Over the term break, a number of us attended the Australian Council of Educational Leaders conference where the focus was on the future of education, the future of the profession, and the future of the world under the banner of Reimagining Education. There were many outstanding presentations, and I have no doubt further reflections and copies of presentations will be shared. Professor Alan Finkel (AC)’s provocation, bringing together the impacts of global warming, AI, wavering definitions of ‘truth’ and managing dissonance in a world of different backgrounds, incentives and belief systems, was timely, given current global developments. I am reminded of the thinking of Shannon Vallor (Edinburgh University) who credits great developments in human thinking to times of crises. In evolutionary terms, we call it saltatory evolution – advantageous change that takes place in bursts with intervening inactive periods. This ultimately provides a message of hope, as jumps in the capacity of humans to think creatively, humanely and powerfully develop fastest when the tensions and dissonance are marked. This implies that we WILL develop the mental and intellectual virtuosity and capability to move forward in humane and ethical ways in our current world, where we are assaulted by issues relating to AI, sustainability and global tensions. We just need to give ourselves the space, time and thinking tools to have brave conversations fuelled by courage and curiosity. This places much on the role of the teacher and something we cannot do as individuals. We need the sustenance, support and provocations that comes through active collaboration and interaction with those that may think differently to us. This is something that ACEL networks can facilitate in an effective and timely manner, and we look forward to having such brave conversations with you all.
The next ACEL Vic event will be the Patron’s Oration given by Prof Fiona Longmuir on Tuesday December 10. Fiona is a senior lecturer in educational leadership, and co-leader of the Education Workforce for the Future Impact Lab. She’s led two national projects to investigate teachers' satisfaction with their working conditions, and is part of a national team looking at the health and wellbeing of public school principals. She has more than 15 years’ experience as a primary teacher, curriculum and school leader and contributes regularly to public and policy discussions aiming to inform a sustainable and healthy teaching workforce.
Booking details to come.
Annette Rome
ACEL VIC Branch President