WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.220 Thank you very much indeed, Sian, and thank indeed all of you for the debate. 00:00:08.060 --> 00:00:13.220 I'm not going to attempt to summarise proceedings in any way at all, and of course I stand between 00:00:13.220 --> 00:00:18.360 you and the after-conference drinks or your trains, but Bennett knows well that doesn't 00:00:18.360 --> 00:00:18.960 stop me. 00:00:21.180 --> 00:00:23.300 I'm just going to reflect on a couple of things. 00:00:23.840 --> 00:00:29.680 As a critic of inappropriate top-level assertions about key aspects of education systems, 00:00:29.680 --> 00:00:33.120 regrettably some of the things that are coming out of OECD at the moment 00:00:33.120 --> 00:00:36.100 I extract any kind of concluding observations 00:00:36.100 --> 00:00:39.440 which go across nations with considerable care 00:00:39.440 --> 00:00:44.400 I think what we've learnt today is that very complex relations play out 00:00:44.400 --> 00:00:46.820 through the presentations 00:00:46.820 --> 00:00:49.600 from the economic analysis from the beginning through 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:51.840 from the various perspectives from different countries 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:54.520 and different dimensions of private and public provision 00:00:54.520 --> 00:00:57.920 we know that economic, political, social forces 00:00:57.920 --> 00:00:59.480 are playing out in complex ways 00:00:59.480 --> 00:01:04.280 and that's without thinking about the insights we now have into cognitive development. 00:01:04.440 --> 00:01:09.280 We haven't mentioned neuroscience, it's a bizarre conference which doesn't mention that these days. 00:01:10.380 --> 00:01:13.180 Now in talking about that complexity we can't really stop there. 00:01:13.640 --> 00:01:20.160 It's a truism just to say it's complex and so often conferences and discussions reach that conclusion. 00:01:20.160 --> 00:01:22.840 I think today we've gone beyond simply saying that. 00:01:23.180 --> 00:01:29.160 We've gone to say that we can examine how that complexity plays out in different circumstances. 00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:36.560 historical processes are unfolding. And that's important because if we are going to act as 00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:42.860 educationalists to actually devise policy and implement it, we do have to know what we're doing. 00:01:42.860 --> 00:01:49.600 We can't just poke systems with some broad notion of, oh, it may help. These things cost money, 00:01:49.740 --> 00:01:55.600 they have consequences. So we have to act with both moral and technical purpose. So I think we have 00:01:55.592 --> 00:02:02.232 gone beyond some crude opposition of a romantic idea of a global family or world culture versus 00:02:02.232 --> 00:02:08.692 an unfeeling aggressive liberal individualism. No, no, no, we've begun to think hard about what's 00:02:08.692 --> 00:02:13.772 at play and how we can begin to interact with it, how we can begin to harness those forces. 00:02:15.212 --> 00:02:20.352 I mean, I'm minded of an anecdote, actually, a very interesting issue, but it appears anecdotal. 00:02:20.972 --> 00:02:25.452 I talked when I was doing the curriculum review about how Hong Kong ranks their students. 00:02:25.592 --> 00:02:27.552 They rank their students, they rank their schools, 00:02:28.112 --> 00:02:31.392 and they just rank everything in education all the time. 00:02:32.232 --> 00:02:36.172 And most European educationalists think this is an extraordinarily bad thing 00:02:36.172 --> 00:02:39.752 because it generates a horrible opposition between children. 00:02:40.612 --> 00:02:41.352 Only it doesn't. 00:02:42.092 --> 00:02:44.712 I mean, what's fascinating is that in the effort, 00:02:44.712 --> 00:02:47.892 in the bid to actually climb over everybody, 00:02:48.172 --> 00:02:49.972 each to climb over everybody else, 00:02:50.632 --> 00:02:53.772 it actually unleashes collaborative learning between pupils. 00:02:54.572 --> 00:02:57.252 And of course it raises the standards for everybody. 00:02:58.472 --> 00:03:03.252 And it raises the standards relative to the nation's past and to other nations. 