Shaping Dynamics of Transformed Learning: Inclusive Education in a Changed Europe

Dr. Alan BruceULS Dublin

Be Creative, Play DigitallyCreativity. Discovery. Games. Learning

Summer SchoolHeraklion, Crete, 30 June 2013

Thematic Overview

Transformed planet

Transforming educational systems

The Inclusion Imperative

Policy to best practice – innovation and sustainable values

1. Transforming Planet

Globalization – accelerating and pervasive

Crisis and re-structuring Devaluation of the public sphere Stratification and inequity Labor market transformation Rights and inclusion – token or real? Access, quality and innovation in

education

Globalized realities

Patterns of constant change Permanent migration mobility Outsourcing Flexible structures and modalities Obsolescence of job norms Knowledge economy Ecological pressures End of certainty

Innovation mantras

Innovation supporting learning Innovation supporting work Re-evaluation of traditional methods and

structures Changing needs Analyzing and responding to impact of

globalization Change without changing – innovation

with precedents Facing new realities – using evidence

Show me the money….

12 m.: numbers with more than $1m. to invest (9,2% increase since 2011)

$46,2 trillion: aggregate wealth of this group (10% increase since 2011)

Ultrarich (>$30m.) surged 11% (now 35,2% of all millionaires)

World Wealth ReportRBC Wealth Management & Capgemini Financial ServicesJune 2013

Dr. Alan KruegerCouncil of Economic Advisers & Princeton (2013)

We are increasingly becoming a winner takes all economy… over recent decades, technological change, globalization and erosion of the institutions and practices that support shared prosperity have put the middle class under increasing stress

What about the rest of us? Decreasing workers’ share in national

income in all countries Labor productivity (up 85% since 1980)

not reflected in wages (up 35%) Declining social mobility Rising income inequality reflected in

declining equality of opportunity

Global Wage Report 2012/13, ILOProf. Miles Corak, Journal of Economic Perspectives 2013

Spectres at the gates

Persistence and increase in inequality

Permanent hopelessness of excluded Embedded violence Internal underclass Social polarization Stripping away rights Invisibility, ethnic difference and the

retreat to denial

A transformed world

End of old certainties

No return to ‘normal’

Polymorphic media and postmodernism

Planet of Slums (Mike Davis): hypercities of the future

Informal economies

The normalization of brutality

Mainstream: nightmare or opportunity?

Mythology of the ‘normal’ Defining the mainstream: what have we

become? Robust probing of social structure required

as a preliminary to defining mainstream Masking power, relationships and inequity Need to avoid cliché and assumptions Learners are immersed in and emerging

into this changed constellation – of which the gatekeepers know little

2. Transforming educational systems

Education is both structure and process

Aims and goals vary considerably Education systems mirror world,

society and relationship-matrix of which they are part

Education systems are as much constraining as liberating

Forum for ideas or market for products?

Or both….?

Critical perspectives

Traditional schooling in the spotlight

Learning systems both reflect and lead society

Information…wisdom…understanding

Critical enquiry - back to Illich

Reflection and inquisitiveness

Engaging with difference

Knowledge in transformation Commodification of knowledge Impact on education systems (Freire,

Illich, Field) Impact on work (Braverman, Haraszti,

Davis) Impact on community - alienation and

anomie From community to networking Knowledge and learning now centrally

linked as product and process dimensions

Outlook for knowledge

Miller (2003) fundamentally optimistic about transformational potential of new knowledge architectures

Carneiro (2007) identifiesParadigm shifts (industry-globalization-

utopia)Delivery modes (role-access-customized)Driving forces (State-market-community)

And the learner?

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,Into the living sea of waking dreams,Where there is neither sense of life nor joys,But the vast shipwreck of my life's esteems;And e'en the dearest--that I loved the best--Are strange--nay, rather stranger than the rest.

John Clare (1793 – 1864)

Traditional models

Conservative Strict Hierarchic Inflexible Memorization and recall focus Examination-driven Resistant to application of new

technologies

Potential models

Pupil/learner centered Competence driven Community focused Technologically enhanced International engagement focus Learning process (application modes) Individual value (humanistic

approach)

Current realities

Disruptive classroom behaviors Absenteeism Early school-leaving Teacher burnout Migration, integration and sustainability Literacy, numeracy, basic skills Languages Quality and governance

DG EAC (2008) European Education and Training Systems in the Second Decennium of the Lisbon Strategy, NESSE and ENEE.

3. The Inclusion Imperative

Five key issues:1. Measures to reduce early school leaving2. Priority education measures in relation to disadvantaged pupils and groups3. Inclusive education measures in relation to pupils with special needs4. Safe education measures in relation on the reduction of bullying and harassment5. Teacher support measures.

