Transformative Principals is a pod cast that I’ve been enjoying for a number of years. The host has a genuine sense of wanting to improve his own journey with a view to all the learners he serves growing as a result.
The episodes I listened to today were about a bi-lingual school and a motivational speaker. Quite an interesting juxtaposition as I was loping around the lake with the morning sun glaring angrily down on the world.
The bi-lingual school focused on a number of issues:
- The school was for developing literacy in English
The school was for developing literacy in Spanish - These two foci informed everything else.
- All staff were bi-lingual in these two languages.
- The school was more than about language acquisition – rather – about cultural growth. Both native Spanish and non-native Spanish populations did not value this as much as the school did.
So here is the thing – what are the dual discourses going on in any learning community? Are they counter narratives? How would I know what the different expectations of the school community are, if they align with the principal’s and how to mutually co-construct and enact a set of values where each demographic has a voice? Such a democratic view of ‘who has the power to be heard in our community’ may not actually be a value!
The point is that these guys knew what they were there for, formed a belief about what the dominant narrative ought to be and over time brought all the elements together that would sustain this narrative. At the same time, those elements / teachers / families / resources that did not align with the new norms were off-boarded.
I like bonsai trees. Whilst the little tree itself is a beautiful thing – it is merely the canvas through which the Bonsai Master reveals his nature and values. So too with learning communities.
Our kids and families objectively experience the phenomena of the school – the timetable, their books and other artifacts. These are the products of someone else’s story. For example – the book is in Spanish – not German. Someone made that choice, selected a book and put it in front of a student. On the other hand, there is the subjective experience of the Spanish book by the student and her family. I wonder if it is useful for both sets of stories around the Spanish text book to be part of the same narrative?
This kind of dualism is increasingly important to identify and understand. Without knowing what the competing narratives in the community are, it is difficult to know how the preferred dominant narrative is evolving. If parents or students are posting / complaining that too much time is being spent of Spanish cultural celebrations and not on learning Spanish history – or that the science room should have more robots and less money spent on language instructors that may identify what is working well – ie: communication channels, but that the purpose for the school is not as widely communicated as would be hoped by the leadership.
My suspicion is that where there is a strong core narrative in a school and its leader, the identity of a learning community is accessible. This accessibility is important because it produces a sense of identity in its constituent members.