The Moral Imperative of School Leadership

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The Moral Imperative of School Leadership

• Presented by John Swanson
• Systems Change Conference 2006

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Outcome

• An awareness of some of the main ideas found
  within The Moral Imperative of School Leadership
  by Michael Fullan.

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Some definitions

• Moral founded on the fundamental principles of
  right conduct rather than on legalities,
  enactment, or custom
• Imperative something that demands attention or
  action an unavoidable obligation or requirement
  necessity.

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From Roland Barth

• Fullan confronts us with a most provocative
  paradox on the one hand he acknowledges that
  school leaders are overloaded and overwhelmed by
  the demands of their schools on the other, he
  argues persuasively that for schools to flourish
  in our society principals must extend their
  energies and take their moral purpose BEYOND the
  schoolhouse to the larger district, and to the
  profession at large. By doing so Fullan
  dramatically extends the boundary and redefines
  what it means to be a community of learners and
  leaders.

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From John Goodlad

• What do you see to be the central purpose of your
  school?

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On moral purpose

• Being a competent manager, engaging in good
  public relations, and even getting higher test
  scores do not constitute moral purpose. What I
  am saying is that the driver should be moral
  purpose and that all other capacities (e.g.,
  knowledge of the change process, building
  professional learning communities) should be in
  the service of moral purpose.

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On the moral imperative

• The first lesson of the moral imperative is
  Dont forget the why question. Dont get lost in
  the how-to questions. The more we look for
  specificity at the how-to level, the more our
  self-reliance weakens and the more that
  intrinsically-driven moral reform recedes.

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On the leaders job

• The leaders job is to help change context to
  introduce new elements into the situation that
  are bound to influence behavior for the better.

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On changing the context

• The key to change is new experiences. The role
• of the leader is to work through a process that
• does the following
• Helps people see new possibilities and new
  situations.
• Seeing something new hits the emotions.
• Emotionally charged ideas change behavior or
  reinforce changed behavior.

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On reforming schools

• As the strategy unfolds, leaders must pay close
  attention to whether they are generating passion,
  purpose, and energy intrinsic motivation on
  the part of principals and teachers. Failure to
  gain on this problem is a sure-fire indicator
  that the strategy will fail sooner rather than
  later.

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On self-imposed barriers to school leadership

• Sarason suggests that the tendency for principals
  to anticipate trouble from the system is one of
  the most frequent and major obstacles to trying
  new procedures.

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On system-imposed barriers to school leadership

• If you are in the education business long enough,
  you can get hit by the same pendulum more than
  once.

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On the evolution of the teaching profession

• Uninformed professional judgment
  (knowledge-poor/professional judgment)
• Uninformed prescription
  (knowledge-poor/external prescription)
• Informed prescription
  (knowledge-rich/external prescription)
• Informed professional judgment
  (knowledge-rich/professional judgment)

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On the principals job description

• Wanted A miracle worker who can do more with
  less, endure chronic second-guessing, tolerate
  low levels of support, process large volumes of
  paper, and work double shifts at least 75 times
  per year. He or she will have carte blanche to
  innovate, but cannot spend much money, replace
  any personnel, or upset any constituency.

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On teamwork

• Leadership is a team sport.

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On the anxiety within the moral imperative

• Every day you must decide whether to put your
  contribution out there, or keep it to yourself to
  avoid upsetting anyone, and get through another
  day. You are right to be cautious. Prudence is
  a virtue. You disturb people when you take
  unpopular initiatives in your community, put
  provocative new ideas on the table in your
  organization, question the gap between
  colleagues values and behavior, or ask friends
  and relatives to face up to tough realities.
  Exercising leadership can get you into a lot of
  trouble.

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On risk

• Leadership is worth the risk because the goals
  extend beyond material gain or personal
  advancement. By making the lives of people
  around you better, leadership provides meaning in
  life. It creates purpose. These days, doing
  nothing as a leader is a great risk, so you might
  as well take risks worth taking.

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On leadership legacy

• Changing the context means that what you leave
  behind at the end of your tenure is not so much
  bottom-line results, but rather leaders, at many
  levels, who can carry on and perhaps do even
  better than you did.

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Outcome

• An awareness of some of the main ideas found
  within The Moral Imperative of School Leadership
  by Michael Fullan.

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For a copy of these slides

• jswanson_at_tie.net