KEY ISSUE – Teachers are experts in their field, so how can they ensure their pedagogical approaches and initiatives are well-received and championed?
- Understanding the SLT perspective
- Five considerations to get your teacher-driven initiative endorsed
- Does this initiative align clearly with the school’s mission?
- Does this initiative solve a problem, enhance an existing offering, or achieve compliance with a required standard?
- Who does this initiative require buy-in from or create additional (or a change in) work for?
- Is there a clear plan and capacity for this initiative to move forward?
- Is this a teacher-led initiative or a teacher-led suggestion?
- In Summary
- About Daryl Sinclair
As the new year begins, many teachers will have ideas and initiatives to create the best for their students. With renewed energy after a break and the cultural phenomena of resolutions, new beginnings, and reflection, it can be a great time to start a teacher-driven initiative.
New enrichment programs, renewing the curriculum for greater inclusivity, an improved program of field trips, revisiting support for diverse educational needs, the list goes on.
Unfortunately, not all teacher-driven initiatives are received successfully and teachers can find it frustrating when they believe that they have a great initiative to improve their students’ learning experience but feel that it is blocked by the Senior or Middle Leadership Team (Henceforth: SLT).
The expertise for such initiatives is typically best informed by teachers. As such, the major barrier to initiative success is SLT endorsement. But these conversations with SLT can often be summed up as:
- We don’t have the budget right now
- We are locked into our initiatives for this year; let’s revisit this next year
- This initiative is not clear enough; refine it, and we can discuss this further
- This isn’t something that matches what our board or parent body wants right now
Do any of those sound familiar?
All of these soft and hard ‘rejections’ can be completely valid and are often more complex than they may initially seem; I have personal experience planning enrichment programs, student councils, and field trip programs that have been rejected. It was incredibly frustrating at the time, but drawing on my experiences in leadership, I now understand past decisions better. I believe my insights can boost the success of your proposals and remove the uncertainty of proposing teacher-driven initiatives.
The key task for teachers is to gain endorsement from their SLT. You want to convince your SLT to engage with your concept, open channels to data access, crunch the numbers (especially where there are financial implications), and discuss initial plans.
To support the success of your next teacher-driven initiative, let’s investigate the SLT perspective.
Understanding the SLT perspective
Now, I won’t list oft-repeated concepts of being ‘data-driven’ and having ‘clear communication’. The truth is that GDPR compliance often means teachers do not have access to the data they need to justify their initiatives explicitly, nor should teachers be expected to be data analysts at the first step. SLT needs to be engaged enough to begin this research themselves or give you access to the resources you need.
There are five main considerations for SLT when hearing proposals. With any proposed initiative, you generally need to respond positively to at least 3 out of 5 for any hope of the proposal being endorsed.
Five considerations to get your teacher-driven initiative endorsed
The five key considerations to get your initiative endorsed are:
- Does this initiative align clearly with the school’s mission?
- Does this initiative solve a problem, enhance an existing offering, or achieve compliance with a required standard?
- Who does this initiative require buy-in from or create additional (or a change in) work for?
- Is there a clear plan and capacity for this initiative to move forward?
- Is this a teacher-driven initiative or a teacher-driven suggestion?
Let’s work through these considerations and their importance.
1. Does this initiative align clearly with the school’s mission?
Importance level – Moderate: It should be there, but greater alignment can be developed as the initiative is refined to see if it meets the other considerations well.
Schools are working hard on their identity, messaging, and living their mission. Any initiative must be shown to align with this language and documentation, but this may not be make or break. Even tenuous links can be improved if there are strong alignments with other considerations.
Typically, you want to demonstrate that the initiative serves one of the following:
- Student safety
- Opportunities and futures
- Increasing the attractiveness of the school to prospective families
- Student equity and inclusion
- Academic excellence
- Community development (this may involve parents, students, staff, or all)
For example, a field trip should link to experiential learning and meeting role-models who may broaden students horizons. Progressive pedagogies, should be linked to students who will benefit from the changes who may have been marginalised up until this point.
Show that your initiative improves the environment at your school, the attractiveness to new families, or the outcomes of the students within to be confident of a positive reception.
2. Does this initiative solve a problem, enhance an existing offering, or achieve compliance with a required standard?
Importance – High: This is the only consideration that can stand in isolation. SLT will work with you to sort out the other considerations if this consideration is met strongly enough.
