On autonomy
The resistance to pre-prepared materials in teaching
Yesterday, I responded to the Grattan Institute’s report on teacher time, noting that the solution designers may encounter resistance from teachers when it comes to giving up even a bit of autonomy. I didn’t doubt the survey results, but within hours I could see that I was right to suspect some pushback. It was unfortunate that the SMH article that spread the word about the report chose to focus on an angle that suggested teacher incompetence, and it was also unfortunate that it seemed like people didn’t read the report before reacting. Words like ‘control’, ‘formulaic’, ‘agency’ and ‘autonomy’ came up, as predicted.
I have mixed feelings about the idea of scripted lessons. But one thing I noticed was that most of the commenters were experts in their field, and I wonder if the curse of knowledge applies to the way they speak on behalf of all teachers, especially early career teachers. Of course if you’ve had 30 years experience, you’re going to argue for your expert voice to be the clearest in your own classroom. And I’m sure these same people do their share of mentoring and in other contexts recognise the struggles of less experienced teachers. But the idea of prepared units and lessons? Unthinkable.
I’ve heard a few war stories and witnessed a few episodes where I think teachers would have been highly appreciative of some prepared materials. Here are just a few:
A teacher who started on her first day at a new job to be told that the school had no programs. You see this kind of desperation every day on the English Teachers’ Association Facebook.
The grad on a temp contract who had to teach whichever Shakespeare play she could find in the book room. The following week. As an aside, I still find it astounding that public schools ask families to supply a laptop for BYOD but won’t ask them to buy a single novel.
Every English teacher in the state in 2017 before the last big Stage 6 syllabus change. Those program-hunts seemed to be perfectly acceptable at a time when almost every senior program needed replacing.
The almost-overnight switch to online learning that required minimal preparation because learning activities were almost scripted in the programs (this example, I’m pleased to say, is my own department).
As I said, I do have mixed feelings. The survey results show a problem, but not a preference for any particular solution. The responses have been quite reactionary. It will be interesting to see the uptake of online resources like Ochre Education, who employ absolute experts to create quality resources. Likewise, Oak National basically saved education in the UK during the worst of their lockdowns. I do wonder how long teachers in Australia will hold tightly onto ‘reinventing the wheel’ at the cost of hours they could spend tweaking, refining and giving feedback. Or just kicking back with a pale ale.
I’ve tried to strike a balance in my department. We do use fairly prescriptive lessons and I think my younger teachers’ day-to-day lives have been made easier for it, especially into our second year. This is our year of craft, where we refine, edit and tailor. If we want to keep new teachers in the profession, it might be worth looking at the source of our problems more realistically and trying to defy the curse of our experience and knowledge. Why is it that we seem so threatened with the loss of autonomy, when it comes at such a high cost? I’m yet to see someone put forward a better solution.