Scottish education is the subject of fundamental reform. In Where Next for Scottish Education: Every learner Matters? Professors Christopher Chapman and Graham Donaldson at the University of Glasgow’s Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change argue the case for change. Here, they summarise why they believe the time is right for ‘bold thinking and risk taking’.
Scotland is one of the most educated societies in the world, with an education system that serves children and young people well. Improving the Scottish education system has been a priority for governments since devolution, and over recent decades a series of ambitious initiatives have been attempted. A series of recent external and independent reviews have questioned the pace of recent progress and recommended a range of reforms.
This is all occurring at a time of increasing rates of poverty within society which presents major challenges to learning and wellbeing. The severe and wide-ranging impacts of the pandemic are also becoming clearer. Global uncertainty, including climate and geo-political challenges, a related cost-of-living crisis, and the prospect of medium to long-term financial austerity dominate news feeds.
Artificial learning and new ways to learn
At the same time, technological innovation is moving at an unprecedented pace, posing fresh challenges, and creating new opportunities for educators, learners and wider society. Artificial intelligence is opening new ways to learn and also posing huge challenges to established assumptions and practices.
Put simply, in 2023 the Scottish educational system finds itself at a crossroads. It could choose to batten-down the hatches and continue broadly on its current path, ignoring this rapidly changing context, commentaries and evidence from both outsiders and practitioners, alike. The after-effects of the pandemic and the current economic climate certainly might make consolidation or even retrenchment seem attractive. However, that same environment underpins the imperative for bold longer-term thinking.
As academics working on issues of educational change, improvement and innovation across the globe, combined with a strong commitment to improving Scottish education, we are convinced that there is an urgent need for radical thinking about how best to support all of Scotland’s learners flourish in this increasingly challenging environment.
Strategic direction
Our analysis suggests that establishing a common sense of purpose, building a coherent strategic direction, investing in teachers, harnessing technology and creating supportive structures are crucial for improved performance and sustained success.
International evidence also suggests that centrally managed, top-down approaches to change often limit and, in many cases, inhibit progress. Furthermore, the distance between central policy and action in the field has been exacerbated by uncertainty and lockdowns during the pandemic.
There are many strengths upon which to build, but we need to be creative and up our game if today’s young people are to thrive in an increasingly complex and challenging world. How we do this, creating something that works now, and is sustainable for the longer term must be central to our thinking and vision.
Curriculum for excellence
We need to learn from the lessons of the Curriculum for Excellence, which reimagined the purpose of schooling, was much less prescriptive and envisaged a more creative role for teachers. It was widely supported both professionally and politically when it was developed and introduced over a decade ago. And yet, as is often the case with educational reform, the period following the original design has seen an incremental dilution of the original intent.
If we are to create the conditions to support lasting change, it is equally important to understand what some of the main barriers to progress are. These include national policies that unintentionally encourage schools to narrow educational experiences, administrative structures that limit the freedom of practitioners to take risks, and cultures and structures that discourage innovation, the sharing of ideas and expertise.
Crucially, if we are to embrace change rather than react to events, we need to establish mechanisms that can anticipate and harness such developments. This means putting those closest to the action in the position to make decisions in real time. National policy should employ frameworks and set a common direction but should include the education professions, parents/carers and the learners themselves much more directly in the decision-making process.
Innovation hubs
Universities can and should play a major role as part of an ‘innovation hub’ that researches the efficacy and impact of developments whilst also translating opportunities into practical ways of improving access to, and experience of high-quality learning across the system.
In Where Next for Scottish Education: Learning is Scotland’s Future? we argue that Scottish education should be able to rise to the challenge and take the opportunity to establish a long-term strategic vision for our young people’s learning and wellbeing. Educators will need to be given the support to own and realise that vision. Parents, carers and the learners themselves will also need to believe that change is both necessary and achievable.
With bold thinking and calculated risk taking we can create a culture that will build on our best practice and disrupt orthodoxies rooted in the past to create an education system that all of Scotland’s learners deserve. It remains to be seen whether Government and the profession can seize this opportunity.