Conference Agenda

Scotland has invested heavily in reviewing and reforming its national infrastructure for education. This has included significant reviews (eg. OECD, 2015) which have led to internal reviews of the national architecture of the system (Muir 2022) and the assessment and qualification system (Hayward, 2023). The Muir review has triggered a national discussion to ascertain stakeholder views about the education system, facilitated by Professors Campbell and Harris.

Introduction

Utilising Scotland as a system-wide case study of change, the purpose of this panel session is to explore contemporary educational reform by drawing out the emerging lessons from the process. The Session is framed around the following three questions:

• What processes support and hinder the process of educational reform?
• How can these barriers to educational reform be mitigated and facilitators associated with successful reform be accelerated?
• What are the emerging lessons from this case study and what are the implications for educational reform across educational systems in developed democracies such as Europe?

The session will explore the ‘evidence’ used to inform reform including research evidence, international experience and insight and engagement and consultation with stakeholders across the system.

Structure and content

Four short provocations will be used as a stimulus for discussion. First, Professor Ken Muir will reflect on the process and recommendations that he made in his influential review of Scottish education. The report makes 21 recommendations, many of which relate to the replacement of the Scottish Qualifications Authority, the national accreditation and awarding body for Scotland; the reform of Education Scotland, the executive agency tasked with improving the quality of the country's education system; and re-establishing an independent Inspectorate of education. Research for the report involved extensive consultation with a wide range of stakeholders. The responses received from learners, practitioners and others clearly indicated that significant reform to Scottish education was required, well beyond structural changes.

Second, Professor Louise Hayward will outline the consultative process adopted by the Hayward review to propose a new model for qualifications and assessment for the senior phase of education in Scotland. The new system will adopt an approach that replaces the current public examination system for fifteen- to seventeen-year-olds. This has involved an examination of the international literature and consultation with researchers, academics and policymakers from systems around the world to develop potential models for a new assessment and qualification system for the Scottish education system. In addition, this process has involved significant engagement and consultation with those involved in providing, using, and receiving qualifications in an attempt to ensure integrity and quality of the proposed model.

The third and fourth provocations are designed to tease out the learning and implications for impact on the system and beyond. First, Stephen and White will consider the implications for the teaching profession in terms of building professional trust (Cruess, Johnston and Cruess, 2004). Taking both a policy and practitioner perspective Stephen and White offer insider views of what the reviews and their associated reforms might mean to the profession and the basis of a social contract between a profession and society. The final input draws on Learning is Scotland’s Future? (Chapman and Donaldson, 2023) to highlight the barriers to system change and the conditions that may support cultural change and the implementation of these well-intended but challenging developments within Scottish education and the implications for education systems change more broadly across education systems in developed democracies such as those found across Europe.

These provocations will act as a stimulus for the panel session with the participants to explore the three key questions. This will be chaired and facilitated by Campbell and Harris, convenors of Scotland’s National Discussion.