Over the years, we’ve all heard a combination of these immortal words, ‘We’ve always done it like this’. If it’s not that, it’s ‘we tried it before – it can’t be done’.
It can be difficult to work with mindsets like this, and even more difficult to shape and change them. But not impossible.
With Covid-19, lockdown(s), TAG/CAG and a range of other barriers, over the last 18 months education has been an enormously challenging place to work, but we’ve seemingly heard the above statements less and less.
From taking all teaching remote within a 24–36-hour period, to holding remote conferences (involving people from all over the country, as well as the world) and completing final assessments without exams and coursework, there’s not been much we haven’t achieved in the last year and a half.
And this is not just in education. Whatever your views on the Covid vaccine, when talk first emerged of a vaccine, doctors, medical experts and professionals were mentioning timelines of 10 years for development and clinical trials (in line with other, similar vaccines). Yet the vaccine was developed and trialled within a matter of months and over 2.5 billion people worldwide are now fully vaccinated (with a further 1 billion people awaiting a second dose).
But what is the difference? How has this happened? How have we moved so seamlessly between ‘It can’t be done’ to completing tasks which were labelled impossible before the pandemic?
Clearly, there are many variables, and many things have changed (sometimes irreversibly) over the course of the last 18 months, but a huge change which has been most noticeable in those who have led any success has been a change in ideas about what is possible.
If we start from a position of ‘it’s always been done this way’ or ‘it can’t be done: it’s impossible’, we begin to look for the issues which will derail what we are trying to achieve. More worryingly, if we start with this mindset, it may even be that we want to find these issues to be proven right. As Covid showed, if we start from a position of needing to complete, and not wanting to or wishing we could, we are far more likely to embed the resilience needed to complete tasks.
So, what does this mean for the future of education, education innovation and the goals that we set? Well, with any new approach, there are pros and cons.
The pros are obvious: we can become more resilient if we point to events of the past to assure us that future impossibilities can be accomplished. This is evident in everything from the 4-minute mile (thought previously impossible) to the scaling of Everest. If people can achieve those things, we can begin to make tiny changes in the workplace.
We have seen the power of collaboration and the importance of working with the best people, not just the closest or well known. We can also see how existing frameworks of collaboration can work with people across the country and we’ve embraced Zoom, Teams, Google Classroom etc. to our great advantage. Now, the fight is on resisting the urge to return to normality, as the country is slowly starting to do. It’s vital that we continue with this element of a mindset created by Covid and start to properly attack the changes that are needed in education which were thought impossible. English and maths in post-16 education is one of the primary starting points, along with the need for cutting edge technology in all colleges. Already, some will roll their eyes and say, ‘It’s impossible; it can’t be done’ – why? Again, look at what was achieved in such a short time last year (and since).
The cons, of course, reflect these pros – there are those who are desperate to return to ‘normality’ and there is always an associated workload when taking on and attempting to remedy such difficult challenges. The important element here is remembering that the existing challenge causes its own workload, and that by defeating it there will of course be more to do, but we only need to do it once. For example, think of the additional work needed to accurately complete initial assessment in post-16 English and maths. 20 years ago, the thought of doing this on an automated computer system likely appeared impossible. Now, there are a range of software options to do this, meaning less work for teachers.
So, over the next few years, we have a choice. Do we want to label tasks and challenges as impossible, and talk about how they have always been done that way? Or do we want to make the decision that it will be done, because it needs to be done?
About the author
Jonathan Kay
Jonny Kay is Head of Teaching, Learning and Assessment at a college in the North East. He has previously worked as Head of English and maths in FE and as an English teacher and Head of English in Secondary schools. He tweets @jonnykayteacher and his book, 'Improving Maths and English in Further Education: A Practical Guide', is available now.