Defining inclusion

‘I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.’

Attempting definition…kind of…

Social inclusion can be defined as a number of affirmative actions undertaken in order to reverse the social exclusion of individuals or groups in our society

INCLUSO (EU 7th Framework, 2009)

So what is exclusion?

A multidimensional process of progressive social rupture, detaching groups and individuals from social relations and institutions and preventing them from full participation in the normal, normatively prescribed activities of the society in which they live.

H. Silver, Social Exclusion: Comparative Analysis of Europe and Middle East Youth, Dec. 2007. (Wolfensohn Center for Development, Dubai)

Probing inclusion

Not necessarily benign Not necessarily desired Not necessarily valued Inclusion or conformity? Exclusion often seen minimally as

lack of access Exclusion is a systematic policy of

inequality and denial of rightsHugely different implications

Inclusion 2.0

If learning, working and production are controlled inclusion is at best token, at worst sinister

At the core of inclusion must be ability to assess critically and express freely

Fundamental to inclusion is ability to ask questions that challenge existing relations

Inclusion re-examines existing reality while posing viable alternatives

Trajectories of inclusion

Youth and mass unemployment Demographics: ageing and life

expectancy Women and labor market

participation Immigration, cultural and religious

difference Disability Conflict, stress, anomie Urbanization, dissent and democratic

deficits

Separate but equal?

Legacies of segregated schooling Gender Disability Religion Ability Language Class

Not always negative Protection and nurture Resistance to assimilation Hotbed of innovation Risk takers in ’the murder machine’

(Pearse 1916)

Engaging inclusion

Positive and proactive decision – policy and practice

It is achievable Risks: stigmatization and

discrimination Requires whole-school and

community commitment and support Demands resources (personnel and

training) Demands facilities to UD level

throughout Support, review, standards

Achieving meaning

Inclusion changes both sides – the act of mainstreaming is to change the mainstream not the ‘excluded’

From objects to subjects Narratives of adaptation and

discovery From target group to citizen Critical role of teachers Inclusion and the dialectic of rights

4. Policy to best practice – innovation and sustainable values

Transformational learning and the sociology of innovation

Educational systems as networks of actors who reinforce each other in stable configurations

Stable configurations prevent change

Vested interest acts against innovation and inclusion - seen as threat

Policy and system change

It is possible to have incremental change

Systems react to change even if they do not initiate it

The promising path is through disruptive innovation which produces irreversible change (Christensen, Disrupting Class, 2008)

Changing directions and trends

Acceleration Collaboration and networks Collaboration with knowledge

production centers Increasing domination by market

realities Towards competence Integrated learning for integrated

learners

Changing systems

On-line courses Pilot school innovations Project based learning Experimental schools in degraded

social communities Non-formal learning Abolition of the teacher

Changing image

Ενα το χελιδονι κι η Ανοιξη ακριβη Για να γυρισει ο ηλιος θελει δουλεια πολλη...Θελει νεκροι χιλιαδες να ‘ναι στους ΤροχουςΘελει κι οι ζωντανοι να δινουν το αιμα τους.

A Solitary swallow and a costly spring, for the sun to turn it takes a job of work,It takes a thousand dead sweating at the wheels, it takes the living also giving up their blood.

Elytis, Axion Esti

Turning the sun: meaningful inclusion

Community development Social solidarity Environmental management and

conservation Arts, culture and creativity Sports and leisure Health and well-being Social inclusion and demographic

change Advanced technologies

In from the margins: the barbarians have arrived!

From oppression to emancipatory learning Insights of the excluded - voices of the

invisible Learning to think – and teach – anew Creating benefit for all Critical thinking distinct epistemologies of

science and engineering Science explains what exists; engineering creates what

never existed (Von Karman) Disability and learning: from Louis Braille to

Ken Robinson

Beyond platitude

Innovation and creativity as starting point not destination

Responsiveness to permanent change

Staff competence and empowerment Engaging with excellence Doing the unexpected - better! Content validity and academic rigor Customer delight

Inclusion roadmap

Increased application of new knowledge

Open and distance learning technologies facilitating learners and staff competence

Transformation of traditional teaching role to mentoring, guiding and facilitation

Development of network of inclusion best practice at European level

Adopting UDL Inclusion not as destination but

starting point

Setting sail to Ithaka

Removing barriers - mind and heart Asserting imagination and creativity Limitless potential of the inclusion

focus Learning for all as foundation for

transformation From the core of crisis – new

directions or the abyss?

Ευχαριστώ πολύ

Dr. Alan BruceULS Dublin

abruce@ulsystems.com