MAKING A DIFFERENCE THROUGH EDUCATION: PURPOSE, POLICY & PRACTICE
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MAKING A DIFFERENCE THROUGH EDUCATION: PURPOSE, POLICY & PRACTICE Feature Address to the UWI Biennial Conference on Education Dr. Didacus Jules CXC Registrar & CEO Jamaica, June 2011
MAKING A DIFFERENCE THROUGH EDUCATION: PURPOSE, POLICY & PRACTICE
1. MAKING A DIFFERENCE THROUGH EDUCATION:
PURPOSE,POLICY&PRACTICE FeatureAddresstothe UWIBiennial
Conferenceon Education Dr.DidacusJules CXCRegistrar&CEO
Jamaica,June2011
2. Page | 1 MAKING A DIFFERENCE THROUGH EDUCATION: PURPOSE,
POLICY & PRACTICE AN EXTREME REALITY CHECK So we are here to
have a conversation about how we make a difference through
education and we must necessarily interrogate issues of purpose,
policy and practice. For me this ought to be a journey of thought
and conscience leading to a renewed sense of urgency about why we
do what we do, the principles governing our actions and the things
that we must do. Often we are only jolted from the comfort of our
complacency when a more startling wake up call or a juxtaposition
of extreme possibilities opens up a different window of perception
on our reality. Here is a CNN news item of June 1st 2011: A man
drowns while rescuers stand by hamstrung by policy. A worst
possible case scenario framed as callously insensitive and
illogical because of the senseless
3. Page | 2 loss of a human life. But it encapsulates in an
extreme nutshell what happens in practice when policy loses a sense
of purpose. There are many threads that need to be picked up here.
First responders prevented by a policy which says that they should
not go into the water; budget cuts which remove the capability of
the units to effectively respond; the absolute loss of human
sensibility, the abandonment of accountability and the emasculation
of any individual sense of responsibility or initiative. And the
fundamental questions we - policy makers and influencers and
educators - must ask ourselves: are we spectators on the
educational shore viewing the loss of lives and futures? And if so,
how many more must die? UNDERSTANDING POLICY Policy is a very
frequently used word in educational discourse in the Caribbean
today but an analysis of its usage reveals many different meanings.
Hogwood and Gunn (1984) have codified these multiple meanings.
Sometimes we speak of policy as an expression of general purpose or
a desired state of affairs; sometimes we reference it as specific
proposals; occasionally we mean refer to it as formal authorization
of a governmental direction and we also categorize it as a
program.
4. Page | 3 Notwithstanding these variations, we have a strong
intuitive understanding that educational policy generally
references the expressed principles, parameters and strategic
direction that govern the conduct of education. Policy can be
formally expressed through various channels of declaration in
speeches, in parliamentary or policy position papers, in strategy
and planning documents, in budgetary instruments. Policy can also
be informally implied through actions undertaken in response to
situations or initiatives which emerge in an evolutionary search
for answers or quietly expressed through actions taken below the
public radar. According to Brinkerhoff and Cosby (2002) our
understanding and practice of policy has emerged through 3 waves of
evolution: 1. First generation policy analysis which largely relied
on economic models and asserted that the fundamental difference
made by education was in the preparation of human capital. Bowles
& Gintis marked the high point in the deconstruction of this
paradigm. 2. Second generation analysis which embraced
institutional economics and political economy and the interplay
between state, market and civil society. 3. The third generation
assimilated the lessons
5. Page | 4 of the 1990s and posited policy reform as a dynamic
process involving a complex interplay between macro-economic,
sectoral and governance reforms with outcomes that can only be
imperfectly predicted or controlled. Consistent with this
conceptual evolution, our own understanding of policy in the
Caribbean has also moved from a public perception of it as a highly
technical matter under the purview of experts to an appreciation of
the importance and impact of policy in framing the mandate,
capabilities, and strategic outcomes in many specific arenas of our
daily lives. The sphere of education is one of those areas in which
public policy impacts almost every household and in which the
dynamic between interest groupings and stakeholders is most complex
and varied. This is best expressed in the popular slogan that
education is everybodys business. As democratic practice becomes
more rooted in any society, the obligations of accountability
increase and the modalities for public engagement in policy
discourse and formulation also become more varied and
institutionalized. In many respects the directional strength of
policy is related to the strength and power of the state itself. In
weak or failed states, policy of any kind is characterized by
arbitrary fiat (unconnected to any national developmental agenda),
ineffective or non-existent enforcement capability, and feeble
implementation mechanisms. In strong states, policy is highly
ideological (meaning strongly expressive of the organizing
principles that it seeks to uphold
6. Page | 5 and entrench) and closely articulated with the
national developmental agenda; there are strong (usually
legislative or regulatory) vehicles of enforcement and well defined
mechanisms of implementation. The degree of implantation of
democratic tradition and practice in a strong state will determine
the extent to which citizens are able to inflect public policy in
any sphere. Just last month we were able to engage here in Jamaica
with the Finns on their experience in education and it is
interesting to note that a distinguishing feature of their success
in education is the paramountcy of citizenship/parental rights and
responsibilities. A SENSE OF PURPOSE Purpose is defined as a raison
detre; an intended outcome or desired result; determination and
resourcefulness. I have repeatedly argued in recent times for a
fundamental rethinking of education in our contemporary Caribbean.
