Is learning loss real? And other Questions for Global Edu Leaders on Clubhouse

What questions would you pose to global education leaders? Every week Giancarlo Brotto brings together unique groups of global education leaders in the Ministry of Education club on Clubhouse. The audience is invited to ask questions about any topic they like — with assembled leaders offering personal and professional insights about a huge variety of topics.

Here are some highlights from the conversations that happened this week — March 11, 2021:

Supporting Students Holistically

Building on that, social emotional learning must serve as a foundation to all education. In order to holistically support students, it is important that at both a policy and pedagogy level we remember that academics is only one part of students’ lives. When we see and support students as the whole people that they are, we build trust, and when we build trust deeper learning can happen.

When it comes to understanding how to effect change to better serve students, we all must ask good questions. When we do we make people think (and think again!) about their assumptions — when people think things through and are willing to examine different view points, we can all grow.

Whether due to race, language, or other factors, there are so many students within all systems who feel that they don’t belong. Ensuring that all students have access to available supports and services, and doing so in a deliberate and public way, helps to ensure that all students know they are welcome, that they belong, and that they matter in their schools, and in their lives.

Integrated Indigenous Education

“Although we talk about it as indigenous education, it’s beneficial for all students to know and understand this knowledge.”

There are so many powerful lessons that can be learned when we teach about and bring elements of non-dominant and indigenous cultures into the classroom. Lessons about how we connect and take care of the world are especially poignant in many indigenous stories; these stories can help students understand not only history, but can give meaningful context as they discover how to relate to the world as it is today.

Across the world there have been deliberate and important moves toward brining indigenous and tribal history and colure into curriculum. Often this means approaching and discussing some of the more challenging and potentially traumatic pieces that are true to the history and lived experience of people in these groups. Students come into classrooms with their own trauma and their own personal struggles, which can make addressing these big, difficult topics challenging — but finding ways to support students while teaching this content is possible.

In order to ensure that these topics are being taught in ways that are authentic to the culture, representation at all levels really matters. Having indigenous or racialized consultants and colleagues who can bring their own knowledge to the planning of curriculum and development of policy is vital — there are examples where this is being done well today, and always room for more growth.

Culturally responsive teaching the truly honors tradition and culture is not only a matter of policy and pedagogy, but requires a shift in mindset across communities. Visualizing who a population is — and in some cases that fact that humans from the culture live and thrive in our cities and communities today — is important. It can be easy to frame learnings about culture, especially indigenous culture as learnings about the past, but the reality of living cultures is vital for students to understand. Learning from elders, tribe members, and others can help students (of any age!) relate to cultures in a different and often deeper way. Representation of local languages as well as land acknowledgements can be deeply meaningful recognition of cultures that are not only part of a place’s past, but a vibrant and important part of their present.

Curiosity reference point: Ubuntugogy

Policy and Mental Health

Broad policy that aim to address mental health in education is coming, and it critically important. The approach needs to be integrated,

Collaboration between locla organizations and other government departments can helps support the implementation of this type of policy at regional levels. Teacher voice is also vital to the implementation of policy; adding pressure and tasks aimed at addressing and supporting mental health to the plates of who are already overwork can have detrimental effects for both them and for students. Turning to teachers to help systems understand what successful implementation could look like will be key to success. Also, the continuation of investments made during the pandemic must continue to ensure sustainable success for entire communities.

Whether through formal working groups or more watercooler style chats, soliciting and actioning feedback on a regular basis is important. These types of engagements and meets — even in virtual settings — also give the opportunity for leaders and educators to discuss shared challenges and share resources to solve them. Collaborative problem solving not only solves challenges, but helps educators to feel less isolated and supports their wellbeing.

As schools and systems transition back to in-person learning, social emotional support cannot just be focused on students; teachers, bus driver, kitchen staff — everyone who support schools needs to be supported themselves in order to ensure safe, nurturing environments for learning.

“Even when there isn’t a concrete solution, it’s important to talk about it and bring together options and partnerships for solutions.”

Post-Pandemic Education & the Myth of Learning Loss

This past year has shown that putting funding into infrastructure to ensure access to connectivity for all students is one of the most vital areas of focus for ensuring an equitable future for education. Investment in continuous professional development are also super important now more than ever — giving teachers the resources and flexibility to effectively teach online and to meet the needs of students with special needs, mental health challenges, and second-language learners is critical.

Also, ensuring that resources available are culturally responsive is important in a different way than is was before; some systems found themselves scrambling to find content what could be delivered online only to discover that the content was not only incorrect but racist.

There has been a lot of discussion around the concept of ‘learning loss’, when what has actually been lost is simply instructional time. Words matter — a lot. In many cases students have learned a lot, if just looks different that it might have in the classroom. Framing this conversation around the idea of learning loss puts a lot of pressure on teachers who have worked extremely hard to deliver the best possible experience that they can for their students, and also puts undue stress on students who may feel anxiety or fear about their preparation for the future.

Until we have more evidence — that is gathered in a meaningful, personalized way — it is unfair to everyone in schools systems to assume that learning has been lost. The expectations need to change; as we shift back to pre-pandemic models of teaching and learning, there is a risk that students who are in fact thriving in a ‘new’ environment could become disengaged and frustrated.

Of course there are also students who are not thriving and who have struggled for many reasons — how can we make significant change in education systems to address ALL of these realities?

Coming full circle, a holistic approach is required. Developing and redeveloping interpersonal connections needs to be the key focus before we look the results of instructional time loss. Redevelopment of relationships, trust, and connection must lead to way in order to rebuild s strong foundation for students and educators alike.

Be sure to mark your calendar to join the weekly conversation on Thursdays at 1:30 pm ET on Clubhouse.