School Reform Metaphors: The Pendulum and Hurricane
Consider that a pendulum swing returns almost to the same spot it left.
Although there is motion, there is little change. Yet anyone who remembers what the mid-1980s were like and what is currently going on with schools closed during the pandemic and re-opening in the Fall knows that both schools and society have indeed gone through serious changes in the economy, technology, demography, and pandemics. So the metaphor of a school reform pendulum masks major changes in both society and schools.
Furthermore, the pendulum metaphor implies that policymaker talk about school reform is what happens in classrooms. Yet there is a huge gap between policy talk and classroom practice when it comes to school reform.
Over the last quarter-century, researchers who have gone into classrooms have concluded that there are enduring practices that teachers use in organizing a class, maintaining order, asking questions, concentrating on basic skills, using texts, and testing students. Over many decades, even as new curricula and technologies (e.g., laptops, interactive whiteboards, smart phones) enter and exit classrooms these practices, with occasional alterations, persist.
A second research finding is that policymakers can legislate changes in teacher practices all they want but teachers, once they close their classroom door, will CONTINUE READING: School Reform Metaphors: The Pendulum and Hurricane | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice