Teachers, Leaders, and Schools: Essays by John Dewey

Introduction: The Educational Leader

117 Introduction: The Educational Leader IN EARLIER READINGS, WE GAINED insight into Dewey’s views of the teacher, the curriculum, and, at least indirectly, the school, but so far we have seen little of what he has to say about the educational leader or administrator of a school or school district. For instance, he describes the school as a social institution that ideally is designed to promote students’ growth and to engage them in a community’s activities, preparing them for participation in a democratic society. And schools should be designed to help students develop reflective minds that are prepared to keep learning and wrestling with social, economic, and political questions. In addition, Dewey argues that the best schools are rooted in the experiences of their students and the realities of their society, not artificial enclaves of abstract or alien studies. Moreover, the school should be a community of social groups (i.e., more than a collection of isolated classes) that participate in the construction of an environment that nurtures students’ attitudes, learning, thinking, and behavior. A school, of course, is much more, including being an organization composed of individuals with delegated responsibilities and imaginative opportunities, whether administrators, teachers, support staff, or volunteers. But a school may also be viewed as embodying a culture, a physical plant, and a mission, accompanied by goals, objectives, and related curriculum. Substantial research confirms the importance of a school’s having a clear mission or purpose and strong, ethical educational leadership. Other research indicates that a successful school is also characterized by academic focus, parental and community involvement , and shared responsibility for learning and its assessment. These kinds of schools, so we are told, need leaders who have a comprehensive understanding of individual schools and districts as a whole. But these ideas had not been well researched in Dewey’s day. Not surprisingly, the roles and responsibilities of supervisors, principals, and superintendents grew more important during his 118 The Educational Leader lifetime. Although their contributions to the educational system were initially looked on by many as peripheral or even detrimental, professional educational leaders gradually became major influences in schools and districts. Likewise, the role of informal leaders gradually became better understood. Today, the field of educational leadership represents a major field of inquiry. Dewey wrote about many of the tensions that hampered relations between teachers and administrators and how the two groups could overcome their differences and collaborate in providing school leadership. Just as he was unquestionably supportive of the artistic teacher personalizing students’ educative experiences, his interest in school administration was far-reaching and aimed at encouraging teachers and administrators to contribute to the well-being of students and society. In fact, it is important to note that Dewey’s laboratory school was designed to experiment with—not model—a theory of collaborative leadership involving both teachers and administrators. His administrative and organizational theories were shaped and guided by his ideas about curriculum and pedagogy, child development, and interpersonal communication, the ultimate aim of which was to facilitate educative interactions between students, teachers, and administrators (LW11.182–91). Dewey advises administrators to protect staff and students from a mass of “dogma called pedagogy and a mass of ritualistic exercises called school administration ” (MW13.321–22). He argues that leaders should not be dominated by tradition (LW3.260), autocratic inclinations (LW3.279), indolent schoolteachers (MW11.56), or powerful socioeconomic groups (LW7.365). He also urges administrators to guard educational goals, staff, and students from those who would emphasize standardization over imagination (MW8.131), competition over community (MW6.223), and quantitative results over qualitative outcomes (LW3.261). In a chapter in John Dewey on Education: Selected Writings, edited by Richard Archambault (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964) titled “What Psychology Can Do for the Teacher,” Dewey provides a framework for many of his administrative, managerial, and organizational concerns by discussing them in the context of two inseparable “functions” of education, namely (a) seeing the school as “an organic whole” and (b) understanding the necessity of adapting “school structure to the individual pupil.” These two ideas and a plethora of others, as a result, need sustained attention by leaders to ensure that all children are properly, flexibly, and socially guided in their learning by well-educated, responsible, and creative teachers. Seeing the school as a whole while taking seriously the needs of the individual student, then, become both the perspective on and the grounds for changing schools so that students are better served. Dewey recognized, then...