Mar 20

Learning at the heart of every school … but what to learn? That is the question.

The OECD published a report last week about leadership in schools across the world; entitled ‘Preparing Teachers and Developing School Leaders for the 21st Century’, it had as its core intention an exploration of how headteachers and principals of schools are developed into effective leaders, and how, by sharing good practice, we can all learn from the best. The Report was particularly interesting, however – once you moved beyond the tables of comparisons (which, though interesting in themselves, sometimes distracted from the main messages) – in what it assumed about learning today:

‘… in a fast-changing world, producing more of the same education will not suffice to address the challenges of the future. Perhaps the most challenging dilemma for teachers today is that routine cognitive skills, the skills that are easiest to teach and easiest to test, are also the skills that are easiest to digitize, automate and outsource. A generation ago, teachers could expect that what they taught would last for a lifetime of their students. Today, where individuals can access content on Google, where routine cognitive skills are being digitized or outsourced, and where jobs are changing rapidly, education systems need to place much greater emphasis on enabling individuals to become lifelong learners, to manage complex ways of thinking and complex ways of working that computers cannot take over easily. Students need to be capable not only of constantly adapting but also of constantly learning and growing, of positioning themselves and repositioning themselves in a fast changing world.’

These messages have been growing in volume and intensity for a few years now, and are entirely convincing, and yet in school classrooms we often seem to bury our heads in the sand and keep on teaching in essentially the same way as children have been taught for the past century or so. The technology is innovative, and there is a far greater focus on skills than ever before, but the main pressures not to change come from the imposed need to conform to a knowledge-based examinations system which channels learning into specific boxes, and a national curriculum which is conceptualised around discrete ‘subjects’, taught by discrete specialists who – in the face of the inexorable drive towards national examination targets (now, of course, compared internationally) – have little time to collaborate, to question what their students are learning, and to find a way to connect it for them, to create the opportunities for higher level, joined up, synergistic and synoptic thinking that our world needs.

Too much time is wasted at school with pupils moving from classroom to classroom, readjusting their expectations of what will be required from the next – separate, un-joined-up – class. We need to think radically and fast about what we are doing in our schools, and this is a conversation which needs to happen both at national and international level, as well as in the heart and crucible of the action – our schools. Nothing will change unless we make it change, and we are going to have to be very, very bold if we are going to take a leap – together – into planning, through the education we provide, for a world where our children are ahead of the challenges they face, not struggling to adjust to them when they leave schools and universities.

One thing is clear – the status quo is not good enough. Let us press on with the conversation and drive for the future.

Mar 18

Research from the US on Girls: the stereotype threat

Meeting other Heads of Schools is always interesting and uplifting; meeting other Heads of Schools who are actively engaged in developing and promoting research on girls’ education is inspiring. So it was at the NAPSG conference in Seattle, where I had the good fortune to meet and spend time with Ann V Klotz, the super Head of Laurel School, Shaker Heights, Ohio, who pointed me in the direction of their school’s Center for Research on Girls. Laurel School – which has a fabulous motto: ‘Dream. Dare. Do’ – has invested in research into how girls learn best, and their resources are freely available to educators, girls and parents around the world, which is just how research should be accessed. Mrs Klotz is an alumna of The Agnes Irwin School, Rosemont, Pennsylvania, which is itself developing a Center for the Advancement of Girls, again investing in research on girls’ education, and it is absolutely tremendous to see these initiatives.

One of the areas covered by the Center for Research on Girls (CRG) is that of ‘stereotype threat’, and if you have a moment, I thoroughly recommend that you read their briefing papers about how this affects girls. It is a phenomenon which has been identified particularly – but not exclusively – in Maths tests, and the material produced by the CRG, aimed at teachers, parents and girls themselves, draws attention to the circumstances in which stereotype threat can cause a student effectively to undermine her own performance, simply because she is aware – often at a subconscious level – of the existence of a negative stereotype.

Interestingly, studies have shown that women perform less well in tests when they are led to believe that the person administering the exam is sexist; they perform less well too when they take the tests alongside men, so embedded is this negative stereotype in their understanding of the world, and how they view it. Incredibly, even a reference to gender – a simple question requiring a response about whether one is male or female – can have a suppressing effect on performance. A study in 2008 calculated that ‘4,700 more girls a year would receive AP calculus credit if the question about the students’ gender were moved to the end of the test’.

