Unprepared for What We Learned: Six Action Research Exercises that
Challenge the Ends We Imagine for Education explores how twentieth
century models of education are not delivering on their promises, or
helping to deliver the promise of the next generation. We hear that our
students are not prepared, and that our teachers must not be prepared to
teach those students. Managing preparation has become an obsession for
policy-makers who claim that national competitiveness is at stake. After
more than one hundred years everything is well managed, yet no one is
prepared.
This preparatory mindset presumes that learners must be prepared before
they can participate in society, and that this preparation must be
managed intentionally using models, an implementation plan, and a system
for assessing and evaluating the impact of those models. It's biggest
failing is that those with the greatest stake, our young and adult
learners, no longer recognize it as an effective model. Empowered by
digital technologies, learners today are no longer willing to wait to be
prepared. We seek experiences for which we are unprepared for what we'll
learn.
Unprepared for What We Learned: Six Action Research Exercises that
Challenge the Ends We Imagine for Education shares six exercises drawn
from students, teachers, and school communities wrestling with problems
of practice for which they were unprepared. Readers will question
standards, outcomes, and global competencies; negotiate personalized
learning; and ultimately co-create innovative school communities that
disrupt the preparatory mindset. Together, these young and adult
learners participating in the authentic work of their school communities
will challenge the ends we imagine for education.
