Kidd’s manifesto for pedagogical activism will make for an interesting read for teaching professionals eager to reconnect with the values and ethos of teaching beyond learning to exams and league tables.
Teaching notes from the front line
Synopsis
This book proclaims to be for teachers who want to take back control. It challenges the ‘deadening desire for certainty’ and an educational regime that sees data as truth. It is, according to Kidd, about pedagogical activism: an activism informed by knowledge and practice, fuelled by networking and effective collaboration.
Kidd challenges the idea that league tables, accountability measures and data should drive all that happens in the classroom. Data, she says, forgets the needs and interests of pupils and undermines professional teachers.
She recommends a ten point pedagogical revolution for teachers, helping them to remember why they went into teaching in the first place. Challenging recent education reforms that she claims have removed the joy from learning and teaching, she outlines a manifesto for pedagogical activism including a refusal to compete with colleagues and to see exam results the sole point of teaching.