Education: My motivation

(This is a transcript of a speech I gave recently to staff at a school I visited)

Why am I motivated to be a teacher? An educator?

Why am I motivated to be a Senior Leader?

To answer that I will have to tell you some things about myself.

My motivation comes from the belief that education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world (Nelson Mandela). 

For me this works on two levels. First on the global level. Education can change the world. And second, on an individual level, from the perspective of an individual, education can change their world.

First, that through education we forge the leaders and visionaries of the future, through education we mould the next generation of scientists and engineers and politicians, through education we create the future by birthing global citizens who will change the world.

So we have to get that right. Who will lead the world of the future but the young people in education right now. Who will invent, design, engineer and create the technology of the future but students in schools right now. Who will change the world of the future but them?

I believe that the world has to change, that on many levels of society we are pursuing unsustainable goals. 

Climate change, ecological catastrophe, extinction at a scale and rate unseen in billions of years; the world must change if we are to survive as a species.

Global inequality, the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, divisive, post-truth politics, racism, homophobia, intolerance, anti-semitism, hate crime and prejudice of all kinds; the world must change to be a better place in which to live and co-exist with our fellow humans.

These things will only change if we educate our young people well enough to enact this change. 

The future of the world depends on our students. The future of the world is literally in our hands.

Second, that through education we can change the world for the individual student. Education can lift the individual out of poverty, education can emancipate the individual from oppression, education can provide the ladder for the individual to climb away from disadvantage and into a new, open future. It is for the individual student that education can change their world. That is the power, potential and promise of education for each and every one of our young people.

I believe that the purpose of education is to humanise each and every learner, to foster their development, to guide their progress towards becoming fully human. Education should light the fire, not fill the pail. It should inspire and foment, not inculcate and perpetuate. If we get it right, we can literally change the world for a child; taking generational stagnation and the repeating destiny of social immobility and disadvantage and replacing it with a free and open future, a destiny that is shaped and limited only by the imagination of the individual child.

I believe in a curriculum that humanises the individual. That opens up rather than closes down options for the individual. I believe that the curriculum should be dialogic and empowering; it should present the best of what humans have said and thought and dreamt and created. The curriculum should run a course towards each and every student becoming the best version of themselves, whatever they choose that to be. It should guide the individual towards becoming fully human, free from the spectre of oppression and disadvantage, in whatever form that exists for that given student. It should guide the individual away from the spectacle (Guy Debord) and alienation through rampant consumerism and the commodification of every aspect of their life (from work and production to pleasure and leisure).

I believe in evidence based pedagogy. I think that the study of cognition and neuroscience has shown us many new things about the brain and how we learn. We now know that the brain is plastic, that it retains its plasticity far longer than previously thought. We know that learning an instrument, learning a new language physically alters the structure of the brain and provides additional cognitive benefits. 

I have talked quite a bit about education, but the sort of quality education that you have here, that I have been talking about, does not arise unbidden or spontaneously generate. It is the product of quality professional development and a commitment of all the adults within the organisation, bettering themselves in the pursuit of being more and more capable of delivering the quality of education your young people deserve. I believe that at every level of education we should strive for improvement and development. I believe that schools should be communities of learning and development, not just for the students, but for every adult who works in them. I believe in quality, evidence based CPD that is implemented properly, that achieves real and sustained impact. I believe that we must sustain the teaching profession by inspiring and training the next generation of educators. I think that those of us with experience and a passion for the vocation have a duty to ignite that same passion in others, so the work of education can continue.

Finally, I would like to tell you that I believe in real and authentic relationships. Relationships are the cornerstone of any organisation, but schools in particular. I believe that professional, inspirational, deeply caring relationships between staff, pupils, parents and the community is perhaps the most important thing of all. Relationships can have a powerful impact, relationships can change the world of a child, and by doing so they might just go and change the whole world.