UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY
Education Thoughts and Acts:
Decisions School Leaders Feel They Need to Make
by
Violet Lavina Baron
A THESIS
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
CALGARY, ALBERTA
APRIL, 2016
© Violet Lavina Baron 2016
ii
Abstract
This study examines how school leaders choose to focus time and attention on implementing
substantive change amid the aims of overarching and often conflicting purposes without creating
an environment of “too much stuff.” Using a dual process theory analogy, findings suggest that
school leaders, as the consciousness of the school collective may interpret legislative direction
and set a vision that aligns with their understanding and enacted practice of the purposes of
schooling. Findings also suggest that school leaders choose to focus resources on initiatives that
promote the vision and values of the school—and correspondingly, choose not to focus resources
on initiatives that the school leader does not see as in alignment with the visions or values of the
school.
iii
Acknowledgements
Writing a dissertation can be frustrating and isolating but it rarely occurs without a tremendous
amount of support from many people. I wish to express my heartfelt appreciation to the people
who have provided their continued support throughout this work.
•
to the six school leaders who gave of themselves in support of my work especially
considering their extremely busy schedules;
•
to my supervisor, Dr. Brent Davis, who was always available and pushed me further than
I ever expected to go;
•
to Dr. Sharon Friesen, Dr. Dianne Gereluk and Dr. Dennis Sumara who insisted I would
finish this journey and gave me the support I needed to do so;
•
to my family who always continue to support me as I take less traveled roads; and
especially to Laurie, a sister-in-law who goes above and beyond in ensuring I stay
connected to family;
•
to Heather, Dorothy and Shelley who listened throughout these years and ensured I was
fed regularly;
•
to Werklund School of Education colleagues that offered support in so many ways; and,
•
to the editors that assisted in professionally editing this dissertation.
This scholarly journey has changed me professionally and personally and has set the foundation
for my next journey. Thank you to all who helped me along the way.
iv
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................................... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... iv
LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... viii
LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... ix
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................... 1
Paralysis Affecting School Change ............................................................................................. 3
Background ................................................................................................................................. 7
Thinking Differently ................................................................................................................. 10
Rationale.................................................................................................................................... 13
The Research ............................................................................................................................. 15
Two Threads of Hermeneutics .................................................................................................. 17
Text taken literally. ................................................................................................................ 17
Text taken figuratively........................................................................................................... 18
Dual Process Theory ................................................................................................................. 19
Structure of the Dissertation ...................................................................................................... 25
CHAPTER II: OVERVIEW OF THE LITERATURE................................................................. 27
Coherence and Incoherence in the Purposes of Schooling ....................................................... 27
Purposes of Schooling in Legislation ........................................................................................ 29
Purposes of Schooling as Understood by School Stakeholders ................................................ 38
Leading the School Collective .................................................................................................. 40
Effective School Leaders Practices ........................................................................................... 42
v
Setting the direction. .............................................................................................................. 43
Facilitating high-quality learning. ......................................................................................... 44
Creating a safe, supportive, collaborative culture. ................................................................ 45
Building professional capacity. ............................................................................................. 46
Using resources strategically. ................................................................................................ 47
CHAPTER III: THINKING HERMENEUTICALLY ................................................................. 49
Research Methodology: Two Threads of Hermeneutics ........................................................... 49
Text Taken Literally: Knowing the World ................................................................................ 51
Text Taken Figuratively: Being Within the World ................................................................... 54
Theoretical Framework: Dual Process Theory Analogy ........................................................... 56
Methods, Research Sample, and Data Collection ..................................................................... 68
Purposes of Schooling in Alberta Legislation ........................................................................... 70
Lived Experience of School Leaders in Alberta ....................................................................... 75
CHAPTER IV: PURPOSES OF SCHOOLING IN ALBERTA LEGISLATION ....................... 80
Formal Education in Alberta Before 1905 ................................................................................ 81
Schooling for a New Province (1905–1920s) ........................................................................... 85
Progressive Education in Alberta (1930s to 1970s) .................................................................. 88
Citizenship Rights and Empowerment (1980s–2010s) ............................................................. 91
Changing Duties of Teachers and Principals ............................................................................ 93
Current Schooling Legislation (2008–2013) ............................................................................. 99
Visualizations of General Patterns within the Purposes of Schooling .................................... 101
Word clouds. ........................................................................................................................ 101
Preamble colour-coding. ...................................................................................................... 102
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Coherence and Incoherence within the Purposes of Schooling .............................................. 104
Keywords of legislated purposes of schooling. ................................................................... 104
Purposes of schooling framework. ...................................................................................... 105
Legislation Pressing towards Systemic Sustainability Education ........................................... 109
CHAPTER V: SCHOOL LEADERS LIVED EXPERIENCES WITHIN THE ALBERTA
CONTEXT .................................................................................................................................. 113
Structure of the Findings ......................................................................................................... 115
Consciousness of the School Collective – The Interaction of Two Systems .......................... 116
Frank – Learning through Caring ............................................................................................ 119
Rory – The Perfect Storm for Change ..................................................................................... 121
Paula--Educating global citizens – politically, socially, ethically........................................... 124
School Leader Decision-Making ............................................................................................. 129
Consciousness of the School Collective – Leading Change ................................................... 132
Setting the Direction and Vision of the School ....................................................................... 134
Building Professional Capacity ............................................................................................... 136
Facilitating a High-Quality Learning Experience for Students ............................................... 138
Creating a Safe, Collaborative Culture for Students, Teachers, and Communities ................ 139
Using Resources Strategically ................................................................................................. 140
Owning the Responsibilities Inherent in the Role of School Leader ...................................... 142
CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 144
Owning the Role...................................................................................................................... 145
Further Research ..................................................................................................................... 149
Acting Differently ................................................................................................................... 154
vii
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 156
APPENDIX A: EXAMPLES OF KEYWORD IDENTIFICATION WITH SCHOOL ACTS . 179
APPENDIX B: PURPOSES OF SCHOOLING FRAMEWORK .............................................. 180
APPENDIX C: FOUR MOMENTS OF FORMAL EDUCATION COMPARED WITH THE
PURPOSES OF SCHOOLING FRAMEWORK ....................................................................... 181
APPENDIX D: INTERVIEW PARTICIPANT QUESTIONS .................................................. 182
APPENDIX E: KEYWORD CODING OF ALBERTA EDUCATION ACT, 2012 AND
ALBERTA SCHOOL ACT, 2000 ............................................................................................... 183
APPENDIX F: PURPOSES OF SCHOOLING FRAMEWORK FOR THE ALBERTA SCHOOL
ACT OF 2000 AND THE ALBERTA EDUCATION ACT OF 2012........................................... 186
APPENDIX G: MOMENTS OF FORMAL EDUCATION ANALYSIS OF THE ALBERTA
SCHOOL ACT OF 2000 ............................................................................................................. 188
APPENDIX H: MOMENTS OF FORMAL EDUCATION ANALYSIS OF THE ALBERTA
EDUCATION ACT OF 2012 ...................................................................................................... 189
APPENDIX I: COPYRIGHT PERMISSIONS .......................................................................... 190
viii
List of Tables
Table 1: Formal Moments in Education ......................................................................................... 5
Table 2: The Properties for the Two Systems of Dual Process Theories of Reasoning ............... 56
Table 3: Comparison of Duties of Teachers, Principals, Students, and Parents (1885–2012) ..... 95
Table B1: Purposes of Schooling Framework ............................................................................ 180
Table C1: Four Moments of Formal Education Compared with the Purposes of Schooling
Framework ...................................................................................................................... 181
Table E1: Keyword Coding of Alberta Education Act of 2012 and Alberta School Act of 2000
......................................................................................................................................... 183
Table F1: Purposes of Schooling Framework for the Alberta School Act of 2000 and the Alberta
Education Act of 2012 .................................................................................................... 186
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List of Figures
Figure 1. Lisbon traffic patterns during October 2009 condensed in one single day. ...... 22
Figure 2. Nested themes relating to direction and purposes of schooling. ....................... 32
Figure 3. Percentage of purposes of schooling theme indicators within Canadian
schooling legislation. .................................................................................................................... 33
Figure 4. Dual process theory applied to the consciousness of the collective metaphor. 57
Figure 5. A dual process theory analogy of the implementation of whole language at the
individual level of understanding.................................................................................................. 63
Figure 6. A dual process theory analogy of the implementation of whole language at the
collective level of understanding. ................................................................................................. 66
Figure 7. Hermeneutic research methods of legislation and school leader lived
stakeholder roles. .......................................................................................................................... 70
Figure 8. The 10 most frequent words found in the preamble of the Alberta School Act of
2000............................................................................................................................................. 101
Figure 9. The 10 most frequent words found in the preamble of the Alberta Education
Act of 2012. ................................................................................................................................. 102
Figure 10. Colour-coded purposes of schooling of the preamble of the Alberta School Act
of 2000. ....................................................................................................................................... 103
Figure 11. Colour-coded purposes of schooling of the preamble of the Alberta Education
Act of 2012. ................................................................................................................................. 104
Figure 12. Descriptors within subthemes related to the purposes of schooling within the
Alberta School Act of 2000 and the Alberta Education Act of 2012........................................... 107
x
Figure 13. Descriptors within subthemes related to the purposes of schooling within the
Alberta School Act of 2000 and Ministerial Order No. 004/98 and the Alberta Education Act of
2012and Ministerial Order (#001/2013). ................................................................................... 108
Figure 14. Moments of formal education analysis of the Alberta School Act of 2000 using
the purposes of schooling framework. ........................................................................................ 111
Figure 15. Two modes of thinking of dual process theory within the individual and the
collective. .................................................................................................................................... 117
Figure 16. Two modes of thinking of dual process theory within the individual and the
collective: Frank.......................................................................................................................... 120
Figure 17. The two modes of thinking of dual process theory with the individual and the
system: Rory. .............................................................................................................................. 124
Figure 18. The two modes of thinking of dual process theory within the individual and
the system: Paula......................................................................................................................... 127
Figure 19. Comparison of modes of thinking with moments of formal education. ....... 130
Figure 20. Two modes of thinking of dual process theory within the individual and the
collective when a teacher may have an embodied practice that is more aligned with more recent
moments in education than the school leader. ............................................................................ 152
Figure 21. Two modes of thinking of dual process theory within the individual and the
collective for a new school. ........................................................................................................ 152
1
Chapter I: Introduction
Canada consistently performs as well, better, or higher than most other Organisation for
Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries in secondary and post-secondary
completion, mathematics, reading, science, equity, access, employment, and teacher preparation
(Minister of Industry, 2015; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
[OECD], 2015). Yet, “Schools in Crisis” is a familiar headline in Canada and around the globe.
Embedded in each of the stories is the underlying fear that existing education systems are not
adequately meeting such challenges of a complex global world that include unemployment,
fossil fuel emissions, access to clean water, deforestation, global security, income inequality, and
the lists go on.
This fear has placed education reform at the top of the agenda of almost every nation,
supported by an annual global investment of over $2 trillion (Barber & Mourshed, 2007). Yet
even as reforms proliferate, initiatives abound, and workload increases, the high-stakes and
large-scale reforms of the last several decades have not held up to their promise. The standardsbased reforms that spread throughout Australia, New Zealand, England, United States, and
Canada in the late 20th and early 21st centuries were “utterly antithetical to the knowledge
society objectives of schools” and goals of increasing innovation and creativity (Hargreaves &
Shirley, 2011, p. 5). Further, Finn and Fairchild (2012) noted, most schools continue to resemble
their 19th-century factory-model counterparts:
Despite reformers’ earnest struggles to modify and smooth its course, the obvious
disrepair of the present arrangement, and the enormous resources applied to its
renovation, our schools and teachers still follow an old, meandering, cobblestone
pathway rather than a fast, modern superhighway. (p. 1)
2
Educational researchers suggest that this is the defining moment to dramatically alter the
educational landscape to ensure that students are prepared for the future (Finn & Fairchild, 2012;
Hargreaves, Lieberman, Fullan, & Hopkins, 2010; Hargreaves & Shirley, 2011; Hess, 2010;
Schleicher, 2012). Even though Finland, Singapore, and several Canadian provinces perform
strongly on international assessments, Hargreaves and Shirley (2011) argued that the time has
arrived to “acknowledge the stalled promise of [current] reforms and to not just tinker with or try
and transfer [current] architecture, but to push forward towards bolder and more sustainable
improvements” (p. 16).
To deal effectively with the challenges of the 21st century, it is necessary to transform
understanding and structuring of education—accepting that there are no quick fixes and that
adding new resources is neither sustainable nor effective. Meadows and Wright’s (2008)
admonition is typical:
No one deliberately creates those problems, no one wants them to persist, but they persist
nonetheless. That is because they are intrinsically systems problems – undesirable
behaviors characteristic of the system structures that produce them. They will yield only
as we reclaim our intuition, stop casting blame, see the system as the source of its own
problems and find the courage and wisdom to restructure it. (p. 3)
Following on such advice, this dissertation argues that this is the time to see differently,
to think differently, and to act differently, to shift our understanding of schools toward organic,
living systems that have structures that make them functionally analogous to deliberate,
conscious beings.
3
Paralysis Affecting School Change
This chapter looks at habits of practice found within schools that create barriers to
change; as well, it introduces a framework for understanding how these automatic practices can
be overruled through the use of slower, more deliberate decision-making that orients the school
towards different networks of association. The inertia found in schools is not uncommon. Hess’
(2010) citation of Machiavelli’s 500-year-old lament reinforces the difficulties of implementing
change: “The tragedy of man is circumstances change, but he does not” (p. 1). But one of the
facets of a paradigm shift is that the assumptions and views held by people in the older paradigm
may be so established that they are difficult to displace precisely because they have been shown
to work in the past. Breaking the paradigm paralysis affecting schools is difficult. Although in
most schools, the entire student body changes every 3 to 5 years, there is often little change
within the school structure to reflect different student interests and backgrounds. A resistance to
change can even be seen in the terms embedded within the language of schools, such as, “school
culture”, “institutional ethos”, and “classroom routines.”
Against this sort of backdrop, Davis (2015) argued that discussions and efforts around
educational change might be better focused less on movements than moments. That is, he
contended that a discernible shift in educational practice or movement, is generally proceeded by
a change in mindset; a coherent educational moment that is found in the networks of association
that extend much beyond the immediate concerns of formal education. With a different cloud of
association, these shifts reflect a comprehension of the larger essence of teaching and learning
and provoke different questions and different interpretations of our experiences. For example,
when a teacher’s mindset moves from an understanding of a deficiency model to a studentcentred model, more than the lesson and assessment changes. There is a discernable shift in how
4
teachers interact with their students both in and out of the classroom, what expectations they
have for their students, and how they talk of their student to others.
Davis, Sumara, and Luce-Kapler (2015) proposed four prominent moments or mindsets
in formal education, through which the diverse beliefs and practices of teaching and learning that
define the current landscape can be explored: standardized education, authentic education,
democratic citizenship education, and systemic sustainability education (see Table 1). Although
the moments are presented in a defined chart in Table 1, the moments should not be interpreted
as distinct or sequential realities but rather they should be understood as co-implicated, evolving,
and overlapping (Davis et al., 2015). The authors acknowledge that formal education and some
important shaping moments for teaching extend much further into the past than the 1600s, but
they consciously begin with the creation of the modern public school as “a defining moment for
teaching” with its descriptions of teaching continuing to echo through all levels of education (p.
5).
For most adults, standardized education would feel familiar. Emerging as a response to
the cultural convulsions of scientization, industrialization, urbanization, and imperialism of the
16th to 19th centuries, approaches to schooling emphasize common programs of study, agebased grade levels, and uniform performance outcomes; and, teaching is understood in terms of
delivery and instruction. The learner, viewed as a “hermetically sealed knower,” is considered
deficient until he or she has demonstrated the competencies required for graduation—that is, “A
learner is a learner precisely because there’s something she or he needs to acquire” (Davis et al.,
2015, p. 37).
A second moment, authentic education, is rooted in the human sciences that emphasize
developmental stages, learner differences, and personalized learning. Authentic education views
5
personal potential as something that is created, not pre-determined. Knowing is framed as
evolving networks of ideas, and teaching involves being attentive to each learner’s unique
history through guiding and facilitating. Learning is considered a complex, dialogical
phenomenon that cannot be caused, thus “Learning is not determined by teaching; however,
learning is dependent on teaching” (Davis et al., 2015, p. 75).
Table 1
Formal Moments in Education
Moment
Standardized
Education
Authentic
Education
Democratic
Citizenship
Education
Systemic
Sustainability
Education
Prevailing
Metaphors
Mechanical;
directional
Organic;
branching
Contractual;
collaborative
Ecosystemic;
emergent
Knowledge
Objectified
facts
Personal
interpretations
Social
constructions
Vibrant complex
forms
Learners
Deficient
containers
Sufficient actors
Partial agents
Complex unities
Teaching
Instructing;
directing
Facilitating;
guiding
Enculturating;
empowering
Designing;
engaging
Timeline of
Approximate
Emergence
And
Duration
Note. Parts of this table were reprinted from Engaging Minds: Cultures of Education and Practices of
Teaching (p. 235), by B. Davis, D. Sumara, and R. Luce-Kapler, 2015, New York, NY: Routledge.
Copyright 2015 by Routledge. Reprinted with permission of the author.
The civil rights movement provided the backdrop for the emergence of a third moment,
democratic citizenship education. Framed as social constructs, knowledge is considered
incomplete and biased and is focused on deep learning and adaptive performance. Teaching is a
process of empowering learners and is seen as “a willingness to think differently, to be swayed
6
by evidence, and to work in the sometimes-uncomfortable spaces of dynamic tensions” (Davis et
al., 2015, p. 150).
Systemic sustainability education expands the discussion on formal schooling into
discourses that include the biological and the more-than-human discussions. “Knowledge is
understood as a vibrant, living system and learning as systemic transformations of a life process
through which complex unities maintain internal and external coherence” (Davis et al., 2015, p.
169). Embracing elements from all the other moments, teaching prompts the expansive
awareness of oneself in the world.
In a review of educational literature, Davis et al. (2015) found that although some people
are more in tune with moments that emerged more recently, a great many would be more aligned
with moments that emerged in previous centuries. That is hardly surprising. Most citizens of the
Western world grew up and succeeded within a traditional system. Moreover, the cloud of
associations that lend standardized education its coherence is most strongly aligned with popular
culture. Indeed, it can be difficult to conceive of education in terms that depart far from
contemporary culture’s ideals of objective knowledge, standardized outputs, and efficient
productivity. No other moment of formal education is so well fitted to the scientized and
commercialized culture in which schools must operate. With regard to projects of educational
change, an upshot is that the continuing dominance of a particular education moment renders it
hard to change practice, hard to see the problems, and even harder to imagine other ways of
working. Educators who cannot deeply engage with the discourse on school change—that is,
who are unable to appreciate the coherence of other educational moments—will pass through the
materials undisturbed or may be offended by its perceived disregard for the loyalties to which
they are still attached. This may suggest that educators, embodied within networks of association
7
regarding knowing, teaching and learning, may become “column-locked.” It is not that educators
will not see new ways of thinking, but rather that they cannot see them.
So, how do schools untangle the layers and layers of dynamics that is “about providing
children with an imagined-to-be fitting toolkit to ‘set’ them up: for adult life and [shift to a place
that is] more about engaging them meaningfully and pragmatically in the shared world” (Davis et
al., 2015, p. 240)? This study draws on research in the cognitive sciences, with particular
emphasis on the nature and role of consciousness in examining how school leaders orient the
school in regard to its purpose and create conditions for successful change. Specifically, the
study aimed to develop and extend Davis’s analogy of “teaching as the consciousness of the
(classroom) collective” (2005, p. 86) to one of leading as the consciousness of the school
collective. Within a school, the school leader 1 is responsible for prompting differential attention
and selecting the options for action and interpretation that arise in the school. He or she must be
able to negotiate the complexities of leading a school system and implementing change amid the
multiple aims and purposes of schooling, and the tension among legislation, research, and
cultures.
Background
Throughout this thesis, shaded sections of anecdotes have been included as illustrative
examples of my unique combination of educational, international humanitarian, and research
experiences to “communicate the emotion and the meaning of the event and make research
1
Throughout this writing, the terms “school leader,” “principal,” and “school administrator” are
used to describe school personnel that “lead” change. Although this is often a school principal, I
recognize that there are other key personnel that significantly influence change within the school culture.
8
comprehensible” (Morse, 2006, p. 1019). Anecdotes have long been recognized as a way to
deepen the impression of events and give a place for the inclusion of the human aspect and
“should therefore be used with truthfulness, discretion and good taste” (Bent, 1892, p. 353).
Further, a good anecdote will have all of the characteristics of the category it represents and must
be the best representation of the entire data set, allowing for generalizations to be made.
Education has defined my life. As a student, a K–12 teacher, a school principal, a
district superintendent, a professional development consultant, and now an administrator in a
faculty of education, my life has been coupled with education since the age of 4. Even in a
divergent career path as an international emergency humanitarian worker, my background in
education provided the foundation that shaped my work.
My fascination with too much stuff can be traced back to a book I read in the third
grade: Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars (MacGregor, 1951). Although I’m sure I was meant to
appreciate the adventures of Miss Pickerell, what I continue to draw upon decades later was a
conversation between Miss Pickerell and a mathematician:
“I’m a little surprised, Mr. Haggerty,” said Miss Pickerell, “that you can’t remember a
simple thing like that—a man with such a good brain as yours.”
“That’s the way I save wear and tear on my brain,” Mr. Haggerty said. “I don’t clutter
it up with little unimportant things” (MacGregor, 1951, p. 8).
As a teacher and school administrator, I became concerned about how busy schools
were becoming and the required balancing act to accommodate the multitude of requests and
mandates placed on staff, students and other stakeholders. It was several years later, when on
an evacuation flight out of Somalia, that I realized that lessons from my “other life” could
9
inform my understanding of educational systems and unveil possibilities for change. Being on
a cargo plane for a number of hours with nothing to do but listen to the drone of the engines
and think about life, I began to explore parallels and differences between my work in schools
and my work within the humanitarian context. At that time, it seemed to me that working in
one of the most severe humanitarian crises in the world seemed less frenetic than working
within a school.
In the highly complex world of a conflict or disaster zone, there can be a massive
number of competing agendas, yet there is a clear sense of purpose guiding the work of each
organization. For example, at first glance, the purpose or principles guiding the work of the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Médecins sans Frontières (MSF, also
known as Doctors without Borders) seem to be the same. Both organizations provide
emergency medical care to victims of conflict and disaster, but when it comes to handling the
knowledge of its humanitarian activities, they have significantly different mandates. ICRC has
a firm mandate to gain access to the victims of armed conflict and internal violence in order to
protect and help them (International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), n.d.). MSF, in
contrast, was founded on the principle of speaking out against the atrocities they encounter
(Médecins sans Frontières, n.d.).
Although ICRC workers have been accused of being complicit in the violence for not
speaking out about the massacres in Bosnia (Kellenberger, 2004), ICRC mandate prohibits
them from doing so (ICRC, n.d.). By contrast, MSF, founded by ICRC doctors who were
frustrated by the lack of exposure of what they saw, struggles with a different balance. In
2007, MSF workers were expelled from Darfur for speaking out against the Sudanese
10
government, which left their patients with little or no health care or international advocates.
Workers who did not understand the purpose of their organization could find the situation
extremely frustrating and overwhelming. In recent years, these two organizations have
unofficially leveraged each other’s strengths in working with the most vulnerable populations.
If MSF is expelled for bringing attention to the issues, ICRC is able to remain to support the
victims. Although parallels to education must be drawn with caution, in my experience in five
different countries working with hundreds of colleagues, there was a clear sense of purpose
and direction in handling crises, something I have not encountered in schools.
Thinking Differently
One of the more commonly noted findings of the cognitive science literature is that
consciousness has a limited capacity of attention and can be easily overwhelmed. In viewing a
school as a collective learner, the limitations of capacity can be witnessed with virtually every
project of educational change, most often apparent in complaints of “too much stuff” to consider
or accomplish. It is thus argued that the too much stuff of schooling is a fruitful site for studying
educational change and how school leaders orient themselves and their schools within the aims
of overarching purposes.
We live in a world addicted to the quick fix rather than one of deliberation and strong
direction; schools are often the repository of the quick fix du jour. Mulford and Silins (2003)
described the situation this way: “Many a school has been badly disillusioned by the galloping
hoofbeats of the itinerant peddlers behind the new movements who ride in and out again
extorting their latest elixirs” (p. 175). Short-sighted solutions address the symptoms rather than
the underlying causes of the problem and therefore may produce unintended consequences, and
in the long run, do more harm than good (Senge, Cambron-McCabe, Lucas, Smith, & Dutton,
11
2012). Further, Hopkins (2013) suggested that “without a degree of professional precision and
reflexivity to context, it is understandable why pre-packaged solutions, however good and well
intentioned, end up having a limited effect of student learning” (p. 315).
One of the consequences of several decades of quick-fix educational reform is the
difficulty schools are experiencing in coping with the multitude of initiatives that have been
undertaken. Such initiatives as innovative reading programs, empowerment programs,
extracurricular activities, professional development sessions, breakfast programs, school supplies
campaigns, and fundraising campaigns may be seen as valuable but are often received by
educators as add-ons that increase their workload. Within the literature, as developed below,
there is the concern that juggling the expectations placed on schools and their occupants may be
a contributing factor to student and teacher burnout and school system overload, resulting in a
decrease in the effectiveness of reforms.
Although not directly related to the number of initiatives offered by schools, international
studies are finding that the excessive demands of school-related activities placed on students are
leading to experiences of exhaustion and distress, which often negatively affect student success
(Aypay, 2011; Brown, Nobiling, Teufel, & Birch, 2011; deAnda et al., 2000; Salmela-Aro,
Kiuru, Pietikäinen, & Jokela, 2008; Salmela-Aro & Tynkkynen, 2012). The most frequent
stressors reported in these studies were consistently related to the school environment.
Interestingly, several of these studies concerned with student stressors recommended schools
offer additional programs and supports to address student well-being.
Teacher workload is increasing in both volume and complexity, and teachers report they
are under enormous pressure to meet a myriad of demands in areas outside their expertise. In a
study of Newfoundland teachers, Younghusband (2005) found that participants perceived that
12
their workplace was intense and demanding and “that the effort to remain effective at a high
level was taking its toll, not just with themselves but also with many of their colleagues” (p. 74).
Similar sentiments have been expressed by teachers across Canada, as reported in provincial and
pan-Canadian studies (Alberta Teachers’ Association [ATA], 2009; Dyck-Hacault & Alarie,
2010; Kamanzi, Riopel, & Lessard, 2007; Naylor & White, 2011; MacDonald, Wiebe, Goslin,
Doiron, & MacDonald, 2010; Smaller et al., 2005). Day (2008) and Leithwood (2006) both
suggested that continued excessive teacher workload is not only contributing to teacher burnout
but may also significantly impact students’ progress and levels of performance.
School leaders are also reporting job-related stress and overload and tension between the
conflicting roles of their position (Barnett, Shoho, & Oleszewski, 2012; Byington, 2010; Earley
et al., 2012; Hausman, Nebeker, McCreary, & Donaldson, 2002; Thomson, 2009). In a sample of
821 elementary and secondary school principals, Friedman (2002) found that the dominant
stressors leading to principal burnout stem from parent demands, weak teacher and school staff
performance, and the overload of tasks and responsibilities.
Schools, too, are experiencing an increase in the volume and complexity of the initiatives
they undertake, and there is emerging literature indicating that the sheer volume of these
initiatives is negatively impacting their effectiveness. A review of the impact of the United
Kingdom National Strategies agenda found “the frequent introduction of new initiatives,
materials and guidance led to overload and diminished the potential effectiveness of each
individual initiative” (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, 2010, p.
5). Additionally, curriculum expansion and its impact on student learning has emerged as an
issue in a number of countries, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan,
Vietnam, and the Philippines (National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, 2010; Pepper,
13
2008; UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education [UNESCO], 2003). In trying to
address educational reform by continuously introducing new subjects, the problem of an
overcrowded curriculum has been aggravated. This problem, as it relates to educational reform,
is summed up within the UNESCO report: “Adding some new items into a subject matter may
not be very difficult, but reducing some items is rather difficult” (UNESCO, 2003, p. 42).
One of the most challenging responsibilities of a school leader is to implement
educational change without “piling it on.” In doing so, a school leader needs to draw on his or
her experience and knowledge of the school context and be able to anticipate opportunities and
potential problems, to make decisions, to problem-solve, and to align people and resources to
enable change. So how should school leaders make (often difficult) decisions in allocating time,
funding, and other resources? In looking past the multitude of elixirs, this study examines school
leaders’ beliefs and embodiment of the purposes of schooling and their understanding of
schooling legislation in implementing change in their schools.
Rationale
On May 6, 2013, Jeff Johnson, Alberta Minister of Education, signed the ministerial
order to Adopt or Approve Goals and Standards Applicable to the Provision of Education in
Alberta (Alberta Education, 2013a) referred hereafter as Ministerial Order (#001/2013)
implementing the direction set out in Inspiring Education: A Dialogue with Albertans (Alberta
Education, 2010b) hereafter referred to as Inspiring Education. This order was meant to lead the
way toward a major curriculum redesign in Alberta that recognized “the need to change from a
system that has many characteristics of an industrial era to one that better meets the needs of
students in a global economy and society” (Alberta Education, 2013b, para. 2).
14
Two years after that signing, the electorate in Alberta voted in a New Democratic Party
(NDP) majority government displacing the Progressive Conservative (PC) government that had
passed the Alberta Education Act of 2012 (Education Act, R.S.A., 2012), 2 which was
considerably different from the Alberta School Act of 2000 (School Act, R.S.A., 2012). With the
expectation that the Alberta Education Act of 2012 would be proclaimed, Alberta Education
began designing a “reimagined system” for K–12 curriculum (Alberta Education, 2015, para. 2).
At the time of writing, it is unclear what, if any, changes will be made in implementation plan for
the Alberta Education Act of 2012. The NDP 2015 platform identified preserving and building
Alberta’s education system as one of their top priorities. Not surprisingly, public funding was
mentioned in eight of the 10 commitments outlined in the platform. Two of these commitments
not included in the Alberta Education Act of 2012 are “quality education in a modern economy”
and ensuring schools have people able to respond to the increasing complexity of Alberta’s
classrooms (Alberta’s New Democratic Party, 2015, Rachel Notley’s Commitment section, para.
1). It is against this backdrop that this study looks at educational change and how school leaders
orient themselves and their schools amid the aims of overarching, and often conflicting,
purposes.
When I started on the journey of this study, Inspiring Education was signaling a
2
This dissertation includes over 50 statute and ordinance citations. First citations are formatted
according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (American
Psychological Association [APA], 2010), with the name of the statute and the year of publication.
Contrary to the manual, subsequent mentions are italicized and do not include the year of publication.
APA style is used to format the list of references, and readers should look up statute and ordinances in the
References alphabetically under Education Act, School Act, or Public School Act, not the name of the
province or territory.
15
significant shift in education in Alberta. The recent change of government may result in more
change to schools than previously expected, and findings may provide suggestions for school
leaders to navigate changes brought about by the change in government. Having been born and
lived the majority of my life in Alberta, I have seen dramatic changes to the economy through
several boom-to-bust-to-boom cycles, but this is the first time since I was a child there has
been a significant political shift. When I started this journey, I felt that this was the most
dynamic, interesting time in education in Alberta since I became an educator. In reflecting
upon that time, I feel that I vastly underestimated the shifting landscape.
The Research
Against the backdrop of the failure of the high-stakes and large-scale reforms of the last
several decades, this study explored the suggestion that now is the defining moment to alter
dramatically the educational landscape to ensure that students are prepared for the future. In
developing the argument that now is the time to expand our understanding of schools to that of
organic, living systems, strong links are made between two main literatures: cognitive science
and educational change. It is argued that systems, similar to consciousness, can be overwhelmed
by the increasing demands placed upon them. It is further argued that school leaders have the
ability and the responsibility to negotiate these demands while bringing forward the discourses to
new understandings of teaching and learning. In doing so, this study investigates the following
questions:
1. How do school leaders understand the coherence of the purposes of schooling with
education legislation?
2. How does that coherence or incoherence frame the decisions that principals feel they
need to make?
16
Placing focus in the province of Alberta, using a sample of six school leaders, through the
study reported in this dissertation, this study examined how school leaders choose to focus time
and attention within their schools in implementing substantive change without creating an
environment of too much stuff.
The issue of how school leaders make purposeful decisions while implementing change
necessarily entails a great deal of contextualization and interpretation—two methodological
concerns that render this research well fitted to hermeneutics. Derived from the Greek verb
hermeneuein (sp), which is generally translated “to interpret,” hermeneutics has evolved to a
process of “coming to understand” the other (Palmer, 1969, p. 13).
In the selection of this tradition, I not only reflected upon the study but also spent
considerable time exploring my way of being in the world I currently inhabit. In No Man Is an
Island, Thomas Merton (1955) wrote, “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at
the same time” (p. 35). I found this also spoke to how I encountered the interpretive aspects of
hermeneutics and the iterative demands of the hermeneutic circle. I was able to find myself as
an individual within the tradition, and then with different readings and different contexts, my
focus shifted to my place in the whole, whether it is within my work, my community, or my
global context.
Due to my background and worldview, the attitude of interpretation feels almost
natural. Being raised within a German Lutheran tradition, 3 it was a basic foundation of my
3
In the 16th century, Luther initiated and fostered a hermeneutical revolution which ignited the
Reformation period. According to Bayer (2008), Luther’s foundational thesis, Sacra scriptura “sui ipsius
17
upbringing and catechism classes that scripture could be interpreted in different ways. I was
encouraged to explore other religions and look for agreement with the beliefs of others and to
determine my own spiritual path. As I grew older, this basis of understanding expanded to the
political field. My extended family has views that range from left of centre to the far right of
the political spectrum, and as a young adult I was encouraged to seek understanding and to
develop my position without dismissing other points of view as unworthy. As I examined
various research methods, hermeneutics resonated with my life experiences, my research plan,
and also as a deeper exploration of how my engagement with the text shapes the truths I find
in it.
Two Threads of Hermeneutics
In coming to understand education legislation and the lived of experiences of school
leaders regarding the purposes of schooling, this study follows two different varieties of
hermeneutics, which are distinguished according to their “texts.” One component of the research
is concerned with interpreting written documents—that is, literally with texts; the other strand is
more focused on making sense of administrators’ beliefs and motivations against a backdrop of
diverse cultural and educational sensibilities—that is, where life is understood figuratively as a
text.
Text taken literally. The roots of hermeneutics as a theory of human understanding
emerged in the late18th to early19th centuries through the works of Schleiermacher and Dilthey
(Palmer, 1969). Schleiermacher ascertained that human beings are fundamentally linguistic
interpres” refers to the effect that the text has, with reference to the one who reads, hears, and interprets it
and in a comprehensive sense means: “The text itself causes one to pay attention” (p. 68).
18
creatures, and therefore human understanding is rooted in that linguistic nature. Interpreting the
text requires understanding the author’s point of view and historical context then articulating
what is expressed in the work. In examining education legislation in Alberta, text is interpreted
by becoming familiar with its historical context and looking at the work as a whole as well as
examining its individual parts. Following the path of Schleiermacher and Dilthey (Palmer, 1969)
and Hirsch (1960), text is interpreted from the writer’s view and suspending personal
interpretations to become as close to literal text as possible. This exploration into historical and
current legislation provides additional context in interpreting how school leaders understand the
coherence of the purposes of schooling with education legislation.
Text taken figuratively. As the 20th century unfolded, a second thread of hermeneutics
emerged that included phenomena that might be understood as texts, figuratively speaking (e.g.,
language is a text, personal understanding is a text, life is a text, and culture is a text). Most often
associated with the writings of Gadamer, this second thread’s historical interest is in how the past
has formatted current thinking and has shifted the understanding from the ways of knowing about
the world to the way of being within the world (Palmer, 1969). The lived experiences of school
leaders opens up possibilities of meaning into the decisions school leaders feel they need to
make.
After Gadamer (1960/1995) wrote Truth and Method, the complexity and diversity of
hermeneutics continued to be explored and today, remains an unsettled domain with no clear
boundaries between the different types of hermeneutics. Below are some illustrative examples
showing some of the divergence within hermeneutics. Ricoeur emphasized how the text itself
may open up a space of existential and political possibilities thus undermining the idea of reality
as a fixed, unyielding network of authoritative patterns of interpretations (Ramberg & Gjesdal,
19
2005). Poststructural hermeneuts, such as Derrida, Foucault and Kristeva, see interpreting “more
a case of playing or dancing or ruminating” with the words of the text rather than application of
methods in order to demonstrate that all interpretations are contingent, emerging, and relative
(Slattery, 2012, p. 137). Critical hermeneutics argue that hermeneutics must be completed by a
critical theory of society and what is needed is a set of quasi-transcendental principles of validity
in terms of which the claims of the tradition may be subjected to evaluation (Ramberg &
Gjesdal, 2005).
Although this study focuses on two threads of hermeneutics, I grappled with
Haggerson and Bowman’s four perspectives of hermeneutic inquiry (Slattery, 2012). In
working with legal text, I related to the text as much as an objective observer as possible,
making generalizations and predictions from my interpretations. Engaging with the interview
text, I became the participant observer and did not bracket my prejudices but rather attempted
to understand them and use them to create a deeper understanding of the text. The more I
reflected upon the text, my writing and my personal journey; the more my practice evolved
and transformed. The perspective of total participant is reflecting within this study through my
conclusions and my desire to pursue future research. The fourth perspective begins to emerge
as I bring all of my experiences together. I find myself looking forward to further exploring
the discourses on hermeneutics with colleagues and using it as a focus for my work.
Dual Process Theory
In coming to understand the context which school leaders inhabit, a dual process theory
(or the dual-process approach to decision-making framework) is used. Dual process theory
suggests that most choices are made intuitively with very little effort, but when decisions
20
requiring more thought are needed, they are made slowly and take considerable effort. Stanovich
and West (2000) argued that there are “clear family resemblances” in 12 two-process theories of
reasoning used by a variety of theorists (p. 658). In order to emphasize the prototypical view,
Stanovich and West coined the terms: System 1 (for automatic, largely unconscious decisionmaking) and System 2 (for reflective decision-making). In Thinking Fast and Slow, Kahneman
(2011) referred to System 1 and System 2 as “agents within the mind, with their individual
personalities, abilities and limitations” (2011, p. 28).
System 1 is able to operate automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense
of voluntary control because it models rather than makes decisions. It has as its goal the ability to
read intention and to make rapid interactional moves based on modelled intentions, and is
acquired by biology, exposure, and personal experience. System 2 is more effortful and time
consuming. It deals with problems that require analytic and explicit thought processes, is
relatively slow, and is acquired by cultural and formal tuition (Stanovich & West, 2000).
Kahneman (2011) has suggested that System 1’s initial reactions to challenges can be
swift and generally appropriate because of the usually accurate modelling from familiar
situations; however, there are times when the quick-paced automaticity of System 1 should be
overruled. System 1 will often search for an easier answer rather than address the real problem
and is designed to jump to conclusions from very little evidence. “For some of our most
important beliefs we have no evidence at all, except that people we love and trust hold these
beliefs” (Kahneman, 2011, p. 209). When System 1 runs into difficulty, the thoughtful decisionmaking represented by System 2 is needed.
For example, if you are asked to name the capital of Canada, you may be able to quickly
state Ottawa without much thought (System 1). If asked to name the capital of Turkey, you may
21
need to think deeply before providing an answer (System 2). If you had previously lived in
Turkey, the knowledge may have been stored in your memory for easy recall, and Ankara would
have come to mind as quickly as Ottawa.
Kahneman (2011) further contended that continued accessing of knowledge in System 2
can provide faster access to the knowledge shifting it to System 1. He offered the following
example, describing how knowledge is at first acquired by formal instruction and then with
substantive personal experience can shift to intuition: After thousands of hours of practice, chess
players come to see the pieces on the board differently from everyone else. The situation
provides a cue and this cue gives the chess player expert access to information stored in his or
her memory. The retrieved information provides the answer to the chess player, but others often
interpret this recognition as intuition (Kahneman, 2011).
While dual process theory was developed at the psychology level, it seems to have
relevance for more sociocultural collective happenings. If we accept that a system is a set of
things “interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time”
(Meadows & Wright, 2008, p. 1), then dual process theory can be used as a framework for
understanding how choices and decisions are made within a system.
Imagine being above a major city observing traffic patterns. In his study, Cruz (2010)
represented Lisbon traffic patterns over a 24-hour period within a video (see Figure 1). For most
of the day, vehicles move around the city quickly and efficiently following specific patterns on
major routes. Metaphorically, this could be understood as the automatic response of the
collective represented by System 1. There is little or no effort to maintaining this complex
pattern of traffic as most drivers follow established traffic patterns. But when it is rush hour or
there is an accident, the pattern is interrupted, and traffic begins to slow down. As main routes
22
are not as easily accessible, vehicles try connecting roadways that become busier and slower. An
overseeing consciousness, assigned the responsibility of taking deliberate reactive intervention,
may be required to get the system moving again and to re-establish automatic patterns. This
overseeing consciousness, represented by System 2, may also appear in the form of proactive
intervention.
Figure 1. Lisbon traffic patterns during October 2009 condensed in one single day.
Note. This photo was reprinted from Lisbon’s slow traffic areas, by P. Cruz, 2010. Copyright 2010 by P.
Cruz. Reprinted with permission of the author.
Designers are tasked with developing plans that will keep the traffic moving as efficiently
as possible. For example, the designers may realize that there are frequent accidents in a specific
location so the city builds a cloverleaf overpass. During the building process, the deliberate
proactive intervention (organized by System 2) results in a disruption to the traffic pattern
triggering drivers to rethink their regular route. Once construction has been completed, a traffic
pattern will be eventually re-established and become the automatic and effortless route
represented by System 1.
A similar extension of dual process theory can also be considered as a framework for
understanding how choices and decisions are made in schools. Recent developments in the field
23
of educational leadership see schools through a metaphor of organic, living systems (James,
2010; Mulford, 2010; Senge et al., 2012) encouraging the view of a school “as a process, one of
constant adaptation, growth and becoming that occurs naturally and inevitably in response to a
strong desire for learning and survival” (Mulford, 2010, p. 193).
This would resonate with most educators as they often speak of schools as entities rather
than buildings housing many individuals. For example, School B is “challenging” while School
C is “innovative”; School A is “snooty” while School D is “blue collar.” Walking through the
entrance of a school gives the visitor a sense of who occupies the building and what they value.
If the visitor spends time observing routines and behaviours, he or she will usually observe
connections between students, staff and parents, and patterns in behaviour will begin to emerge.
In extending and applying dual process theory through this analogy, the choices and
decisions made within a school can be examined through the constructs of System 1 and System
2. In System 1, automatic choices are made in schools most of the time, and complex pattern of
ideas and connections exist. Schools can only function if students, teachers, and other occupants
respond automatically and effortlessly to most of the decisions that are made during a school
day. For example, a class of kindergarten students on the first day of school in September will
look significantly different than the same class in February. The automatic decision patterns have
not yet been established in September, but by February, students will respond to the cultural
patterns of the school with little or no effort. Within a short time, students will have adjusted to
the protocols for answering questions, sitting in their chairs, sitting on the carpet, going to the
bathroom, playing with the toys, free time, etc. In fact, schools would have trouble functioning if
students did not follow accepted routines.
24
Much as the kindergarten teacher in the example above is responsible for guiding or
orienting students to the school culture and providing opportunities for student engagement, the
school leader, as the consciousness of the school collective and represented by System 2, is
responsible for guiding or orienting the school. As further developed in Chapter III, drawing a
parallel with Davis’s (2005) consciousness metaphor, leading a school demands
transdisciplinarity and level-jumping across neurological, psychological, social, cultural, and
other phenomena; understanding the school as a collective learner with a coherence and evolving
identity all its own; prompting differential attention toward school goals, legislative and system
priorities and community context; and, providing opportunities without predetermined
conclusions that allow the school to evolve with its own identity.
As a school leader orients the direction of a school, he or she needs to be mindful not to
allow the school to become overwhelmed. Mulford (2008) contended that “a great deal of school
success depends on which areas of school life the educational leader chooses to spend time and
attention on and how he or she approaches the task” (p. 66). Continuing with the System 1 and 2
analogy, leaders, in deciding where they will be attentive, need to ensure that automatic and
thoughtful processes work in tandem and appropriate decision-making occurs at the appropriate
time. They must understand that tension often arises when System 2 comes into play and draws
energy away from the smooth running of System 1; yet without System 2, there can be no
growth, and the school will not continue to run smoothly.
In seeing schools as organic, living systems that are resistant to change (System 1);
school leaders (System 2) can choose to focus time and attention on presenting opportunities
framed within the context and capabilities of the school. In doing so, it can be more about
25
“expanding the space of the possible and creating conditions for the emergence of the as-yet
unimagined” (Davis, 2005, p. 87).
Structure of the Dissertation
Following the call for educational change as presented in this chapter, Chapter II reviews
the educational research literature on school change with emphases of the purposes of schooling
and how school leaders negotiate the tension of policy, context, and research. Drawing on earlier
work (Baron, 2012), an analysis of provincial and territorial statutes provides a foundation of the
legislated purposes of schooling found in Canada. School context is explored through
stakeholder views regarding their understanding of the purposes of schooling. The body of
research substantiating the leader’s role in school effectiveness is explored through school leader
practices that are consistently identified as positively impacting student outcomes.
Chapter III presents the research design that was used in addressing the aims of the study
including the two threads of hermeneutics, text taken literally and text taken figuratively; dual
process theory using whole language as an example of the analogy of change leaders; and the
methods, research sample, and data collection process.
As shown throughout Chapter IV, schooling in Alberta has evolved since the first
legislation in 1884. Yet, until the Alberta Education Act of 2012, legislation in regard to the
purposes of schooling continued to focus on the community; societal values; a commitment to
publicly funded schools; and minority language and denominational rights. The current era of
change taking place in education in Alberta—pedagogically, economically, and politically—
provides the backdrop for understanding how the legislated purposes of schooling frames the
decisions that principals feel they need to make.
26
In presenting the findings of the text from the interviews of school leaders, Chapter V
melds cognitive science and educational change. Persistent emphases emerged through the
reading and re-reading the interview text related to the “what” and the “how” of assuming the
System 2 role of the consciousness of the school collective. Interpretations are presented in two
sections moving from the particular to the whole. First, the data and interpretations of interview
text are presented as “portraits” of three school leaders each exploring the mindset and
understandings of the purposes of schooling through the interactions of the personal and the
collective modes of thinking. A second layer of analysis looks at the practices of the participants
as they assume the System 2 role of the consciousness of the school collective. The interview
text is interpreted through a discussion of the circumstances and practices that cut across all six
interviews as school leaders implement change within their schools while being attentive to not
creating environments of too much stuff.
Chapter VI reviews the findings from Chapters IV and V and based on the findings and
recent educational literature offers strategies in supporting school leaders in aligning their
understanding with their enacted practices to make decisions that will best meet the needs of the
school. Implications for practice and possibilities for further research are outlined at the personal,
school, system, and policy levels.
27
Chapter II: Overview of the Literature
Contemporary school administrators play a daunting array of roles, from educational
visionaries and change agents through instructional leaders, special program administrators, and
curriculum experts to budget analysts, facility managers, and community builders. School
systems expect schools to enable all students to succeed, and although no education system in the
western world has achieved this goal, school leaders are held responsible for making progress
toward it (Robinson, 2011). So how do school leaders implement change in schools to prepare
students for their future without overwhelming the system and people in it? This chapter explores
the coherence and incoherence in the understood purposes of schooling and how school leaders
negotiate the tension of policy, context, and research within the purposes of schooling.
Coherence and Incoherence in the Purposes of Schooling
Asking “What is the purpose of schooling?” is not unlike asking “What is the purpose of
life?” Every student, teacher, parent, law-maker, researcher, and community member will have a
different understanding based on their schooling, personal and community contexts, and
worldview.
The definitions of education (“Education,” 2016) signal this incoherence in
understanding. For instance, the networks of association connected with “the process of
receiving or giving systematic instruction” (“Education,” 2016, para. 1) are more aligned with
the prevailing metaphors of standardized education; while the networks of association connected
with “an enlightening experience” (“Education,” 2016, para. 2) reflect the complexity and
awareness of the emerging moment of systemic sustainability education.
Historically, schools have been guided by various purposes: “from building nation states
and national and political identities to serving as a socioeconomic ladder for helping the poor;
28
from educating workers and improving national competitiveness to educating citizens and
assimilating immigrants” (Kanu, 2009, p. 137). But in the second decade of the 21st century, the
pace of change is increasing at an exponential rate in collective knowledge, in available
technologies, and in the way we work and play. As shown in the following illustrative quotations
and throughout this section, educators, students, parents, community members, and lawmakers
are grappling with what the vision of schooling should be:
High school for me is similar to a fashion show. We put on our best clothes every day to
walk the halls, and like any great fashion show it takes money. For some, getting money
is only a matter of asking mom and dad, and others work part time jobs or get gigs
cutting grass and shoveling driveways in the winter. But this gets in the way of what we
truly have come to school for, to learn. (Through Students’ Eyes, 2010, para. 1)
Education is more than the transfer of numeracy and literacy skills from teacher to
student. Education includes a socialization component that compliments parenting. As
teachers, we face such a large diversity of issues and challenges in the classroom.
Meeting the curricular needs as well as the emotional and social needs of students,
sometimes requires real-life issues – i.e. social justice issues. (Théoret & McGahey,
2013, para. 5)
[Educational policies are] for educating young people to think critically, embrace
democratic civic values, and be willing to intervene in the world in order to expand and
deepen the processes of justice, equality, and democratization. (Giroux, 2010, p. 364)
29
The similarities and differences in the purposes of schooling can be found within
Canadian provincial and territorial schooling legislation as well as within and between
stakeholder groups. In reviewing the stated and implicit purposes of schooling amid multiple
agendas, the lived, contested space of school leaders emerges.
Purposes of Schooling in Legislation
In Canada, there is no federal ministry or department that oversees a national system of
education. Rather, the provinces and territories are responsible for the K–12 and postsecondary
education within their jurisdiction.
While there are a great many similarities in the provincial and territorial education
systems across Canada, there are significant differences in curriculum, assessment, and
accountability policies among the jurisdictions that express the geography, history,
language, culture, and corresponding specialized needs of the populations served.
(Council of Ministers of Education, Canada [CMEC], n.d., Regional differences section,
para. 1)
This section examines a cross-section of both the systemic coherences and anomalies
within Canadian education legislation.
The Constitution Act of 1867 provides that “in and for each province, the legislature may
exclusively make Laws in relation to Education” (Constitution Act [UK], 1867, §93, para. 1).
In each of the 10 provinces and three territories in Canada, educational direction for students is
30
mandated by statute 4 and implemented by the assigned ministry or department. Although the
statute in each province or territory is titled Education Act, School Act or Public Schools Act, the
legislation refers to education in relation to schooling, be it public, separate, private, charter, or
home schooling.
A preamble is an introductory paragraph of a statute that sets out its intention, scope, etc.
(“Preamble,” 2016). It is through the preamble and or the stated purpose that provinces and
territories define the mandated purposes of schools and education within their province or
territory. Beginning in the 16th century, preambles have been considered “a key to open the
mindes of the makers of the acte, and the mischiefes that they intende to remedy by the same”
(“Preamble,” 2016). In educational legislated documents, a preamble commonly sets the overall
purposes of schooling, with the intent that the legislation will support these overarching aims
(Alberta Education, n.d.).
Eight of the provinces, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Northwest
Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, and Yukon Territory, included preambles and or stated
purposes. 5 Drawing on the work of Baron (2012) and Stemler, Bebell, and Sonnabend, (2011),
the preambles were reviewed for common descriptors relating to the direction or purposes of
schooling, for example, the best educational interests of the child, common values and beliefs,
and parental participation in decision-making (see Appendix A). The number of descriptors of
4
When the statutes are referred to as a group, they will be hereafter referred to as the “Acts.”
Additionally, each Act will be referred to by its common name (Province Title of Year). The full name of
each act appears in the list of references alphabetized under Education Act, School Act or Public School
Act.
5
Hereafter, the term preamble refers to preambles and or stated purposes.
31
the purposes of schooling within the preambles ranged from 13 to 48 descriptors. For example,
the preambles of the Alberta Education Act of 2012 and the Nunavut Education Act of 2008
(Education Act, S.Nu., 2012) include more than three times the number of descriptors of the
Ontario Education Act of 1990 (Education Act, R.S.O., 2012) or the Manitoba Public Schools
Act of 1987 (Public Schools Act, C.R.M., 2012). Although there is no correlation between the
date of legislation with the inclusion of preambles and the number of descriptors, all of the Acts
enacted since 2002 include preambles, and the preambles have the same number or more
descriptors than Acts enacted before 2002. The frequency of the statements within the Acts may
speak to the importance that legislative bodies place on having a shared, clearly stated purpose
for schooling that outlines the priorities, values, and beliefs of their province or territory.
Once the descriptors were identified, each of the 13 Acts was examined in entirety for
instances where the descriptor appeared within the context of purpose or direction. The
examination of the entire text of the Acts brought to light other keywords and phrases that were
then used to examine the Acts previously reviewed. Through reading, comparing and re-reading
each of the Acts, a total of 105 keywords and phrases were identified. The following stated
purposes of schooling were found in more than nine of the Acts: linguistic heritage rights;
preparing respectful and responsible students; Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982);
parental participation in decisions regarding their child’s education; a safe learning environment;
and community stakeholder participation in school decision-making. These recurring stated
purposes suggest a common thread of integrating students into the community and society as
respectful, responsible citizens. Nine Acts included 21 keyword or phrases that were not
included in any of the other Acts, such as global awareness, environmental rights, team work,
and technologically advanced environments. The inclusion of particular values and beliefs not
32
found in other Acts may suggest that, although there is coherence in the purposes of schooling
that legislators feel is important, there may be incoherence in the emphases placed upon stated
purposes that reflects the values and beliefs particular to their province or territory.
As shown in Figure 2, when the stated purposes and direction within the Acts were
examined, three themes and 11 subthemes emerged, including (1) learner development – the
focus of individual student development; (2) learning environment – the physical, emotional, and
engagement expectations of the school environment; and, (3) integration into community – the
enculturation of local, societal, and global values and beliefs.
Values and Beliefs
• Global
• Societal
• Community
Learning Environment
• Physical and
emotional
environments
• Engagement and
Participation
Learner Development
• Cognitive/Academic
• Social Development
• Emotional
Development
• Civic Development
• Physical Development
• Vocational
Development
Figure 2. Nested themes relating to direction and purposes of schooling.
