The balance between regulation and trust in the education system - part 1

The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute invited representatives from national educational authorities, educational researchers, school leaders and teachers for an international workshop and conference on 21 to May 25, 2012 in Jerusalem. The theme in both the workshop and conference section was "From Regulation to trust." The dialogue between representatives from different parts of the education system was used as the approach to the topic, and Professor Ben Levin from the University of Toronto, was a research coordinator in the work that was done.

The dialogue concluded that both regulation and trust must be present in what Ben Levin called the ecology in the educational system. This means that the authority levels and practice levels of education are mutually dependent on each other to succeed with the goals of education. The levels must maintain the ecosystem in balance through regulation and trust.

This notion is consistent with what Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley argues in their book "The Fourth Way - The Inspiring Future for Educational Change" (2009). They emphasize that collaboration on learning between home, school and society and work in the school network where the strong support the weak, provide the best learning results.

A natural ecosystem is no harmony model. In nature the higher level in the food chain eat of the lower level’s surplus in order to maintain balance. This form of dynamic interaction creates a mutual dependence on each other in nature.

The balance in Ben Levin’s educational system is not based on the same mechanisms as in the natural ecosystem. It is rather a model based on a constructed interdependence between parties, where understanding and respect for each other's different approaches is a prerequisite for successful student learning.

Regulations come into force through political decisions nationally and locally, and are systemic. This means that they have clear expectations about results, and clarifies what levels of the educational system that is responsible for the decisions that follow.

Education Act is a regulation, and the regulations of assessment in school. As well as agreements dealing with Working Conditions, Working Environment Act, the national curriculum, the national tests, budget allocation, homework groups at grade 1 to 4, required physical activity every day, no grading at primary level, time figures for subjects, tuition time figures for teachers, publication of results and more.

The idea in Professor Ben Levin’s ecological education is that no decision by virtue of itself can improve student learning. It is the interacted follow-ups by Ministry of Education, local politicians, local education authorities, school leaders and teachers that together create the foundation for enhanced learning. Then the educational system should balance between trust and regulations.

If the ecosystem, however, is regulated and controlled too much, it's going out of balance. This returns the students, teachers and school leaders into a situation where learning and school development happens more in spite of regulation and control, than because of it (cf. the Hargreaves and Shirley's call for "Three paths of distractions" in the book The Fourth Way). Many students will then only achieve learning at a surface level.