Administrative Platform

Platform Statement for A Teacher Leader in 2013

By Sunny Dawn

March 3, 2013

“Are you worried about being a principal with all these laws around Special Education? ” a colleague, who is a Resources Specialist, asked me yesterday. We had volunteered our Saturday go to our union’s conference that focused on Special Education and when she asked me I honestly told her, “I believe that my intuition and value system has guided me thus far and I know I will make decisions based on students needs, just like I’ve done as a teacher.” She and I had dedicated this day to understanding rights around Special Education. I share this story to highlight this intuition and value system that I reference has been developed intensely in the past 2 years of educational leadership. In this paper I will not only use my own personal examples of endeavors and triumphs to illustrate my belief about power and authority but will also draw on various research that I resonate with regarding the purpose of supervision and human resource management in education.

In the past 2 years I have taken on an eclectic range of leadership in education; Union Activist/Teacher leader for many national and state wide union projects and campaigns, National Board Candidacy for General Education in Early Childhood, Temporary Special Education teacher, Masters in Educational Leadership. In the last 5 years I’ve been a school site teacher leader and lastly but most importantly and outspoken parent activist in the same district I am employed in. The point is I’m involved. However what is more important, is why or how do I stay motivated? Well if you prescribe to the theory that teachers perform in stages of their life (Glickman, 1985; Roberts, 2013) then one answer is I am in the phase of my 9 year career where I perform with efficacy but am entering the phase of managing changes and growing tensions (Fullan, 2012). However if you were to look at my career through the eyes of a timeless bird you could easily see I have had my dark moments in this field where I have almost thrown in the towel. Yet I believe it is my leadership that has been fostered more than my pedagogy and in that one conscious decision my success has been ten fold and the “best practice and next practice” (Fullan, 2012) has been a constant source of energy for me. This energy comes from the core belief that I think learning is what a democratic society is based on. In the name of democracy I seek to foster in students and teachers a love of learning and knowledge that education is a right not a race. In order to ensure this right I believe some critical responsibilities for effective school supervision is your tone around communication. As a principal I see myself as someone who will try to get input from all stakeholders involved in the decisions made at my site.

When I look at myself as a human resource I know that any coaching or empowerment that had students at the center a type of human relations and culture has been formed in the professional learning communities I have been in and out of. Deep down it has been easy for me to keep students at the center because I am a mom first. When I am at a school teaching I ask myself would this be good enough for my daughter and if the answer is no then I know we have some work to do.

After reading about the various strategies, approaches, and theories to leadership a few standout for me. I’m in the current position of believing that Traitist and Situational theories have come into play for me as a Teacher Leader. However as I move forward looking at a Principalship in the future I believe that trust is essential or as Bennis and Nanus (1985) state, “Leaders who are trusted make themselves known and make their positions clear.” The nature of leadership is one in which trust is never given easily but how you care, tend, and honor that trust from all stakeholders becomes how much you are respected as a leader in your school community. When thinking about all these dynamics a visual framework came to mind for me when trying to keep students at the center yet surf all the dynamics of leadership and various stakeholders.

Needs of students is at the center always.

In my own exeperiences I have found the three stakeholders; community, district, and school are not exactly different entities many times. For example, what hat I wear seems to be at the center of so many thoughts before I speak. Am I the teacher in the General Ed. Teacher in the room, the Special Education teacher, the Union Rep., the “young” teacher on an Adminstrative track, or the parent who has transferred her daughter 3 times because of bad teaching. If I am the teacher then what pedagogy/identity am I; good or bad teacher, political or apathetic, outstanding or needing improvement, temporary or tenure, angry or inspired I argue I was probably all of them however what no one can ever question over the years is my commitment to children and acting in what is the best interest of my own child and the children of my lifetime. As I move forward in leadership I feel Chris Day’s stance on commitment will play a part in how I view my responsibilities for effective administration. “For commitment to flourish and for teachers to be resilient and effective, they need a strong and enduring sense of efficacy….They need to work in schools which leadership is supportive, clear, strong and passionately committed to maintaining the quality of their commitment” (2010).

Therefore I believe a good school has multiple avenues for a variety of stakeholders to contribute and feel/see the positive affect they are having on learning or teaching. A believe that the authority granted to an educational leader is to know how to create those avenues and bridges, model learning as a leader by slowing down to listen and engage as well as empower all stakeholders. For example, when I was reaching out to thousands of teachers on for the Campaign of 2012 I found ways to show that the union was there union, the state budget is their budget, but the only way I could lead them toward a common choice was by hearing where “they” were at and what they cared about. “They” being the school principal, paras, parents, teachers, teacher aids, secretaries, janitors, crossing guard, and most of all the students who need stable policies that benefit them not rob them.

I share this success story of union involvement because I want to also share what I have learned about conflict resolution due to my union involvement. I had no idea what a grievance was until last year when I was filing one. I had no idea what restorative practice is supposed to look like until this year. I mention these two items because I believe they are on two different ends of the spectrum however they seem to be the words that come out of my mouth a lot these days and sometimes simultaneously when dealing with a challenging administrator and the conflict he produces. I am fully aware when staff feel intense about charged subjects and I believe in airing discomfort, looking through or using verbal process at future solutions can aid in reducing stress or high affective filters – through this type of dialogue people’s leadership can be channeled.

I think conflict is healthy. I believe when facilitated in an appropriate manner it can actually lead to many success stories. Yet in the same breath I have seen when conflict is handled inappropriately it can make a qualified educator leave the profession quickly. Conflict resolution and the ongoing dialogue around it needs to continue to be a part of my practice as I move forward. I believe in critique of systems, especially one as bureaucratic as public education, in which by its nature alone will always have conflict. Yet how we as a professional learning community facilitate that internal and external criticism will define the type of educators we are because I believe this is how we teach ourselves.

Finally I want to express that I have become an educator for the love of my country and because of a deep belief that service to ones country is one of the most important thing a free citizen can do. However I know I can not lead some democratic crusade on my own, how democratic would that be? My values only go as far as the country I live in and how the public or community share those values. I believe my local community, although flawed in many ways, is a very progressive community in which over 70% of voters in San Francisco and Alameda County approved a “tax the rich” proposition just 4 months ago in the name of education. Yet as we look into the future and extend our hopes I have to say I believe the fate of education lies in what society is willing to do to make it the most important thing we have.

So I conclude with points to ponder in the future of education. Will principals and educators and schools feel they are valued and cherished? Will districts see support from government that values education more than war? Will children’s natural love of learning go beyond 10 years old? Will teachers be supervised and guided versus penalized or paid based on test scores and snapshot evaluations? I don’t have the answers. I can only say that depending how far I last in this field as an educator or leader I will continue to model my belief system and know that I trust myself to have our students at the center.

References:

Supervision of Instruction by Carl D. Glickman (1985, Book, Illustrated) : Carl D. Glickman (Book, 1985).

Professional Capital Transforming Teaching in Every School Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan, March 2012

Leading and Supervising Instruction, Libro di Daresh John C., Corwin Press, 2006

Teachers Matter : Connecting Work, Lives and Effectiveness by Alison Kington, Gordon Stobart, Pam Sammons, Christopher Day and Qing Gu, 2007

Zachary Roberts Mills College Class Presentation, 2013

Bennis, W. & Nanus, B. (1985) Leaders: The Strategies for taking charge.