33
All Acts had indicators of stated purposes for schooling within each of the three themes,
but the percentage of indicators within each theme varied between the Acts (see Figure 3). For
example, the Manitoba Public Schools Act of 1987, the Quebec Education Act of 1988
(Education Act [Que.] S.C.R., 2012) and the Ontario Education Act of 1990 have similar overall
percentage of indicators; the Manitoba Public Schools Act of 1987 has a lower percentage of
learner development indicators than the other two Acts; and the Quebec Education Act of 1988
has a lower percentage of integration into the community indicators. Further, the Prince Edward
Island School Act of 1993 (School Act, R.S.P.E.I., 2012) and the Ontario Education Act of 1990
have similar distribution of the percentage of indicators between themes but a significant
difference in the number of indicators.
70
Learner Development
Integration into commuity
Learning Environment
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
MB
QC
ON
PE
SK
NS
BC
NT
NB
NL
YT
NU
AB
(1987) (1988) (1990) (1993) (1995) (1995- (1996) (1996) (1997) (1997) (2002) (2008) (2012)
6)
Figure 3. Percentage of purposes of schooling theme indicators within Canadian schooling
legislation.
34
Building on the work of Baron (2012), the findings were further analyzed for coherence
and incoherence among the Acts using the purposes of schooling framework (see Appendix B).
The four following subthemes were included in all 13 Acts: student emotional development
(such as reaching their potential and being respectful of others); student civic development (such
as being responsible and contributing members of society); integrating into society; and, the
provision of safe and/or inclusive environments. With the current focus on achievement and
performance, it is surprising that student academic development was included in only nine of the
13 Acts. Similar to the recurring stated purposes of schooling across the Acts as shown above,
similar coherence emerged within the framework analysis suggesting a common thread of
integrating students into the community and society as respectful, responsible citizens within a
safe learning environment.
Interestingly, the values identified within the Acts are consistent with those identified by
the 25 higher-performing firms on the Fortune 1000 list. Top firms include the values of respect,
leadership, diversity, citizenship, responsibility, teamwork, and safety to an even greater degree
than lower-performing firms (Williams, 2008).
Two purposes of schooling evident in all of the Acts but not explicitly included within
the preambles of any of the Acts were attendance and learning orderly conduct. Caring for young
children while their parents work and supporting students in following collective rules is an
important part of schooling, yet not only is it not clearly identified in the preambles of the Acts,
it is conspicuously absent from the purposes of schooling literature. Yet within studies on teacher
work–life balance, teachers consistently report these purposes as a major component of their role
in a school (ATA, 2009; Dyck-Hacault & Alarie, 2010; Kamanzi et al., 2007; MacDonald et al.,
2010; Naylor & White, 2011).
35
Stated least often are subthemes within learner development: spiritual, social, and
physical student development; and subthemes within integration into community: global
awareness, respect for the environment, and the ability of students to adapt to new contexts. This
may suggest that some of the Acts may represent a view of schooling closer aligned to
Standardized or authentic education than democratic citizenship or systemic sustainability
education. For example, the legislation of Nunavut and the Yukon have more indicators
regarding “biological and more-than-human” (Davis et al., 2015, p. 169) than the legislation of
British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island.
Context also seems to be a determining factor. The Newfoundland and Labrador School
Act of 1997 (School Act, S.N.L., 2012), the Northwest Territories Education Act of 1995
(Education Act, S.N.W.T., 2012), and the Nunavut Education Act of 2008 have sections
regarding land claim rights. Further, Quebec has numerous sections regarding connections to the
Roman Catholic religion. Not surprisingly due to context, governance and history, the most
similar Acts were those of the Nunavut Education Act of 2008, the Northwest Territories
Education Act of 1995, and Yukon Education Act of 2002 (Education Act, R.S.Y., 2012).
Although not referred to in any of the Acts, the stated purposes of schooling may have
been an opportunity for the provinces to ensure that students are influenced by provincial values
and interests. The political and social history of education within the territories influenced the
higher degree of inclusion of specific student development characteristics. For example, the
direction of the three territories, with significantly greater stated purposes, is more aligned with
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) than with any of the provinces:
Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the
strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote
36
understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and
shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. (Article 26,
para. 2)
As mentioned previously and further developed in Chapter IV, more recent legislation
includes an increase in stated purposes of schooling than previous legislation. Similar to
legislation in Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, the Alberta School Act of
2000 rarely mentions the purpose and direction of schooling and when it does, it is primarily
connected to community and societal values: “WHEREAS there is one publicly funded system
of education in Alberta whose primary mandate is to provide education programs to students
through its two dimensions, the public schools and the separate schools” (Alberta Education Act
of 2000, p. 11).
The passing of the Alberta Education Act of 2012, followed by the signing of the
Ministerial Order (#001/2013), has significantly changed the legislative purpose of education
and schooling in Alberta. Legislation in Alberta will situate itself much more closely with those
Acts of the Canadian territories in that it has a clear stated purpose with a focus on learner
development.
WHEREAS the role of education is to develop engaged thinkers who think critically and
creatively and ethical citizens who demonstrate respect, teamwork and democratic ideals
and who work with an entrepreneurial spirit to face challenges with resiliency,
adaptability, risk-taking and bold decision-making. (Alberta Education Act of 2012, p.
10)
Although 12 of the 13 Acts state a desire for shared involvement and/or decision making,
only the Manitoba Public Schools Act of 1987 explicitly speaks to the relationship with
37
employees within the preamble: “AND WHEREAS it is in the public interest to further
harmonious relations between teachers and their employers” (Manitoba Public Schools Act of
1987, Preamble section, para. 9). Comparative reviews in business would suggest that the
expressions of goodwill toward employees reflected positively on a firm’s performance. The lack
of identifying relationships with employees as important within the Acts is more consistent with
Williams’s (2008) findings of lower-performing firms.
As shown within this section, provincial and territorial statutes regarding the purposes of
schooling contain similar themes: learner development, integration into community, and the
learning environment. In delving deeper into and across themes, differences begin to emerge
between the Acts reflecting the importance legislators placed upon explicitly stating purposes of
schooling and in doing so revealing the values and the beliefs of each province.
With recent civil cases defining the intent of the province or territory through what is
stated within statute preambles, the trend to being more explicit in stating aims for schooling will
most likely continue. For example, in Moore v. British Columbia (Education; 2012), the
Supreme Court of Canada upheld an appeal filed on behalf of a student who was unable to
receive the remedial help he needed at his school. In making its decision, the Court stated that
the preamble of the British Columbia School Act of 1996, (School Act, R.S.B.C., 2012) is “an
acknowledgment by the government that the reason children are entitled to an education is that a
healthy democracy and economy require their educated contribution. Adequate special
education, therefore, is not a dispensable luxury” (2012, para. 2).
As explored within Alberta schooling legislation in Chapters IV and V, when the
purposes of schooling are not clearly stated or understood, a contested space opens for educators,
students, and parents that may leave them at cross purposes with each other.
38
Purposes of Schooling as Understood by School Stakeholders
As with the incoherence found within the purposes of schooling within provincial and
territorial legislation, there is incoherence in how teachers, school leaders, and stakeholders view
the purpose of schools. Throughout the literature, as developed below, there seems to be
divergence between how stakeholders understand what the purposes or requirements are and
what the purposes should be. The view of educators is that the current direction of schooling
would seem to more closely align with socioemotional development and community values than
learner development.
In examining how teachers describe the role and goals of a teacher, insight can be gained
on how they view the purpose of schools. In a Pan-Canadian study of over 4,500 teachers,
Kamanzi et al. (2007) found the vast majority of respondents consider themselves firstly to be
“educators,” “pedagogues,” and “specialists in a subject matter” (p. 23). Over 90% of
respondents identified the most important educational goals as ensuring a good atmosphere in the
classroom, ensuring that the majority of their students succeed, developing both general and
subject specific competencies in their students, developing a critical mind in students, promoting
good life habits among students, and preparing students to become responsible citizens. These
educational goals align with the most common stated purposes within the Acts: providing a safe
and inclusive learning environment, as well as, ensuring cognitive/academic, emotional, and
civic student development.
The findings of this and other work–life studies of Canadian teachers suggest that the role
of the teacher is expanding, and teachers feel they are unable to be as attentive to their primary
role (ATA, 2009; Dyck-Hacault & Alarie, 2010; Kamanzi et al., 2007; Naylor & White, 2009;
MacDonald et al., 2010).
39
In a study of Prince Edward Island teachers by MacDonald and colleagues (2010),
teachers reported that they viewed their primary and preferred work to be “teaching and caring
for young people” but this was significantly disrupted by other demands (p. 61). These teachers
reported that teachers in today’s society act as psychologist, counsellor, confidante, listener,
comforter, social worker, advocate, nurse, pharmacist, expert in emergency first aid, custodian,
dietician, waitress, short-order cook, parent, role model, caregiver, babysitter, referee, coach, and
after-school entertainer. The recommendations from the report call for changes to be made that
allow teachers to be able to prioritize the tasks “which are most essential to the enhancement of
student learning” (MacDonald et al., 2010, p. 83) and further examine the role of the teacher. In
the call for further examination of how teachers spend their time, the authors ask, “Have we lost
sight of the primary role of the teacher and sliced it into so many disparate roles that any
cohesive impact by teachers is being diminished?” (MacDonald et al., 2010, p. 83). The demands
on teacher time would align with provincial Acts in the areas of providing a safe learning
environment and addressing student emotional development needs, but the recommendations in
the report align more with the stated purposes in the Acts of Alberta, Northwest Territories,
Nunavut, and the Yukon.
Based on consultation with thousands of school stakeholders through regional and
provincial forums, online dialogue, and a representational steering committee, Inspiring
Education proposed a far-reaching shift, moving the focus on schools toward a focus on
education that “should expand beyond the school and integrate the community, the environment,
and the “real world” (p. 22). The purpose of schools would be part of the broader concept of
education in supporting the development of a student to manage challenges and opportunities of
the future, encouraging learners to discover and pursue their passions, making transitions to
40
adulthood, and creating life-long learners who contribute to healthy communities and thriving
economies.
A similar consultation of a wide range of Australian school stakeholders was undertaken
to determine the values and purposes guiding schools and the curriculum (Mulford, 2004). The
results included active and clear support for the personal growth and development of students,
the education of students for social responsibility, and the need to prepare young people for an
uncertain future and to equip them to create a future of their own choosing. The resulting
statement of values and purposes included the following core purposes: “learning to relate,
participate and care; live full, healthy lives; create purposeful futures; act ethically; learn; and,
think, know and understand” (Mulford, 2004, p. 630).
Insight can also be gained by how schools, as systems, view the goals and purposes for
their schools. In reflecting upon a study of school leadership vacancies in the United Kingdom,
Thomson (20098) specifically used the term schools rather school leaders, school stakeholders,
or school administrators in describing what characteristics schools desire in their leaders. The
findings indicate that schools wanted leaders who would help them change by taking them from
where they were to the next stage of development; help them get measurable results within
government mandated standards; be ethical, concerned about the well-being of children, and
value ethnic and cultural diversity; develop a vision for the school and work with others to move
toward it; and build partnerships with the school community and stakeholders.
Leading the School Collective
The expectations found within Thomson’s (2009) study are not unique to the United
Kingdom. Increasingly, school leaders are placed in a position where they must be all things to
all people, but school leaders are not superheroes, and schools benefit when the leaders enact
41
practices that positively influence teaching and learning. In implementing change amid these
multiple aims and purposes of schooling, school leaders need to navigate and respond to shifts in
policy (Earley et al., 2012); be contextually literate (Hitt & Tucker, 2015; Hopkins, Harris, Stoll,
& Mackay, 2011; Mulford, 2010; Schafft & Biddle, 2013); and be attentive to research evidence
(Scott & McNeish, 2013).
Continuing the analogy brought forward in Chapter I, “System 2 protects the most
important activity, so it receives the attention it needs; ‘spare capacity’ is allocated second by
second to other tasks” (Kahneman, 2011, p. 35). As with school stakeholders, each school leader
will assign weight to the amount of attention given to policy, context, and research based on his
or her understanding of the purposes of schooling, education, personal and community contexts,
and worldview.
As an illustrative example, the staff and the parent association in a southern Alberta
school chose to have the students participate in an operatic production. As most educators would
attest, the emotions connected to any performance in elementary schools run high. Over the
course of the school year, the planned small-scale production morphed into a large-scale
theatrical event. With much time, attention, and funds supporting the event, the production was
well received by the audience and most of the students enjoyed the experience.
But should this project be considered an unqualified success? Giving students
opportunities to study the performing arts and to present to their community can add much value
to their school experience, but it is important to reflect upon what else was happening in the
school. The administrator felt that teaching and learning were compromised by the time and
energy required by the production, relationships became strained as visions for production
diverged, and planned academic initiatives were derailed or postponed.
42
This situation would be an example of System 1 running amok. In operating with little or
no effort, and no sense of voluntary control, System 1 cannot be turned off at will. Recognizing
the signs that a situation is becoming a minefield, a school leader, represented by System 2, will
wish to slow things down, question what is happening, and make decisions that re-orient the
school toward its aims and purposes.
Supported by the literature, developed above and elsewhere, Senge and colleagues (2012)
suggested that without a clear purpose, school system leaders resort to the goals that are the most
expedient. But in trying to make education better and evoking passion within students and
educators, school leaders are tasked, as the consciousness of the school collective, with finding
the path that situates their schools in the “sweet spot” where legislation, pedagogical practice,
and context converge.
Effective School Leaders Practices
By focusing on what they are trying to accomplish and making decisions that move the
schools toward that end, school leaders may be able to find the sweet spot that is unique to their
school. Over the past four decades, the field of educational leadership has accrued a body of
research that explains how school leaders can influence student achievement through the
enactment of various practices (Hitt & Tucker, 2015). Although organized within differing
frameworks, school leader practices that are identified as positively impacting student outcomes
include (a) establishing and conveying a vision focused on student achievement; (b) facilitating a
high-quality learning experience for students; (c) creating a safe, supportive, collaborative
culture for students, teachers, and communities; (d) building professional capacity; and (e) using
resources strategically (Hitt & Tucker, 2015; Leithwood & Seashore-Louis, 2011; Robinson,
Lloyd, & Rowe, 2008).
43
These core practices frame the deliberate decision-making (System 2) that school leaders
should be attentive to in orienting their schools toward new understandings of knowing,
teaching, and learning. Although the practices are discussed separately, there are clear overlaps
and interdependencies among them. “Effective leaders do not get the relationships right and then
tackle the educational challenges—they incorporate both sets of constraints into their problem
solving” (Robinson et al., 2008, p. 659). Further, the ability to allocate resources strategically is
dependent on the depth and breadth of leaders’ relevant understanding of their contexts and of
their beliefs of the purposes of schooling. Change within schools can only be implemented if the
school leader has developed relationships with stakeholders who encourage them to be open to
change.
Setting the direction. Developing a shared vision statement is not new to schools. One
of the findings in school improvement literature suggests that when school leaders set and
prioritize clear goals as well as promote a shared vision for the school, student learning goals are
more likely to be achieved (Bendikson, Hattie, & Robinson, 2012; Hallinger, 2011; Leithwood &
Sun, 2012; Robinson, 2011).
Within a meta-analysis of the relationship between leadership and student outcomes,
Robinson et al. (2008) found that the dimension of “establishing goals and expectations” had
moderately large effect on size and could be interpreted as an educationally significant effect (p.
659).
Stemler et al. (2011) argued that mission statements are a valuable source of data that can
be quantified for educational researchers and administrators interested in reflecting on school
purpose, comparing schools with regard to their core mission, and monitoring changes in school
purpose over time.
44
Empirical research is emerging that has identified a correlation between top performing
schools and the content of their statements of purpose. In a study of Massachusetts schools,
Kustigian (2013) found a significant correlation between top performing Massachusetts’s public
schools and the appearance of statements regarding productive, responsible, and contributing
members of society involved in public service within their mission; however, the correlation of
the number of academic themed statements and top performing schools was not significant. In
contrast, a comparison of mission statements of national Blue Ribbon schools and unacceptable
Texas high schools found significant differences between high and low performing high schools
for the themes of academics, excellence, challenge, learning, nurture, and lifelong learning
(Perfetto, Holland, Davis, & Fedynich, 2013).
The absence of a shared direction among school stakeholders can lead to frustration or to
schools doing too much stuff. Schafft and Biddle (2013) found incoherence between local
priorities and educational policy may cause educational leaders “to feel the tension generated by
the coexistence of unaligned local exigencies and institutionally articulated purposes for
schooling more keenly than leaders of districts in places where the community aims and national
discourse on schooling are more naturally aligned” (p. 73).
Personal experience teaches that individuals in organizations can get so caught up in the
race that they forget why they are running. Sooner or later a crisis jars the organization into a
painful awareness that they are seriously off course (Cady, Wheeler, DeWolf, & Brodke, 2011).
Facilitating high-quality learning. The more that leaders focus on the core business of
teaching and learning, the greater their influence on student outcomes (Hitt & Tucker, 2015;
Leithwood & Seashore-Louis, 2011; Robinson et al., 2008). Robinson et al. (2008) found that the
practice of planning, coordinating, and evaluating teaching and the curriculum had a moderate
45
impact on student outcomes, and these practices directly shaped the nature and quality of
instruction in classrooms. Further, Hitt and Tucker (2015) suggested
the work that leaders do is multifaceted, but maintaining expertise, understanding and a
firm grasp of curriculum, instruction, and assessment means that principals truly
understand life in the classroom and the challenges inherent in their chosen profession.
(p. 25)
School leaders are continually required to make decisions, and the more attentive they are
to how instruction is interwoven with curriculum and how school context influences both, the
more they will be able to support a high-quality learning experience for students.
Creating a safe, supportive, collaborative culture. A safe, supportive, collaborative
culture for students, teachers, and communities is an important factor in allowing students and
teachers to focus on learning. When teachers and students feel safe, comfortable, and cared for,
and parents are welcome and involved, students had higher-than-expected academic outcomes
(Heck, 2000). Hattie (2009) found that school environment features, such as school and
classroom climate, peer influences, and the lack of disruptive students in the classroom, were the
most powerful effects of the school.
School leaders are tasked with establishing and sustaining an environment conducive to
learning and teaching. This core practice is wide-ranging and includes ensuring a safe and
orderly environment (Hitt & Tucker, 2015; Robinson et al., 2008), considering the context of the
student body and the community (Hitt & Tucker, 2015; Leithwood & Seashore-Louis, 2011),
promoting collaborative processes for decision-making (Hitt & Tucker, 2015; Leithwood &
Seashore-Louis, 2011), building productive relationships with families and communities, (Hitt &
Tucker, 2015; Leithwood & Seashore-Louis, 2011), and buffering staff and or students from
46
distractions and staff conflict (Hitt & Tucker, 2015; Leithwood & Seashore-Louis, 2011;
Robinson et al., 2008). Being attentive to the rhythms of their schools and knowing when to
intervene, school leaders can be instrumental in creating learning environments in which staff
and students feel respected and cared for.
Building professional capacity. Shifts in the practice of teaching require a fundamental
shift in the mindsets that educators bring to their work. As mentioned earlier, expectations of
educators have moved beyond the acquisition of knowledge and skills, and teachers need to
develop the capacity to move to places that they have not previously experienced, and possibly
not even imagined. Building relationships and developing people within the school is considered
one of the main roles of school leaders and encompasses selecting the right staff and providing
them with opportunities to grow and succeed in their work. Within a review of the literature
encompassing teacher learning, Hitt and Tucker (2015) confirmed the importance of teacher
quality on impacting student achievement and suggested that practices of school leaders hoping
to ensure teacher quality include selecting staff for the right fit, providing individualized
consideration, building trusting relationships, providing opportunities to learn, supporting,
buffering and recognizing staff; creating communities of practice; and establishing expectations.
These practices are similar to those identified in other frameworks of effective leadership
practices (Fullan, 2014; Leithwood & Seashore-Louis, 2011; Robinson et al., 2008).
One of the noted findings within building professional capacity within a school is the
importance of the school leaders who themselves are learners and part of the learning
community. In a review of over 40 years of school leadership research, Hallinger (2011) found
that school leaders who promoted and participated with teachers in formal and informal
professional learning had the most significant impact on learning. Robinson and colleagues
47
(2008) found a large effect within the promotion and participation in teacher learning and
development providing some empirical support for calls to school leaders to be actively involved
with their teachers as the leading learners of their schools.
The more school leaders learn for themselves and the more skilled they become, the more
passionate they will also become about the quality and value of their work (Fullan, 2014). By
working alongside staff in building professional capacity within their schools, school leaders
have the opportunity not only to lead learning but also to build trusting relationships that in turn
will further the vision of the school.
Using resources strategically. The strategic use of resources is more than just acquiring
and allocating staff, materials, and other resources. The word strategic signals that the leadership
activity is about securing resources that are aligned with instructional purposes (Robinson et al.,
2008). Teacher selection and staff assignments, which constitute the majority of the budget,
should support the vision and mission of the school; the remainder of the budget should be
carefully allocated for professional development, necessary supports for students, and other
expenses to support the vision (Hitt & Tucker, 2015).
Within Alberta, school authorities have flexibility in the use of funds but are required to
demonstrate measurable results and are accountable for meeting the learning needs of all
students (Alberta Education, 2010a). For school leaders, meeting these accountability
requirements has led to an increase in the time that has become devoted to monitoring,
accounting for, and administering policies concerned with performance and outcomes (Spencer,
2014). In addition to using accountability data to support teachers in honing their curricular and
teaching strategies (Stone-Johnson, 2011), school leaders must negotiate the delicate balance
48
between educator workload and the stressors perceived to be connected to accountability (ATA,
2009; Dyck-Hacault, G., & Alarie, R., 2010; MacDonald et al., 2010; Naylor & White, 2009).
The school leadership role is more than multitasking, it is seeing the connections, the
consequences, and the opportunities in every decision. As explored within this chapter, the stated
purposes and direction can be examined through the themes of learner development, the learning
environment, and integration into community. School leaders are accountable for orienting the
direction of the school in alignment with the legislated purposes of schooling. Exploring and
understanding the similarities and differences within provincial and territorial legislated purposes
of schooling will be better able to navigate and respond to shifts in policy.
In understanding schools as complex learning systems, school leaders need to embrace
the complexity by entwining the core practices that can influence student achievement: setting
the vision, facilitating high-quality learning experiences, creating a safe and supportive learning
environment, building professional capacity, and using resources strategically. With this
overseeing consciousness, represented by System 2, the school leader, becomes the
consciousness of the school collective and is able to negotiate the negotiate the tension of policy,
context, and research.
49
Chapter III: Thinking Hermeneutically
In coming to understand how successful school leaders draw on their experience, their
knowledge of the school context, and their understanding of the purposes of schooling
legislation, this study drew upon two threads of hermeneutics. As introduced in Chapter I,
interpretations were drawn from Alberta legislation regarding the goals of education (specifically
through the text of statutes) and through the exploration of the lived experiences of those people
it impacts (through the text from narrative interviews).
This chapter presents the research design that was used in addressing the aims of the
study, including (1) the research methodology, (2) the theoretical framework, and (3) methods,
research sample, and data collection process.
Research Methodology: Two Threads of Hermeneutics
In attempting to gain a deeper understanding of how school leaders make purposeful
decisions while implementing change, this study lends itself to an interpretive methodology.
“Interpretive research does not predefine dependent and independent variables, but focuses on
the full complexity of human sense making as the situation emerges” (Kaplan & Maxwell, 1994,
as cited in Myers, 1997). The choice of a hermeneutic methodology allows the researcher to
consider the context by looking beyond observable behaviours. In seeking to explore subjective
experience, credence is given to people’s beliefs, value systems, and the meanings with which
they interpret their experiences (Hammell, 2002).
The attitude of interpretation is part of who I am, or who I’ve become. What I grew to
understand through this work is the relationship with the data that occurs as one moves in and
out of the hermeneutic circle. Each time I delved into a statute or the text of an interview, I
50
came out with a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of school leaders and the
historical movements that brought them to their current place. But what I did not expect was
the seduction of just one more niggling question to answer, one more thought to ponder, and
one more connection to explore. I grew to understand how an area of study can become a life’s
work and how the passion for the research may be hampered for a time, but one interesting
discovery within the data can ignite it again.
Hermeneutics is derived from the Greek verb hermeneuein (sp) generally translated “to
interpret” or the noun hermeneia “interpretation” (Palmer, 1969, p. 12) In its various forms, it is
found in a considerable number of texts, including works by Aristotle, Plato, Xenophon,
Plutarch, Euripides, Epicurus, Lucretius, and Longinus. The process of “coming to understand”
is implicit in all three basic directions from the original: (1) to say, an oral recitation; (2) to
explain, a reasonable explanation; and (3) to translate, as in translation of a foreign language
(Palmer, 1969, p. 12).
The etymology of the term is in itself an interesting study of the hermeneutic process. For
centuries, it was assumed that the term hermeneutics derived from the Greek god, Hermes.
Within Plato’s dialogues, Socrates imagined the name Hermes signified “that he is the interpreter
(ermeneus), or messenger” (360 BCE/n.d., para. 371). This origin provided a compelling
explanation that drew people to this folk etymology with an easily understood metaphor such as
the following example by Jasper (2004): “Hermes was able to bridge the gap between the divine
and human realms, putting into words those mysteries which were beyond the capacity of human
utterance. His task was to bridge this gap and to make that which seemed unintelligible into
something meaningful and clear to the human ear” (p. 7).
51
More recently, the introduction of hermeneutics has been assigned to Aristotle through
the title of his work, Peri Hermeneias or On Interpretation (350 BCE/n.d.). In an example of the
hermeneutic process, it is interesting to note the different emotions portrayed by different
interpreters of the same section of text. For example, “Those things therefore which are in the
voice are symbols of the passions of the soul and when written are symbols of the passions in the
voice” (Aristotle, 350 BCE/2010, Part 1) as compared with “spoken words are the symbols of
mental experience and written words are the symbols of spoken words” (Aristotle, 350 BCE/n.d.,
Part 1, para. 2).
The origins of hermeneutic application can be found in exegesis, the interpretation or
translation of text, especially of sacred texts (Jasper, 2004). Early interpretation of sacred text
was restricted to a few religious scholars who dealt with the foreign languages in which the text
was written and with a historical distance from when the text was written. The invention of the
printing press in the 1400s, in conjunction with the religious, scientific, and cultural shifts
occurring in Europe at that time, allowed more people to read and interpret text in different ways.
“The effects produced by printing may be plausibly related to an increased incidence of creative
acts, to internally transformed speculative traditions, to exchanges between intellectuals and
artisans, and indeed to each of the contested factors in current disputes” (Eisenstein, 1980, p.
688).
Text Taken Literally: Knowing the World
In the following centuries, the understanding of hermeneutics moved away from its origin
in interpreting scripture to a more philosophical search for meaning. “Hermeneutics involves a
careful search for meaning without an expectation that exactly one meaning will be found or that
it will anchored in an unassailable foundation” (Noddings, 1998, p. 52). With the spread of
52
democracy across Europe, constitutional documents became the new sacred text, and the scope
of hermeneutics widened to include the interpretation of law and legal texts. With the work of
Schleiermacher (Corliss, 1993), hermeneutics further expanded with the understanding that
human beings are fundamentally linguistic creatures and therefore human understanding is
rooted in that linguistic nature—which included other symbolic forms of language and the dual
relationship between grammatical and psychological interpretation. Further, Schleiermacher
argued that the individuality of language use does not refer to an inner, inaccessible layer of the
mind but rather “the style, the voice, or the particularity of the language as used or applied”
(Ramberg & Gjesdal, 2014, Romantic Continuations section, para. 4).
