Igniting Teacher Leadership by William Sterrett

Author:William Sterrett [sterret, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Education
ISBN: 978-1-4166-2180-5
Publisher: ASCD
Published: 2015-12-02T05:00:00+00:00

Connecting Others

The job of a principal grows difficult as demands increase and resources tighten. Add to the ever-changing role the realities of increasingly diverse learning communities, rapidly evolving innovations, and redefined notions of what "success" entails, and it's no wonder that the principalship is reaching a crisis point. In a 2014 report by the School Leaders Network, the authors noted the following: "Twenty-five thousand (one quarter of the country's principals) leave their schools each year, leaving millions of children's lives adversely affected. Fifty percent of new principals quit during their third year in the role" (p. 1).

This stress and potential leadership turnover affects the students and staff in that school community in a profound manner. There are no quick fixes to this large-scale challenge, but much stands to be gained by embracing an ethos of collaborative leadership that is active and engaged in moving a school forward.

Collaboration happens when people are connected. Malcolm Gladwell defines connectors as "the kinds of people who know everyone" and who have relatively large social circles of acquaintances (2002, p. 38). By job description alone, principals are connectors. We come into contact with students, school faculty and staff, parents, community members, district staff, business and civic leaders, neighboring and feeder district community members, and—hopefully—an ever-growing online PLN. The question then becomes: How can we leverage our unique role as connectors to help others get fired up about leading?

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