What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.”
C.S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew
As I continue to unpack the complex world of the teacher librarian, I have been churning with self doubt. I have been questioning the transference of skills between my previous role as a Performing Arts teacher, and my new role as Library & Resources Coordinator. I have felt, at times, like a fraud in this new role, knowing intrinsically that this position was the “right fit”, but questioning the validity of my skills. Was I “bookish enough?” Did I have enough technology nowse? What if I was still learning how to research?
I then read Peter Senge’s (2013, pp. 3-15) article Give me a lever long enough…and single handed I can move the world and something fell into place. I realised in that moment, the strong connection between my performing arts experience and some key tenets of educational leadership. It occurred to me that I could consider my educational organisation as a drama ensemble. I reflected on my experience directing student performances and realised that I had built key skills in my students that I could now foster in my leadership role within the school. Both in a drama ensemble and in an educational context, each individual must work together for the betterment of the whole. Senge wrote about the need for discipline, to practice and refine ones craft. He explored that to be an excellent educator, you need to seek out and accept feedback. This idea is central to any performer, the desire and need to constantly development one’s craft.
In an organisation, building a shared vision is imperative for success. Within that shared vision, dialogue is important and dissenting opinions are ok, as discord can create deeper levels of understanding. Senge wrote about the importance of educators being open to changing their actions and perspective. He believed, as do I, that negative ways of interacting and dialogue undermine all good intentions in striving for excellent educational outcomes.
The ability to carry on “learningful” conversations that balance inquiry and advocacy, where people expose their own thinking effectively and make that thinking open to the influence of others (Senge, 2012, p. 8).
From this, I realise that there are endless opportunities for collaboration. I believe, in accordance with what I have read, that effective collaboration and educational leadership is about building relationships and viewing my organisation as a connected whole. That collaboration is about trusting in the relationships that I have fostered. It is about trusting in the small and large moments of connection, in seizing those small conversations that can open the door to something larger. It is about trusting the small or large changes an individual makes to curriculum, lessons, units and teaching moments. Sharing new tools, ideas and ways of working. That all of these small and large decisions, impact on an school. Trusting that even if I can’t see the ripples of influence, these changes are building a stronger, more dynamic whole.
Reference: Senge, P. (2013). Give me a lever long enough…and single handed I can move the world. In Grogan, M (Ed.), The Jossey-Bass reader on educational leadership (3rd ed., pp. 3-15). John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.