As Schleiermacher noted, the “spirit of antiquity is to be found not only in a certain type
of written works but also in the graphic arts and who knows where else, (but) hermeneutics deals
only with what is produced in language” (as cited in Corliss, 1993, p. 209). Further,
Schleiermacher put forth that to understand text, there must be an understanding of the historical
context: “Understanding a speech always involves two moments: to understand what is said in
the context of the language with its possibilities, and to understand it as a fact in the thinking of
the speaker” (Schleiermacher 1819/1985, p. 74). According to Schleiermacher, understanding
takes place only in the coexistence of grammatical and psychological interpretations, and he
viewed them as completely equal. The back-and-forth movement between these two principles
gave rise to the hermeneutic circle. “Complete knowledge always involves an apparent circle,
that each part can be understood only out of the whole to which it belongs, and vice versa”
(Schleiermacher, 1819/1985, p. 84).
Twentieth-century hermeneuts, such as Hirsch (1960), continued to be interested in the
past, endeavoring to discern precisely what the authors meant within their particular historical
53
situations and continued to view hermeneutics in the tradition of Schleiermacher as a method to
interpret the human relationship to other humans through understanding the writer’s point of
view and suspending personal interpretations as much as possible (Fry, 2009). In clarifying the
distinction between meaning and relevance, Hirsch (1960) argued that that the author’s meaning,
as represented by the text, is unchanging and reproducible. Further, “although textual meaning is
determined by the psychic acts of an author, and realized by those of a reader, textual meaning
itself must not be identified with the author’s or reader’s psychic acts as such” (Hirsch, 1960, p.
466).
As the 20th century unfolded, the original focus on literal texts expanded to include
phenomena that might be understood as figural texts (e.g., language is a text, personal
understanding is a text, life is a text, culture is a text), which triggered the emergence of a second
thread of hermeneutics. This new brand of hermeneuts was much more present-focused. They
looked beyond the view of hermeneutics of understanding linguistic communication or providing
a methodology for the human sciences. There was still an historical interest, but one looked to
the past to understand how it formatted current thinking. With Heidegger’s shift in understanding
from the ways of knowing about the world to the way of being within the world, hermeneutics
became the interplay between our understanding of self and our understanding the world
(Palmer, 1969).
Discovering the exact meaning of another person as described by Hirsch (1960) brings
to mind the proverb of “walking a mile in another person’s shoes.” It speaks to a virtual space
of connectedness where the speaker and the interpreter have the same understanding of what is
being put forth. There is comfort in the possibility of this type of connection almost being as
54
one with another person but I am reminded that I have more frequently found divergence.
In Heidegger’s interplay, I find that as more in-depth understanding occurs, a distance
is created from the people that do not share a similar understanding. In our culture, divergent
points of view are not always valued and I find that silence is more acceptable than engaging
in dialogue that causes discomfort. Whereas the sharing of exact meaning brought comfort
(Hirsch), greater understanding of self (Heidegger) can bring isolation.
Text Taken Figuratively: Being Within the World
In hermeneutic inquiries, seeking to understand the text requires attentiveness. With more
in-depth understanding or shared experiences, there is a lure of believing that the interpreter
knows the history of the text as experienced by the writer and therefore he or she may limit
themselves in their interpretation. Gadamer (1960/1995) challenged the interpreter to explore
deeper:
Horizon is the range of vision that includes everything that can be seen from a particular
vantage point. . . .A person who has no horizon is a man who does not see far enough and
hence overvalues what is nearest to him. On the other hand, “to have an horizon” means
not being limited to what is nearby, but to being able to see beyond it. (p. 313)
Gadamer also emphasized the importance of dialogue between the researcher and the text
for gaining knowledge and understanding through repeated readings, and a recurring process of
asking and answering questions of the information that explores new directions and possible
answers (Zweck, Paterson, & Pentland, 2008).
Prior to my international experiences, when I read an article detailing the provision of
55
humanitarian aid, my understanding tended to lean toward the ultimate good of assisting
others. With a deeper understanding and comprehension of the context, I find my experience
of interpretation aligning with Gadamer. I no longer accept what the author is stating at face
value, but rather consider whether or not it is a good representation of the situation. With an
expanded lived experience, I have witnessed food, medical aid, and money being bartered for
religious conversion and becoming weapons of war. I have come to understand, if handled
inappropriately, that the provision of humanitarian aid is not an ultimate good but can often
result in being less “good than no aid at all. In reading the same article on humanitarian aid, I
would now question the immediate and long-term impacts on the beneficiaries, on the local
and global economy, and on local and global political agendas. The critique builds my
understanding of self and my world in relation to the text, which in turn informs how I
understand the greater world.
The interpretation of text, taken both literally and figuratively, involves the circuitous
viewing of gaining understanding by alternatively considering the whole and then individual
parts, known as the hermeneutic circle. This principle holds that the process of understanding is
necessarily recursive, as we cannot know a whole without knowing its essential parts, yet we
cannot know the parts without knowing the whole that determines their functions (Hirsch, 1972).
Moving in and out of the hermeneutic circle, we can gain insight in how school leaders make
decisions within an environment of multiple aims and purposes. In listening to the different
perspectives within the stories of the participants, we are given the opportunity to understand the
school as experienced by the people within it. In applying understanding from the particular of
the participant to the whole of the school system, understanding of how the decisions for change
are lived within the school system is deepened.
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Theoretical Framework: Dual Process Theory Analogy
Dual process theory provides a useful model to make sense in interpreting the world of
the school through the use of properties identified with System 1 and 2 (see Table 2).
Table 2
The Properties for the Two Systems of Dual Process Theories of Reasoning
System 1
Operates automatically and quickly
Requires little or no effort
No sense of voluntary control
Associate system
Intuitive cognition
Recognition-primed decisions
Highly contextualized
System 2
Operates deliberately and slowly
Effortful
Conscious, reasoning self
Rule-based system
Analytical cognition
Rational choice strategy
Decontextualized
Dual process theory can itself be seen as an analogy of hermeneutic inquiry. As discussed
in Chapter I, dual process theory, or the dual process approach to decision-making, is used to
describe how a person makes decisions. The conscious, explicit, and reflective work of the
hermeneutic inquiry can be seen as the System 2 of dual process theory. Hermeneutics in social
inquiry is a reflection on, and an instance of, practical deliberation where “the descriptive
analysis of common sense knowledge is transformed by hermeneutics into a reflection on the
convictions which societal members entertain as to what is held and what is to be held in
common” (Misgeld, 1983, p. 109).
[Common sense] is something which emerges in the space between a plurality of actors
and spectators, in our perpetual interaction with the common world, and which maintains
this common world at the same time. It is both a feature of the human condition, and, as
57
such, may or may not be realized, and something acquired through socialization in a
particular community. (Borren, 2013, p. 248)
The dual process theory analogy brings together two existing metaphors to understand the
lived experiences within a school. As discussed previously, dual process theory suggests that
most choices are made intuitively with very little effort (System 1), but when decisions requiring
more thought are needed, they are made slowly and take considerable effort (System 2).
Stanovich and West (2000) suggested that “in most cases, the two Systems will interact in
concert” but one of the functions of System 2 is to serve as an override system for some of the
automatic results provided by System 1 (p. 662).
Within the analogy, the common beliefs of the community, which are based in memory
and collectively rehearsed, become the automatic first response of System 1. The interplay
between Systems 1 and 2 within a system can be compared to the circuitous understanding of the
hermeneutic circle.
Figure 4 represents the vigilant, thoughtful, questioning activities of System 2 orienting
the automatic responses of System 1, while acknowledging that constant vigilance is much too
slow and inefficient to serve as a substitute for making routine decisions.
Figure 4. Dual process theory applied to the consciousness of the collective metaphor.
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In viewing schools as organic, living systems (James, 2010; Mulford, 2010; Senge et al.,
2012) with collective attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguish one system from another,
schools can be reflected in the automatic, intuitive, culture-driven activities of System 1.
The analogies of Lisbon’s traffic patterns and the kindergarten class, described in Chapter
I, were used in interpreting dual process theory in regards to a system. In my international work,
I have also seen the automaticity of schools. Although the desired response is different due to
cultural norms, each school has certain established patterns that students, once instructed by the
teacher, are expected to follow automatically. For example, in a suburban elementary school in
Alberta, students voluntarily line up before the bell as being first in line is a desired spot. Upon
the ringing of the bell, they move toward their classes to hang up their coats, chat with friends,
and prepare for the day. Within 10 min of the bell ringing, 600 children have moved from being
outside dressed for winter to being at their desks ready for morning announcements. Similarly, in
an elementary school in the Middle East, the girls proceed directly to the courtyard and line up
with their class. Once morning prayers and morning announcements are completed, the students
follow their teacher to their class and prepare for the day. Again, in a short period of time, 750
students have arrived, sorted themselves, and are ready to work.
Without the planning by System 2, moving a large number of children and adults without
established patterns can be effortful and time consuming. This can be seen in the event of a
disruption to the opening day pattern. For example, in Alberta, a minor fight on the playground
can easily explode into a major disruption, as it consumes the attention of large numbers of
students who might then ignore any of the automatic cues established to move inside. Before the
school day can begin, a System 2 intervention needs to occur to remove the distraction and
59
encourage students to move inside. Even then, conversation about the fight may well continue
until the teacher intervenes to shift the focus on the plan for the day.
Drawing a parallel with Davis’s (2005) metaphor and its critical points, the school leader
becomes the consciousness of the school collective in promoting the direction of the school.
First, leading a school demands transdisciplinarity and level-jumping across neurological,
psychological, social, cultural, and other phenomena. This manner of systemic thinking prompts
the suggestion that school leaders should perhaps become system thinkers that are highly attuned
to the interrelationships among nature, people, emotions, thoughts, and themselves (Senge et al.,
2012). This point aligns with Mulford’s (2010) contention that a leader must be able to see and
act on the whole, as well as on the individual elements, and the relationships between them.
Second, the school leader must understand the school as a collective learner with a
coherence and evolving identity all its own (System 1). Senge and colleagues (2012) suggested
that in practice, this means developing a clear and honest understanding of the current reality that
is accessible to the whole organization; is able to produce new, equally accessible knowledge;
and that helps people take effective action toward their desired future. Understanding occurs only
when the interpreter recognizes the significance of the various items that she or he notices, and
recognizes the way in which those items relate to each other (Kinsella, 2006).
Third, through prompting differential attention toward school goals, legislative and
system priorities and community context (System 2), school leaders do not direct, but rather
orient as he or she contributes to the reworking of the parts that constitute the whole of the
school.
Leaders, in deciding where they will be attentive, need to ensure that automatic and
thoughtful processes work in tandem and appropriate decision-making occurs at the appropriate
60
time. They must understand that tension often arises when System 2 comes into play and draws
energy away from the smooth running of System 1; yet without System 2, there can be no growth
and the school will not continue to run smoothly. In Kahneman’s (2011) words,
As a way to live your life, however, continuous vigilance is not necessarily good, and it is
certainly impractical. Constantly questioning our own thinking would be impossibly
tedious, and System 2 is much too slow and inefficient to serve as a substitute for System
1 in making routine decisions. (p. 28)
The fourth critical component is ensuring that diverse interpretive possibilities are present
in the school. Paralleling Davis’s metaphor, leadership “cannot be about zeroing in on
predetermined conclusions. It can’t be about the replication and perpetuation of the existing
possible” (2005, p. 87). By expanding possibilities, a school leader in understanding the context
of the school (System 1) can orient the school towards what might be brought forth (System 2).
In a similar vein, Hargreaves and Fullan (2012) have suggested that “helping people to help
themselves and help their students more effectively . . . is not about manipulating them into
complying with externally imposed requirements or delivering someone else’s vision” (p. 169).
In negotiating the intricacy of too much stuff, school leadership focuses on presenting
opportunities framed within the context and capabilities of the school. Cultural change at the
school level requires time, attention, and energy. Long-lasting changes to beliefs and attitudes
need more than the vision of System 2; they need to be transitioned to the day-to-day of System
1. And thus lies the crux of sustained change. Everyone has encountered this phenomenon
whether it be in maintaining a healthy diet, quitting smoking, increasing exercise, changing
pedagogical practice, or improving a school. For every step we try to move forward towards
change, our routines, our foundational beliefs and our memories hold us in place. In examining
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the transition of deliberate decision-making to engrained practice, it is necessary to become more
skilled in the task, “learn to recognize situations in which mistakes are likely and try harder to
avoid significant mistakes when the stakes are high” (Kahneman, 2011, p. 28).
These points about drawing an analogy between the dual processes at the individual level
and the dynamics of cultural change at the collective level might be underscored through an
example. Possibilities abound, especially with the range of school reform initiatives in the late
20th century. Whole language 6 in particular stands out. Even now, more than 20 years after the
advent of this movement, the mere mention of the whole language reading wars can elicit a
visceral reaction in many educators. The disputes surrounding the implementation of whole
language affected parent–teacher relationships, educational research methods, school culture,
local and national politics, and teacher efficacy (Hempenstall, 1997; Sweeny, 2013).
As with any effort at educational reform, interpretation played a key role in the whole
language movement, following Gadamer’s observation that understanding “is always
interpretation, and hence interpretation is the explicit form of understanding” (1960/1995, p.
307). How teachers interpreted whole language influenced the implementation in their
classrooms. Teachers made choices, foresaw issues, and reacted to problems based more on tacit
knowledge anchored in their past experiences and the explicit descriptions they were presented
of whole language.
Interpretation, as characterized by Gadamer, is conscious and deliberate (System 2),
which operates against a constant backdrop of situated and enacted assumption (System 1). A
6
Whole Language is referred to as both a pedagogical shift (Sweeney, 2013) and a philosophy
(Hempenstall, 1997; Richards & Rodgers, 2014).
62
person who is trying to understand a text is always projecting. He or she projects a meaning for
the text as a whole as soon as some initial meaning emerges in the text. Again, the initial
meaning emerges only because he or she is reading the text with particular expectations in regard
to a certain meaning (Gadamer, 1960/1995). In retrospect, it is clear that many teachers’
decisions, anticipations, and responses about whole language were more strongly framed by a
tacit and enacted history of traditional, standardized practices than the explicit, authentic
sensibilities used to frame whole language. Using Sweeney’s (2013) findings of teachers’
experiences with whole language as an example, a dual process approach can be used as an
analogy to gain a better understanding of the implementation of change. To obtain long-lasting
change, there is a need not only to make decisions and plan for change (System 2) but also to
implement change with an understanding that there will be a resistance to change. In
Kahneman’s (2011) terms, the “thoughts and actions that System 2 believes it has chosen are
often guided by the figure at the center of the story, System 1” (p. 31).
Teachers’ understanding of whole language ranged from no phonics to a balanced
approach blending skills-based and process-based techniques into a philosophy that emphasized
creativity and student voice (Sweeney, 2013). Associating ideas to established beliefs and
practices is a System 1 phenomenon. Yet, “System 1 excels at constructing the best possible
story that incorporates ideas currently activated, but it does not (cannot) allow for information it
does not have” (Kahneman, 2011, p. 85). So, although teachers’ practices fitted their
understanding of whole language sensibilities, they could not implement change they did not
understand. Therefore, different experiences in classrooms prevailed (articulated in the
organization of the space, the language of the students, etc.). Doubtless, the amount of stuff that
needed to be done was also a defining factor in the reception of whole language. With the
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busyness of the school year, teachers may have reverted to established practice when their
working memories became overtaxed. Concentration and the deliberate control of attention are
tiring, and when overwhelmed, people will make less effort in exerting themselves (Kahneman,
2011).
As one means of presenting interpretations around the tensions among knowing systems
that are always at play in human thought and action, a visual metaphor is useful to locate and
highlight possible conflicts in individual and collective knowledge systems that might explain
where and why some efforts at educational reform are effective and where and why some efforts
might sometimes be stymied. Figure 5 represents a dual process theory analogy of the
implementation of whole language by teachers who: (a) rejected whole language
implementation, (b) understood whole language philosophy but it had not yet become part of
their embodied practice, (c) associated whole language philosophy with their current practices
and beliefs, and (d) deeply understood and adopted whole language philosophy. This analogy is
intended as a description related to specific change. A teacher may find that in certain areas,
through a deep understanding of desired practice, less effort is required than in other areas.
Figure 5. A dual process theory analogy of the implementation of whole language at the
individual level of understanding.
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In reflecting on my own beliefs about the purposes of schooling and my enacted
practice, the most significant shift occurred in transitioning from the role of a high school
teacher to the role of elementary administrator and teacher. I found that I had an uneven
understanding of elementary curriculum. When teaching grade 2, a mentor assisted in
broadening my pedagogical knowledge, but I found myself often at a loss. I would assume that
I understood something and then discover that I really didn’t understand it at all. Yet, in
mathematics my understanding was much deeper, and I found my lack of experience of the
routines and practices of my colleagues allowed me to engage students with mathematics in a
different way.
Each of the four images presented in Figure 5 is intended to focus attentions on the
resonance of the TEACHER S1 and S2 (i.e., with regard to the principles and practices
associated with a reform initiative such as whole language). The situation illustrated by the
leftmost image is one in which a teacher rejected the new practice. With regard to the whole
language movement, some teachers had the tendency to give “lip service” to a pedagogical
initiative but then to “close the door” and proceed with one’s teaching with no substantive
adjustments (Sweeney, 2013). By rejecting change, System 1 will continue with established
norms until it runs into difficulty. In this instance, at the TEACHER level, there is complete
resonance between automatic S1 and reflective S2. That is, this teacher experiences no
dissonance; inside the classroom, her or his conscious decisions fit seamlessly with deeply
entrenched habits of acting.
As frustrating to reform efforts as such instances might be, they are perhaps less troubling
as the type of situation presented in the second image. One factor that led to the polarizing
65
discord in the whole language movement was that many teachers received their information “by
word of mouth and by piecemeal workshops” (Sweeny, 2013, p. 100). The second image
represents a teacher who may have had a desire to implement whole language but for whom it
was not yet part of enacted practice or day-to-day rhythms. In this situation, there are two types
of dissonance (signalled by different colours). On the TEACHER level, new principles that are
occupying much of the teacher’s consciousness (S2) might conflict with familiar and automatic
(S1) practices.
The third image highlights a different sort of dissonance. In this instance, at the
TEACHER level, conscious beliefs and decisions (S2) are consistent with habits and automated
practices (S2), meaning that this teacher has been able to integrate personal understandings of the
whole language approach with other teaching practices. However, in this case, whole language
principles and practices may be more adapted than adopted—that is, embraced, but in a manner
that fits them to entrenched beliefs and routines rather than positions them as a challenge to those
beliefs and routines.
That sort of comprehensive change is illustrated in the fourth image. In this image, the
colours of the TEACHER S1 and S2 match—that is, the habits of acting that spring from the
teacher’s automatic and intuitive System 1 are resonant with the decisions that emerge from the
conscious and reflective System 2.
Each of the four images presented in Figure 6 is intended to focus attentions on the
resonance of the TEACHER S1 and S2 (as also shown in Figure 5) and on the resonance at the
CLASS level when the teacher steps into the role as the consciousness (S2) of the collective
(S1). The situation illustrated by the leftmost image is one in which a teacher rejected the new
practice. By the teacher rejecting change, no dissonance is encountered at the CLASS level,
66
where the activities of teacher and students alike obey familiar expectations and well-established
routines.
Figure 6. A dual process theory analogy of the implementation of whole language at the
collective level of understanding.
In the second image, the two types of dissonance on the TEACHER level can be
amplified at the CLASS level, especially when new practices are embraced that are completely
unfamiliar to the collective. One might expect System 2 to become overloaded, able to focus
only on the most important activities; other tasks are responded to through the automaticity of
System 1’s routine conditions (Kahneman, 2011, p. 35). And, indeed, among teachers who did
not have a deep understanding or experience with whole language, there were frequent reports of
overload, such as overwork or pressures from parents or other teachers. Not surprisingly, there
was also a tendency among these teachers to rely on familiar situations and make choices and
react to problems in alignment with the philosophy or pedagogy with which they were most
familiar and comfortable.
67
As represented by third image when practice is adapted at the TEACHER level, the
language of reform might be actively spoken, and some of the markings of reform might be
evident at the CLASS level. However, for whole language purists, the resulting hybrid model
may not meet the requirements of change.
When System 1 resonates with System 2 as shown in the fourth image, there is little
dissonance at the TEACHER level, but at the CLASS level, however, there is obvious
dissonance. This teacher will have to confront such matters as affecting the norms of the class,
contending with students who are more familiar with other ways of learning, dealing with
colleagues who feel they must defend themselves, and educating parents who are critical of
methods they do not fully understand or support (Sweeney, 2013).
While far from easy or straightforward, such is the real work of educational reform. It
requires educators who are not only fluent with the issues, principles, and vocabularies of a new
movement, but who already embody the practical ramifications of those movements. The
consciousness of the collective must be critically aware of pre-judgments in order to anticipate
and respond to inevitable resistances. As Gadamer (1960/1995) explained:
The horizon of the present is continually in the process of being formed because we are
continually having to test all our prejudices. An important part of this testing occurs in
encountering the past and in understanding the tradition from which we come. Hence the
horizon of the present cannot be formed without the past. . . . Understanding is always the
fusion of these horizons supposedly existing by themselves. (p. 306)
I would argue that the same arguments apply when we step up from the classroom level
to the school level. For school leaders, beliefs about the purposes of schooling, embodied
practice and understanding of school culture influence the decisions that they choose to make in
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orienting the direction of their schools. School leaders may reject implementation of changes
they feel will take too much time and energy from the core purposes of schooling, merge desired
changes with current school direction, or create “conditions for the emergence of the as-yet
unimagined” (Davis, 2005, p. 87).
Indeed, analyses using a dual process theory analogy can work similarly across many
levels of human organization. For instance, as presented in Chapter I with regard to traffic in
Lisbon, decision-makers setting the future direction of construction of streets (the System 2 of
the traffic system) would aim to provide the best possible scenario for moving traffic efficiently
around the city (the System 1).
Methods, Research Sample, and Data Collection
Before examining school leaders’ beliefs regarding the purposes of schooling and their
understanding of the schooling legislation, current Canadian schooling legislation and historical
Alberta legislation focused on the purposes of schooling was examined to further understand the
context of Alberta school leaders. In interpreting the text, complete knowledge can only be
accomplished by putting oneself in the position of the author by following through with the
relationship between the whole and the parts and thus it follows “that the more we learn about an
author, the better equipped we are for interpretation” (Schleiermacher/, 1819/1985, p. 84). One
must compare the text with other texts from the same period while continuously keeping in sight
the uniqueness of the particular work, and only by combining a comparative approach with
creative hypothesis-making may a better understanding be obtained (Ramberg & Gjesdal, 2014).
Schleiermacher (1819/1985) noted,
Historical interpretation is not to be limited to gathering historical data. That task should
be done even before interpretation begins, since it is the means for re-creating the
69
relationship between speaker and the original audience, and interpretation cannot begin
until that relationship has been established. (p. 78)
Akin to the hermeneutic circle, the research questions will be addressed through moving
in and out of legislative and experiential text (see Figure 7). Presented in Chapter IV, the text is
interpreted from the writer’s view and attempts to suspend personal interpretations to become as
close to literal text as possible. In Chapter V, the text of interviews with six school leaders was
interpreted using the dual process theory analogy and through the identification of themes
emerging from their beliefs and practices of purposes of schooling and the decisions they feel
they need to make. Although the data is presented in succession, the analysis and the synthesis
were attained by digging, traversing, retreating, and digging some more. New knowledge was
layered on previous understanding resulting in a deeper understanding of how school leaders
make decisions.
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Current
legislation
within Canada
Alberta
historical
legislation
1884-2012
Alberta
School Act, 1988
School Act, 2000
Education Act 2012
Interviews with
school leaders
Portraits of
School leaders
Change
implementation
practices
Figure 7. Hermeneutic research methods of legislation and school leader lived stakeholder roles.
Purposes of Schooling in Alberta Legislation
In addressing the first research question, “How do school leaders understand the
coherence of the purposes of schooling with education legislation?” it was important to gain an
understanding of education legislation regarding the historical, current, and proposed purposes of
schooling in Alberta. The interpretation of these literal texts adhered to the original sense of
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hermeneutics as textual exegesis. Schleiermacher (1819/1985) maintained that the art of
interpretation requires rigorous practice, and both qualitative misunderstanding of the contents of
a work and quantitative misunderstanding of its tone are to be avoided; “misunderstanding
occurs as a matter of course, and so understanding must be willed and sought at every point” (p.
82). In seeking the purposes of schooling within legislative text, both qualitative and quantitative
data was analyzed through the oscillation between the specific and the context resulting in the
layering of new understandings that developed progressively deeper insight.
In interpreting the text from the lawmaker’s point of view and attempting to suspend
personal interpretations as much as possible, I found myself not only experiencing the process
of the hermeneutic circle but also knowing that each time I went into the full text of an Act, I
came out with a deeper understanding of the legislation as a whole. At the beginning of my
journey, I did not expect the lure that historical text would create. Discovering what
lawmakers were not attentive to a century ago was as surprising and informative as to what
they were attentive. I began to look at the purposes of schooling; duties of teachers, principals,
and students; and the learning environment. But as legislation changed in those areas, I was
drawn back to determine if there were gaps in previous legislation or if it was presented in a
different manner. For example, provisions for students with special needs can be found as
early as 1908, but the provisions were met outside the K–12 school system. The review of
legislation, especially early education, caused me to continue my reflection on what it means
to be inclusive and to accept diversity.
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The progression of the purposes of schooling within legislation began with a review of
Acts and Ordinances from 1867 to 2012, related to the geographical area that is now the
Province of Alberta. 7 An initial scan of the text allowed the reader to explore the context of the
Ordinance or Act and to develop a relationship with the text through attention to the style and
structure of the text prior to interpretation. 8
Spending time with text that was written a century and a half ago gave me an
appreciation for the lawmakers of the time. Within the legislation, I found glimpses of the
history of the province as well as the history of schooling—the desires, the negotiations, the
view of humanity—and it created a space of discomfort discovering how recently some of the
rights and freedoms legislation was enacted for all Albertans.
Sections of text identified as being related to the purposes of schooling were examined
with particular attention to instruction; the learning environment; preambles; duties of teachers,
principals, students, parents and the school board; and other sections related to the purposes of
schooling. Through moving in, out, and across the text, legislative changes were documented and
historical documents of the time were explored to further understand the context in which the
changes occurred.
For the first time in 1988, Alberta schooling legislation, through its preamble, specifically
stated the direction and legislated purposes of schooling. It is through the preamble of the statute
7
Although the North West Territories were not part of Canada in 1867, on joining confederation
in 1870, legislation was expected to be consistent with The British North America Act, 1867, now
referred to as the Constitution Act of 1867 (Library and Archives Canada, 2005).
8
All the School and Education Acts and School Ordinances were reviewed; Acts to amend them
were examined only if there was a discrepancy between two consecutive Acts to clarify the time period in
which the change(s) occurred.
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that lawmakers define the mandated purposes of the legislation. Although preambles were likely
not originally intended to have much significance, governments have more recently been bound
to obey them as they would other constitutional provisions (Centre for Constitutional Studies,
2016).
Following the in and out of the hermeneutic circle, the preambles were used as the
foundation in examining the full text of the Alberta School Act of 2000 and Alberta Education
Act of 2012 for descriptors in relation to the purposes of schooling.
