Part of the series: Global Issues in Education
I was following my Twitter stream this morning and saw a Tweet go by from Shelly Terrell.
and I responded back with
This not the first time I have heard this “Get Involved. The world is run by those who show up.” This saying may be true sometimes, but personally I believe that many more decisions on how things are run in education or any other field and what policies are instituted, are made by those who show-up in the backrooms by a relatively small number of people.
When I say “backroom” what do I mean? To me the backrooms include public employees’ offices, at some level of government (local, state or national) and/or business/corporate offices, in addition to the stereotypical ones you see in political cartoons and in the movies.
Those are the backrooms where education and other policies are developed, discussed, and refined to meet the needs of those who initiated the policy or idea, not necessarily what is the optimum course of action or in the best interests of the majority of people it affects.
Backroom management is not a new or novel concept. Government and business policies have been implemented this way (in the backroom) throughout history, so why should we expect things to work any differently today? This how things are typically done, in whatever field you are discussing – a small number of people make the real decisions to meet the needs of those in that backroom and their associates.
After the policy has already been discussed and planned, those who developed that policy allow those that “show-up” to talk about their proposals (the back-room decision). Then in order to give the appearance that those in the back-room are listening to those who “show-up”, they offer up relatively unimportant compromises or changes, so those who “show-up” can say “we made a difference” and everyone goes home happy.
It does not mean that just because you “showed-up” that you were actually heard or that what you said made any real difference.
A big difference today compared with other times in history, is that the internet allows more of us to participate in more conversations, and with more people. We discuss many of the policies that effect us in our online communities (the social networks) – often at length and intelligently, but what we say and have said has had little or no effect on the policies being implemented or changes to policies presently in place i.e. NCLB, RTTP, Standardized Testing, National Standards, Funding, and a host of other “policies” that affect us daily.
It would be nice to believe that with the advent of social networking that we can and do make more of a difference than we could in the past and that all my time online is not just done to hear myself or others with similar interests just talk. But in reality, I have a feeling, it would be very naive on my part to think we are being listened to or heard in any meaningful way, based on the “new” policies we are seeing.
Why would those in power want to share the power they presently possess or change the policy processes so that they to have to hear other’s provide input to something they have already answered in their circles? “They” have their goals/objectives and want to retain that power. Public service employees may mean well and believe that they “know” what is best for us and they have their interpretations of “how” things should be done based on the rules and regulations they often help initiate. Those in business want to maximize their profits and to put it bluntly, if they are able to show some social consciousness, it is good for business. So those who have the power to make policy will limit access to the “backrooms” where the real policies and decisions are made to retain their control over the process and the outcomes.
Is this a pessimistic view of how businesses and governments enact policy? No not really. It is simply the reality of how things are done and will probably be done for the foreseeable future. What can we do about it? In my view from the bottom – unfortunately not too much.
Unfortunately, it is not about “just showing up,” it is more importantly all about “where and when you show up” that actually impacts your ability to make changes…so show up in the backroom if you can.
and as always -
Have you made a difference today? How?
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Harold L. Shaw, Jr. is a Special Education teacher and English Language Arts teacher in a Resource Room. He blogs about education reform at My Thoughts… and tweets from Maine by the handle, @Hshawjr.
This may have been the model of the past, but now through organic, grassroots movement big change has happened. Look at the Wikipedia model, no one would have guessed that the volunteer free model would stomp out Microsoft Encarta, and yet, that is exactly what happened. We are making ripples of change. Soon those in the back room will come out and find that everything has changed and it was not because of changed that they effected.
i believe that we can now make change. i’ve been in ed 20 years. this is different.
in fact, if we don’t think that access to the web is powerful enough to make change… then simply continuing to tweak ed is ok as well.
Monika I would love to believe that both you and ktenkely are correct and I am working towards those changes as well (one student at a time), but at the same time our ability to make changes is very limited still.
What have we done to make these changes? After 8 years NCLB is still the law, RTTP makes a competition between the haves and have nots, Standardized Testing is the rule by which accountability of schools is accomplished, test scores are more important to the people in those backrooms than the individual students we see everyday.
For grassroots efforts to make a difference and produce the change many of us see as being needed, we need a charismatic leader and momentum – we have neither at this time. If we do who is it?
I do not like this reality any more than you or anyone else, but those ripples have had little actual effect in education policy at the State or National levels, otherwise we would have had the change many of us voted for.
Until we actually begin to hear about the changes that we are looking for in the National Press, talk shows, the halls of Congress, by the President and on the Nightly news – I am afraid that we are going to have more situations like we have in Rhode Island.
I really am not this pessimistic, but I don’t see progress being made. If anything I see the backroom deals and leadership only increasing their hold on Education policy today. I say select Alfie Kohn as the Secretary of Education and let his ideas hold sway in Education, but it is not going to happen in today’s world.
Money talks and right now those that have the money are controlling the backrooms and it is leading to the education policy we have and will have for the foreseeable future.
Harold
Hi Harold – thanks for an interesting article. I just wonder as an educator if you don’t have more power than anyone. You educate the people who will make policy tomorrow – just look at Aristotle and Alexander the Great.
Thanks for an interesting read. I believe you are largely correct Harold about the reality of “how things are run”, but I think it’s important to have the belief that showing up is important. Sometimes it can make a difference, partly because the people in the backroom then get leaned on to “fix the problem” that is getting all those people to show up and cause a fuss.
America had, and still has I think, a long and great tradition of people showing up and getting involved. Nationwide movements perhaps not so much, but certainly on a local level.
So, maybe we could agree on a different slogan:
Get involved. Because you’ll never really know if you don’t do anything.
Get involved. Because it’s fun and inspiring to work with people trying to make a difference.
Get involved. Because those in power would really rather you didn’t.
Thanks for the post, anyway. Good food for thought.
@Sputnik – I think that all educators have more power than they believe and that by educating tomorrow’s leaders we can change policy in the future (maybe?)(hopefully). I know that everything that I do in the classroom today could affect 2 additional generations and then multiply that by the number of teachers in the classroom, we do have tremendous power.
@ Lindsay Clandfield – Get involved. I am not saying that getting involved is wrong, but it is where you get involved that has the most effect. If you are simply out here on the net commenting, it doesn’t seem to have much affect. We as teachers have to find ways to be included in the backroom discussions that involve our professional responsibilities.
It seems as though in today’s world that we are excluded from those conversations or are treated as the elephant in the room that no one wants to really acknowledge. Yes we know how to teach, we know what is going on in our classrooms and schools, but we do not know what is going on in those backrooms at the local, state or federal levels.
Those are the places we have to become more represented and if we are not invited maybe we have to invite ourselves. No Lindsay I am not against being involved or showing up, but I am against wasting our time and showing up or getting involved with no effect or in places where our voices are not heard or listened too.
Go to the next meeting of your school’s board, encourage as many teachers as you can to show up, attend planning meetings with state ed employees, if you can talk with them, get to know them, you can influence them that way, if you live within a reasonable distance to Washington attend public sessions, get to know those people, you may already know them. Focus your efforts on where they will do the most good, continually preaching to the choir, doesn’t change things, talk to those who don’t agree with you, get their side and give them yours without being defensive or offensive.
I will agree with your last statement, “Get involved those in power would really rather you didn’t.” That I really think is what this entire post was about when you get down to the nuts and bolts.
But it comes down to where you show up or get involved, if you do not have access to the backroom, your ability to make change is limited.
Thanks
Harold