The chapters in Fullan on the roles of the principal and central administrator were actually kind of depressing. It's not tremendously uplifting to know that 91% of principals responded "no" to the question of whether they can fulfill all the responsibilities assigned to them. Chapter 11, in its citation of Blumberg's work exploring the working lives of superintendents, notes the "infrequency with which curriculum and instruction matters 'naturally' arise in the interviews" (Blumberg 1985). While I understand the political and financial and managerial dimensions of the administrative job, as a teacher I am more sensitive to what I see as the core issue and the mission of any school system - the question of what the students' experience is each day in our building, and what is happening in their classrooms. Its saddening to know that this rarely enters the consciousness (or at least the discussion) of the average superintendent. In my district, where there are not even department supervisors, let along curriculum coordinators, you can imagine the difficulty of establishing any kind of unified vision, let alone effecting change. If it is true that "effective principals attack incoherence" then they must be given the support structure to do so.
Most teachers in my school are very "comfortable" -- they know little will be demanded of them as members of a team with a unified vision and that nearly all of what they do will be done in isolation and without much scrutiny. Quick illustrative anecdote: Our faculty received an e-mail last Tuesday telling us our PDP was "due" Monday. Less than one week. There was no talk last year, or early this year of what should constitute our personal improvement plan - no discussion of our vision, no related professional development, no department meetings to set or discuss department goals, not even a faculty meeting discussion of what might be worthwhile. Teachers will, as they do every year, dash off something quickly and thoughtlessly, be sure to mention technology in it (to impress whomever may look at it, although we have our doubts that anyone does) and be done with it. A silly exercise really, conducted as we do it -- a hoop to jump through presumably because it is something other schools do. It has less than no impact on our schools.
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Kim's last blog also touched on this topic. Fullan's stats on administrator responsibility were depressing, but I can't say I was surprised since many teachers cannot fulfill all of their responsibilities either. As a teacher, I feel that I have a zillion things to do each day and not enough time to do them. Although I would prefer to take more time to do a good/thorough job on everything that is asked of me, it's impossible. Like the teachers writing up their PDP forms you mentioned, I too will write something just for the sake of having something on paper. We won't have a department or faculty meeting to discuss our goals or to even engage in any kind of dialogue about our profession. Our ten-minute meetings are to recruit people to proctor the PSATs, to ask people for donations to the next tricky tray, or to remind us that students must enter and exit only through the main door - the types of messages that could have been transmitted through e-mail. This is the culture of my school. In fact, I often find the atmosphere of my school somewhat depressing. The feng shui is off too. Who's steering the sinking ship?!
Hi Tom,
I have to agree with you and laura both about the never ending responsibilities of an administrator or teacher. I think we need to stop discussing all of these issues and take a hard, fast look at how far to the left our educational system has now gone. Can all the political powers, with double pensions, who sit in the ivory tower have anything to do with this??? My thoughts are we need to revamp job descriptions to ensure that the important components, such as you mentioned (curriculum)are addressed and not PIP Plans that some politician thought would sound great to the public. Sorry if it sounds harsh, but enough is enough!!!! thanks for the blog. AnneMarie
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