The second shift school leaders must undertake is HOW TO CREATE VALUE. Presently, main and central offices preoccupy themselves with the implementation function. The goal being adding programs or activities or structures or amenities that will set their school apart from other schools in their area.
To accommodate the digital working world, school leaders must move beyond competing on the hard facts of schooling to creating educational environments that live up to the soft educational goals and values written into school mission statements: “passion for lifelong learning;” “empower students to think critically;” “fostering a love of learning;” “cultivating leadership skills;” “equipping students with the skills and values they need to thrive in the 21st century.”
How should school leaders begin this shift? For those school leaders serious about making this sift, they should start with sitting in classrooms all day and asking themselves this question in each class: “In this class do I see any evidence of a mission stated goal or value being purposefully developed amongst the students in this class? If the school leader is honest with themselves, what they will observe in their classrooms is best summarized in a quote from John Goodlad’s A Place Called School (1984): “Boredom is a disease of epidemic proportions.” Now, a generation later, if you were ask students for a list of adjectives that describe their classroom experience, I doubt any of the goals and values written into school mission statements would make the list.
In past and future blogs, I will continue describing those managerial and leadership strategies and dispositions that embed mission driven goals and values in classroom instruction. The journey towards mission driven leadership must begin with school leaders being brutally honest about the classrooms they supervise and the courage to change, in Goodlad’s words, “the extraordinary sameness in our schools.”
Alan C. Jones 