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What If We Trusted Teachers More?
August 17, 2021
It's not differences that divide us. It's our judgments about each other that do.
-Author, Margaret Wheatley
 
 
In a blog post from 2017 that is perhaps even more relevant today, John Spencer, author of a number of books about educational practice, wrote:

“If we want to see innovation happening in our schools, we need to trust, encourage, and empower teachers to transform their practice. Too often, teachers are forced to teach inside the box and it can feel frustrating.”

Ann Pelo and Margie Carter, in their popular, groundbreaking work, From Teaching to Thinking, write about how
teachers and administrators often face “pressures to inscribe early childhood programs with standardized, scripted curriculum that emphasizes literacy, numeracy and science concepts at the cost of vigorous  play and rigorous exploration...”

Pelo and Carter pose a question about what kind of story we want to tell about the work early educators and leaders do: one of mistrust and over-control or one of belief in educators’ competence and creativity:

“What if the story were transformed with an understanding that pedagogical practice should be aimed at sustaining a culture of inquiry, where educators listen, wonder and reflect; where we are surprised, delighted and moved?”




From Teaching to Thinking

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Comments (2)

Displaying All 2 Comments
Tiffany Peckham · August 18, 2021
Lincoln, Nebraska, Australia


Gerry, thank you for commenting. agreed!

-Tiffany at Exchange

Gerry Slater · August 17, 2021
Design4Kids & Wisconsin Nature Action Co
Milwaukee, WI, United States


SO IMORTANT!
Without respect and trust, teachers are not enabled to respect and trust children and all the potential learning for both is seriously limited.
For high quality learning and care, teachers/adults in children's lives need agency.



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