Let’s support them!

The capabilities of outstanding teachers are beginning to come into their own

Following on from my post last week (A wish for 2020!) I want to explore a little further the framework that Kegan describes for how we develop.  He defines three stages from the adults’ perspective (the words in italics are Kegan’s labels for each stage):

• Connecting to the child so that the child feels safe and cared for (Holding on)

• Providing the space so that the child can gradually expand their behaviour beyond their current level, the adult doesn’t constrain or try to hold back but rather encourages this differentiation (Letting go)

• Welcome the child back so that the child can re-integrate at a higher level of development (Remaining in place)

It is exactly these stages of development that outstanding teachers support through their key behaviours:

• Paying full attention to each child so that they feel safe and cared for

• Responding with kindness and compassion whatever a child says or does (even when applying sanctions) so that children can push their own boundaries and are always welcome back.

It is this that makes them so beloved by their students.

Henri Person - St Tropez, barques a la Ponche.

For historical reasons, students used to move through high school remaining within the same stage of development that they entered high school with (typically called ‘Conformist’, in various schema).  Creating the conditions for students to grow beyond this stage was not desired, in fact, the reverse, keeping students within this stage of development was an important outcome so that they would fit easily into 19th/20th century workplaces.

Now, however, society has created the conditions in which young people are ready to move beyond the Conformist level by their mid-teens and twenty-first century skills are characteristic of the next stage of development (often called ‘Expert’ and which is the first development stage to be able to handle abstract thought), so we as a society need young people to make this shift.

The above explains why outstanding teachers have always been in a small minority and why their capabilities are only now coming into their own.  If we want this development to be successful on a broad front, then we need to provide the sorts of support that outstanding teachers already do, in a small way.

Remember, these are learnable skills and so can be taught.

John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation. At the core of this work is the practice of encounter.  Earlier blogs can be found here.

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