation. It is a term that teachers use with their students. It has become a goal that every teacher strives to put in place for students. It is also a goal that many (not all) teachers, for the most part, do not apply to themselves.
I sometimes think that our culture, demanding that teachers be content experts, is a hindrance to education reform. There is an implication that an expert is supposed to know it all. That position may limit a willingness to learn. How can a teacher be the expert, if he/she has more to learn? Even if one was an expert in some content area and at one point knew all that there was to know about a given subject, there is still always more information being developed. With the advancement of technology this is happening faster, and in more volume than ever before. Content experts remained experts longer in the 1800’s. It took years to question their expertise. Change was slow.
A teacher’s response to this might be one of disbelief. Teachers may not admit to this in public. However, if we consider teachers’ responses to suggestions of Professional Development, their actions belie their rhetoric. Many are resistant to Professional Development. In fairness, not all PD is worthy of consideration. It is not always well thought out or well presented. However that is not an excuse to resist all PD. The fact of the matter is that it is a big point of contention among many educators.
Colleges are being blamed for not producing enough great teachers. Not enough content experts. That is simply ridiculous. Colleges need to educate students in their content area as well as philosophy and methods in education. They are required to make students content experts in their content area and in education in four years. Teachers are born in the college classrooms, but they develop, mature and become great teachers in the schools in which they teach. This only occurs with support and leadership from their educational leaders. It requires continuous learning over the lifetime of a career. It requires teachers and their leaders to be Life Long Learners.
This all adds to a predicament in which teachers have placed themselves. Senior teachers are being vilified more than any other group of teachers being vilified by the critics of education. They are being portrayed as unwilling to learn or change. They are being pitted against the younger more energetic teachers who appear willing to learn and change. The senior teachers are victims of the culture of education. They are the experts as they were expected to be. They believe this themselves. They have attained their lifelong goal, therefore, they believe that there is no need to learn any more, or to change the “tried and true”. They have achieved expertise status as required by the system.
The culture cultivated this attitude, but now finds it unproductive and in need of change. It is the perfect excuse for educational leaders and politicians to use to eliminate what they see as an easy way to cut the budget. The most experienced teachers are the most expensive. Eliminating senior teachers is about money and budgets, and not better education. It requires eliminating fewer senior teachers to get the most Bang for the Buck. It doesn’t consider experience and stability of the school. It doesn’t consider loyalty and the very expertise it demanded. It’s all about the money
If we are to have better education system we need teachers to be better learners. For that to happen we need better leaders, who also need to be better learners. Life Long Learning is essential for all involved in education not just the kids. If we were serious about education reform we need to work on educating the educators in earnest. We can get very, very few great teachers from college classrooms. We can get teachers with great potential, but that potential must be nurtured and taught on an ongoing basis. It is the school’s leadership and culture that will enable a teacher to be great. It will be the commitment and support of the school leadership to professional development and Life Long Learning that will move us to where we need to be in education reform. That may only happen one school at a time. It might happen sooner if the idea of social learning ever takes hold in education. The Irony obvious to me is that Educators are for everyone being Life Long Learners as long as it doesn’t affect them. (No, that does not mean you, but many of the other educators.)
Comments welcomed!
Compare teachers to some other professionals.
Lawyers go through five (or more) years of apprenticeship before they become partners in their law firms. During this time they are doing real work, but they are also being mentored. And they’ve already been through four years of college, done really well, and then three years of law school.
Doctors go through internship and then residency before they go out on their own, and even then have to be recertified every ten (I think, not sure of the exact number) of years.
To me, these aren’t bad models of how we should be thinking of teachers.
All teachers will need time to adjust to the role of learner, that will be some real-life experiential PD! We will always have regional expectations that are not inline with a national definition/standard though because of the state having such wide latitude in most official PD, state college systems. We cannot therefore expect the Fed to answer this for education.
This cannot be top-down it has to be bottom-up. Teachers needs to see this as the value they can add to their own practice. Instead of dividing teachers by too old/young enough to learn/teach differently -we ought to group them by willing to invest in our profession or not willing. I think some outside observers would be interested in those self-selected groups.
