Philosophy and Practical Strategies of School Reform toward Learning Community: A Grassroots Network

1
Philosophy and Practical Strategies of School
Reform toward Learning CommunityA Grassroots
Network against Neo-Liberal Policies in Japan

• Manabu Sato, Ph.D.
• Professor, University of Tokyo
• President, Japanese Educational Research
  Association
• Invited Lecture in Taiwan, May 2008

2
Introduction

• This presentation displays the vision, strategies
  and philosophy of building learning community at
  schools in Japan. The network I designed is
  currently constituted of 100 pilot schools
  nationwide and more than 3,000 public schools
  join the network, with which they struggle
  against neo-liberal educational policies in
  defense of public education.

3
A Brief of Neo-Liberal Policies

• The 1st stage 1984-The end of catch up
  modernizationPropaganda of educational reform
  with mass hysteria about manufactured crisis
  (Berliner)
• The 2nd stage 1995-Downsizing of public
  education for privatization 30 reduction of
  contents
• Decentralization, Deregulation, School choice,
• The 3rd stage 2001-Discrepancy of educational
  opportunity, Revision of Educational Fundamental
  Law (Closing of democratic education since
  1947), National standardized test (2007), Merit
  pay, Audit bureaucracy of school management

4
Rapid Change of Schooling

• School choice system has been introduced by 287
  local governments (8) during the past 7 years.
• Ability grouping spread among 73 of elementary
  schools and 67 of junior secondary schools from
  2001 to 2004.
• Teachers salary is declined nearly 20 during
  the past 10 years.
• More than 90 of prefecture boards of education
  introduced Standardized Test to plunge schools
  into ranking game since 2001.

5
Collapse of Lifeline and Safety-net of Public
Education

• 30 children in Tokyo and Osaka live in poor
  families or borderline. (Nearly 4 times more than
  10 years ago)
• 40 senior high school students in Osaka cant
  pay tuition because of poverty.
• 90 of youth labor-market disappeared since 1992.
• In the case of poor families (annual income below
  30,000), educational expenditure occupies 60
  of their housekeeping money.

6
Escape from Learning among Students and
Humiliation of Teaching Profession

• 30 of junior high school students and 40 of
  senior high school students spend no time for
  learning and reading outside school.
• Teacher burn-out Average of working time counts
  52 hours per week without additional pay.
• Trust between teachers and parents is seriously
  destructed under neo-liberal policies, with which
  teacher work is changed from responsibility
  based on public mission to accountable service
  to tax payers or consumers.
• Crisis in dignity of teaching profession

7
Another Landscape Democratic Tradition and Its
Renovation

• The renovation movement of school as learning
  community based on traditions of progressive
  education and social democracy. 1998-
• 100 pilot schools, 2,000 elementary schools and
  1,000 junior secondary schools (10 of public
  schools) weave their grassroots network.
• Question is why so many schools are renovating?

8
Origins of School as Learning Community

• John Dewey Chicago Laboratory School
  (1898-1904) translated into Japan in 1900
• Progressive education movement in Japan (Taisho
  liberal education) in 1920s
• Post-war progressive education movement in the
  late1940s and the early 1950s
• The third tide of progressive education, 1995-
  (My proposal of struggling against neo-liberalism
  and of searching for school for the 21st century)
• The following is my proposal to renovate schools
  as learning community. 1995-

9
Foundations of My Idea about School as Learning
Community

• Personal experience During the past 28 years, I
  have learned from children and teachers through
  visiting 2,000 schools and observing 10,000
  lessons at classrooms.
• Progressive ideas and practice in Japan, US and
  other countries. In particular, I have learned so
  much from Debby Meier in US and Reggio Emilia
  Approach in Italy.
• Theory and philosophy of education, humanities
  and social science. Especially John Dewey.

10
Design and Proposal Vision of School as Learning
Community

• School as learning community is a place, where
  children learn together, teachers also learn
  together as educational professional, and even
  parents and citizens learn together through
  participating in school renovation.
• Collaborative learning at classrooms,
  collegiality at staffrooms and cooperation of
  parents and citizens with teachers are
  fundamental components.

11
Vision What is the School?

• Public mission and responsibility of school (or
  teachers) are to realize human right of learning
  of every child and facilitate him/her to pursue
  possible excellence in his/her learning.
• School should be a place where every teacher
  learn to be autonomous professional through
  opening his/her classroom and building
  collegiality.
• School should provide every parent with ample
  opportunities to cooperate with teachers and to
  join school renovation.

12
Three Cannons of School as Learning Community

• Public philosophy, democracy and excellence
  are three philosophical cannons of school as
  learning community.
• The publicness is a spatial concept. School
  should be opened inside and outside to exchange
  different voices through dialogic communication.

