Rethinking Our Purpose for Educating Our Children

I had the incredible opportunity to work with our new UVA-PLE Cohort 20 partners last week. During my “Getting Clear About Your Purpose” session with school leaders, I introduced E.L. Raab’s four purposes for education: Individual Efficiency, Social Efficiency, Individual Possibility, and Social Possibility. 

Raab (2017) describes individual efficiency as being a focus on an individual’s ability to navigate the education or socio-economic system and social efficiency as the human capital perspective with an emphasis on sustaining social, economic and political structures and institutions. Individual possibility is described as “classic education” focused on shaping the learning and development of the individual student. And lastly, social possibility is the process of socialization with efforts to shape the collective culture and social norms at both a micro and macro level.  

I argue a fifth purpose for our work in educating children: Change Activation. I purport that Change Activation is the idea that the purpose of education is also to empower individuals to facilitate action that results in changing individual or collective outcomes, resulting in improved life and societal conditions. It is not enough to simply prepare students to become widgetized citizens that fit within the constructs of our current society. We know there are ways in which we need to enact change for the good of all that occupy space - not just to maintain and perpetuate the continuation of power structures that have been designed to benefit some while disenfranchising others. We want our young people to be critical thinkers that question, that explore, that create, that innovate, and that aspire to realize improved conditions for themselves and the world they will leave behind. 

Questions we should be positing to ourselves and within our organizations are: 

• How do children understand their individual and collective power to address issues in their own lives and/or in society? 

• How do children leverage their power to disrupt systems of oppression?

• How do we ensure children are equipped to envision a world better than the one they entered into?

How do children understand their individual and collective power to address issues in their own lives and/or in society? 

In order for our children to understand their individual and collective power, they must have voice. Safir (2023) says, “For students to learn to think critically and deeply, we have to change the one-directional paradigm of teaching and learning that often prevails classrooms. Educators should view students not as empty vessels for the transfer of information but as knowledge builders in their own right.” Too often, we see classrooms where teachers hold all of the thinking power and serve as the conduit of ideas and knowledge rather than as the generator of thinking and sense-making. This is by no fault of teachers. It is the system we have created and allowed to sustain itself for decades with minimal disruption to its design. If we work intentionally to create learning spaces where students are facilitated to interrogate ideas and grapple with new concepts, we will ultimately see students gain a sense of individual thought, expression, and voice. 

This does mean yes, we may not be able to charge through the breadth of content outlined in pacing guides because this would require a prioritization of depth of learning over coverage of topics. What good does covering a range of topics do for our children if they never learn the concepts deeply enough to apply them or to interpret them with a critical lens? Today and even more so, tomorrow’s workforce will require our students to be capable of more than automation of information. We must create learning spaces where our students think critically, which opens up awareness about their power and about issues in their lives and society that are worth deeper exploration and ultimately, action that will yield change. Pajares (2003) says that individuals’ selection of what they choose to do and not do is impacted by the knowledge and skills they possess, and, that beliefs about ones accomplishments highly influences their ability to interpret their own actions - thus influencing their self-percieved level of efficaciousness. If we continue treating children as empty vessels, especially children in communities where schools have historically failed to provide an adequate education to all students within the walls of oppressive institutional structures, then they will never believe they posses power within their education or our greater society to influence change. Our children have to feel a sense of empowerment and self-efficacy if they are to view themselves as capable of enacting any level of change in their lives let alone the greater society in which they live. 

The second question we need to be asking is: How do children leverage their power to disrupt systems of oppression? Stay tuned for part two of a this series about Change Activation as a purpose for education. 

Sources 

Pajares, F., & Urdan, T. C. (2006). Self-Efficacy During Childhood and : Implications for Teachers and Parents. In Self-efficacy beliefs of adolescents. essay, IAP - Information Age Pub., Inc.

Raab, E. L. (2017). (dissertation). Why School?": A Systems Perspective on Creating Schooling for Individual Flourishing and a Thriving Democratic Society. Stanford University . Retrieved May 28, 2023, from https://www.academia.edu/35043849/Why_School_A_Systems_Perspective_on_Creating_Schooling_for_Flourishing_Individuals_and_a_Thriving_Democratic_Society.

Safir, S. (2023, April 11). Cultivating a pedagogy of student voice. ASCD, 80(7).  

Biaze Houston, PhD has been a teacher, teacher leader, assistant principal, principal, district director, and now serves as District Support Chief for the University of Virginia Partnership for Leaders in Education and is also an educational consultant with specialization in school and district turnaround/transformation, equity and culturally responsive practices, curriculum and instruction, and leadership and development. Email: biaze@houstonedconsulting.com Twitter: @BiazeHoustonPhD