Last week, the third annual World Innovation Summit in Education (WISE) was held in Doha, Qatar. This was not a 'summit' in the sense of structured talks between world leaders. Sponsored by the Qatar Foundation, WISE aims to be the Davos of education, enabling a diverse blend of educators, NGOs, innovators, social entrepreneurs, businesses, philanthropic foundations, analysts and learners to come together to debate - and in some cases plot - how innovation and collaboration can build education systems more responsive to current and future needs. This year, over 1200 participants from 120 countries gathered - a range that I think must be unique.
In its first two years, WISE was primarily a debating forum. It has now begun to mature. There is a growing emphasis on action. Foremost amongst a variety of initiatives is the Haiti Taskforce, established to form recommendations and plans for reshaping the education system needed in the wake of the 2010 earthquake. And WISE has moved from annual conference to continuing process; a collaborative platform has been formed to offer online access to promising ideas and practices.
The expanding debate though was the focus in Doha. Themed 'Changing Societies, Changing Education', the conference explored a variety of perspectives on how new knowledge and new technologies can help to shape a better world. What united delegates - across their diversity - was the conviction that formal education systems are nowhere close to being fit for purpose in meeting learners' needs. Of course the symptoms of inadequacy are manifested differently. In the developing world, the principal concerns are those of access. In many countries, there are still millions of children (particularly girls) with little or no access to schools. In the 'developed' (aka older, richer) systems, the malaise is of industrial-style systems failing to serve the needs of knowledge societies. In the case of the former, learners cannot get enough of education. In the case of the latter, learners get too much of what they don't want: incarceration in dull, test-driven environments disconnected from the real world.
But there are shared characteristics. In both cases, the lack of equity is a huge problem; with wealth, race and gender playing a disproportionate role in determining outcomes. Second, in neither case has the phenomenal potential of powerful digital (especially mobile) technologies yet been harnessed or fully exploited. Third, the goals and objectives of formal education (especially as they are expressed in curricula) are frequently inadequate to societies' fundamental imperatives - not least of which is the development of eco-literacy to engender some possibility of sustainable life on earth. And finally, in almost all systems, the metrics by which we assess are woefully inadequate, both for the task of supporting learning or that of determining success. It is interesting to note that this group of concerns was shared by some of the world's most successful systems (including the Sth Korean, Finnish, Canadian and Australian, all of which were well represented at WISE) as well as by the newly emergent
However there are reasons to be cheerful. WISE this year sought out and showcased a wide range of brilliant examples of change. Some were from formal organisations recognisably 'schools'; others were drawn from the creative work of innovators working at the edges, developing models of supporting learning that are appealing, engaging, successful (and often cheaper). From the PlantRead initiative in India ( described by Bill Clinton as "a small change that has a staggering effect on people's lives"); to Ainaworld, which was founded in Afghanistan by photojournalist Reza to enable children's and women's learning through the medium of image literacy. Many other examples have been profiled in a book published this year by WISE: Innovation in Education: Lessons from Pioneers from around the World, in which UK writer Charles Leadbeater draws out some lessons and messages about how innovation arises, is sustained and diffuses.
Contributions from conventionally recognisable schools came too; for example the Northern Beaches School in Sydney seeking - as now, thankfully, are many pioneering schools - to re-engineer the idea of 'school' and develop a new paradigm. From the UK the program of Creative Partnership Schools was there to describe its model of learning offered through schools' partnership working with the creative and cultural sectors. A fine irony: the Creative Partnerships program was amongst those awarded a WISE award for innovation, in the same year that its funding has been eliminated by the UK government.
What were the take-aways by WISE participants this year? I would say there were three. First, across the globe we need not just expansion and improvement; we need transformation. More (and slightly better) of the same old model won't do. That doesn't mean we give up on trying to improve the schools kids are in now. But we must ramp up our efforts to redesign a system of learning reflecting the changes and possibilities of our time. And that needs to be a SYSTEM not just a sprinkling of beautiful exceptions.
Second, digital technologies cannot lead pedagogy: rather they must serve its evolution. They are no silver bullet. Rather, we should think of them as akin to clean running water.
Third, our focus needs to move from 'schooling' to learning. A key task of governments in this era ought to be to enable an ever more vibrant mix of approaches to providing learning opportunities- but not as in a competitive market. The really smart thing to do is create the conditions for a thriving eco-system of learning approaches with a bedrock of entitlement and equity for all. I suggest the 'eco-system' metaphor to suggest structured collaboration, networked growth and development.
As a conference WISE was confounding, exhausting, infuriating and inspirational all at once. This hardened conference speaker and attendee found herself moved to tears on more than one occasion (an uncommon occurrence). Not least, the powerful sense of this work as a truly global endeavour is simultaneously humbling and energising. People want to form a movement: "where is our education Spring?). If any of this should resonate with you, get connected through organisations like:
LEARNING WITHOUT FRONTIERS www.learningwithoutfrontiers.com
WHOLE EDUCATION www.wholeeducation.org
Comments
Whole Education
Post new comment