I sat in a meeting of teachers today when someone in the crowd made reference to a clause about consultants and made the statement that she felt “there were too many consultants anyway”.
This made me upset for two reasons:
- I wouldn’t want to suggest, espescially in public that I felt a school or some other area of the division was overstaffed.
- More importantly, it upsets me because it reflects an attitude that exists that would suggest that solving the challenges of education lies in increasing the number of teachers.
I believe that the role of the consultant is largely two fold;support teachers in the classroom with their current situations but also to present possibilites, ideas and support for change.
I’m certain a survey of teachers would reveal that few would suggest that the current model of education is in a good state. Everyone’s talking about the changing student, the changing world and the lack of change in education. This conversation is taking place as much outside the blogosphere as it is in it.
It’s clear that we need to continue to help teachers see the need for change and that the solution is much more complicated and involved than simply providing more teachers. Last year as budget cuts called for the loss of over 40 teachers, reference was made to the large expenditure in technology and wondering if supplying a school with new computers was justifiable considering that schools were losing teachers. In this case, the understanding of technology as an intregal part of learning was not shared by all.
Michael Fullan talks about the “daily grind” and how this makes it difficult for teachers to consider much else besides just getting by. I acknowledge this problem and sympathize with teachers in situations where survival is the best they can hope for. But we have to demand more. We have to have teachers who consider themselves learners first. We need teachers who believe that reflective practice is critical for growth. Even when things are nuts and out of control, survival can’t be all there is. I remember reading the reflective teacher and my impression was that last year was a challenging year but through reflection and search for new ways of approaching teaching and learning, change happened.
So while I know I can’t reach everyone and support everyone, I’m challenged by this reminder that many consider my job and others like mine as “extras”. I probably knew that already but rarely think about it. My natural inclination is to speak louder and longer but that may not be the best response. I suppose that it also tells those that serve as consultants that we need to do a better job promoting our work. Is that called marketing? Hopefully those who I’ve been able to work with and speak to would feel differently than this individual. In the meantime, I’ll keep talking about new stories of teaching and learning.
Update:
I’ve had a few second and third hand responses about this post being unethical or somehow should have not have been public. Here’s my response:
- Firstly, this is my personal blog.
- Secondly, the fact it’s linked from the school division website is no different that other resources that contain a disclaimer.
- Thirdly, I make no personal reference.
- Fourthly, if you read the post, you’ll see I’m addressing a general perception I believe to be true from my experience…that’ what a weblog is for. I think it’s better these discussion happen publicly rather than in segregated staff rooms and other closed environments.
- And finally, if on some point you disagree, leave a comment or contact me directly. I’d welcome the discussion.
I agree with most all of your points except as a teacher I would argue that by increasing the number of teachers and therefore reducing class sizes, eductaion would change. We would have time to 1)spend time one on one with ALL students, 2)spend time implementing new ideas (less students less paperwork time you know what I mean), and 3) most importantly being able to build even better relationships with our students that will lead to a more focused and conducive educational environment. I would kill for classes of 12 to 15 kids where I could really get to know them, how they learn and what they are interested in so I could structure my course to fit into those needs. But with classes around 30 kids and 50 minute periods you just cant do that!
Interesting post and follow-up comments. Many studies show that the biggest impact on student achievement is not class size but the quality of the teacher (as everyone knows) and consultants can be valuable in increasing the quality of teachers. I was in a district which hired the best consultants for a couple of years. The results on teacher quality through embedded professional development and coaching were outstanding. The subsequent rise in student achievement was notable. The consultants were worth every penny. The tide turned however, with similar thoughts which were reflected in your post, and the district got rid of the consultants thinking that they could provide the same service in-house and therefore much cheaper. The results were equally ‘outstanding’ but not in the same direction as was hoped.
I agree whole heartedly with you that consultants can provide a very beneficial service to educators. I personally would like to see reduced classroom sizes and the use of consultants, you know the best of both worlds. But I still maintain that class sizes aound 30 no matter how great the teaching not all kids will be addressed to individual needs. But thank you for your polite and informative comments!!!
Thanks for your thoughtful discussion. I agree with you, there has to be some sort of happy medium where class size can be reasonable and there can be money for other things such as consultants or technology or….
I taught in a middle school for about 4 years that had some of the largest class sizes in the area of about 30-32 per class. With 5 periods a day, that is a ton of kids to teach!
Now we do agree!! Technolgy is the hook that teachers must buy into in order to truly captivate their audience. Students today are obsessed with technology. From MP3 players to cell phones, and video games they are the technoology generation, and if we dont integrate that into our classroom we will surely lose some of these kids. Now I know that pushes some teachers out of their comfort zone, but who cares what you as a teacher is comfortable with, it is about the students not the teacher, and we have to use any means we have to reach them. So I agree 100% with you that money and energy has got to funneled more into the education sysytem, and quit just doing lip service to it. We need to rethink budgets and professional development opportunities and skew them towards purchasing STATE OF THE ART technology (not out dated, and the integration and implementation into the classrooms, wheteher that be by consultants for individual schools or by Divisions. But after we have met with these consultants and we are excited and motivated to use these things we have to have the hardware and software to implement these strategies. But I still maintain that if the above things happen, and I have class sizes of say 15 to 18 the opportunity for a child to not suceed in my class would be extrememly minimal!