13
Opening Classrooms is the First Step

• I do not admit a public teacher who does not open
  his/her classroom at least once a year, even if
  he/she performs excellent practice. Because,
  he/she privatizes students, classroom, school and
  his/her profession.
• Opening classrooms should be the first step of
  school renovation.

14
Philosophy of Democracy

• Main mission of public education is to prepare a
  democratic society, so that school itself must be
  a democratic society.
• Democracy in education is not a political
  procedure, but a way of associated living as
  Dewey defined.
• At a democratic school, student, teacher,
  principal and parent are all protagonists, who
  participate in school management with different
  roles and responsibilities.

15
Pursuit of Excellence

• Teaching and learning essentially demand
  excellence. In this case, the excellence does not
  mean advantage in comparison with others, but
  doing best of his/herself in a given situation.
• Excellence doing best procreates modesty, that is
  the most significant trait for learner. I propose
  leaning as jumping in pursuit of this
  excellence.

16
Listening Pedagogy

• Listening others voice is the first priority
  in my approach to construct learning community
• Learning starts from listening others voice.
• As Debby Meier described, teaching is mostly
  listening.
• An old proverb of ethnic minority (Ainu) in Japan
  also says that, God created two ears and one
  mouth.

17
Listening Relationship Prepares Dialogic
Communication

• John Dewey described in 1927
• The connection of the ear with vital and
  out-going thought and emotion are immensely
  closer and more varied than those of the eye.
  Vision is a spectator hearing is a participant.
• Listening relation generates dialogue, and
  dialogic communication constructs learning
  community.

18
Redefinition of Learning

• Learning as dialogic communication
• Three aspects of learning practice? Dialogue
  with objective world (content, subject matter)
  Cognitive practice? Dialogue with others
  Social practice
• ? Dialogue with oneself Existential or
  ethical practice
• Learning Retexturing of meaning and relations
• Active, collaborative and reflective learning
  should be organized at classroom.

19
Redefinition of Teaching

• Teaching is prone to be regarded as an easy
  work even by teachers.
• Teaching should be transformed from technical
  practice to reflective practice. (Donald Schon
  1983)
• Contemporary teacher should be redefined not only
  as teaching profession but rather as leaning
  profession.
• Case conference of lesson study is a strong
  vehicle with which teachers build collegiality
  and develop their professional competence and
  practical wisdom.

20
Strategies Activity System of Learning Community

• Active, collaborative and reflective learning at
  classroom Collaborative learning by small mixed
  group (4 students)
• Lesson study (one hour observation and two hour
  discussion by colleagues) should be organized at
  least 30 times per year, as a core of school
  management.
• Ample opportunity for parents to cooperate with
  teachers (Learning Participation)

21
Case I Hamanogo Elementary School (1) The First
Pilot School

• Hamanogo Elementary School was established by
  Chigasaki City Board of Education as the first
  pilot school as learning community in 1998.
• During the past 10 years, more than 20,000
  teachers nationwide visited the school, 100,000
  teachers read the books which document renovation
  of the school, and currently 2,000 schools are
  renovating through adopting the Hamanogo Style.

22
Hamanogo School (2) Impression

• Hamanogo School is not a razzle-dazzle school but
  an ordinary one. You cant find a knock down
  teacher or a superb student. The school does
  not offer any pompous curriculum or grandiose
  practice.
• The visitors are firstly surprised at its
  calmness. Tender voices sound like as whisper of
  wind. Indeed, no one has said be quiet at the
  school for 9 years.

23
Hamanogo School (3) Landscape

• The visitors are impressed with natural,
  flexible, comfortable and sensible voices and
  behaviors of children and teachers. Nonetheless,
  inside of each person an elastic spirit of
  learning and caring is fulfilled. Dialogic
  communication generates high quality of learning.
  Each people has each face. Individuality stands,
  but even commonality sounds with a harmony.

24
Hamanogo School (4) Policies

• The followings are main policies.
• ? School reform starts and progresses from
  within. But without support from outside, it
  cant be continued.
• ? School reform is a hard work of
• long revolution. We must think
  revolutionarily, but change evolutionally.
• ? Energy for reform generates not from
  conformity, but from diversity. Learning
  community should be a community not like as
  coral, but like as orchestra.

25
Vision as the First Priority

• The main purpose of renovation at Hamanogo School
  is to guarantee and realize human right of
  learning of all the members. No child is
  alienated from learning. No child escapes from
  learning.
• At the starting point of renovation, the school
  contained more than 20 school refusals and nearly
  100 at risk students who were not able to sit
  their chairs to learn. Just 6 months later, all
  the school refusals disappeared and all the at
  risk students became sincerely involved in
  learning.
• The school is a miracle place where every child
  and every teacher can find his/her best way of
  learning.

