2. BACKGROUND INFORMATION
‘If we continue to define our children by test scores, one test, one day, we are giving them the wrong message. If we showcase areas in our children where they can shine, the areas of concern will rise. What is it we need to give our time to?’ – M Summers, Principal, A.B. Leadership Magnet Elementary School, Raleigh, North Carolina
The work of Stephen R. Covey around The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is extremely powerful and thought provoking for the individual participant. It has been a leadership enhancement model used by the New South Wales Department of Education and Communities to define work practice, values, time management and paradigms around leadership for school leaders and aspiring leaders over the last ten years. Highly effective people shape their own lives, they are able to prioritise, they demonstrate principle-based integrity and they build win-win systems, work well with others and maintain an appropriate work to home balance.
Two things happened within weeks of each other in 2008. Firstly, I trained as a facilitator for the Covey Great Teams, Great Leaders, Great Results program and revisited the power of the ‘7 habits’. Inherently a business model, in presenting the course, I searched for examples which would enhance participant engagement and relevance to the educational setting. Secondly, I read Stephen R. Covey’s book The Leader in Me: How Schools and Parents Around the World
Are Inspiring Greatness, One Child At a Time. This is the story of the ‘7 habits’, in action, in schools, and it was happening now.
Authentic leadership is centrally concerned with ethics and morality and with deciding what is significant, what is right and what is worthwhile (Duignan & Macpherson1992; Starratt 1994; Sergiovanni 1992). George Van Valkenburg states a similar belief when he says: ‘leadership is doing what is right when no one is watching.’ How much of the success of a school is determined by the moral integrity and emotional intelligence of the school leader?
Schools across Australia, and the world, are being defined by student leaning outcomes as they relate to national testing. Resources are allocated according to results, staffing is effected and so too are enrolment numbers and reputations. Hattie’s research reiterates the fact that it is the quality of the teacher in the classroom which can make such a resounding difference to student learning. Professional development alone has not been demonstrating the capacity to improve learning outcomes. What is it about the leadership in some schools which may be able to influence student learning?
Early research information coming from the United States of America indicated that those schools implementing the ‘7 habits’ as a leadership model in their school were demonstrating significant academic improvements. Reports of changing discipline referral patterns were emerging and as well as website testimonials. The internet revealed a ground swell of interest in the changing nature of the culture in schools utilising a new paradigm of thinking. The Covey Corporation had built upon the early work of schools in the use of the ‘7 habits’ to develop The Leader in Me program.