An Easter Reflection: ‘What’s your why?’
It’s a question that has stayed with me for some time.
Here’s my response.
Preface
In 1897, John Dewey published his My Pedagogic Creed – a bold and elegant declaration of what education ought to be. While in some respects flawed by today’s standards, it was, in every sense, a call to action: not just for teachers, but for all who believed in democracy, in human flourishing, and in the radical possibilities of schools.
Now, as I find myself deep in the work of teaching, reflecting, and researching, I’ve felt compelled to write my own version – a pedagogic creed for an age shaped by disruption: artificial intelligence, climate change, rising authoritarianism and a global crisis of democracy, economic realignments, cultural reckonings, misinformation and disinformation. It’s a creed grounded in history but facing forward.
This document reflects a broader ethical orientation – one rooted in beliefs about dignity, interconnection, and a deep sense of shared responsibility. It grows out of a view of education as more than instruction and assessment. It sees education as an invitation to live justly, think deeply, and act with courage and compassion in the service of others. It is informed by a way of seeing the world that values authentic presence over performance, care and courage over compliance, and clarity of purpose over noise.
What follows is not a dogma. It’s not a blueprint or a manifesto. It is an articulation of my current set of convictions. I’d like to think it’s inclusive in spirit. It’s been formed by my practice of nearly 40 years. It’s guided by a belief that education must offer young people not only knowledge, but hope, purpose, and ways to travel on their paths forward.
Its structure reflects John Dewey’s 1897 text.
I. What Education Is
I believe education is the social process through which young people make sense of the world and their place in it.
I believe education is not the passive reception of facts, but the generative, transformative, and reflexive act of meaning-making.
I believe education is both a personal and a collective undertaking – relational, contextual, and deeply human.
I believe education must centre agency – civic, global, and personal – so that learners not only understand the world but act ethically within and upon it.
I believe history education invites students into a living dialogue between memory, ethics, evidence, and imagination.
I believe learning is most powerful when it is participatory, purposeful, and connected to life beyond the classroom.
I believe education must offer students not only the tools to analyse the past, but also the hope to shape the future.
II. What the School Is
I believe the school must be an ethical, democratic, and human community.
I believe we must create schools that are physically, emotionally, culturally, spiritually, and digitally safe, so every student can learn, grow, and flourish.
I believe schools must foster belonging through active inclusion, compassion, and care for the dignity of each person.
I believe schools must cultivate collaboration, creativity, and innovation – places where ideas can flourish, and where thoughtful, respectful voices are empowered.
I believe schools must prepare students not only to succeed in the world, but to repair, heal, and transform it.
I believe the school must be a place of deep humanity – where joy, grief, purpose, forgiveness, and growth are all welcomed.
I believe learning in schools must be meaningful, ethical, and deeply authentic – rooted in justice, community, and a vision of the common good.
I believe schools must call students toward service, humility, and collective responsibility.
I believe students must come to see their lives as part of something larger – a community, a tradition, and a shared call to help build something better.
III. The Subject-Matter of Education
I believe the subject-matter of education is more than knowledge – it is a way of seeing, knowing, and engaging with the world.
I believe the study of history should cultivate critical, creative, and ethical capacities in students.
I believe historical thinking must move beyond recall, interpretation, analysis, and evaluation of the past and move towards empathy, critique, and civic action in the present.
I believe history must be inclusive, reparative, and future-oriented – embracing multiple perspectives and uncovering silenced narratives.
I believe history education must prepare students to confront complexity, navigate ambiguity, and make ethical choices.
I believe subject-matter of education, and content taught, must be meaningful, relevant, and responsive to the lives of students and the world they inherit.
IV. The Nature of Method
I believe method is where philosophy meets practice, where active participation is immeasurably superior to passive compliance.
I believe method is the design of experiences that foster curiosity, voice, and agency.
I believe in research-informed and subject specific pedagogies in which making-meaning is a shared journey between teacher and student – one that is thoughtfully guided, student-engaged, and anchored in meaningful, real-world learning.
I believe assessment should be formative, transparent, and focused on growth.
I believe digital tools must support – not replace – the human pedagogical purpose.
I believe that when used ethically, critically and intentionally, technology can amplify student voice, support personalised learning, and connect students to deeper learning experiences.
I believe teachers must be co-learners, guides, role-models, and architects of dynamic, inclusive learning environments. Environments where knowledge and meaning is co-constructed.
V. Education and Social Progress
I believe education must contribute to a more just, inclusive, and democratic society.
I believe schools are sites of civic rehearsal – spaces where students practise participation, negotiation, and ethical decision-making.
I believe history education carries a unique responsibility to equip students to question, challenge, and transform the status quo.
I believe schools must prepare students not just to succeed in the world as it is, but to imagine and build the world as it could be.
I believe education is inherently hopeful – a belief that change is possible and that students are agents of change.
I believe teaching is never neutral. Teaching is a values-driven act. It must be practiced with ethical clarity, guided by principles of justice, care, and courage. I believe that sometimes teachers must ‘make good trouble’.
VI. The Development of the Whole Person
I believe we must educate students as thinkers, feelers, creators, and citizens in formation.
I believe schools must nurture the whole person – intellectually, emotionally, socially, ethically, and spiritually.
I believe education must honour the mystery, fragility, and sacredness of each learner’s story.
I believe flourishing includes inner peace, relational connection, and a sense of purpose.
I believe student voice, agency, and identity must be held with both reverence and responsibility.
I believe we must teach students how to carry themselves with courage, take risks with humility, and act as upstanders in the face of injustice.
I believe schools must cultivate forgiveness, second chances, and the art of beginning again.
I believe education must help students practise empathy, steward their gifts, and understand service as both a duty and a joy.
I believe spiritual growth need not be religious, but it must be relational, hopeful, and rooted in love.
I believe we must invite students to ask: Who am I becoming? How might I help build a better world?
Afterword
This creed didn’t arrive fully formed. It is not yet fully formed.
It has emerged – gradually, reflectively, and sometimes restlessly – through years of classroom experiences, through reading and research, through moments of joy and hope, and even through times of deep sadness and regret.
It reflects something that I’m still trying to be better at – listening. Listening to family, to friends, students, to colleagues, to community, and to conscience.
My creed will continue to evolve.
It is inspired by Dewey’s original Pedagogic Creed, but it is not an echo.
It is a living document. It’s an attempt at blending practice and theory, ethics and imagination, thought and action. An attempt to integrate.
It has been shaped by research into historical thinking, student agency, and education for justice. But it has also been shaped by something less measurable: a belief in second chances, in humanity, in community, in the quiet dignity of service, in hope, and in the possibility of transformation.
I believe schools must be places of presence, not just performance. Places where learning is anchored in authenticity. Places where relationships matter. Places where students are reminded that they belong – and that they have something to give. I believe that such places are built inside people. I believe that we must be ‘the change that we wish to see in the world’.
Some of these ideas have long been in me. Others have surfaced through struggle, change, and the daily realities of teaching in a complex world. Like all creeds, this one is unfinished. It will grow as I grow – because learning is never finished…
~ Easter 2025 ~
Disrupted History 