[cross-posted at LeaderTalk]
Cognitive dissonance. noun. conflict or anxiety resulting from inconsistency between one’s beliefs and one’s actions. [definition from the American Heritage Dictionary]
I believe that one of the biggest challenges facing school leaders today is the issue of dissonance. As the definition above notes, cognitive dissonance refers to the disconnects between what we believe as leaders and what we do. Here are some examples of dissonance that regularly occur in the lives of school administrators:
- Few administrators believe that the current American focus on yearly, one-time, standardized tests (as opposed to more instructionally-sensitive progress monitoring assessments) is healthy for students, teachers, or schools, yet they spend a great deal of time and energy on preparing for and working with the results from those tests.
- Administrators know that the predominant ‘sit and get’ model of professional development almost never leads to long-lasting, substantive changes in practice, yet most school systems continue to provide training for teachers and staff using that very model.
- Most administrators probably would admit that more teachers should be terminated (after appropriate remediation opportunities are given) than actually are.
These are just a few examples. I’m sure that you can come up with others and invite you to add your own in the comments to this post. There are other dissonance issues too. For example…
- time dissonance: the disconnect between the amount of time administrators have and the amount of work they have to do it;
- expectation dissonance: the disconnect between what our society expects schools to do and what they actually are able to do;
- curricular dissonance: the disconnect between what is best instructional practice (i.e., high-yield instructional strategies) and what occurs on a day-to-day basis in many teachers’ classrooms;
- technology dissonance: the disconnect between the technology skills and knowledge that students need for the new millennium and the capacity of most schools to prepare students for their future lives and workplaces;
- moral dissonance: the disconnect between how we currently serve disadvantaged students and how we should be.
We must find ways to resolve these conflicts. Although most states have adequate numbers of people with administrative licenses, fewer individuals are willing to actually take the job of principal or superintendent. The time demands, stress, community and legal pressures, and other factors are just too much for many educators, who look at administrative jobs and say, “Who wants to deal with that? Not me!”
We know that sustainable success in schools never occurs without effective leadership. If schools are to attract talented, creative people to serve in leadership positions, we must somehow figure out how to reduce the dissonance.
Excellent point on the world of pro-development. How many “Gardner School’s” still in-service teachers in an auditorium with one well-paid speaker at the podium?
Of course that’s saying that the teachers that need to hear the message even bothered to show up that day.
another dissonance: between teachers teaching information and modeling how to learn
It seems that some education critics have tired of criticizing teachers, and have now moved on to administrators.
From this link, about the poor quality of administrators…
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddcr3sp4_7hkbx2r
I feel for you guys, ack!
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I had some other thoughts on the canning teachers issue. My state (California) has had a lot of new teachers through the door. My own experience tells me that a lot of these new teachers are really not properly mentored through new teaching. The ~50% turnover rate in five years is proof of my observation. Think of the enormous waste of money. Many of those teacher either go to subsidized state colleges to get their credentials, or took out student loans (possibly subsidized) to go to National University (or a similar school). All that effort, and tax dollars, down the tubes because they are thrown into a classroom, and left to their own devices. I’m not accusing anyone here of doing that, because the quality of the posts, comments, etc. seem to be of high quality and indicate a really thoughtfulness, so I am probably preaching to the choir on this. My question for administrators to ask themselves when they are faced with a “failing” teacher, what can you do to help them develop professionally, and what have you done already? With new teachers, they really can’t do it all that first year, have you told them they “can” prioritize and make choices, or do you give them the impression that they have to do it all, now? If they aren’t talking, they’re probably in trouble, so go out and see them, or send a veteran teacher to check in with them.