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.