The Guide vs the Farmer

I read a recent post claiming that "the guide on the side" position currently put forward as good practice needs to be reconsidered as the teacher should be at the centre of things and a new idea was put forward to consider - the teacher as farmer.
I've thought about it. Here's why I think a guide is going to work better than a farmer as an analogy in education.
A farmer controls just about everything that happens on their farm - apart from weather. They buy stock they want, sell stock they don't want, put fences in place to stop stock movement and drench everything. Hmm. I'm not convinced I want to be in their room as a learner. Drench, drench, drench. Weigh, weigh, weigh.
For me, I want a guide. Someone who has expertise and will offer it to me when asked and when they see I might need it.
Here's my analogy. I'm a novice tourist - never been out of NZ. I wish to go somewhere exotic and different to home. My travel guide should inform me of unsafe places that I would want to avoid. They should listen to what I'm telling them and then ask more questions to find out more about a suitable destination. They may make suggestions and offer me brochures. I get to make the final decision though - not them.
A local guide can be handy when in a new and unfamiliar place. This local expert knows people, hidden gems and the language. This local guide may have been suggested by my travel guide. Ideal!
While visiting my destination I might take a guided tour  - headphones on - where I'm able to pause while I ponder, fast forward past the boring part or rewind to hear it again. It suits my pace and my interests.
Now - here's where my guide is useful again. After my travels they find out about my experience  - what worked, what didn't, what I enjoyed etc, so that the next novice tourist is given this information too.
I'm now no longer a novice. I've travelled a bit. I still need a guide, but less so. I've learned from my first experience and want to make some changes- longer here, less time there, learn more local language etc etc/ I need to be guided, but I'm not entirely dependent.
Eventually, I'm able to self-guide my own travels.

I'm excited about the concept of  learners as explorers and teachers as guides.

(I'd be willing to talk to a teacher/farmer who is willing to go free range perhaps)

Will I be able to write something everyday for 28 days?

Changing the script

It would be easy to buy some new furniture and create a look of a modern learning environment and then change not much in the way of teaching.
The teacher of the 21st century would need to rethink all they have observed and been of in their teaching so far. Challenges would include the structure of the day - what would a day look like in my class? when would we do things and why? What will I assess and why? What is the nature of the relationships I have with my students? How do I increase the learning capacity of the students in my class? What habits might my students need to "unlearn"?
Phew! The list just goes on and on. What an incredible challenge. Plus, still meeting assessment and data requirements that fulfill National Standards requirements.

Really, the 21st century teacher needs to prepared to "let go" of lots of established practice that has been embedded/ingrained in us for many many decades. In letting go some prior practices, they will be able to venture into new practice. It's a shift from "transmitting" knowledge and assessing student performance in set ways to working with students' strengths to see what they are capable of.
What needs to happen to allow these conditions to occur? I think the way we plan would need to change. Students would need to have a lot more input into the structure of what they were learning and how they might show their learning to others. Certainly assessment practices would need to be changed in many cases. Teachers would need to be able to focus on what the student has got better at, rather than deficit thinking practices.

So if we could "redesign" schooling, what would we change? If we could start from scratch (we still have the same buildings) and ask, how would our school run and what would students do if we knew nothing of requirements, policy and forgot all our current practices - what would our school look like?

How do we shift our culture based on what we really truly believe and what we want to achieve for our learners?

Update on my thinking

Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching - a NZ perspective is challenging me and inspiring me. Authors Rachel Bolstad and Jane Gilbert published this in June 2012. A NZC update from Issue 26 in the Education Gazette does a 4 page summary of this too.

Ok, so we all know that something needs to change in education. In some cases possibly a lot needs to change. The success of this is hinged on my ability as a leader in my school to work out the process for this change. What experiences and learning might my staff need? What systemic changes might we need to make?

First question. Why change?
Basically I would challenge a lot of schools to identify at least 10 things that look different in their current classroom to a photo from the 1900s. Actually, we did this at the start of the year. Kind of like the "spot the differences" activities we did as children, but this time we tried looking a bit deeper. Yes, blackboards have changed to whiteboards/smartboards and the desks have changed a bit. Classes are generally smaller and the teacher looks a bit friendlier too. The biggest change we could see was the technology. Desktops, laptops, ipads. We still have 4 walls, one teacher and a certain number of students in there. Not a lot else seems to have changed. Why not?

I think we, and by we I mean schools, are kind of stuck. We think we have to keep on doing what we've always done because that's the best way. Obviously there are lots of exceptions. Some schools have been able to have modern learning environments (mles) built and I do believe that the physical environment effects the students and allows teachers to operate in non-traditional ways. So the challenge for schools, like mine that still have traditional classrooms, 4 walls etc, is to make changes in the physical set up that show the students that things aren't the same, that we won't be doing things how we always have.

So what type of teacher is needed? Clearly someone who can make a paradigm shift and operate their class in a non-traditional way. And that leads me on to Chapter 6 - "Changing the script": Rethinking learners' and teachers' roles.