Page 119 - Looking_after_school

Chapter 4. Lessons learned

Placing the student in the centre is part of a broad discourse that per-
meates numerous contexts. But as we have shown, this discourse has
multiple sides. It is made from several perspectives which all have
their own arguments for focusing on the student. Furthermore, all
these perspectives uphold their own image of ‘the student’: the student
as human resource, as customer, as user and co-producer, as creative
source, and as didactic point of departure. It is remarkable that the
attention is drawn towards differences between students - even if not
always in the same way - and more specifically to the (unique) person
of the student who is increasingly called ‘the learner’. It also catches
the eye that there are more than just educational motives at play here.
Today, mostly market economical, technological, socio-economical,
and organisational arguments make the plea to do more justice to the
person of the learner: no-one can remain un-used or unemployed,
everyone must be usable or employable. When economic, social, and
financial considerations are at the base of putting the student centre
stage, this learner is then also a means for ends which are not peda-
gogical: economic growth, innovation, social cohesion, efficiency…
As far as this is concerned, we see a clear difference between what
appear to be similar arguments for what took place in the past. The
start of 20th century, for instance, was mostly about pedagogical reform
movements and a kind of counter discourse. It was about rethinking
the role of the student and the teacher in education and experimenting
with new forms and methods alongside and in response to traditional
education. In contrast, today we are confronted with a dominant dis-
course in which policy considerations are combined with educational
arguments: education in which the learner takes central stage is educa-
tion that is understood as both more relevant and more optimal (faster,
more efficient, more effective learning). It is exactly this observation
that brings out the question: isn’t there more at stake today than a
shift of perspectives or a change of discourse? Aren’t those shifts and
changes indications of a new way of organising education and learn-
ing? Are crucial pedagogical considerations at stake because of this?

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