Thread by @LPearceLearning

My thoughts on 'The Future of Further Education' lecture by Martin Doel last Friday @IOE_London

Notably for me, this was not a perspective I hear often in my own educational bubble as Doel is ex-military! (1/11)

#FutureofFE

ucl.ac.uk/ioe/events/202…

Full of insight & delivered in straight-forward and convincing fashion.

My summary and impressions:

-need to self-define purpose & values, instead of being 'not school or university'
- under-investment is the other perennial issue, but Doel thinks this will change (2/11)

We are now in 'post-market' economy with greater intervention:

-a strategic/entrepreneurial state
-greater regionalism and continuing devolution
-in discourse of Brexit, 'scaling up the left-behind places'
-clear major role for FE (3/11)

-scalability and agglomeration lead to fewer, larger institutions
-(has certainly been the case with my experience in Manchester and Sheffield!)
-need to balance competition with collaboration
-avoid 'generic low-level provision' (4/11)

Some of the tensions (or dualisms)
-local vs. national
-students aspiration vs. employer needs & job market
-generalist vs. specialist
-flukes of geography = destiny?
-entry level to mastery
-ages from 14 to 99

Can these be resolved & reconciled? (5/11)

How to deal with this? Doel says it is 'sodding complicated' & turns to some military strategists for guidance.

-situation is of non-linearity & chaos
-leaders are 'in command but not in control' (Lamb)
-'no plan survives contact with the enemy' (Moltke) (6/11)

Solution is concept of Auftragstaktik
-80% of energy should go on the intent (why & what)
-20% of energy should go on the 'how'
-first conditions create path dependency
-needs trust in leaders & learning from failure
-'rapid adaptation in a robust framework' (7/11)

-incremental experimentation (Collier)
-use the OODA loop (Boyd) to adapt to changes in a complex system

But, all the above needs:

-trust between providers and policy-makers
-stability & long-term thinking (8/11)

In conclusion, major theme is reconciling tensions in #FE.

Doel opposes authoritarian change & claims government policy needs to be adaptive and place trust in local and regional decision-makers to act organically.

As long as above is guided by original intent. (9/11)

Small 'c' conservative view on FE & likely to be gov. policy for next 5 years (but who knows?)

Readily applicable to #Sheffield given split 50/50 on Brexit and many parts qualify as 'left-behind'.

@SheffCityRegion & developments e.g. tram to Rotherham fit
this view?
(10/11)

P.S.

-Happy to see slides with text left for audience to read #DualCoding
-First & last time I will be tweeting about WW1 German army generals?
-What did I miss/get wrong? (11/11)