Reflection #3

At the start of this course I was struggling with the new leadership at my school. I questioned my new leader’s ability to see the whole picture with her vision. Over the past few weeks, through readings, presentations and guest speakers I have accumulated some powerful quotes that have provided perspective and understanding. While there are still bumps in the journey, the following quotes have allowed me to enjoy the journey from many different angles. 

Dr. Max Blouw “How do you disagree and not dislike?”

This has been a big ‘aha’ moment for me. To disagree with someone would indicate you have a different opinion, idea or perspective. To dislike, seems to evoke emotions or feelings of conflict. In the past few weeks, I have changed my understanding of these two terms (not realizing it until Dr. Blouw said it). I have realized that disagreeing can often lead to new ideas, growth and positive change as critical thinking and questioning can happen. Where as disliking only limited my ability to communicate and develop a functional relationship. It has become imperative that I separate my personal feelings from how I interact and disagree. To be quite honest, this realization has become beneficial in all aspects of my life. 

The ‘art’ of disagreeing seems to be at the heart of emotional intelligence. Being aware and regulating your own emotions allows your to have those courageous conversations as well as develop and maintain positive relationships. In an odd sense I have become more empowered since I have determined that I disagree with many of the schools changes (rather than just disliking them) as I have been able to negotiate compromises as well as encourage transparent communication between administration and the staff. 

I am also finding that this battle between disagree and dislike in my own classroom as students have caught on to the Facebook idea of ‘liking’ or ‘disliking’ ideas, pictures etc. We have had many conversations about how our own emotions change when we think about disliking or disagreeing. We have changed our language and I am anxiously observing to see if this makes an impact! Action research at its finest! 

Caleb Lucien “Where there is no vision-people will perish”

While I may not agree with the way the vision was shared with the staff, I have come to agree with Kenith Leithwood that at times we focus too much on labeling the leadership style, trait or framework. The bottom line is that our new school leader is focused on student achievement and success and her commitment to this vision has been solid since September. I have recently had a new student join my class from Liberia. He is in grade 6, has had no prior school experience, speaks no English and his first language is not a written language. He requires a lot of support as he learns what school is, how to speak English as well as acclimatize to a brand new culture and country. My administrator has been a huge support in the past 2 weeks. She has spent a lot of time in my classroom offering to help, worked with the rest of the class to understand his point of view as well as advocated on my behalf for more time and resources from our ESL support team. Her values, and principals around student success have not faltered and while I may disagree with how she leads, she is grounded and consistent in her values and vision. 

Dr. Max Blouw “Phenomenal things will happen when you let it unfold” 

It was very easy to pass judgement, form opinions and decide that I ‘disliked’ my new leadership. However, as time passes and through the knowledge I have gained in the past few months I have come to understand my role as both follower and leader. I seem to slip in and out of these roles almost fluidly, helping me realize that perhaps these roles have more in common than I originally thought. I have also gained valuable insight into the complex role that school leaders take on which has allowed me to understand and support the school culture in a more authentic manner such as our inclusion and equity committee and well as being apart of our parent council.  I have had opportunities this year that haven’t been presented in the past with regards to conferences and doing some of my own action research. My administrator is supportive and would like to be involved as a co-learner. 

Dealing with change has been the theme to my writing throughout this course. While I do not think there is a ‘recipe’ for how to deal with change from an educators perspective, I do believe that being grounded and having integrity in your vision, relationships and emotional intelligence paves the way for change to happen. 

Thanks Dr. Sider for an engaging and motivating course!

Reflection #2

Note to reader:

I know I started my reflections focusing on my new leadership at my school, however I have spent more time thinking about a question you posed during class a few weeks back, so I decided to write about this instead! My final reflection will address my school climate and leadership! 

The Question

This question was posed during one of our face to face classes and has stuck with me for the past 4 weeks. “What past event most influenced your leadership approach?”

The History

I have reflected on many past events in my life, from leadership camps I went to, to the four years I spent working as a 1:1 worker in a group home. However, while I believe that those events developed my leadership skills, they did not so much influence them. It was my 3rd year as a contract teacher that I truly think affected my leadership skills the most. I was asked to be a mentor to a first year teacher. We started the year off well working together however it quickly unravelled as my over-enthusiastic and extroverted self seemed to pave over both her teaching and learning style. As a leader or mentor in this case I failed her on many levels. At the time I was upset and frustrated- unable to fully reflect on how this relationship buckled. However, as I reflect now through the lens and theory of transformational leadership I can accurately reflect on where it broke down.

A Blend of Theory and Practice

  If I looked closely at Bass’ leadership continuum (1985) my leadership style with my colleague would lie closer to the transactional approach. I often spoke to her, rather than with her (power over) and following Bass’ (1985) model I used corrective transactions where I would tell her how to teach a lesson rather than motivate and empower her. While it is clear that with many great leaders their position on the continuum shifts depending on the context, however, in this situation my leadership style was stuck at transactional. I did eventually shift on this continuum, as I was frustrated in the fact that I was giving her lessons, activities and ideas and getting nothing in return. Our communication became non-existent and eventually I became the laissez-faire leader. I gave up and had a hands-off approach. It is painful to admit this, however I was a young teacher and did not know how to get out of this situation. 