26
Less is More. Simple is Better.

• School is a place for learning together.
  According to this simple doctrine, activities of
  children are simplified. There is no time for
  school assembly, principals talk, extra
  curriculum and other rituals.
• Time allotment is also simplified. Two lessons of
  95 minutes are allotted in the morning, which
  enable children to pursue high quality of
  learning, and for teachers to develop
  project-oriented curriculum.

27
Small is Sensible.

• Hamanogo School is a large school, about 800
  students and 40 teachers.
• The school is divided into 6 small mini
  schools. Teachers of a mini school share
  responsibility beyond walls of classrooms.
• Activities of teachers are also simplified,
  centering on collegiality. The simplified
  organization enable teachers to cooperate each
  other and concentrate on their professional work.

28
Case Conference

• School in-house workshop is placed as a core of
  school management. It is regularly composed of 1
  hour classroom observation and 2 hour case
  discussion. The school sets more than 100 times
  of such case conferences in a year.
• Central focus of the case conference is not
  teaching skills but lived experience of learning.
  The main purpose of it is not searching for one
  best method but becoming more sensible and
  responsible to learning of children.

29
Learning Participation by Parents

• Parents are actively involved in school
  renovation. The school provides ample opportunity
  for parents to cooperate with teachers. The
  Learning Participation they call is a strong
  vehicle to construct learning community and
  solidarity among parents. Currently, about 80 of
  parents join in various enterprise collaborated
  with teachers.

30
Case II Gakuyo Junior Secondary School

• Gakuyo School in Fuji City is the first pilot
  school of learning community in secondary
  education. The renovation started in 2001, by
  introducing the Hamanogo Style.
• For the previous 10 years, the school had been a
  well known school pinched with low achievement,
  vandalism, school refusal, and serious troubles
  with parents. It ranked at the worst position in
  any criterion among 18 junior secondary schools
  in the city, so that most teachers did not stay
  at the school more than 2 years.

31
Starting Point

• In April 2001, the principal and I presented a
  vision for renovation. But, most teachers were
  skeptical and even critical to our proposal. They
  despaired not only students but also parents and
  even colleagues. Students and parents too. Their
  reactions were reasonable, because they did their
  best and were defeated for many years.

32
The First Step for Renovation

• I proposed the following strategies as the first
  step of renovation.? Every classroom lesson
  should include three aspects of learning, such as
  activity, collaboration by small groups and
  reflection.
• ? Reduce teachers tension and listen
  students voice
• ? Case conferences by all the teachers should
  be arranged beyond subject Balkanization at
  least 40 times per year.

33
Miracle but True Story

• One year later, when all the teachers changed
  desk arrangement for students to collaborate
  with, there was no student who escaped from
  learning. Every student was sincerely involved in
  learning. Amazing!
• No vandalism, no arrested student and no problem
  behavior at school and 80 of school refusals
  disappeared (from 36 to 6).
• Two years later, the school obtained top-position
  of achievement test among 18 schools in the city.
  It is a miracle.

34
Grassroots Movement

• The success of Gakuyo School as learning
  community was rapidly well known to teachers
  nationwide. More than 5 thousands teachers
  visited the school for the past 3 years. Now,
  about one thousand schools are challenging to
  build leaning community adopting the Gakuyo
  Style.

35
Reflection and Implications

• The pilot school is efficacious to demonstrate
  actual fact of vision and philosophy of school
  renovation.
• Action research is profitable to refine the
  process of school renovation.
• Under decentralization, new type of network among
  city boards of education should be wired.
• School renovation should not be regarded as a
  partial one but as a whole. It is not a
  short-term challenge but a long revolution.

36
Development of Discourse Community of Teachers

• Renovation process is remarked as the following
  stages in practical discourse shared by teachers
• ? The first stage How to teach math?
• ? The second stage How to teach children to
  learn math?
• ? The third stage How to teach children to
  learn doing math?
• ? The fourth stage How to learn to teach
  children to learn doing math?.

37
Grassroots beyond Sea

• Grassroots movement of school as learning
  community has been enthusiastically advocated
  among social democrat educationists not only in
  Japan but also in Asian countries, such as Korea,
  China, Indonesia and Vietnam.
• Research Institute of Learning Community was
  established in Korea (2002), in China (2006).
  Asian meeting about school as learning community
  will be held at Seoul in this autum.

38
Conclusion Silent Revolution

• Reflecting personal experience of school
  renovation, I remind that school reform is a
  silent revolution. Hindered behind noisy voices
  of mass hysteria about educational crisis and
  neo-liberal policies, grassroots movement of
  school as learning community penetrates as silent
  revolution.
• I believe that only this silent revolution can
  open an avenue for future education, because it
  is rooted in silent voices for happiness of
  teachers and children. This is the reason why so
  many teachers are hopefully involved in this
  movement.

39
The End

• Thank you for your attention.