Compliance with exam boards, international accrediting bodies, or national ministry requirements is the strongest support for initiatives. En route to gaining IB, NEASC, CIS, and other accreditations, I have watched schools fast-track previously blocked initiatives with full endorsement. In two separate schools, fledgling Student Council projects were suddenly received with open arms once specific accreditations were on the line.
Proposals must respond to a need, challenge or opportunity for excellence. Demonstrate or explain this clearly to get past initial resistance to initiatives – synchronising with accreditation needs is a surefire way to get a more positive response.
3. Who does this initiative require buy-in from or create additional (or a change in) work for?
Importance – High: If the initiative is optional (not compliance-related), staff buy-in and scale of impact are key factors.
Initiatives can range from departmental impact to whole year groups, sections, or the whole school. Though a new approach to literacy and essay writing may seem centralised to English, SLT may only want such changes made if they can be implemented school-wide.
While working in a medium-sized international school, an English department initiative led to staff-wide annual training in the Australian Teaching English Language Learners in Mainstream Classrooms program to ensure consistency school-wide in approaches to language acquisition.
Depending on who will be impacted or what procedures will need to be updated (and retaught to staff), the ability of SLT to endorse your initiative will vary wildly. BUT, your clear consideration of these factors and approaches to them can be a deciding factor.
Think big (and small) about who may need to be involved in your initiative and have conceptual plans for both. The larger the impact of your initiative, the more additional considerations you will need to address–especially consideration number 5.
4. Is there a clear plan and capacity for this initiative to move forward?
Importance – Moderate: planning needs to be considered but doesn’t have to be finalised. SLT is there to help realise your plans, but you must be proactive – see consideration number 5.
There is never enough time – Though this may be a common and easy response for SLT, it is their job to ensure the whole school ecosystem, including parts not immediately visible to an individual teacher, are not overworked. When considering new field trips and enrichment for students, you may not be aware of the demands on the front desk, Head of Year, or other relevant roles that the change may impact.
The better you can demonstrate awareness of the considerations within your sphere of influence, the easier it is for SLT to engage in a meaningful conversation about how they can make the parts they are responsible for work.
Demonstrate consideration of workloads and the realistic impact your initiative could have on you and your colleagues. Sometimes, this may be the stopping block for a teacher-driven initiative, but do your best to show SLT that you are ready to go if there is capacity.
5. Is this a teacher-led initiative or a teacher-led suggestion?
Importance – HIGH: This may be the most critical consideration, leading to immediate rejection if not approached with care.
During my time as a leader at various levels in different schools, it is easy to identify initiatives that a teacher would like you to support them in executing. Where they need middle to senior-level endorsement and resources to act, simultaneously, it is even easier to spot a teacher request, wishlist, or sometimes a veiled complaint they want you to handle in their absence.
The latter will likely receive an immediate rejection.
Here are two contrasting examples from my experience:
Teacher A approaches SLT to share a program they would like to enrol students on. They have the dates and costs and have already considered how they or members of their department can be responsible adults for the program. They recognise that there will be demands on the leaders responsible for student enrichment, but they have looked at the school calendar and are confident they can make it happen.
Brilliant, let’s discuss and see what SLT can do to help make this happen.
In contrast, teacher B approaches SLT and tells them that the students with specific diverse educational needs are not receiving enough support. They have seen that there is an educational approach that could support them, and they think ‘the school’ should be doing this too. They have sent SLT an email with a link to a related article and stated that it is brilliant.
Thanks, but no thanks; this is not teacher-driven, and I cannot even be certain that you will buy into it if we attempt to proceed. Though this initiative might be great, there is no engagement from the teacher, nor are any other considerations properly addressed.
If you have an initiative, make sure you are initiating it, not suggesting it. Teachers need to have ownership of their initiatives, and good leadership will help make it happen, not do it for you. Suggestions and requests have their place but should still be approached collaboratively and with intent.
In Summary
The considerations above may not guarantee a teacher-driven initiative is endorsed, but will go a long way in preventing a complete or soft rejection. Appropriate presentation may even salvage a rejection to a simple and intentional postponement.
Be resilient and intentional in your plans. Basic advice, such as using SMART goals and customising your proposal to the personality type of your SLT, will also help.
The world of education is evolving, and the changes need to occur collaboratively and be owned by the teachers at the forefront of delivery. Be sure to push for initiatives you believe in to support schools in becoming more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
