My recent post is associated with a school building leadership assignment. Below is the task and my response.

Task: Read the article ‘When It Comes to the Teacher Shortage, Who’s Abandoning Whom?’. How do you see this article as relevant to school leadership? Cite one example.

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Humanity-Based vs Business Capital

Nothing speaks more to me as an aspiring school building leader than the concept of enacting transformational change rooted in a “humanity-based model” (Fullan & Rizzotto, 2022). It seems as though the attention given to the “business capital” model (before the pandemic), inspired what now appears, in hindsight, as empty promises— promises to value innovation and creativity, for students and teachers, when things returned to normal. There was hope that maybe a silver lining coming out of this pandemic would be society’s acknowledgement of education as a non-gendered profession, compensate teachers for their years of expertise and degrees, etc. Unfortunately, the swift arrival of phrases like learning loss, constant references to a blanket academic deficit plaguing the intellectual development of America’s children, and the politicizing of education, accompanied fingers pointing in one direction, the classroom teacher.

Interconnected: Teacher-Leader Relationship

Interconnected with a teacher’s post-COVID experience is the role of the school building leader, district leader, and respective leadership teams. Individuals in these leadership positions must counter the destructive noise from outsiders and demonstrate to their faculty and staff that they are seen, valued, and heard (the essence of the Humanity-Based model). If students are deserving of an environment “where ‘belonging, purpose, individual and collective problem solving’ is fostered,” so are teachers. It comes as no surprise that many people will take the stance, teachers are abandoning students! Teachers are leaving the profession not because they forgot why they entered the teaching profession. Teachers are leaving the classroom because they never lost their “why” for entering the teaching profession in the first place, and their “why” is no longer valued.

The System Failed the Teacher

As a parent and educator, I sadly agree with the conclusion presented in the article, “that the old, deeply flawed system has de facto abandoned the teachers, not the other way around” (Fullan & Rizzotto, 2022). The challenges plaguing education, its teachers and students, are systemic, and any systemic challenge should be of great concern for educational leaders. Whether a school building leader or a district leader, those in coveted leadership positions must not only prioritize supporting students in all facets associated with the learning experience. School and district leaders must also prioritize and demonstrate to stakeholders how, and why, they support teachers in all facets of the post-COVID professional demands. A model of appreciation on the part of school and district leaders yields tremendous transformational power, exactly what the profession needs and deserves; nothing less.