Posted in Accountability, Culture change, Ideas, Leadership, Leadership Dilemmas, Management, Partnerships, Planning, Policy, Power/influence, Public Services, TESS, professionalism on Jun 8th, 2008 5 Comments »
Every educational leader, regardless of position, has to wrestle with the powerful temptation to intervene or to meddle in the business of those whom they manage. The logic is fairly simple - “I’m being paid to manage and to be accountable for the work of others - so it’s reasonable that I take action in order [...]
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Does a teacher need to like all children in order to be an effective teacher?
The dictionary definition of the verb to “like” is essentially to display a favourable opinion or disposition towards a thing – in this case children. Yet in conversations with teachers throughout my career I’ve met with resistance to the notion of [...]
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It was George H.W. Bush (the father of George W. Bush) who in 1987 responded to the suggestion that he turn his attention from short-term campaign objectives and look to the longer term by saying, “Oh, the vision thing”. I wonder sometimes if many of us in Scottish education suffer from Bush’s same discomfort with [...]
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Posted in TESS on Mar 11th, 2008 9 Comments »
The oft-repeated mantra for managing change in education is “evolution, not revolution”. Such a strategy takes account of the sensitivities involved whenever change is proposed and recognises the tacit (and explicit) resistance to change that can exist within any large organisation. The accepted logic is that we make change gradually and incrementally by building upon [...]
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Posted in TESS on Feb 24th, 2008 6 Comments »
This is a copy of the article which was recently published in TESS. It was based on the following post and comments.
Ever since I started teaching, I’ve been frustrated with the idea of “Christmas leavers”.The school leaving age regulations state: “Children may leave school once they reach their statutory school leaving date; this is dependent on date of [...]
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One of the things that schools sometimes fail to appreciate is just how intimidating they can be, especially secondary schools. We all have our memories of school, and for those of us in the teaching profession they are, for the most part, likely to be positive recollections. Yet when you speak to some parents you [...]
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I’ll be submitting this article for publication to TESS later this week. I’m indebted to Mothersoup for contributing her thoughts on this topic. Does it hit the spot?
In a peculiar way there is a possibility that this article may offend, in equal measure, both the teaching profession and the parental body. I make no apologies if this is the case.
I believe [...]
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Posted in Blogging, TESS on Nov 7th, 2007 6 Comments »
In the last week I’ve twice been described in introductions to people as “Don blogs”. It’s as if by blogging someone can draw some conclusion about me from that fact - regardless of what I write about.
I did a quick Google search for “blogito ergo sum - “I blog therefore I am” - apologies to [...]
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Posted in Accountability, TESS on Oct 10th, 2007 5 Comments »
Here’s the third of my articles for TESS.
Before going on to read this article I’d like you to pause a moment and ask you to come up with a personal example of accountability.
Without claiming to be a mind reader I’d be prepared to bet that you selected something that will happen when something goes wrong! – [...]
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I’ve been working on a draft for my next TESS article. I’d welcome comments and suggestions for improvement:
One of the best parts of my job is that I get to observe the learning and teaching process in all of our schools. One of the things that I’ve been struck by during my visits is [...]
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