ATL

A journey in education

Chair of the Teaching Awards judging panel, Baroness Shirley Williams gives her views on what really matters in schools

I am probably one of the world's leading practitioners of comparative schooling based on first-hand personal research. In the 14 years I spent in school, from the age of 3 to 17, I attended no less than 7 separate establishments, plus a term with a tutor. I first went to a progressive open-air nursery school, then to a strict preparatory school, to an equally strict elementary school, to a Quaker boarding school, to an American junior high school, and then to two English public girls' schools. The longest I stayed anywhere was three years, at the American junior high. I was not expelled from one school after another, though I was once warned that I might be. My mobility was mainly due to the fortunes of war.

I learned from this experience the importance of the cultural context in which teachers teach. That sounds a bit like 'eduspeak', bureaucratic language. What I mean is simple and is best understood through examples. The culture of my elementary school was about learning to abide by rules founded on respect and deference - deference to older people, better-educated people and those with official roles. Deference was enforced by discipline of the strictest kind: caning, detention and writing out 100 or even 500 lines. It was not a culture that encouraged interactivity or bright new ideas.

My American school was all about socialisation - getting on with other members of the school community and of the community outside school. What mattered were not academic achievements but successful relationships. We called our teachers by first names and were encouraged to chat to them about any problems we might have. Trigonometry and French were less important.

The culture of my English girls' schools differed; one prided itself on a good all-round education. For the other, getting into one of the great universities was what really mattered. If you made it, your name went up in gold letters on the school's roll of honour.

Schools today still have different cultures, but for many years now the culture of teaching has been dominated by examination achievement; 'driving up standards', to use the most favoured expression. Good teachers are not happy with that. They recognise that learning is an interactive process, in which the child, as well as the teacher, must be motivated to explore and think for themselves. As chair of the UK panel of judges for the Teaching Awards, I see the new emphasis now being placed on sustainability, innovation and the inspiration the best teachers bring to learning, to the discovery of ideas. One of my greatest pleasures is to encourage teachers to exchange best practice, and to note how their enthusiasm lights a similar fire in others.

We have to start with good foundations such as literacy and numeracy. Without these basic tools, as John Bird pointed out in his own 'Final word' in April last year, children flounder, unable to engage with the world. Many end up as the losers of society, with exclusion from school, an ASBO and finally prison marking their descent. Too often, no second chance comes their way. But once those tools are grasped, we must move on to show how exciting and abundant is the world of the arts, literature, science and nature. Multiple-choice examinations and rigid approaches to the curriculum may stamp on creativity and originality.

The world we live in changes so fast that few things are predictable. Globalisation means that everything is connected: a badly managed farm in Mexico can mean swine flu in Birmingham, abuse of a detainee in one part of the world can motivate suicide bombers thousands of miles away. The communications revolution has made us aware of what is happening everywhere. We have to educate for resilience, responsiveness and the fundamental values that may provide an anchor in these swirling seas. As teaching's great mentor Ted Wragg might have said, there can be no greater challenge.