00:03:03.392 --> 00:03:04.752 Now that's a really challenging thought. 00:03:05.212 --> 00:03:07.832 And it's those kind of insights and those little anecdotes, 00:03:07.832 --> 00:03:11.052 those snippets of realities and other systems, 00:03:11.232 --> 00:03:13.832 which can unlock new thinking in our own systems. 00:03:14.392 --> 00:03:18.152 What we've heard today is about different layers of goods, 00:03:19.012 --> 00:03:22.832 of individual goods, social goods, economic goods and national goods. 00:03:23.772 --> 00:03:28.112 And in that, we've heard that nations may aspire to be better, 00:03:28.112 --> 00:03:31.712 but it's actually individuals who do the learning. 00:03:31.712 --> 00:03:35.312 And that's not saying that there is no such thing as society, 00:03:35.312 --> 00:03:37.652 or that collective competence in work groups, 00:03:37.652 --> 00:03:39.692 in enterprises, isn't important. 00:03:39.692 --> 00:03:42.232 But these are interesting tensions. 00:03:42.232 --> 00:03:45.232 Now, this gives rise to an idea of, 00:03:45.232 --> 00:03:49.632 well, what's the unit of focus in international education? 00:03:49.632 --> 00:03:51.192 And we discussed this at a seminar, 00:03:51.184 --> 00:03:57.484 field some years ago what's the unit of focus of your activity and your engagement and who is 00:03:57.484 --> 00:04:04.384 engaging who is acting is your focus the nation the region the school the international community 00:04:04.384 --> 00:04:11.284 or is it international enterprises as Jens Bjorn about now says organizations we've heard today 00:04:11.284 --> 00:04:19.744 cross national boundaries and take ideas and activities with them so for me this issue of 00:04:19.744 --> 00:04:21.624 at what level are you trying to engage? 00:04:22.084 --> 00:04:24.164 What kind of unit are you trying to affect 00:04:24.164 --> 00:04:26.384 is quite important in terms of your aim. 00:04:27.444 --> 00:04:31.244 It's interesting that Mark and I were talking right at the outset about Finland. 00:04:32.204 --> 00:04:36.084 I begin most of my lectures on Finnish educational success now 00:04:36.084 --> 00:04:38.164 by saying, have you heard about the one about Finland? 00:04:39.084 --> 00:04:40.104 It's not true. 00:04:40.644 --> 00:04:44.444 Because you have to get underneath the skin of these systems. 00:04:45.344 --> 00:04:47.724 And in Finland, we find something very interesting. 00:04:47.724 --> 00:04:59.064 Many Finnish educators trace the success of national education in Finland to relentless individualisation of their curriculum and their concern for learning. 00:04:59.484 --> 00:05:02.464 To really attend to the needs of individual children. 00:05:03.124 --> 00:05:13.984 So that, interestingly, almost every child in Finland will have been attended to in some form of special education throughout their educational period. 00:05:13.984 --> 00:05:15.104 It's not stigmatised. 00:05:15.104 --> 00:05:20.264 It's just designed to optimise the learning of all children, challenging ideas. 00:05:21.124 --> 00:05:25.884 And this in a nation which understood that if it did not do something, 00:05:26.284 --> 00:05:29.844 it would remain moribund and its economic position would be disastrous. 00:05:30.784 --> 00:05:34.124 What we know and what we've heard today is that personal capitals, 00:05:34.624 --> 00:05:36.784 the things that people, individuals own, 00:05:37.404 --> 00:05:40.384 and I would argue subject specialisms are critical in this, 00:05:40.824 --> 00:05:42.904 convey personal advantage. 00:05:42.904 --> 00:05:46.784 advantage. What we've understood is that personal advantage can 00:05:46.776 --> 00:05:53.436 translate into the success of societies and into the success of communities. But we also know, 00:05:53.956 --> 00:06:00.496 in certain forms, it can be elitist. It can actually drive wedges between communities and 00:06:00.496 --> 00:06:08.076 actually cause problems in respect to social cohesion. So I like today's emphasis on sophistication 00:06:08.076 --> 00:06:13.536 in understanding the curriculum, in approaching international comparisons in a sophisticated way. 00:06:13.536 --> 00:06:21.556 I like the idea that we need to link research, policy and action formal coherently and judge that research judiciously. 