ABSTRACT
In the field of education, one of the most enduring messages is that “everything seems to work”. It is hard to find teachers who say they are “below average” teachers, and everyone (parent, politician, school leader) has a reason why their particular view about teaching or school innovation is likely to be successful. Indeed, rhetoric and game-play about teaching and learning seems to justify “everything goes”. We acknowledge that teachers teach differently from each other; we respect this difference and even enshrine it in terms like “teaching style” and “professional independence”. This often translates as “I’ll leave you alone, if you leave me alone to teach my way.” While teachers talk to their colleagues about curriculum, assessment, children, and lack of time and resources, they rarely talk about their teaching, preferring to believe that they may teach differently (which is acceptable provided they do not question one another’s right to teach in their particular ways). We pass laws that are more about structural concerns than about teaching concerns: such as class size, school choice, and social promotion, as if these are clear winners among the top-ranking influences on student learning. We make school-based decisions about ability grouping, detracking or streaming, and social promotion, again appealing to claims about influences on achievement. For most teachers, however, teaching is a private matter; it occurs behind a closed classroom door, and it is rarely questioned or challenged. We seem to believe that every teacher’s stories about success are sufficient justification for leaving them alone. We will see throughout this book that there is a good reason for acknowledging that most teachers can demonstrate such success. Short of unethical behaviors, and gross incompetence, there is much support for the “everything goes” approach. However herein lies a major problem.
