towards a new conception

8/12/2019 Towards a New Conception

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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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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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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.

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