Transformation Theory: A theory of adult learning

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Image source: Suzanne D. Williams, CC0

I am often skeptical of some of the language we use in education, and that is common in other sectors too. This includes words such as: disruption, innovation, transformation. I wonder about the human impact using these words has. How does it feel to be ‘disrupted’, to be asked to ‘innovate’, or to ‘transform’ one’s self or one’s practice? This isn’t to say though that I don’t believe in challenge or provocation, nor that I don’t see the value in encouraging people to test their assumptions and question their underlying beliefs. Indeed, far from it.

So let’s think more about transformation for a moment.

Common metaphors for transformation include the butterfly, which evolves from its humble beginnings as a caterpillar into a beautiful, soaring creature. Another metaphor is a Biblical one: St Paul’s conversion to Christianity on the road to Damascus. Both of these metaphors encompass the idea of a sudden, dramatic, and profound change in direction or orientation or worldview. When we talk about transformative experiences, we might say something like: ‘the scales fall from your eyes’, or use what is a favourite quotation of mine (attributed both to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes): “The mind once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions”.

But there is another aspect to transformation I think it’s useful to know of: the adult learning theory – Transformation Theory. Transformation Theory is generally ascribed to American Jack Mezirow based on his study of women returning to university in the late 1970s. Mezirow (2009) offers this definition of transformative learning: “Transformative learning may be defined as learning that transforms problematic frames of reference to make them more inclusive, discriminating, reflective, open, and emotionally able to change” (p. 22, emphasis in original).

Transformation Theory focuses on critical reflection and dialogue to support people to adapt their worldview – to orient it towards being agentic, inclusive, open, seeking social justice and equity. Therefore we could say that transformative learning occurs when a person is able to change their their worldview, for example about what knowledge is; how society operates; or about their beliefs about themselves (Kitchenham, 2008).

In practice, Transformation Theory could look like CORE Education’s Dr Vince Ham eFellowship. The Dr Vince Ham eFellows are committed to exploring ways of doing education differently for their schools, kura, centres and communities. The purpose of the Dr Vince Ham eFellowship is to inspire transformational practice through inquiry. eFellows are mentored through their own deep inquiry journey that generally takes the form of an action research project. They experience workshops, field trips, critical reflection and dialogue – learning from and with one another.

Further, Transformation Theory can also support school and kura leaders to think about how they design professional learning and development opportunities for their colleagues. Some of the challenges include: nurturing robust professional learning conversations; creating safe environments where people feel comfortable in being vulnerable: admitting they don’t know, or made a mistake. It is important that leaders value and model critical reflection and dialogue with one another, and with colleagues.

To that end, leaders might consider the following questions:

  • How might we encourage teachers to understand their current worldview and assumptions about education, including their position within the education system?
  • How might we foster supportive, safe, and inclusive relationships that allow space for critical reflection and dialogue to unfold?
  • How might we respectfully challenge our assumptions and our assumptions of others so that we can learn other ways in which to view the world?

References and further reading:

Kitchenham, A. (2008). The evolution of John Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory. Journal of Transformative Education, 6(2), 104-123. Retrieved from doi:10.1177/1541344608322678

Meluish Spencer, K. (2016). Can we create conditions for transformation? Retrieved from http://blog.core-ed.org/blog/2016/04/can-we-create-conditions-for-transformation.html

Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Mezirow, J. (2000). Learning to think like an adult. Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress / Jack Mezirow and Associates (pp. 3-33). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Mezirow, J. (2009). Transformative learning theory. In J. Mezirow & E. W. Taylor (Eds.), Transformative learning in practice: Insights from community, workplace, and higher education (pp. 18-31). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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The School that Story built

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The stories that circulate in and around a school paint a picture of the school’s culture and values, heroes and enemies, good points and bad, animating the actions and intentions of leaders, teachers, students, whānau and community. By creating and sharing our stories, we define “who we are”. Our identity is intricately woven into the tapestry of the narrative. 

Strong school leaders distinguish themselves by being good storytellers; voices that people listen to, are inspired by and respect. We need stories in order to understand ourselves and communicate who we are. We use stories to help us make sense of the world and the experiences of others. By sharing stories, we can better understand the conflicts of daily life and find explanations for how things fit together in the world.

