Yesterday's post highlighted Ken Leithwood's book "Teacher Working Conditions That Matter: Evidence for Change" and I had shared excerpts for three of the five recommendations for teachers. As Leithwood states, teachers "are the closest to the students and have the best chance to effect immediate change. But beware, teachers are only one part of this community. Their efforts can be undermined if they do not have constant support". Leithwood also makes recommendations for policy makers, unions, and principals/administrators. The five recommendations for teachers are:
- Build your own network of professional colleagues.
- Be proactive about your own professional development.
- Expect effective leadership from your administrators.
- Insist on having a voice in decision making.
- Put realistic boundaries around your volunteer work.
I left you hanging in the middle of the third recommendation (I love a good cliffhanger), so today's post will continue that and share the final two recommendations.
- Expect effective leadership from your administrators.
"What is the effective leadership you should expect?....Effective leadership is collaborative, consistent, friendly, instructionally expert, there when you need help, skilled in finding the resources you require, anxious to learn your views, reasonable in its demands, concerned about your welfare, and clear and explicit about priorities....
Some teachers will be inclined to the view that the principal is the boss, not someone they should try to influence, even if they knew how. Think about it again.
Few principals, except for some rookies, think they know everything that needs knowing in order to administer a school...Be kind. Don't deprive them -- share your views and advice. Let them know when they do something that works and let them know, diplomatically, when their decisions are questionable. Insist, gently but persistently, on being consulted. It is your school every bit as much as it is theirs. And you will likely be there much longer than the principal, so the stakes are higher for you than for her."
- Insist on having a voice in decision making.
"Having a formal role in decision making is crucial for teachers. Considerable evidence associates such participation with positive impacts on the internal states of teachers.
Providing for such participation is also a key leadership practice of effective school leaders. Such participation affords teachers the opportunity to share their work and the work of their colleagues as their professional know-how and experience would recommend. It reduces the likelihood that administrators will make ill-informed decisions on their own. It also ensures that leadership is distributed throughout the school."
- Put realistic boundaries around your volunteer work.
"Teachers work long hours during the school year, on average 53 hours a week. These hours are spent doing three jobs. Job One is everyday classroom instruction and the preparation and marking required for such instruction. This is an extremely demanding job in its own right...
The second job entails being a member of the school organization. The number of tasks associated with this job is potentially huge. For example: managing extracurricular activities for students; leading events at school; participating in district-wide curricular committees... (etc.) These activities are just the tip of the iceberg.
Being a member of the teaching profession is the third job. This might entail as little as voting on federation issues... or as much as serving as an executive member of the local or provincial body. Teachers have the least choice about the time they spend on the first job and the most choice about the time they spend on the third job....
...Teachers are widely known to be unusually committed to their work, often taking on much more than is reasonable because it seems like the right thing to do. However, when taking on more than is reasonable produces high levels of stress, reduces job satisfaction, or raises the spectre of leaving the profession, it is in no one's best interest...When workload demands begin to be overwhelming, learn how to say no."
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