Achieving educational reform that w

Achieving educational reform that works

The previous chapters have discussed a range of features of school reform that can help make teachers more effective. These lead to a key purpose of the Summit, which is examining how to achieve reforms that work for pupils through a constructive social dialogue between educational authorities and the organized teaching profession.

Fundamental changes to the status quo can raise uncertainties that can trigger resistance from stakeholders, and without the active and willing engagement of teachers, most educational reforms fail. The chances for success in reform improve through effective consultation, a willingness to compromise and, above all, through the involvement of teachers in the planning and implementation of reform. In moving beyond consultation to involvement, the reform process becomes oriented towards transforming schools into learning organizations, with teaching professionals in the lead.

At the same time, stakeholder groups should not be able to exercise a veto over education reforms that are mandated through democratic political processes. To do so would be to risk losing the public support on which education so critically depends. It is difficult to find the right balance, but open and ongoing systematic dialogue and consultation are fundamental to the process. Such dialogue should recognize that teachers are experts in teaching and learning and thus can make an essential contribution to the design of reforms. This chapter sets out some issues to be tackled, without pretending to offer a blueprint for how to engage teachers.

Given the uncertainties that accompany change, stakeholders often value the status quo. To address this, systems need to become better at communicating and building support for change.

As in other areas of the public sector, reform can be harder if it is resisted by stakeholders who feel that they stand to lose from change. It is therefore not enough to design reforms capable of changing learning outcomes; to succeed, they need to address the legitimate concerns of stakeholders so that they are supported by those who deliver the system. This is a big challenge, in light of evidence that agents often prefer avoiding potential losses to acquiring potential gains, and to over-estimate the costs and/or under-estimate the benefits of change relative to the status quo.

In this sense, teachers are not exceptional in tending to protect the system they know in the face of uncertainty and failed reform in the past. However, this phenomenon is multiplied in education reform because of the range of actors, including students, parents, teachers, employers and trade unions, who have stakes in educational outcomes. Uncertainty about costs is problematic because education infrastructure is large and implicates multiple levels of government, each of which is trying to minimize or shift the costs of reform.35

Moreover, provider interests tend to be well organized and generally command greater public trust than do politicians. It can be hard for the latter to make the case for reform on grounds of policy outcomes, because there is no consensus about how to assess outcomes in education. This is partly due to the complex mix of goals to be pursued (equity, efficiency, quality, choice, cost-containment, etc.), but it also reflects the lack of reliable, generally accepted indicators concerning the quality of educational outcomes and their value. Evidence-based reform is difficult where the evidence base is either lacking or contested. One consequence of this is that isolated facts or bits of data, or the emergence of a single high-profile study, can have a disproportionate impact on policy debates.

In overcoming these obstacles, education systems need to employ state-of-the-art knowledge, professional know-how and adequate institutional arrangements to disseminate information and lessons about the new tasks and responsibilities inherent in the reforms. Successful reforms have often involved significant
investment in staff development, or clustering reforms to build up support for them in related institutions.
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Building a High-Quality Teaching Profession: Lessons from Around the World


Chapter 4

Te a ch e r E n g a g e m e n t i n E d u c a t i o n R e f o r m


Experience of reform produces some useful pointers about how to engage teachers in education reform.

In September 2008, Directors General of Education Ministries in OECD countries met to discuss why some educational reforms succeed and others fail. They considered how to engage parents, teachers, and politicians to support reforms, and what changes the minds of stakeholders who initially resist reforms or their implementation. Several recurrent themes emerged from their exchange of experiences:

• Policy makers need to build consensus on the aims of education reform and actively engage stakeholders, especially teachers, in formulating and implementing policy responses.

• Some reforms capitalize on external pressures or crises as part of building a compelling case for change.

• All political players and stakeholders need to develop more realistic expectations about the pace and nature of reforms to improve outcomes.

• Reforms need to be backed by sustainable financing.

• There is some shift away from reform initiatives per se towards building self-adjusting systems with rich feedback at all levels, incentives to react, and tools to strengthen capacities to deliver better outcomes.

• Investment is needed in change-management skills in the education system. Teachers need reassurance that they will be given the tools to change and recognition of their professional motivation to improve outcomes for their students.

• Evidence can be used more effectively to guide policy making, combining international benchmarks with national surveys and with inspectorates to provide a better diagnosis.

• Evidence is most helpful when it is fed back to institutions along with information and tools about how they can use the information to improve outcomes.

• “Whole-of-government” approaches can include education in more comprehensive reforms. These need effective co-ordination and overall leadership across all the relevant ministries.

OECD’s recent review of reforms in public policy36 suggests that, in most circumstances, it pays to closely engage those who will be most directly affected by reform. Inclusive, consultative policy processes are no guarantee against conflict when sensitive reforms are under consideration, but over time, such an approach seems to pay dividends. In particular, it can create greater trust among the parties involved (see also Box 4.2). This may make all stakeholders more willing to rely on commitments to steps that will mitigate the cost of reform for them.

Research literature devotes a great deal of attention to the question of when and how potential losers of reform might be compensated, whether by exempting them from the reform, at least for some period, or via some sort of alternative compensation. Failure to compensate may reinforce opposition to reform, while excessive compensation may be costly or may simply blunt the effects of the reform itself. It may also reinforce opposition to future reforms, as the perceived weakness of the government encourages agents to push for maximum concessions.

Teachers need to be active agents, not just in the implementation of reforms, but also in their design…

Teacher support for reform is also not merely an issue of politics and pragmatism. Research on the characteristics of effective professional development indicates that teachers must be active agents in analyzing their own practice in the light of professional standards, and their students’ progress in the light of standards for student learning. Such engagement necessitates a clear and well-structured policy
framework for reform. This depends greatly on the specific institutions and traditions of any given country.
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Building a High-Quality Teaching Profession: Lessons from Around the World


Chapter 4

Te a ch e r E n g a g e m e n t i n E d u c a t i o n R e f o r m


However, in every reform context, the roles and competencies of each actor need to be clearly defined. There should also be a strong commitment to sharing information, and to building trust and co-operation, as well as an explicit high-level commitment to the reform agenda from each partner.

…and reform must be underpinned by solid research and analysis.

Teacher engagement also requires consistent, co-ordinate efforts to persuade those affected of the need for reform and, in particular, to communicate the costs of non-reform. This may be particularly challenging when the opportunity costs of maintaining the status quo are less apparent than the costs of change.

Last but not least, policy design needs to be underpinned by solid research and analysis. If reform advocates can build a broad consensus among experts and the public in support of reform, and build that consensus by showing evidence of the need for reform, they are likely to be in a stronger position to implement the reforms successfully.

Recognition of the importance of engaging teachers is growing. Dialogue can involve conversations both within national professional bodies and among local groups of professionals.

At a political level, the commitment to working in partnership with teachers to reform education is growing. When OECD Education Ministers met in Dublin in March 2004, there was a clear recognition of the importance of teacher engagement: “It is vital that teachers and their professional organizations are fully engaged in the debate about educational reform, and in the implementation of change.” Ministers committed themselves to consultative and participatory processes, and were encouraged by the reports from some countries of the lead that teachers’ organizations were taking in desi