THWARTING THE TRAGEDY OF MEDIOCRITY

I have asked a true educator and dear friend of mine, Harold Mulholland, to weigh in on "teaching purposefully," an idea he brought up in a comment on another post. Harold is the Head of School at The Wellington School in Florida.

Thank you, Nathan, for providing me a forum through which I can more fully develop my thoughts first expressed in the posting “The Next Generation of Educational Leadership” (`. . . to paraphrase DuFour, teachers are independent contractors connected by a common parking lot.)

Allow me first to say that by nature I am not a collaborative person; rather, I am what Davenport refers to as a knowledge worker. Over the past couple decades, however, I’ve been able to work my way through those issues, concluding that “I” will never be as smart as “WE.” So, having couched and prefaced (in fact, everything but offered a disclaimer) this blog, let’s examine the issue at hand: How do administrators get teachers to honestly and openly engage in a collaborative process? The sad truth is that you won’t UNLESS you can show them “value,” which to an educator is generally expressed in time. I do that by making them all a simple promise: I’ll try VERY hard not to give you another thing to do unless a) I give you the time to do it, b) I take something away from you to balance this commitment out, OR c) I compensate them in some other fashion. Time, however, is the ultimate commodity in education, thus, the appropriate “carrot” to facilitate collaboration.

With that foreknowledge firmly in hand, I then focus on my vision (not necessarily the school’s) and the means by which it can be reached. My educational vision (create a finished product [student] for which it is impossible to find a suitable, worthy school of higher education) rests firmly on the pillars of several goals, the principal one – TEACH PURPOSEFULLY. To best convey this philosophy, and to use a very trite phrase, the twenty-first century administrator must be willing to walk the walk, as well as talk the talk. In terms of conveying these ideas, Jonathon Saphier clearly delineates how best to talk the talk most effectively, until YOUR vision becomes THEIR language – albeit vaguely Joseph Goebbelsesk.

The “walk,” however, is a little more difficult. I met with each faculty member individually. During these meetings, I told each of them I would be asking them why they were doing what they were doing from time to time, not in an accusatory fashion but out of genuine academic interest. I also promised them that I would not judge them negatively for taking appropriate academic risks (aka thinking outside the box). This accomplishes two primary objectives: the teacher constantly thinks about what he or she is doing and why, and it creates the foundation for further professional dialogues. These dialogues are imperative, if one hope to attain the resulting vision.

As a last thought regarding this process, collaboration depends to a large degree on the various areas in education. That is to say that elementary teachers appear to be more naturally collaborative than middle school, middle school more so than high school and high school more than college instructors, following the old adage: elementary teachers fall in love with their students, secondary teachers fall in love with their discipline, and college professors fall in love with themselves. Therefore, I would recommend that you originate the process at the highest grades in the school (10-12 in a K-12 school, 7-9 in a K-9 model, etc.). While this may seem counter-intuitive, it offers the advantage of establishing the process in the most potentially hostile environment first and it co-opts members from that area of the school in which one often finds faculty leadership. A good (but certainly not a definitive) vehicle to do this is through Nunley’s work, Layered Curriculum.” Commitment to the best practices described in Nunley’s work will act as the common catalyst ensuring true collaboration, instead of merely compliance. In this way, twenty-first century administrators can thwart the tragedy of academic mediocrity and achieve the pillar of teaching purposefully.

A School is No Place for Luddites

If you have forgotten about the Luddites, please allow me to refresh your memory. In the early nineteenth century, a group of Englishmen called Luddites rose to notoriety. The Luddites so feared modern (nineteenth century) technology, specifically new technology they thought threatened their future employment, some of the Luddites broke into factories and destroyed the high-tech machinery that ostensibly endangered their livelihoods. In recent years, the term Luddite has become a metaphor for anyone with a technology phobia.

So, what is the correlation between Luddites and educators? Simply put, there are Luddites among us but a school is no place for Luddites.

In the time between the end of one school day and the beginning of the next, the average teenager has texted, IMed, poked and been poked, friended and been friended, downloaded tracks and reorganized his playlists, written on a friend’s wall, bought an item on ebay and paid with PayPal, uploaded video to and watched YouTube all before his parents are asleep. (If you don’t know all this jargon, you better get caught up soon!) When this student shows up for Social Studies class the next day, worksheets and definitions hardly will hold his attention. Digital kids need teachers who can keep up with them, not Luddites.

