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(Image: Students at Tidemill Academy visit ‘Pearl’ as part of The Visitor: A Whole-School Theatrical Experience)

In a future of increased automation where we live longer, work longer and more traditional/professional routes are replaced by portfolio careers, entrepreneurial and creative skills will arguably become a basic need. How might this change teaching? Would teaching become entrenched in the ‘gig economy’, with most teachers as freelancers? (The terms ‘UberTeach’ and ‘Teacheroo’ were coined!) Would artificial intelligence and even ‘roboteachers’ replace live teaching altogether? Would these things be good or bad?

In the main, there was a strong belief that personal connections will always be at the heart of the best teaching and learning. We distilled our discussion into a list of qualities we collectively believed would be essential to future teaching in any form:

  • Adaptable
  • Analytical
  • Collaborative
  • Creative
  • Constantly learning
  • Resilient
  • Entrepreneurial
  • Innovative
  • Values-driven.

Duties would include but not be limited to:

  • Inspiring young people to become curious, passionate learners
  • Developing young people’s social skills, preparing them for life as well as the job market
  • Constantly learning and adapting to new technologies
  • Working deeply and holistically with parents and local communities
  • Maintaining an entrepreneurial mind-set
  • Continuously self-promoting and building networks

The CLC project presentations – at our sixth and final session at Siobhan Davies Dance – suggested some further duties that we might add to our list.

Deliberately working far outside your comfort/training zone

Despite a shoestring budget and constantly shifting job requirements, Suzette Rocca, Performing Arts Teacher at Bush Hill Primary School (Enfield), refused to give up on her CLC project aim to embed and extend the arts across her school.

Developing projects with a high potential for failure as a key driver of learning

The arts empower children not only to take risks but also to learn from what doesn’t go to plan. The bigger the ambition, the greater the chance of falling short…and of learning something important, even profound.

Andy Thwaite is Head of Arts Faculty at Hurlingham School, an independent primary school in Wandsworth. The school already has a rich and deep arts offer, so with his CLC project Andy set out, via Artsmark, to create a pioneering trust that would support resource and knowledge sharing in the arts between independent and state schools. It hasn’t happened yet, but the lessons learned by Andy in the process have inspired him to redouble his efforts to achieve this pioneering idea.

Using empathy to build awareness and support

Great teachers have always been skilled at understanding and responding to the needs of their students; great 21st Century teacher-leaders will find ways to use this empathy strategically to ensure that the arts and culture are integral to teaching and learning.

Paul Pearce, Leader of Communication/Music Head of St. Giles’ School (Croydon), chose to focus his CLC project on raising awareness of what children and young adults with special needs can achieve through the arts and creative activity, and to make this as visible as possible. He describes the impact this had on parents, carers and the community.

Taking school out of school

Schools are generally good at bringing parents and the community in to experience arts and cultural work by students, but sometimes less good at taking that work out into the community. Chandni Makhecha, Art Coordinator at Sellincourt Primary School (Wandsworth), coordinated with Transport for London to display pupil artwork at the local tube station, spurring further interest by her SLT in how the school could make all of its good work more visible.

Actively using the arts and culture as vehicles for positive social change

Jack Brown, Artist in Residence at Tidemill Academy (Lewisham), built his CLC project around a whole-school creative event called The Visitor: A Whole-School Theatrical Experience, the story of a refugee living in a caravan on school grounds for a week. The learning and awareness that grew from this work transcended age, cultural, subject and even school boundaries, demonstrating clearly the power of the arts to affect the lives of young people in countless ways.

Further resources:

  • A slightly dated (2010) yet very clear look at how teachers should use and engage with technology.Download here
  • The British Council has developed a list of 21st Century skills that inform their education work worldwide.Find out more
  • If you want to calm your concerns about robots taking your teaching job, read this clear-eyed piece by former UK schools minister Jim Knight.Read here
  • …and A.I. (if not robots) might just make teaching better.Find out more