The illusion of standardization
The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.
-Socrates
When “collaboration” is really code for standardization, professional development becomes nothing more than control over actions.
Just like how mandated sentences strips judgement from judges, so too does standardization deny teachers the ability to teach. Maja Wilson puts it this way:
Mandating practices in the effort to improve teaching paradoxically creates the kind of environment that undermines good teaching. [Standardization] contributes to an environment that actually stunts teachers’ ability to make good decisions in the classroom and obscures bad teaching with its illusion of uniformity.
It’s not easy to object to standardization; I know a lot of good teachers who believe consistency is a good