A Practical Visionary Leading A Culture Of Thinking
This blog is the first of a series of posts about building a Culture of Thinking from a grassroots approach at Rochester High School, a suburban high school located in Rochester Hills, Michigan, United States. RHS serves just over 1700 students and encompasses close to 100 staff members.
“For classrooms to be cultures of thinking for students, schools must be cultures of thinking for teachers”
Prior to arriving to RHS, I was deeply interested in learning about creating a culture of thinking. Over the years, I was building a knowledge base and continuously taking risks to create a culture of thinkers within the classrooms I engaged. Upon arriving to RHS, my principal heard about my previous classroom interest and involvement and hoped it would have a ripple effect throughout his school. But how? On one hand, he made clear that creating a culture of thinking was a priority for him, and on the other hand he admitted that it was a new lane of research for him. He was hoping that I would support him in creating a school wide culture where students could experience different ways of thinking, teachers would encourage deep learning, and the leadership support creative teaching.
While I was thrilled with his enthusiasm and commitment, I wondered: Is it best for him to simply declare his vision to staff? Will teachers live up to his dreams and if so, for how long? So many initiatives in schools start from the top and move down. However, they often don’t seem to have much of an effect or create much buy-in from teachers. I was wondering if everyone wouldn’t be better served with a more grassroots approach?
In an article, When Change Has Legs, David Perkins and James Reese offer four key factors that help us determine whether change efforts will remain sustainable over time. Of specific interest to me was the concept of “double influence”, that is, the need for effective leadership on two levels. Perkins and Reese explain “double influence” leaders to include a ‘political visionary’ and a ‘practical visionary’. The political visionary in most cases, including mine, is the building principal. The practical visionary is usually a teacher or a team of educators. This person manages the day-to-day opportunities on the ground in which they hope to make positive progress. In this case, the practical visionary is me. The key is that the political visionary and the practical visionary must plan and work together. By working as a team, I felt that a culture of thinking could be weaved into the already existing fabric of the school and not be seen as just one more thing.
As I began work with my school principal, we tried to keep in mind of one of the foundational stances of the Creating a Culture of Thinking in Action framework: “For classrooms to be cultures of thinking for students, schools must be cultures of thinking for teachers”. This meant we couldn’t just talk at teacher, but we needed to engage them with ideas, pique their curiosity, and yes, make them feel just a little bit uncomfortable so that they would want to find out more. We also wanted to prompt some serious reflection on teaching and learning and not present cultures of thinking as something one merely implements. In short, we wanted to become a school where we continuously learn, think, question, design, take risks, and reflect on learning and thinking from the ground up and on an equal footing.
We began our efforts by focusing on trying to gain a better understanding of each of the cultural forces and to begin to engage in conversations with one another using shared language. To do this, we used the self-assessment forms offered in Dr. Ron Ritchhart’s book, Creating Cultures of Thinking. The principal and two assistant principals completed the leaders self-assessment tool in regards to how they were fostering a culture of thinking at the school through their example. Simultaneously, all staff members complete a self-assessment tool in regards to developing a culture of thinking in their own classroom or context. We these used these self-assessment tools as a starting point for conversations between teachers and administrators about what was happening at the school, areas of strength, and areas where we needed more attention. Teachers felt they were on a level playing field as administrators were involved in the very same process they were and had similar questions and concerns. It also set us in motion for developing personal professional goals. In my next blog, I’ll take you there!