Of course, forearmed is forewarned, and the real value of this research by the CRG is, by highlighting this issue (among, it must be said, many others), that the substance of the stereotype can be unpicked and the negative effect on girls guarded against. It is tremendously important that we do not forget that we are still in a period of social transition, and that matters concerning gender still have the potential to hold back our daughters. Those of us concerned with the education of girls are seeking a world in which gender ceases to be a barrier to men or to women; we seek a fairer, more equitable, happier balance. The more we can understand through research, the better. Let’s share what we know!

Mar 16

The Daily Mail approach to feminism … no wonder we still have a long way to go

I try to avoid reading the ‘Reader Comments’ on the UK Daily Mail website, but sometimes I lapse and find myself trawling through several pages in the search of some positive and constructive insights to the matter under discussion – often in vain. Given that the articles I am usually reading pertain in some way to the role of women and mothers in our society (a favourite topic, of course, for the Daily Mail), then when I drag myself away from these comments, I usually have to rescue myself from a sinking feeling that we have a long, long way to go in our world before we even approach the levels of equality – and courtesy to our fellow human beings – which will help us to become a happier, more balanced, more tolerant people.

This week I hopped online to read again an article I had read in the print edition about how high-flying women executives are paid 10% less than men, and I found myself drawn to see how people had reacted to the story. I should, of course, have known better. There were some very good points, including the observation that a seeming obsession with executives overlooks the plight of women in less high profile jobs, who too might well be (and often are) paid less than men, despite the raft of legislation to prevent this happening. Unfortunately, many, many of the comments betrayed a deep embedded sexism which sought also to undermine – by exaggeration – the progress made in our world by feminist and equality movements over the past few decades. The following comment – which I replicate below complete with original spelling and grammar – was, regrettably, typical:

‘These annual incomes don’t prove how many hours or how much holiday is taken , bearing in mind most “strong independant women” like to keep their sex and the city/ desperate housewife lifestyles open it wouldnt surprise me to find these women working alot less hours a week than the men,if that is so , claiming they think the deserve the exact same pay a year , will mean their hourly rates after made higher than men’s , which is not equality in my eyes , it’s special rights’

Well, I shall leave you to draw your own conclusions. Suffice it to say that it is very, very clear that as a society we have to do significant amounts of work in our schools, not only to improve accurate communication skills, but also to address the many negative perceptions of women that pervade our culture. We cannot take for granted that time and legislation will gradually move us all to a position where gender equality is a genuine and undisputed part of our lives. This is not about sameness – we are all in any case unique individual beings – but it is about real and deep mutual respect of all human beings for who and what they are.

So much to do … better get back to work, I guess.

Mar 13

Mis-Guiding? Girlguiding UK and the manicure controversy

I felt rather conflicted when I read in yesterday’s newspapers about Girlguiding UK’s themed activity packs, designed to provide a focus to meetings. Of the 26 packs on offer to Guide leaders, designed for use by the Guides in their unit, a number appear to focus on physical appearance, style and fashion, with names such as ‘Parties, Chocolate and Showtime’, ‘Makeover Madness’, ‘Passion 4 Fashion’ and ‘Glamorama’. Activities involved include tips on make-up, a discussion of who is ‘hot’ in celebrity fashion, and instructions on manicures.

A Girlguiding spokesperson pointed out, quite rightly, that there are also sections on ethical cosmetics, while other activity packs promote thinking about careers and aim to challenge stereotypes, but it still feels uncomfortable to think that an organisation which is admirable in its promotion of female empowerment should be encouraging impressionable girls (Girl Guides are aged 10 to 14) to engage in activities which focus so heavily on their appearance. In this world, we are surrounded by – bombarded by – images of women focused on appearance, to the extent that this has become a huge subliminal pressure for girls and young women. Is Girlguiding right to be indulging in this? Are they ‘supping with the devil’, or is this simply a harmless bit of fun?

The truth, of course, is that it will all be in the interpretation and in the balance presented to the girls in the Guide units. If these activity packs are taken at face value, and the leaders of the units present them uncritically, then they have the potential to do more harm than good; we cannot leave uncriticised any materials which promote, unquestioned, the value of female appearance over substance. If the emphasis, however, is on critical debate, teasing apart the difference between good grooming or self-care, and dressing to conform to increasingly outdated perceptions of what women should be wearing and how they should be behaving, then these packs have the potential to do good. By the age of 10, a young girl has been exposed to many millions of images which will have shaped her understanding of how women should dress and act, and some work to redress this balance cannot come soon enough.

