Ideology and arrogance.

The socialisation of the ideologically ignorant.

The issue, we are told, has been settled, the question of best practice answered. Yet the very nature of science is to be unsettled, to restlessly challenge received wisdom, and to constantly test out conventional wisdom in the cauldron of our own experience and professional work - Thomas Newkirk

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

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Replacing ideology with evidence.

Recently, I was talking with a pre-service teacher completing their professional experience, who was finding the reality of teaching to be more challenging than expected.

Sound familiar?

This pre-service teacher was studying at a university whose education faculty has recently undergone a huge transformation; moving away from ideology to “evidence-based practices”. During the change many lecturers and other academic staff were replaced. 

They distinctly remember an address when education academics boldly declared to this cohort of pre-service teachers something along these lines:

“Forget everything you have learned so far about teaching. We are going to show you how to really teach.”¹

Learning under the wings of these pedagogical “heroes”, this pre-service teacher expressed their frustration in relation to the realities of teaching, a challenge that persisted despite being shown “how to really teach”.  

There never seemed to be enough time to enact practice in the way they wanted to. Behaviour management seemed a mountain too high to climb. Enacting “evidence-based practices” was not a sure guarantee of student learning. They bemoaned:

“I was never told teaching would be like this.”

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Shut down.

Fast forward a year or so, I found myself doing professional development with a primary school teacher who was expressing some concerns about a leading teacher in their school. 

In particular, the leading teacher would “shut down” teaching ideas offered by new graduate teachers at their school. This had happened so regularly to the point where this new teacher would no longer speak up in staff meetings for fear of being silenced for their opinions and suggestions.

I was told that the leading teacher was currently completing a master’s degree in education, which they were very excited about. They loved to share their insights in an almost evangelical way and was passionate about moving the school in the direction of the “science of learning”. 

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Warning signs.

What do these two stories tell us?

They are warning signs of some of the significant socialisation effects that we can expect to see as the “science of learning” becomes more dominant and tries to influence education policy, discourse and practice in coercive ways. 

As certain “evidence” becomes privileged as “truer” or more “right” than others we will continue to see many important voices and perspectives silenced². In arrogance, valid challenges and concerns regarding the nature of educational policies and practices will continue to be dismissed on the basis of being “ideological” and therefore unworthy of consideration.

As long as those promoting the “science of learning” are ignorant of their ideological stances of education, we will continue to see more despondent pre-service and graduate teachers, sold a story³ that explicit teaching will solve the educational and societal problems of our world.

Who eventually loses out in this scenario?

I’ll let you decide.

Till next time,

1. It is unclear whether this was exactly said or inferred. However, this is how it was recalled to me.

2. Gaslighting teachers is seemingly already a common practice.

3. I will admit that it is a bit cheeky to coopt this phrase. In doing so however, I wish to highlight how being sold a story is not simply a matter of evidence, but on whose evidence and for what purpose.