Principal Leadership!

Modelling and vision intertwined

Dr Mark Merry, principal of Yarra Valley Grammar, and I co-authored some research on principal leadership which has something to say about what teachers and students are looking for in a principal. The research has now been published in Frontiers in Education*.

Here is a flavour from the Discussion section:

“The findings of this study indicate a departure from the past; we are no longer seeking compliant behavior but adaptable behavior. This shift from developing traditional skills and compliant behaviors to developing 21st century skills and more adaptable behaviors is not simply a question of changing the curriculum but is, in addition, a question of developing new behaviors throughout a school. This study shows that such a development must be led by the principal whose leadership is expressed by modeling the behaviors embodied in the school’s vision, a vision developed by the school community, that is fostered and passionately held by the principal.”

It is important to recognise that this departure from the past has come about because we now want and need to develop young people not just with knowledge and procedural skills but also with the competencies and character traits to allow them to face up to an uncertain future.  It is they, and those who follow, who will progressively and collectively create new cultural norms around social, economic and political arrangements as Margaret Mead predicted more than forty years ago**.

We need to work towards shifting adult behaviours to allow this to happen.

*You can find the paper here: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2022.897620/full

** Mead, Margaret (1978) Culture and Commitment: the new relationships between the generations in the 1970s New York: Columbia University Press 1978

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 concept and practice of teacherly authority.  Earlier blogs can be found here.

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