From Control to Curiosity
When Dr Richard Owens accepted the Hedley Beare Educator of the Year Award at the ACEL Victorian Awards in August, he shared a definition of leadership from his friend and mentor, Dr Peter Senge:
“Leadership is the ability of a community to move towards its preferred future.”
This vision of leadership — collaborative, relational, place-based, systemic, and human — feels urgent in a world grappling with climate change, conflict, polarisation, threats to democracy, and widening inequity.
At the same event, Victorian Branch President Dr Annette Rome reflected on how trust in the profession is often tested. Schools stand at the intersection of children, families, and society. Teachers act as mayors, arbitrators, caregivers, psychologists, and counsellors; alongside being educators. We are often blamed, rarely celebrated. Increasingly, we are “done to” rather than listened to.
She spoke about how recent political mandates, such as calls for explicit teaching to be the only approach, risk reducing education to a one-size-fits-all method. Would we expect engineers to use a single building technique? Or doctors to follow only one surgical method? Of course not.
Annette reminded us that professional teaching is about discernment: knowing when to use explicit instruction, when to invite inquiry, when to push, and when to step back. Education is not either/or; it is both/and. We draw on a full toolkit, adapting to the needs of each child in each context. If we do not articulate what we do and why we do it, others will narrow the scope of our work, our spaces, and our impact.
I’m reminded of a moment early in the career of a young English teacher named Simon (a vignette from Cultivating Cultures of Thinking in Australian Schools, Paterson & Brooks, 2025). Every year, Simon looked forward to teaching Hamlet. The play’s richness and timeless themes made it a highlight. One year, he went all out; memorising the “To be or not to be” soliloquy, sourcing a black cloak, and entering the classroom with dramatic flair. The students applauded. The lesson that followed was detailed, meticulous, and teacher-led.
Simon left feeling triumphant. But a week later, the essays came in. They were bland. Interpretations were shallow. There was no spark, no voice, no deep understanding.
He realised he had done all the thinking. His students had been passive observers, not active learners.
That realisation stayed with him:
“Learning is a consequence of thinking” (Perkins, 1992).
Schools are enculturative spaces where habits of mind are formed. As Ron Ritchhart (2023) reminds us:
“A culture lives in the messages it sends. These messages taken together constitute the story of learning we enact with and for our students.”
Communities like ACEL remind us of what’s possible — amplifying teacher voices, advocating for our profession, and championing the complexity and nuance of our work — as we move together towards our preferred future.
References
Paterson, C. & Brooks, S. (eds.) (2025). Cultivating Cultures of Thinking in Australian Schools: From Control to Curiosity. London: Routledge.
Perkins, D.N. (1992). Smart Schools: From Training Memories to Educating Minds. The Free Press.
Ritchhart, R. (2023). Cultures of Thinking in Action: 10 Mindsets to Transform Our Teaching and Students’ Learning. New Jersey: Jossey-Bass.