“Paul Austeronce said that telling stories is the only way we can create meaning in our lives and make sense of the world.” (Fog, Budtz, Munch & Blanchette, 2010, p. 18)

My own learning journey has provided ample fodder through which one might understand how story can influence perceptions about learning, identity creation, and identity affirmation. One thing that has been evident to me is the huge gap in our understanding of the lived realities of the learners we teach. Narrative influences how students are perceived and how they perceive themselves.

As educators, we collect copious amounts of data. In many schools, data gathering and interpretation practices are Euro-centric and the information is rarely viewed from any other perspective. Data flows from every aspect of a child’s learning experience and plays an important role in the development of their learning story. Care should be taken to ensure that our data practices do not result in a depersonalisation of information. In many instances, the challenge is centred on the notion that data, especially without meaningful patterns, is cold and has a lack of intrinsic meaning.

The problem is not with the data itself. The challenge is with the stories we construct out of the data; the ones we tell ourselves and our students, and the stories our students figure out on their own.

As a concept, storytelling permeates all cultures and is hardwired into us. We can’t help but make sense of the world through story.  In our schools, one challenge is to discover how the future might be shaped by story and how and why storytelling can make a difference.

  • What’s the point of telling stories anyway?
  • What makes a good story?
  • And how do you go about telling a story so that it supports student learning?

Making storytelling more tangible is a step toward helping students, teachers and whānau further engage in education. If stories are so fundamental to the human experience, we need to figure out how to better incorporate them into the educational landscape. The question I am left asking is how might schools turn abstract notions of storytelling into practical tools for the benefit of all? Perhaps the answer lies in the fabric of the story of each school, student, teacher and whānau. Perhaps story is the language through which learning may be explored and changed.

 

References:

Fog K, Budtz C & Yakaboylu B. (2010). Storytelling : branding in practice, Springer, 19.

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Making diversity visible for gender and sexuality inclusive schools

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At any conference or professional learning event, the idea of “inclusive education” tends to buzz. It’s a theme that many workshops or presentations have at their heart. But when we talk about inclusive education, are we also including sexuality minorities or gender identity?

Data capturing the voices of same-sex or both-sex attracted, and transgender youth suggest we are not. These groups of students are regularly overrepresented in statistics for bullying and well-being in the Youth2000 surveys (Clark et al., 2013; Clark et al., 2014). Sexuality and gender diverse students may not be visible in a lot of Aotearoa’s schools, which can make inclusion complex. However, it is now 2018, and our diverse young people are beginning to make more noise. They are proudly coming out and demanding change.

Last year I was privileged to be selected as one of the 2017 CORE Education eFellows. Seven teachers from various contexts undertook action research projects over the course of the year with guidance from CORE mentors and the support of one another.

I set out to work with a small group of teachers to develop their inclusive practice to support making sexuality and gender-minority students feel welcome, included, and accepted at school. I was interested in delving into the teachers’ historical understanding of sexuality and gender and support the development of that understanding. The inquiry investigated what makes a difference for teachers in this area and to encourage ongoing practice that promotes empathy and acceptance. I hoped that understanding the teachers’ journeys, both past and present, would help to develop gender and sexuality inclusive practice in others.

diagram
My findings led me to develop this diagram (with some source inspiration from this blogpost). Our inclusive practice is in tension between the pressure to be more inclusive and the pressure to be comfortable. Pressure comes from well-being initiatives or professional development opportunities, the statistics (above) that tell us that more needs to be done, and student voice that demands change for inclusion. The pressure in the opposite direction comes from internal pressure that naturally wants to maintain the status quo, the drive to stay in your comfort zone, and competing priorities.

In order to create a shift, I propose drawing inspiration from Newton’s First Law: an object at rest stays at rest unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. What is required to shift teachers to more gender and sexuality-inclusive practice is greater pressure for change. To avoid diversity inertia, we need to make the compelling reasons to change more visible.

Friday 18th May is Pink Shirt Day. This is an opportunity for visibility, for schools to shift the inertia.

The purpose of Pink Shirt Day is “to create schools, workplaces and communities where all people feel safe, valued and respected.” While the day sets out to address bullying in a general sense, the origins of the day come from the LGBT+ community. It is important that homophobia and biphobic and transphobic bullying is specifically addressed by Pink Shirt Day events because sexuality and gender minority young people experience higher rates of bullying (Bullying Prevention Advisory Group, 2015).

