The Alberta Teachers’ Association

An interview with Pasi Sahlberg

Pasi Sahlberg made his first foray into Alberta in 2004 as a featured speaker as part of the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s Learning Our Way to the Next Alberta lecture series. Since that time he has been a keen observer of the province’s educational development, including his role as one of the founders of the Finnish-Alberta partnership in 2011.

Sahlberg’s recent completion of a three-year appointment as professor of practice at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education follows a long career as a schoolteacher, teacher educator, researcher and policy advisor to governments. He is the author of best-selling book Finnish Lessons 2.0: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland, and numerous professional articles and book chapters. 

As one of the key contributors to the Association’s action plan for educational reform, A Great School for All, Sahlberg’s role as a critical friend and research collaborator to the Association has been critically important. Recently I sat down with Sahlberg to consider how international partnerships have contributed to the Association’s capacity to advocate and lead positive change in the province.

Q. A few years ago you called for reformers to focus on the promise of the internationalization of education in order to move innovation forward. What were the key principles of this approach? What were some of the key assumptions about change and sustainable reform that were tied to this idea?

First, let me say that the internationalization of education is often understood too narrowly. Many think that it means studying other cultures and countries, or being part of educational projects with schools overseas. For some internationalization is about student and teacher mobility from their own countries to others. But internationalization, in its broader meaning, is a much more holistic idea in education.

I have defined internationalization as openmindedness to new places, people and ideas on the one hand, and the ability to cope with new situations through language, collaboration and empathy.

Second, internationalization of education is a two-way process of exchanging ideas and innovation. It is not a project that has a clear start and a definitive end. It is rather an evolutionary process that aims at enhancing cultures, in other words how we do things. In Finland one of the main hurdles has been exactly this: to perceive internationalization as integral part of daily work and life in school. This enhances sustainability of improvement and makes schools often more sensitive to challenge their daily routines.

A. In the past decade we have seen the growth of educational tourism and “policy travel” — the simplistic copying of unhelpful reform policies by some ministers and decision-makers focused on quick unsustainable “wins.” How significant has this trend been? Do you see this as a concern?

There has always been educational tourism. I was one of those frequent travellers when we were in the midst of transforming Finnish education and therefore in need of new ideas. But that was when international comparisons and student assessments were mostly used for research and policy purposes. Now when education systems are regularly engaged in the “Olympics of education,” those who do well in these games have become popular places to visit.

Policy borrowing and lending or simplistic copying of educational models has also existed for quite some time. Sadly, some would say, bad ideas travel faster than good ones — particularly when these are driven by private for-profit interests. As well, the challenge that senior policy leaders often have is lack of sufficient time to implement their reform ideas. That is why there are so many who search for quick wins and silver bullets in educational change. We have seen this among those visiting our schools. My main concern with this is that understanding education systems is very difficult even for professionals and researchers.

It is very easy to draw wrong conclusions from a high-performing education system by arguing that exceptional educational outcomes are caused by specific issues. For example, it is very seldom that education visitors to Finland would consider how much noneducational aspects — such as universal access to publicly funded early childhood services or the active network of nongovernmental associations — actually play a role in educational performance. I see many unhealthy signs in the current way educational ideas and entire reforms are copied in one country and then implemented in another. A Great School for All is one example of how the internationalization of educational development can advance policy learning across all sectors of government.

Q. With the upcoming release of the latest round of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) this fall, what advice would you give to policymakers regarding the growth of the influence of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and international benchmarking to assess system performance?

A. The sixth cycle of PISA will culminate in publishing the results on December 6. Without doubt there will be a media frenzy right after the new global league tables are released. There may be some new “winners” and unexpected “losers” but I don’t expect anything groundbreaking to come out now. Many countries have learned by now to play the PISA game; some countries give less attention to this whole exercise than before.

My advice is simple: give PISA the role that it initially had when it first time came around in 2001. It is like a basic health check that you go through in your annual visit to a doctor. There are many other issues that you need to pay attention to when you think about the health of your education system: How healthy and happy are your children? How pleased are the parents with what schools do in their communities? Do your teachers feel that they are able to do what is necessary to help all kids learn? Are your school systems serving different children so that they are capable of accomplishing their dreams? PISA tells only a little about these essential questions.

Q. For several years the Association has been involved in a number of international partnerships built on the principles articulated in the publication A Great School for All. Since you were instrumental in helping initiate this partnership work, what in your view has been one key success? As you look out five years from now, what would you hope to see grow from this work?

A. First I must say that it has been an absolute joy to build those partnership initiatives with Albertans. Those who say that the Canadians and the Finns are similar when it comes to education and other issues in human development are right. People in both camps have been incredible in making things work. One thing I would raise above anything else is our realization that students must have a key role in these partnerships. Many of us in Finland and in Alberta were absolutely astonished by the way our students were able to initiate, inspire and lead the work that was often full of complications and problems.

My main takeaway in the Finland-Alberta partnership was that we should trust the young people in our schools more than we do. There is no better way to succeed in learning and school improvement. We must embrace their leadership and also understand that their world is much different than the one in which we grew up many years ago. I would be very happy to see new, spontaneous networks grow from this work. It would be wonderful, for example, to have a society in the future that would be able to support and finance the initiatives of young people in Canada and Finland just like your government funded school improvement activities over many years through the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement. Alberta could lead the way by doing this.

Q. Your advice and perspectives on educational development are sought after by policymakers around the world. You have worked in a number of countries including most recently in the United States while a professor at Harvard. As you look ahead to the opportunities and challenges globally, what is your one greatest concern? What gives you hope?  

A. I have been blessed by interesting opportunities to work in great places and with wonderful people. One of the things that really bothers me, and it is an international phenomenon, is that too many students and teachers are losing their hope that schools can be thriving places. They say that teaching and learning don’t contain curiosity, creativity and active engagement anymore. I have witnessed in my travels across the United States and many other countries teaching that is based on prescribed scripts and cookbook type plans. I have seen children drilling for tests, parents getting desperate about their children’s exams and school officials looking for loopholes to get their performance reports looking green. All these things are signs that education has departed from its real course: to help young people realize their talents and do something passionately.

Do I see any hope? Yes, of course. First, as I said earlier, young people have much more potential to do great things and right things than we often think possible. Second, we have a global opportunity in hundreds of experienced past ministers of education who have served their terms and remained as spokespersons and activists in an effort to improve education. It would be strategic to bring some of these people together to reflect on their terms in office and to learn from their attempts to make a difference in schools. Alberta, with some shining examples of these individuals, could be probably the best host to initiate this.

Lastly, let me say in all honesty, as long as we have educational beacons like Alberta and Finland in this world, there is hope. But if we lose them, I might be ready to find something else to do—become a winemaker—who knows?

J-C Couture is the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s associate co-ordinator of research.