Sorry ....is all that you can't say ............

A version of this blog first appeared as an article by Isabelle Boyd

in TES online on Friday 6th November 2020

With apologies to Sir Elton John, ‘sorry seems to be the word” of the moment. There are numerous examples of leaders at all levels saying sorry about some action, policy or historical event.  These include: the recent apology by John Swinney, Depute First Minister about the 2020 exam results; University of Glasgow saying sorry in 2019 for their historic links to slavery and further back the remarkable apology from disgraced President Richard Nixon elicited by David Frost.

An authentic apology is offered without conditions or minimising what hurt has been done. It’s remorseful and contains a promise of no further such hurt. While there are countless examples of these, particularly during the pandemic from leaders in various parts of the world, not all those in positions of power or authority are able to bring themselves to offer this authenticity.

The 2020 Scottish Qualification Authority exam fiasco offers examples of “conditional” apology.  At the Scottish Parliament Education and Skills Committee in August 2020, the CEO said she “regrets”

how young people felt over their downgraded exam results, but she continued to contend that the moderation system used by SQA was “fair”.

In the Priestly Review of the SQA 2020, there are a few further examples of what could be described as conditional apology from the national examination agency. In the “Priestley Review of SQA results fiasco: 17 key findings” published in TES (8/10/2020), Henry Hepburn cites various non apologies from the SQA about their role in the hurt, upset and anger the approach to the 2020 exam processes caused.   The Priestly Review noted that "SQA has stated to us that there is no regret in respect of the moderation approach used this year (in terms of its technical application), but that the regret lies in the fact that the [post-certification review] process was not allowed to run its course, as this component was designed to deal with the sorts of problematic results that generated such an intense political and media focus after results day on 4 August". 

SQA it seems, believe the issue was one of message and communication rather than equity, fairness and of course harm.  SQA have expressed no regrets in respect of the approaches used.  

This short article isn’t really about the examination issues of 2020 but about the importance of apologising.  Saying sorry in an education setting is worth a close look. As a woman in the workplace I have been on the receiving end of the “I’m sorry that you felt that way” type of apology. I’ve witnessed a teacher apologise to a pupil in similar manner: I’m sorry if you ....” These apologies are poor, are conditional and an attempt to shift the blame. They are not authentic. To be authentic, the person giving the apology has to ‘own’ the error, the misdemeanour and or the behaviour.

We all make genuine mistakes at times.  Should school leaders apologise to teachers when making a mistake?  Should teachers apologise to children and young people when they make a mistake? Of course, we should.  If education internationally is to be built on the UNESCO 4 Pillars: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be then we as teachers need to model the behaviours we want our children and young people to develop.  In Scotland if we are to deliver on the values-based education system we espouse then we need to model these values of Justice, Wisdom, Compassion and Integrity.  If we do not ‘own’ our mistakes or errors what lessons are we teaching our colleagues and children?  Let’s be careful – we could be teaching them that being in a position of power or authority means you never have to say sorry!

Maybe a good sub headline for your school values statement could be this