At first blush, many listening to Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s speech at the Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum may have thought they had accidentally stumbled into an economic forum. Duncan’s speech was liberally sprinkled with many terms from the current economic rhetoric: “zero-sum game,” “international competition,” and “protectionism.” Words often used in debates over economic reforms and free trade agreements were instead used to highlight the attitudes that many have towards international collaboration in the public education sphere.
Duncan urged attendees to harness the power of technology and collaboration to “elevate the teaching profession and accelerate achievement,” as well as to “resist the idea that international competition in education is a zero-sum game, in which one nation’s advance is another nation’s loss.” While acknowledging that the current global economic system creates a vastly more competitive, even cutthroat, job market, “educational protectionism” is not the answer.
In support of these ideas, Duncan then announced that Microsoft’s Partners in Learning (PiL) will be taking over the Department of Education’s TEACH campaign, a program aimed to future teachers (particularly those in STEM, special education, and those of diverse heritage) and raise awareness of the value and importance of the profession. As the new owner and operator of the program, PiL will be responsible for maintaining the website, (teach.gov, which will move to teach.org), marketing the program, and “improving and expanding the teacher recruitment campaign.” The Department’s new role will be that of official partner in these efforts.
Duncan covered many more topics during his speech, mainly focused on the potential positive impact of technology on education, citing examples from across the globe, and on the need for collaboration across countries, industries, and companies—even those in direct competition. He lauded the “healthy competition” that Race to the Top and Investing in Innovation programs have encouraged, which are “beautiful illustration[s] of how healthy competition and collaboration go hand-in-hand.”
In closing, he again used economic terms to describe the needed changes in education. Rather than a future with “countries vying to get larger pieces of a finite economic pie for themselves…expanding educational attainment everywhere is the best way to grow the pie for all.”
To read Secretary Duncan’s full speech, please visit http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/secretary-arne-duncans-remarks-microsoft-partners-learning-global-forum
