Ulearn2020 - Keynote #4 - Professor Peter O'Connor - achievement doesn't matter

Professor Peter O’Connor is the final keynote for the Ulearn 2020 conference. He speaks on "Achievement doesn’t matter – education is to preserve democracy and build communities"

Began with a demonstration of how creativity may be expressed. Proposed that the present creativity   stifles and kills creativity. Cited Sir Ken Robinsons call for a shift in education to nurture creativity but not one single educational system has adopted his call. Also called for a re-definition of success. Success is not how much you take but how much you give – as derived from his story about his dad, who died early, but gave much. Success people find ways to share what they have gained.

The true criteria of success - how we do as a nation, and as a planet. It is not passing exams but of education as a national treasure (as per John Dewey). Democracy is under threat with the resurgence of neo-nationalistic politics drawing people. Dewey believed democracy was “made by our hands” and the importance of the arts in ‘training the imagination”. There is a need to imagine the future, before we can move towards it.

Richness is not material, but richness in appreciating and participating in music, poetry, dance – something his father helped nurture and support. The neo-liberal directive to prepare learners for the future is fraught when education should be about imagining the future.

Shared story of his mentor, Dorothy Hignetts? She did not ask if children were taught drama in NZ schools but whether children understood what mattered to them and that they mattered to others. It is not that they matter because they achieved but that they mattered for who they are.

Used an example with his work with Selina Tusitala Marsh onher book ‘mophead’. How the book was used to assist students to learn about concepts of culture through dramatizing the book. The students extended their learning to encompass their understandings of racism and how the activity had helped them unpack their biases.

If we are to reimagine schooling and education, it is important to return to the core purposes. The Arts are important as it nurtures the imagination. Loosing the Arts through the curriculum is a great tragedy. The real danger is the lost of ways to nurture the imagination.

All four keynotes have revolved around the themes of change and how this can be enacted. The call is to use the current circumstances as a catalyst to change the ways education /school is structured and organised, including the need to become more equitable, look after the learners (and teachers) and to redefine ‘success’.