This is a hastily written post about the Rethinking Education conference 2023. It's a hurried one but I wanted to capture the mood. I'll revise tomorrow.
I want to thank Ben White @Waldenkent, who I talked to at the start. I was feeling unsure at the start so I froze on a bench outside and wrote my blog. Just by asking about it, I opened up and felt a hundred times more positive. He ran through his session on the importance of stories and I realised I was a full convert already. Almost every session mentioned the power of them afterwards. Here's an illustration created during the conference by Charlotte Forwood.
The first session was with Kamalagita Hughes @kamalgita on mindfulness in schools.
Rather than being meditation or colouring, mindfulness is the ability to switch gear when you need to.
Minds wander, she said. That's what they do - they think. We need to approach them with curiosity and kindness. Forgive whatever they do but be willing to explore and experiment what you're capable of. This is like the Chimp - it won't let you ignore emotions so accept them.
Education is always rushing forward. The next lesson, the next day, the next term. We rush through these on autopilot without question on pause. The other delegate said he forgot he had fingers.
If we can get out of the clouds in our minds, we can drop the umbrella and enjoy the sun when it shines.
She reported that studies didn't show mindful activities having an incredible effect on emotional regulation, but the most powerful effect was how much children appreciated having teachers who were calm, self regulated and could absorb their emotions and anxieties. Adele Bates echoed this as the single biggest contributor to positive behaviour improvements, ie through de escalation.
I thought we could make this part of the culture at my school through 5 minutes at every staffroom. But I need to remember: it takes agency. You can't force people to be mindful, the benefits come when you choose it for yourself.
Talk number 2 was with Joe Hallgarten who reminded me of the actor Rufus Sewell. His talk was about how to revolutionise education and get the right policies adopted by government.
He had three problems we need to think about
1) the way we sell and tell it: too many are presenting progressive education as easy and simple, but there are many factors that are overlooked. Luck, benefactors.
2) the way we teach and implement it. Needs to be more specific and what it looks like. We get accused of letting behaviour get sloppy and he said that's fair in several cases
3) the way we evaluate and evidence it. Keep it accountable. He has recommendations for each one that @lucystephensTNS photographed.
Note: The New School - a democratic school fully funded by a charitable foundation - gained a lot of followers. I'd love to visit it one today.
The third session was about agency by John Carden. His work was really helpful as agency is basically the main tool that will enable us to move towards self reliance as the goal of education.
What is agency?
Bringing flashbacks of my masters dissertation into teacher collaboration, Emirbayer and Mische (1998) defined agency as a temporally embedded process of social engagement, informed by the past (i.e. repeating habits) but also oriented toward the future (predicting alternative outcomes) and toward the present (when you think how am I doing so far?).
Letting students use agency means that they could theoretically do whatever they want. If we don't control them as much, then they can learn because they want to. That is what the rest of their life will be like. It's a risk, but all the evidence points towards it.
Exercising agency is a huge issue. If you ask a question and no one offers an answer, your agency is too limited. It's amazing how much effort it can take to start using agency (in defiance of social conventions) but once it's started it's hard to stop (i.e. when a discussion is going on too long)! I ran out of time to talk to him about Inferiority at the end but plan to email.
Ultimately it's how we want to work, but what happens if no one comes to your drop-in CPD... what happens if no one wants to stop their conversations at the same time to hear you speak? Our challenge is to create routines, disciplines and expectations that do not manipulate students but allow them to learn and regulate themselves. Not easy.
He challenged us to open our eyes, show others the respect as equal humans and let them learn to act.
Session 4 was with Tracy Firth who has developed Cherish: a system of stories to encourage mindfulness, positivity and resilience. Helping children to be centred, connected and carefree:
Teachers play one each morning and guide a discussion.
She has poured her heart and soul and skills into this project and swept up a lot of supporters along the way
I feel this is particularly useful to me. Our teachers are struggling with workload and don't always feel ready to process difficult concepts let alone learn a whole program to fit alongside the existing curriculum. I feel this could lighten the load on them, to start the day in a friendly, mindful way without having to be creative and mindful. It also reinforces a shared language around regulation that all adults can use.
Session 5 was a keynote speech by Adele Bates @adelebatesZ. I decided to go for one of these big talks because I felt the classrooms were a little intense and I wanted a breather.
Adele is a specialist who often works with children in a crisis, whose inferiority is fully enforced by the condemnation of almost everyone around them.
Working in an inclusive School has definitely opened my eyes to behaviour, especially building relationships. I learned that I pretty much agree with everything about her way of thinking, I just have to adjust my skills up to scratch.
She condemned the behaviour debate between consistency/discipline and building relationships and said we need both. This is the messy answer to a simple problem. You have to react to what that child needs at that moment. Do they need to follow the routines (then you can use non-threatening reminders) or do they need to be seen, made safe or soothed? It's not a solution, but teacher training should be all about knowing which one to apply,
The final season was with Matt Bawler, who has been working tirelessly to support mental health through establishing strong habits and skills in early years education.
He's got a strong approach based on many of my heroes: Alfred Adler, Martin Seligman (I've got his immense manual of character strengths on my bookshelf) and Carol Dweck.
And he's built a framework of phrases to build resilience that they introduce through stories. This is similar to the destination reader and other approaches to react but in a helpful, natural form for young people. I've written a shared language for our teachers to teach values but I'm struggling to implement it amid the difficult environment. Matt was kind enough to talk afterwards and is really keen to help other schools.
Ultimately I felt vindicated and in good company with the delegates at Rethinking Education and I'm pleased I overcame my worries to talk to people. Many influential thinkers and powerful leaders attended and in most cases they proved to be completely human and generous with their time. I would love to feel that it's just a matter of time before all these beautiful images become the norm. Life is messy and not solvable in one approach, but helping everyone to get comfortable, try new things and contribute to a community is surely going to make the world a better place.
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