To grasp how school leaders understand the coherence of the purposes of schooling with
recent and proposed education legislation, further analysis of the text was undertaken. In
interpreting the meaning hidden beneath the surface, the hermeneutician must group together
words, phrases, or sentences and look for more abstract themes. Without doing this, one could
never get beyond the surface-level meaning of the text. The critic must then look for patterns or
trends in whatever themes he or she is examining (Martindale & West, 2002). Using the
purposes of schooling framework and descriptors, the Alberta School Act of 2000; the Alberta
Education Act of 2012, Ministerial Order No. 004/98 (Alberta Education, 1988); and Ministerial
Order #001/2013 (Alberta Education, 2013a) were reviewed using the following methods:
•
word clouds were created of the preambles of the Acts;
•
the preambles of the Acts were colour-coded by theme;
•
keyword searches were completed of the Acts;
•
the Acts and Ministerial Orders were coded and analyzed using the purposes of
schooling framework; and,
•
the Acts were coded and analyzed using the four moments of formal education.
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Word clouds of the preambles of the Acts were created to provide quick visualizations of
general patterns within the preambles of the Acts. Through this reformatting of text, the human
tendency to not notice the familiar can be reduced by confronting the reader with identifying
what can otherwise vanish behind a veil of familiarity and unexplored expectation. The Wordle
application (Feinberg, 2013) generates word clouds by giving greater prominence to words that
appear more frequently in the source text. Although word clouds have limitations, including not
being able to account for context or phrases, word clouds can be used as an adjunct tool for
preliminary analysis and for validation of previous findings (McNaught & Lam, 2010).
Similar to word clouds, a colour-coded comparison of keywords within the preambles of
the Acts provides a high-level visual representation of the themes found within the preamble.
Purposes of schooling descriptors found in the preambles were coded as learner development
(i.e., the learning expectations of the student), integration into community (i.e., the community
and societal norms expected of its members), and learning environment (i.e., the expectations of
schooling).
Using the terms and phrases related to the purposes of schooling and education found in
the preambles of current Canadian schooling legislations as presented in Chapter II, the
preambles and the entire text of the Alberta School Act of 2000 and the Alberta Education Act of
2012 were searched for occurrences within the context of purposes of schooling. A circuitous
review of the full text of each Act against the list of keywords resulted in a final list of 105
keywords. Each Act was reviewed a minimum of two times to ensure that the terms were
searched within the full text of the Act. The number of keywords in the preamble and the Act
was compared as an indicator of the usefulness of the preamble as an indicator of the stated
purposes of education within legislation.
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Each Act, and then each Act with the corresponding Ministerial Order, was examined
using the purposes of schooling framework. Descriptors that were identified in preambles were
coded a solid colour, and descriptors found in the text of the Act or Preamble were coded with a
shaded colour. The coloured themes, subthemes, and descriptors were then compared using
charts to identify shifts within the purposes of schooling within recent legislation.
Following the interviews with school leaders and the reading and re-reading of the text,
the four moments of formal education (Davis et al., 2015) were mapped onto the purposes of
schooling framework as an additional analysis of the school leaders’ understanding of legislation
and their beliefs of the purposes of schooling (see Appendix C).
Following Schleiermacher’s hermeneutics, the resultant interpretation of historical,
current, and proposed legislation was used to inform an understanding of the provincial direction
for the purposes of schooling during the last 150 years. It also enabled insight into the tentacles
of historical direction that impact the complex learning systems schools leaders inhabit.
Lived Experience of School Leaders in Alberta
Through the lived experiences of school leaders, the path of Gadamer’s hermeneutics is
followed to understand the rhythm of the school, the decisions school leaders make, and why
they made them. Through the interpretation of interviews with school leaders through a dual
process metaphor, the opportunity arises to understand how the decisions for change are lived
within the school system,
The shift from examining statutes as literal text to examining administrators’
experiences as figurative texts required me to go in and out of the text and reacquaint myself
with the dual process approach before I could become immersed in the entailments of the
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methodology—language as text, personal understanding as text, life as text, and culture as
text. I spent time reflecting on the interview: the passions, the emphases, and the frustrations
that emerged from the text. My biases and the need for a relationship with the text were
revealed in discussing the text with my supervisor early in the interpretation process. The areas
to which I was attentive tended to reflect my experiences in school leadership rather than
relating to the research questions.
Purposeful sampling was used in identifying and selecting six school leaders in southern
Alberta. “The logic of purposeful sampling lies in selecting information-rich cases, with the
objective of yielding insight and understanding of the phenomenon understanding of the
phenomenon under investigation” (Bloomberg & Volpe, 2008, p. 69).
The six participants selected were school leaders who were seen to be effective school
change leaders by colleagues and academic partners; they had experience in K–12 school
administration; they expressed interested in the research questions and were currently employed
by a school authority in southern Alberta. All of the participants had led their schools through
significant school culture change such as transitioning from a community school to a school of
choice, encouraging 21st century models of professional learning and development, and/or
promoting an inclusive and welcoming learning environment.
Permission to interview the participants was granted by the University of Calgary
Conjoined Faculties Research Ethics Board. Individual interviews were completed over six
weeks and were conducted at the university or at the office of the participant based upon the
request of the participant. Interviews were framed by 11 open-ended questions with the intent to
explore the context and conditions of the school and the meanings that the study participants
elicit from them (see Appendix D). Participants were asked to give their perception of the school
77
environment and critically reflect on their role in implementing change within the school and the
opportunities and challenges they face. In addition to the participant interviews, school websites
and annual reports were reviewed.
Each interview was recorded using audio recording technology and transcribed by the
researcher. Moving back and forth between recordings and transcripts, two of the interviews
were transcribed directly from the recording device, and the data of all six of the recordings was
processed through voice-to-text software and then reviewed for accuracy and corrected by the
researcher. Four of the recordings were transcribed verbatim with the exception of pseudonyms
being used for people or organizations that would identify the participant. In two of the
interviews, specific sections not related to the research questions were reviewed but not
transcribed. Each transcription was reviewed as an individual data set and then as part of the
whole data set looking for through-lines, commonalities, and inconsistencies.
Two methods of analysis emerged from the relationship with the text. First, through the
analogy of dual process theory, the data was reviewed with a focus on how school leaders acted
as the consciousness (System 2) of the school collective (System 1) in decision-making and
negotiating the plethora of initiatives amid multiple agendas. As interpretations emerged, the
possibility of a second method of analysis emerged. In fulfilling the role of consciousness at a
system level, the actions of school leaders could also be interpreted at a personal level. In
exploring the application of the dual process theory analogy at the system and personal level,
portraits of the lived experience of three school leaders were analyzed using the four moments of
formal education as a comparator.
In coming to understand, Gadamer (1960/1995) suggested that although there are
unlimited interpretations, some hold more “true” than others. In searching for the better account,
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Koch (1994) argued that the researcher must provide evidence of credibility, transferability, and
dependability. As suggested by Koch (1994), credibility of the interpretation was established
through keeping a journal in which the content and the process are noted and reflected upon.
Additionally, consultations with academic colleagues and school leaders were held to confirm
the interpretations of the researcher.
Transferability is demonstrated in the application of the findings to other contexts from
the research context, and the possibilities created by the research (Moules, 2002). The whole
language reading wars, as presented earlier, were used as an initial check for validity of the
analogy. Further, as shown within suggestions for further research in Chapter VI, the findings are
transferable to other schools as well as to other types of organizations such as post-secondary
institutions.
One of the ways in which a research study may be shown to be dependable is the use of a
decision trail that explicitly discusses decisions taken about the theoretical, methodological and
analytic choices throughout the study that could be followed by another researcher. As part of the
supervisory relationship, the back-and-forth discussions between supervisor and student provided
this decision trail in the interpretation of the interview text.
With two distinct data sets and methods of analysis, the analysis and synthesis for
decision-making of school leaders within the Alberta context is presented consecutively in
Chapters IV and V. But as with the hermeneutic circle, the understanding with the legislative
data and the interview text informed the interpretation of the lived experience of school leaders
which then provided a deeper understanding of the legislative data and the interview text in
coming to understand how successful school leaders draw on their experience, their knowledge
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of the school context, and their understanding of the purposes of schooling legislation in
choosing when and where to make decisions.
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Chapter IV: Purposes of Schooling in Alberta Legislation
Although every school has its unique culture that emerges from the lived experiences
within it, almost all schools share a similar rhythm. Students are expected to be respectful toward
others; they attend school from approximately 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, Monday through Friday and
are given two 15-minute recesses and one longer lunch break; teachers are required to teach
prescribed programs, to maintain order and discipline among the students, and to regularly report
to parents and school authorities on student progress. As much as such descriptors are familiar to
all students and teachers in schools today, they were introduced into legislation in what is now
the province of Alberta in 1884 and have appeared in all statutes regarding schooling since that
time.
An oft-invoked comparison continues to be relevant. If an engineer, a doctor, a business
executive, or a store clerk from 130 years ago were transplanted into today’s world, he or she
would not only be unable to do the job but might very well not even recognize the workplace. A
teacher from 1884 would probably feel comfortable in many schools today. With the immense
number of societal and technological changes that have occurred during the last 13 decades, it is
difficult to support the premise that what worked in 1884 will work in 2015. Hess (2010)
characterized the same issue in this way:
We are mired in static organizational arrangements, which may have sprung from
perfectly sensible roots but are now an obstacle to promoting excellence in teaching and
learning. Because we’re so used to these practices and institutions, though, we have
difficulty seeing them as problematic. (p. xi)
A review of the historical legislation can assist in understanding the foundation of current
legislation in regard to the purposes of schooling. Moules (2002) wrote:
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We are connected in a continuous thread with our past, with traditions, and with our
ancestors. We are living out traditions that have been bequeathed to us by others, and
although we may be taking them up in different ways, they are still the source of who we
are and how we shape and live our lives. The echoes of history are always inadvertently
and deliberately inviting us into both past and new ways of being in the present. (p. 2)
As historical statutes are reflective of the place and time they were passed, Acts prior to
1988 do not include preambles with stated purposes of schooling. Yet, through the requirements
of students, teachers, and principals, it is possible to glean an understanding of the expected aims
of education and the connection to the resistance to change that is being currently faced in
education today.
Formal Education in Alberta Before 1905
Education, in the geographical area that is now Alberta, existed long before Europeans
arrived in North America. Traditionally, aboriginal “people’s teachings addressed the total being,
the whole community, in the context of a viable living culture” (Kirkness, 1999, p. 15). Although
a royal charter allowed the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) to control large swaths of these
lands, it discouraged the education or assimilation of Indigenous populations (Carney, 1995;
White & Peters, 2013). Schools, during this era, were private or religious undertakings that
occurred with the consent of the Hudson’s Bay Company (Ell, 2002).
Although not yet part of Canada, the roots of legislation affecting schooling for this
region can be found as early as 1867 within the Constitution Act of 1867:
In and for each Province the Legislature may exclusively make Laws in relation to
Education, subject and according to the following Provisions:
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(1.) Nothing in any such Law shall prejudicially affect any Right or Privilege with respect
to Denominational Schools which any Class of Persons have by Law in the Province at
the Union. (Constitution Act of 1867, §93, para. 1)
Section 91 of the same Act gave the Parliament of Canada exclusive Legislative
Authority over all matters pertaining to aboriginal peoples; Section 93 gave each province
exclusive rights in relation to education, which was later affirmed in the North-West Territories
Act of 1875 (North-West Territories Act, 1875, c. 49). These sections resulted in schooling
authority being split down racial lines with territorial, and later provincial, legislation applying
only to students not living on reserves.
During the first years after joining confederation—that is, while territorial schooling
legislation was being enacted to lay out clear guidelines for non-aboriginal populations regarding
the governance, organization, and conduct of schools—legislation for Indian populations was
restricted to collecting funds and constructing school houses (Indian Act of 1876, R.S.C., 1876).
The federal government remained responsible for educating aboriginal students, a circumstance
that resulted in the creation of Indian residential schools, which remained in existence until 1996.
Beyond the scope of this study is the examination of aboriginal cultural genocide that was
supported by Canadian government through the residential school system, but it is important to
note that in 2010, the Government of Alberta and the Chiefs of the First Nations in Alberta
committed to work together on a common vision for First Nations students (Government of
Alberta, 2010).
When the Northwest Territories joined Canada, there was recognition of the territorial
government’s authority to provide education, and in 1884, an Ordinance providing for the
organization of schools in the Northwest Territories was passed establishing arrangements for
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education in what is now Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories. This
ordinance introduced the following two provisions that have continued to be included in all
Alberta schooling legislation:
•
the recognition of the rights of denominational or separate schools for Roman
Catholic and Protestant subjects, and,
•
the provision for the adoption of a system of taxation to publicly fund schools.
The freedom from compulsory education in religious instruction can be traced back to the
negotiations leading up to the Constitution Act of 1867. With the knowledge and agreement of
five other attendees at the 1864 Charlottetown Conference, Sir Charles Tupper (1896, p. 3) stated
that without “a clause which would protect the rights of minorities, whether Catholic or
Protestant in this country, there would have been no confederation.”
In support of the recognition of these rights, the North-West Territories School Ordinance
of 1884 (School Ordinance, N.T.O., 1884) gave an equal number of memberships to Protestants
and Roman Catholics on the territorial Board of Education. 9 Further, the direction in regard to
religious instruction for a student of a different religious faith is surprisingly clear. Religious
instruction could be given, but any child from a different religious faith was granted the privilege
of leaving school during religious instruction. The ordinance further states that it shall be
unlawful to deprive such child of any advantage that it might derive from the ordinary education
given in the school.
9
Interestingly, in 1885, the Board was reduced to five members: the lieutenant governor, two
Roman Catholics and two Protestants (School Ordinance, N.T.O. 1885), and in 1905, the Education
Council no longer had the lieutenant governor acting as chair, which reduced the required appointment of
Roman Catholic members to two of five members (School Ordinance, N.T.O., 1905).
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The second provision of publicly funded schools was addressed through the
establishment of school districts and separate schools in which “no fee shall be charged for
resident students” while being attentive to the first provision by ensuring “in no case shall a
Catholic be compelled to pay taxes to a protestant school or a Protestant to a catholic school”
(North-West Territories School Ordinance of 1884, 1884, §131, p. 124).
In reading the legislation from 130 years ago, it is difficult not to compare it with my
grandmother’s stories of teaching during the depression and my more recent experiences in
schools and realize that change within schools was slow to happen. My grandmother’s
reflections of the requirements of her first teaching job in northern Alberta were quite
consistent with the duties contained in the ordinances from 50 years before. When I began
teaching in the 1980s, many of these duties were still mandated. I can still remember the
anxiety of the last few days of school: marking exams, completing cumulative files, and
tallying registrars. Until every registrar and cumulative file was checked and confirmed
correct, no teacher within the school received his or her June salary or was released from
work.
During my time in the K–12 school system, I found the legislation safeguarding
religious freedom was the most difficult to observe in schools in December. With Christmas
concerts, hymn sing-a-longs, and Christmas-themed projects, students of a different or no faith
often were deprived of teacher-led instruction. In my experience, many parents chose to have
their children not attend rather than “sit in a library all day while the other students were
having fun.”
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Schooling for a New Province (1905–1920s)
As Alberta began organizing itself as a province, legislation related to schooling from
1906 to 1922 was passed through amendments to the North-West Territories School Ordinance
of 1884. It focused on establishing governance and setting up systems of taxation of school
districts within villages, towns, and cities. But within the statutes of that time, there are
indicators of the issues with which Alberta society was grappling, and the use of schools as a
way to address them.
A recognized purpose of schooling during this era was to teach immigrants English and
to socialize them into the predominantly Anglo-Saxon culture (Ell, 2002). Schools existed as
convenient and powerful instruments for the attainment of specific social objectives, including
building a nation and nurturing capitalism. The requirement of introducing a literate and
numerate workforce with an appropriate work ethic would be most closely associated with the
teaching and learning practices of standardized education. Within standardized education,
teaching came to be modelled after working on a factory line, and curricula emphasized
objective facts, marketable skills, measurable outcomes, and other learning objectives (Davis et
al., 2015). As Harrison and Kachur (1999) have commented,
The duty of the schools was therefore clear. For the great majority (the farmers and
workers), an elementary school education, consisting of a smattering of literacy and
numeracy skills, was desirable; but the inculcation of a good work ethic in the form of
industry, punctuality, and deference to authority was a necessity. (p. 5)
During this period, these objectives were reflected in legislation through requiring classes
to be taught in the English language, compulsory attendance for children from the age of seven
to 14, and students producing a vaccination certificate prior to admission to any school. Teachers
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were required to teach diligently and faithfully the prescribed subjects and to send monthly
reports to parents on the pupil’s attendance, conduct, and progress. According to Ell (2002),
school attendance was a concern because school-aged children were often a source of labour on
farms, so many parents were inclined to send their children to work in their fields as soon as they
were physically able. This concern is reflected in yearly amendments to the Alberta Truancy Act
of 1910 (Truancy Act, S.A., 1910) beginning in and the continual rise in the age of compulsory
attendance for children. 10
This era also saw new legislation providing schools and classes for different types of
learners, including kindergarten schools, public and separate schools, normal schools, teachers’
institutes, agricultural schools, and schools for the education of deaf, deaf-mute, and blind
persons. 11 School districts were given the mandate to employ suitable teachers for giving
instruction in manual training, domestic science, physical training, music and art. In 1908, the
Calgary Young Men’s Christian Association was incorporated to “promote the [physical],
intellectual, moral and spiritual development of the young men of the City of Calgary” (Calgary
Young Men’s Christian Association Act of 1908, §2, p. 125), and in 1909 the Alberta Industrial
School, a reformatory prison, was formed with a view to the education, industrial training and
10
In 1910, compulsory school age was raised from 12 to 13 years of age and in 1915 raised again
to 14 years with the proviso that a child that had attained the full age of 14 years and is regularly
employed during school hours in some useful occupation would not be considered truant. This proviso
was repealed in 1919.
11
Although resident students were not charged registration fees, school districts could charge fees
for students in kindergarten programs, night school, or for non-resident children.
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moral reclamation of the boys sentenced to confinement (The Alberta Industrial School Act of
1908, c. 11,1908).
Through legislation, there is a glimpse of how exceptional children were viewed. Pupils
that who were mentally deficient, defined as being “incapable of responding to class instruction
by a skilful teacher,” could be excluded from school and were the responsibility of the family
(School Ordinance, S.A. c. 39., 1918, p. 253). Under the section of the “Disposal of Youthful
Offender,” boys who were youthful offenders could be committed to the Alberta Industrial
School (Protection of Neglected and Dependent Children Act of 1909, R.S.A., 1909, p. 217).
Neglected children who were seen to be “leading an immoral or depraved life” could also be
committed to the Alberta Industrial School (p. 210). Although, there was a gradual growth in the
number of students served in special schools or classes during the early 20th century, there were
only limited services available for children with disabilities within regular schools until the
1950s (Jahnukainen, 2011).
Although not substantively different from the North-West Territories School Ordinance
of 1884 or the amendments to it, the Alberta School Act of 1922 (School Act, R.S.A., c. 51,
1922), becoming the first “home-grown” piece of legislation regarding schooling and continued
legislative protection, (i.e. separate schools, publicly funded schools, compulsory English
language instruction, and Protestant or Catholic students).
Many of the duties of teachers that continue to be a source of contestation between
teachers and school boards can find their origins in legislation of this period. Ten of the 18 duties
outlined in the Alberta School Act of 1922 refer to overseeing school facilities or providing
reports to the school board. Teaching was not considered a high-status profession, and working
conditions for teachers were often challenging and, at times, distressing. School trustees were
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sometimes high-handed in their dealings with teachers, and trustees sometimes treated teachers
like hired hands (Ell,2002).
School legislation in Alberta continued to contain few changes in regard to the purposes
of schooling and duties of teachers and principals, but changes did occur and followed “an
orderly, discernible, pattern of change over time” (Mazurke, 1999, p. 3). Framed using
statements identifying what children are not to do, the Alberta School Act of 1931 (School Act,
R.S.A., c. 32, 1931), broadened the scope of expectations of student behaviour: 12
Every teacher shall have the power to suspend from school any pupil guilty of truancy,
open opposition to authority, habitual neglect of duty, the use of profane or improper
language, or other conduct injurious to the moral tone or well-being of the school. (§ 166)
Progressive Education in Alberta (1930s to 1970s)
As the 20th century unfolded, teaching began to emerge as a profession within
legislation, and the primary duty of the teacher changed from one of maintaining order to one of
instruction (Mombourquette, 2013). The School Act of 1931 introduced the requirement of
teachers “to admit to his class room for the purposes of observation and practice teaching pupils
enrolled in the normal schools” (c. 32, §165). Normal schools, “with their local, vocational
emphasis, would become the gatekeepers to the teaching profession” (Hess, 2010, p. 140). The
Alberta School Act of 1952 (School Act, R.S.A., c. 80, 1952) no longer included the section
12
Although not studied here, it might be interesting to examine at how often teachers availed
themselves of this power in the 1930s. With few available jobs, teachers may have been hesitant to
suspend pupils, especially in small rural schools in which many teachers were young women who had to
live and work within the community.
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labelling teachers as assistants, “the head teacher shall be called the principal and the other
teachers assistants” (1896, c. 2, § 97), which had been included in legislation since 1896.
Innovations of progressive education found their way into normal school, and teaching
methods that stressed memorization and drill were downgraded in favour of an approach that
emphasized learning by doing and taking into account the interests of the child more aligned
with authentic education. Placing practice teaching pupils into schools brought new thinking of
progressive education to the existing teaching force (Ell, 2002). Progressive education
offered the promise of a transformation of society through the liberation of individual
talent and initiative in the cause of a common good and general social progress. . . . The
years 1935–40 witnessed the creation of a school system that, on the surface, was
unrecognizable from the perspective of what existed before. (Harrison & Kachur, 1999,
p. 7)
But due to demands on teachers, imposed compliance, a poorly educated teaching force,
and limited resources, the new methods were never fully accepted or implemented in schools
across Alberta and eventually died out by 1950 (Ell, 2002; Harrison & Kachur, 1999). Harrison
and Kachur (1999) elaborated:
Different as the new system was, however, it was still a creation of its social environment
and it still served social, political, economic, and ideological objectives. Although
cultural assimilation was no longer emphasized, it remained the implicit aim of
schooling. . . . In short, new content but the same old functions; schools remained
institutions consciously employed to perpetuate identifiable values and to serve rather
clear, specific, predetermined ends. (p. 10)
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But by the late 1950s, Alberta society was growing, changing, and searching for an
appropriate educational vision for changes to education in Alberta. In 1959, the Royal
Commission on Education, also known as the Cameron Commission (Cameron, 1959), offered
nearly 280 recommendations for the improvement of education in Alberta, focused on concerns
as diverse as the pedagogy of progressive education, the dawning of the space age, the frustration
of business with the supposed unsatisfactory skills of graduates, and the dissatisfaction of
university groups with the alleged inadequacy of high school programs. This vast reservoir of
proposed educational improvements allowed the government to bring in selected reforms
according to its own timing over the next decade (Ell, 2002).
The 1970s ushered in a new Progressive Conservative government, a prosperous
economy, and new educational discussions that tested traditional assumptions about education.
Remarkably, the School Acts of 1970 (School Act, R.S.A., § 329, 1970) and 1980 (School Act,
R.S.A., S-3, 1980) are silent on the purposes of education and the duties of educators, but
commissioned reports and case law from this time period give a glimpse into the discussion
regarding purposes of education during this time. The call for a vision for the future of Alberta
and changes to education continued throughout the second half of the 20th century, creating
dialogue as different visions emerged reflected in two reports: A Commission on Educational
Planning: A Choice of Futures (1972), referred hereafter as the Worth Report of 1972 (Worth,
1972) and the Alberta Education and Diploma Requirements: Discussion Paper Prepared for the
Curriculum Policies Board (Alberta Education, 1977), referred to hereafter as the Harder Report
of 1977.
During a time of challenges to the aims and purposes of education and the educational
programmes in schools, the Worth Report of 1972 challenged Albertans to decide between
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humanistic ideals, epitomized by individual self-actualization, on the one hand, and continued
industrial development, focused on an abundance of goods and services, on the other (Ell, 2002;
Von Heyking, 2006). In a study of the reactions of 450 Alberta principals to the Worth Report of
1972, Lysak (1973) concluded that the implementation of some of the proposals from the Worth
Report of 1972 would “necessitate the re-evaluation of the traditional structures at the school
district, school and classroom levels of education. This will, in turn, require a redefinition of the
roles of the principal, teacher, and school district administrator” (p. 150).
The Harder Report of 1977 viewed the school as one of the agencies involved in the
education of youth with the ultimate aim “to develop the abilities of the individual in order that
he might fulfill his personal aspirations while making a positive contribution to society” (p. 7),
and the recommendations were seen as a return to a more traditional approach to education (Ell,
2002). Within its preface, the report claimed to be in response to requests for changes to Alberta
education programs stemming “from the general dissatisfaction of the public with what they feel
are short falls in the education system and the high costs of what they term mediocrity” (Harder,
1977, p. v). But, Harrison and Kachur (1999) suggested that this claim is “a curious, and
undocumented, assertion” (p. 14). Nevertheless over the next decade, Alberta Education began to
implement this blueprint for the reform of schooling with standardized achievement tests,
curriculum changes, and a barrage of other initiatives.
Citizenship Rights and Empowerment (1980s–2010s)
For the first time, the Alberta School Act of 1988 (School Act, R.S.A., § S-3.1, 1988)
included, within a preamble, specific statements outlining the purposes of schooling in Alberta.
The new Act remained focused on community and societal values while maintaining the
commitment to a publicly funded school system with guaranteed rights for Roman Catholic and
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Protestant schools, persistent since the North-West Territories Act of 1875. But within the full
text of the Act, were changes to student rights and responsibilities of teachers and principals.
In 1982, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was written into the Constitution Act of
1982 (The Constitution Act, 1982, Schedule B to the Canada Act 1982 (UK), 1982, c 11.) and
guaranteed that:
Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal
protection of the law without discrimination and in particular, without discrimination
based on race, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, sex, age or mental and physical
disability. (§ 15)
Following the signing of the Constitution Act of 1982, people became more conscious of
their legal rights as citizens and the Alberta School Act of 1988 included the provision of
minority-language rights and equality rights (Ell, 2002; Harrison & Kachur, 1999). The equality
provisions in the Charter also gave additional impetus to the mainstreaming of special needs
students in Alberta classrooms (Poirier & Goguen, 1986), made people more sensitive to
discrimination on the basis of gender, and mandated schools to become more democratic and
egalitarian by ensuring that they accepted students from diverse ethnic backgrounds and faiths
(Ell, 2002).
With this broadening of societal understanding of equality and social justice, there was a
paradigm shift within education that would align with the prevailing metaphors of democratic
citizenship education and the suggestion that schools should nurture social mindedness. For
some, this meant flirting with diversity education and service learning. Others accepted diversity
as “a source of possibility, and so individuals and collectives alike will benefit when it is
properly woven into the fabric of schooling” (Davis et al., 2015, p. 162).
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Changing Duties of Teachers and Principals
The Alberta School Act of 1988 also included a shift in language regarding the duties of
principals and teachers that had been more or less static for 80 years (see Table 3). Since 1905,
teachers have been responsible for maintaining good order and discipline in the school and on
school grounds, assessing students and reporting on their progress, reporting to and on behalf of
the school board, and suspending students for misbehaviour. Principals have been responsible for
the direct management of the school and allocating duties and evaluating teachers. But as
understanding of teaching and learning evolved and as contextual issues influenced the
government of the day, duties of teachers and principals changed over time. In the School Act of
1931, it became the duty of every teacher “to admit to his class room for the purposes of
observation and practice teaching pupils enrolled in the normal schools” (§ 165). This opened an
opportunity for dialogue between experienced teachers and practice-teaching pupils with notions
of progressive education and child-centred schooling (Ell, 2002). Teachers remain obligated to
supervise student teachers, but in my experience, school leaders tend to use persuasion rather
than legislation in the placement of students. In 1952, although the duties ascribed to the role of
teacher showed little change, the duties pertaining to the principal grew to encompass discipline
and order as well as organization (Mombourquette, 2013).
