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Leading
Schools to Higher Plateaus – Part 2
By M. James Kedro
(This article is comprised of passages from Dr. Kedro’s book, Aligning Resources for
Student Outcomes: School-Based
Steps to Success,
available in July from ScarecrowEducation Press (ã 2004).
To read part one of this article click here!
Breaking Through
“Breaking Through” is more than a
catchy advertising slogan for Cadillac
automobiles. It’s an age-old philosophical concept that’s probably easier to
sense than to define. And it has a bearing on the development of leadership
skills.
Breaking
Through occurs when you grasp the significance and interconnectedness of the
whole. We are all tied to one reality much bigger than ourselves. You may have
experienced Breaking Through, perhaps growing out of some stressful event,
without really being able to describe the higher consciousness you had
achieved. Applied to educational leadership, a breakthrough might be grasping
the “big picture” in your school as you move toward collegiality and coherence.
A
generation ago and longer, a small circle of introspective thinkers who passed
through
Ricketts in 1939-40 penned thoughts
on Breaking Through. He recalled an encounter as a child that joined him to
another’s hurting and created in him a strong need for giving. “There could be
no expression adequate to that glowing feeling of kinship with all things and all
people,” wrote Ricketts. Steinbeck touched on Breaking Through in stories and
novels. He immortalized his friend, Ed Ricketts, as the character Doc in Cannery Row (1945) and Sweet Thursday (1954): “Doc would listen
to any kind of nonsense and change it for you to a kind of wisdom. His mind had
no horizon--and his sympathy had no warp.”
Earlier,
Jeffers had captured the essence of the concept and used the phrase “break
through” in the narrative poem “Roan Stallion” (1925): “Humanity is the mold to
break away from, the crust to break through, the coal to break into fire, . .
.” And Campbell knew that we have experiences all the time that give us an
inkling of where our “bliss” is; it’s up to us to “grab it.” In the Public
Broadcasting System documentary The Power
of Myth (1988),
Breaking
Through is an awakening usually triggered by some shared experience. No
predetermined set of events causes it; it just happens. The event is symbolic
of the difficulties we all confront, commonalities that bind us as we seek
answers and meaning to life’s endeavors.
For example, picture a principal and
a teacher team engaged in a highly heated discussion on learning strategies.
Their debate examines the challenges and rewards of full inclusion of students
of all abilities in the classroom. The wary principal, who has always favored
student tracking by ability levels, listens intently. Invited to observe and
take part in teaching a full-inclusion class, the principal, interacting
successfully with the children, suddenly “awakens” to a broadened perspective
on cooperative learning, individualized education, multiple intelligences, and
the latent potential awaiting discovery in each child. The principal has broken
through to a higher plane of understanding. And this new understanding of
teaching and learning is retained in day-to-day efforts to accomplish the
school mission.
Enabling Action
Effective school leaders practice
the theory of enabling staff members to actuate improvement. Teachers are given
the capacity to make their decisions and actions count. Empowerment of staff
forges increased self-confidence and leads to new perspectives on what works to
improve teaching and learning. And as the change process of school reform gets
under way, leaders encourage each staff member to consider an all-important
axiom. Empowerment is not something granted by the central administration; you
must empower yourself (Quinn, 1996).
With empowerment, school staff
members know how to locate and use their focal points in teaching, learning,
and interrelating with colleagues and students, the keystones to high levels of
personal performance (
To overcome possible school and
community resistance to change, school leaders adopt a blueprint for success.
School planning is adjusted so that staff members can align and realign
resources to improve student outcomes. Classroom instruction, support services,
and school partnerships focus on areas of learning where students will reap the
greatest reward for the investment of time and money. School resources are
removed from those areas that do not effectively impact improvements in student
learning or socialization, and those resources are applied to interventions
that produce measurable results. The effective review, acquisition, and
alignment of the above school resources calls for in-depth training in a
variety of leadership techniques.
