FÉILTE – Festival of Education in Learning and Teaching Excellence

FÉILTE (Festival of Education in Learning and Teaching Excellence) was developed because teachers are innovating and wish to share their learning. But teaching has been an isolated profession. Research indicates that we are not good at sharing learning across the public sector.
FÉILTE is a celebration of teaching and learning by teachers for teachers, students and parents. FÉILTE shares teaching so as to connect learning.

Innovation Summary

Innovation Overview

Engagement with teacher Continuing Professional Development events by the Teaching Council has demonstrated that teachers are innovating in their professional practice, including the area of research e.g. Instructional Leadership. Yet feedback from the Department of Education and Skills’ Inspectorate indicates that such innovation has not yet had systemic impact.
Teachers who innovate talk about the need for space and time not only to innovate, but to share their learning with their peers.
FÉILTE turned this problem on its head. Led by the national professional standards body for teaching, it creates a space where teachers can choose the time to share their innovations on a national stage. They can thus encourage their adoption by their peers in a positive, vibrant atmosphere. Traditional channels of dissemination have not worked, or certainly, have not met expectations.
FÉILTE is a festival, not a conference. According to Sloman and Fernbach (2017), "Sharing skills and knowledge is more sophisticated than it sounds… In the language of cognitive science, we share intentionality…. We actually enjoy sharing our mind space with others. In one form, it’s called playing." This is what FÉILTE does. It creates a space where teachers can “play” with their ideas and share them with others.
FÉILTE consists of:
- 50 showcases of innovation led by teachers in collaboration with others across primary, post-primary and further education.
- Keynote conversations from leading national figures (sport, journalism, broadcasting) to enthuse and energise teachers as they take risks in pursuit of innovation
- Panel discussions inclusive of a diversity of voices on trending topics e.g. should homework be banned?
- Teachmeet – an innovative format for sharing resources and methodologies led and developed by practising teachers.
- Researchmeet – a Teachmeet focused exclusively on connecting research with practice.
- Rang Bianca [Bianca’s classroom] – an informal café space where teachers who have an idea but don’t know what to do with it can access guidance, support and advice.
- 15 workshops for teachers who prefer that format for sharing and receiving new ideas

FÉILTE is a diverse environment carefully designed so as to support the flow and sharing of diverse ideas.
- FÉILTE seeks to connect teaching so as to share learning.
- Through FÉILTE, the Teaching Council of Ireland creates the space for teachers from schools around the country to share their innovation with peers, students, parents and the wider public.
- FÉILTE seeks to celebrate and acknowledge the innovation that is already happening in teaching and learning, so as to augment it.
- FÉILTE seeks to support and encourage teachers who have ideas on new innovations but do not know where to go or how to start.
- FÉILTE seeks to enhance the connections between research, policy and practice.

- Teachers continue to benefit from the innovation. Each year over 1,000 people engage in the festival – both on foot and online.
- Teachers are helping the innovation of FÉILTE to grow. Kinsale Community School in Cork developed the first FÉILTE Scoile [School FÉILTE] where teachers ran 6 workshops over two hours to share their learning and innovation.
- Parents and students are enthused and reassured by what they see and hear at FÉILTE. They see how teachers are constantly seeking to innovate to enhance the quality of learning.
- Ministers for Education are inspired and reassured by what they see at FÉILTE.
- FÉILTE has been the direct inspiration for a similar festival in Lithuania.
- FÉILTE 2013 was the direct catalyst for the establishment of the first network of teachers from the Further Education sector in Ireland.

- FÉILTE will grow through FÉILTE Scoile [FÉILTE for schools]. This is a recognition scheme from the Teaching Council for any school which organises its own mini-FÉILTE. In this way, FÉILTE Scoile brings the spirit of innovation of the national event right into schools and classrooms where it matters the most.
- For the first time this year, FÉILTE will be hosted in a Higher Education Institution outside of Dublin. This recognises the need for regional balance and diversity in the hosting of the event.
- FÉILTE will need to scale and grow, in particular to take account of other sectors of society – SME’s, industry, voluntary and third sector, regional communities. Council may explore the possibility of social enterprise and / or philanthropic sponsorship.