The Alberta School Act of 1988, brought a shift in language regarding the duties of
principals and teachers. Teachers were no longer required to “teach diligently and faithfully”
(Alberta School Act of 1952, §365, p. 441) but rather were required to “provide instruction
competently to students [and] encourage and foster learning in students” (Alberta School Act of
1988, §18, 1988, p. 391). Additionally, teachers would be required to participate in curriculum
and achievement test development and mark provincial achievement tests. Suggesting a shift in
94
understanding as teachers as professionals, there was also administrative and housekeeping
duties that were removed such as keeping registers, displaying timetables, reporting cleanliness
and maintenance issues, and reporting infectious or contagious diseases.
1931
1942
Other duties
Student teachers
Public health
Classroom
Organization
and
Management
Student
assessment
Teaching
competencies
1952
Make decisions on promotion
Suspend any pupil guilty of truancy, open
opposition to authority, habitual neglect of
duty, the use of profane or improper language
or conduct injurious to the moral tone or wellbeing of the school
Send report
to parents
Attend meetings called by principal
Admit practice-teaching pupils
Reporting infectious or contagious diseases
Report cleanliness and maintenance issues of school property
Display a timetable showing the classification of pupils and subjects by day and time
Keeping a true register of the school
Punish/suspend any pupil guilty of
wilful opposition to authority children
Report to and on behalf of the board
Send monthly report to parents
Hold public
examinations of classes
Teach diligently and faithfully all subjects regulated by department
Teach
prescribed
books
1922
Prescribed
curriculum
1905
Maintaining good order and discipline in the school and on school grounds
1884-5
Conduct
Duties of Teachers
Comparison of Duties of Teachers, Principals, Students, and Parents (1885–2012)
Table 3
2000
2012
Suspend student from one class
for failing to comply with the
code of conduct or if conduct is
injurious to the physical or
mental well-being of others
(continued)
Duties as assigned by the principal or the board
Subject to
rules of the
Board
Send report to students and parents
Evaluate/assess students
Provide instruction competently
Encourage and foster learning in students
Curriculum development and
field testing
Teach prescribed courses and programs
Promote goals and standards of this act
1988
95
Relationships
Conduct
Duties of
Students
Academic
Development
Community
Engagement
Instructional
Leadership
Classroom
Organization
and
Management
Duties of
Principals
1884-5
1884-5
Admit
community
Table 3 (continued)
1922
1931
1905
1922
1931
Allocate duties and evaluate teachers
Maintain good order and discipline in the school
Direct management of school
1905
1942
1942
1952
1952
2000
2013
2000
2013
(continued)
Comply with school rules
Respect the rights of others
Contribute to a welcoming,
caring, respectful and safe
learning environment
Refrain from, report and not
tolerate bullying or bullying
behaviour
Cooperate fully with everyone
Positively contribute to the
school and community
Attend school regularly and punctually
Be diligent in pursing his studies
1988
Provide instructional leadership including
program oversight
Supervise the evaluation and placement of
students
Promote cooperation between school and
community
1988
96
After 3 pm
1884-5
1884-5
English
English
½ hr at end of school day
7-14 years
1922
1922
7-12
years
1905
1905
English
7-14 years
1931
1931
Compulsory
English
7-14 years
1942
1942
English
7-14 years
1952
1952
2013
English or
French
English or
French
At the discretion of the Board
At the discretion of the Board
6-15 years
2000
English or
French
6-15 years
2013
Take an active role in the
student’s educational success
Contribute to a welcoming,
caring, respectful and safe
learning environment
Encourage, foster and advance
collaborative, positive and
respectful relationships with
staff
Co-operate and collaborate with
school staff
Engage in the student’s school
community
2000
6-15 years
1988
1988
Note 1. In the North-West Territories Ordinances of 1885, teachers were required to admit trustees, school inspectors, parents of children attending, or ratepayers
of the district to the school room at any time.
Note 2. The School Acts of 1970 and 1980 do not include duties of teachers, principals, students, or parents but do speak to compulsory education (6–15 years),
compulsory English language instruction, and the offering of religious instruction and patriotic exercises at the discretion of the Board.
Patriotic exercises
School
Organization
Compulsory
attendance
Compulsory
language of
instruction
Religious
instruction
Relationships
Conduct
Academic
Development
Duties of Parents
Table 3 (continued)
97
98
The role of the principals shifted from only providing management of the school to
providing instructional leadership, including program oversight. With the advent of school
councils and school-based decision-making, they were also tasked with promoting cooperation
between school and community. The duties removed from teachers became the responsibility of
the principal as part of the management of the school.
As a relatively new teacher when the Alberta School Act of 1988 was enacted, the
range of its interpretation among my colleagues was surprising. Some teachers felt that this
was a step forward in the professionalization of teaching and engagement with the community.
Others felt that it was extra work for accountability measures they did not agree upon,
devaluation of local school boards, and a backlash from the Jim Keegstra case, which would
enable the government to remove teachers more easily (R v. Keegstra, 1990).
Appearing in legislation in 1988, duties of students focused on academic development,
conduct, and relationships with school stakeholders, followed in 2000 by similar duties for
parents. The organization of the school also continued to go through progress changes with
students being required to stay in school longer, the option of being taught in English or French,
and the school boards having discretion over religious instruction and patriotic exercises.
The 1990s was a period of radical transformation in public education. The province
imposed severe cutbacks, restructured the education system, introduced school-based
management, and opened the door to public and charter schools (Ell, 2002). But the purposes of
schooling and the duties of teachers, principals, and students did not significantly change
between 1988 and 2000. It was not until the passing of the Alberta Education Act of 2012 that a
significant disruption occurred in the legislated purposes of schooling; yet interestingly, there
have been not significant shifts in the duties of teachers and principals. The all-encompassing
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descriptions allow for school authorities to define the particular attributes of these
responsibilities but may be too general to ensure that all educators are clear in their role of
meeting the goals of current legislated purposes of schooling. As shown in Chapter V, this
ambiguity can leave school leaders having to negotiate differing beliefs regarding teaching and
learning in schools as they try to implement the Alberta Education Act of 2012.
Current Schooling Legislation (2008–2013)
Although the shift in direction of purposes of schooling began years earlier, it was not
until the passing of the Alberta Education Act of 2012 that a significant disruption occurred in
the legislated purposes of schooling. Widespread discussions of the future of education in
Alberta began in 2008 and although similar in process to the dialogues of the 1950s, these
discussions resulted in several key initiatives, including Inspiring Education, Inspiring Action,
and Setting the Direction. Drawing on the vision, guiding principles, and values of these
initiatives, the Alberta Education Act of 2012 and Ministerial Order (#001/2013) 13 formed the
foundation of Alberta’s education system (Alberta Education, 2013b). For the first time since
1884, schooling legislation set out specific descriptions for student development, the learning
environment, as well as the values for the society. According to Alberta Education (2013b),
the new act will replace the current School Act and will reflect public expectations of a
strong education system that ensures the rights, needs and expectations of individuals and
groups are in balance with those of society as a whole. The proposed legislation will
allow the education system to be more flexible and able to respond to the diverse learning
needs of students more quickly and effectively. (para. 2)
13
Ministerial orders are used to set goals and standards of education (Alberta Education, 2013b).
100
At the time of writing, the transition in government has delayed the proclamation of the
Alberta Education Act of 2012 to provide time “to review the legislation and regulations to
ensure it aligns with the party’s principles” (Eggen, 2015, as cited in Howell, 2015). It is difficult
to project if the change in direction will be halted or given a new path, but there are some
indicators that the main focus of the vision may be maintained. With the signing of the
Ministerial Order (#001/2013), the shift in legislative purpose of education and schooling in
Alberta began, and although there is a hesitancy in predicting what will happen, discussions with
numerous educators and study participants suggest that they believe the vision of the Alberta
Education Act of 2012 is the right one for students.
The remainder of this chapter examines the current shift in the stated purposes of
schooling through a comparative analysis of current legislation and policy (the Alberta
Education Act of 2012 and Ministerial Order (#001/2013)) with preceding legislation and policy
(the Alberta School Act of 2000 and Ministerial Order No. 004/98). As laid out in Chapter III,
the Acts and the preambles of the Acts were reviewed in several different ways: (a) word clouds
of preambles of the Acts; (b) preamble colour coding; (c) keyword searches; (d) preamble and
full Act coding with a modified framework; and (e) a comparison of the coding with the four
moments of formal education.
The analysis of the data suggests that there has been a shift in the direction of the explicit
purposes of schooling between the Alberta School Act of2000 and the Alberta Education Act of
2012, and this shift of direction would bring the purposes of schooling within the Alberta
Education Act of 2012 more closely in alignment with 21st-century skills (Barber & Mourshed,
2009; Griffin, McGaw, & Care, 2012,). This comparison also suggests that Alberta lawmakers,
as those in the territories, wish to be more explicit in the overall description of schooling.
101
Visualizations of General Patterns within the Purposes of Schooling
Word clouds. Using word clouds as a preliminary analysis, the coherences and
incoherencies of the purposes of schooling within the Alberta School Act of 2000 and the Alberta
Education Act of 2012 begin to emerge (see Figures 8 and 9). Although the terms “education,”
“Alberta,” “schools,” and “system” are prominent in both preambles, other terms begin to show
the changes in direction. Within the preamble of the Alberta School Act of 2000, the most
common terms—“separate schools,” “public schools,” and “rights” align with societal
descriptors. The most common terms in the preamble of the Alberta Education Act of 2012—
“learning,” “achieve,” “success,” and “opportunities” align more with student development.
A comparison of the most common terms between the Ministerial Orders follows a
similar pattern. Terms, such as “students,” “learning,” “skills,” and “knowledge” are common to
both orders. The direction shifts from “understanding and developing” to “applying”; from
“schools” to “education” and from “community” to “others.” Considering the term comparison
within the context of each Order, the direction of Alberta Education is moving towards a broader
and deeper understanding of student development and a more global and diverse understanding
of the world students will inhabit.
Figure 8. The 10 most frequent words found in the preamble of the Alberta School Act of 2000.
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Figure 9. The 10 most frequent words found in the preamble of the Alberta Education Act of
2012.
Preamble colour-coding. A comparison of keywords within preambles is consistent with
the first scan of the word clouds. Using the nested themes relating to direction and purposes of
schooling (presented in Chapter II) as a comparator, the preambles of the Alberta School Act of
2000 and the Alberta Education Act of 2012 were colour-coded to provide quick visualizations of
general patterns of the stated purposes of schooling within the preambles. As shown in Figure
10, the preamble of the Alberta School Act of 2000 indicates a strong representation mainly
within the theme of integration into the community (blue) with two statements associated with
the theme of the learning environment (green).
WHEREAS the best educational interests of the student are the paramount considerations in the
exercise of any authority under this Act;
WHEREAS parents have a right and a responsibility to make decisions respecting the education of their
children;
WHEREAS there is one publicly funded system of education in Alberta whose primary mandate is to
provide education programs to students through its two dimensions, the public schools and the separate
schools, in such a way that the rights guaranteed under the Constitution of Canada of separate school electors are
preserved and maintained; and
WHEREAS the education community in making decisions should consider the diverse nature and
heritage of society in Alberta within the context of its common values and beliefs; and
WHEREAS the Regional authority of a Francophone Education Region has a unique responsibility and
the authority to ensure that both minority language educational rights and the rights and privileges with respect
to separate schools guaranteed under the Constitution of Canada are protected in the Region, such that the
principles of francophone educational governance are distinct from, not transferrable to nor a precedent for, the
English educational system; and
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WHEREAS the Government of Alberta affirms its commitment to the preservation and continuation of its one
publicly funded system of education through its two dimensions: the public schools and the separate schools;
Legend
Learner Development--the focus of individual student development
Learning Environment – the physical, emotional and engagement expectations of the school environment
Integration into Community--the enculturation of local, societal, and global values and beliefs
Figure 10. Colour-coded purposes of schooling of the preamble of the Alberta School Act of
2000.
The colour-coded preamble of the Alberta Education Act of 2012, as shown in Figure 11,
shows a dramatic difference in the overall number of indicators of the purposes of schooling and
the themes represented. This analysis of the stated purposes of schooling within the Alberta
Education Act of 2012 shows strong representation of all three themes of learner development,
the learning environment, and integration into the community and visually shows the dramatic
shift in the stated direction of the purposes of schooling.
WHEREAS the following visions, principles and values are the foundation of the education system in
Alberta;
WHEREAS education is the foundation of a democratic and civil society;
WHEREAS education inspires students to discover and pursue their aspirations and interests and
cultivates a love of learning and the desire to be lifelong learners;
WHEREAS the role of education is to develop engaged thinkers who think critically and creatively
and ethical citizens who demonstrate respect, teamwork and democratic ideals and who work with an
entrepreneurial spirit to face challenges with resiliency, adaptability, risk-taking and bold decision-making;
WHEREAS students are entitled to welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning environments that
respect diversity and nurture a sense of belonging and a positive sense of self;
WHEREAS education is a shared responsibility and requires collaboration, engagement and
empowerment of all partners in the education system to ensure that all students achieve their potential;
WHEREAS the educational best interest of the child is the paramount consideration in making
decisions about a child’s education;
WHEREAS parents have the right and the responsibility to make informed decisions respecting the
education of their children;
WHEREAS the Government of Alberta recognizes the importance of an inclusive education system
that provides each student with the relevant learning opportunities and supports necessary to achieve success;
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WHEREAS the Government of Alberta recognizes the need to smooth the transition for students
between secondary education and post-secondary education or entry into the workforce;
WHEREAS the Government of Alberta recognizes the importance of enabling high quality and socially
engaging learning opportunities with flexible timing and pacing through a range of learning environments to
meet diverse student needs and to maximize student success;
WHEREAS the Government of Alberta believes in and is committed to one publicly funded education
system that provides a choice of educational opportunities to students and that honours the rights guaranteed
under the Constitution of Canada in respect of minority language and minority denominational education
through the dimensions of public, separate and Francophone schools;
WHEREAS the Government of Alberta is committed to providing choice to students in education
programs and methods of learning; and
WHEREAS the Government of Alberta is committed to encouraging the collaboration of all partners in
the education system to ensure the educational success of Alberta’s First Nations, Metis and Inuit students;
Figure 11. Colour-coded purposes of schooling of the preamble of the Alberta Education Act of
2012.
Coherence and Incoherence within the Purposes of Schooling
Using the purposes of schooling framework as a comparator, further analysis of
descriptors, themes and subthemes was conducted to examine coherence and incoherence of the
purposes of schooling stated within the Alberta School Act of 2000 and Ministerial Order No.
004/98 and the Alberta Education Act of 2012 and Ministerial Order (#001/2013).
Keywords of legislated purposes of schooling. Of the 105 keywords related to the
purposes in schooling, the Alberta School Act of 2000 contained 16 keywords with 56.3% of the
keywords found in the preamble while the Alberta Education Act of 2012 contained 53 keywords
with 86.8% found in the preamble (see Appendix E). The number of keywords within the
Alberta School Act of 2000 and the Alberta Education Act of 2012 is another indicator that
lawmakers of the Alberta Education Act of 2012 wished to be more explicit regarding the
description of schooling within the preamble and within the full text of the Act. The high
percentage of keywords within the Alberta Education Act of 2012 preamble suggests that the
105
government at the time viewed the preamble as an aid “in the interpretation of any ambiguities
within the statute to which it is prefixed” (“Preamble,” 2016).
Two keywords, heritage and values and beliefs, were included in the preamble of the
Alberta School Act of 2000 but only included within the full text of the Alberta Education Act of
2012. With the inclusion of keywords, such as Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; First
Nations, Metis, and Inuit students; and Canadian Constitution, this may possibly suggest that the
lawmakers of the Alberta Education Act of 2012 wished to broaden the understanding of “place”
for students.
Purposes of schooling framework. This pattern also holds true, when descriptors found
in the Acts and Ministerial Orders are coded against the framework (see Appendix F). Although
the Alberta School Act of 2000, the Ministerial Order No. 004/98, the Alberta Education Act of
2012, and Ministerial Order (#001/2013) include descriptors in all three themes, the percentage
of descriptors within each of the subthemes and the total number of descriptors show the shift in
the stated purposes of education.
As shown in Figure 12, the Alberta School Act of 2000 contains descriptors in all three
themes, six of 11 subthemes, and contains a total of 11 of 55 descriptors (20.0%). The theme of
integration into community had the highest percentage of descriptors (45.5%), followed by the
learning environment (36.4%), and then learner development (18.2%). With few descriptors and
a focus on integration into the community, this Act aligns more closely with the Saskatchewan
Education Act of 1995 (Education Act, S.S., 2012) and British Columbia (Baron, 2015).
When the Alberta School Act of 2000 and the Ministerial Order No. 004/98 are combined
as shown in figure 13, descriptors are found in all 11 subthemes and a total of 35 of 55
descriptors (63.6%). The subthemes with the most descriptors include cognitive/academic
106
development, emotional development, civic development, integration into society, and the
learning context. The theme of learner development had the highest percentage of descriptors
(62.9%), followed by the theme of integration into community (20.0%), and then the theme of
learning environment (17.1%). This suggests that the legislators at the time felt that preambles
should focus on the values and beliefs of society, and the vision for how and what students learn
should be the focus of the Minister and the Department.
As shown in Figure 13, the Alberta Education Act of 2012includes descriptors in all three
themes, 10 of 11 subthemes and a total of 33 of 55 descriptors (60.0%). The theme of learner
development had the highest percentage of descriptors (48.5%), followed by the theme of
integration into community (27.3%), and then the theme of learning environment (24.2%).
Figure 12. Descriptors within subthemes related to the purposes of schooling within the Alberta School Act of 2000 and the Alberta
Education Act of 2012.
Note. Numbers in brackets on the x-axis indicate the total descriptors within each sub-theme.
107
Figure 13. Descriptors within subthemes related to the purposes of schooling within the Alberta School Act of 2000 and Ministerial
Order No. 004/98 and the Alberta Education Act of 2012and Ministerial Order (#001/2013).
Note. Numbers in brackets on the x-axis indicate the total descriptors within each subtheme.
108
109
When the Alberta Education Act of 2012and Ministerial Order (#001/2013) are
combined as shown in figure 13, descriptors are found within in all 11 subthemes and a total of
51 of 55 descriptors (92.7%). The order of percentages of descriptors in the combined framework
is consistent with that of the Alberta Education Act of 2012: learner development (54.9%),
integration into community (27.5%), and the learning environment (17.6%). This suggests that
legislators in writing the Alberta Education Act of 2012 felt that preambles should include at a
visionary level, how and what students should learn in addition to confirming the values and
beliefs of society, and the Minister and the Department should expand on the stated vision.
The Alberta Education Act of 2012situates itself much more closely with those Acts of
Nunavut, Northwest Territories, and the Yukon in that it has a clear stated purpose with a focus
on learner development, emphasizes all three themes, and has more overall descriptors as shown
in one of the paragraphs within its preamble,
WHEREAS the role of education is to develop engaged thinkers who think critically and
creatively and ethical citizens who demonstrate respect, teamwork and democratic ideals
and who work with an entrepreneurial spirit to face challenges with resiliency,
adaptability, risk-taking and bold decision-making. (Alberta Education Act of 2012, 2012,
Preamble section, para. 4)
Legislation Pressing towards Systemic Sustainability Education
Overlaying the four moments of formal education (Davis et al., 2015) on the purposes of
schooling framework for the Alberta School Act of 2000 and the Alberta Education Act of
2012situates the core themes within the pedagogical practices associated with each moment. As
reflected in the coding analysis of the preamble and the framework analysis of the Alberta
School Act of 2000, the descriptors of the purposes of schooling focus on integration into the
110
community (see Figure14). The descriptors of publicly funded education and induction into the
community suggest alignment with standardized education. Although descriptors acknowledging
language and denominational rights and parental participation suggest democratic citizenship
education, when considered as a whole, these descriptors tend to define students as “other” or
“outside” rather than diverse individuals who benefit the collective when properly woven into
the fabric of schooling (Davis et al., 2015).
In contrast, the Alberta Education Act of 2012 embraces elements from standardized
education, authentic education, democratic citizenship education, and systemic sustainability
education (see Appendix G). In orienting the purposes of education toward the health of persons,
social groupings, and cultures and prompting an expansive awareness of oneself in the world but
not yet looking to complexity thinking or considering biological or more-than-human discourses
(Davis et al., 2015), the Alberta Education Act of 2012 looks toward systemic sustainability
education but is still situated in democratic citizenship education.
In contrast, the Alberta Education Act of 2012 embraces elements from standardized
education, authentic education, democratic citizenship education, and systemic sustainability
education (see Appendix H). In orienting the purposes of education toward the health of persons,
social groupings, and cultures and prompting an expansive awareness of oneself in the world but
not yet looking to complexity thinking or considering biological or more-than-human discourses
(Davis et al., 2015), the Alberta Education Act of 2012 looks toward systemic sustainability
education but is still situated in democratic citizenship education.
Responsible
Productive
Physical
develop
Civic
Develop
Physical
Develop
Competitive
Vocational
M arketable
in the
Prep
skills
workplace
D
E
F
Student
Learning
K
Adaptive
students
Appreciate
diversity
Provide
PersonSafe
nurturing
centred /
environment
environment inclusive
Provide
Provide high Tech
engaging
quality
advanced
work
Global
awareness
Healthy
society
Democratic Publicly/civil society funded
Culture and
Heritage
Training and
postsecondary
Public
service
Joy for
learning
Creativity
3
Selfsufficient/
discipline
Literacy
5
Highly
qualified
faculty
Respect for
environment
Caring
society
Best
interests of
the child
Sustainable/
prosperous
society
Contributing
Democratic
member of
underst
society
Life-long
learning
Effective
comm
4
8
Rights:
denomin
Emotional
skills
Rights:
aboriginal
Promote
confidence
Improve
Participate in
student
the arts
achievement
7
Parental
Student
participation participation
Rights:
language
Leadership
and direction
Reach
potential
Acquire
knowledge
6
Standardized Authentic
Rights: land
Spiritual
develop
9
Democratic
Citizenship
Respect for
others
10
Systemic
Sustainable
Figure 14. Moments of formal education analysis of the Alberta School Act of 2000 using the purposes of schooling framework.
Safe/
inclusive
J
H Global
Society
Promote
community
Community
partners
Ethical
morality
Emotional Positive
Develop
attitudes
C
G Local
Team
collaboration
Social
Develop
B
Social
interaction
Critical
thinking
2
Foster
Cognitive/
cognitive
Academic
develop
1
A
Alberta S chool Act, 2000
Learner Development
Integration into
community
Learning
Environment
111
112
As shown throughout this chapter, schooling legislation in Alberta has evolved since the
first ordinance in 1884, yet in regard to the purposes of schooling, continued to focus on the
community, societal values, a commitment to publicly funded schools, and minority language
and denominational rights. Alberta legislation reflects the society it governs. Long-term goals of
schooling often conflict with a societal desire to maintain the status quo. “Loss aversion is a
powerful conservative force that favors minimal changes from the status quo in the lives of both
institutions and individuals” (Kahneman, 2011, p. 305). The Alberta Education Act of 2012 and
Inspiring Education propose to disrupt the status quo and provide a more defined understanding
of the purposes of schooling within Alberta. This current era of change—pedagogically,
economically, and politically—provides the backdrop for understanding how the legislated
purposes of schooling frames the decisions that principals feel they need to make.
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Chapter V: School Leaders Lived Experiences within the Alberta Context
School leaders face an incredible range of expectations amid incoherence of direction and
beliefs regarding the purposes of schooling yet, “leaders have the potential to unleash latent
capacities in organizations” (Leithwood & Seashore-Louis, 2011, p.108). As laid out in Chapter
II, students, teachers, parents, and the larger community have multiple competing agendas when
it comes to the purposes of schooling. The interpretation of schooling legislation in Chapter IV
found that although current legislation has pointed to a major shift in the purposes of schooling,
the legislated duties of teachers and principals have not changed. Through the interpretations of
interview text with six school leaders, this chapter aims at discerning how school leaders
implement change while inhabiting this conflicted space.
To better understand the lived experiences of school leaders, this chapter moves from
examining legislative text through the hermeneutics of Schleiermacher and Hirsch to examining
experiential text through the Gadamer’s hermeneutics. Gadamer (1960/1995) contended,
Understanding is always more than merely re-creating someone else’s meaning.
Questioning opens up possibilities of meaning, and thus what is meaningful passes into
one’s own thinking on the subject. . . . To reach an understanding in a dialogue is not
merely a matter of putting oneself forward and successfully asserting one’s own point of
view, but being transformed into a communion in which we do not remain what we were.
(p. 375)
Understanding the way of being within the world involves getting inside the world of
those generating it. At the time of the interviews, each of the participants had been a school
leader in at least two schools, five of the participants held positions as an administrator in a
school, and one participant had transitioned from a school administrator to a jurisdictional
114
position. The schools that were led by the participants included grades ranging from kindergarten
through grade 12, with student populations ranging from 330 to 750 students. Each of the
schools had at least one identified focus for learning goals; the focus for each school was stated
on each school website and included in school annual reports. Foci in these schools included
caring and inclusive communities, French immersion, global understanding, and inquiry and/or
student learning.
One of the premises of this path of hermeneutic inquiry is that it is fundamentally an
ethical endeavour rather than one that “seeks universal truths about reality that can be discovered
using objective, reductionist, and quantifiable measurements” (Zweck, Paterson, & Pentland,
2008, p. 121). Hermeneutics rejects the ideals of inert facts and fixed truths and explores
multiple truths gained from different perspectives through evidence of credibility, transferability,
and dependability. “A good interpretation takes the reader to a place that is recognizable, having
either been there before, or in simply believing that it is possible” (Moules, 2002, p. 34).
Phrased differently, the researcher and the participant engage in a dialogic process that
evokes stories, opinions and feelings. In answering the research question, the researcher is tasked
with making meaning of the participant’s situation through listening deeply and spending
significant amount of time engaging with the interview text. Oriented by the principle that there
are no objective, observerless observations, it was important for me to honour the participants by
doing my utmost to provide interpretations of their texts that provided rich and full descriptions
of their lived experiences. Additionally, as the participants may be known to future readers of a
published dissertation, purposeful actions were undertaken to ensure participant anonymity. I
carefully read and re-read drafts looking for instances that may that may identify the participant
115
and the supervisory committee members were asked to make note of any wording that might lead
to identification.
In being “aware of one’s own bias, so that the text can present itself in all its otherness
and thus assert its own truth against one’s own fore-meanings” (Gadamer, 1960/1995, p. 269),
I discovered some of my biases emerged early in the interpretation process. The areas to which
I was initially attentive tended to focus on similarities with my experiences in school
leadership. Moving forward required looking beyond my reflection in a mirror in order to
delve further into the participant experiences, which in turn deepened my understanding of my
own experiences.
Structure of the Findings
In presenting the findings, this chapter melds cognitive science—using the dual process
theory analogy of the individual and the collective modes of consciousness, and educational
change—using the four moments of formal education and effective school leader practices as
laid out in Chapter II. In reading and re-reading the interview text, persistent emphases emerged
from the data related to the “what” and the “how” of assuming the System 2 role of the
consciousness of the school collective. The drafting and redrafting of the findings resulted in
presenting interpretations in two sections.
