NAPP 2010 - Mary Chamberlain
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NAPP 2010 - MARY CHAMBERLAIN
"I wanted to start with students, because if you’re talking about moral purpose you’ve got to keep students and what is good for them at the heart of it. What are the decisions that are going to impact, and how are they going to impact on those most vulnerable students. And if you never let that out of your mind, you are never going to go too far wrong. Next week about seven hundred and fifty thousand (750,000) of our students will return to school after the holidays, and the way that you all approach your leadership roles, and the way that you take responsibility for each and every one of those children makes a real difference to their life chances. Every time you go into a school, you’re enacting a possibility; something possible could happen because you enter the school, versus if you hadn’t gone in there. What’s possible because you are putting yourself up to be a principal, what changes might occur that wouldn’t otherwise occur. What difference will there be in the world because you have decided to make a change, and you step into a different world.
As you walk in that world, you are changing kids’ lives, and there’s no bigger task than that.
I know you’ve talked about moments of disorientation, you’ve talked about bravery. If you keep that at the heart in those moments, then it’s kind of the rock to hang onto in tough times. And if you’re doing any change that’s worth while, you know that you do have those tough times.
To me, that opportunity to stand inside that red-hot zone of other human beings who are learning significant things, things that will affect who they become and their life chances, is the fascinating and challenge (sic) for being involved in education as well.
The most successful teachers and leaders focus on what they can do, they generate different kinds of energies and create different framing for people, so the things that people think, say and do, and particularly leaders in times of change, really matter.
So good leaders reframe. They get people to think differently about the issue. They don’t go along with the dominant discourse if the dominant discourse is unhelpful, if it’s about all the problem and the negative things, and not about possibilities. They draw on other people who are good at metaphors and reframing. They help the staff to do it.
The changes that work best are the ones where you are taking an active problem-solving approach as issues emerge, where you are looking for those (sic), where having conversations, where you’re challenging assumptions, where you’re framing and reframing. You can’t be a learner if you think that your view of the world is always right, if you get defensive when you’re questioned, or if your current frameworks and beliefs are not open to questioning. And ‘especially as a leader ‘cause their power dynamic comes into play. Everybody’s got some parameters around what they can operate, but the same people in the same situations will see those bars as very far away. Some maybe even on the horizon. And that’s what good leaders need to do: see the opportunities and the space that you have to act and take it".
