Framing Education as a Public Good
Fernando Reimers
• Ideas Matter to Public Education
• Ideas are Developed through Dialogue
• Value of Global Coallitions to Advance Public Education
Three Contributions…
Three Important Ideas…
• professional and trade interests of educators are intertwined
• collaborative government-union approaches to strengthening education are more productive
• efforts to strengthen the teaching profession should be aligned with an ambitious vision of environmental sustainability, human rights, democracy and social justice
A little history
1802, first public office to oversee education
1828 Ministry of public instruction
US Illiteracy Rates (%) for 14 years and older
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1) public education was not built in a day, or even in a few years, it is a historical project that spanned multiple generations,
2) it was a project that was simultaneously about educational ideas about purpose, content and method, and a political project of mobilization of support,
3) the project has had detractors and different points in history, and most importantly, that the project is not over, it is up to us to define the course of this project over the next century.
Seven Challenges
to Public Education
Ideology
Economic Adjustment.
Inequality
USA Educational Attainment 25 years and over
Rise
Democratic
Expectations
Expanding Aspirations
• From Access to Learning Outcomes
• Expanding Definitions of Literacy
• Expanding Expectations of Agency
Expanding Aspirations
Benjamin Bloom 1956
Lorin Anderson 1990
• Reading literacy: An individual’s capacity to: understand, use, reflect on and engage with written texts, in order to achieve one’s goals, to develop one’s knowledge and potential, and to participate in society.
PISA Literacy Studies
• Mathematical literacy: An individual’s capacity to identify and understand the role that mathematics plays in the world, to make well-founded judgements and to use and engage with mathematics in ways that meet the needs of that individual’s life as a constructive, concerned and reflective citizen.
• Scientific literacy: An individual’s scientific knowledge and use of that knowledge to identify questions, to acquire new knowledge, to explain scientific phenomena, and to draw evidencebased conclusions about science-related issues, understanding of the characteristic features of science as a form of human knowledge and enquiry, awareness of how science and technology shape our material, intellectual, and cultural environments, and willingness to engage in science-related issues, and with the ideas of science, as a reflective citizen.
Transformation
of
Work
The best way to predict the future… is to create it. Peter Drucker.
The best way to predict educate for the future… is to create educate to invent it.
Innovation
Demography
608,783,000 Children 5-9 years old
608,783,000 Children 5-9 years old
608,783,000 Children 5-9 years old
• As people are living longer they will need to develop new skills for a long life, including managing their health and learning to learn
• And we will want and need to learn throughout life.
Professional Substantive Conversation
Curriculum, Pedagogy, Learning and Teaching
Labor Force with High Levels of
Educational Attainment
Labor Force with High Levels of
Educational Attainment
Internationally Competitive Curriculum
World Standards
Internationally Competitive Curriculum
World Standards
Knowledge and Skills about the World and
Globalization
Knowledge and Skills about the World and
Globalization
Global Competence
Economic Risks
• Food price volatility• Oil price spikes• Major Fall in the US$• Slowing Chinese economy (<6%)• Fiscal crises• Asset price collapse• Retrenchment from globalization (developed)• Retrenchment from globalization (emerging)• Burden of regulation• Underinvestment in Infrastructure
Geopolitical Risks
• International terrorism• Nuclear proliferation• Iran• North Korea• Afghanistan Instability• Transnational crime and corruption• Israel-Palestine• Iraq• Global governance gaps
Environmental Risks
• Extreme weather• Drought and Desertification• Water Scarcity• National Catastrophes (cyclone)• National Catastrophes (earthquakes)• National Catastrophes (island flooding)• National Catastrophes (coastal flooding)• Air pollution• Biodiversity loss
Societal Risks
• Pandemic
• Infectious disease
• Chronic Diseases
• Liability Regimes
• Migration
Technological Risks
• Critical information infrastructure breakdown
• Nanoparticle toxicity
• Data fraud/loss
Imagine…
A world
of empowered
global citizens
Standing on the shoulders of giants…
To help the young…
Invent the Future