We are at a decisive historical crossroad facing unprecedented
challenges. We stand at the intersection where the broad vista of
globalization crosses with the open road of technological
possibility but the perception of the path is complicated by the
convolutions of crisis and contraction and our societal resolve is
weakened by the ravages of drugs, and the erosion of family and
community.
7. Page | 6 Rethinking education necessarily involves the
definition of purpose. What is the purpose of education in this
historical epoch in the face of contemporary challenges in our
Caribbean? Definition of purpose will provide a sense of direction.
In many respects education policy in our region is still stuck in
the second generation paradigm which sees education in a
neo-liberal light that fundamentally asserts its connection to
economy and production and sees its purpose as being largely about
the preparation for work. Even a cursory examination of
international trends reveals that while the role of education in
providing the human resource requirements for economic growth is
accepted logic, there is increasing recognition of the imperative
of affective dimension. An array of social problems from
intolerance to drug abuse to spiraling criminality to the meltdown
of social values have punctuated the importance of education in
shaping people. Education is not only about producing workers and
developing capacity for the economy. It is equally about the
cultivation of the human spirit; about the nurturing of
sensibilities; about local consciousness with global transcendence.
This is not only a Caribbean imperative as the calls for this
reconceptualization are becoming more vociferous. Konidari 2011
puts it succinctly thus: What we need is a total re-conception and
re-construction of the educational reality. It is evident that a
system that has been consciously conceived in order to satisfy
8. Page | 7 precise needs and goals can no longer serve the
quality model that education needs to survive. It is also evident
that a society that denies its political role over its economic
growth cannot hope for quality education or any substantial reform.
It is also evident that education results reflect larger problems
and inequalities in societies; schools cannot overcome all the
inequities and problems around them In this business, purpose is
vital because omission is as impactful as commission. It is not
simply about what we do but equally importantly about what we fail
to do. (I recall with some interest that in my Catholic school
socialization, we were taught in the rite of confession to seek
remission of sins for what we have done and what we have failed to
do). Without a clear sense of purpose we run the danger of being
driven by the immediacy of the problems which beset us rather than
a strategic formulation of where we want to be. Its the old saying
that sometimes when you are up to your neck in alligators, its easy
to forget that your original intention was to drain the swamp.
Inaction on problems can arise either from the fact that their true
dimension is not fully apprehended at the time or from the fact
that they just dont seem important enough to address in the face of
competing priorities. And lost in the maelstrom of competing
problems, these omissions can carry lethal future
consequences.
9. Page | 8 The situation in early childhood stimulation for
the 0-3 cohort and early childhood development for the 3-5 age
group is a perfect example. The latest figures reveal that no more
than 40% of the 0-5 age cohort enjoys access to Early Childhood
development. There is little sense of urgency about this crisis
because in the region we have come to accept the false premise that
early childhood education does not matter as much. And we continue
in this fallacy despite the increasingly voluminous evidence that
early years stimulation matters a great deal and that it
constitutes the most decisive period of brain development and
cognitive capacity. It will be a grave sin of omission to continue
to ignore the deficit in ECD on the excuse of limited resources.
