Scotland’s education secretary has been urged to rethink the name of her “Centre of Teaching Excellence” by the country’s secondary school leaders’ organisation and a prominent academic.
Giving its feedback on the government’s plan for the new centre, announced by Jenny Gilruth at the SNP conference in October, School Leaders Scotland (SLS) says that “excellence” is “a tarnished word” in Scottish education and questions its use in the centre’s title.
In comments uncovered by Tes Scotland using freedom of information legislation, SLS suggests that “any centre’s nomenclature needs to focus more on the teaching and pedagogy and the word quality”. It argues for “a more aspirational but reachable goal rather than excellence”.
The University of Edinburgh academic Dr Zoe Robertson, who is chair of the Scottish Council of Deans of Education, also objects to the use of the word “excellence” in the centre’s title.
She says the word could “inadvertently suggest a rather deficit view” when it comes to “developing teaching”.
Is Centre of Teaching Excellence the right name?
Dr Robertson adds: “The use of the terminology of excellence may also be heavily tied up in other education policy, which might somewhat dilute or diminish the ambitious aims and value this new centre might bring.”
The Scottish curriculum - Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) - has been hailed as “inspiring” by some since its official roll-out in 2010.
However, CfE has also come in for considerable criticism, particularly over its lack of prescription - with the condemnation growing louder recently in the wake of Scotland’s Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) results, which measure 15-year-olds’ ability in maths, reading and science.
After the latest Pisa scores were published in December, showing worse results across the board, there were calls for CfE to be scrapped, and Ms Gilruth pledged a “full scale update to the maths curriculum”, followed by English and literacy.
SLS says in its comments, shared with the government in January, that there is “no doubt” the new Centre of Teaching Excellence “could add value to our education system”.
However, as well as questioning the use of the word “excellence” in the centre’s title, SLS calls for the centre to be “properly thought out” and asks how it will be funded and staffed, and where it will “fit in with the bigger picture of educational reform”.
Centre ‘must be indepenent’
SLS also says it has “concerns” about the government’s plan for the centre to be hosted by a university, arguing that it should be “standalone and independent”.
“While the university research is important, it is not frontline. University education researchers could be invited to contribute or be seconded to the centre, thereby building a team of theoretical educationalists,” SLS says.
The EIS teaching union, giving its feedback on the government’s plan for the centre, says that, with the disbandment of organisations like Learning and Teaching Scotland, there has been “significant erosion in the quality and quantity” of curriculum guidance, advice on pedagogy, teaching resources and teacher professional learning. It says “the centre could potentially fill this gap”.
However, EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley warns against “an approach that over-relies on professional learning as the solution to the many challenges that currently exist in Scottish education”.
She says the new centre will not address “the impact of rampant and increasing poverty”, “excessive teacher workload” and “the dearth of time” teachers have to undertake professional learning, as well as “limited resources”.
Announcing the plan for a Centre of Teaching Excellence at the SNP conference in October, Ms Gilruth said it would make Scotland “a world-leader in new approaches to learning and teaching” and ensure that all teachers are “supported and empowered” in the classroom.
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