Two weeks into a new term and by now teachers are back in the familiar routines of school life: early starts, emotional undulations, reality TV programmes to dramatise their daily conversations. This year is different though. By the summer term, some of these teachers (at least the ‘best’ ones) could be centre stage in a new Labour government’s approach to education. Labour’s vision of a ‘world class teacher in every classroom’ is as ambitious and as it is consensual. Just about the one thing the protagonists in the education debate can agree on is the value of a good teacher. Helpfully Labour’s policy also passes the ‘be nice to the profession’ test.
However achieving this goal will require disruption, conflict and radicalism. The details of delivery will either be bold enough to crash the consensus or shallow enough to achieve nothing. So here are four ideas to make the vision a reality:
Progression routes that allow teachers to become experts in classroom craft
Academics estimate that most teachers reach their peak within three to five years and after that plateau (or enter management). Neither helps improve the workforce. One solution would be different career routes to stimulate improvement, just when enthusiasm starts to wane. Tristram Hunt’s idea to train ‘master teachers’ so they become experts in teaching techniques and curriculum design is part of the answer. Training should take teachers out of the classroom for a time so they can immerse themselves in emerging theory. Their impact should be measured by the number of other teachers they train to a certain level of expertise.
Teacher-led schools
I understand the desire to move away from structural solutions but structures matter. The culture in which a teacher works can either unleash greatness or stifle innovation. Schools that are owned and led by teachers (as opposed to parents or others) have a good or better chance of creating the conditions for autonomy, mastery and purpose (author Daniel Pink’s recipe for professional motivation). Autonomy because teachers will be doing it for themselves, mastery because any teacher-led school would (or should) have training at its heart and purpose because to found a school requires strongly held vision and values.
Make education reform local
It is perhaps easier to develop world-class teachers than it is to place them in every classroom. Like other industries London absorbs teaching talent and leaves gaps around the country. Many coastal areas and market towns struggle to recruit high-quality staff and the achievement gap in some of these areas is stubborn. London’s success (largely stimulated through the London Challenge) is a success of the capital’s political and business leadership as well as classroom practice. We should devolve education powers to local reformers who want to make education the centrepiece of renewal and regeneration in their areas. This would stimulate the sort of innovation and interest that attracts great teachers.
Broaden initial teacher training
We have learned more about how the brain works in the last 15 years than in all of human history. At the same time there is a generation of education researchers extending the fields and content that should reasonably be included in teacher training (e.g. linguistics, cognitive psychology, neuroscience etc). Universities and other training providers need the incentives to extend the breadth and length of their offerings. Trainee teachers should be learning on the job but should have opportunities to engage with cutting edge research at regular points during their early years.
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Oli de Botton is deputy head of School 21. He tweets @olidebotton
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Phoyo: Lauren Manning