First, the data and interpretations of interview text are presented as “portraits” of how
three school leaders understand the coherence of the purposes of schooling with education
legislation and how that coherence or incoherence frame the decisions that they feel they need to
make. Portraiture seeks to unveil the universal truths and resonant stories that lie in the specifics
and complexity of everyday life, and researchers engage in the process of reflecting on one’s
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own subjectivity and how it might be shaping each aspect of the research (Kuttner & Threlkeld,
2008).
A second layer of analysis examines the circumstances in which school leaders
implement change within school culture by “overruling the freewheeling impulses and
association of System 1” (Kahneman, 2011, p. 21) as they assume the System 2 role of the
consciousness of the school collective. The interview text as a whole is interpreted through the
understandings and practices of the six school leaders as they implement change within their
schools while being attentive to not creating environments of too much stuff.
Consciousness of the School Collective – The Interaction of Two Systems
Through interpretations of their lived experiences, this section explores the mindsets and
understandings of the purposes of schooling through the interactions of the personal and the
collective modes of thinking. Specifically, each portrait describes how the school leader
embodies System 1 understandings about knowing and learning as revealed in the images and
metaphors invoked explicitly or implicitly, and how these images align or conflict with the
school leader’s System 2 intentions regarding the application of these impressions. The four
moments of formal education are used as a comparator to gain understanding into the mindsets
and beliefs of the school leaders (Davis et al., 2015). “A moment is not a period, but a mindset; a
coherent educational moment generally precedes a discernible educational movement” (Davis,
2015, p. 3). As shown in the example in Figure 15, a school leader with an understanding of
teaching and learning aligned with democratic citizenship education (LEADER – S2) with
enacted practices more aligned with authentic education (LEADER – S1) will mostly likely
influence the established school culture (SCHOOL – S1) more towards authentic education than
democratic citizenship education (SCHOOL – S2).
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Legend
S2
S1
LEADER
2
S1
SCHOOL
Standardized
Education
Authentic
Education
Democratic Citizenship
Education
Systemic Sustainability
Education
Figure 15. Two modes of thinking of dual process theory within the individual and the
collective.
Within the consciousness of the school collective metaphor, school leaders are
responsible for seeing and acting upon the school as a whole, its individual elements, and the
connections between them. He or she orients the direction of the school by deciding where and
when to be attentive (System 2) without drawing too much energy from the smooth running of
the organic, learning system of the school (System 1).
According to Kahneman (2011), an individual’s mode of thinking requires the
concentration, agency, and decision-making of System 2, working alongside the interaction of
the impressions, intuitions, intentions, and feelings of System 1. System 1 does not recognize
errors of intuitive thought while System 2 is “much too slow and inefficient to serve as a
substitute for System 1 in making routine decisions” (Kahneman, 2011, p. 28).
This suggests that the thoughts and actions school leaders believe they have chosen are
often guided by the intuitions and impulses of their enacted practice. To enable intentions of
System 2 to become the enacted practice of System 1, school leaders must expend time and
energy in understanding and practicing new capabilities. As they deepen their understanding, the
demand for time and energy diminishes. Studies of the brain have shown that the pattern of
activity associated with an action changes as skill increases and less effort is required to solve the
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same problems (Kahneman, 2011). But if a person is overwhelmed by crises, little experience, or
unrealistic expectations, a school leader will likely fall back on the practices with which they are
most familiar, effectively halting or slowing the thrust for change.
The following portraits examine the interactions of the modes of thinking of three school
leaders through interpretations of their lived experiences. Each portrait is structured across the
same foci:
•
how the school leaders understand the purposes of schooling and schooling
legislation;
•
how they enact their roles;
•
how they compare their vision to education legislation; and
•
how they lead change within their school.
Through co-creating narratives with participants and paying close attention to context,
portraitists explicitly insert themselves into the stories and examine and reflect upon the
assumptions they are making or what emotions are arising during the process (Kuttner &
Threlkeld, 2008).
In a certain sense interpretation probably is re-creation, but this is a re-creation not of the
creative act but of the created work, which has to be brought to representation in accord
with the meaning the interpreter finds in it. (Gadamer, 1960/1995, p. 119)
In presenting the interpretation of the interview text through portraits, the experience
became “like a real conversation in that the common subject matter is what binds the two
partners, the text and the interpreter, to each other” (Gadamer, 1960/1995, p. 388).
Please note that, to identify the voice of the participant within the co-created narrative,
participant statements are indicated by italics within each portrait to differentiate the statements
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from cited quotations and to emphasize the iteratively generated knit of the interviewee
articulations, published literature, and my interpretations.
Frank – Learning through Caring
Frank has been at Safe and Caring School for over 5 years and has held school leadership
roles within the same school authority for over two decades. Once a community school in a
relatively affluent suburb, over the past decade, Safe and Caring School has undergone
significant changes to its catchment area, grade divisions, and staff. Within his tenure, Frank has
hired staff members who are very philosophically aligned with [his] vision and are centred on
the needs of the students who are in the school--looking out for them before curriculum. On the
Alberta Accountability Pillar survey, school results range from 5% lower in Student Learning to
8% higher in the Program of Studies than the provincial average. Survey results from teachers,
parents, and students align with Frank’s decision to make certain decisions and sacrifices in
order to maintain balance, a very strong fine arts program, a very strong academic program and
a very strong athletic program (Program of Studies).
Reflective of some of the core themes and emphases of authentic education, Frank views
the transformation of the staff from being staff- and curriculum-centred to being much, much,
more student-centred as one of his most significant accomplishments. With regard to the school
environment, for Frank, creating a caring, supportive climate is important, and he encourages
teachers and students to be involved in activities and events that showcase student leadership
skills.
Although he is vehement in his explicit desire for a student-centred learning environment,
other emphases and alignments are revealed in some of his implicit references. For example,
woven through his articulations are references to optimality, implicit order, and rightness: the
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best teacher, teaching in the proper position. Aligned to such emphases, there are indications
that the enterprise is understandable in mechanical terms, the proper group of kids and getting it
all working and that students’ possibilities are predetermined, students have a lot of capacity.
Such intonations point to the possibility that Frank, like much of the formal educational system,
oscillates between traditional standardized education and emergent insights of authentic
education. That is perhaps no surprise, for Frank has most likely been immersed in standardized
education through his schooling, teacher preparation, and teaching experiences, and this
discrepancy between explicit descriptions and implicit references may suggest that Frank is
pressing toward authentic education in his enacted practice (see Figure 16).
This oscillation is underscored by Frank’s perspectives in recent educational initiatives.
Frank views the fundamental changes, that Inspiring Education and the Alberta Education Act of
2012 are looking to implement, as totally aligned with what the school is doing and that the
impact will result in grade 12 students who have a voice, who have thoughts and ideas of what
they want to do and are willing to act on them.
Legend
S2
S1
LEADER
2
S1
SCHOOL
Standardized
Education
Authentic
Education
Democratic Citizenship
Education
Systemic Sustainability
Education
Figure 16. Two modes of thinking of dual process theory within the individual and the
collective: Frank
In implementing change within the school, Frank describes his leadership style as
collaborative and indirect instructional leadership, and he feels it is really important to support
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everybody in the building when they wish to exercise their leadership ability. He implements
change through modelling as people naturally want to follow a structure or a leader, and
conversations help to communicate what my values and beliefs are for the school. Frank tries to
be flexible as he does not believe hard and fast rules are what create alignment.
In making decisions, Frank doesn’t always jump when somebody wants him to but will let
issues ripen unless he feels intuitively that it is critical. He does not think a person can be a really
good school leader without being fairly intuitive and that it is not always possible to be doing
environmental scans and strategic planning and make good decisions. Sometimes it’s a gut-based
decision where you just know you have to take strong action at a certain moment because it’s a
critical moment.
As illustrated in the examples above, Frank’s statements regarding the purposes of
schooling/learning (System 2) is strongly aligned with authentic education; his enacted practice
(System 1) may be more aligned with standardized education pressing toward authentic
education. Within Frank’s descriptions, the view of the school culture suggests a centralized
network with some delegation of authority to other school leaders and students and staff leading
events and the work within their classrooms. In describing the current school culture, there is a
caring, inclusive emphasis that emerges both explicitly and implicitly throughout the interview
text. The lived experiences of the school leader and strategic school documents suggest that the
school is reaching toward authentic education.
Rory – The Perfect Storm for Change
Rory is relatively new to the role of school administrator and to Tradition School but has
taken on leadership roles throughout her career. She is passionate about how students experience
learning and teaching and the environment in which they learn and views the Arts as an
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important foundation to engaging students. A sense of responsibility to student learning,
especially that of complex learners, provides motivation for implementing change within the
school. In coming to a school that values tradition, Rory is cognizant of the importance of
proceeding slowly—this is really terrifying for some of the staff who have been in the building
since the 1970s or 1980s.
Tradition School has a large catchment area and over the past decade, student enrolment
has reversed between the two main programs offered within the school. In the last year, over
90% of students entering kindergarten have parents that have not had a previous relationship
with the school, which means educating parents in how to have successful partnerships with the
school has become part of her role.
On the Alberta Accountability Pillar survey, school results ranged from 7% higher in the
area of Program of Studies to 6% lower in Parental Involvement than the provincial average.
Interestingly, survey results from a school authority instrument indicate high levels of
satisfaction among parents and students. Over 93% of students, parents, and staff report that
students are taking responsibility for their learning and are learning to become critical thinkers.
Rory sees possibilities for learning arise from gifts that create disruptions to school
culture. The mandated initiatives and projects have provided the perfect storm for change. For
example, when construction meant that the school could not hold the 20-year-old tradition of
stand-and-deliver concerts, a space opened up for discussion on how to showcase school work
differently. Rory uses these opportunities to encourage staff to look at learning differently and to
look at teaching differently, and her work is focused on shifting the teachers’ commitment to
curriculum toward a commitment to the child. This commitment entails providing learning
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experiences in which students learn to love themselves, learn how to learn; learn to love
learning; and learn to become resilient.
Reflective of some of the emphases of systemic sustainability education, Rory is
attempting to change internal structures by looking for sites of connection, such as the marriage
of inquiry, environmental stewardship, and the Arts. Her vision for the environment in which
students learn includes kids interested, kids engaged; learning tasks based on universal design
principles; and showing an attentiveness to physical literacy.
Emerging from her articulations are references to an emphasis on personal engagement,
learner difference, and personalized learning aligned with individual curiosities and goals aligned
with authentic education (Davis et al., 2015). Aligned with such emphases, there are references
of attempting to shift teaching from a deficit model based on ideal students to a model that
focuses on the actual students in the classroom.
In implementing change within the school, Rory has a multi-faceted leadership style,
being hands on particularly with students, and pulling in the support from others when she feels
less confident. She implements change using a push me, pull me method; leading by example and
leading from behind.
Rory sees the direction she is orienting her school as very much in line with the direction
of education in Alberta. In addressing 21st century competencies, such as critical thinking,
collaborative learning, and environmental stewardship, students are empowered to make
differences in our world, with a consciousness of the positive impact they will have on our world.
As illustrated in the examples above, Rory’s understanding of the purposes of
schooling/learning (System 2) may be reaching towards systemic sustainability education, and
her enacted practice (System 1) may be more aligned with authentic education. Using a dual
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process theory analogy, this may suggest that as the consciousness of the collective,
implementation of change within the school may be more aligned with authentic education (see
Figure 17).
Legend
S2
S1
LEADER
2
S1
SCHOOL
Standardized
Education
Authentic
Education
Democratic Citizenship
Education
Systemic Sustainability
Education
Figure 17. The two modes of thinking of dual process theory with the individual and the system:
Rory.
Paula--Educating global citizens – politically, socially, ethically
Paula has been the school leader at the Global School for under 5 years and has also held
learning lead roles with different school authorities in southern Alberta. Her background in
languages and her interest in global citizenship are foundational to her vision of supporting each
student to succeed both today and tomorrow. Global School is a multi-level school with over 500
students who come from affluent families. On the Alberta Accountability Pillar survey, school
results were between 4 and 7% higher than the provincial average. Parents tend to have high
expectations for the programs offered and on accountability surveys have reported
satisfaction/high satisfaction with the teacher quality and quality of education.
Regarding her perspectives on student learning and the learning environment, Paula is
emphatic that students need to be valued and “seen,” to learn who they are, and to understand
their place in the world. She is adamant that students need to learn about themselves. . . . They
need to understand their own potential and how to make their own decisions for their future
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regardless of what age level they are at. . . . Students need to understand that their actions do
affect other people. . . . It’s important that students learn to be informed and compassionate
global citizens and understand their place in the world – politically, socially, and ethically. For
Paula, the principal aim of education is not standardized achievement, but “an education that is
neither beholden to what was nor obsessed with what is, but that is oriented to the expansive
possibilities of what might be (Davis et al., 2015, p. 186).
Paula feels that the Alberta Education Act of 2012 opens up the shared accountability for
children’s education with the importance of the shared responsibility of the parents and students.
For Paula, recent legislation, specifically Inspiring Education, is working toward helping
students own their own learning and demonstrate their learning in positive ways, retain their
learning rather than memorizing and filling in blanks, regurgitating and forgetting, and she feels
that Global School is moving in the same direction. With a school focus on global awareness, she
sees her school a little bit ahead of the curve in lots of ways.
How Paula describes what has been occupying her day suggests characteristics of
systemic sustainability education, including global citizenship, systemic thinking, decentralized
network structure, designing structures, student engagement, school wellness, and lifelong
learning. A key principal of systemic sustainability education is the transphenomena of complex
learning systems and therefore calls upon Kegan’s 5th order of consciousness to address issues
presented by new situations, including: the ability to embrace great complexity; base decisions
on translevel considerations such as social, cultural, and psychological; and move towards
thinking that is more systemic (Davis et al., 2015). Kegan (1994) suggested that to meet the
needs of students in the 21st century, educators need to teach students not only what they should
understand but how to understand.
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For example, Paula sees global citizenship as moving beyond awareness to promoting
informed, compassionate citizens who understand the complexities of global situations. With
some of the tragedies this year, such as anytime that a culture or a faith-based group is in the
media, we make an effort to help our students in the Islamic world understand, and help our
other students to understand, that a classmate might be Muslim but these bad things that are
happening around the world are not because they are Muslim but because of a group of people.
When tragedies of the world arise, she and her colleagues pull on a strong framework of cultural
understanding within the school.
The move toward the 5th order of consciousness also considers,
recognition of our multiple selves, for the capacity to see conflict as a signal of our
overidentification with a single system, for the sense of our relationships and connections
as prior to and constitutive of the individual self, for an identification with the
transformative process of our being rather than the formative products of our becoming.
(Kegan, 1994, p. 350)
Throughout the interview text, and specifically within descriptions of what has been
occupying her time, Paula’s ability to embrace complexity and systemic thinking suggests a
mode of thinking that makes it possible to consider diverse influences all at the same time. For
example, when asked about the impact of the Alberta Education Act of 2012 , Paula sees it as a
time to hold ourselves accountable and measure where we are strong and where there are gaps.
Although she sees some educators struggling with parts of it, she views it as an opportunity to
look at our policies, procedures, and protocols connected with the school context.
Paula works closely with her direct reports so they will have the accountability to work
with their direct reports. One of her accomplishments is providing opportunities for people to
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strive to become leaders. She tries not to fuss with the day-to-day operations that her direct
reports are responsible for, as she expects that they are taking care of it.
As illustrated in the examples above, Paula’s understanding of the purposes of
schooling/learning System 2 and her enacted practice (System 1) are both aligned with systemic
sustainability education and together, through implementing change strategies, push the school
toward enacting systemic sustainability education as part of the school ethos (see Figure 18). “In
knowing-and-learning terms, the system is reasonably stable (the knowing is robust) while still
responsive to emerging circumstances (it learns well)” (Davis et al., p. 197). If something comes
along that wasn’t part of the plan, we look at it critically and say, “This should have been part of
the plan, we just didn’t identify it at the time.”
Legend
S2
S1
LEADER
2
S1
SCHOOL
Standardized
Education
Authentic
Education
Democratic Citizenship
Education
Systemic Sustainability
Education
Figure 18. The two modes of thinking of dual process theory within the individual and the
system: Paula.
In implementing change within the school, Paula’s decision-making is very strategic, and
the process specifically partnered staff members to get them out of their silos . . . most people
would tag me as being process driven, but it’s with that strategy and strategic direction and
vision in mind.
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The school culture when Paula arrived at Global School was different than the school
culture today. There was no coherence in philosophy throughout the school. . . . The team
wasn’t working as a team; the leadership throughout the school was not robust. . . . People were
not talking with each other, ever.
Within her descriptions, the view of the previous school culture suggests a fragmented
network with leaders that were operating in Kegan’s (1994) 2nd or 3rd order of consciousness,
and knowledge and curriculum focused in authentic or standardized education. In describing the
current school culture, there is a whole school emphasis that emerges both explicitly and
implicitly throughout the interview text.
More so than interpreting literal text, I was conscious of my prejudices and myself as
translator in my interpretation of the figural text. As an educator, I felt the struggles and
celebrations of the three school leaders as they described implementing change within schools.
Frank’s portrait in particular resonates with a time in my professional practice when
professional learning was a two-day convention and tremors of the reading and math wars
reverberated throughout the system. Tensions between wanting student-centred practice for my
students and implementing it in my classroom led to frustration, fatigue, and a decline in
confidence. Relationships with colleagues became strained as those who were leading the
movement outdistanced my understanding, and those not interested in the journey were not
interested in what I had to say. In developing this portrait, I had to confront the influence of
my prejudice and balance it with finding a common language in which my experience
informed interpretation but did not overrule it.
As I examined the alignment between enacted practice and intentions, I reflected on
struggles with shifting my own practice. Two events supporting the shift to my practice
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occurred around the same time. First, I transitioned into an administrative role and for the first
time was able to see how new practices of teaching and learning could be used in the
classroom. At that time, high school teachers rarely discussed teaching and learning with other
teachers and thus isolated themselves from opportunities for collaboration. Second, I moved to
an elementary school in a district that prided itself on a culture of collaboration. I came to
realize that understanding must be ingrained if change in practice was to happen. The first
inkling came when as an educator moving from a high school culture of sarcastic humour to an
elementary school culture of virtues, I frequently found myself at a loss of the implications of
using language and humour more accepted in the former setting.
School Leader Decision-Making
The findings suggest that dual process theory can be used as a framework for
understanding how choices and decisions are made in schools. As argued throughout this
dissertation, it is possible to shift our understanding of schools toward organic, living systems
that have structures that make them functionally analogous to deliberate, conscious beings.
Figure 19 shows a comparison of the modes of thinking presented within the three
portraits and based on participant descriptions depicts SCHOOL culture (S1) as aligned with
standardized education. Each of the images is intended to focus attentions on, firstly, the
resonance of the LEADER S1 and S2 (i.e., with regard to the principles and practices associated
with their understanding of the purposes of schooling) and, secondly, the resonance at the
SCHOOL level when the school leader steps into the role as the consciousness (S2) of the
collective (S1).
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S2
S1
LEADER
S2
S2
S2
S1
LEADER
S1
LEADER
S1
S1
S1
SCHOOL
SCHOOL
SCHOOL
Legend
Standardized
Education
Authentic
Education
Democratic Citizenship
Education
Systemic
Sustainability
Education
Figure 19. Comparison of modes of thinking with moments of formal education.
The situation illustrated by the leftmost image represents one in which the school leader
has an understanding of the purposes of schooling aligned with authentic education with
embodied practices aligned with standardized education pressing toward authentic education. He
may have chosen to reject or ignore shifts in knowing, teaching, and learning as he perceives his
current understanding as meeting the needs of his school; or he may not have engaged deeply
enough with more recent shifts in understanding and therefore may “pass through [the discourse]
undisturbed” (Kegan, 1994, p. 337). As with the whole language movement, my experience was
one where some school leaders gave “lip service” to a pedagogical initiative but then “closed the
door” and proceeded with no substantive adjustments.
The analogy suggests that a school leader’s understanding pressing toward an of
authentic education (S2) but embodying practices of standardized education (S1) may influence
(S2) minor shifts in SCHOOL culture (S1) toward authentic education, but in general the school
culture will continue to resonate more closely with standardized education. At the SCHOOL
level, teachers and other school stakeholders may feel reassured that there is an improvement to
teaching and learning practices, and there will probably be little dissonance as there will be little
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change to familiar expectations and well-established routines. With little disruption, the school
leader maintains relationships and is able to focus on his or her priorities for teaching and
learning.
The centre image represents a school leader who may have had a desire to implement
change aligned with systemic sustainability education but for whom it was not yet part of
enacted practice. In this situation, there are two types of dissonance (signalled by different
colours). On the LEADER level, new principles that are occupying much of the school leader’s
consciousness (S2) might conflict with familiar and automatic (S1) practices. Such dissonances
can be amplified at the SCHOOL level, especially when new practices are embraced that are
completely unfamiliar to the collective. Depending upon their individual understandings of the
desired pedagogical changes, teachers and other school stakeholders may embrace the new ideas
possibly leading to isolation from colleagues, adapt the new ideas within their entrenched beliefs
and routines resulting in a hybrid model, or ignore or not see the ideas as different from their
current practice.
With differences between explicit and implicit directions, one might expect System 2 to
become overloaded, able to focus only on the most important activities; other tasks are
responded to through the automaticity of System 1’s routine conditions (Kahneman, 2011). This
scenario seems reminiscent of some of the concerns raised about educational reform. Teachers
reported they felt overloaded, pulled in different directions, and never listened to and they also
felt isolated, and unsupported (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012).
Leaders who do not have a deep understanding or experience with the desired change
would need to be cautious in implementing the desired change. Participating in professional
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learning with teachers, building and maintaining trusting relationships, and buffering teachers
from initiatives that do not promote school goals may support a culture of change.
The situation illustrated by the far right image in Figure 19 represents a possibility for
comprehensive change. In this image, the LEADER S1 and S2 align—that is, the habits of
practice within the leader’s automatic and intuitive System 1 are resonant with the decisions that
emerge from the conscious and reflective System 2. At the SCHOOL level, however, there will
be obvious disruption. The school leader may have to confront such matters as affecting the
norms of the school, contending with teachers, students and community members, who are more
familiar with other ways of teaching and learning. Prior and during the implementation of
change, the school leader would need to understand the context of the school, build relationships
with school stakeholders, and know the strengths and challenges of the staff. Being strategic in
the creation of professional learning teams, providing time for professional learning and quietly
advocating for changes with small groups first were included in the practices the school leader
used to implement a significant change within the school.
Implementing change requires school leaders who not only are fluent with the issues,
principles, and vocabularies of current teaching and learning practices but also embody the
practices within their day-to-day routines. As the consciousness of the school collective, the
school leader must not only be aware of the direction he or she is advocating but must also
ensure his or her intuitive thoughts and actions align with that direction.
Consciousness of the School Collective – Leading Change
Progressing from examining the entwined intentions and embodied practices of three
school leaders, this section looks at how school leaders assumed the System 2 role of the
consciousness of the school collective in implementing change within their schools while being
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attentive to not creating environments of too much stuff. The interview text is interpreted
through a discussion of movements—the conditions, circumstances, and practical consequences
(Davis, 2015)—that cut across all six interviews. Although the writing of these movements is not
about me, my subjectivity can be recognized in how I listened to my participants, what I heard,
what stood out to me, and how I interpreted it (Moules, 2002, p. 24).
In connecting and reconnecting with the interview text, practices and emphases emerged
of how the participants focused time and resources to bring change to their schools. Five of the
emphases were consistent with the frameworks of effective school leadership practices found
within educational research literature as presented in Chapter II (Hitt & Tucker, 2015; Leithwood
& Seashore-Louis, 2011; Robinson et al., 2008;): (a) establishing and conveying a vision focused
on student achievement; (b) facilitating a high-quality learning experience for students; (c)
creating a safe, supportive, collaborative culture for students, teachers and communities; (d)
building professional capacity; and (e) using resources strategically. This may indicate that the
six school leaders use effective leadership practices as they orient the direction of their schools
by deciding where and when to be attentive (System 2).
Although the practices are discussed separately, there are clear overlaps and
interdependencies among them. For example, the ability to allocate resources strategically is
dependent on the depth and breadth of leaders’ relevant understanding of their contexts and of
their beliefs of the purposes of schooling. Further, change within schools does not occur if the
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school leader tries to invoke change on people without their consent, understanding or a shared
vision. 14
In addition to the findings consistent with effective leadership practices, an overarching
understanding of “owning” the responsibilities inherent in the role of school leader emerged
from the text. Although not identified as one of the main domains or dimensions of effective
practices of school leaders (Hitt & Tucker, 20105;; Leithwood & Seashore-Louis,
2011;Robinson et al., 2008), this understanding of the role is similar to Robinson’s (2011) three
leadership capabilities, which outline the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to make the
effective practices work in a particular school context, including building relational trust,
applying relevant knowledge, and solving complex problems. Interestingly, when asked what
advice they would give to new school leaders, this emphasis was often stated first and evoked the
most passionate responses from the participants.
Setting the Direction and Vision of the School
Goals provide a sense of purpose and priority in an environment where a multitude of
tasks can seem equally important and overwhelming (Robinson et al., 2008). The participants
identified goal and vision setting as one of their most important responsibilities. For many of the
participants, values and vision were used interchangeably. All six participants expressed that
they were ultimately responsible for orienting the direction for learning in the school. Although
there is some variation in the visions for their schools, each participant was very clear in what
students should learn, such as they need to understand themselves as a learner; they need to
understand their place in society and in the world; they need to understand that their actions
14
As presented with the portraits in the previous section, participant statements are italicized to
reflect the voice of the participants.
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affect other people and what the learning environment should look like: kids engaged, kids
interested, working individually or in groups; a well-run, well organized school, curriculum
drives the bigger side of what it is to be a human being; inquiry permeates the entire school; a
caring climate that encourages everybody to exercise their leadership ability. Applying the dual
process theory described in the previous section, this reinforces that the participants, acting as
System 2, are “more adept at representing [their actions] in terms of rules and underlying
principles” (Stanovich & West, 2000, p. 659).
Five of the participants used the school education plan as a road map as well as a
compass. They knew where they were going and had some idea of how they were getting there
but were open to change if new opportunities present themselves and they had the time and the
resources to explore them. These five participants referenced the annual Accountability Pillar of
the Renewed Funding Framework Accountability as providing several indicators of progress in
relation to their plans (Alberta Education, 2010a). This would be indicative of the enhanced
monitoring and planning of System 2. Some of the participants, especially the participant with
the least experience as a school leader, expressed that the continuous vigilance of ensuring
initiatives were aligned with the vision required an inordinate amount of energy.
The participant with the most experience as a school leader expressed that sometimes it’s
a gut-based decision when you just know you have to take strong action in a particular area and
there’s no way to tell when those critical moments are by scanning the environment. As an
experienced school leader, his “gut-based” decision may no longer be considered as a planned
mode of thinking (System 2) as it has become part of his enacted practice (System 1). As argued
previously, this type of automatic response may become less appropriate in some circumstances
if the school leader continues to rely on established practices (e.g., intervention techniques
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between a student and a teacher that have shown no evidence of success) rather than thoughtfully
consider alternatives.
According to Robinson (2011), to encourage people to commit to a goal, the vision must
be collective rather than that of a single leader. Although all participants expressed the desire for
a collective vision, they expressed varying degrees of collaboration in how the direction of his or
her school was determined. One participant creates alignment through communication—every
conversation during the day helps to create school culture and helps to communicate the values
and beliefs of the school.
