Day One of the Summit

Day 1 of the Summit

The focus of the summit today, which has been a church-like experience (preaching not praying, preachers not talk) has been upon vision, great teachers and effective leadership at the level of the school.

Andy Hargreaves gave emphasis to the need to see teaching and the optimal conditions of practice in a strategic context and Pasi Sahlberg suggested that this context was a balance between a focus on quality and a focus in equity.  Gordon Brown suggested that it was also important to factor technology into this.

Overall, the most striking thing about this summit is that it is very passive – engagement is talked about not practiced – and how little real depth there is here. All the speeches are 20 mins or five and this leads to a high level conversation (over lunch) but not to depth in reflective thinking.