So … over to the Girl Guide leaders to make these packs work. Perhaps it might also be wise to look again – critically – at some of the wording in the packs, to ensure that it is easier to interpret them as opportunities for learning and growth … ‘pampering’ is not an end in itself, after all, and with its associations with female ‘flakiness’, it is a word with which many women struggle. All this goes to show, of course, is that we still have a lot of work to do before we can really move away from this debate into a world where women and men are valued equally for who they are, not how they appear.

On with the task …

Mar 10

Miss Representation: developing healthier attitudes to women and girls

I wrote a few weeks ago about the thought-provoking documentary, Miss Representation, which was shown at the Houses of Parliament recently and which is developing into a powerful voice in America today. When you visit the site, www.missrepresentation.org, you are given the opportunity to sign a pledge to ‘challenge the media’s limiting portrayal of women and girls’, and when you do, you receive each week an insightful email with a particular focus and point of action related to the cause, which I have personally found inspiring.

This week’s email focused on the outrage experienced by many Americans who are attuned to this issue of the objectification of women when they saw this month’s edition of the Sports Illustrated magazine, which was subtitled ‘The Swimsuit Issue’ and – as one might have guessed from this title – featured heavily pictures of women models in swimwear. The approach taken by the people behind the movement of Miss Representation, however, is to turn this into an opportunity, and so they came up with an action point, as follows:

‘This week’s action is to have a conversation with the men and boys in our lives. We know that most men do not want to intentionally demean and devalue women in this way, and that education is the key to shifting behavior. So regardless of your gender, find time to sit down with a male loved one this week and discuss the effect that female objectification in mainstream culture is having on all of us. Encourage them to join you in Getting Healthy and consuming media that uplifts women instead of limiting them.’

Wise advice – and absolutely the right way to go if we are to move forward. Images of unrealistically shaped, so-called ‘perfect’ women and girls in sexualised poses bombard us – and our children – from every angle. We have grown so used to them that we overlook the power they have to alter (and damage) our view of women in real life. We have to look again, take stock, and decide that we will not allow them to distort the ideas our daughters especially have of how women should look and act. Men and women – take part in this action and help make a difference!

Mar 07

Dame Joan Bakewell speaks out: teen magazines sexualise girls

Dame Joan Bakewell, the journalist and television presenter, who helped lead the sexual revolution of the Sixties, and who shocked the nation in 2001 when she presented the BBC TV series Taboo, spoke out earlier this week at the Bath Literature Festival about the effect that teenage magazines are having on young people – and young girls in particular – and what she had to say made perfect sense. According to the Daily Mail, she said that ‘teenage girls were being offered ‘coarsening trash on a huge scale’ and this was having an impact on their attitudes to sex and their bodies.’ Moreover, she went on to blame big business for this: she said that the sexualisation of society was ‘driven by a whole industry and huge financial investment that pushes young and vulnerable girls into feeling unhappy about their bodies.’ In her words, ‘We’re simply an overindulged society that is given over to complete narcissism.’

It is always encouraging – heartening, even – when people in the public eye are not afraid to stand up and talk sense about what they see around them, even if it means drawing attention to the fact that they may have held different opinions in the past. Honesty, and the ability to change one’s mind, are good characteristics to have, and are a reassuring reminder that human beings have the capacity to change for the better as they develop greater wisdom, and as the evidence presented by society around them throws up alternative interpretations and understandings of what is happening to our young people – sometimes (often, in fact) unintended consequences of well-meant activities in the past. Few people dispute the fact that the sexual revolution of the 1960’s went some way to equalising men and women – but as it has progressed, unchecked, it appears to have had an opposite effect. Young women today are far more likely to worry about their appearance than are young men – and are far more likely to be judged on how they look, too, rather than on what they do and achieve. Stereotypes are reinforced every day when teen magazines are opened and read.

It is taking time, but I am convinced that there is a gradual groundswell of public opinion and a growing understanding of the harmful effects of our sexualised society on young people. We are, I believe, developing the wisdom to see beyond the superficial and into the forces that are pressuring our young generation. We cannot let up now, however; there is much to be done. Our goal: a fairer, more equal society. We should settle for nothing less.

Mar 04

Microsoft, School Principals and the World of Work

The annual conference of the US National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls, which I attended last week in Seattle, took as its theme ‘Our new world of work: challenges and opportunities’, and proved to be an excellent forum in which to consider and debate the issues surrounding this topic. Ellen Stein, the Head of the Dalton School in New York, and this year’s President of NAPSG, opened the conference with the assertion that ‘as the world of work changes profoundly, the world of education must change with it’, and this underpinned the discussions and debates of the entire few days. With these emerged again and again the importance of critical thinking, of flexibility of mind, of communication skills and of collaborative processes – all of which are skills which the young people in our schools now must learn and embed if they are to be successful in their futures.

