5.
Ontario – rebuilding trust Rose Patterson Similarly to Finland, there was surprise in 2000 with PISA results, where Canada found itself at the top of the international league tables, by contrast to previous international comparative assessments conducted in the 1980s and 1990s.233 Canada is an important country to study for its education policy because, as an OECD report notes, it is larger and culturally heterogeneous compared with the other leaders in the PISA studies (e.g. Hong Kong, Singapore and Finland),234 all of which have the advantage of serving small and culturally homogeneous populations.235 Ontario, the largest province in Canada and home to 39% of Canada’s population, is categorised by McKinsey & Company as a system that has shown sustained improvement over five years or more236
The opposite of England? At face value Ontario is a contrast to England’s free-market model of educational reform. An OECD report makes the distinction: “The key to motivation [behind reform] was not individual economic calculations but rather the chance to be part of successful and improving schools and organisations”.237 There is, for example, no performance pay for teachers. While England is setting the scene for organic change, where
www.nzinitiative.org.nz
dismantling structures theoretically allows for innovation on the ground, Ontario has worked towards ‘whole system reform’.238 Despite the philosophical differences in how England and Ontario are trying to achieve educational success, both systems ultimately recognise the importance of building capacity among teachers ‘at the coal face’, combined with strong systems of accountability. Education reform expert Michael Fullan says, “Our strategy in a nutshell is capacity building with a focus on results”.239 Literature on the success of Ontario’s system over the last 10 years focuses on the climate of trust the current centre-left government has established with teachers since they came to power in 2003. However, a more in-depth examination reveals that many of the policies implemented by the previous conservative government, while unpopular with teachers, set the stage for success. Granting more autonomy to schools, like in England, is only possible when strong systems of accountability are already established. Ontario actually learned from the failed ‘informed prescription’ model used in England in the 1990s as described by Barber, where “you do your homework at the centre, you get informed and then you pretty much prescribe the curriculum and the instructional methods”.240 Instead, Ontario:
233
OECD (2010). Strong performers and successful reformers in education: lessons from PISA for the United States. OECD.
234
Ibid.
235
Ibid.
Mourshed, M., Chijoke, C., & Barber, M. (2010). How the world’s most improved school systems keep getting better. McKinsey & Company.
236
OECD (2010). Strong performers and successful reformers in education: lessons from PISA for the United States. OECD, p. 75.
237
Fullan, M. (2011). Whole system reform for innovative teaching and learning. Retrieved from http:// www.michaelfullan.ca/ media/13435855110. html
238
Michael Fullan, Education Reform Expert and Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto.
239
240
OECD (2010). Strong performers and successful reformers in education: lessons from PISA for the United States. OECD.
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