Welcome back to TAMU-SA for the fall semester. After our traveling seminar last semester, it was nice to meet in one location that provided a variety of work settings. I sat in a classroom with one group as you brainstormed, using technology to create your list of challenges. Another group was at the computer terminals supplementing your own thoughts with contributions from the field while note taking on a pencil and paper pad. Another group headed to the coffee shop next door where you had a lively discussion without any notes taken. Yet all of you were in the same class doing the same task in different ways. This is the reality of modern university learning. Adult learning is social, problem focused, authentic, characterized by absence of threat, intrinsically rewarding. The instructor is facilitator rather than expert. (That is difficult for a former history professor who has more to say that students have the capacity to sit and get.) I learn something from you every time we meet. Look for the current semester to follow a similar path, only with you emerging as better informed experts with each successive week.
In our first class meeting of the 2011 semester we started thinking about visioning. The 21st Century Superintendent has to maintain a dualistic existence. On the one hand, there are the state mandates for accountability to must be adhered to and principals, teachers, and community enjoined to continue addressing and supporting. To use Bernard Bass' definition of leadership, this would be transactional leadership, getting the job done with the customary sanctions and rewards for expected levels of performance.
On the other hand, the superintendent has got to lead the way in helping principals, teachers, and community move beyond the expected, becoming problem-finders and issue identifiers. Not in a cynical way to be used polically or just general negativity. Rather the problem-finding pessimism needs to be the kind of scutiny that has a vision, an ideal of how things are, how things should be, and a sense of how things can realistically move from "is" to "should." In schools this means looking beyond the customary day-to-day expectations, instilling a higher level of thinking and a higher level of human effort that can be summoned to realize the vision. Knowing that it is possible to seek a higher vision of what people should know as well as have the capacity to become when they complete their schooling is critical. It would take way beyond minimum competency standards that currently define our accountability system.
In class this Saturday I asked each of you to work together to identify as many "lions, and tigers, and bears" as you could based on your own experience as well those "doom and gloom" scenarios you could find through other sources. For a first attempt, you did well. This is the how visioning begins. It has to be understood that this is a brainstorming activity among folks that understand the value of creative pessimism. Inventiveness and creativity have always been spawned but this ability to see a need that others may not yet see. Some of us jumped ahead to the next level of what we can do to solve the crises that we see before us with solutions that many of us had already seen, heard, or thought of before. That is our natural tendency as problem solvers. As the instructor of this course, I want to extend the brainstorming session that began in class to continue throughout the semester. We have plenty of time at the end to find solutions. I want us to dig deeper on this strand of thought. I have created a mechanism for achieving this so please continue to read carefully.
As we continue throughout the semester, I am going to be asking each you in groups to become the guest editors of this blog and other blogs designed to address themes of thought or challenges faced by superintendents. I will be setting up additional blogsites to follow the themes identified in class on Saturday; possibly some that will emerge later. If you are selected to guest edit a blog, I want you to collaborate by phone or email and come up with the next posting for this blogsite by an assigned date. I want the posting to include a summary of the past week conversations, some collective responses from your team, and an extension of what we found either in the form of link, video, or other reading.
Once the assigned team has posted, I want each of the rest of the class to post thoughtful responses individually. Please post thoughtful, informed responses. Responses that go beyond what has been said. "Gee whiz, that was great" -- responses are no longer acceptable. "I agree with that!" or "me too!" or "ditto!" are not the responses of a leader (it hasn't all been said); you probably would not hear a superintendent respond that way in a meeting. Enthusiasm is important but informed and measured responses that issue challenges or queries to colleagues would be a higher level of response for someone at that level. Possibly suggesting new avenues of inquiry. Approaching the material in a way of leading and framing or reframing thought for others is what a superintendent would do in a visioning culture. This "intellectual stimulation is a key part of the type of leadership that inspires and energizes others. It is what Bernard Bass and James Burns MacGregor have framed "transformationl leadership," leadership that takes leadership beyond mere transactional leadership, taking others "beyond expectations." I challenge you to be transformational leaders in this sense with every posting your make.
Please read carefully. Each of you will be challenged to take on editorial responsibility and to respond in this manner -- each of you can find a quote, an interview, a video clip, or other reading that would further add to the conversation as you respond to the prior blog posts.
I am assigning Debbie Fey, Roland Toscano, and Benjamin Oakley to take the lead on this "School Visioning" blog. I would like to see your follow-up blog to our class session and this blog posted by Sunday, January 29. All others will be expected to post responses prior to our next class meeting. Call me at 210.788.5607 if you have any questions. I encourage you to use your technical skills to communicate and collaborate during this time. I am leaving the design of the blog to you and the management of this site with my assistance to you for the duration of the semester. I will let you decide how to share the research and writing responsiblities. I encourage joint writing as it is possible to edit each others" work on a blog, once posted. The link is http://www.blogspot.com/. The login is tamusaleadership@gmail.com. Password is "superintend." Select the blog posting labeled "Perspectives on School Visioning."
For reference and summary or to assist your postings and responses, here is the first round of links and videos that we examined Saturday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U RSA A very thoughtful video about the disparity of modern day challenges of our day and the educational assumptions that we retain from 19th and 20th centurty education modalities. (10.23 minutes) (Appreciation to Mr. Toscano for this one.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksCooyxUE7Y Supt. Chris Kelly of Vacouver Public Schools on the goals of education to provide all children with a) a sense of belonging; b) self determination; and c)
competence. (4 minutes)
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reports/pittd/vision.htm An excellent detailed breakdown of the visioning process as provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
http://www.futures.hawaii.edu/dator/futures/how2.html How to conduct a Futures Visioning Workshop. A framework for Futures Visioning provided by the Commission on the future of the Tennesse judiciary
http://www.tasanet.org/images/visioning/content.pdf Public Education Visioning Institute. A summary of the findings of 30 Texas superintendents regarding the future education challenges facing Texas.
http://www.tasanet.org/images/visioning/workinprogress.pdf 48 page document detailing the vision created for the future of Texas education.
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