Carpetbaggers
The term ‘carpetbagger’ is a pejorative one with its origins from the American Civil War. Every day I see and read about a vast array of individuals, consultants and companies promoting a selling their wares to the education sector. There are some very credible providers who are working with the profession to bring about long- term impact and sustainable change built on partnership with school communities. Others are ‘snake oil salesman’ or ‘carpetbaggers’ moving from systems and schools selling their ‘pots and pans’ for the primary motivation of making the sale. In my article I provide commentary on the status of ‘expert’; name the phenomena of ‘edutainment’ and the need for school leaders along with policy makers to discriminate between ‘fact, folly, fancy and fantasy’. The ongoing challenge and seduction is the temptation to reduce the dynamic of schooling to a set of numbers or a set of principles. Acknowledging context and listening to the profession must be at the forefront of shaping any collaboration or support to schools. Given the intensely human interactions that shape such a process, a certain amount of mystery and scope for teachers and leaders to weave their magic will always be a part of what works in education. All of us who care deeply about the moral purpose of education and schooling must remain vigilant an protect our work from the churlish advances of carpetbaggers. Link to full article here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/xo9lz20qok42q9y7e7o88/240611-Carpetbaggers.pdf?rlkey=y4byzmcqdb80jrgvqzezr7hae&dl=0
I have had this article in draft for a few years now. Thanks to the many people who have encouraged me to release it. To be published in the upcoming version of Education Matters.
Ministry Without Borders Consultancy
5 个月Incisive as always Stephen - prompting all to consider & discern more deeply! Your wisdom continues to affirm and gift our profession.
Principal Consultant at The Brown Collective
5 个月A brilliant article Steve...provides so much to think about
Principal Consultant at The Brown Collective
5 个月Great advice! Acknowledging context and listening - can never be understated. Well done Steve.
Head of Department (Teaching and Learning)
5 个月Very true about shifting fads and expertise. The role of the contextualisation of information is so important!
The ACADEMY OF ORGANISATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE Australia
5 个月Yes, like this Stephen. The stand out experts I admire have a mix of lived experience in a leadership role in their area of expertise and an academic background showing they have the thinking filters, connections and the deep knowledge. It goes against our fundamental understanding of applied neuroscience to call someone (without this grounding), an expert. Why? When you have at least a couple of decades of applying your expertise and studying it in a formal (and informal) way, your brain rewires, strengthen neural pathways associated with that expertise. There are no shortcuts. There is very little learning or behaviour change without neuroplastic changes over time. Dr Judi Newman