My educational and leadership philosophy
“School are learning organisations”
(Sharples et al., 2019)
This simple statement highlights how teachers must be ‘expert learners’, on behalf of both their students and themselves. Evidence shows that the number one impact on student learning is the quality of teachers, who should hold high expectations for both learners and themselves, while aiming for continuous improvement (Coe et al., 2020). They do this ‘not because they are ineffective, but because they can be even better’ (Wiliam, 2023).
What we know is that research engagement, reflective practice and effective implementation all play a critical role in driving excellent teaching and learning (Cordingley et al, 2015). As a result, schools focused on continuous improvement and innovation invest first and foremost in cultivating ‘adaptive expertise’ in their teachers (Le Fevre et al., 2019) - and are, in turn, driven by teachers seeking ongoing development (Jones and Macpherson, 2021).
My commitment to this virtuous cycle of ongoing growth and development has been at the very heart of my educational philosophy since I first stepped into the classroom, and continues to drive my work each and every day.
“Educational leaders serve their learning communities through total commitment to the development of themselves and others”
We also know that the second most important factor is the quality of school leadership (Coe et al., 2022) - a key wraparound element, scaling up what works in the classroom to whole-school level, while providing critical organisational and material support. Educational leaders serve their learning communities through total commitment to the development of themselves and others; crafting a compelling, inclusive vision and modelling a culture of transparent, collaborative practice.
Diverse experience has taught me that effective leadership is fundamentally an exercise in empowerment; building the motivation, alignment and capacity to create stronger learning communities through shared vision and collaboration. When aligned with a supportive, growth-oriented culture, I believe that every member of a learning community has the potential to serve through their own situated leadership.
Below, I have outlined five key beliefs and accompanying commitments that represent the values and behaviours underpinning my own leadership approach.
Understanding, supporting and providing security for colleagues and students is the foundation of a caring and inclusive leadership philosophy.
My success as a leader serving my community rests upon a commitment to understand and relate to individual members on their own terms, providing the space and freedom for their needs and voices to be heard.
Accordingly, I aim to be available and provide a consistently supportive, non-judgemental ear, listening actively and with humility.
Creating psychologically safe spaces to share new ideas and perspectives, curate and celebrate successes, and listen to frustrations with calmness and attention is fundamental to my leadership practice.
I will aim to think beyond my own needs, providing coaching and resources where appropriate, while taking time to understand and lending my voice in support of those who are struggling or unheard.
Moreover, I will protect vulnerable members of my community, closely aligning my practice to ITFCP safeguarding recommendations while being vigilant and responsive to any and all concerns. These commitments will help to develop security, trust and shared purpose within my learning community, empowering those ready to grow and supporting those in need.
As educators, our fundamental responsibility is to model high quality learning in thought and action.
When cultivating a learning environment that builds the skills and knowledge of the next generation, simply reiterating previous practice alone will never be sufficient. Adaptivity and innovation must be at the heart of modern learning.
Educators should be trained in and committed to actively reexamining their practice and beliefs in the classroom; continually updating their own knowledge and skills to offer students a vision of what great learning really looks like.
This requires the adoption of a dynamic growth mindset, focused on honest and unflinching self-reflection, coupled with the challenging yet rewarding mental labour of ongoing professional learning and engagement with current research.
It also requires building a psychologically safe and trusting professional community, in which collaborative development, critical friendship, candour and coaching are seen as an opportunity for growth and meaningful dialogue; in other words, an integral part of, rather than a threat to, teachers’ professional identity.
This starts with myself.
I consider it my professional duty to habitually model critical enquiry, reflective practice and accountability in all aspects of my work, as both an expert learner and a learning expert.
When these form the core of teachers’ daily professional practice, the same model naturally extends to students in the classroom, facilitating a discursive environment of reflective co-creation.
We cannot predict or control the future, but we can shape the people who will build it.
The next generation are entering a world of immense opportunity; mediated through a highly interconnected and globalised virtual economy, rapidly evolving transformative technologies, and an informational landscape of extraordinary complexity and sophistication.
One of the many studies attempting to predict the future of work suggests that ‘around 85% of the jobs that today’s learners will be doing in 2030 haven’t been invented yet’ (IFTF, 2017). Schools bear ever increasing responsibility for responding to this challenge, often reduced to the role of preparing learners for this dynamic and undefined future employment.
Yet schools aren’t here to create employees.
We are here to grow people.
Rather than attempting to predict the opaque workplace demands of future generations, schools are better placed to drive a solutions-focused approach to what is within our control. Our mission must be to develop the next generation of compassionate, resilient and adaptive citizens, who are prepared to face these future challenges both collaboratively and independently.
Committing to a learner-centred approach to learning ensures that students are competent using their personal skillset and abilities, while also able to independently develop learning strategies for potential future challenges.
Through a curriculum that explicitly encourages inquiry, reflection and collaboration, children learn how to embrace the unknown, navigating complexity through teamwork and solution-oriented approaches.