I turned to my principal at the time. After many conversations, she encouraged me to arrange a meeting with my colleague (or as I now can term as a courageous conversation). I can easily make connections to the support my principal offered me to Bennis & Nanus’s(1985) transformational leadership strategies. She reminded me that my colleague and I needed to agree upon a direction or focus for our time together. This would be the vision. She also helped me understand the importance of building a relationship and connecting with my colleague so that trust and open communication can happen. This is part of being a social architect. I also had to respect the individual and take into consideration that her teaching and learning style are different from my own. This is the creative deployment of both myself and my colleague. 

The Solution and Next Steps

The meeting took place and courageous conversations happened, however, it has really taken time and our own personal growth to mend our relationship. This speaks to the delicate and intricate relationship between culture, communication and change. 

Since this experience I have mentored other colleagues as well as had teacher education candidates in my classroom. One of the main differences was my acute awareness of their own goals, ethics and visions as new or learning teachers. My approach fell much more on the transformational part of the continuum. It makes me wonder how many teachers have these ‘negative’ experiences surrounding leadership with fellow colleagues, as our professional development does not focus on these relationships. This supports the need for professional development to focus specifically on the 4 C’s of 21st Century skills (critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity) with regards to both staff and students. If the idea is to have professional learning communities (Leithwood, 2012), then there is a need for training and guidance with regards to how these will operate. 

I am thankful that I have had the opportunity through this Masters program to be able to apply theory to my practice that sheds light and understanding for my professional growth as I am not sure that without the theory I would have been able to reflect on this experience to see how valuable it truly was in my growth as a leader. 

Reflection #1

Visions need to look at the broader picture.

A Change in Leadership

The first article I read for this course was Kotter’s article, “What Leaders Really Do”. For some reason his words have resonated with me. My school has changed leaders this year, which is perfect timing with regards to this course. Talk about being able to put theory into practice as I have been applying every move and decision my new principal makes to the various types of leadership we have read and talked about. For the purpose of this reflection I am going to organize my thoughts into the three criteria that Kotter outlines. The first being a leader’s vision,the aligning and motivating those people who share in the vision. 

Vision - Are you really seeing the whole picture? 

The idea of community theory as a basis for school leadership can best describe how my school used to be led as Sergiovanni explains that, “community leadership emphasizes not who to follow, but what to follow” (p.83). Our school vision was co-constructed through our school success team and then modified at our staff meetings to truly reflect the voices of both staff and the parent community. Like the case study with Wanda Miller, we focused on a whole child approach as well as an academic focus. Many of our students require support beyond academics, and we as a staff truly believe that until some of those ‘extra’ issues are dealt with such as hunger, trauma and mental health, learning doesn’t really happen. This vision developed over years of data collecting and observing from both the staff, community and our administration. This year, with our new leadership we have been expected to follow our principal, (rather than an idea/goal) and have experienced power over versus power to (Sergiovanni, p. 133). This is evident in our collaborative planning as we as teachers have very little say in what we discuss, moderate and plan for. I find myself at times confused about how I feel. On one hand I am excited about some of the initiatives our new leader has presented,  however, on the other hand I am not always sure these visions serve our school community as a whole as our students needs are not at the forefront of these initiatives. Perhaps this is the difference between transformational leadership and transactional? Or, maybe this is the difference between a manager and a leader? 

Aligning and Motivating People. . . In all the wrong ways! 

Yes. My new administration is managing versus leading. A perfect example of this is with our school based team (SBT). Our new administrator has asked all the staff members to no longer participate in this weekly meeting, as it was not efficient. Kotter (2001) explains, “managers ‘organize’ to create human systems that can implement plans as precisely and efficiently as possible” (p. 7), which is precisely the case with regards to our SBT. This decision has aligned some of our staff members in more of a negative manner rather than with the new vision and direction of our school! This has caused tension and frustration on our staff, specifically with regards to our sense of community. It is important for me to state that I believe our new leader has good intentions, which leads me to reflect on our last class together where we discussed how good leaders possess a variety of traits, including sociability and credibility. To be social and relational would make servant leadership and democratic leadership more of a natural choice or direction. However, not all leaders are social in nature, which could result in a more managerial approach. Also, having a sense of credibility comes with time, trust and shared-experiences. With so many changes being made to our school without any staff input, there is a lack of trust and ‘following’ from the staff. I am experiencing organization versus alignment.  

So, with all this reflection, there needs to be some action on my part,  and the question then becomes, what can I do about this in my own school?  I have been choosing to take a back seat so far this year, however perhaps this is has been wrong as according to Kotter, our world today needs “more people to develop cultures that create leadership” (p. 11). Since our administrator’s leadership style and traits are not motivating and aligning, this could be a growth opportunity for myself with my colleagues as after all leaders are not born, but rather made through hard effort and work (Vince Lombardi)!! I guess my leadership journey has just begun . . .