How can people at all levels of the education system collaborate to enable children and young people to develop the capabilities and autonomy they need to navigate our increasingly complex and pressured social world?
Professor John O’Neill from Massey's Institute of Education was recently invited to give the 2022 Herbison Lecture on this topic, at the annual conference of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education. The lecture honours the contribution to education of Dame Jean Herbison.
This year’s conference focused on the research, policy, and practice triangle, and asked what the local, national, and global challenges are, and how they are being addressed. The conference also asked attendees to focus specifically on educational policy and practice in New Zealand, particularly for those that have not been well-served by the current system.
Professor O’Neill’s address was titled Recognition of Children’s Learning in Educational Research, Policy and Practice.
"Today’s society makes extraordinary demands on children and young people to work constantly to achieve, to get jobs that will earn them enough to experience every product and service on offer in the marketplace and to develop, curate and polish their identities, both online and in-person," Professor O’Neill says.
“In their schooling, students encounter constant pressure to achieve and to perform at the required standard. This increases the chances of students becoming reified when the education system forgets or loses sight of their essential humanity. It also increases the likelihood of children becoming alienated from their learning and experiencing apathy, indifference and powerlessness in their lives generally.
"However, we have good reason to be optimistic and hopeful about the future provided we choose to learn from the example of educators in our recent and distant past who have understood children and their learning holistically, who have not been obsessed with narrow academic outcomes at the expense of children’s active exploration of their natural, social and cultural worlds.
“We know well enough how to provide engaging learning experiences for children and young people in our schools, and how to help them develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions to be able to make choices towards their best life. With the best of intentions, we adults just have our priorities all wrong.”
The conference was held from 14 to 16 November.
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