It is easy to be involved; many schools already participate. The harder part is ensuring that the day results in a deeper understanding of the prevalence and impact of bullying on young people’s mental health and wellbeing. The Pink Shirt Day toolkits are a great place to start. This is also a good opportunity to reflect on our practice too: how do sexuality and gender minority students know they are safe in our schools? In our classrooms? How does our practice support the disruption of heteronormativity or binary views of gender?

Participating in the day is one action that can make a difference. Taking part could mean one individual wears pink, or a whole school. But this is only a start. We need a tidal wave of action to push us out of diversity inertia and start turning around Aotearoa’s embarrassing statistics for our sexuality and gender minority youth.

Links to further information:

References

Bullying Prevention Advisory Group. (2015). Bully prevention and response: A guide for schools. Bullying Prevention Advisory Group. Retrieved from http://www.education.govt.nz/school/student-support/student-wellbeing/health-and-wellbeing/bullying-prevention-and-response/bullying-prevention-and-response-a-guide-for-schools/

Clark, T. C., Fleming, T., Bullen, P., Denny, S., Crengle, S., Dyson, B., Fortune, S., Lucassen, M., Peiris-John, R., Robinson, E., Rossen, F., Sheridan, J., Teevale, T., Utter, J. (2013). Youth’12 Overview: The health and wellbeing of New Zealand secondary school students in 2012. Auckland, New Zealand: The University of Auckland.

Clark, T. et al. (2014) The Health and Well-Being of Transgender High School Students: Results From the New Zealand Adolescent Health Survey. Journal of Adolescent Health 55, 93-99.

 

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The ‘E’ in E-Learning is for Empathy

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The buzzwords we use don’t always meet the values to which we aspire

Those immersed in the educational milieu of our time are well acquainted with the buzzwords that surround our practice. We hear these words in professional development seminars and workshops, at conferences, and in educational publications. Words like ‘agency’, ‘self-directed’, ‘entrepreneurial’ and ‘risk-taking’ are part and parcel of most graduate profiles. However, I believe we need to be careful what we wish for, because a quick glance at the daily news reveals certain spray-tanned world leaders having exactly these qualities!

The results of this are plain to see — ego run amok, ‘othering’ on a grand scale, division and disharmony, exclusion and exponential ignorance. The problem, of course, occurs when those competencies we so often champion, become radically divorced from the values that underlie our humanity. Empathy, compassion, manaakitanga, kotahitanga, and whanaungatanga. In a word, LOVE. THIS is where digital technology can REALLY be harnessed — not for dehumanising the Other, but for RE-humanising. Yet, how often do we use the word ‘love’ in our practice, and see it in our graduate profiles?

We are lucky here in Aotearoa New Zealand, as our own curriculum gives us license to develop these essential values:

  • diversity, as found in our different cultures, languages, and heritages
  • equity, through fairness and social justice
  • community and participation for the common good.

Inspiration from a past student

A ‘Wow’ moment for me occurred in 2016. In the local paper I saw a profile of an ex-student of mine. She had been year 8 when I taught her in 2009. In the article, she described how she experienced a fundamental pivot in life direction, which she attributed to learning about child labour in our class that year. This sparked her interest in global issues and development, and she was about to set off to Vietnam to participate in a water project. Hearing about this kind of thing is what teachers live for!

Inspired by this, I revisited the issue of child labour with my class at the time. We learned that through World Vision we could repay a family’s debt and set a child labourer free for only $150! So, we came up with a plan. Our syndicate (about 100 children) divided into teams, each armed with a bucket, a 150-link metal chain, and some bolt-cutters. Each team headed off to a different part of Tauranga Moana — some in Papamoa, some at the Mount, some in Red Square, and elsewhere. Using graphic design posters made in class, we took this issue to the streets, inviting members of the public to contribute a gold coin, and to break one link of the metal chain. That morning we raised over $2000 — enough to set free 14 child labourers!

