Another Way is Possible: Becoming a Democratic Teacher in a State School

Derry Hannam is well known as an advocate, speaker, and author on the need for a new approach to schooling. In this book he argues that young people are natural learners who need time and space to pursue their interests, to cultivate their curiosity, to be creative, and to collaborate with each other and adults to manage their schools as democratic learning communities.

He argues that these experiences and qualities are exactly what the world needs at this time and for a future confronted with the demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, but that most schools and school systems, with some exceptions that he describes as "pioneers of possibility", are not providing them. They are instead trapped in a factory 'production line' model of education which inhibits imagination, creativity and learning.

Intrigued to understand how he developed the key ideas while ignorant of the fact that they belonged to a long tradition of progressive education in England and world-wide, the author opens with three autobiographical chapters - School, Work and Teacher Training - in which he explores his own formative experiences.

At the heart of the book is an account of his early experience as a teacher of integrated humanities, first with 34 "11+ failures" in a Midlands secondary modern school in 1969. In its second year the project was extended to all 230 students of the year group of 12-year-olds. Here he set out to demonstrate what many teachers know in their hearts, that "Another Way Is Possible" which builds on interest, enthusiasm for learning, and a capacity for collaborative self-government rather than coercion. It worked - and it grounded his career as a deputy head teacher of a community school, an inspector, and international consultant for organisations such as the Council of Europe advocating experiential approaches to learning about democratic citizenship and human rights. By an extraordinary piece of synchronicity while he was writing these chapters some students from his class of 1H/2H, now approaching retirement, contacted him and have contributed to the book.

He confronts the difficulties and dangers facing the lone teacher trying to develop "another way" and reflects upon how he could have been rather better at 'public relations' than he was. He emphasises the importance of working in a supportive team and the need for wise and courageous leadership from head teachers.

This book is designed to encourage those training to be teachers, or in the early years of their careers, to dare to seek an alternative to tightly prescribed curriculum and behaviour management. To look for and create opportunities for students to find and pursue their passions and interests in the context of self-managing democratic communities. This is exactly what Klaus Schwab of The World Economic Forum believes that the world of the Fourth Industrial Revolution will require, and the Economist Intelligence Unit calls for in its recent report "Staff of 2030: Future Ready Teaching."

The author concludes with an amalgamation of two well-received recent conference speeches in which the he develops the arguments at the core of the book and demonstrates their timeliness, despite fifty years having passed since the original experiment.

Dettagli