00:06:22.356 --> 00:06:25.476 So I personally am going to take a lot of things away from today. 00:06:26.776 --> 00:06:30.136 And many of the ideas I think are extremely well founded. 00:06:30.636 --> 00:06:36.936 And I think it's great that we can discriminate between those that are well founded and those that are misleading. 00:06:36.936 --> 00:06:44.056 I think what's interesting is that ideas, of course, both well-founded and misleading, 00:06:44.656 --> 00:06:50.636 entirely wrong, in fact, can flow around the world in ways unimagined 20 years ago. 00:06:51.756 --> 00:06:57.556 Orthodoxy's ideologies can flow between nations and between groups of young people all too easily. 00:06:58.976 --> 00:07:02.376 And interestingly, picking up the point that Dina raised, 00:07:02.376 --> 00:07:09.696 the speed with which those ideas can be spread and take hold is well out of sync with the time 00:07:09.696 --> 00:07:14.616 frames for effective and well-considered and well-implemented programs for enhancing education. 00:07:15.216 --> 00:07:20.796 That's quite challenging, actually. Educational change does take time. Perhaps we can often do 00:07:20.796 --> 00:07:25.916 it faster than we think, but well-considered change, which enjoys social consensus, that's 00:07:25.916 --> 00:07:32.296 not easy and it takes time. Social movements can thus easily outpace what we want to achieve, 00:07:32.376 --> 00:07:35.376 by way of improvement in education systems. 00:07:35.376 --> 00:07:37.376 I think that's something that researchers, 00:07:37.376 --> 00:07:40.376 policy makers and implementers need to deal with. 00:07:40.376 --> 00:07:42.376 A couple of closing points. 00:07:42.368 --> 00:07:49.348 points. In other words, new ideology and youth culture is coming your way soon, along with new 00:07:49.348 --> 00:07:56.888 economic pressures. That's pretty difficult. So I think, drawing to a close, I think we have heard 00:07:56.888 --> 00:08:02.308 real success stories. We have heard deep insights into what we can do. I think we've heard an 00:08:02.308 --> 00:08:08.128 admonition from Isabel to productively confront hard questions about value and culture and not 00:08:08.128 --> 00:08:09.108 Just ignore them. 00:08:09.908 --> 00:08:10.728 So that's it, really. 00:08:11.148 --> 00:08:12.108 I think that's a lot. 00:08:13.408 --> 00:08:14.928 I think it's a lot that I'm taking away, 00:08:14.968 --> 00:08:17.328 and I hope that you've got something from the day, too. 00:08:17.768 --> 00:08:22.008 Drinks are here, and they're at the conference, 00:08:22.008 --> 00:08:25.448 and they're after this final bit. 00:08:25.808 --> 00:08:27.148 And they're over in the Howard Building. 00:08:27.848 --> 00:08:31.748 That's a building just a few yards outside the doors. 00:08:32.308 --> 00:08:33.988 Can I now just conclude on thanks, really? 00:08:34.048 --> 00:08:37.748 Can I thank all of you for contributing? 00:08:37.748 --> 00:08:44.268 so actively, despite a very quiet moment, actually, at the beginning of Sean's section. 00:08:45.068 --> 00:08:53.048 Black mark there. Thanks to all our colleagues in other nations, Mexico, Argentina, India, Egypt, 00:08:53.368 --> 00:08:57.968 and South Africa. Thanks to all our speakers, and I think it's been a remarkable conference in 00:08:57.968 --> 00:09:02.988 respect of their high commitment to linking all of their contributions tightly to the theme of 00:09:02.988 --> 00:09:08.228 the conference. You don't often get that and it's good. And finally, thanks to the conference 00:09:08.228 --> 00:09:14.088 organising team. I can't thank them all, but Faye, Seeger, Carrie and others, there's many of them and 00:09:14.088 --> 00:09:21.008 they've done a fantastic job to make today run seamlessly. And to the media team, hell, mostly 00:09:21.008 --> 00:09:28.288 it's worked, which is fantastic. So to you, to the contributors, to the speakers and to the team 00:09:28.288 --> 00:09:30.788 that have organised the event so flawlessly. 00:09:31.408 --> 00:09:33.168 Many thanks and safe journeys. 00:09:33.728 --> 00:09:34.588 Thank you very much indeed.