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Canadian Education Association 1
Canadian Education Forum
Towards a new Conception of Education
Report of the Dialogue in May 2002
The Canadian Education Forum
The Canadian Education Forum is a meeting of people drawn from national non-governmental
education organizations and federal departments with mandates that include learning and itsrelationship to social and economic well-being. The Forum facilitated by the Canadian
Education Association is held twice a year. Its purpose is for dialogue to build insights and
shared knowledge about large issues that transcend the interests or mandates of the participatingorganizations.
Dialogue is a form of discourse that is gaining great currency as we come to see the limitations inpolicy arenas of the common forms of consultation and of debate. Dialogue is not about
decision-making. Instead it gives rise to shared frameworks, a language understood by a wide
variety of stakeholders and shared expectations. Properly facilitated dialogue can make
subsequent decision-making both more coherent and productive. (Rosell, p.7)
Dialogue as the Process
What is dialogue? The term has achieved wide usage in the past several years and is at risk forloss of its distinctive meaning. The Canadian Education Forum adopts the meaning as used by
Daniel Yankelovitch who describes dialogue as the means through which people can reach
mutual understanding even when their interests and points of view conflict (Yankelovitch,
p.227). It allows us to comprehend each other well enough so that common goals andunderstandings are possible. Steven Rosell characterizes the difference between debate and
dialogue as follows. (Rosell, p.7)
Debate Dialogue
Assuming there is a right answer (and you have
it)
Assuming that others have pieces of the answer
and that together you can craft a solution
Combative: attempting to prove the other
wrong
Collaborative: attempting to find common
meaning
About winning About exploring common ground
Listening to find flaws and make counter-
arguments
Listening to understand and find a basis for
agreementDefending assumptions as valid Presenting assumptions for re-evaluation
Critiquing the other sides position Re-examining all positions
Defending ones own views against those of
others
Admitting that others thinking can improve
ones own
Searching for weaknesses in the other position Searching for strengths and value in the other
position
Seeking a conclusion or vote that ratifies your
position
Discovering new options, not seeking closure
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Canadian Education Association 2
The AgendaThe federal government through its recent consultations on an innovation and skills developmentas well as provincial education reforms call for significant change in what students learn and in
the standards they achieve. Performance is increasingly measured against international
standards; skills are defined in terms of economic needs and competitiveness; high school
completion is no longer adequate preparation for life; many more young people require post-secondary education; life-long learning is an imperative.
Ronald Manzer, a political scientist who has studied education policy in Canada for many years,has argued that a new conception of education is emerging largely as a result of government
action with little public discussion of the changed purposes of education embedded within it. He
suggests that we need a new public philosophy of education. (Manzer, p.271)
The participants in the Canadian education Forum explored whether we have or should have a
new conception of education in Canada; what purposes are served and not served by currentagendas for education and learning; and whether common purposes underlie apparently
competing directions for change.
Conceptions of Education: What are they and what are they becoming?
Moving from Moving to.
A bedrock principle of post-war public
education was equal educationalopportunity. If opportunities were equal,
outcomes were not.
The new principle is some form of success
for all; for opportunity to have meaning itneeds to give rise to achievement for all.
Vertically structured sequential institutions.
Second chances available for students who
were not able or inclined to pursue studies
in a linear progression. Alternate pathwaysoften required a return to the stage
previously left, e.g. adults in secondary
schools.
Demands for more flexible arrangements
including recognition of prior learning,
portability of credit, articulation between
school and post-secondary and betweencommunity college and university.
Learners want institutional arrangements
that are tailored to their own aspirations.
Teaching and learning widely perceived tobe about the transmission of information so
that knowledge was received from those
that already have it. Student as a passive
recipient in the transmission.
Learning is understood as a process ofinquiry, of sense making and of building of
knowledge with others. Students need to
be engaged in building knowledge and
solving real problems. Learning is a socialprocess.
Educational institutions largely isolated
from each other and separate fromcommunities.
The institution school, college is itself a
community that resides within broadercommunities by geography and interest.
Learning and therefore education seen as achronology mirroring developmental stages
pre-school, elementary, secondary, post-
secondary. One stage is preparation for thenext.
Learning is life-long and life-wide. It takesplace in multiple settings for multiple
purposes. Distinctions between in school
and out of school learning are fading.
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Canadian Education Association 3
Moving from. (cont.) Moving to. (cont.)
Students are prepared for different
destinations through a number of selectionand sorting devices such as streaming,
grouping and achievement. Destinations
largely matched economic needs forunskilled, semi-skilled, skilled and
professional workers.
All students need to be encouraged to
achieve well. Institutions haveresponsibility for the outcomes of students
especially in the K-12 systems. Changes in
the structure of labour markets, the natureof work and the skills required have
removed the soft-landing for those with
minimal competencies.
High levels or literacy are associated with
academic education. Wide variation in theliteracy levels of the population that are
correlated with years in school and socio-
economic background.
A wide range of literacies are needed by
all as a foundation for life-long learningand work.
The providers, government and public
institutions, determine the supply of
educational opportunities. Privatesuppliers relatively insignificant.
Learners, parents and employers demand
choice, flexibility and customization. The
number of private suppliers has increasedat all levels K-12 and post secondary.
Formal education serves local communitiesand employers.
The context is global. Credentials must beportable and meet international as well as
local standards. Students can engage with
educational suppliers across the globethrough distance learning.
The education sectors act largely asseparate silos.
Collaboration, partnership, networking aremodes of integrating experience, resources
and opportunities.
Relatively simple systems. Complex and multivariate forms.
Boundaries between organizations ofeducation are less clear.
What is driving these new conceptions of education?
These shifts in our conceptions of education are occurring during a relatively recent period of
intense social and economic change.
Bibliography
Manzer, Ronald.Public Schools and Political Ideas: Canadian Educational Policy in HistoricalPerspective. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994.
Rosell, Steven A. "Changing Frames: Leadership and Governance in the Information Age." 32:Roundtable on Governance, 2000.
Yankelovitch, Daniel. Coming to Public Judgement: Making Democracy Work in a ComplexWorld. Paperback ed. Syracruse, NY: Syracruse University Press, 1991.