School Lines Lead and dig up the diamonds around you! Lester Flockton
lester.flockton@otago.ac.nz
When Bill English, architect of his Government’s National Standards policy, gave his first press conference as Prime Minister late last year, he quoted the words above from a poem by Selina Tusitala Marsh. It’s a great pity that ‘and bury all that does not glisten’ was not added to that line! Such burials, of course, would include the last rites administered to National Standards, given their abysmal failure to achieve what the Government said they would. Over five years of intensive pushing, resourcing, data manufacturing and curricular, pedagogical and leadership distortion, the change in student achievement is almost indiscernible (there is more than ample ‘best evidence’ from reams of ‘data’ to verify this). Sharing this demise would be the Numeracy Project mathematics programme, given our nation’s progressively sliding maths performance since its inception. Again, the “data” proves this, and without doubt it’s the programme design that is most clearly at fault – but they keep on blaming the teachers. With time, many other policies will prove to qualify for equally ignominious interment, but we know all too well that those who command, control, legislate, regulate and ‘grow’ such policies and programmes believe in life eternal for all things they create, initiate and mandate, no matter which way the wind doth blow their spin and seduce the abiding acolytes. So denial is alive and well, particularly when some profit is to be made by living the moment and grasping at any illusory riches that may be in the offing. But seldom do we find that ‘diamonds are forever’! To return to Marsh’s line – it does provide some useful notions, metaphorical and otherwise. Take leadership, for example. Considerable play is variously made around its imperatives by professional groups, who have their experience-based, practical view of leadership (‘Kiwi Leadership’); academics, who conjure up their well-intentioned pet theories, and Government officials who narrowly contrive the purposes of leadership. However, put all of this aside, and leadership in itself is not a particularly complicated construct, despite those who would make an industry of it. Simply put, leadership is about influencing, motivating, inspiring, guiding and enabling others to follow pathways and practices towards shared goals. For this to happen, the credible school leader requires a few essential attributes including a good knowledge of their field, resourcefulness, trustworthiness, good judgment, enthusiasm and, above all, a natural ability to form empathetic relationships and exercise true humanity. They eschew technicism, shows of flimsy fashion, and sheltering behind compliance. Arguably, some leadership attributes can be taught, caught and coached, whereas others are substantially inherent dispositions and qualities that no ‘course’ can impart. Riley (2000), went so far
as to say that principals do not learn how to do leadership, that there is no one package for principal leadership, no one model to be learned and applied, regardless of culture or context, and that good leaders are often rule breakers. Bennis (1989) maintains that leaders are made, not born, but made more by themselves than by any external means! Importantly, leaders need to be sharply aware of the fact that they shape, but equally that they themselves are shaped. So constant awareness, discernment, caution and oft-times resistance to some insistent ‘shaping’ forces can help give a satisfying sense of the true meaning of professional leadership. Many principals will identify with Neyland’s advice: Never attend a course on how to become a leader. Why? You can only learn leadership from a genuine leader. And a genuine leader would never lead in this way. Similarly, it is easy to spot the fake education expert. She is the one who comes armed with a method, with codes and research data for guiding professional practice, and with advice she expects to be followed because she knows best. The genuine education expert could not be more different. (Neyland, p.7) Clearly, the intent or outcomes of leadership are not neutral, impartial or universally shared. Not all leadership agendas are directed at what many might value as good, virtuous, and inspired directions or outcomes. These days, school leadership agendas of Government agencies are typically around raising achievement and reducing disparities in accordance with mandatory and measurable standards within a narrow yet inflated slice of the curriculum. Leadership that ‘follows’ this orthodoxy is applauded and rewarded for complying with a myopic vision. This, perhaps, is understandable, considering that officials are accountable to Government for driving its particular priorities, so many Government funded leadership courses typically drill such priorities into the heads of vulnerable participants. But Government priorities are not necessarily in harmony with what a school community might come to value as a good and rounded education for its children. It might have its own ideas on the shape of the metaphoric diamonds that should sparkle in children’s eyes. More often than not they reach this vision because of the kind of successful leadership at work in their school; leadership that results in rich, stimulating learning experiences of great relevance to children, culturally and otherwise – learning experiences that reflect the direction, intent, scope and flexibility of The New Zealand Curriculum. As a widely involved educator and educational thinker, it gives me inestimable pleasure to visit, observe, and know principals and schools where this kind of leadership is driving this kind of
learning. In one such school, the principal’s regular community world (‘do it my way’). Be yourself, brighten up the landscape, newsletters talk only of its ‘great curriculum’, with wonderful and do it your way! stories from children and illustrations of its programmes at work. National Standards are never mentioned. In another great school, its mission of ‘wide eyed and enthusiastic learners’ is on Clarification of Author’s Positions • ‘Standards’ are fully supported in the lips of every teacher and student – and principle, but the current National it’s lived out in the daily life and spirit of But Government Standards policy, system, and curricular its fantastic learning environment where prescriptions are not. the true meaning of inquiry is understood priorities are not • The Numeracy Project is fine in theory, and practised. but it is failing far too many teachers necessarily in harmony Great school leadership takes its license and students. They deserve better, but from strong professional beliefs and with what a school malignant denial prevails. convictions about what is right and good • The abundant literature on School for children growing up in a complicated community might Leadership is an invaluable resource for world of challenge, opportunity and reflective leadership practice – provided come to value as it is considered and mediated with contradiction. It is a kind of leadership discerning critical analysis and constant that recognises and understands that a good and rounded mindfulness of practical realities. children are children, not mini adults – and that childhood is theirs for a relatively education for its children. short part of their life-span. It is a kind of leadership that thrives on creating and seeing the sparkle in References children’s eyes rather than the sparkle of hard-edged diamonds Bennis, W. (1989). On Becoming a Leader. New York: Addison Wesley dug out of political and bureaucratic turf with the biggest destined to adorn those who seek fame. It is a kind of leadership Neyland, J. (2010). Rediscovering the Spirit of Education after Scientific Management. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. that ably differentiates between good sense and nonsense in what is too often dished up by a system intent on its own limited way. Riley, K. Leadership, Learning and Systemic Reform. Journal of Educational Change (2000) 1: 29. Thrupp (2007) hit the nail on the head when he said effective leadership and teaching in one local context is just not the same Thrupp, M. (2007). Education’s ‘inconvenient truth’: persistent middle as effective leadership and teaching in another. There is no one class advantage. Waikato Journal of Education, 13, 253–272 best formula, yet there are just too many Frank Sinatras in this
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