Education professionalism and New Times: an international and democratic model

1. Education professionalism and New Times: an international and democratic model Prof. Ken Spours Centre for Post-14 Research and Innovation Institute of Education, University of London

2. Three global models of education(Sahlberg, 2007) • 1. Anglo Saxon (e.g. US, England, New Zealand, Eastern Europe and now Africa) – markets, choice and competition; standardising teaching and learning and test-based accountability. • 2. Pacific (e.g. South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and now China) – authoritarian/conformist; high levels of parental/social support for education; didactic teaching methods; high expectations and normative behaviours. • 3. Nordic (e.g. Finland) – high status education profession; high trust relationships; devolved responsibilities within broad national frameworks; an emphasis on links between education, social services and localities linked to school improvement.

3. The Anglo Saxon/neo-liberal model of professionalism • Anglo Saxon model of education – external, centralised assessment and accountability, choice and marketisation, standardised teaching • Managerial (bureaucratic, marketised) version of professionalism part of this model – New Labour and top-down professional standards + Coalition and market deregulation of professional standards • Effects on education profession – bureaucratised functions, transactions costs; performativity, compliance and lack of professional and creative freedom; now lack of professional standards particularly related to pedagogy (UCU 2013)

4. New Times – the new global context • New Times is term for a ‘progressive tendency’ within neo-liberal globalisation – comprises technological, economic, social and political developments – a focus on soft power and growing civil society. (Adnan 2013) • New Times comprises the following features: • Horizontal networking, digital technologies and global connectivity • Flatter enterprises, co-operatives the concept of the social economy (Murray 2012) • International radical social movements (e.g. Occupy) • The idea of the relational society (Rustin 2007) • Focus on sustainability, wellbeing and human empathy (Adnan 2013) • A radical interpretation of New Times involves a rejection of free markets; top-down state; wealth inequalities; harming the planet and the social recession.

5. A democratic and ecological model of professionalism for New Times • New Times is a challenge to all the global models, even the Nordic variant • Beyond ‘dual professionalism’ (expertise in an area of knowledge/practice and pedagogical expertise) • ‘Triple professionalism’ (Hodgson and Spours, 2013) is democratic (Whitty & Wisby, 2006), activist (Sachs, 2003) and ecological (Barnett, 2012) • ethically driven • co-production with other professionals and students • fostering democratic institutions • ability to think and act on differing and expanding ecological ‘scalings’ or levels from the individual to the international • Ecological and democratic professionalism is ‘demanding’ (Barnett 2012) and needs high support in order to ‘shape New Times’

6. Professionalism: international perspectives from the OECD

7. Supporting democraticprofessionalism • The concepts of trust, empowerment, mutual accountability; multiple expertise; collaboration and professional capacity building: • Being qualified, new settlement in initial teacher education and licensing • Continuous professional learning, willingness to improve - movement towards a masters level profession? • Expansive school and college work environments – focused on supporting the development of expansive competences and expansive identity • Communities of practice through local, national and international teacher networks • Beyond self-regulation - new forms of democratic accountability at the local level • A new approach to inspection – focused on improvement and partnership with teachers and school leaders • A new national college of educators

8. Sources Barnett, R. (2012) 'Towards an Ecological Professionalism' in C. Sugrue and T. DyrdalSolbrekke (eds.), Professional Responsibility: New Horizons of Praxis. Abingdon (Routledge). Adnan, I. (2013) In New Times change happens when you are not looking http://www.compassonline.org.uk/in-new-new-times-change-happens-while-you-are-not-looking-2/) Hodgson, A. and Spours, K. (2013) Why IfL should support triple professionalism, InTuition, Issue 13, London: Institute for Learning. Murray, R. (2009) in Danger and opportunity: Crisis and the new social economy, London: NESTA. Rustin, M. (2013) ‘A Relational Society’ in After Neo-Liberalism: A Kilburn Manifesto http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/doreen-massey/after-neoliberalism-introduction-to-kilburn-manifesto Sachs, J. (2003) The Activist Teaching Profession, Buckingham: Open University Press. Sahlberg, P. (2007) Secondary education in OECD Countries Common Challenges, Differing Solutions, Turin: European Training, 2007. Schleicher, A. (2011) Building a High Quality Teaching Profession. Lessons from Around the World. OECD. Available online at www.oecd.org/dataoecd/62/8/4706177.pdf. UCU (2013) Towards a UCU policy on professionalism London: UCU. Whitty, G. and Wisby, E. (2006). ‘Collaborative’ and ‘democratic’ professionalism: alternatives to ‘traditional’ and ‘managerial’ approaches to teacher autonomy. Educational Studies in Japan: International Yearbook No. 1, 25–36.