This was the inspiration for my 2017 eFellowship project, which looked at how global connection can increase children’s sense of agency around making a positive difference. I had seen it happen before. Could we do this again and identify what it was about the experience that really changed children’s hearts and minds. The context this time was around water justice.

eFellowship project around preparing students for a
meaningful future

Having spent time at school learning about the issues, I watched as the children articulated their learning passionately with members of the public all around Tauranga Moana, and we raised over $1300. And we knew exactly who would benefit — a small rural community in Kimilili, Kenya, and the school at the heart of it, the HIP Academy. This was a school I had connected with two years prior during another global project. This is how our learning was expressed in an authentic context of genuine need. The money went towards providing Bucket Filters, providing drinkable water for a community that previously relied on a single tap from a pretty muddy puddle.

class collecting for cause

For our learners, the very next day, to get back pictures from the HIP Academy, addressed to our school, thanking our learners for their help, really brought home to all of us that our actions can have a real and lasting effect on the lives of others.

HIP Academy students

The concepts of ‘Droplets’ became important to us. Yes, we may feel small, if we imagine ourselves as a single drop. In the face of the world and its problems, children really can feel quite small and powerless. But, who of us really doubts the power of those droplets when combined together, to create a tsunami of action and compassion?

What I hoped to highlight in my eFellowship project was that by making connections beyond ourselves, we make connections within ourselves and to our place in our world. These connections, combined with the values in our own curriculum, can be an incredible driver of change.

Agency and future-focused learning built on solid values

Agency is definitely one of the buzzwords we hear a lot, and I agree this one is super important. But, what does it really mean? Is it just a matter of a learner choosing when they would like to do maths, and where to sit? If it is, we are selling ourselves short, because student agency, when built on a rock-solid base in values, can have far reaching effects.

I often feel cynical during presentations about ‘21st century learning’, or ‘future focused education’. Who are we trying to create? Yes, the world is changing! The old model of education did seem to be on a trajectory towards university professorship, as though that were the ultimate outcome in the future of our learners. But nowadays, I wonder if the goal has become the creation of Silicon Valley start-up entrepreneurs. Are we really in the business of turning our learners into the next Tim Ferriss or Elon Musk? Is this any better than the old model?

Future-focused learning, if we must use the term, primarily needs to be based on values!
The future of the world we live in depends fundamentally not on whether our learners can code, app smash, and launch companies, but on being able to look at the world and imagine it better, and have not only the skills, but the values to make it happen: manaakitanga, kotahitanga, empathy, compassion and, yes, let’s say it — love.

The power we have as educators

How easily we underestimate the power we have as teachers. Our classrooms are the seedpods of the future, like dandelion seeds on a stalk. To plant a seed is an act of hope. It is a truly future-focused act. I believe that in teaching we do the same — we don’t know where the seeds will land, but we must carry this hope into our everyday practice.

We must remember that amongst the buzzwords, bells and whistles, our mission is so much greater than this. I’ve long thought the ‘E’ in ‘e-learning’ should stand for empathy — the recognition that there is no “Other”, just sister and brother. As teachers we have the power to redefine, reconnect, and rehumanise the future. It is a noble calling, and we should rise to it!

Craig McDonald-Brown discusses his eFellowship scholarship project

eFellow research – student awareness of global issues from EDtalks.

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eFellow research – student awareness of global issues

There are a number of things that provided the context for what we did. One of the main things was seeing an article in the newspaper last year and it was a profile of an ex-student of mine that I taught back in 2009, in a year eight class. And in the article, she describes that learning, which was about child labour, is a kind of a fundamental pivot in her life and actually the… what happened in her life following on from that was quite incredible. She went on to go to Vietnam and to Africa and to be constantly engaged in these projects, and she said that way of looking at the world really kicked off while we were learning about child labour. And so I invited her back to speak to our learners last year — year five and sixes — and that reignited that interest in learning about child labour. And, one of the things we found out was that for about $150 we could set a child labourer free by repaying the family’s debt. And so, we got 150 link-metal chains, and we took them out into the streets in Papamoa, and Tauranga, and Mount Maunganui, and we invited members of the public to break the chains with our bolt cutters for a gold coin donation. That morning alone we raised over $2000, which was enough to set free 15 child labourers, and seeing the impact that that had on the children — knowing that they’d made such a real-world difference — that prompted my eFellowship inquiry.

And so, the inquiry is looking into, how does that sense of global connection activate children’s sense of being able to make a difference, so, ‘student agency’ on a grand scale, I suppose, or ‘student agency’ that’s personally meaningful in their lives. My students were year five and six, but I’m hoping that the things that we’ve uncovered and the patterns that we’ve found would apply to children across a number of different ages. And one thing I’ve found is that children are very motivated by issues of fairness. And, what I’ve found during the study this year was that towards the start of the study, when I was collecting student voice before we’d even started learning about the issues, their explanations about poverty, and the causes behind it, and what they could do were quite simplistic.

