Being a pedagogical leader… and doors.

November 16, 2021

Pedagogical leadership is a tricky pursuit, so many nuances and complexities to navigate. While my wife and I were chatting about this the other day, the metaphor of doorways emerged… so I will try and put it into words!

It occurred to me that being a pedagogical leader means seeing a wide variety of doors in front of you and then knowing which ones to move towards, which ones to open, who to open them for and how much to open them by.

When guiding a team through unit design, for example, a pedagogical leader must make a series of choices. Having a well-designed and clear unit design process will already reveal which doors the team needs to go through in order to go deeper into the process, but the order in which those doors are opened is critical. Going through the first door must, of course, improve what happens when the next door is opened. It must be developmental, and logical. At times, however, teams encounter a locked door, or a door they can open but are struggling to get through, and a good pedagogical leader must handle that situation. Here’s some examples of situations in which that might happen.

Imagine a team has reached the point in the planning process where they must use the decisions they have already made in order to design a provocative initial experience, or series of experiences, they can use in order to give students the chance to reveal what they already know, think, understand or feel about the context . The pedagogical leader uses the unit design process to open up that door, ready for the team to start generating ideas, but the team is struggling to come up with any. In this situation, the pedagogical leader must open that door wider by sharing a few ideas of their own, by modeling the act of putting ideas on the table, by modeling creative thinking, by challenging the team to consider what is possible… and possibly even pushing those boundaries a little while they’re at it.

Imagine a team is exploring the content that they feel should shape the unit they are designing, yet they miss an area of the content that is obvious to the pedagogical leader and that could take the unit in a novel and interesting direction. The process has been designed well enough for them to see that door, move towards it and open it… but they just don’t (yet) think that way. Rather than let it slide, the pedagogical leader must nudge them towards that door, open it for them and describe what could lie on the other side… otherwise that opportunity could be missed.

Imagine a team is analyzing some student work so they can use the data they have gathered in order to make decisions about where to go next with the learning, and a pattern or trend becomes visible to the pedagogical leader but not to anyone else in the team. The process is designed to try and help the team to notice potentially powerful patterns and trends, but they just don’t (yet) see things that way. The pedagogical leader must point it out to them, describe it and open up the door that shows the team what implications for teaching and learning lie behind it.

Imagine a team has taken their unit design into a really good place and are ready to start thinking about the pedagogy that could really breathe life into what they have put on paper. However, when conversation turns to pedagogy, the pedagogical leader notices a worrying shift back to the pedagogy he/she is trying to move people away from. He/she can see, very clearly, the pedagogical moves that really would breathe life into then unit they have designed, but the team just doesn’t (yet) see the art of teaching that way. The pedagogical leader must open up that door for them and show them the practice that lies on the other side… he/she may even have to go into classrooms and show teachers what it looks like rather than just be satisfied with telling them.

I could go on coming up with examples, but I guess the main point I am trying to make is that pedagogical leadership involves, but is not limited to, the following interactions with doors.

• Knowing when people are stuck and how to generate and put ideas on the table that open doors for people and take them through to the next level.
• Knowing when people are limited by their own experience and how to nudge them towards and through doorways that push their boundaries and take them into new practices.
• Knowing when people are limiting what is possible for students and their learning and how to pull people through doors that reveal the variety of possibilities that young people deserve.

Photo by Nick Chalkiadakis on Unsplash

Written by sherrattsam Posted in Change, Collaboration, Creativity, Empowerment, Engagement, Leadership, Learning, Planning, Reflection, Research Tagged with awareness, education, inquiry, learning, teaching