Remarkably, it is 10 years since the publication of the landmark Donaldson report on teacher education. And, according to its author, Professor Graham Donaldson, “good progress has been made but much remains to be done”.
Teaching Scotland’s Future included 50 recommendations with a collective aim of liberating teachers from deadening structures and practices. All teachers were to become “co-creators” of the curriculum, an egalitarian aspiration that aimed to boost the quality of teaching and leadership at all stages.
Donaldson believes that his lofty ambitions of January 2011 remain valid - but are still some way from being fully realised.
In an online lecture by Donaldson last week, marking 10 years since his report was published, its theme of collaboration came up repeatedly - whether that is collaboration between teachers, between teachers and families or between schools and universities.
Donaldson saw plenty of signs of teachers being emboldened to look beyond the daily demands of their own classrooms and forge connections that might lead to inventive new approaches. He cautioned, however, that “the danger of groupthink or of the dominance of particular interests” remained in Scottish education. It was a common theme: signs of teachers progressing towards a more liberated profession were tempered by a system that clung on to old habits.
Take assessment. We all know how badly exposed Scotland’s qualifications system was by Covid - how a continuing overreliance on high-stakes end-of-year exams led to chaos last year. This gave fresh impetus to those who would do away with traditional exams.
Donaldson agreed on the “need to avoid the negative effects of a real or perceived high-stakes culture”. But change is difficult when Scotland’s education system is so reliant on exams. Donaldson warned that alternatives would not necessarily lead to more freedom for teachers and less constrictive approaches to learning in the senior phase: you can take away exams, but “there is a danger that continuous assessment can become continuous testing”, he said.
Donaldson’s lecture was on the same afternoon that officials from the Scottish Qualifications Authority and Education Scotland received a grilling from the Scottish Parliament’s Education and Skills Committee over what MSPs saw as an inadequate response to Covid - specifically in the senior phase. Meanwhile, Donaldson was saying this: “We will need visionary leadership at all levels that can inspire, support and empower teachers to give young people the kind of challenging and engaging education that they both need and deserve.”
The need for a nimble education system, where teachers are given clear direction but also the freedom to do their jobs as they see fit, has never been clearer than in this time of Covid. Yet, as Donaldson noted, the world had changed dramatically since his 2011 report, even before the pandemic.
The past decade had “exposed underlying worldwide tensions about values and hitherto accepted societal norms”, said Donaldson. Joe Biden may now be president, but the forces that brought the likes of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro to power have not gone away.
In a world where “fake news” has undermined trust in democracies, Donaldson underlined the crucial role of teachers in fostering common values and helping pupils to understand ethics - a “complex and sensitive area for education” but “not one that we can ignore”. This was perhaps his most compelling argument: teachers must be freed from rigid forms of leadership and assessment so that they can respond to the fast-changing world around them.
The world has changed profoundly since 2011 - but the Donaldson report’s grand aims may be more necessary than ever.
@Henry_Hepburn
This article originally appeared in the 22 January 2021 issue under the headline “Donaldson can help teachers to stop the next President Trump”
