District leadership for learning

 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

Principal leadership and teacher practices

 Charles Ungerleider, Professor Emeritus, The University of British Columbia

[permission to reproduce granted if authorship is acknowledged]

A reader of last week’s blog about conditions for improving student achievement asked, “What specifically can school principals do to encourage collaboration in aid of improved student achievement?” I said there is a suite of practices that principals should apply to encourage staff to take collective responsibility for the achievement and well-being of all students. “What are they?” he asked. This blog is informed by our exchange about leadership for learning.  

De-personalize teaching. It is difficult to assume collective responsibility for the welfare of all students if we talk about students as “your students” or “my students” or “that teacher’s students.” It may not sound revolutionary but changing our nomenclature can influence how we think about students. Possessing students (mine, yours, ours) has always struck me as problematic. Being proprietary about students implies that their behaviour and achievements reflect upon me alone rather than on the collective responsible for their education and socialization.  

Changing how we regard students can help de-personalize teaching. By de-personalize, I mean creating a concerned professional detachment about what and how we teach like the kind of clinical detachment that physicians have toward their work. The practices they employ are not unique to them as individuals; they possess a shared professional knowledge. I’ve not ever heard a physician say, “that’s my approach to X” but I have heard that often from teachers (“my program”). I am not suggesting that teachers do not care about their practice, but they should recognize and apply the body of knowledge shared among professionals with similar responsibilities.    

Sharing professional knowledge and experience would reduce the isolation among teachers that reinforces the impression that teachers are on their own and causes some to leave the profession. A collaborative professional culture would benefit students and help combat the professional alienation that some teachers experience.  

De-privatize teaching. Make it possible for teachers to see one another in action. For a brief period during their teacher education student-teachers observe their mentors. But, for most of the remainder of their careers, teachers do not see one another teach.  

I recently had a minor surgical procedure. The surgeon was assisted by a physician in family practice who made the surgical incision and the excision of the tissue.  I asked the surgeon about the arrangement. She explained that the family practice physician had been assisting her surgeries every Friday morning for more than a year. “She wants to get a better understanding of the surgeries and their impact so that she can better support the patients she cares for.”  

The early morning surgical schedule made it possible for the family practice physician to assist without too great an impact on her schedule. In elementary schools, however, scheduling makes it all but impossible for teachers to see one another in the classroom. Observations are possible at the secondary level because teachers have periods during the day or week when they can do their preparation while their colleagues teach. Despite the opportunity to see a colleague teach, few – almost none – do. Principals at the elementary level can facilitate observation by assuming responsibility for the observer’s class. The same could be done at the secondary level, and encouragement by the principal might go a long way to encouraging the practice.  

Encourage team teaching. Teachers at the same or adjacent grade levels or in the same subject areas can combine their classes and teach together.  

Provide instructional leadership. Instructional leadership can take many different forms. Principals should meet with individual teachers to discuss their goals and the challenges they face. Principals can arrange for and lead discussions about best, research- and evidence-informed practices. Principals can articulate expectations about the prioritization of foundational subject-matter knowledge and about the efficient use of time.  

Monitor student performance. At regular intervals throughout the school year, principals should lead teachers in the review of student results. In addition to an examination of the performance of the entire student population, staff should be scrutinizing the data about how sub-groups of students are performing. I have been in schools where – in areas not open to the public – the staff had posted memos and informal reports about the progress of students who found school particularly challenging. In those schools, successes were shared and celebrated by everyone along with responsibility for the students who found school or some part of it difficult.  

When I have described these practices to some principals, they have asked, “Where do these principals find the time?” I tell them that they have prioritized these actions and try assiduously not to allow the less important matters that arise from preventing them from addressing the important and enduring issues. Those who have made time for mentoring staff and monitoring student achievement have found their work more satisfying and are proud of creating a climate in which the staff feels they are working together for the benefit of the students they serve.