Danger in transition

Every time we change something we take a risk. When it comes to changes at a societal level, the risk intensifies, because it potentially affects many more people. 3 September 1967 was the day Sweden changed from driving on the left side of the road to the right side. It was known as Dagen H and brought Sweden into alignment with its Nordic neighbours.

Interestingly, a referendum held in Sweden in 1955 showed that 83% of voters were against the change. Imagine what would have happened if this percentage continued to drive on the left side out of protest? There would have been carnage.

The changes brought by Dagen H caused a lot of chaos and great expense as doors on buses had to be changed, new public vehicles were purchased, road signs were adjusted and most importantly - the populace was re-educated into the new way of doing things. When radical change comes, chaos and tensions can arise as people adjust and relearn.

I had an interesting conversation with my 86 year-old mother about autonomous vehicles yesterday. I was telling her about how the new robot controlled cars would be more reliable and safer. First she didn't believe they actually existed. Then she was quite sceptical about them, believing that robot driven cars would cause more accidents on the road. I argued that it was the reverse - that once every car on the road was autonomous, accidents would be radically reduced, because computers tend to follow instructions without question, whilst humans are always prone to error, lapses in concentration and other deviant behaviour. The most dangerous time, I said, would be the transition period, when autonomous and human driven vehicles were on the road together.

These are metaphors for change in education. While we are going through transitions in pedagogical practices, or technology driven innovation, there will always be casualties. Many teachers welcome change, but don't want to change themselves. Some resist new ideas when they are imposed from above, because they have no ownership, or they have no time to learn how to use them effectively. Or, in most cases, teachers adopt the new ideas, but not wholeheartedly, and only casually apply them. Those who lead the charge for change are often viewed with suspicion, especially by their colleagues, and sometimes are vilified and even victimised for their stance. We witness this happening on social media right now, where a turf war is being played out between those who wish to preserve traditional values in education, and those who wish to forge onwards with new ideas and innovation. This is certainly a time of great transition, and there is danger in transition. We need to look after each other.

Image from Wikimedia Commons


Danger in transition by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.