{"id":7123,"date":"2017-12-07T09:20:04","date_gmt":"2017-12-07T09:20:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=7123"},"modified":"2017-12-07T09:20:04","modified_gmt":"2017-12-07T09:20:04","slug":"the-responsibilities-of-schools-towards-the-goals-and-their-learners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2017\/12\/07\/the-responsibilities-of-schools-towards-the-goals-and-their-learners\/","title":{"rendered":"The responsibilities of schools towards the goals and their learners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As part of my reflections on last week's St George's House consultation, here are a few thoughts about schools and the SDGs:<\/p>\n<p>If we\u2019re to think about what schools might do in relation to the goals, it\u2019s important to think about outcomes, and at a basic level, perhaps we have 4 kinds of responsibility as citizens to ...<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>understand that the Goals are important<\/li>\n<li>think critically about these in relation to people\u2019s lives and interests<\/li>\n<li>weigh arguments and discuss possibilities and practicalities<\/li>\n<li>get involved whilst reflecting on the appropriateness of actions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So what can schools do as a preparation for such a citizenly role?\u00a0 And what are the practical ways forward? \u00a0Perhaps educators also have four kinds of responsibility to ...<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>help learners understand why the goals ought to be of concern to them<\/li>\n<li>enable learners to gain plural perspectives from a range of viewpoints<\/li>\n<li>provide opportunities for an active and critical exploration of issues<\/li>\n<li>encourage learners to come to their own views and to get involved<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Doing less than this seems neglectful; doing much more runs the risk of indoctrination as we need to stimulate without prescribing. \u00a0And we need to see conceptual frameworks as scaffolding to build learning around, rather than as cages to restrain ideas and creativity.<\/p>\n<p>This is, of course, a liberal educational view that puts student learning first. \u00a0This view says that educational institutions must always prioritise student learning over institutional, behaviour or social change. \u00a0It also says that we should make use of any change that\u2019s happening, to support and broaden that learning. \u00a0In this sense, it\u2019s fine for a school, college or university to encourage its students to become involved, and through that involvement, explore the goals, enhance social justice, save energy, create less waste, promote biodiversity, etc.<\/p>\n<p>But there are limits. \u00a0Jensen and Schnack make the point with force that, ultimately, the crucial factor must always be what students learn from participating in such activities:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201c\u2026 it is not and cannot be the task of the school to solve the political problems of society.\u00a0 Its task is not to improve the world with the help of pupils\u2019 activities. \u2026\u00a0 The crucial factor must be what students learn from participating in such activities \u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Being restorative of social (or natural) capital is laudable, but <em>not<\/em> if it neglects or negates the development of learning \u2013 and it's easy to think of approaches that do that. \u00a0Thus, a successful liberal education today will be taking these goals seriously in what it does. \u00a0At its heart will be students asking critical questions of society (easy), of their learning (trickier), and\u00a0of their institution (risky) \u00a0\u2013 looking for the need for change, and getting involved. \u00a0In this sense, schools are important in nurturing thinking and learning about what might constitute appropriate futures, and in helping students begin to develop skills and competences by doing so.<\/p>\n<p>In these ways our young people can be helped to understand the issues, to ask pertinent questions, to understand how to make themselves heard, and how to make a difference. \u00a0And this can be in schools across the age range.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As part of my reflections on last week's St George's House consultation, here are a few thoughts about schools and the SDGs: If we\u2019re to think about what schools might do in relation to the goals, it\u2019s important to think...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}