The seemingly relentless quest for colleges to be recognised as outstanding further education providers is a contentious point of discourse, particularly as the word “outstanding” implies perfection, a feat so rarely - if ever - achieved. The Italian philosopher Voltaire declared that “the perfect is the enemy of the good”, suggesting that an unbridled search for perfection prevents the implementation of “good” improvements.
As a college leader, I am concerned that a fixation on “outstanding”, the Ofsted gold standard, not only prevents the implementation of good improvements, which can have a significant impact on both the student experience and staff wellbeing, but also alienates those who do not feel that they are able to be outstanding, because of the context they are working in.
Biesta (2015, p2-3) argues that long-standing measures of “strong” education are dependent upon the successful achievement of pre-defined learning outcomes and that this measure of strength portrays a “fundamental misunderstanding of what education is about”. Objective-laden assessment of practice, which deals with absolutes, causes issues, as it discounts variability and practitioners can switch off, or even be diminished, as a result of negative experiences. Believing in a singular truth, such as a “blueprint” for teaching and learning, can stunt the evolution of teaching practice, inhibiting professional judgement, and discourage practitioners from going “off-piste” even when it is the right thing to do (Dunne, 1997).
This kind of risk averse culture works to limit the innovation and free thinking required to find the solutions to the problems we face in education. Instead, it encourages “performativity”, which, ironically, acts to disguise the reality of what is apparently required to be labelled as outstanding, by diverting teachers' attention away from students to focus on appeasing inspectors (Coffield, 2017).
