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available to workers, surely a refusal by workers to
become perfect needed to be met with a robust
response?
So successful were these CEOs that they decided to
award themselves very high salaries - certainly they
deserved these rewards in acknowledgement of
their magnificence? Some even managed to justify
to themselves the practice of putting more and more
of their workers on zero hours’ contracts. Truly, they
reasoned, these workers must have a clear vocation
that is unsullied by a desire for profit, for why else
would they work so hard for so little?
All continued in this way until the day I mentioned
- a day not so long ago. It so happened that the
King Emperor was visiting one of the very few ivory
towers which had received the ultimate accolade of
Outstanding. He was presented to various workers and
their students (for indeed, these workers were in fact
further education teachers). Everyone he met had put
on a performance for his benefit, which was bound to
enhance the status (and the salary) of the
CEO still further - everyone, that is, apart
from one teacher. He boldly approached
the King Emperor, pushing aside the
fawning minions and the self-satisfied CEO.
This is what he said:
‘ None of this is real. The lovely buildings,
the resources, the polite students and our
great success rates. The reality is going on
behind closed doors. The difficult work
of restoring the motivation of students
whose lives have been devastated by
previous experiences; the worry when
students’ behaviour or absence prevents
them from learning - because this is
always the teacher’s fault - the increasing
expectations that you will know enough to
teach more than your specialist subject, the
paperwork, the lack of social camaraderie,
simply the lack of enjoyment…I could go
on, but I think you get the picture. This
joyless work is what teaching has become
under your ignorant rule. So what are you
going to do about it?’
So, how do you think the story ends?
1. Suddenly another worker pushed
forward. ‘The issue is not what he’s
going to do. It’s up to us!’ He appealed
to his fellow workers to join him in his
response, but they all went away in a
great hurry to write their perfect lesson
plans. Within 10 years, ivory towers
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were no more, for truly, the aim of the King Emperor
all along had been to make the future of FE an
impossibility. What a magnificent achievement!
2. Suddenly another worker pushed forward. ‘The
issue is not what he’s going to do. It’s up to us!
Follow me!’ And he walked away from the King
Emperor, the CEO and the fawning minions, making
it his life’s work to be patient, to listen and to inform
teachers about the nature of struggle and the power
of collective action. Distant rumours of resistance
and underground working suddenly made sense to
the beleaguered workers, and they developed ways
to organise themselves collectively, developing
powerful communities of learning for both their
students and each other - both inside the ivory
towers and beyond.
Alison Scott is a EdD student in FE Skills Policy in England
at Centre for International Education Research, School of
Education, University of Nottingham. E: alison.scott25@
hotmail.co.uk