Moral Purpose, Community Must Guide School Reform, Says Sergiovanni

THE DEVELOPER - December 1996/January 1997 Theories of management, motivation, and control used in corporations don't make sense for schools, argues school leadership expert Thomas Sergiovanni. Schools are moral communities that are more akin to families and they require a different approach to leadership, he says in Leadership for the Schoolhouse (Jossey-Bass, 1996). "I believe that it is possible to rally enough small groups of thoughtful and committed citizens throughout the continent to create the kind of schools we want if we are willing to change the way we think about leadership and if we are willing to change the way we think about politics in schools," writes Sergiovanni, a professor of education at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Theories are important to Sergiovanni because they affect what humans see, think, say, and do. "Theories often don't seem very relevant. But the theories I'm talking about are practical ones. They are practical because they influence what we see, how we think, what we come to believe to be true, what we say, and how we behave. They function like mindscapes by providing us with images of reality...," Sergiovanni writes. Sergiovanni suggests that, in order to change schools, communities must begin by creating new theories, "theories that better fit the context of schools and fit better what schools are trying to accomplish.'' Sergiovanni lists several characteristics for what he calls "a theory for the schoolhouse.'' Such a theory should:

Be idea based; Emphasize more real connections; Evoke sacred images of what goes on; Compel people to respond for internal rather than external reasons; Acknowledge that humans are motivated in part by self-interest, but have the capacity and the desire to respond for internal rather than external reasons; Provide for decisions about school organization, curriculum, and classroom life that reflect constructivist teaching and learning principles; Strive to transform the school in such a way that it becomes a center of inquiry.

Moral connections grounded in cultural norms are central to Sergiovanni's theory of school leadership. "Moral connections come from the duties teachers, parents, and

students accept, and the obligations they feel toward others, and toward their work. Obligations result from common commitments to shared values and beliefs," he writes. These moral connections, Sergiovanni believes, must be at the core of building community in schools. Schools that are struggling to become communities should address questions such as:

What can be done to increase the sense of family, neighborliness, and collegiality among the faculty? How can the faculty become more of a professional community where everyone cares about each other and helps each other to learn and to lead together? What kinds of school-parent relationships need to be cultivated to include parents in this emerging community?

Sergiovanni sees a critical link between what happens to teachers and what happens to students. If schools and teachers are going to be successful in getting children to be more curious and more actively involved in their learning, then the adults who teach them likewise will have to be actively engaged, he says. "Inquiring classrooms are not likely to flourish in schools where inquiry among teachers is discouraged. A commitment to problem solving is difficult to instill in students who are taught by teachers for whom problem solving is not allowed. Where there is little discourse among teachers, discourse among students will be harder to promote and maintain. And the idea of making classrooms into learning communities for students will remain more rhetoric than real unless schools become learning communities for teachers too," he writes. Teacher development must move center stage in school improvement, Sergiovanni argues. That means, he says, management systems, organizational patterns , and teacher growth strategies must recognize:

Recognize individual differences among teachers; Encourage teachers to reflect on their own practices; Give a high priority to conversation and dialogue among teachers; Provide for collaborative learning among teachers; Emphasize caring communities; Call upon teachers to respond morally to their work.

Because Sergiovanni believes that theories influence what we see and do, he argues that they also affect the change strategies that schools select. To illustrate, he challenges the notion that schools can be tightly managed into reform, pointing out that ". . . teachers are less influenced by management strategies and more influenced by what they believe, by what peers believe and do, and by other more elusive cultural matters." Sergiovanni stresses the need for a school community to come together around shared values and ideas because "real schools" are managerially loose and culturally tight. That

means, he believes, that the change process must be norms based rather than rules based. Such approaches emphasize professional socialization, shared values and purposes, collegiality, and natural interdependence. Drawing attention to the work of Canadian Michael Fullan, an authority on educational change, Sergiovanni emphasizes the importance of allowing those who are try to implement change to work out their own meaning. Change makers must recognize that disagreement is not only inevitable but fundamental to successful change. They also must acknowledge that while people need pressure to change they also need technical assistance and interaction with others who are attempting change. Finally, change makers need to understand that cultural change is the real agenda, not implementing single innovations. "The lessons are clear," Sergiovanni concludes. "Leadership for meaning, leadership for problem solving, collegial leadership, leadership as shared responsibility, leadership that serves school purposes, leadership that is tough enough to demand a great deal from everyone, and leadership that is tender enough to encourage the heart -- these are the images of leadership we need for schools as communities." copyright 1996, National Staff Development Council
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