For much of my learning journey as a educator and leader, I have been very much guided by the first question ever put to me at University over 23 years ago.... "Why do you want to become a teacher?"
Those words resound within me not because I distinctly sitting in a raised lecture theatre and finding the excitement of being in a room with other potential teachers about to embark on their journey, but because I remember writing the words "to help a child develop their self esteem"........
This was a time when technology was only used to publish a word document and the internet barely existed. Email wasn't a thing and 9/11 hadn't even happened.
Jumping ahead to 2018, I found myself developing the question for my Masters thesis, "How can the culture of a school develop the socio-emotional and academic outcomes of a child"..... Without actually speaking this through with my lecturer, I was very much intrigued to see how culture within a school developed a child's socio-emotional and academic competencies. At this point in my career, I had worked in various school environments. But one that resounded with me was when I could tangibly see a culture transforming before my eyes..... one where I could see students thriving..... one where the lunch time detention room wasn't required... one where the behaviour of students didn't just align with school expectations....... the students felt belonging and connection. Of course the odd misbehaviour became apparent occasionally, but the students were too focused on learning and developing positive relationships that the punitive nature of times passed was not required. However, I was intrigued that when I began leading at a school, due to my being a "leader, I was the one who had to walk into classrooms and be the authoritarian. I had to remove students who were "misbehaving" because this was the nature or culture of the school and this resounded heavily with my own philosophy. How was removing a child from a classroom affecting "self esteem?" Which led me to my thesis question.
On my quest to find the answer, I began reading the work of Dr Pamela Cantor. Impressed by her story and her work in initiating Turnaround for Children, I thought it best to speak with some of the schools that worked with this organisation. Heading to NYC was an amazing experience. And it's not until now that I am realising why the last 6 years the drive to answer my thesis question has resounded...... Not because when I spoke with my lecturer she knew that this question would result in a 90,000 word thesis and I only needed to write 18,000 (so I changed my question).... but because the work of Pamela Cantor is becoming so much more prevalent.
Her lastest book "Whole Child Development, Learning and Thriving" delves into the why. It delves into how school cultures shouldn't just be teaching resilience, we should see all children thriving. For successful learning to occur, holistic and dynamic systems are required. "Thriving focuses on optimal functioning, wheras resilience attends to adequate or "okay" functioning, largely because resilience research has focused on children and families facing enormous challenges, adversity and trauma" (Cantor et al 2024). Holistic school communities that develop 21st century cultures that thrive lend themselves to:
Positive Developmental Relationships
Environments filled with Safety and Belonging
Rich learning Experiences and Pathways
Intentional Development of Critical skills, Mindsets and Habits
Integrated Systems of Support.
Together these elements support optimised development, learning and thriving for all young people, at all ages.
I've seen with my own eyes, the affects that culture has both positively and not so positively upon a child. I'm not possessing myself to be a Rhode Scholar, but I know myself to be a transformational leader, who works with others to provide learning environments that support the above elements. And Simon Sinek speaks about the importance of a team. Without strong networks of support, the above elements wouldn't work. Enabling students to learn how to learn and to empower intrapersonal and interpersonal skills and mindsets is also vital for this model to work.
We have a long way to go to enable our schools globally to move forward, but I do believe that using the above structures that school cultures will begin to thrive and we will see a generation of students empowered to not only live in a world that thrives, but to see whole communities thriving.
I look forward to working with Bower Schools to see how schools in Adelaide, can use Cantor's Principles to see thriving schools develop here. Bower uses a four perspective meta-frame to guide the work of development, space, time and politics. I am so excited to be working with Bower to see how my experience can assist in the evolving nature of a thriving education culture and to also see how the Whole-Child Development, Learning and Thriving framework can co-exist.
Cantor, P. Learner, R.M. Pittman, K.J. Chase, P.A. Gomperts, N. (2021). Whole- Child Development, Learning and Thriving: A dynamic systems approach. Cambridge University Press. UK
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