[MTC Global] Teaching for the Future--Creating the Teaching Profession that 21st-Century Students Deserve

Teaching For The Future: Creating The Teaching Profession That 21st-Century Students Deserve

By Barnett Berry

In America, the debates over teachers and their profession have been raucous, especially of late. But the struggles (over who enters teaching, how they are prepared, and how they are paid) are anchored in 20^th-century policies based on 19^th-century principles of student learning.

Many reformers propose a “superhero fix” for our highest-need schools, placing young recruits in challenging classrooms for just a few years. However well-intentioned, it’s a solution that dodges the real problem: teaching in the 21st century is complex, challenging work. And we need millions of well-prepared, highly savvy teachers who teach in schools designed to spread their expertise—whether with colleagues down the hall or in virtual communities. If we truly want the profession to benefit our students, we must reframe the reform narrative. We must enact aggressive policies driven by a new vision for teaching and learning.

The effective teachers (now and in the future) must know how to:

·         Teach the Googled learner, who has grown up on virtual reality games and can find out almost everything with a few taps of the finger;

·         Work with a student body that’s increasingly diverse (by 2030, at least 40 percent of students will be second-language learners);

·         Prepare kids to compete for jobs in a global marketplace where communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving are the “new basics”;

·         Use sophisticated tools to measure student learning and fine-tune instruction; and

·         Connect teaching to the needs of communities as economic churn creates instability, pushing schools to integrate health and social services with academic learning.

·         Emergent reality 1 foresees a transformed learning environment in which digital tools allow students to learn 24/7 and to develop in-demand skills. Many of the same tools allow teachers to learn from each other anywhere, at any time. And—as importantly—such technologies help teachers share more accurate data about student learning with policymakers and the public, boosting accountability.

·         Emergent reality 2 posits that expert teachers will create seamless connections between learning in cyberspace and in brick-and-mortar schools. These educators know how to reach the “iGeneration” student and how to serve as community organizers. Even as online learning explodes, an unstable economy and growing socioeconomic divides will require that teacher-leaders build strong school-community partnerships, connecting students and their families with a wide range of integrated services.

·         Emergent reality 3 envisions differentiated professional pathways that allow teachers with different skills and career trajectories to maximize their respective strengths. Educators will operate within career matrices, not old-school hierarchical ladders. Schools will employ an intricate array of specialists and generalists. Some will teach for only a few years. Some may teach solely or partially in online settings. However, schools (even high-need schools) will be led by those who are committed to teaching for the long haul. Every school will be anchored by a core group of accomplished teachers who know deeply the students and families they serve.

·         Emergent reality 4 predicts the need to develop 600,000 “teacherpreneurs.” These are effective teachers who continue to work with students regularly, but also have the time, supports, and rewards necessary to apply their expertise in other ways. For example, teacherpreneurs may mentor new teachers, design new instructional programs based on gaming technologies, orchestrate community partnerships, or advance new policies and practices. Teacherpreneurs will be the “highest-paid anybodies” in a school district—and their roles will finally blur the lines of distinction between those who teach in schools and those who lead.

·         Levers for Transformation
We cannot transform our schools unless we first imagine major changes to the profession of teaching. Yet, reversing teaching’s complicated history will be challenging. The profession’s past has been marked by a lack of clarity and rigor in becoming a teacher, as well as limited prestige and income. Teachers have been siloed in classrooms, sequestering the pedagogical expertise and muffling the policy voices of our best practitioners.

 

 

 

Educate, Empower, Elevate

Prof. Bholanath Dutta

Founder, Convener & President