Towards More Comprehensive Teaching Reforms

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Teachers and school leaders: the core of an education system

Clémence Coutelle-Rebut

Our recent class on Comparative Education Policy by Professor Pont focused on the characteristics and evolution of the education professions. Teaching policies represented 13.9 percent of education policies adopted across OECD countries between 2008 and 2014[i], which makes it the main lever of school improvement. These measures have always been a key feature of educational reform as they get to the very core of the learning process and have a huge potential impact on student performance. Attracting and retaining high skilled professionals, fostering continuous professional development, encouraging cooperation and pedagogical innovation within the education community … This broad set of goals seems even more significant as education systems move from increasing basic access to school towards improving educational standards and outcomes.

A call for long-term vision and integrated policies

Placed under growing budget constraints, governments and political leaders tend to cultivate strategies which lack global vision and overall coordination with regard to reforming teaching policy. Debates around education during the French presidential primaries highlighted the presumed incompatibility that politicians put forward between improving the status of existing teachers and increasing the contingent of education professionals[ii]. Our class discussions around the example of Finland, which seems successful with respect to teaching quality, led us to believe that staff improvement is not a question of either-or, but rather of the increased impact that can have various education policies can have when developed in a more integrated and synergetic manner. This also includes paying closer attention to school leadership as it can foster dynamic cooperation within the teaching and school community and often seems to be disregarded by decision-makers.

A holistic approach of teacher development: the professional capital model[iii]

The concept of professional capital offers useful insights to take a comprehensive approach to teaching policy. Professional capital is described as a function of different variables, which are human capital, social capital and decisional capital. These three components encompass not only skills but also social interaction, experience, judgment and continuous learning opportunities as means of improvement. Policy makers should consider developing them all to foster efficient teaching professionals throughout their careers. 
Going back to the French example, successive governments over the past few years seemed eager to adopt regulatory approaches and publicized curricular reforms. The accelerated pace of reforms led to uncertainty and top-down approaches towards education professions completely overlooked the value of empowering the teaching community to encourage incremental and endogenous change. Is it not time for governments to apply basic pedagogical methods of empowerment rather than merely using regulatory approaches to push teachers to deliver? Education professionals undoubtedly need real feedback to continuously develop their skills, but they also have a great contribution to make to forging innovative policy strategies.


VIDEO:  Bill Gates - Teachers need real feedback

References and further readings:

Hargreaves and Fullan, The Power of Professional Capital, JSD, Vol 34, No 3, June 2013 (available online: http://www.michaelfullan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/JSD-Power-of-Professional-Capital.pdf)




[i] Source - OECD
[ii] Primaire de la gauche : les différentes copies des candidats pour l’éducation - https://www.publicsenat.fr/article/politique/primaire-de-la-gauche-les-differentes-copies-des-candidats-pour-l-education-52584
[iii] Hargreaves and Fullan, Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School (Teachers College Press, 2012). 

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