Transformation, Revolution, and other Hyperbole in Education Reform

And why I'm still advocating for the nature-based learning revolution

Tl;dr (your summary in case you’re short on time)

I am advocating for transforming schools in the “nature-based learning revolution.” I’m prepared to defend it.

Education historian Larry Cuban has developed an “allergy” to claims to “transform schools.” So he asks 6 questions of school transformers. Today, I’ll tackle the first:

Q1. What does “transform” mean to you?

A1. A nature-based learning revolution means 81 MILLION teachers* in schools across the globe ensure equitable* access* to nature’s benefits for their 1.354 billion students through the way they teach. 

Dear People Who Care About Students,

Returning readers are now familiar with my crush on education historian ❤️Larry Cuban❤️. Larry recently wrote a blog called Transform” Schools: Hyped Language Weakens Reform in which he shared his ‘allergic reaction’ to the word combination: “transform schools.”

If you enter “transform schools” in a Google search you will get just over a quarter-billion hits” (October 23, 2023). –Larry Cuban

@Larry – I hear you! I mean, what could “transforming” schools possibly mean when there are that many claims to it? Judging from your googling, there must be just over a quarter-billion definitions.  

And…self-conscious confession 🙈 … I’ve fallen into this hyperbolic trap (only I use “revolution” or “revolutionize” instead of “transformation” and “transform”).

While “revolutionize schools” hasn’t become as commonplace in the zeitgeist (only 23,600 hits on November 17, 2023), I have bandied it about in a manner far too cavalier for something so important. Just here on my Substack in less than a year, I have used the words “revolution” or “revolutionize” approximately 28 times before today’s post in a way that I fear it’s starting to lose its meaning. It was probably always too hand-wavy from the start.

Trying to get some more integrity to claims to transform, Larry interrogates transformationalists with 6 questions. Over the next 3+ weeks, I’ll hold my own feet to the fire 👣🔥 by answering each of Larry’s 6 questions in turn, replacing “transformation” and “transform” with “revolution” or “revolutionize” and focusing on none other than the nature-based learning revolution. 

Is the suspense killing you? Eek!

Larry’s 6 questions:

1. What does “transform” mean to you?

2. What are the problems to which “transformed” schools are the solution?

3. What exactly is to be transformed?  School structures? Cultures? Classroom teaching? Learners?

4. Transform to what? What are the sought after outcomes?

5.  How fast should the “transformation” be?

6. How will you know that the “transformation” will be better than what you already have?

7. Bonus from me: What does it feel like when things have transformed?

Today, let’s start with Bonus question #7 and then get to Larry’s question #1.

7. What does it feel like when things are revolutionized?

The nature-based learning revolution FEELS like this:

Feels pretty good, no?

1. What does “revolution” mean to me?

A nature-based learning revolution means 81 MILLION teachers* in schools across the globe ensure equitable* access* to nature’s benefits for their 1.354 billion students through the way they teach. 

*Some clarifications:

Regarding “81 million teachers”: 81 million is the estimate I found for the number of pre-primary, primary, and secondary school teachers in the world. Nature-based learning is relevant to tertiary teachers too, but that’s not where the revolution will start for 3 reasons: 1) it’s not my area of expertise, 2) the total “catch” of students gets smaller and smaller as you get to higher levels of education, and 3) there is a degree of privilege associated with making it through to university-level education, so “need” is relatively less. That said, if you’re out there wanting to rock the nature-based learning revolution with postsecondary students, reach out! I’d love to connect! Comments/email both work.

Also, I’m using the figure for teachers, but the revolution is for other educators too. Nature-based learning is perfect for lots of roles in education directly connected to students or connected to instructional practice. This includes paraprofessionals, counselors, school social workers, social-emotional learning specialists, principals, school heads, etc.  

Regarding “access”: I am aware that not every educator around the globe works in a school with access to safe, quality, nearby outdoor nature spaces that could be used for an outdoor classroom for outdoor nature-based learning. Sometimes there is no outdoor space to physically accommodate the number of learners in a class. Other times there is an outdoor space, but it is dangerous or inhospitable to learning due to violence, environmental pollution, extreme temperatures, or other factors. Other teachers have outdoor space but it is uninspiring (i.e., concrete/paved) or is occupied all day long with other activities like recess or physical education class (Teacher L from this earlier post is now stuck in this latter situation).

