Intrinsic Learning

A recent combination of writer's block, professional interest, and thrift led me to re-read a book I half-heartedly looked at some time ago as a first year graduate student. I had been meaning to re-visit Failure Is Not an Option by Alan Blankenstein; I read it simply to fulfill an assignment a few years back, but remembered finding value in the little bit of the book I actually read when I "had" to.  Filled with poignant stories of successful school leaders and the methodical steps they took to build Professional Learning Communities in their schools, I found myself nodding and highlighting in agreement through much of the entire book as if I had never read it before. After the second read, I highly recommend this to any aspiring/current educational leader looking to change professional culture and build community capacity.

"...staff compliance alone is not enough. It takes total staff commitment to succeed in the...work of reaching...students"-A.Blankenstein
— Eddie Evans (@eevansHHS) February 22, 2012

"Teachers cannot be the mere targets of other peoples leadership, but must see themselves as being...leaders..." A.Blankenstein
— Eddie Evans (@eevansHHS) February 27, 2012

Aside from the content of the book articulating and expanding on much of the ideas and conclusions I have come to regarding the kind of educational leader I am and want to be moving forward, I appreciated the irony of the situation; I was reading and heavily annotating a book over my February vacation that I haphazardly read and hardly noted two years prior in a class that I paid to take and would be graded after reading it.

Re-reading a book I had to read as student. Getting way more out of it now than when I "had" to read it. It's funny how that works out...
— Eddie Evans (@eevansHHS) February 26, 2012

I recently wrote about leading people to a place where they are going beyond "have" to. My two readings of Blankenstein's work clearly demonstrates the effect of adult learning with a purpose.  My intrinsic motivation as a professional genuinely looking to get better at what I am attempting to do inspired me light years more than any extrinsic motivation ever did. What I take away from this is that leaders must uncover and tap into the intrinsic motivations that exist within each member of their team as it relates to the overall mission and vision of the school if they ever want to get beyond what Blankenstein calls contrived collegiality. As Marilyn Tallerico writes to school leaders, "...you must...help build and sustain a schoolwide environment conducive to adult learning," (p.70) and the most prudent way to achieve this is by capitalizing on the professional interests and passions of the adults in the school.

 "The prime responsibility of all school leaders is to sustain learning."  

(Blankenstein, p.203) 

Without getting to know and eventually taking professional advantage of the intrinsic motivations and curiosities of the adults in any school, leaders will always struggle to reach the optimal levels of engagement and commitment needed for a sustainable culture of professional learning; they will find it difficult to get anything more than the motions from most people. Sure, there will always be folks on staff taking it upon themselves to re-read books on achievement and leadership over vacation, but I reckon the finest school leaders will not leave that to chance.

Collaborating Beyond "Have To"

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In all my previous and current capacities as a leader- captain, coach, and teacher- my main goal was/is to inspire and motivate people to apply the same dedication and passion reserved for matters of interest to the given work at hand. We are in a pedagogical age when it is impossible to stay current while practicing in isolation, and a permanent priority of the modern school leadership team must be strengthening the professional network their teachers have at both the building level and beyond without turning collaboration into just another thing teachers “have to” do. In Learning From Lincoln: Leadership Practices for School Success, Alvy & Robbins write, “...the leader’s task is to organize the school or district to support collaborative work, create those conditions that will allow it to occur, and ensure that the collaboration is purposeful for those involved.” However, if the avenues that schools are taking to create opportunities for collaboration and interpersonal professional learning become seen as just another obligation to be half-heartedly crammed into limited contractual hours, then the outcomes will never justify the effort, and the self fulfilling prophecies of doubters and isolationists will be realized yet again. If we know that networks and connections offer the best outlets for teachers to be most equipped for success, then we as leaders owe it to our schools to bring those opportunities for collaboration to the forefront of our agendas. Rather than attempting to utilize randomly assigned tuning protocol groups with prescribed topics and tasks to facilitate professional growth, or default to certain departments for school-wide rubric creation, the more prudent road for leadership to take is to purposefully and organically allow teachers with similar interests and passions to connect with each other, and work and learn together. It is only with purposeful engagement and careful planning that school leaders can begin to move adult collaboration and collegiality beyond “have to.”

Major obstacles exist that prevent professional learning and development from holding higher value in most schools, and leadership must explicitly address these concerns if trying to build authentic learning networks amongst faculty and staff.  The quality and relevance of professional development offered in the building sends the loudest message to the staff.  Administrations that treat P.D. like they something they “have to” offer employ teachers that think of P.D. as something they “have to” do.  Beyond what is offered, the administration must have an active and robust presence in the school, and invest the time in getting to know their staff on a pedagogical level in order to be able to create purposeful and results oriented connections for tunings protocols, NEASC committees, PLCs, etc. while also ensuring relevant development opportunities. Rather than asking who wants to work and learn together, it’s about discovering and understanding who should work and learn together. Leaders who know their staff are better positioned to do this.  Finally, excitement for growth and learning must start at the top.  The principal and leadership team must be modeling the culture and habits they want to promote. Alvy & Robbins would call this intentional visibility.

What makes the Edcamp model such an effective form of professional interaction, and so unrealistic as an event for many actual school communities in their current form, is that everyone is participating because they want to.  It’s not the fact that it is an Edcamp that makes it special; rather, the element of interest and passion that brought everyone there is what must be captured. Twitter is a catalyst for growth and learning because all the networks one builds and conversations one has occurs by choice and is sparked by initial interest or passion. Networks such as #sschat would not be as strong if every single educator using Twitter had to participate by condition of usage, just like intra-building or district professional development does not work when every single person has to participate, regardless of knowledge base, experience, or care.  Instead of recreating Edcamp, or perpetually romanticizing mediums like Twitter as the magic bullet for professional growth, school leaders need to craft the environment that fuels both of these platforms within their school. Creating the culture of excitement and passion for professional learning in your building is a more reliable long term solution than simply mimicking/hosting an event.  The only way for professional dialogue and collaborative learning to go beyond “have to” is to make it so valuable and rewarding that it organically becomes a want rather than an obligation.