The Teaching Principal
I had a fascinating conversation the other day with a colleague. She was talking about her previous school and her Principal. The Principal had a clear stated policy that all Principals and Senior Management were teaching Principals. So She and her Associate and Deputy Principals had regular scheduled classes. These classes were not the occassional relief or substitute class but where full year scheduled classes in the Principals teaching speciality.
I have to say that I like this as an idea.
I know that the role of the Principal is a diverse and varied one. Matters, do arise that require the immediate attention of the schools leadership – this is to be expected. Teaching Principals would sometimes have to skip a class, there has to be flexibility.
But….. The grounding that the Principal would get from being in the classroom on a daily basis, from preparing, delivering and following up on lessons; from attending parent teacher conferences in the role of the classroom teacher; from writing reports and entering grades in to the school management systems would be invaluable. There is nothing like the real thing to give you a realistic idea about teaching
I am not a Principal, but I would love to hear from school leaders who are teaching Principals and those who aren’t? Is the teaching Principal a realistic goal? Or are the demands placed on Senior management such that this is not feasible?
I believe the 21st Century teacher (and principal) is a:
- Adaptor
- Communicator
- Learner
- Visionary
- Leader
- Model
- Collaborator
- Risk taker
They lead by example, change happens from the top down, as well as from the grass roots up. Should the Principal do this from the classroom as well as the staffroom?
July 25th, 2009 at 11:59 am
What do you mean by “Principal” in your system? Is it the same as a Principal Teacher in Scotland?
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andrewch Reply:
July 25th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Hi David
The principal is the teacher who runs the school – the headmaster/mistress. The principal teacher describe in the wikipedia article is the our head of department, faculty or perhaps curriculum manager.
Cheers
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July 25th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
I agree totally. So many principals breathe a sigh of relief in having, at last, reached the swivel chair. They then sit about inventing even more unrealistic expectations of time on teachers.
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July 25th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Absolutely, Principals should teach. A few of our schools have Principals that teach and as you say, not only does it keep them firmly grounded in the reality of classroom practice, but it also places them on a similar level to the teachers. I think this is important. Rather than Big Brother watching over teachers’ shoulders all the time, he or she becomes a colleague. Surely this would add credibility to initiatives senior leadership want teachers to buy into.
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July 25th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Hi AndrewA difficult one really. The role of the principal is about the extent of the sphere of influence. I believe the principals role is to work ON the school rather than simply IN it (to hijack the business analogy).
I absolutely agree that the principal has to have professional and pedagogical credibility with staff and parents but this does not necessarily mean teaching on a regular basis.
I am in my first role where I have a choice about whether I teach regularly or not. I do miss it but for the first time as well I can focus on one role and do it well. Classroom teaching takes skill, time and planning. Principalship does as well. Doing both well is impossible and it seems that always one is giving way to the other. It is nice not to have to make the choice about which it is.
Having said that I am often releasing people or taking classes. It is however not sustained with the same group.
Good principals will always have their feet on the ground and be profoundly aware of the impact of their decisions on their teaching staff.
To answer your question …. Teaching principalship is hard. Sole charge principalship has to be the hardest job in education!
Teaching principalship is however an apprenticeship for larger schools. It would make all principals more realistic if they had to go through the smaller schools before embarking on leading larger schools. May prevent the kinds of issues Allanah is talking about even.
cheers
Greg
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July 25th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
It is an unfortunate reality here that our principals in most larger schools are now more site managers who are being taken further away from accepting any teaching load. The department continually require principals to report and manage in ways that would tax any individual so the consequence for us has been that we seldom see our site leader. While our current principal made an effort to visit every teacher in their class, this being his first year at this school, there has been little interaction with him since where he has been able to actively participate in curriculum type matters. It is a huge concern to see the way these roles are going. Principals here are now more like business managers and have to juggle the administrative side while continuing to address the core business of managing a learning environment.
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July 26th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
It is very important that the school’s leaders teach.
The reality, across the western world, is that many are very far from the classroom and in fact, may have not taught since the internet and digital revolutions impacted in such a ubiquitous way on our systems.
Having said all that, every Boss I have ever worked for has a special knack with kids and I understood why they had progressed in this challenging profession.
It takes a special person to be a principal and they often take a lot of flack from people with no intention of stepping up – or being even thoughtful or balanced in their commentary about their Boss.
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August 11th, 2009 at 3:57 am
How about this take?
I am an assoc. principal. My principal does teach– he teaches classes to teachers!! He is now teaching assessment to teachers. They are learning how to design GOOD assessments and to correlate their teaching objective (learning targets that are presented to students daily) with what is assessed and to make sure the correct weight of what is taught is reflected on the exams given to students. Nearly all assessments are being revamped. The significance of continual informat assessment while teaching is also a major topic.
This type of teaching by a principal DOES make a difference to students, staff, and parents.
Most administrators in our district are teaching — their students are the teachers. A bit of a different way to do professional development but highly effective.
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