As we started to unravel the issues and learn more about it, they started to ask questions about why, why are there countries like this and our country is like this, and it’s not fair, this concept of fairness came up a lot. And by the time we collected the final data towards the end of the inquiry, the students were really taking it on board and personalising, and their level of questioning got to a much deeper level, actually, and wondering what the implications were for their own lives. This year, we weren’t looking at child labour, we were looking at the issue of water justice. And we learned that over 600 million people live without access to clean water, and if they had clean water we could eliminate 80% of disease in the world.

And so, so it was a different issue, but it raised the same kinds of questions. And, we’d previously made contact with a little community in rural Kenya in a village called Kimilili. And, so all the while we were learning about this water issue, when we finally went to take action in the streets again, this time around the water issue, the students knew exactly who they were helping and who they were raising the money for. And this time we raised $1,300, and that went towards providing bucket filters for the people in this village who, before that, didn’t really have a source of drinkable water. And, I think that really showed the children that their learning carried into action can have quite an effect, and a long-lasting effect.

I guess what I’ve discovered is that children are thirsty for learning about global connection, and they’re thirsty for that connection itself, and it seems to be an inherent motivation and engagement within that. I’ve found that children are naturally motivated by the concept of justice and fairness, and I think, as teachers, if we provide the context for learning about that, and it’s an authentic context — motivated by a genuine need — then the rest seems to fall into place.

And that’s when a story starts to come through of a student who, perhaps had learnt about this years ago, but the penny had dropped somewhere along the way, and they’ve made real concrete decisions in their own life that prioritise some of these issues around the needs of others. I had another boy who was in that group studying child labour last year, and then, this year, once all that was behind us, and just of his own volition, he decided to donate $150 of his birthday and Christmas money to set free a child labourer because he knew that he could, and he knew that’s what it took, and he was happy to sacrifice his own money that he’d got from his grandparents and so forth to do that. And that, to me, is an example of the learning sticking, from one context, and not just forgotten and moved on to the next topic of inquiry, but it really seems to stay with them.

As a next step, I’d really like to inquire into the ability of these kinds of projects to develop empathy amongst children for whom empathy is a real struggle. I recognise that the children in my group were… were self-selected; they opted into the global connection group, and then my smaller subset within that, they put up their hands and said, “Yeah, I’d like to be involved”, and so I did have children on my hands, I think, who were naturally outwardly focused, and who had a bit of that sense of empathy already. I’d really like to look at how we can create the context where children who … who are lacking some of the empathic mindset can start to show signs of developing that by connecting with people — other people — in the world, and especially those whose situations are less fortunate than their own.

I would definitely encourage my peers to apply for the eFellowship, and, in fact, I’ve done that in the school that I’ve just started working at. I think it’s an incredible opportunity to connect with other teachers who think deeply about similar kinds of issues — to be exposed to different educational contexts around New Zealand. And, also have the opportunity to contribute and give back to the wider educational community through EDtalks, through uLearn, through the conferences, and just the relationships that we build.

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Learn more about CORE’s Dr Vince Ham eFellowship

 

Image Credits:

Street collection: by the author
Nigerian children: by Livingstone Kegode
Blowing dandelion: by Pero 1 on Wikimedia under CC 3.0

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playdough story

Where do stories live?

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‘Everything’ a story – you are a story – I am a story’
(Frances Hodgson Burnett)

Stories make up our lives. As we talk about our day, our ideas, and our dreams, we’ll often talk through a story. These stories naturally flow from us in the form of our routine conversations. I have always loved stories, whether I’m reading a book, watching a movie, sharing an experience with a friend, or working with the children in my kindergarten. I know stories have the power to help us remember, to instil passion and to connect us with others. Therefore, when I was presented with the opportunity to become one of the Dr. Vince Ham eFellows for 2016 with CORE Education, I grabbed it with both hands. Having wondered about the link between stories and literacy, I titled my research, ‘Building oral language skills through storytelling in an early-years context.’

Where do stories live?