And this was very clear when, as part of the conference programme, we visited the world headquarters of Microsoft, located in Seattle – a fascinating experience. This global corporation extends to almost every country in the world, devotes $9 billion dollars a year to research, and draws together teams of extremely bright people to work on exciting new projects to help make a difference in the world – increasingly, Microsoft’s main focus. Did you know, for example, that research teams from Microsoft working on detection filters for spam emails had linked up with researchers of the HIV virus, and had applied their algorithms to the hunt for a vaccine? It appears there are a several similarities between the way spammers seek to evade spam filters and the way the HIV virus is constantly mutating; by drawing the research together, vast strides forward are being made in the hunt for a cure.

The world needs curious minds and lateral thinkers, and in schools we must work hard to ensure that the curriculum we provide for our students is no longer locked into the past, in an industrial age. For too long the realities of what our world needs have not filtered through to the classroom; suffocating and restrictive examination programmes have limited creative thought or the pursuit of individual passions, and this, it seems, is true worldwide. The classroom should be the gateway to a world of deep thought and inventiveness; anything else should be unthinkable in this day and age.

And this is where School Principals come in. Leadership is key to the success of any organisation, and its impact is (and should be) felt keenly in places which should be likened to the great galactic nurseries of the stars – places of learning and development where great minds can be grown. The role of the School Principal is to break free of stifling constraints and, sometimes, political interference; to put every child first and to help him and her to glimpse what the future may have in store. It is so important that we do this. The future of the world depends on our young people, and we owe them the very best start in their learning journey.

Mar 02

What education (probably) needs: an Office for Educational Improvement

It was interesting to read Stephen Twigg’s comment piece in The Times last Tuesday, ‘We need facts about education, not opinions’. Writing in his capacity as Shadow Education Secretary, he argued that education policy in the UK needs to be based not on prevailing dogmas, but on evidence, and that a Labour Government would set up an office for education that was akin to the Office for Budget Responsibility, which was created after the last General Election by the Coalition Government to be an independent body that had as its main role to make economic forecasts and assessments of economic progress based on research that avoided the ‘spin’ factor so favoured by governments. An Office for Educational Improvement would, according to Mr Twigg, take responsibility for four main areas: ‘promoting high standards; spreading best practice; acting as a clearing house for research; and aiming to improve England’s position in international league tables’.

As with anything written by a politician on education, one has to approach this proposition positively, suspending one’s scepticism (or at least suppressing the question of why the Labour Party didn’t actually do this while in power – which was a period of time marked noticeably by educational policy based on opinions rather than research). Mr Twigg is quite right – education has suffered enormously over the past decades by being used as a political football. Education by its very nature is a long term project; with each child who is born, we enter into a social contract that has as its minimum a 20 year time span, whereas political contracts with the people last only 4 to 5 years (and often unilaterally change their terms during that period). Hundreds of thousands of children over the course of successive governments in recent years have suffered because the terms of their educational contracts have altered radically with changes in Parliament. What happened to assisted places, for instance, or to independent-state school partnerships? Politicians -at least, all the ones I have met – are well-meaning and usually passionate about education; it is just that there is a fundamental mismatch between the needs of education and of politics, and the more powerful, short-term, partner – politics – almost invariably wins, to the detriment of the education of young people each year.

So … an Office of Educational Improvement is a good idea; sitting independent of government, it would need to have a strong, firm remit, with a clear voice, but also with time and space to build up its body of research, and a clear understanding that its recommendations will grow and change with time as our body of research grows and changes. There is no magic bullet in education, and this body should not be expected to make grand final pronouncements, made with a flourish, which will provide ‘the’ answer to what we should be doing in our schools. The real truth of education is that each child is different, and we need to find a way to support and nurture her or his potential; any Office of Educational Improvement will need to recognise this. Importantly, while this new Office would need to be in the public eye and accountable to the public, and must especially be responsive and open to the thoughts, ideas and experiences of practitioners and leaders in education, it must build up an inner strength that allows it not to be swayed by public opinion, or political pressure. If it succumbs to either of these, it will fail, and our hopes for a de-politicised educational system, free from amateurish interference, will fail with it.

We should not underestimate this challenge. For a body to resist the attraction of making ‘flash in the pan’ gestures, to determine to stand alone, and yet still be permeable enough to remain open to all excellent practice, both nationally and internationally, picking apart what might have longevity and transferability … this will not be easy. But there is a real opportunity here for us to invest in education, to commit to it as a long-term project, and to develop – and carry through – a far greater, deeper wisdom in this area, which will benefit us all.

