Redefining Success for our Students

Janelle Riki-Waaka, highly experienced leader and consultant, CORE Education

Failure. A word I am on a mission to eradicate from the hearts and minds of all involved in education. Students are never considered solely responsible for their successes at school but often they are left to feel solely responsible for their failures. Sadly, there are some children who leave education worse off than when they went in. It breaks my heart that I am part of a system that actually causes harm to some children. The scars of failure stay burned into the hearts and minds of our children forever. They do not forget. And therefore, we must continue to seek out new ways of improving our practice in order to best meet the needs of all of our students – that’s our job, our privilege and our great responsibility.

I failed High School. It certainly wasn't because I wasn’t smart enough or even that I didn’t want to learn. On reflection, I think it was just that no one really supported me to discover my potential and enable me to seek out my passions. Teachers pretty much taught the students that presented as wanting to learn what they had on offer and everyone else was simply left to their own devices. What if what was on offer was underpinned by a worldview that privileged certain students and marginalized others?

If we do what we've always done, we'll get what we've always gotten. Our job as educators is to prepare learners for their future. Even though the future is relatively unknown, what we do know is that we are going to need diverse thinkers and doers to meet the needs of our increasingly diverse communities. No longer will one world view service the needs of the many. With this in mind, we have been considering how to redesign the way we educate students so that it is more agile, more responsive, and much more personalized. We know that one size does not actually fit all, and that the pedagogy of yesteryear will not meet the needs of all learners today. As John Dewey said, “if we teach today as we did yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow”. No truer words were spoken.

Failure in my opinion is simply unrealized potential.?As an adult, I don’t consider things I can’t do well as failures – I just know I’m better at some things than others. Sometimes I learn to do things easily, sometimes it takes me much longer and many, many attempts! And there are times when despite all my effort, I just can’t seem to do something well enough. However, I don’t label myself a failure, I know my strengths and abilities lie elsewhere, and so I hone those skills and passions.

So, why is it that at school a student passes or fails? There are no other options on offer and few opportunities for many, many attempts. We are guilty of making huge sweeping statements about our students’ ability but it’s all contextual. A student failing their exam does not make them a failure. It might mean that perhaps this is harder for them and they need more time. Or maybe the way it was taught didn’t make sense to them. Or maybe their cultural background, values or beliefs aren’t reflected in the knowledge that is taught, and therefore they struggle to connect and make sense of it.

Children should not have to leave who they are at the school gate. They should come home to school every day.

Of course, academic achievement is one form of success. But it’s not the only one! So, what other forms of success are there? What would a holistic view of a child’s success look like? For my family, being confident and connected to our language, culture and identity is our most highly valued form of success there is. As is respect, kindness, service, believing in yourself and being bold and brave. These are the successes we celebrate with great pride. In our family, being a good person is of a much higher value than being a high academic achiever.

Children should not have to leave who they are at the school gate. They should come home to school every day. Schools should be places that enable them to be who and what they are. So, if the world needs diverse thinkers and doers, how will your school support students to celebrate their absolute uniqueness? Our language, culture and identity is what makes us unique, special and successful. So, what are Qatari children doing to achieve success as Qataris? Perhaps it is Qatari children being successful in their passion, realizing all their potential while being connected to their language, culture, and identity. Our children will take their culture with them and showcase it to the world so we need them to be confident and connected to their cultural values, beliefs and practices because this is what makes them unique and special, and it is what will inform their success.

Is what we focus on all we see? We are only teaching some things and only testing some things at school. So, is that all we will ever see in our students? What if we widened the lens a little and saw what was on the peripherals of our students’ talents, passion and potential? If a student does fail at school, perhaps a more truthful statement would be: some of your potential will emerge at school, some of it won’t. Not your fault. The way learning happens may not be entirely conducive to all of your potential.

If our job is to educate children to be successful and ready for their future, then we must spend some time understanding what their idea of success is. And what their parents' perception of success is. One version of success won’t work for all children any more than one way of learning will. We know we need to personalize learning, so what about personalizing success?

Janelle is a highly experienced leader and consultant at CORE Education in Aotearoa/New Zealand.?She specializes in areas such as developing cultural competencies, Te Tiriti o Waitangi education and digital technologies. With 10 years of experience in developing and delivering effective professional learning solutions, Janelle has become highly regarded in these fields and sought after to support the professional learning journeys of educational contexts, corporate organizations and government entities.?

Janelle's career has been dedicated to improving the education journey for all students with a particular focus on enhancing success for indigenous children and those most underserved by the education system. She has considerable teaching and leadership experience in both English Medium and bilingual education settings and as well as how to enhance the success of students through the effective integration of digital technologies.

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