Failure to act at that level is creating handicaps for performance
at later levels; through our failure to provide access 60% of our
children are starting the first leg of the relay of life
handicapped. Ever wonder why the most ambitious effort in Early
Childhood in the United States was called Headstart? In fact, the
challenges and limitations that confront us is all the more reason
for the elaboration of unambiguous policy. The harder the road and
the more perilous the terrain, the greater the need for a road map
that delineates our objective and our direction so that all can be
guided, priorities can be maintained and resources optimized.
PRACTICE WALKING THE POLICY TALK
10. Page | 9 Let us turn to the issue of practice. Practice is
the day to day application of policy; it is walking the policy talk
and it must be consonant and convergent with policy. Practice as
uncritical habit without direction or policy nothing more than
bureaucratic routine. Practice as the behavior of policy can
involve action as well as inaction. Hogwood & Gunn 1984 have
noted that inaction can play itself out as both involuntary
failures to act and deliberate actions not to act. In critical
respects practice is a dialectic involving activities that precede
policy decision making (analysis of the existing situation,
generation of options), the process by which options are
implemented and stakeholders are engaged or impacted, how
implementation is evaluated and how the lessons are learnt. If we
ignore the dialectical character of practice, implementation loses
vitality and is quickly reduced to bureaucratic recipe. How often
have we seen the emergence of exciting new ideas and policy
direction only to see them fossilized by indifferent implementation
that utilizes the same tired old approaches to gestate them? New
ideas and new direction require energy, delight and a sense of
freedom so that their implementation becomes a celebration of
possibility and hope. The willingness to face our failings and
learn from our contradictions must be at the heart of this dynamic.
As Paulo Freire summarized: by doing we learn; and by learning we
do better!
11. Page | 10 The other dimension of the practice dynamic is
the outcome of practice. Every application of policy has both
intended and unintended consequences and often it is the unintended
consequence that carries the most deleterious impact. This was
tragically manifested in the CNN news item shown earlier. When
unintended consequences are analyzed, we invariably find that the
trigger for this effect points back to some seemingly small but
critical factor that was overlooked in the elaboration of policy or
in the details of the implementation. Even closer examination of
that factor will also invariably reveal insufficient dialogue or an
inadequate apprehension of the cultural milieu within which the
policy is expected to flourish. Here is an example from my own
experience. As we planned for the implementation of universal
secondary education in St. Lucia about 10 years ago, we were
concerned about the issue of quality as a more diverse range of
abilities would be entering that level. What could we do to drive
continuous improvement in learning at the primary level to ensure
that students gaining access to secondary education had mastered
the knowledge and competencies to succeed at that level? The
abolition of the Common Entrance Exam was not considered to be a
viable option since automatic placement would create greater
quality challenges at the secondary level. So the approach was to
change the CEE from a one-shot exam over time to a system of
continuous assessment. Conduct a series of minimum standard tests
at key stages of primary so that the CEE would no longer be the
ambush that uncovers illiterate and innumerate students in the
system. Minimum standard testing would give provide a snapshot to
teachers,
12. Page | 11 schools and parents of student performance in
relation to where they ought to be. Moreover, we reasoned, it would
facilitate remediation in real time. When the first wave of Minimum
Standard tests was administered, individual students received their
reports, teachers got their class reports, principals got their
school report, District Education Officers got their District
Profiles. And the Ministry published a national schools profile
which showed the results of all primary schools. The result: the
MST profiles were read as league tables; teachers and principals
were worried about their respective standing and immediately
instituted mock and practice MST tests coupled with MST extra
lessons in the hope of showing better results. Unintended effect:
instead of taming the beast of the Common Entrance, we had created
a new litter of baby Common Entrances with all of the genetic
characteristics of the parent! So colleagues, its not rocket
science its encoded in the DNA of Caribbean common sense: the road
to hell is paved with good intentions and the devil is in the
details. The lack of appreciation of the nuances of testing,
accountability and blame in our culture totally undermined what
could have been a major reform. Educational policy formulation and
practice - in the Caribbean as elsewhere - poses epistemological as
well as practical and political challenges. The news item on the
beach suicide epitomizes this and begs the question what ends must
policy serve? what is its raison detre?
