Educational Leadership

Socializing Learning

Socializing knowers are not desperate for an answer but are interested in the perspectives of others and able to take them into account. Teachers who are socializing knowers are reflective about their practice, flourish when working in teams, and can even sacrifice their own interest to benefit the group.

Leading socializing learning requires a different approach to leadership. Some schools use socializing learning to spread the practice-related knowledge that already exists within their hallways. Doug Lyons, principal of the Parker School in Reading, Massachusetts, took such an approach to building adult learning, noting that “to learn more and improve our practice, we have to dig deeper into what we do, what our kids need, and what we already know. We need to learn from each other” (Breidenstein et al., 2012, p. 29). Doug, like Sue Snyder and Sue Charochak, was thinking the way a teacher would, but with the goal of teaching teachers to learn with one another, to share what they knew, and to make transparent what they needed to learn.

Doug began his principalship asking a few simple questions: What do we want to learn about to do a better job for our kids? What do we already know? Who knows it? Doug and the other members of the school’s instructional leadership team quickly discovered that teachers were interested in pursuing a wide range of questions. The team began using faculty meetings to talk together about teaching and learning. They created structures for collaboration in which teachers who had a shared interest in a topic or practice learned about it together. Eventually, every professional development day was devoted to schoolwide inquiry into such themes as integrating technology into teaching practice.

As the school became more com-
fortable with collaborative learning, the
faculty took on more challenging topics
and incorporated more demanding pro-
cesses that required them to give one
another feedback and build consensus
about good teaching. In other words,
they shifted the focus from isolated,
individual practice toward a collective
emphasis on improving teaching and
learning.

Four Shared Qualities

So what does it take to be a principal who thinks like a teacher? The answer seems complicated—but it’s not. These principals share four qualities: purpose, eagerness for learning, clarity about who they are as learners, and courage.

Principals who think like teachers are purposeful about supporting the learning needs of their teams, departments, and schools. Some schools need instrumental learning; others, socializing learning. Effective principals, like all good teachers, are clear about

Good teachers
understand that
who learners are,
and how they learn,
makes a difference.

the learning that is needed and how to lead it. Sue Charochak noted, “It’s interesting that in order to have my greatest success as a leader, I became a teacher” (Breidenstein et al., 2012, p. 15).

Principals also need to be eager to learn. Educators will not learn in a socializing, collaborative way if the principal does not do the same. Principals who think of themselves as teachers must be not only willing to learn, but also ready to learn in a public, transparent, and risky way that can be at odds with the expectation that the principal will always have the right answer.

The principals we talked to were
aware of the connections between
how they learn and how they lead the
learning of their schools. Although
Kathy Bieser from San Antonio, Texas,
was comfortable with socializing
learning, she knew that not all the
teachers in her school were, and she
kept their needs in mind when planning
learning experiences for her faculty
(Breidenstein et al., 2012). Like all good
teachers, Kathy shaped her practice
around how her students learn, not how
she learns.

Already Prepared

Leadership is a daunting, complex, almost undoable job. Not one of the principals we spoke to told us otherwise. Yet they all told us that although they had to learn quickly, they already had lots of training in the very essence of the principalship: They knew how to teach. These principals worked hard to hold on to what they already knew and made it the heart of their leadership practice. EL

References

Breidenstein, A., Fahey, K., Glickman, C., & Hensley, F. (2012). Leading for powerful learning: A guide for instructional leaders. New York: Teachers College Press.

Bryk, A. S., Sebring, P. S., Allensworth, E., Luppescu, S., & Easton, J. (2010). Organizing schools for improvement: Lessons from Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Drago-Severson, E. (2008). Four practices serve as pillars for adult learning. Journal of Staff Development, 29( 4), 60–63.

Kegan, R. (1998). In over our heads: The mental demands of modern life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

McLaughlin, M., & Talbert, J. (2006). Building school-based teacher learning communities: Strategies to improve student achievement. New York: Teachers College Press.

Kevin Fahey ( kfahey@salemstate.edu) is associate professor of education at Salem State University, in Salem, Massachusetts. He is coauthor, with Angela Breidenstein, Carl Glickman, and Frances Hensley, of Leading for Powerful Learning: A Guide for Instructional Leaders (Teachers College Press, 2012).