Policy and Decision Making in the HKSAR Government

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Policy, Professionalism and Improvement
The Role of Teachers in Educational Change
By Andy Hargreaves Thomas More Brennan Chair in
Education Boston College USA hargrean_at_bc.edu www.a
ndyhargreaves.net Keynote presentation for OECD
Conference on Teachers Matter Attracting,
Developing and Retaining Effective
Teachers November 18-19, 2004 Amsterdam
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I Teaching Leading In The Knowledge Society
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The basic economic resource of society is and
will be knowledge. . . . Value is now created by
productivity and innovation, both
applications of knowledge to work. The leading
groups of the knowledge society will be
knowledge workers. . . . The economic challenge
. . . will therefore be the productivity of
knowledge work and the knowledge workers.
Peter Drucker, Post-Capitalist Society, 1993
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We are moving into a learning economy where the
success of individuals, firms, regions and
countries will reflect, more than anything else,
their ability to learn. The speeding up of
change reflects the rapid diffusion of
information technology, the widening of the
global marketplace . . . and deregulation of and
less stability in markets.
OECD, Knowledge Management in the Learning
Society, 2001.
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Successful Knowledge Economies
Characterized by

• Creativity
• Flexibility
• Problem Solving
• Ingenuity
• Collective Intelligence
• Professional Trust
• Risk Taking
• Continuous Improvement

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v multiple, not singular v infinite, not
fixed v shared, not individual(from Brown
Lauder, Capitalism and Social Progress)
Collective Intelligence is
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• Teachers as Catalysts of the Knowledge Society
• Promote deep cognitive learning
• Learn to teach in ways they were not taught
  themselves
• Commit to continuous professional learning
• Work and learn in collegial teams
• Treat parents as partners in learning
• Develop and draw on collective intelligence
• Monitor and self-direct their own professional
  learning
• Build a capacity for change and risk
• Foster professional trust in processes
• From Andy Hargreaves, Teaching in the Knowledge
  Society, Open University Press, 2003

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• The deepest anxieties of this prosperous age
  concern the erosion of families, the fragmenting
  of our communities and the keeping of our own
  integrity intact.. (The rewards of the new
  economy are) coming at the price of lives that
  are more frenzied, less secure, more economically
  divergent, more socially stratified.
• Robert Reich, The Future of Success, 2000

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How do we decide what is of lasting value
in ourselves in a society which is impatient,
which focuses on the immediate moment? How can
long term goals be pursued in an economy
devoted to the short-term? How can mutual
loyalties and commitments be sustained in
institutions which are constantly breaking apart
or continually being redesigned? These are the
questions about character posed by the new,
flexible capitalism. Richard Sennett, The
Corrosion of Character, 1998
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Social capital is critical for the creation of a
healthy civil society that is, the realm of
groups and associations that fall between the
family and the state. . . . Without social
capital, there would be no civil society and . .
. without civil society there would be no
democracy.
Francis Fukuyama, The Great Disruption, 1999.
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Repetitive change syndrome is initiative
overload change related chaos
Eric Abrahamson, Change Without Pain, 2004
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No one leader, institution or nation can control
everything without help.
Hargreaves, A. Teaching In The Knowledge Society,
2003.
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Culture and Contract Regimes
CONTRACT
Permissive Individualism
Corrosive Individualism
CULTURE
Professional Learning Communities
Collaborative Cultures
Contrived Collegiality
Performance Training Sect
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• Distributed leadership sees leadership practice
  as a product of the interaction of school
  leaders, followers and their situation.
• Leadership practice involves multiple
  individuals within and outside formal leadership
  positions
• Leadership practice is not done to followers.
  Followers are themselves part of leadership
  practice.
• It is not the actions of individuals, but the
  interactions among them that matter most in
  leadership practice.

Jim Spillane, Distributed Leadership, Kappa
Delta Pi, winter 2005.
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Professional Learning Community
Learning and Teaching Focus
Collaboration
Achievement and Engagement
Learning, Reflection and Review
Use of Evidence
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District-Wide Learning Communities (sustained
improvement in student achievement over at least
three years in areas of high poverty)
v Sense of urgency, political will, driven by
assessment data
v Data guide instructional decision-making
v Distributed leadership v Central office
support v Emphasis on instructional
leadership v Continuous, embedded, focused
professional development v Shared systemic
responsibility v Multiple criteria for
accountability v Scope for curriculum
creativity v Stability in superintendancy v Extens
ive use of external resources
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Its hard to eat something youve had a
relationship with (Hargreaves Fullan Whats
Worth Fighting For Out There? Teachers College
Press, 1998)
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Three Cultures of Teaching

• Veteran dominated
• serves experienced teacher interests
• feels exclusionary
• offers few leadership opportunities
• Novice orientated
• surrounded by fellow novices
• feels inclusive
• driven by enthusiasm rather than expertise
• Blended
• provides mentoring
• offers leadership
• reciprocal learning

Susan Moore Johnson et al, Finders and Keepers,
2004.
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Policies for Teacher Inclusion and Change

• Teacher leadership development
• School inspection and accreditation
• Recertification and performance management
• Support for self-learning
• Professional self regulation
• Professional networks
• Regional professional development support
• Grown up norms of professional community

Andy Hargreaves Teaching In The Knowledge
Society, 2003
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