Navigating Change:

Research in the field of education is not a new phenomenon and neither is challenging the traditional model of education. However, efforts supporting educational change and innovation have not always effectively flourished over time. As a result, this has led to a mundane cycle of doing things, “the way they have always been done,” for many educational institutions. Time for intentional reflection slips by, the “why” is never questioned, and professional learning proves stagnant. Teachers and educational leaders ultimately rely on outside experts to explore new ideas and supply findings. In turn, educators become technicians, serving as deliverers of curriculum and implementers of suggested best practices. 

Following the pandemic, there is a strong push to identify what truly is essential in education and what traits are necessary for young learners to thrive in the future. To navigate these questions successfully, independent schools across the world are advocating for an educational shift. These schools are empowering teachers to become creators of knowledge rather than consumers of knowledge. They are promoting a professional learning environment where inquiry, new ideas, and the sharing of knowledge is encouraged and expected. They are viewing teachers as experts, just as doctors and lawyers are viewed in many communities. Most importantly, they are asking their teachers to become more research engaged and their school to become research invested.

A research-invested school has never been more important than it is today. Dr. Sandra Boyes, Executive Director of Professional Learning & Research of The Crescent Centre for Boys’ Education, and Ms. Cynthia Brown, Researcher & Teacher at St. Christopher’s School in Richmond, VA, share the common belief that we are preparing our boys for a world we know nothing about. Teachers, coaches, and mentors are on the front lines, interacting and building relationships with students daily. Thus, they should be the ones collaborating, communicating, piloting ideas, thinking outside the box, reflecting, and sharing discoveries with others that are on the same journey, rather than relying on research findings on the peripheral. Dr. Ian Lambert of Scots College in Sydney Australia supports this claim by saying, “Little can be more important, in forming young people, than in being reformed ourselves as educators.”

As the traditional mindset changes and teachers are repositioned as experts, different models of research and professional learning are being developed globally. Multi-tiered research centers, such as the Center for the Study of Boys, The Crescent Centre for Boys’ Education, The Tony Little Centre for Innovation and Research in Education, and the Scots Research Center are resurrecting within schools as well. Some models support intentional reflection on practices, some are pushing action research, and a few are incorporating research at the university level. Ultimately, they share a common goal: to establish a toolbox for teachers to better serve the children in their care.

Currently at PDS, we are connecting with thought leaders in education, visiting these research-invested schools and having many conversations to intentionally define and design our own research model. As always, we are grounded in our mission, and our focus is what is best for our boys. Therefore, it is our institutional responsibility to continue to evaluate and evolve our practices.

We begin by empowering the most important element in a boy’s education: the teacher/mentor role model. We know that boys “learn” their teacher before they ever learn a subject (Reichert and Hawley , Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys: Strategies that Work – and Why. 2010). Thus, we should continue to grow, learn, and investigate best relational practices between boys and their teachers, coaches, and mentors. 

The combination of myths and stereotypes of boyhood and global data showing that boys are falling behind girls in many areas present an even deeper need for educators to better understand boys’ education. Teachers are tasked with preparing students for an unknown future, so it is imperative that boys are given the skills, academically and emotionally, to handle a shifting landscape. We have the best opportunity to achieve this at PDS, as we pair the abundance of knowledge and experience of our boy-centric teachers with intentional research findings. We must document reflections, ask the “why” behind all that we do, and champion new ideas. Continuing to research and develop our expertise will keep us at the forefront of implementing best practices in the education of boys.