Dissonance
dissonance
. noun. conflict or anxiety resulting from inconsistency
between one’s beliefs and one’s actions. [definition from the American Heritage
Dictionary
]
I believe that one of the biggest challenges facing school leaders today is
the issue of dissonance. As the definition above
notes, cognitive dissonance refers to the disconnects
between what we believe as leaders and what we do. Here are some examples of
dissonance that regularly occur in the lives of school administrators:
- Few administrators believe that the current American focus on yearly,
one-time, standardized tests (as opposed to more instructionally-sensitive
progress monitoring assessments) is healthy for students, teachers, or schools,
yet they spend a great deal of time and energy on preparing for and working with
the results from those tests.
development almost never leads to long-lasting, substantive changes in
practice, yet most school systems continue to provide training for teachers and
staff using that very model.
terminated (after appropriate remediation opportunities are given) than actually
are.
These are just a few examples. I’??m sure that you can come up with others and
invite you to add your own in the comments to this post. There are other
dissonance issues too. For example…
- time dissonance: the disconnect between the amount
of time administrators have and the amount of work they have to do it;
what our society expects schools to do and what they actually are able to
do;
is best instructional practice (i.e., high-yield instructional strategies) and
what occurs on a day-to-day basis in many teachers’?? classrooms;
technology skills and knowledge that students need for the new millennium and
the capacity of most schools to prepare students for their future lives and
workplaces;
currently serve disadvantaged students and how we should be.
We must find ways to resolve these conflicts. Although most states have
adequate numbers of people with administrative licenses, fewer individuals are
willing to actually take the job of principal or superintendent. The time
demands, stress, community and legal pressures, and other factors are just too
much for many educators, who look at administrative jobs and say, “??Who wants to
deal with that? Not me!”
We know that sustainable success in schools never occurs without effective
leadership. If schools are to attract talented, creative people to serve in
leadership positions, we must somehow figure out how to reduce the
dissonance.
