From consumers to co-operative participants

Don Ledingham asks in his blog - Perhaps the time is right to explore alternative delivery models for education where we shift our thinking from people being users or consumers, to being participants? and I know I agree.

Is this what you want? Is this what you think? How will you sell it to your stake holders?

For too long education and learning has been ‘done to’ people. It is quite clear that we cannot go on this way. Ownership is everything - it is the thing that makes the difference. Teachers are inspirers and must be given the opportunities necessary to inspire. We are going further and further away from what is needed and, as Don says, our current system - as it has evolved - has been dominated by the tenets of centralised control . We have created dependency on it. Is it because education is a politically driven institution or is it that we simply haven’t allowed it to evolve enough?

The steps forward are not simple … but they do need taking … and the answers will not fit easily into the present climate. I just wonder if the current economic downturn will have taught us anything about what is important.