Transformers, in different disguises!
By Tim Logan
There are A LOT of people “transforming” education right now! Or so it would seem if you read your social media or newsletter feeds. And yet very little actually changes. But perhaps what people actually mean by “transforming” is, in fact, very different.
I am finding myself in more & more conversations with people who are “transforming” education and somehow I get positioned (or I position myself) as the hyper-critical dystopian doomsayer! It’s a strange feeling, and not my usual disposition (Will Richardson is much better at it than me! 🤣)
So I’m writing this somewhat as therapeutic reflection! But also because I think we need to be really clear about what’s actually going on when we equivocate with this word “transformation” - that is, as the definition of equivocate says, ‘use ambiguous language so as to conceal the truth or avoid committing oneself.’
So these are some of the stances on this work that I am noticing:
🎯 The realist (re)former - Not actually transforming anything at all, though likes to use the language of "transformation" as it sounds more exciting (and sells more products)!
🛠 The pragmatic transformer - Let’s “start where people are” and tinker at the edges and see what’s possible (even if sometimes what we’re saying sounds like more of the same).
🔥 The radical transformer - Let’s burn the whole thing down and start again. It’ll be different this time (honestly!).
🕸 The system transformer - You can’t change the education system without changing the nest of other systems that it is implicated in (how long have we got?!).
🌍 The paradigm transformer - You can’t change the education system without re-examining the paradigmatic ‘logic’ on which it was created ( 😳 ).
🚧 And then there’s the conservative - what’s all this bluster and nonsense about? Has anyone ever heard of ‘Chesterton’s Fence’? (Be careful what you change, unless you really know why it was there in the first place!)
Overall, what I’m learning is that:
- We need ALL of these stances. And we need to continue to engage in good faith dialogue about what we really care about.
- There is no so-called education system ‘out there’. We are the system.
- When you’ve got ‘skin in the game’ (eg. you’re a principal or a teacher in a school), it radically changes what feels possible.
- People are more ready than you think to go further than you think.
- It’s really heavy to hold on to a stance that doesn’t feel like your ‘natural’ disposition.
- We are not starting from scratch and we are quick to forget! People have been doing things differently forever. But the dominant narratives of national and global educational accountability leave little room for collective learning.
- Perhaps “transformation” is hiding in plain sight? Millions of people around the world live by a different paradigmatic ‘logic’. Do we have sufficient humility to really learn?
