“Despite always trying hard, the performance here still falls well short of what is required to impress. More in-depth study is needed as well as greater commitment to responding to the actual question asked. All the necessary material and support have been made available – it is now a matter of using them more effectively”.
The Christmas school reports consumed December for many teachers, myself included. If I had put a comment on the Irish education system’s school report, it would have read something like that.
It is not an attempt to have a pop at anyone in Government, nor at any one individual in any official role in education governance. It is an appeal for greater understanding, help even. All of us at the forefront of Irish education, and by that I mean teachers, have insights others can never have. These insights are undervalued and less likely to be shared the longer those outside the profession choose to knock us en-masse.
Progress is only positive if it is handled well. Things getting done is not in itself synonymous with progress, which I like to think includes an element of improvement and positive advancement rather than any change, or change for the sake of it. Even seen in this light, progress shows up differently depending on the setting.
The fact that artificial intelligence can produce a thoughtful and convincing essay on an abstract topic hasn’t forced redundancy on the need for a human to still be able to do it. That essay writing has also become possible with the push of a button and a waiting time of seconds has not fundamentally changed the extensive time and practice it takes us, as learners, to acquire the skill.
It is wonderful news that technological progress hasn’t come up with a way to deny us the learning journey. We are winning when the services we offer are improved by advancement. To take just one example, what medicine can do that it couldn’t do previously is astounding. Tools are added to the user’s toolkit which benefits the doctor, en masse and health service. The capacity to diagnose and treat improves exponentially thanks to technology. The economy grows as jobs are created in newly discovered fields of research which require the technology to support them. Human resources are enhanced as skills are acquired and utilised. There are lots of sectors where this technological advance is obvious and the consequent progress changes our world in positive and beneficial ways.
When it comes to new year’s resolutions for 2023, teachers would welcome a commitment not to confuse progress in education with anything other than investing in the people in it
But when it comes to us humans progress looks different, especially when we are minors and in our formative years. As preschoolers we learn certain skills under the tutelage of parents and family members, perhaps from childminders or in early learning environments. In the formal education system we learn different skills and we learn as members of a large community. Nobody in this community is programmable. No teacher or student has settings which need to be adjusted to achieve a precise desired outcome in a specific time frame. We are unique and complex in our individuality. Being cognisant of that is where the greatest challenge lies for those at the helm of Irish education.
School communities exist and function alongside the uncertainties society faces: the post-Covid aspects of life and the many ways in which it has cost us; the war on Ukraine and its migration impact, the climate crisis, and the burdens the cost of living brings to many families. These prevailing uncertainties and worries are not left at the school gate in the morning, and their inescapable presence in our schools means that the fundamental needs which can be met, must be met.
For successful growth and learning and any hope of academic achievement, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs must feature at the core of the goals we set for Irish education in 2023.
At the bottom of the pyramid there is the basic physiological needs of food, water, hygiene and the possibility to be calm and rest. The housing situation in Ireland means we cannot underestimate how much the State’s children depend on schools for some of those basics, and how much school may represent the most stable and secure place in their young lives. Moving up the pyramid we find the sense of belonging, and love. We don’t speak enough of how truly loved and valued children can and should feel at school, perhaps because it is something we take for granted. The various ways young people contribute to their school communities are what creates the sense of achievement which then allows them to focus on the cognitive. We do our students an injustice when we treat them as objects which come in ready to learn just because we tell them to.
When it comes to new year’s resolutions for 2023, teachers would welcome a commitment not to confuse progress in education with anything other than investing in the people in it. As teachers we see our students’ needs up close every day and do what we can to respond to them. We too have needs, and the current teacher shortage will only worsen if the profession is not looked after. Teachers must be valued if they are to be of any value to their students.
Progress does look different when it is about people. And despite progress of all kinds over time, education today is no less about people than it has always been. If we as teachers are to rise to the challenge of meeting our students’ needs, it is essential that those in authority rise to the challenge of meeting ours.
