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Preparing for the future
By David Drever, Convenor, GTC Scotland
The turn of the year is traditionally a time of celebration and preparation for the future. The celebration part is straightforward (I hope you had a good New Year): in Orkney where I live, the yuletide celebrations mark the turning point of our long winter when the sun begins a slow return from the horizon's edge, bringing welcome light.
Preparation for the future is not so easy - January is strewn with forlorn Ne'er Day resolutions that have been consciously revoked or wilfully neglected. While it's maybe best not to give such hostages to fortune in the first place, we do need to be clear what we want from 2012.
Everyone has a wish list, personal and/or professional, that will mark out a direction of travel in the coming months. Here in Clerwood House, GTC Scotland has set its sights on a successful transition to independence - a move that will be a world first for teacher regulatory bodies. The preparatory work has been carried out by the current 12th Council which demits office at the start of April and the composition of the 13th Council which takes over thereafter is almost complete.
The election of the 19 teacher members took place in December past and the 18 appointed members who represent a broad range of educational stakeholders and the public interest will soon be in place. That team, working with the staff of GTC Scotland, will provide the leadership of the Council in the coming period.
This leadership should allow for fair and consistent regulation of the profession; it needs to establish and articulate the key standards that frame our everyday work, and finally it must find ways of locating the teaching profession securely within the needs of civil and political society in Scotland. This collective leadership of Council is different, but not qualitatively so, from what goes on in our schools and colleges every day of the working year. As classroom teachers, principal teachers or school managers, we operate most effectively when leadership in our learning community is collegiate, shared and respectful of the active contribution that all staff should make in its exercise.
This approach demands in turn a real trust in the professional qualities that are required of all our registered teachers. Such a thoroughgoing and inclusive type of leadership might well serve to light up the road we are going to travel in 2012.