Innovation Description

What Makes Your Project Innovative?

- FÉILTE is a festival, not a conference. It is the single largest gathering of teachers on the island of Ireland, and its primary focus is the celebration and sharing of teaching and learning. There is nothing else like FÉILTE.
- FÉILTE’s innovation is how it connects diverse voices from different places in an environment where everyone feels comfortable in sharing learning.
- FÉILTE seeks to celebrate what is, in order to re-imagine what might be.
- FÉILTE seeks to enhance the systemic impact of innovations that are already happening at the local level.
- There are many conferences and seminars for teachers. But most tend to be subject or theme specific, and focused on formal input for later reflection. FÉILTE is a big space for lots of different ideas to be discussed in the moment. It is designed to maximise opportunities for sharing of diverse ideas and creation of new ones.

What is the current status of your innovation?

- FÉILTE is an annual festival held on the first Saturday of October to mark World Teachers’ Day. As a cyclical recurring event, it goes through each of the three stages identified above. Each year, new issues and challenges are identified. The event’s theme and content are designed around these. And at the end of each event, we seek feedback and then debrief on lessons learned.
- For the first time, FÉILTE will take place outside of Dublin this year in Limerick. And it will be the first time to be hosted by a Higher Education Institution (HEI). It will also take place over two days. The President of Ireland will officially open the event for the first time ever.
- FÉILTE has grown from a lecture for 150 people in 2012 to a festival for almost 1,500 people, including workshops, Teachmeet, Researchmeet, StudentMeet, panel discussions, music and fringe social events! Online audience has now reached Europe and Australia.

Innovation Development

Collaborations & Partnerships

The Teaching Council establishes a working group each year for FÉILTE to assist with the planning, organisation and implementation. The working group helps to ensure that a diversity of voices is heard at all stages of FÉILTE.

The Working Group includes HEIs, Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST), Association of Teachers’ / Education Centres in Ireland (ATECI), National Parents’ Councils, National Induction Programme for Teachers (NIPT) and Centre for Effective Services (CES).

Users, Stakeholders & Beneficiaries

Teachers
o Sharing of innovation with peers
o Enhanced confidence to try new ideas
o Affirmation as to the importance of their profession
Parents and students
o Enhanced confidence in the teaching profession and quality of teaching and learning

Government officials, wider public and national stakeholder organisations in education
- Enhanced connections with teachers “from the frontline” who are spearheading innovation that fulfils the highest policy ambitions – and more.

Innovation Reflections

Results, Outcomes & Impacts

- FÉILTE has grown from a lecture to 150 teachers to a festival of almost 1,500, including teachers, parents and students.
- The first network of further education teachers in Ireland was established as a result of the first FÉILTE in 2013.
- Since 2013, FÉILTE has hosted over 200 showcases of innovation led by teachers, over 60 workshops, 3 Teachmeets, 2 Researchmeets. It has created a new space for teachers to explore new ideas from scratch – Rang Bianca [Bianca’s classroom].
- FÉILTE 2017 was the first paperless event. The event programme was provided through an app.
- In 2017, FÉILTE’s Twitter account had 49,000 organic impressions, 806 engagements, 570 likes and 216 retweets.
- FÉILTE has trended number one in Ireland each year for the past few years.
- It has enhanced the national profile of teaching. Leading national figures have acknowledged the contribution of teachers to our society. Anne Looney; Ryan Tubridy; Dr. Maureen Gaffney; Mark Pollock; Joe Schmidt; Fintan O’Tool

Challenges and Failures

How to enhance the national reach of FÉILTE beyond the capital city
- Solutions:
o FÉILTE Scoile – where the Teaching Council recognises schools for organising their own mini-FÉILTE
o Hosting FÉILTE outside of Dublin for the first time this year.
- How to grow FÉILTE so that it enhances teachers' connections with other sources of innovation?
o We have opened discussions with Higher Education Institutions regarding other events that would wrap around FÉILTE.
o Teachmeet and Researchmeet were included to diversify teachers’ engagement.
- Ongoing challenge is to ensure that FÉILTE adapts to the changing interests of teachers, students, parents and Government.
o Feedback is gathered from attendees at the close of the event.
- Early departure by some attendees before close of event on a Saturday.
o Hosting FÉILTE over 2 days and closing earlier on the Saturday.
- Ongoing challenge is to enhance the diversity of the event while ensuring cohesion around sharing teaching so as to connect learning.

