‘Don’t reinvent the wheel’ is one of the most common phrases I hear knocked about amongst teachers and for good reason - our often siloed existence means we need to force ourselves to remember that there is already a solution or resource in existence to solve whatever challenge is in front of us. It’s simply a matter of finding it. Granted sometimes it can be easier and faster to simply reinvent the wheel anyway because of the time pressure upon us, but is that the right mindset to adopt - is it scalable? Sustainable? Strategic? As much as we like to be innovators, perhaps we should also look to be explorers, honing our skills and strategies for knowing where and how to look, so that any innovation starts with the most head-start possible. And who better to inspire exploration than the pioneers of outer space.
I recently watched documentary series on space exploration, which in turn catalysed the viewing of a few more to quench my curiosity - holiday’s are great aren’t they?! But rather than share the incredible engineering feats behind the modern movement of space travel, or the mind bending science and statistics that lie beneath that, I wanted to share something more simple and more profound. To quote one scientist who is developing outer-space construction robots to terraform planets for human colonisation, “everything is already there, we just have to have imagination and ingenuity”. Whilst referring to the materials available to build spacecraft and habitats in outer space, the documentary also made it clear that this concept applies to getting us into space as well, with different corners of the world developing different technologies that can enable science fiction-like realities. It is not about a technological race to develop what we need so much as a curation exercise that requires collaboration, communication, and knowing where and how to look.
WIth the technology already in existence for a lot of what we need to, for instance, step foot on Mars, there is a powerful message being conveyed about what we really need: creativity. For whilst we will always need the technical capacity to develop technology, this technology will fall increasingly into the background as it becomes less of a barrier; Instead of being limited by processing speed or power supply, we will be increasingly crippled by our own imagination. Are we placing enough emphasis on creativity? Do we believe in the ability that it can be developed to the same extent as our technical capabilities? Do our students see the merits of creativity when it comes to spearheading innovation? This does not belittle the significance of infrastructure and the means to develop it, but as Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos Heralded, “when the heavy infrastructure is in place then the creativity of thousands of people can be unleashed”.
So as well as inspiring an increasing focus on creativity and imagination in my own teaching, this small reflection has fuelled my own growing philosophy of Professional Development and Learning - that the expertise and experience already exist around us; it is simply a matter of coming together. If we invest the time we often spend reinventing wheels into developing structures and processes for collaborating as teachers, then perhaps we can accelerate our professional growth and spend more time on innovating practice. Of course a big part of this is adapting the mindset required to collaborate and develop, so that development opportunities are seen as just that - opportunities - and not a label of inadequacy or failing. As Joe Hirsch, author of ‘The Feedback Fix’, so aptly reminds us, traditional mindsets can mean that “ instead of committing ourselves to improvement, which is what we would hope would happen, we hold onto this debilitating view of who we are instead of focusing on who we are becoming.” After all, if we are to develop such a mindset in our students then we need to model it ourselves. But if we can develop a professional development culture of sharing and empowering, then we open up a world of possibility, perhaps best encapsulated in the idea of creative abrasion where the diversity in a body of educators is treated as a strength to propel us forward. Everything is already in existence, we just have to figure out how to link it all together.