Dame Alison Peacock- Keep Questioning: Evidence Agency and the Teaching Profession

Summary:

In this episode of Beyond the Status Quo, Tamara and Kathryn speak with Dame Alison Peacock, Chief Executive of the Chartered College of Teaching, and a teacher across primary, secondary and special schools. From the professional body at the heart of teaching comes a clear case for thinking differently: in a changing world, professionalism means continually learning, questioning and adapting to your own context, rather than waiting to be told the right way to do it. Alison traces her first challenge to the status quo back to a sixth-form library she was asked to run but not trusted to borrow from, and a first teaching post where she refused to cap a class at a D.

Takeaways:

• Professionalism means questioning: learning, adapting to your context and testing what works is part of the job.
• Change lands when people own it and can see how it serves a shared vision; imposed change without a clear why tips full plates over.
• Evidence is something to think with, not obey. Rigour and experimentation belong together, and evidence itself changes over time.
• Beware “lethal mutations”: lifting one surface detail from research loses the idea underneath it.
• Often it isn’t hard-to-reach parents but hard-to-enter schools, and accountability that doesn’t reward relationships squeezes them out.
• Broadening pathways to success isn’t dumbing down: the current system doesn’t work for every child, and their experience of school matters.
• You may be the person a child most wants to see when you walk into the room, so keep on keeping on.

Links:

Chartered College of Teaching | Website

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Tamara Zaple Rolfs FCCT | LinkedIn

Kathryn | LinkedIn

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