Conditions for Success

Strong connections between lead / host organisation (Teaching Council) and national support services and stakeholder bodies
Large, flexible space
Professional event management company – 34 staff deployed in 2017
Policy alignment, conceptualised as a framework, between Government and independent regulator
Small number of simple, clear rules for the event e.g. all showcases to be led by teachers
Clear, consistent focus on teaching and learning across all policy
Clear consistent leadership from CEO level
Strong leadership at middle management level with autonomy to innovate
Support and endorsement of Government department and Minister
Budget spend by Council on the national FÉILTE is approximately €200,000.
3 members of permanent staff work on FÉILTE throughout the year
Working group consists of 12 people
Our commitment to and love of teaching and learning; our belief in importance of sharing learning to enhance teaching

A desire to enable teachers to share innovation already happening.

Replication

- FÉILTE has been the inspiration for a similar festival of teaching and learning in Lithuania.
- Education Workforce Council of Wales have approached us seeking to adapt FÉILTE model to their context.
- FÉILTE Scoile means that any school can apply for recognition for hosting their own mini-FÉILTE. Kinsale Community School in Cork was the first to do so. Coláiste Bríde, Clondalkin, Dublin hosted its first FÉILTE Scoile recently. This needs more pro-active promotion.
- FÉILTE offers a model for any profession to enhance the quality and impact of its innovation and learning, and to strengthen connections with end users e.g. learners, patients etc.
- FÉILTE format has been applied to seminars on school placement for schools and HEIs. We host a Teachmeet on good practice and then time for attendees to talk with innovations of most interest to them.
- FÉILTE is an exciting model for enhancing the impact of teachers’ learning / CPD. Education support services are active participants.

Lessons Learned

- Teachers need encouragement to lead innovation, an invitation, as well as space and time, to share that innovation and encourage their peers.
- Once there is clear, consistent backing at a national level for the creation of a space in which teachers can share their innovation, they will do so generously. It appears that if you do build it, they will in fact come!
- Once you give frontline professionals autonomy in their leadership of innovation, you will find that they are focusing on national policy priorities anyway. The process of wrapping themes or titles around what they generate is a positive force in encouraging further innovation across the system.
- We have adjusted the end time of the event to take account of attendees’ preference over the past few years.
- It is really important to get the food right – in terms of quality, price and variety!
- Entry to FÉILTE is free of charge. This leads to a high attrition rate in terms of expressions of interest but we are at capacity in terms of actual attendance.
- We have worked hard at enhancing the festival atmosphere of FÉILTE over the past two years. This is important in terms of enhancing attendance and engagement.
- We need to put more thought and energy into supporting FÉILTE Scoile so that it can carry the systemic impact forward more coherently. Where it has happened it has worked really well but it has been too sporadic.
- The establishment of an event like this will depend on tapping existing professional networks of teachers. Thereafter, it should be possible to issue open calls to provide scope for discovering the “wow” factor in innovation.
- It will be important to include a diversity of event formats as the event grows to cater for a diversity of interests.
- A key challenge now is how to grow the event further. The matter of sponsorship has been raised but this can be a difficult question for a public sector regulator.

Anything Else?

How the idea came into being:

In 2012, I attended a conference on Instructional Leadership in 2012 in the middle of my home county of Carlow. I remember leaving with my head and heart buzzing at the quality and energy of professional learning which teachers were sharing with each other and wondering – who else knows about this? Here was a wonderful example of the State investing in an innovative approach to enhancing professional practice – yet so many other teachers not only could not attend, but could not engage with its impact, and were not aware of it. It also ran counter to the stereotype that some people would hold of the teaching profession. It struck me that the Council was ideally placed as “the glue in the middle” (Michael Fullan) to offer a space where such innovation could thrive and flourish. 6 years on, here we are!

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