Sunday, October 24, 2010
Finding Others Without Losing Yourself
Mary Parker Follett (as cited in Riggio, Chaleff & Lipman-Blumen, 2008) stated leadership "is a partnership in reciprocal following." In other words, one that intends to lead must also follow; therefore "there are no leaders who are not followers, not followers who are not leaders, both need to learn what and how to follow" (Riggio et al., 2008). A good leader works to discover the best way to lead and follow the people with which they work. For example, good teachers will ask their students for feedback on an assignment or will ask questions to better understand the learning styles, needs, and personalities of their students. Consequently, teachers, who are normally leadership figures, become followers of their students; the teacher follows what the student says in order to better teach and serve them. As a follower, the teacher ascertains the information and insight necessary to be a better leader and teacher of their students. In addition, students, who are normally followers in the classroom, become leaders of their teachers; simply put, students lead the teacher in the direction they both need to go to achieve the best possible result. This example works best for the situation students and teachers are in; the teacher and student leads and follows depending on the situation and the legitimate needs of themselves and the other.
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3 comments:
Ben,
I agree with you 100% that teachers shold be the follwers in the classroom. All of us have those veteran teachers that teach the same lessons year after year. Those teachers would be more successful if they learned to listen to their students and change their lessons based on their students needs.
We know those changes don't necessarily happen every year. For me those changes happen from class period to class period.
It is so ironic that you mentioned this because I am, as well as many of my colleagues, are having a very difficult time educating our students this year. We know many of our district policies are creating learned helplessness and not encouraging our students to become lifelong independent learners. But regardless of what we feel distict policies are doing, we as teachers (and I am spekaing to myself) have to continuously evolve and grow to better educate our students.
I do ask my students for feedback, to reflect on my teaching as I reflect on my techign as well, continuously mandate they ask questions (so I can be a better teacher and they learn more), but I am guilty this year of not taking the time to cater my lessons to my students needs this year. There are some things I need to try, things I need to change because I am not being as successful, hence neither are my students, as I am accustomed to being. Thanks for bringing that to my attention!
We can always complain about what others are doing, but change has to start from within ourselves!!!! That's true leadership right?
Great post, Ben. So true...
In KISD we used to say, "All teachers are leaders, and all leaders are teachers."
In my way of thinking you are describing what Senge calls a learning community. How hard and unsatisfying it must be to believe you must always be the leader and blaze the path "solo." Giving orders from "on high" might be immediately easier, but the long-term results are, well, not very long term.
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