Teaching Leadership
Leadership
skills can be studied, learned, and sharpened. A frequently cited
theorist-practitioner in education, Malcolm S. Knowles, sometimes called the
“Father of Adult Learning,” popularized the term “andragogy”
thirty years ago. He defined andragogy as a new system,
process, or emerging technology applied to adult learning. Andragogy
represents an alternative to pedagogy and is an important concept to consider
when developing and delivering programs designed to build leadership skills.
Knowles
recognized that adults possess an inherent need throughout life to remain
useful contributors to society. We achieve our identities in part by reaching
our fullest potential and applying our skills in worthwhile endeavors. In all
facets of life, today’s accelerated pace of change mandates that adults learn
and re-learn. Information and ideas acquired in one’s early years quickly
become inadequate. Over time, we all come to the realization that some of the
skills we learned in school and college have become outmoded by newer, more
efficient ideas, practices, and innovative technologies. Learning is a lifelong
process.
Knowles developed a set of
assumptions that educators should remember when they create and participate in
staff development programs, including leadership training. One of these concepts is that adult learners
are capable of participating in the diagnosis, design, execution, and
evaluation of their staff development activities.
Andragogical assumptions about learning are
built on a set of important drivers. These include (1) self-concept,
self-direction, and motivation to learn; (2) use of prior experience and
knowledge; (3) readiness to learn when faced with new tasks; and (4) an
orientation to apply new learning to solve immediate problems. Consequently, Knowles
recommended that educators who teach adults should construct a learning climate
built on the foundation of cooperation.
The
training of staff in leadership skills should consider the mutual concerns and
unique requirements of those who are to receive the training. Recall how I
began this essay; every school must develop its own leadership style. What has
worked well in one school may or may not serve the needs of another. The
recipients of the leadership training can participate in the make-up of the activities
that will be used to accomplish their learning objectives. Finally, the
learners must evaluate the quality of the learning process to determine their
particular requirements for further professional development.
Conclusion
Having new ideas about leadership
take hold is as much about people and school culture as it is about the
innovations and methodologies that are selected to raise student achievement.
Regardless of the launching point--the principal acting alone, advocates of
SBM, or a grass-roots movement of progressive teachers--success in efforts to
align resources and improve outcomes requires the pursuit of a phased-in
process of implementation. Acceptance of new ideas and the realization of
results takes time.
When
people take the initiative and apply their strengths to create faculty and
student successes, good things begin to happen. Certainly, plenty of help is
available. But no one on the outside looking in--political entities, media
gurus, corporate directors, management restructuring teams, or community
leaders--can make an effective school. It’s up to those who are the school to
remain vigilant, to grasp the reins of leadership and align all resources
toward the school’s primary mission, which is improved academic performance.
At the bottom line, full-scale
change and adoption of reforms can only come to fruition when accepted and
orchestrated by the school principal and the leadership team. But once off the
ground, the entire school and its support system can climb to higher
educational plateaus and anticipate a positive future. And that brings to mind
a truism, the best way to predict the future is to create it.
References
Friedman,
M. and Friedman, R. (1979). Free to
choose: A personal statement. New York and London: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, p. 160.
Knowles,
M.S. (1970). The modern practice of adult
education: From pedagogy to andragogy. New York:
Association Press.
Quinn, R.E.
(1996). Deep change: Discovering the
leader within. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Publishers.
Toffler,
A. (1980). The third wave. New York:
William Morrow and Company, Inc., p. 337.
Tracy, B.
(2003). Capitalizing on your strengths. Success Review. Retrieved January 14,
2004, from www.successreview.com/BTarticle02.htm
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About the author:
M. James Kedro
(mjkedro@yahoo.com) is a senior evaluator
in the St. Louis Public Schools and an adjunct professor of history in St.
Louis Community College-Meramec. He has assessed
educational programs for school administrators, board members, and the U.S.
District Court of the Eastern District of Missouri. Kedro
has authored articles in a variety of journals. He received his B.A. and M.A.
degrees from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and his Ph.D. from the
University of Denver.