Teaching for uncertain futures - Neville Freeman Agency

39implications of the scenarios for the teaching professionThe Magic MountainIn the corporate society of The MagicMountain, education is mainly privately owned,resulting in a hierarchy of wealthy and wealthierschools, depending on the success and fortune oftheir sponsoring corporation. Schooling for those notpart of the corporate world is haphazard, althoughcorporations provide some support for schools inlow socio-economic areas as a way of giving back tosociety. Governments no longer have a major rolein school resourcing. Faith-based schools areflourishing, providing free education for society’sunderclass.Corporations exercise increasing influence over thedirection of teacher training in universities,supporting technology, innovation and the exchangeof ideas. Alert as they are to the global businessenvironment, corporations are equally attuned toeducation developments internationally and areresponsive to them, although the focus is onteachers achieving measurable student outcomes.Teacher trainees are often sponsored through theirtraining by corporations and are bonded for a periodto teach in the corporation’s schools.Just as creativity, innovation and critical thinkingare valued in the corporate world, so too are they thefocus for teaching in corporate schools. In line withscientific developments, schools emphasise the earlychildhood years. Schooling is competitive froman early age, with students assessed and streamedaccording to assessments of their potential atkey stages.The responsibility of the corporation extends tosupporting teachers’ continuing professionallearning. Corporations’ global connections open upwide ranging opportunities for professional learning,much of it offshore. The main focus for professionaldevelopment is on achieving student outcomes,although keeping up with technological change andnew ideas and knowledge is also promoted.The essence of community is the corporateenvironment. Schools operate within this environment,where the school and the corporation share a mutualinterest in high academic achievement, creativity andsocial adjustment. In this way, successful schools are acontributor to successful business. They are a criticalplayer in corporate success.In corporate schools, the administrative andmanagement functions of the principal and schoolleadership team are shared with the corporation,leaving the school leadership greater scope toconcentrate on education directions, within theconfines of the corporate ethos.In this competitive and privatised world, wherecompetitive advantage lies heavily in knowledge,skills, ideas and innovation, good teachers arehighly sought after and well rewarded. Teachersare regarded as the education professionals in thesegmented world of business and teaching is a highstatus profession.The need of business for highly qualified and skilledemployees and strong competition between schoolsmeans that teachers have to focus above all onmeasurable student achievement. They are judged onhow well their students achieve their potential.Common national standards exist for assessingteacher performance and these are applied by theindividual corporations.