How do we as educational leaders inspire teachers to move past their techno phobias and embrace technology? How do we successfully encourage teachers to incorporate technology into their classrooms and lessons on a regular basis?

First, teachers must be shown examples, firsthand, of technology available to them. We can’t deliver a mandate for more technology in education without introducing educators to effective technology. Second, teachers must be given solid examples of practical applications of technology. If a teacher doesn’t see how technology will make his life easier or make her lesson more interesting and effective, the technology will not be used. After an effective sales pitch and a dazzling demonstration, though, much remains to be done to get faculty buy-in.

One of the most successful strategies I have used involves finding one or two influential, eager and willing teachers on campus to experiment with technology. Once these teachers have become proficient, I ask others first to observe and then to think about ways this technology could impact their own classes. Furthermore, the technological pathfinders often become so excited about the technology in the classes they spread the word about its success faster than I ever could. Examples of technology I have fostered interest in include interactive whiteboards, class blogs and websites, and the frequent use of YouTube and United Streaming clips. Another great strategy involves sending faculty to other campuses to see what other educators are doing. Using technology in faculty meetings and at Open House events also helps convince teachers of the usefulness of technology.

The process of winning over the Luddites will not happen overnight. However, I believe it is reasonable to expect to see half a dozen teachers move towards technology in a single school year. Once the momentum picks up, it won’t take long for virtually your entire campus to become Luddite-free.

What strategies have been successful for you in encouraging more frequent use of technology in your classrooms? What have been the major obstacles you have had to overcome in this process? What is a major success story from your campus?

The Next Generation of Educational Leadership

What will the next generation of educational leaders look like? While we may not be able to accurately paint a portrait of these leaders, we can identify a number of characteristics that will be vital for future educational leaders, i.e. superintendents, heads of school, deans, division heads, department heads, to possess and embody in order to lead their stakeholders successfully through the uncertain years ahead. The next generation of leaders must succeed where the last generation has fallen short if faculty and students are to surpass the quality of the last generation. Here we’ll look at three of the most significant qualities the next generation of educational leaders must possess.

First and foremost, the next generation of educational leaders must understand the changing face of the world. Today’s world has become smaller and flatter than the world even five or ten years ago. Leaders in education must prepare students to enter a world that will be even smaller and flatter than it is today. Furthermore, leaders must strategically and intentionally prepare students to not only exist but also to thrive in a world in which globalization seems to be taking place at an exponential rate. This means students must be more technologically savvy than any students before them. This also means that students must be more cognizant of the global cultures which, whether in person or via data streams, inevitably will impact their success in higher education and in the business world.

Second, the next generation of educational leaders must be visionary risk takers. Certainly there are tried and true methods of teaching and assessment that will remain pillars of great educational practice. However, judging by the current state of education in the United States, the most recent generation of best practices has missed the mark. Therefore, educational leaders must look into a future we can’t yet predict and formulate a vision for what well-educated and thoroughly-prepared students must look like five, ten or perhaps fifteen years from now. Furthermore, educational leaders must be truly innovative and take calculated risks on strategies to improve teachers and to prepare students to be at the cutting edge of the workforce and the intellectual elite of an increasingly globalized world.

Third, the next generation of educational leaders must be great managers of human resources. Students will never improve and student performance and preparedness will never improve until those teaching them improve and teachers will become only as great as their leaders help them to become. Educational leaders must find ways to improve the knowledge and skills of their teachers, retain the best teachers, identify and train future leaders, provide satisfactory compensation and safe and rewarding work environments. Furthermore, educational leaders must continuously, to borrow a phrase from Jim Collins, make sure that the right people are on the bus and that they the people on the bus are in the right seats.

While no solutions or strategies have been offered up here and now, this initial post serves only to raise concerns and present some possible points for future discussion or debate. The purpose of this blog in the coming weeks and months will be to address the concerns listed above, to offer strategies to make educational leaders better, to offer strategies to make educational personnel better and to provide a forum for discussion or debate relative to these topics.

What does the next generation of educational leaders look like?