Tom, I’m not an expert in this area but doesn’t some of the talk about getting rid of the most expensive teachers just mask the fact that there are real issues with other areas such as lower budgets, the structure of pensions, rising insurance costs, administration-heavy schools or the inability to fire teachers without pay that make the difference between the pay of an experienced vs. inexperienced teachers pay somewhat irrelevant? Again, not an expert so maybe you’ll post on this one day?
I agree though with your post and believe that if teachers were viewed as being on the cutting edge of education, supporting family, technology and lifelong learning, proper funding would follow. As Penny put it, it has to be bottom-up. A groundswell of excitement from teachers will change schools.
Good points all, Tom!
Seems to me that in order to be a lifelong learner, we need to find a way to become one of our own leaders.
Yes, we need mentors, but it really helps if we become a mentor for others, too.
Lifelong leaders pay forward what they’ve been given.
Cheers and thanks for the insightful words….Tom
I have often said that it takes a minimum of 3 years teaching in the same school and teaching the same subject to become a good teacher. Good, not necessarily great. The second year we make changes/improve. The third year we fine tune those changes. So, similarly to the comments about lawyers honing their skills, teachers need to hone their skills.
And, I would go so far that we should never stop honing our skills. Too often I am chided by my fellow teachers for being that guy with all of the “suggested links” or “great apps.” There is no malice suggested by these remarks. It really is just good-natured jabbing but it represents the fact that most teachers I know do NOT do self improvement after hours or on the weekend. They “have a life.”
When you add PD that is really poorly presented or is on topics that are not interesting or meaningful then teachers turn off during the one time when they could be adding tools to their tool box (during working hours!)
Not sure how to fix this but I intend to never give up trying how to make it better. Unconferences and Edcamps may end up being some of the solutions.
Right on target, Chris! Well-said.
The uncommon calling of betterment is not for everyone. It’s for those unwilling to give up.
Cheers,
Tom
I believe school structure needs to change to better meet the needs of all students. It has to be a sensitive change as many traditional methods of teaching and child care are “tried and true,” but other methods are not as effective. More effective structure could lead to greater success in schools.
Tom,
a thoughtful article with many truths that hit home with many educators I know. And the comments above reflect this. I would second, third, or whatever the call for mentor- and apprentice-ships, a ket to education reform I think. And I wholeheartedly agree with the Culture argument. But I am not comfortable with the “victimology” of senior teachers you describe, not because they cannot be viewed as such, but rather because it perpetuates the existing culture and does not drive change. Ed-reform will not happen if we consider ourselves victims; it will only happen if we consider ourselves innovators, change-agents, implementers, and do-ers. We cannot be constrained in this effort, subject to the forces that be, as victims often think of themselves. We must be action-heroes, no less. And if, at the end of the day, the lesson is that when you become a senior teacher, that you are inevitably eclipsed by technological development, then we do damage to our collective motivation. Change needs to be meaningful in the long run as well.
If we are to truly reform education (and we must), we must change not only the culture of education, but also the culture of media. Today, the media is the single most powerful agency in culture change, and arguments that the media simply reflect what is happening in society’s many sectors have long been discounted; the media has its own agenda. If we are to be successful at reforming education and changing the cultural beliefs around education, teachers in particular, and life-long learning, our message as a community must enable both the reform agenda and the media agenda, and we must enlist the media to champion our cause. As it stands, Education is “soft news”. In this capitalist society, that means linking future economic outcomes to education reform strategies, successfully, and enlisting our most experienced resources to build that bridge.
The outcome of education reform rests, in my opinion, on two things: (1) the ability of the education reform movement to articulate a clearly detailed strategic plan with a concurrent economic development plan and measurable education progress outcomes, and (2) on the ed-reform community’s ability to connect with politicians who can legislate, fund, and implement the ed-reform agenda.
I echo your call for leadership in the education reform community, I agree with you that we need to change the culture of education and our general cultural conceptions. Perhaps the first step towards life-long learning we can take today, to enable the change we seek, is to take positive steps towards articulating the specifics of the reform agenda, and building a detailed action plan for change. We have many great ideas, some tried, some not. WE have the content – now we need to give our agenda structure, and a voice. In my mind that means choosing champions and electing spokes-people. This is a crucial step, and there are many good candidates within our own community. All successful revolutions have a clear, charismatic champion, often found among the most experienced of us…whom would you choose?