Got time for professional reading? Helen Kinsey-Wightman
Jan Robertson’s book on coaching has been a long time companion – as a first time principal my appraiser loaned it to me and for 6 months it diligently sat on my bedside table. It was briefly accompanied by a copy of 50 Shades of Grey that a friend thrust upon me and urged me to read because ‘everyone’s reading it’ – fortunately I’ve always been good at resisting peer pressure! Despite the lack of literary competition Coaching Leadership remained unread and I reluctantly returned it . . . Since then, it has been recommended to me at 2 mentoring conferences, by several colleagues and finally by my Principal who read it last year with her Professional Learning Group. Finding the time for professional reading has always been a challenge and I suspect amongst school leaders I may not be alone. Whilst I cannot deny the importance of professional reading and the benefits on my practice when I find the time to do so, there is always something more immediately pressing. Even when there is time, ironically an environment conducive to sustained concentration can be elusive in a school. I have definitely learned that professional reading is not suited to my bedroom after a long day at work! However, I am finally 3 chapters into Coaching Leadership and it is proving to be well written, timely and thought provoking. In chapter 2 Jan Robertson talks about the concept and role of educational leadership. With my thinking increasingly focussed on how our school community can contribute to and benefit from a Community of Learning I was interested to read her views about the role of coaching practices in developing leaders who are able to contribute effectively across communities of schools. In her literature review she references Prof. Brian Caldwell who talks about, ‘system leaders who care just as much about the students in the school down the road as they care about the students in their own school.’1 It struck me that this could be a success criteria for our CoLs to embrace and the saying that ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’ could be the vision that drives a CoL to raise achievement across all schools. So how have I achieved this professional reading breakthrough? Within my workplace I have several challenging, productive mentor relationships. We mentor each other through touching base regularly, listening to the accounts of the work we have been doing and increasingly asking each other challenging and thoughtful questions about how we can move forward. One of these partnerships began as a focus on mentoring provisionally certificated teachers and has grown into an inquiry into the
implementation of school wide mentoring training for middle leaders and beyond. Meeting with the Principal to discuss the draft of a mentoring target we plan to put into our school action plans for 2018 highlighted the need to develop a definition and a model for mentoring within our school. Thus, we agreed to read Coaching Leadership. Having a joint reading goal (3 chapters by next week) has spurred me into action. Having finally opened the text, I realised Jan helpfully provides a box with a summary at the end of each chapter – a photocopy of these was a great way to organise my notes. During the term break I predicted it shouldn’t be too hard and in the last week I have found some unexpected places to achieve my reading goal . . . chapter 1 was completed at Flip City to the background of pumping music and with the distraction of trampoline propelled tamariki invading my peripheral vision . . . chapter 2 was started in the dentist waiting room and involved resolutely ignoring the upcoming removal of a tooth . . . chapter 3 was completed in a quiet corner of Te Papa while my 6 year old discussed the tentacles of the Colossal Squid with 3 bilingual French children and their nanny. With my reading challenge complete 5 days ahead of the due date, I went to introduce myself to Delphine (the nanny). She was visiting NZ for the first time on a working holiday and is part way through a degree in Psychology. She talked enthusiastically about her aspiration to become a clinical psychologist and how much she was enjoying looking after the 3 small boys. When I told her I was a teacher, she smiled sympathetically and said, ‘I thought about teaching and think I would enjoy it – if only it wasn’t so much work . . . ’ Whilst it was certainly good to meet someone during the school holidays who does not make a comment about how great it must be to be a teacher, to finish workdays at 3pm and get so many holidays . . . as I shuffled my holiday reading back into my backpack I felt slightly sad that our brightest and best students around the world may no longer consider teaching to be the amazing career that it is because of their perception of the workload. References 1 Caldwell, B.J. (2011) The great cultural divide in system leadership. The Australian Educational Leader, 33(3), 14–16