Peter Hutton, principal at Global Village Learning in Gisborne, told EducationHQ that school staff were being wrongly shut out from critical discussion about what works best in the classroom.
“Who wants to work in a school when you’re being publicly flogged in the media and so on, and you can’t even stand up and defend yourself?” he queried.
“At the moment, staff in government schools and leaders in government schools, are being silenced.
“They do not have the right to enter the public debate about whether the science of learning, explicit instruction (ought to be enforced). They are gagged by their employer.”
As the former principal of Templestowe College, Hutton says after 15 years in the public system he knows well what it’s like to “experience the ire” of those in central office.
“If we’re public servants then surely we've got a responsibility to the public to give perhaps a counter argument,” he contends.
For some time Australia’s ‘education state’ has come under scrutiny for its lack of commitment to drive evidence-based teaching practice at scale, but in June, Education Minister Ben Carroll declared ‘the evidence is in’ and unveiled a plan to embed explicit instruction and structured literacy in every public school.
Updated to have explicit teaching at its core, the new Victorian Teaching and Learning Model will be rolled out across the state from next year.
But Hutton argues bureaucrats should ‘stay in their lane’ and not disempower educators by mandating instructional approaches they can’t weigh in on.
“I’m all for debate, let’s look at the research, let’s follow the data – but let’s have a discussion.
“Let’s not be told by (Federal Education Minister) Jason Clare – because he’s being influenced by somebody – that explicit instruction is the way to go and that everybody needs to do it.”
Hutton contends it is grossly unjust to impose instructional mandates on teachers only to have the media turn on them when student outcomes don’t improve in the way the way the Department expects.
“That’s actually unfair. And that’s why teachers and school leaders are under such pressure at the moment, because they don’t get to deliver how they feel is best in terms of the needs of the young person.
“And yet they’re publicly castigated when the results don’t lift.”
With the media’s clear angle of hostility towards teachers, the principal says it’s wrong that the profession is forced to stay silent in the face of insulting coverage.
“They call to account people’s commitment to the profession, and a range of (other) things, but don’t allow people to defend themselves.
“Because if you do, you’ll either be formally disciplined, slapped over the knuckles or stood down.”
Hutton warns that it’s not just public school staff that are being blocked from speaking in the public realm, but those in independent and Catholic schools, too.
Unlike Australia’s education system, Finland’s ‘exceptional’ model is based on trust – and this is how it should be, Hutton says.
“The ministry for education is in a different building to the education department, so two physically different buildings, because politicians in Finland trust their educators…
“Politicians would never dare to be involved in actual discussion around how education should be delivered, because they’re not experts in it. And they should stay in their lane.”
Hutton warns that it’s not just public school staff that are being blocked from speaking in the public realm.
“I really, really feel for all of those educators who share opinions with me all the time, like, this debate is happening.
“It’s not just me, but either other people are in state schools and not allowed to speak, they’re in Catholic schools and not allowed to speak, or in independent schools where, because of the immediate accountability to families and to boards, they can’t speak.
“So, we’re actually taking the voice from the people who are most skilled and most experienced to come up with solutions.
“And we need to find a way around that,” he says.
Ballarat Clarendon College deputy principal and author Dr Greg Ashman has previously argued a case for why teachers should be granted a ‘right to professional comment’ on matters affecting the profession.
He argued that education departments should loosen teachers’ media policies to help provide better balance in debates over education policy.
“I think we suffer from not hearing teachers’ perspectives…” he told EducationHQ.
“I think there should be what I call a right to professional comment. So in other words, the teacher can’t say, ‘my boss is rubbish’ or, ‘this kid in my school is no good’, because that would be outrageous and it would be breaking confidences and it’s not acceptable at all.
“But on matters of public policy, on which a teachers’ insight is one that we might potentially benefit from, the democratic debate might benefit from, I think teachers should have a right to speak about those things.
“The Government system shouldn’t be able to write policies that effectively prevent them doing that, because we suffer, the debate suffers, if we don’t hear that perspective.”
This situation can result in poor outcomes for students, as commentators lacking teaching experience often advocate for idealistic and impractical policies, he added.
In the social media realm, two researchers have also previously warned that strict policies for teachers are preventing the profession from fully engaging in civic society, infringe on their right to a personal life, and may in fact be unlawful.
As for the science of learning shift underway in whole school systems around the country, Hutton has a rather large bone to pick.
“Let’s be clear: the science of learning didn’t start when we came up with [the term].
“Good learning has been informed by research for at least the last 30 years or 35 years that I’ve been involved.
“I think it’s wrong to claim that we’ve just been winging it up until this point,” he says.
Hutton argues that the rhetoric around the shift has been demeaning to all those who used their professional judgement with students on a case-by-base basis, as well as to school leaders who have tried to meet the unique needs of their community.
“To then sort of imply that there’s a one-size-fits-all model, that we can extrude all young people through and the staff, is really in my view to de-skill and take away the expertise of the professionals,” he says.
Nevertheless, Hutton emphasises that he is by no means against explicit instruction as a pedagogy.
“If you need information instilled in anyone, young or old, explicit is definitely the most efficient way to do it,” he says.
“But to assume that you can do that everyday, or even 50 per cent of every lesson, is just wrong.
“And we're seeing increasing rates of young people disengaging from education, becoming homeschooled or unschooled or doing distance ed because they want their right to actually have some control of their own learning.”
