Presentation on Hargreaves and Shirley book The Fourth Way

1. The Fourth Way
The Inspiring Future for
Educational Change.
Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley.
Ciro Viamontes
UNT EDAD 6160, Fall 2014

2. Our schools are the social embryos of
humanity-those institutions that we
establish to promote our highest
collective values. They should be the
embodiments of norms of reciprocity,
active trust, and democratic
deliberation.

3. The Ways in Brief
• The First Way is state support and professional
freedom, of innovation yet also inconsistency.
• The Second Way is the influence of market
competition and standardization. Professional
freedom is lost.
• The Third Way attempts to balance professional
autonomy with accountability while moving
beyond markets.

4. The First Way
• Post WWII to 1970’s
• The “Welfare State”; economic boom, rising population
• Examples:
– Jonathan Kozol,
– Lyndon Johnson and Operation Head Start Program
– War on Poverty
• Professional Freedom to experiment, Autonomy and Individualism
• Lack of structure and follow through, uneven implementation
• Erosion of public trust in educational institutions

5. The Second Way:Transition
• Reagan/Thatcher Austerity
• Introduction of market principles, such as competition, citizens become customers
• Examples:
– Charter Schools
– Re-focus on Vocational Education in the UK
– 1981 Reagan commissions “Nation at Risk”
• Standardization of curriculum and programs, coherence
• Increasing complexity for classroom teachers
• Breakdown in Leadership

6. The Second Way
• Southern States in late 1980s: Clinton
• Standardization, Bureaucracy, Mandates
• Examples:
– In Service Training instead of broad based learning
– Sanctions for performance failures
– Canned curriculum
• Proliferation of high stakes testing
• Goals, targets, results on arbitrary production schedules, loss of autonomy
• Teacher Exodus, 50% turnover in 5 years, 3 years in urban areas
• Student exodus, dropout rates increased

7. The Third Way
• Clinton and the New Democrats in 1996 “New Progressivism”
• Blair and Schroder published their own Third Way position paper
• Combination of markets and 1960’s idealism,
• Examples:
– Life long learning
– Not top-down or bottom-up, lateral energy beginning of PLC
– Both/And Pressure and Support, Private and Public Sector
– Dewey Democracy and Education, Interest and Discipline
• Predominantly European
• Ontario hires Fullan in 2003; Turnaround Leadership
• NCLB is extension of Second Way

8. The Third Way-New Orthodoxy
• Co-opted by Distractors (Fullan Turnaround Leadership)
• Autocracy
– Increased standardization, top-down mandates, initiatives, more testing, increased Rigor
– School takeovers
• Technocracy
– Misinterpreted, misleading and misused data-driven instruction
• Effervescence
– TAAS “pep rallies”
– “Addiction” to inspiring quick fixes that “feel good”

9. The Fourth Way: Purpose and Partnership
• An inspiring and inclusive vision; Do the right thing, not the easy
• Strong Public engagement
– Government not charged with society’s future
• No achievement without investment
• Corporate educational responsibility; contributing active partner
• Students as partners in change
• Mindful learning and teaching
– A revised PLC, Personalization of learning
– Re-Conceptualize nature of learning and teaching, not delivery mechanisms

10. The Fourth Way: Principles of Professionalism
• High-quality teachers
– After graduation in a degree program
• Positive and Powerful Professional Associations
– Unions as change agents for student learning
• Lively learning communities
– PLC on steroids
– Lateral Learning and Networked Schools
– Data informs, does not drive instruction
– Students, parents, support staff, the people in the neighborhood
– Caring, long-term relationships as people concerned about short term out comes
– Not all conversations about targets and goals

11. The Fourth Way: Catalysts of Coherence
• Sustainable leadership
– Let others have real power!
“Leadership is the afterthought of educational change. It’s the cigarette that’s smoked after
the reform has been consummated.”
• A net with no nanny
– Network to spread innovation decrease inequity,
– Strong help the weak
• Responsibility before accountability
– “Accountability is the remainder that is left when responsibility has been subtracted.”
– Sampling as is done in industry for quality control
• Build from the bottom, steer from the top: Democracy

12. Pillars of
Purpose
Moral Purpose
Strong Investment
Public-Private Partnership
Principles of
Professionalism
High Quality Teachers
Professional Status and Development
Professional Learning Communities
Catalyst of
Coherence
School-to-School Networks
The Strong Help the Weak
Leadership Development
Sophisticated Accountability Data
Third and
Fourth Way
Common
Ideas

13. The Jesuit’s
secret to
absolute joy
• Do you have a passion?
• Are you good at it, or can become so?
• Does it serve a compelling social need?
The New Orthodoxy is largely about improving policy delivery. The Fourth
Way takes a more vertiginous route that scales the heights of public democracy.