Promoting an enquiring, connected and ethically responsible learner profile lowers the barriers of entry to the modern world, developing in students an inclusive and dynamic intercultural perspective with which they can rapidly situate themselves in their present and future communities with confidence. More importantly, it develops the whole person. This exposure prepares students holistically not only to “make a living…[but to] make a life” (Fink, 2010: 42), in a future where shared growth, influence and inclusive vision, rather than authority and tradition, are key motivators.
Diversity, and our commitment to it, is one of our most powerful assets
Harnessing the power of collective knowledge, labour and ambition has often been the key to enabling many of humanity’s greatest achievements.
Yet while we emphasise the power of collaboration, we would be neglecting both our moral responsibility and the opportunity to reach our highest potential by ignoring the accompanying importance of diversity.
Creating an organisational culture that is explicitly anti-racist, equity-oriented and committed to implementing meaningful diversity and inclusion policy is not just a ‘nice-to-have’; it is an essential aspect of any organisation that values intercultural understanding, adaptability and innovation.
Embracing the complexity and richness of our learning communities offers security, grounding, commitment, understanding and opportunity to every individual within them, creating a culture “where diversity is seen as a strength of the school rather than a deficit to be overcome” (Barakat and Brooks, 2016: 5).
Some ways in which I have committed to this include:
Gaining a richer understanding of neurodiversity through close collaboration with SEND teachers
Reading widely around and taking training in anti-racism in schools and society
Joining safeguarding and Social Emotional Learning working groups and workshops
Initiating conversations with senior leadership to address diversity barriers in staff and student recruitment practices
Widening representation in the curriculum and resources
Developing and implementing policies and frameworks that support a culture of inclusive learning; such as a linguistically inclusive whole-school multilingualism approach.
I will continue to hold myself and the organisation I work within strongly accountable for progress in this area - the work of ensuring fundamental dignity and opportunity for every individual invariably benefits the community and cannot be ignored, especially given its close alignment with the preceding principles.
Our future must be centred on transforming extractive ecological models into regenerative ones
We find ourselves at an ecological tipping point. It is no coincidence that the basic act of supporting physical and mental wellbeing, social justice and sustainability are couched in the language of crisis and conflict.
Yet simply shifting the discourse alone is not sufficient - it reflects a deeper underlying internalisation of our current destructive economic paradigm.
To truly change course for the next generation, we must realise the regenerative power of an ecologically conscious and caring education.
This thread of sustainability underpins my practice in two key ways, both grounded in the metaphor of ecology.
First, I am committed to promoting and sustaining nature-centred environmental ecologies. This means reeducating myself about the natural world we share, mitigating my footprint, and sharing this journey. Throughout my life and career, this has taken the form of establishing organisation-wide ecological accreditation, developing working relationships with environmental protection organisations, and drawing this into policy and curriculum. Partnering with other educators and leaders in this area continues to bring great reward.
Second, I am committed to crafting and sustaining healthy human-centred learning ecologies. Drawing on a systems approach to organisational leadership, I believe that people are strongest at learning and teaming when they are afforded the psychological safety, professional support and autonomy to be their best, most authentic selves. Ways I drive this include practices and mental models such as ‘radical candour’, individual and systemic team coaching, organisational culture mapping, a ‘deimplementation first’ solutions focus, an ‘abundance mindset’, equity-oriented professional learning, clear and transparent vision and values, and authentic leadership that foregrounds dialogue and vulnerability.
In combination, these two foci move us away from the ‘business as usual’ extractive model of boom, bust and burnout, to a more balanced and sustainable synthesis of human and environmental needs.
We owe this not only to the next generation, but also to ourselves.
References
Barakat, M. and Brooks, J.S. (2016) ‘When Globalization Causes Cultural Conflict’, Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, 19(4), pp. 3–15
Coe, R., Kime, S. and Singleton, D. (2022) A model for school environment and leadership (School environment and leadership: Evidence review). Evidence Based Education.
Cordingley, P., Higgins, S., Greany, T., Buckler, N., Coles-Jordan, D., Crisp, B., Saunders, L., Coe, R. (2015). Developing Great Teaching: Lessons from the international reviews into effective professional development. Teacher Development Trust.
Fink, D. (2010) ‘Developing and Sustaining Leaders of Learning’, in Davies, B. and Brundrett, M. (eds) Developing Successful Leadership. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 41–59.
Jones, K. and Macpherson, R. (2021) The Teaching Life: Professional Learning and Career Progression. John Catt.
Labaree, D.F. (2018) ‘Public schools for private gain: The declining American commitment to serving the public good’, Phi Delta Kappan, 100(3), pp. 8–13.
Le Fevre, D., Timperley, H., Twyford, K., & Ell, F. (2019). Leading Powerful Professional Learning: Responding to Complexity With Adaptive Expertise. Corwin Press.
Sharples, J., Albers, B., Fraser, S., Kime, S. (2019) Putting Evidence to Work: A School’s Guide to Implementation. Evidence Endowment Foundation.
Wiliam, D. (2023) ‘Teacher quality: What it is, why it matters, and how to get more of it’, Impact: Journal of the Chartered College of Teaching (17)