I am a worrier. I am really good at it. In fact, I believe I have actually perfected it. So, when I found out that that the sermon this week was titled "How do I stop worrying?" I was pretty sure it was going to be a time of intense reflection for me. I was not surprised to find myself connecting to much of what I heard about worrying and how it impacts our lives; however I was not expecting to begin connecting some of the educational leadership concepts that I have recently been grappling with.
I love teachers, but I am worried about them (see? I am really good at it). I hear from too many teachers who are feeling stressed and under appreciated. I hear stories about teachers leaving the field and young people who are being counseled to consider non teaching careers. I know that we need a substantial disruption in education that results in significant changes, so I have been exploring change theories and trying to synthesize them with my own thoughts about what I know and believe about educators. During this sermon, I found myself putting some of these pieces together.
As I was thinking about worry, and especially the concept of worrying about things that we cannot possibly control I thought about teachers and how often teachers have the added stress of worry. They worry about whether their students are learning, whether they are have their basic needs met before they come to school and whether they will be successful in the future. Teachers also worry about teaching all of the content they are supposed to teach. They worry about having enough grades in the grade book, having the right grades in the grade book and whether parents will agree with the grades in the grade book. They worry about their evaluations and whether or not their best teacher selves will be clear to their evaluator. As I thought about this, I realized that NONE of this worry actually helps teachers do what they got into this profession to do, which is to teach children and have a positive impact on their future.
It occurred to me that I worry the most when I feel that factors are out of my control. This made me realize that much of what is adding to teacher stress and anxiety, and ultimately WORRY is the many changes that are occurring that are completely out of their control. A few months ago, when discussing my research with Cale Birk, he shared the idea of the Learner Centered Design Model when implementing change as a way to include the learners in the change process. Around the same time I had conversations with Jenni Donohoo about the power of collective teacher efficacy and collaborative inquiry when attempting to engage in the change process. These discussions left me questioning the structures we have been using to implement change in education. One thing I now know is that the solution must have the teachers at the center.
I don't have answers yet, but I am basing much of my thinking on Ronald Heifetz's work around technical v. adaptive challenges because I think that one problem is that we are trying to address many educational changes as technical problems by simply applying protocols or bringing in the work of the "experts" to dictate what we need to do. The reality is that most issues we are facing in education are adaptive and they require changes in beliefs and thinking, which will only happen if the educators making the changes are actually engaged in the work. The Professional Capital Theory from Fullan and Hargreaves seems to provide the perfect framework to guide this adaptive work. I really like the fact that professional capital values the difficult and complex nature of teaching as well as the power of collaboration. The decisional capital component of professional capital is the piece that I see missing from education and the key to building the collective teacher efficacy which will promote greater teacher satisfaction and student achievement.
Clearly this is a work in progress in my head, and needs much refinement and development, but what I do know is that teachers must be the ones driving the change. We, as administrators, are not doing them any favors by making the decisions for them.
