Over the past week, we in our class were asked to explore modern twenty-first century schools and progressive education programs. While I was expecting these schools to follow in the footsteps of Summerhill School and provide global awareness and innovative approaches to education, I was interested to see the way in which many of these progressive institutions now structure themselves, not as fringe education but rather the education of the future. In studying schools like High Tech High, Galileo Educational Network, and Inquiry Hub, it becomes clear that the marketing between alternative and traditional schools differs greatly.
Take for example, Inquiry Hub, which proudly displays it's goals on its home page, aiming to "Connect/Create/Learn" as well as to connect all learning to "Identity, Stewardship, Communication and Design". However, where people initially balked at Summerhill, The Inquiry Hub, while it does not seem impervious to confusion and controversy, explains its standpoint, goals and overall mission directly on it's homepage.
Perhaps this is key to understanding the rise in alternative education, perpetuated through marketing as well as education itself. By placing all of the information required on their landing page, Inquiry Hub has instantly overcome the majority of questions and uncertainty which would arise through it's unconventional exterior, working to make parents and students alike immediately comfortable and aware of the deviations from usual schooling. However, they also serve to justify these differences, utilizing upfront explanation to qualify their methods and circumvent confusion and additional concerns, by addressing them directly and immediately.
I think, more so than this sort of explanation serving to popularize specific minority curricula beliefs, it also serves to present how education is being marketed. When I approached these new schools, I was shocked by how much transparency there was in the landing pages, in additions to the webpages themselves. Which brings me to the question, why is it that there is such a level of differentiation in how “traditional” schools present themselves next to “alternative” schools? We rarely see the provincial educational web pages promoting themselves in this way, but what does this say about the traditionalism of the general school system?
While you may think this signals a rant into the lack of progressive content in the school systems available to most students, this is not my intent. Instead I suggest that schooling has become such an institution of society that it is believed we no longer need to “market” the classroom as we would a more unconventional classroom. However, we must remember that arguably the most important element of the classroom is engagement and must reflect constructively upon how this information behooves addition of new educational methods and reforms. Perhaps if schools were to implement webpages with this much description and context, educators would be able to eliminate a number of questions and offer a more transparent view of education. Indeed, perhaps this would even allow for teachers to introduce new and alternative methods of teaching while keeping students and parents aware and comfortable in an easy and accessible way, allowing for a greater level of comfort towards change in the traditional classroom.
Attached are links to Inquiry Hub and Summerhill's webpages so their landing pages can be explored.
Until next time!
A. Gallacher
I think it is important for not only schools to market themselves, but for teachers to market themselves and their own classrooms. Imagine if teachers created their own website which enabled the students and parents of their class the ability to see the classes progress and work. This would be a great way of getting the parents engaged in the work their children are doing. With this, there can be concern about privacy issues. There are many apps and websites that are in place now which requires a log in but would allow the parents to have access to their child's classroom.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the school as a whole, I believe it is very important to increase marketing. I have recently been looking at different school boards and different schools to see where I would like to apply in the future, and I have found that it is very hard to find a lot of information of individual schools. Considering we are in an age of technology, I believe marketing your school and your classroom is incredibly important because so many parents and children are online. From a prospective teachers perspective, having more information accessible online about school boards and schools would be very handy. This is also a tool to get the community more involved in the school. This will allow for more community involvement in things like fundraisers and events. Of course, this marketing does not just need to be online, but it is definitely a useful tool.
Hi Alex,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your post, I decided to check out my old high school’s website! I was pleased to find that they had easily accessible information regarding their vision, values and educational goals in the form of their mission statement and principal’s message. Within the mission, they even mentioned the expected commitments from teachers, students and parents, which I think will allow for that “transparent view of education” you discussed. The high school is a performing arts (and public) school, so students do come from out of region for specialization in dance, visual arts, dramatic arts and music. Perhaps that is why the school does a better job of “marketing”. Furthermore, I agree that individual teachers can reach out to students and parents through their own websites. This is a great way to communicate, introduce innovative teaching practices such as the “flipped classroom” and as a forum for displaying student work. While exploring the High-Tech High websites, I felt that the digital portfolios were a great way for students to document and track their learning, as well as reflect on their educational careers as a whole. The individual reflections that students created following the completion of a project are also a great way for teachers and parents to assess whether learning objectives have been achieved. And for schools, teachers or classrooms that have not yet created their own website...why not get your students to help? Project-based learning to the rescue!