13. Page | 12 I am aware of the media hyperventilation over my
remarks about the failure of education policy in our contemporary
Caribbean but the issue is not fundamentally about the allocation
of blame but the assumption of responsibility. The reality is that
- as Konidari 2011 notes all crisis is epistemic. Systems of
thinking are also ways of acting and that is why it is so important
that we start with a reconceptualization. Habermas (1988) argued
that crisis in social systems are not produced through accidental
changes in the environment, but through inherent system-imperatives
that are incompatible and cannot be hierarchically integrated. For
the past three years we have been making the case from the CXC
vantage point for addressing this crisis by taking an epistemic and
a systemic approach. It is deeply encouraging to see the
convergence of perspective emanating from some of the latest
thinking. Konidari asserts that: What we need is a total
re-conception and re-construction of the educational reality. It is
evident that a system that has been consciously conceived in order
to satisfy precise needs and goals can no longer serve the quality
model that education needs to survive. It is also evident that a
society that denies its political role over its economic growth
cannot hope for quality education or any substantial reform. It is
also evident that education results reflect larger problems and
inequalities in societies; schools cannot
14. Page | 13 overcome all the inequities and problems around
them (Konidari 2011: 80) Because education cannot be divorced from
its social, economic and cultural milieu walking the policy talk,
our practice must derive from 3rd generation perspectives.
Education policy and implementation is fundamentally a technical
act with political consequences. Solutions or policies that are
purely technical can only achieve limited results but can face deep
unanticipated challenges and produce profound unintended
consequences. Whether it be a matter of curriculum or instructional
capability or access to opportunity, we need to engage the complex
array of stakeholders who are affected or impacted. This is not an
easy process but it is a necessary principle because the interests
of the various players do not necessarily converge. While there can
be convergence around the big strategic direction and the
fundamental principles, we must recognize and accept that
contestation is unavoidable on the details. There are measures that
can be deemed to be in the best interest of the student which will
be opposed by teachers because they will be seen as affecting their
conditions of service; there are measures which on which parents
will differ from the Ministry or from teachers. The traditional
interests of religious authorities may not converge with the
modernizing intent of the state; neither will ethnic or sectarian
priorities ride comfortably in the compelling tide of
globalization. Just witness the contestation over education in
societies such as Afghanistan caught between tradition and
modernity and one sees the complexity of the interplay of
contradictions between different interest groups.
15. Page | 14 I suggest that the essence of the role of a
ministry of education in the conditions of the 21st Century and the
contemporary Caribbean is the management of this process of shaping
solution and consensus and the negotiation of legitimation. Have
you noticed that the most commonly used adjective of this era is
multi-? We live in the age of multi-everything: multi-media,
multi-disciplinary, multi- tasking, multi-faceted, multi-nationals,
multi-lateralism, multi-systems. Legitimation processes are finding
common ground through accommodation of difference and, in
challenging situations, the co-existence of contradiction. The
challenge for policy makers today is that they can no longer stand
on the pedestal of central authority/control. Ministries are unable
to maintain the old postures of command and control for a variety
of contextual reasons. Where structural adjustment and economic
dislocation have enfeebled the state, ministries no longer have the
power of resource allocation to wield. Where civil society and
structures of democratic accountability have gained strength,
parents and other actors of civil society correspondingly exercise
decisive influence. Education policy must start from an unambiguous
principle that the center of focus of the education system must be
the learner. The reason we have Ministries of Education is because
we have people to educate and this requires the organization of
resources and the establishment of systems to enable this process
to happen in the most effective and efficient manner. Learning is
the central organizing principle from which all things must be
added thereto.
16. Page | 15 Over the last decade we have bought into the
neo-liberal prescription that the function of education in society
is to produce good workers and grow an economy. Education has
become absolutely utilitarian it has gone down the road of
equipping people with specific skills, with readiness for work etc.
So the policy narrative shifts to reflect these trends and we end
up with reductive conceptions of education expressed in slogans
like learning to earn. Let us be clear that education has always
and will always contribute to the enhancement of productive
capacity in society through the transmission of knowledge and
skills but we must also be clear that education has a civilizing
function to fulfill. It must serve to make us more human, more
social and contribute to the higher evolution of the human spirit.
Ultimately you cannot divorce your capacity as a worker from the
quality of your person; you cannot demonstrate discipline in the
workplace if you dont manifest it in your daily life; you cannot
show good work attitudes if you dont embody strong personal ethos
and a sense of connectedness. You cannot separate your worker
identity from your citizen identity. HOW CAN POLICY MAKE A
DIFFERENCE? I want to conclude by suggesting what is needed in our
region today for policy to make a difference.
17. Page | 16 1. Articulate a clear sense of purpose restore
learning to the center of focus. Are we teaching subjects or
teaching students? There is a BIG conceptual difference. 2. Broaden
the Politics (capital P) of education change the dynamics of power
in education by broadening participation and facilitating
stakeholder empowerment: parents, teachers, students each in their
own sphere. The hegemony of privileged groups has prevailed for too
long. Fundamental change in education will not happen until we
allow the viewpoints of all interest groups to contend and to
ventilate the debate on direction. And we must be prepared to
listen with particular humility to the voices of students, teachers
and parents. 3. Critically engage Caribbean reality in our
desperate search for solutions, we have too often looked outside
for answers which lie within. I firmly believe that in every
context and in every geography, not only does every difficulty
constitute an opportunity; but within every problem is hidden the
seeds of its solution. Just as every poison embodies its own
antedote. There is therefore a significant role for research,
proper statistical compilation and data analysis geared towards
evidence based policy formulation. None is better placed to lead
this function than the Schools of Education and the Teacher
Training Institutions across the region. The challenges of our time
require robust, dynamic enquiry, bold thinking, and inventive
solutions.
18. Page | 17 4. Learn from experience local, regional and
international. We must learn from good practices wherever they are
to be found but we must contextualize these practices to understand
how the particular soil yielded this fruit. In every Caribbean
territory today, policy makers are actively grappling with some
problem which has been confronted with varying degrees of success
and failure in some other part of the region. But only in the
rarest instances is there any referencing of these prior
experiences and the utilization of the lessons learned. There is so
much we can learn from our failures as much as our accomplishments.
5. Embrace the power of rigorous research although we have already
spoken about the need to critically engage Caribbean reality, it is
still necessary to punctuate the power of rigorous research in
generating new knowledge and self-understanding. An absolute
precondition of transformation is understanding you cannot change
that which you have no understanding of. I have not even bothered
to speak to the issue of the ways in which education itself can
make a difference because that would be bringing sand to the sea.
Enough has been written and researched on that matter. What I have
focused on is the issue of policy and the ways in which it is
supposed to establish purpose and inflect practice. We may not be
at the extreme position of the First Responders in California but
we must continually ask ourselves whether we are inconsiderate
bystanders, life savers or life shapers on this educational
19. Page | 18 landscape. Strong policy, consistent purpose and
critical practice are all we need. BIBLIOGRAPHY Brinkerhoff, D.W.
and Crosby, B.L. (2002), Managing Policy Reform: Concepts and Tools
for Decision-Makers in Developing and Transitioning Countries,
Kumerian Press, Connecticut, USA Habermas, J. (1988), Legitimation
Crisis, Polity Press, Cambridge, UK. Haddad, W. D. (1994), The
Dynamics of Education Policy Making: Case Studies of Burkina Faso,
Jordon, Peru and Thailand, World Bank, Washington DC. Hogwood, B.H.
and Gunn, L.A. (1984), Policy Analysis for the Real World, Oxford
University Press, New York, NY. Konidari, V. (2011) Education in a
complex world: a political question to be answered, On the Horizon
Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 75-84.
20. MAKING A DIFFERENCE THROUGH EDUCATION: PURPOSE,POLICY&
PRACTICE AddresstotheSOEBiennialConferenceon Education
Jamaica,June2011
