Summer 2004

Talking Maths

A Leader Leaves

Readers of Bruce Wilson’s editorials for EQA will be familiar with his quicksilver wit and passion for education, but may not realise the extent of his achievements for teachers and students during his eight years as CEO of Curriculum Corporation. MARTYN FORREST sets the record straight.

THE TEMPTATION for a board Chair to discuss in print his or her Chief Executive should, contrary to the advice of both Shaw and Wilde, be resisted. This is especially true in the case of someone like Bruce Wilson who, although retiring, has never been shy.

But for one who has made, over the last decade or so, such a mark on Australian education, I’ll take the risk of response and repudiation in attempting something of a career obituary in a publication in which his editorials have reigned since 1993.

The curious role of the CEO of Curriculum Corporation has suited Bruce well and I think he would be the first to admit that he has had a job that fits him like a glove—running a corporation owned not by shareholders but by Ministers, with all the contradictions that that brings; intimately involved with senior staff of the States, Territories and the Commonwealth, yet dealing directly with schools and teachers; a seat at the table in many of the national debates, but without the inhibitions on comment that affect most of the other players; the leadership opportunity to morph a business from book publishing to multimedia, from production to project management, from insular to international; and day-to-day straddling of the very different domains that are the public sector and commerce.

Without a doubt he has not only survived but thrived in this role—and the Corporation with him. Huge numbers of students and teachers who have never heard of him have benefited from an impressive array of quality and innovative curriculum and professional development materials; many curriculum and other officers in departments have had to lift their game to keep pace with the Corporation’s work; and the many people who know him personally will have at some stage or other been appalled by, or applauded, his views and interventions.

During his tenure the Corporation has not only grown significantly—for example, tripling its net worth, sales turnover and staff in the last eight years—but it has also been identified with, and intimately involved in, many of the key national projects in schooling in the last decade; for example, the national statements and profiles, civics (Discovering Democracy) and, more recently, The Le@rning Federation, with its ambitious program of developing digital learning materials.

But there has always been much more to Bruce than good management and business successes. What has marked the territory during his tenure has been his personal enthusiasm and drive for improvements in education, his willingness to challenge many of the sacred cows of schooling, his leadership of many critical debates and policy discussions, and a professional style that has percolated throughout the Corporation’s staff and work.

Nowhere has this been more evident than at the Corporation’s annual conferences, which have become something of a ‘can’t miss’ event for so many people and will remain a metaphor for the joy Bruce clearly derives from education and educators. Few leave these occasions of eminent speakers and dodgy stunts with a neutral view of the previous 48 hours—you are either impressed or offended and most of this has been Bruce’s fault, both in his selection of the topics and speakers and his personal contributions to the proceedings. In so doing, though, he has stimulated significant debates which, in his and the Corporation’s absence, may well not have occurred or else have been confined to some private and distant part of one bureaucracy or another.

He by no means always gets it right, as his signal failure to distinguish between power and authority in his recent paper to the Curriculum Corporation conference showed, but this shortcoming should be seen in Whitman-like terms:

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself.
(I am large. I contain multitudes.)

Better to be expansive, to extend rather than to confine, to stimulate and stir the imagination rather than to play safe. Better to be ‘wrong’ and to have found out why, than to be ‘right’ by little more than dogmatic and wearying assertion. Better that you took the journey, enjoyed the sights but remain unconvinced, than to keep wearing the blinkers that still characterise the approach of too many to the future of education. With Bruce in the room or providing the papers you were never likely to die wondering about the possibilities!

Bruce and I have our differences about the direction of curriculum change in Tasmania and of the importance of ICT in teaching and learning, but this has not prevented what I believe has been a most productive working relationship. And my experience is the experience of very many other people in school education in Australia, New Zealand and overseas who, like me, have much to thank Bruce for—the most significant contribution to school education over the last decade.

Dr Martyn Forrest is Secretary, Tasmanian Department of Education; Deputy Chancellor, University of Tasmania; Chair, Curriculum Corporation; Chair, MCEETYA ICT Taskforce; Chair, The Le@rning Federation Steering Group.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au