My initial inspiration to look at the links between oral language and storytelling resulted from a visit to the Opal School in Portland, Oregon. It was listening to the shared stories from the teachers regarding how their philosophy supports a play-based curriculum which draws heavily on the arts and storytelling, that inspired me.

playdough story
Using playdough to tell a story

There were several reasons I wanted to see if storytelling could support oral language skills in early childhood education (ECE). Research supports how integral the preschool years are for the development of oral language, and how strong oral language at an early age means the likelihood of a child becoming strong in literacy is very high (Sheil et al, 2012). And on a personal level, from talking to some of the new-entrant teachers at my local schools, they shared with me how they felt that today, more than ever, students are coming into school with insufficient language knowledge. This means that many children’s oral language skills are not developed enough to support the curriculum objectives. It seemed to me that children would need well-developed oral language skills before they could be expected to become fluent readers, writers, and even fluent thinkers.

As my research began, I immediately hit a brick wall. I had assumed that children would find it easy to tell and share stories, and that they would have the same understanding as me of what stories were. This was a big misunderstanding. Eager not to have my research fall at the first hurdle, I began to talk to all the children about stories, and it became clear that they felt stories were only found in books, on book shelves, and in the library. This clearly wasn’t going to help children tell their own stories, so it was at this point that I realised I needed to ask the right question, which, incidentally, ended up setting the direction of my research. The question was, ‘Where do stories live?’

After turning the topic of stories into a question the children could relate to, and by focussing my research on concentrating on this one question, something magical happened. Stories were no longer just related to books. In the children’s words:

‘Stories come from my mouth, some come from words, some from pictures…Stories aren’t just in books, they come from Lego as the Lego is magic…Stories come from inside of me…you can get stories in your dreams, ‘cause I’ve had them…Stories are also in your imaginations…Or they can be real, like real life stories, not made up.’

My research learnings and surprises

As my formal research ended, the stories continued to flow freely in all corners of our kindergarten, I spent some time analysing and reflecting on my findings and I realised that the children were exploring and experimenting with language more. They were beginning to use many descriptive words, and words they may have heard from friends or peers. I saw how the language used in stories was very different from the language of conversation.

Another observation was that, as the children increasingly began to share their stories, they became more expressive. They were expressive both verbally with words and language, and non-verbally with gestures and facial expressions. Alongside this, the more stories children told, the more their confidence increased and the clarity of their voice improved. As they gained more confidence, interestingly, I noted how this supported children in taking some risks with their stories. Children began to try out words and ideas that they may not have been quite brave enough to do at the very beginning of my research.

Although these made up the main findings of my research, I also discovered some beautiful surprises. I discovered more about the children, their passions, their interests, their worries; the things that delighted them as well as the things that scared them. Through storytelling I had my eyes opened to the uniqueness of each child. Through their stories, I developed a much deeper and personal connection with the children.

I also learnt a lot about myself as a teacher. In the words of Stephen Covey, I soon learnt to listen ‘with the intent to understand, not with the intent to reply’. This was significant learning for me, and I realised children didn’t want someone to solve or fix a problem that they were sharing through a story; they wanted a listener.

The uLearn experience as Dr Vince Ham eFellow

Just when I thought I could relax, uLearn16 quickly approached. Having never been to a uLearn conference before, the experience was new and I was a little overwhelmed when I realised the significance of the event with over 1500 attendees. However, when it came to sharing my own work, I found myself presenting with two other researchers at the Research and Inquiry Symposium. Listening to the findings and highlights of their research projects both excited and enraptured me, and my own nerves soon dissipated.

story stones
Story stones

uLearn is a wonderful mix of teachers, educational researchers, and leaders. To be able to present alongside them was an honour I will never forget. To be able to listen to the many international keynotes alongside more local, New Zealand-based speakers made me realise the passion there is for providing the best professional practice in our classrooms/kura/centres as teachers across the globe. It was a novel experience to attend a conference with not only ECE teachers, but also primary, intermediate, and secondary colleagues. All too often, we work and learn in our own sector’s bubble, but being able to consider issues that cross all sectors is amazing. This is how I feel all professional learning should be; we are one big family in education, we should be working together, learning from each other, listening to each other’s stories and valuing and honouring the work of our colleagues. Surely it is only when we do this, to come together and connect, that we can ever hope to truly transform our practice.

Links:

 

Reference

G. Shiel, Á.Cregan, A.McGough and P.Archer, “Oral Language in Early Childhood and Primary Education (3-8 years)”, National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), Research report number 14, 2012.

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