Charles Ungerleider, Professor Emeritus, The University of British Columbia
[permission to reproduce granted if authorship is acknowledged]
A reader of my blog about principal leadership and teacher practices asked me to address district leadership for learning. This is my reply to the request.
Although it is one of the best supported principles in education,[1] it is ironic that learning cooperatively with one’s peers is too rarely practiced or supported when it comes to teacher professional learning. Like students, teachers should work and learn together for their benefit and for the benefit of students.
District leaders should establish the expectation and create the conditions that make such cooperation possible. District leaders can, and should, make explicit at the time of hiring that teachers are expected to work and learn together. The assignment of teaching responsibilities should consider the complementarities among the knowledge and skills that staff members possess. District leaders should require that District-supported professional learning be aligned with district and provincial goals.
District leaders should also carefully consider the teaching responsibilities assigned to school-based administrators. Administrators who have onerous teaching responsibilities will spend what little remains of their time attending to the administrative issues that arise and not have time to devote to the primary role of supporting teachers to improve student learning and wellbeing. Administrators who are required to teach cannot lead learning. Assigning teaching responsibilities to vice-principals, a common practice in some jurisdictions, denies them the opportunity to learn to lead.
In addition to articulating the expectation that principals should be leading the collaborative learning among staff members, district staff should expect them to spend time in classrooms observing the instructional process and providing feedback about what they have observed. Principals and vice-principals should be able to draw upon their knowledge and experience to support teachers in the same way that a coach supports an athlete to improve her performance. Skilled administrators engage in dialogue with individuals and groups of teachers, encouraging them to reflect upon and improve their practice.
Expecting principals and vice principals to provide instructional leadership, organize and convene opportunities for teachers to collaborate to improve their performance and student outcomes, and align professional learning with district and provincial goals is a significant change. To ensure that principals and vice-principals can meet these expectations, the preparation, recruitment, and selection of school-based administrators must change to make these responsibilities the focus of the work of principals and vie-principals. Doing so would honor the original meaning of principal as principal teacher.
It is essential that districts have clearly articulated expectations about student improvement against which student performance is regularly monitored. Principals and vice-principals play an important part in leading the staff in monitoring performance and modifying teaching practices when progress does not meet expectations.
Leadership for learning is not a ‘nice to have.’ It is an essential ingredient if one wants to have systemic and continuous improvement. While it is possible in the short run to take incremental steps to improve teaching practices, teaching practices will not improve – and student performances will not improve - without conscious, persistent, and system-wide effort and support.
[1]
Johnson, D.W. and R.T. Johnson (2009) An
Educational Psychology Success Story: Social Interdependence Theory and
Cooperative Learning. Educational Researcher 38:5, 365-379. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X09339057