The idea for promotive education comes from the notion that settings, schools, colleges and universities should first and foremost be based on helping children and young people thrive and have the opportunity to find the activities and groups which will give them fulfillment and a positive place in society as they move towards adulthood. Currently, the edcuation system, like many around the world has become part of what Pasi Sahlberg calls the Globel Education Reform Movement (GERM). This is based on an economic model which has transplanted private sector views of managerialism and the associted accountability systems into education. It also requires a simplistic notion of value - educational organisations cannot generate profit as added value, so instead it is measured by examintion results, career destinations and other associated proxies. However, these proxies do not begin to touch the complexity of education and the huge number of processes which together lead to the positive development of human beings. 

The promotive model starts from a different basis. It begins by advocating that education needs to focus on a wider set of aims than good examination results. Whilst these are important, if they become the only aim then we end up with a narrow expereince for children and young people which centres on information transfer and memorisation for testing. Instead we need to think of education enagging with the wider aspects of human development. In addition, rather than working under the current free market economic model of value, i.e. "profit" in the guise of examination results, we need instead to base our system on a foundation of feminist economics. This approach views value as being much wider than mere profit. Instead, care is seen as having economic value in its own right. If we are looking at the productivity of education we need to include the great deal of care which is part of the system.