Informal report of a conversation with Viv White about her study tour to the US, undertaken in late 2006

One of the dominant impressions formed by Viv, in her 2006 study tour to the US, was of "pervasive and disturbing" effects on schools and schooling of the No Child Left Behind program - however well-intentioned it may have been initially. Her perception was that this program and the standards movement in general are effectively narrowing the range of education and stultifying innovation in US schools. She commented that the educational context has become so dominated by the emphasis on tests and testing that it is becoming harder than before to have a conversation about learning.

For those who might be interested in exploring more fully some of these emerging themes in American education, Viv suggests reading AMERICA 101, a paper that she heard when it was delivered by Bill Moyers, President of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, in San Diego on October 27, 2006 to the Council of Great City Schools, an organisation of urban public school systems. The paper can be found on-line at http://www.cgcs.org/pdfs/Bill_Moyers.pdf

On the more encouraging side, Viv remarked on the number of courageous teachers she met who, despite the restrictive climate, continue to try and reform schools – particularly where â“struggling kids” are concerned. She spoke in particular about the work of the Coalition of Essential Schools, which now has an established body of knowledge about what works in educational reform. Resources providing examples, including recent DVDs of classroom practice, are available from the Coalition's web site at http://www.essentialschools.org/ . Viv noted that within the larger Coalition context the Small Schools movement is helping to lead the conversation about learning.

Viv participated in the Coalition's Fall Forum in Chicago (which was also attended by teachers from Yulebrook in Perth) including sessions on Big Picture schools, where teachers and students told their own stories – which were genuinely inspiring. This led into a visit to the Peace Street Campus of the Met School in Rhode Island, where she was able to observe, in their working environment, some of the students who had presented at the Forum. She commented that this had been â“profoundly interesting”, not least because of an alignment between teachers and disadvantaged students, after five years working together at the Met, which she had not seen before.

From there, Viv travelled west to California, to visit the Big Picture Schools in San Diego and San Francisco, and the Met School in Oakland. The aim here was to build the capacity of Big Picture Australia through a deeper understanding of the principles of Big Picture in practice. Again this involved observing students as they learned in their distinctive school environments. What struck her was that while the schools were both true to the Big Picture design principles, they were also very different – in the ways that they worked to fit within their particular context, and with their particular style of school leadership. It was clear that in practice schools such as these can have new designs and new ideas but be true to the principles. Big Picture is not about â“cardboard cut-out models”. The concrete examples that Viv encountered generated a real excitement about the challenge and opportunities for similar developments in the Australian context.

Perhaps the most powerful, or richest, experience of Viv's trip was to shadow the Met's Elliott Washor over a period of three weeks – watching him doing his â“real” work over an extended period. She observed Elliott as he worked in 42 different schools across the US; as he negotiated contracts with funding bodies; as he talked to national broadcasters; as he coached principals on leadership; as he talked to students about their learning; and as he exchanged thoughts with a development officer about her role. She saw his involvement in the development of curriculum materials; his making of new contacts and his skilled development of expanding networks. None of what she learned through this experience would have been possible for Viv, or any other interested educator, without physically going there and being allowed to be a "fly on the wall" reflecting a remarkable act of open generosity on the part of someone as busy and in-demand as Elliott Washor.

Finally, Viv developed her interest in the re-conceptualisation of learning - exploring some of the work of Frank Wilson, on the link between hand and head in learning across the curriculum. She anticipates undertaking further exploratory work in this area during 2007. In the meantime, readers might like to check out the short review of Frank Wilson's book, The Hand, at http://www.thymos.com/mind/fwilson.html , or the article in the January/February 2000 edition of Harvard Education Letter, entitled "Frank Wilson on Hand-Made Minds: The Realities of Hands-On Experience and Education".

Report prepared by Keith Redman from notes of a conversation with Viv White, on 14 December 2006.