And yet … doubt remains. Why is this only ‘probably’ a good idea …? The crunch, of course, will come when the Office does not say or do what the Government of the time would like it to say or do. That will be its defining moment, and it will fail or succeed depending on who wins that battle. As educationalists, our hopes should be pinned on its success … let us see if we can genuinely commit to independence in educational research and thought in this country. An opportunity awaits us.

Feb 27

Bertha Knight Landes – a woman who is part of Seattle’s history

I am currently in Seattle for a couple of days, attending the conference of the US National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls, which I had the privilege of addressing on Sunday. It is a fabulous conference, at the heart of which there is the opportunity to share experiences with colleagues and to grow in the knowledge that we are educating our young women for a better future. Seattle, itself, though, I have discovered, is the home of a number of inspirational women, and I have been reading about Bertha Knight Landes, Seattle’s first mayor, back in 1926, so I thought I would share this story.

Bertha Knight Landes – a mother of three born in 1868 – was elected mayor of Seattle in 1926, and became as a result the first woman to lead a major American city. Prior to this, she had been active in women’s organisations, and in 1921, as president of the Seattle Federation of Women’s Clubs, she had been instrumental in seeking to encourage business in a time of recession, earning the praise of the president of the Chamber of Commerce. Subsequently, she was appointed as the only woman on a five-member commission to study unemployment in the city, and her political career sprouted from this, with a strong motivation to make a positive difference. According to the historian, Doris Pieroth, she saw her career ‘as duty and service rather than an opportunity for fulfilment of her own ambition’.

In post, Mrs Landes was widely credited with cleaning up what had been a scandal-hit administration. She rooted out corruption and appointed qualified professionals to lead city departments, improve public transport and parks, and put the city’s finances in good order. One of her administration’s legacies is the Civic Auditorium (now the Seattle Opera House). Her time in office was undeniably a success.

When it came to time for re-election, however, despite endorsements not only from women’s organisations but also from all of Seattle’s major newspapers and key political parties, she lost to another – male – candidate, in a move that she put down to his higher campaign budget and ‘sex prejudice’ on the part of campaigners and voters, part of the underlying sentiment at the time (which was hard to shift, and still is hard to shift now) that a city should have a man at the helm. Mrs Landes did not fade from public view, however, and continued on in a number of leadership positions, making a positive contribution to the life of Seattle into the 30s and 40s. She died in 1943.

I firmly believe that we learn an enormous amount by hearing about people’s lives, by imagining ourselves walking in their shoes, and seeing the world through their eyes. Learning about Bertha Knight Landes puts into context the move into politics by women across the world, and reminds us that we have come a long way in a short time in this period of greater gender awareness and social transition … but that there is still more to do to leave behind us, once and for all, the preconceptions of a bygone age. History matters; let us not forget this – or, indeed, the story of Bertha Knight Landes.

Feb 25

Marie Colvin – a brave woman who sought to make a difference

You cannot fail to have read or heard this week about the death of Marie Colvin, the Sunday Times journalist who was killed on 22nd February in Syria as she reported on the bloody conflict and the appallingly relentless attack on civilians that continues there day and night. Her death was a shock – a strike at the heart of our establishment and free press – but it highlights too the deaths which are still passing beneath our radar: the innocent civilians besieged and bombarded in Homs, picked off seemingly at random in what can only be seen as a cruel and callous demonstration of might and power.

Ms Colvin was very clear about the purpose of what she was doing. In an address she gave in November 2010 at St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street, London, at a service to commemorate war reporters who had died since 2000, she explained why she and others went into dangerous situations: ‘Our mission is to speak the truth to power. We send home that first draft of history. We can, and do, make a difference in exposing the horrors of war and especially the atrocities that befall civilians … The real difficulty is having enough faith in humanity to believe that enough people – be they government, military or the man on the street – will care when your file reaches the printed page, the website or the TV screen. We do have that faith because we believe we do make a difference’.

Her passion was with her to the end. One of last reports described watching a baby die – a heartbreaking plea to the West to get involved in halting the terror. If we feel powerless when we read her reports, remember that Marie Colvin took power into her own hands and placed herself so that she could expose the truth and prompt a reaction. The lesson of her life is that it is in fact possible to act and to light the touchpaper for change.

Marie Colvin put herself in harm’s way so that she could tell us the truth and help make the world a far, far better place. We cannot allow her to die in vain, or for the story she was telling in Syria to go unnoticed. Tell this on – and continue her work.