Zip-coded nature access disparities are stark. Over 28 million kids in the U.S. don’t have a park within a 10-minute walk of home. A 2018 study, Might School Performance Grow on Trees? Examining the Link Between “Greenness” and Academic Achievement in Urban, High-Poverty Schools found that the more disadvantaged a student body residing in a neighborhood, the less tree cover existed in the neighborhood and around the school. And, even if a school does have adequate tree cover, high-poverty schools are over four times more likely than other schools to forego recess entirely, and schools with predominantly African American student bodies are over 2.5 times more likely to forego recess than predominantly White schools.¹ Though I don’t have the global stats, I feel confident this pattern is echoed across oceans, if only more stark.

This is something we MUST fix and CAN fix. And we don’t even need to invent things – we just need to DO things we know how to do.

Consider…

It’s worth briefly acknowledging some timeline considerations (I’ll circle back to this on Larry’s Q#5 How fast should the “revolution” be?). Nature access fixes like “build-growing” green schoolyards, open spaces, forests, parks are longer-term commitments.

AND long-term projects present absolutely NO reason NOT to do the BEST WE CAN now. The most immediate areas for change are in routine instructional practices and classroom design for 🍎-a-day nature in schools.

To say it another way: “We know enough to act.” (Credit Howard Frumkin by way of Richard Louv).

What “does doing the best we can now” mean/look like for an individual teacher working in a school without any safe nearby nature access?

Good news! This teacher can still connect their students (and selves!) with nature’s benefits. They can bring nature elements or objects into their indoor instruction or infuse their classroom design with nature-based “biophilic” design.

For instruction, here are few ideas:

🪨Have students use seeds and stones instead of plastic math manipulatives for counting exercises. 

🪴Have students take measurements and record observations of plant growth with real plants. 

🐦On the every-teacher-do-this-tomorrow-low-hanging-fruit scale: play nature soundscapes from their computer while students do individual or group work – or even in the background of a lecture! 

🌿Provide nature objects for students to look at as a muse for writing or art. 

🌈Read texts about nature’s beauty.

For classroom design:

🐟Get a fish bowl or install a small fountain for soothing sounds of a babbling brook. 

🌱Keep (and have students help!) some type of living plants in the classroom. If living plants aren’t allowed or there’s no natural light or plants are simply too high maintenance, install fake foliage. 

🏞️Hang inspiring images of nature around the classroom or decorate a wall with patterns of nature. You can even put nature scenes inside your cardboard testing privacy shields (as one incredible educator did)

⛅If there’s a view of nature – even a small slice of sky – out the window, open the blinds. 

This is just a starting list. These innovations make a difference. Don’t believe me? Check out Terrapin Bright Green’s research on this topic.

What I’m getting at here is each teacher doing what they can within their locus of control to ensure ALL of their students have equitable access to whatever level of nature’s benefits they can reach.

And, I can’t write this loud enough:

WE MUST ALSO DO THE LONG WORK SO ALL SCHOOLS HAVE AMAZING, SAFE, NEARBY NATURE OUTDOOR CLASSROOMS.

Now, regarding “equitable”:

Much like access to nature, not every school or educator has the same resources. We must commit to the long-haul solutions like school finance reform and other work on fighting poverty, dismantling racist housing policies, and addressing the plethora of systemic injustices connected to schools. This is HARD work and it needs to happen. And, in addition to these long fixes, my argument regarding the nature-based learning revolution is more-or-less the same as it was with access: DO THE BEST WE CAN NOW.

I’m talking about individual educators fostering inclusive, welcoming, high-quality nature-based learning experiences so ALL of their learners experience nature’s benefits in school. For example, if a teacher is able to take students outside but their school is in a freezing cold climate, equitable outdoor learning and access to nature’s benefits requires at minimum that all students have warm layers and something to stand or sit on to insulate them from the frozen ground. Better still, all students have hot beverages in thermoses. There’s more, of course, but you get the idea. The goal is for all students to be comfortable enough to get the benefits from being outdoors. It means there isn’t a student decked out in Patagonia gear while his shoulder buddy shivers in a wet cotton hoody. 

A more equitable medium-term solution would be an outdoor learning “uniform” or “kit” to level the outdoor classroom playing field. A workable short term solution might be to get donated clothing for students who can’t afford (or just forgot!) the gear they need to stay warm. 

Equity issues must be taken seriously – and we should always strive for better. Still, I believe when it comes to nature’s benefits in schools, we cannot let perfect be the enemy of the good. If donated clothes can keep a student warm and dry, I think accessing nature’s benefits TODAY is a worthy goal.

From there, we can keep working to get better as we go. Let’s get started.

❤️ B

P.S. Come back next week for question number 2 and maybe number 3:

#2. What are the problems to which “transformed” schools are the solution?

#3. What exactly is to be transformed? School structures? Cultures? Classroom teaching? Learners?

1. National Center for Educational Statistics [NCES], 2006 as cited in Kuo et. al study linked above. NB: I couldn’t find this source data.