Creating a shared vision can be one of the most challenging responsibilities of a school
leader—if you’ve ever been through a visioning exercise, it can be one of the most painful and
excruciating things to go through. As explored in Chapter II, each student, teacher, parent, and
community member will have a unique understanding of the purposes of schooling and unique
ways of relating to and within the school. The collection, or embodiment, of these
understandings and practices make up the rhythm of the school—the S1-SCHOOL, shown in
Figure 19, is not the solid orange of standardized education but rather a blending of many
individual moments that settle into an orange rhythm. Three school leaders effectively negotiated
competing agendas with their stakeholders, by considering goals based on priorities of their
school authorities and then met with the staff to find a common way forward.
Building Professional Capacity
Instructional leadership is directed at the improvement of teaching and learning through
leaders’ involvement in the coordination and evaluation of the instructional program (Robinson,
2011). The participants expressed that ensuring the quality of teaching and promoting and
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supporting professional learning are two of the most important functions within their role as
school leaders.
None of the participants delegated the leadership of professional learning to colleagues
but gathered a team of colleagues and external consultants in the planning and implementation of
professional learning. Most of the participants expressed that they saw leading professional
learning as one of the most important and satisfying parts of their job. Five of the leaders
expressed the importance of authentically connecting professional learning to other initiatives in
the school and using an evidence-based focus for development of learning initiatives. Inquiry is
not a thing we do; it’s something that’s built into our schedule. It’s really about infusing inquiry
into everything that we do at the school.
In allocating resources to professional learning, time was the most common thread, and
the participants were creative in the ways they could provide time. Time was provided to
teachers to look at learning differently and to look at teaching differently by collaborating with
colleagues, being part of professional learning opportunities or participating in action research
projects.
It is perhaps unsurprising that one of their favourite and most important roles was
building professional capacity within their schools given that all the participants expressed they
enjoyed teaching. Working with staff in professional learning activities allows school leaders to
orient the direction of learning in the school as well as build relationships within a more relaxed
atmosphere. Although the participants were willing to fulfil the other responsibilities of their
role, instructional leadership was one of the main reasons they entered into school leadership.
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Facilitating a High-Quality Learning Experience for Students
Leaders can ensure quality teaching through the development of a coherent instructional
program, providing useful feedback to teachers, and using data to improve the instructional
program (Robinson, 2011). Further, maintaining expertise and having a firm grasp of curriculum,
instruction, and assessment means that “principals truly understand life in the classroom and the
challenges inherent in their chosen profession” (Hitt & Tucker, 2015, p. 25). Interestingly, all of
the participants viewed curriculum as driving the bigger side of what it is to be a human being,
what it is to understand how and why we learn, and what that gives us individually and to our
communities. Encompassed within an interwoven curriculum and instruction are the knowledge
skills and attributes that students need to be engaged learners and ethical citizens. Four of the
participants include data gathering and analysis as a discussion forum—a flow of ideas and new
thoughts that will inform educational pedagogy—for example, “Do we need to emphasize things
more?”, “Why is this not working for some students?” and “Do we need to get this off the
plate?” Feedback was provided to teachers through formal assessments, evaluation frameworks,
and checking in individually with teachers every day.
Five of the participants were placed in their current role with a mandate to change teacher
practice and/or implement a change in the school organization. This required the school leader to
look at the strengths and challenges of the teachers in their school, and as a newer school leader
expressed it, learn to be that fierce conversations person. During the first few years of their
tenure, there was a significant turnover in staff as teachers uncomfortable with the change chose,
or were encouraged to choose, more familiar environments. All six participants expressed
sentiments similar to the following comment: These learners aren’t going anywhere so if this
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path is not where teachers thinks they can be; they need to think very carefully before deciding if
they want to be part of our team next year.
While building professional capacity was one of the most enjoyable parts of their role,
ensuring quality instruction was the most frustrating. Mindsets, can I say that enough mindsets,
mindsets, mindsets. I’ve had to do a lot of work on staff morale and staff cohesiveness but the
biggest challenge truly on staff mindsets. Participants enjoyed working with teachers and other
staff members that were growing professionally and working toward school and district goals,
but found that much of their time, energy, and other resources were spent on staff members who
only paid lip service to changing professional practice.
Creating a Safe, Collaborative Culture for Students, Teachers, and Communities
Participant comments regarding the provision of a safe and caring environment tended
not to be detailed. For example, of course it’s all those important things like safety and those
kind of things trump anything else, but indirect comments suggest that these school leaders are
very involved with ensuring a supportive working relationship among the people within their
school: I think truly listening to what students have to say . . . we talked to parents about how do
we work together.
Nurturing relationships was identified as an important part of the school leader’s role, and
participants expressed that sustained change could not happen without trusting relationships with
students, teachers, and parents. If you don’t build the relationships with the parents and the
community, it doesn’t matter what fabulous work you do, it’s done. Participants felt strongly that
the school culture should be welcoming to all the people connected to the school, and their
comments would align with Hargreaves and Fullan’s (2012) guidelines for school and district
leaders:
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Being mindful, reflective, and professional; building social capital by pushing and pulling
one’s peers; seeking variety; managing up; being prepared to take the first step; and
connecting everything back to students. (p. 162)
Developing trust among teachers, parents, and students was seen as part of the mandate
of being a school leader. For several of the participants, trust was developed through
collaborating on the work, no leader can lead with one voice or one direction; we need to listen
to all of our stakeholders. In seeing trust as an enabler of change, the participants align with
educational research that suggests that trust in school leaders allows less time to be spent on
details, planning and attending to messages, and more time to be spent on actions that contribute
to organizational improvements (Handford & Leithwood, 2013).
Using Resources Strategically
Emerging from the interview text is a strong through line of the school leaders as system
thinkers. Each participant had a network of connections in making decisions that is similar to the
visual of the street patterns in Lisbon in Chapter I (see Figure 1). They were able to see and act
on the whole, as well as on the individual elements, and the relationships among them (Mulford,
2010). For example, school-wide student initiatives were often considered in relation to school
context, professional learning, and provincial mandates. Sometimes as a principal, you need to
say [to yourself], it’s not my agenda anymore. Stop the madness. Even though I have my list and
things need to go forward, maybe they don’t need to go forward right now.
Similar to the findings of principals in higher performing schools being not only good
goal setters but also strategic users of resources (Bendikson et al., 2012), all participants
strategically allocated people, funding, and time with the school vision. Initiatives are chosen
that align with the school vision and focus on student learning and student success.
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The participants would filter initiatives for what’s appropriate and what’s aligned and
were attentive to ensuring the demand of the initiatives did not create overload. As one
participant phrased it, historically, we’ve had so many initiatives it felt like drinking from a fire
hose. Participants used a variety of strategies to assist in negotiating initiative demands such as,
providing noninstructional periods or days for planning and discussion, ensuring information
items are addressed in the most efficient manner, and providing release time to staff when they
seem to be becoming overwhelmed.
All the participants expressed that their response to the overwhelming multitude of
initiatives was to choose not to take up some opportunities. Less-experienced school leaders
expressed more difficulty in buffering the “stuff” than did more experienced school leaders but
all the participants aligned their decisions with either the school plan, the values, and or vision of
the school. Some decisions were easy to make such as commercial initiatives or things that are
against the best interests of students, but other decisions required tactful discussions in helping
teachers to understand that if there is a new initiative something has to be taken away.
The allocation of resources can be one of the most contentious tasks that school leaders
are required to perform. Even with consultation and or collaboration in decision-making, as the
consciousness of the school collective, school leaders are responsible and accountable for the
allocation of staff workload and other resources. Performing the System 2 role, more
experienced participants were able to decontextualize and depersonalize problems and were
more adept at dealing with problems in terms of rules and underlying principles (Stanovich &
West, 2000).
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Owning the Responsibilities Inherent in the Role of School Leader
Emerging from the interview text was the stressed importance of “owning” the
responsibilities inherent in the role of school leader, and several participants felt they had been
given the privilege of making a difference. But the participants also viewed the role of leading
change as hard work. It is not for everybody. If it is not for you, get out of it, get out of the way
and let someone else do it who can. Robinson (2011) suggested although school leaders’ moral
purpose is admirable, if they do not know how to put their words into action, then their sense of
moral purpose can quickly give way to cynicism, frustration, and fading commitment.
To be effective in implementing change, school leaders need to know themselves and
where they want to take their school. Be really clear and know what you believe. Be brave. If you
don’t believe it, don’t go there. All of the participants connected their understanding about
effective teaching, teacher learning, and school organization to make high-quality administrative
decisions. As shown within the portraits, the decisions that participants chose to make were
underpinned by their understanding of the purposes of schooling and their unique context, but all
six participants were clear that decisions should result in fostering student success.
In describing what has been occupying their time, the school leaders’ skills in solving
complex problems within their particular context emerged. Each one of them provided an
exhaustive list of examples of working with students, teachers, and parents, as well as,
completing planning and reporting requirements for the jurisdiction, and five of the participants
continually linked their work back to student success, quality teaching, and or school vision.
Leadership is a very fluid moving target because relationships change, circumstances change
and there are just so many variables. Keep your focus on student success and you really can’t go
wrong.
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Throughout this dissertation, it has been argued that a dual process theory analogy can be
helpful in coming to understand the context that school leaders inhabit and to better understand
their lived experiences in implementing change within a school. Schools have well-established
practices and belief systems, but as the consciousness of the collective, the school leader is
tasked with being attentive to these rhythms so he or she can know when and how to prompt
participation in a recursively elaborative process of opening up new spaces of possibility by
exploring current spaces (Davis, 2005, p. 87). As mentioned previously, System 1 and System 2
are not separate entities but rather—to use Kahneman’s (2011) term—agents within the mind,
with their individual personalities, abilities, and limitations. In applying Klein’s (2013) view of
System 1 and 2, school leaders would interpret their relationship with the school less of a duality
and more of a blending of the two. In implementing change, effective school leaders would blend
their understanding and thoughtfulness for the whole school with the expertise and experience
within the school. In expanding Dennett’s (2013) connectionist network of the mind to a school
culture, the correct blend would create room for collaboration and greater capacities of creativity,
imagination, and thinking outside of the box—in effect, creating a whole new cultural sphere of
activity where there are opportunities that did not previously exist.
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Chapter VI: Conclusion
When you grow up and succeed within a traditional system, it is hard to change practice,
it is hard to see the problems, and it is even harder to imagine other ways of working and being
within that system, but we owe it to our students to undertake the challenge to change.
We do this by, for once, not focusing on the hot reforms of the moment, but by asking
what we are trying to accomplish, whether today’s schools are equipped for that task, and
how we might use twenty-first century tools and talent to do better. (Hess, 2010, p. ix)
With continual calls for dramatic change to the educational landscape, school leaders are looking
for ways to lead their schools through educational reforms without creating a culture of too much
stuff. Against a backdrop of quick-fix educational reforms and the resulting multitude of
initiatives, this study explored the decisions school leaders felt they needed to make in
implementing change.
In coming to understand the lived experiences of school leaders regarding the purposes of
schooling, a hermeneutic inquiry was used as it allowed looking beyond observable behaviours
in giving credence to people’s beliefs, value systems, and the meanings with which they interpret
their experiences. Using the two threads of hermeneutics offered different opportunities for
engaging with the text—literally with actual written texts and figuratively by looking at life as a
text—yet, both threads involved understanding the whole as it is rooted in the particular.
To understand what is right in front of us in an ecologically sane, integrated way is to
somehow see this particular thing in place, located in a patterned nest of
interdependencies without which it would not be what it is. (Jardine, 1995, p. 263)
Although differently understood within each thread, the hermeneutic circle and its iterative
process became the juncture in “an inherent process of immersion in, and dynamic and evolving
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interaction with, the data as a whole and the data in part, through extensive readings, re-readings,
reflection, and writing” (Moules, 2002, p. 30).
The experience of two overlaying circles enriched my engagement with the data by
providing a broader understanding of the historical context which in turn deepened my
understanding of the current context of the participants. Within my review of the literature, most
of the hermeneutic educational research I encountered followed the path of Gadamer. Exploring
the path of Schleiermacher caused me to extend my reach to other disciplines such as social work
and theology which provided different hermeneutic perspectives.
Through this hermeneutic interpretive endeavor, my nature of understanding has evolved.
In revisiting my candidacy paper and Gadamer’s (1960) Truth and Method, my earlier levels of
understanding did not compare with my current insight. “It’s hard to look back to the limits of
my understanding a year, five years ago—how did I look without seeing, hear without listening?
It can be difficult to be generous to earlier selves” (Rich as cited in Kinsella, 2006, p. 4).
Owning the Role
Through examining how school leaders understand the coherence of the purposes of
schooling with education legislation and how that coherence or incoherence frames the decisions
they feel they need to make, I have presented a model that melds an understanding of
consciousness at the individual and collective levels with educational change practices. The dual
process theory analogy assists in understanding how some of the barriers to change are created
and the resistance to change that is engrained within individual consciousness and the culture of
the school (System 1). School leaders, as the consciousness of the school collective (System 2),
can prompt differential attention, selecting the options for action, and make deliberate decisions
that orient the school towards new networks of association.
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With virtually every project of educational change, the demands of too much stuff may
be a contributing factor to student and teacher burnout and school system overload, resulting in a
decrease in the effectiveness of reforms. In making decisions, school leaders must ensure that the
system and the people within it do not become overwhelmed. In doing so, a school leader needs
to draw on his or her experience and knowledge of the school context and be able to anticipate
opportunities and potential problems, to make decisions, to problem-solve, and to align people
and resources to enable change.
The interpretation of the purposes of schooling found in historical and current legislation
of Alberta suggests that more recently lawmakers wish to explicitly state the direction and
legislated purposes of schooling. Until recently, legislation in regard to the purposes of schooling
continued to focus on the community, societal values, a commitment to publicly funded schools,
and minority language and denominational rights. The Alberta Education Act of 2012 represents
a significant shift in aligning the beliefs and practices of teaching and learning toward the
emerging moment of systemic sustainability education. The purpose of schooling within
legislation seems to be a deliberate shift of the webs of association (System 2) with the
expectation that the associated clusters of habits/practices (System 1) will be followed through
by schools.
Against the backdrop of this paradigm shift, school leaders are tasked with negotiating
differing stakeholder agendas while solving complex problems. To be effective, school leaders
must develop skills in synthesizing competing tendencies—going beyond the fragments to see
the unifying possibilities (Robinson, 2011). And they must also deal with the unexpected
challenges and opportunities, the frustrations, and the loneliness inherent within the position.
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The expectations for today’s school leaders have never been more ambitious, yet six
study participants believe passionately in leading educational change that would make a
difference in students’ lives. Through the interpretations of the interview texts, the participants
used similar strategies that were consistent with the literature on effective practices in
implementing school change but as shown within the three portraits of school leaders, there were
differences in beliefs and practices of teaching and learning. So with the multitude of
responsibilities within the role, how can school leaders manage to navigate and respond to shifts
in policy, be contextually literate, and be attentive to research evidence?
The dual process theory analogy suggests that when deep understanding aligns with
enacted practices, school leaders have a greater ability to change how a school sees, thinks, and
acts. But few, if any, school leaders can be great at all aspects of their position. The findings and
the review of the literature suggest the following strategies in supporting school leaders in
aligning their understanding with their enacted practices to make decisions that will best meet the
needs of the school:
a)
Know yourself. A school leader should have a clear understanding of his or her
own strengths and weaknesses (Huber, 2004). Know what’s important, know your core beliefs
and how they fit with the school and jurisdiction. Acknowledging and having confidence in his
or her own strengths is important in building relational trust with staff, parents, and students. In
acknowledging areas of challenge such as the following example, a school leader, especially a
new one, can proactively plan to address the issues by scheduling time or working with a mentor:
I think the easier part of this job is responding to emails. The harder part of the job is being in
the classroom, being the instructional leader. So maybe I’m kind of pushing that off and not even
totally being truthful with myself about that because it is the harder part of the work.
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b)
Know your school. One of the greatest assets the school leader can have is the
ability to take in the landscape of the school and the community and really absorb it. School
leaders who promote improved student achievement adapt to context in order to maximize the
strengths of the school and its community and approach their organizations from a strengthsbased perspective in that they see the best in people and situations (Hitt & Tucker, 2015). You
need to be the leader that your school or your community needs you to be. By knowing
themselves and their staff and students, school leaders can be deliberately-but-sensitively
disruptive. Through the disruption of the status quo in such a way to lead to positive change,
such as a timely reminder or an appropriate challenge, school leaders can support staff and
students in thinking and acting differently.
c)
Continue learning with your staff. Like learning. We learn in the company of
others. A leader who learns alongside his or her faculty strengthens the leader’s pedagogical
knowledge as well teacher perceptions of the leader’s credibility as an instructional leader. This
modelling may also communicate the importance of learning and intellectual stimulation for all,
regardless of role and position (Hitt & Tucker, 2015).
d)
Delegate. It is important to provide opportunities for people to become leaders. In
making decisions regarding delegation, a school leader must decide what can be delegated and
when it is important to retain the lead. Delegation can be difficult: it relies on trust, it speaks to
self-worth, and it requires a deep understanding of school context. For example, delegation of the
allocation of nonhuman resources may be appropriate in some schools, but in schools where the
distribution of resources is contentious, it may be more appropriate for the school leader to lead
this responsibility and explore other areas for delegation. It took me a long time to figure out,
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that is that I don’t have to have all solutions. In fact I’ve realized that I actually have very few
solutions, but I can facilitate the conversations that will lead to those solutions.
One thing that many people are surprised to hear given my background is that I’m not
exceptionally good in an emergency. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, I have
experienced many different types of emergencies and through much practice have become
better in effectively responding to them. But when a new type of emergency strikes, I do not
respond well.
As a new administrator, I received a valuable piece of advice that I believe extends to
all aspects of leadership. When discussing my issues with handling emergencies, a director of
emergency services asserted that it was more important to find colleagues who would be able
to remain calm in an emergency situation and support them in effectively responding to the
situation, ensuring safety of staff and students is paramount. Personally, I find delegation in
my areas of strength is relatively easy as I know that if need be, I can step in and resolve any
problems. Delegation in areas of challenge is much more difficult, and I have discovered that
I need to ensure contingency plans are in place.
e)
Mentor new leaders and network with colleagues. It’s lonely but you’re not alone.
Fullan (2014) suggested that one of the keys for a principal to maximize impact is to build
networks and partnerships. As part of a network, a school leader can access new ideas and
supports. Mentoring new leaders can act as a catalyst for professional growth of an experienced
leader by inspiring him or her to reach further or by challenging long held beliefs.
Further Research
The findings of this study may be of interest to school leaders, jurisdictional leaders,
policy makers, and educational researchers. School leaders may find the dual process theory
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analogy combined with the change practices of other school leaders helpful as a focus for
reflection of their practice. A school leader can use the analogy to frame deliberate decisionmaking in determining the direction of the school and the school stakeholders who could be
involved.
Jurisdictional leaders and policy makers may be interested in this study as it highlights
the need for time and resources for new and practicing school leaders to ensure deep
understanding of desired practices and the purposes of schools identified in recent legislation and
within the district. Further, this study speaks to the importance of mentoring new school leaders
in how to focus attention and resources amid multiple agendas.
Although this research has focused on schools, I contend that applying the dual process
theory analogy to other organizations, such as post-secondary institutions or school jurisdictions,
would provide further understanding of the use of the analogy in examining complex educational
systems.
Learning and learning communities exist “in a fast-moving, knowledge-driven world of
innovation and creativity” (Hargreaves, 2009, p. 1). Efforts attempting to prepare students for
their future in an ever-changing world has created an exciting time for people immersed in
educational research. Over the past several decades, teachers and researchers in Alberta came
together through the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI) in a bold effort to improve
student learning (Hargreaves, 2009). As a project leader of the initial cycle of AISI, I had the
experience of watching idealistic possibilities become hard and wonderful actualities. For many
educators in Alberta, this era shifted our understanding of “what educational research was” and
“who it was for”. Research started to be seen as an accessible, important and constant part of
understanding and expanding the role of an educator. Through the opportunity of living in that
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time and space, I expanded my view of myself from a person who read and applied research
findings to a person who also wanted to be a part of the research process. In doing so, I
discovered that the research process does not end with a report, a dissertation, or a degree but
rather the movement of understanding continues.
Thus the movement of understanding is constantly from the whole to the part and back to
the whole. Our task is to expand the unity of the understood meaning centrifugally. The
harmony of all the details with the whole is the criterion of correct understanding.
(Gadamer, 1960/1995, p. 291)
In coming to understand how school leaders orient their schools in times of change,
further research possibilities emerged. The current study presented findings from the perception
of the school leader. Expanding the research sample to include staff, students, and other
stakeholders would provide further insight of the perceptions of the school collective (System 1).
Although represented visually within this study as a consistent form, the collective culture
consists of individuals with different experiences, skills, and beliefs. Understanding how the
individuals negotiate with their counterparts within the collective would provide a deeper
understanding of the school as a learning organization and how a school leader will choose to
orient the school. For example, how do the decisions a school leader chooses to make regarding a
staff member who may be antagonistic toward school change affect the school culture? In the
example shown in Figure 20, the teacher may have an embodied practice that is more aligned
with more recent moments in education than the school leader.
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Legend
Standardized
Education
Authentic
Education
Democratic Citizenship
Education
Systemic Sustainability
Education
S2
S1
LEADER
S2
S1
SCHOOL
Figure 20. Two modes of thinking of dual process theory within the individual and the collective
when a teacher may have an embodied practice that is more aligned with more recent moments
in education than the school leader.
Further, in a large urban centre, a number of new schools are opening allowing school
leaders to “create” a culture. The decisions the school leaders choose to make regarding selecting
of staff, the prioritizing of initiatives, and setting the tone would provide insight into how school
leaders’ understanding of the purposes of schooling is embodied in practice. As shown in Figure
21, the school culture is developing and investigating the impact of the school leader as
consciousness of the collective has on its development would provide policy makers and
jurisdictional leaders with insight in creating new school environments.
Legend
S2
S1
LEADER
S2
S1
SCHOOL
Standardized
Education
Authentic
Education
Democratic Citizenship
Education
Systemic Sustainability
Education
Figure 21. Two modes of thinking of dual process theory within the individual and the collective
for a new school.
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Research questions investigating the relationship between the school collective and the
consciousness overlaid on the dual process theory analogy may provide insights into the
complexity of schools as learning systems. Within the cognitive science literature, there is debate
on how these two modes are related (Stanovich & West, 2000). In Kahneman’s “psychodrama
with two characters,” (2011, p. 31) System 2 is a supporting character who believes herself to be
the hero but the thoughts and actions that it has chosen are often guided by the figure at the
centre of the story, System 1. Stanovich and West’s view assumes that the analytic mode, System
2, is superior to the intuitive one, System 1 (Frisch, 2000).
Further understanding regarding the relationship between the school leader as the
consciousness of the school collective and the collective, both as individuals and as a whole,
would provide insight into effective change strategies. For example, in recent studies of Alberta
teachers, respondents felt as though their input, both individually and collectively as a
profession, was not valued in decision-making at the provincial, board, and school levels
(Alberta Teachers’ Association, 2015). If the collective as a whole feel that they have a lack of
autonomy in decisions in which they feel they should be participating, the decisions made by the
school leader may be less effective than if they were part of the decision-making process.
All of the school leaders in the study viewed the direction of their schools as in alignment
with the Alberta Education Act of 2012. The Purposes of Schooling framework may be a useful
tool in examining the purposes of schooling held by the school collective and in doing so, reveal
alignment, or misalignment, with the Act.
Additionally, applying the dual process model to schools that as a collective are strongly
aligned with systemic sustainable education would provide more validity for the use of the model
with schools. For the most part, schooling has been focused on perpetuating a worldview that
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separates ourselves from others and holds humans apart from the natural world (Davis et al.,
2015). But as organic, learning organizations embrace the shifting cultural landscapes, rapidly
evolving technologies and an expanding consciousness, will they continue to operate through the
network of associations that link circumstances, events, actions and outcomes that co-occur with
some regularity. Or, as a colleague postulated, will the rapidly evolving world in which they
operate generate a new System that requires decisions to be made in ways that are still beyond
our current imaginings.
Acting Differently
At the time of concluding this dissertation, 2,500 top business leaders, international
political leaders, intellectuals, and journalists came together at the World Economic Forum
Annual Meeting 2016 to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world (World Economic
Forum, 2016). An overarching message echoed throughout the deliberations:
We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way
we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the
transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. We do not yet
know just how it will unfold, but one thing is clear: the response to it must be integrated
and comprehensive, involving all stakeholders of the global polity, from the public and
private sectors to academia and civil society. (Schwab, 2016, para. 1)
The fundamental changes that are happening throughout every sector of the global society will
also impact schooling, and educators have a role to play in how it unfolds.
Throughout this dissertation, I have argued that this is the time for school leaders to see
differently, to think differently, and to act differently. These global transformations provide an
opportunity for school leaders to disrupt the mindset entrenched in many schools and orient their
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schools towards a mindset that will prepare students for the challenges of the 21st century. This
will require creating something new through integrating the biological, cognitive, social, cultural,
and ecological dimensions of life. It is an education that engages and is realized in the
possibilities that might arise when diversities are brought in to conversation (Davis et al., 2015).
School leaders must draw on their understanding of the purposes of schooling, experience, and
knowledge of the school context and boldly make decisions, problem-solve, and align people and
resources to enable change. As the consciousness of the school collective, school leaders are
positioned to negotiate the tensions between policy, research, and context and lead change
without creating an environment of too much stuff.
156
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179
Appendix A: Examples of Keyword Identification with School Acts
Example 1--Alberta School Act
WHEREAS the best educational interests of the student are the paramount considerations in the
exercise of any authority under this Act;
WHEREAS parents have a right and a responsibility to make decisions respecting the education
of their children;
WHEREAS there is one publicly funded system of education in Alberta whose primary mandate
is to provide education programs to students through its two dimensions, the public schools
and the separate schools, in such a way that the rights guaranteed under the Constitution of
Canada of separate school electors are preserved and maintained; and
WHEREAS the education community in making decisions should consider the diverse nature
and heritage of society in Alberta within the context of its common values and beliefs; and
Example 1--Nunavut Education Act
Recognizing that public education needs to focus on students, their intellectual development and
their physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual well-being;
Recognizing that a high quality education is important for the development of confident,
responsible and capable individuals who can contribute to Nunavut society;
Believing that learning should be continuous and that all parts of the education system should
work closely together to encourage and support life-long learning, the opportunity for
continued personal development and the pursuit of post-secondary education, training and
employment;
Affirming that all children can learn, that learning is an individual process, and that diverse
learning needs and abilities should be supported in an inclusive education system;
Recognizing that communities should be significantly involved in the education of their children
to reflect local needs and values, that parents have special responsibilities and that Elders
can make important contributions;
Believing that high quality education is necessary for the effective implementation of the
Nunavut Land Claims Agreement and to support Inuit culture;
180
Appendix B: Purposes of Schooling Framework
Table B1
Purposes of Schooling Framework
Learner Development
Integration into community
A. Cognitive/ Academic Development
1 Cognitive development
2 Critical thinking / problem solving
3 Creativity
4 Effective communication skills
5 Literacy
6 Knowledge acquisition
7 Arts participation
8 Student achievement
B. Social Development
1 Social interaction
2 Team collaboration
C. Emotional Development
1 Positive attitudes
2 Ethical morality
3 Joy for learning
4 Life-long learning
5 Self-sufficient
6 Reaching potential
7 Emotional skills
8 Confidence
9 Spiritual development
10 Respect for others
D. Civic Development
1 Productive
2 Responsible
3 Involved in Public service
4 Contributing member of society
5 Leadership and direction
E. Physical Development
1 Physical development
F. Vocational Preparation
1 Competitive in the workplace
2 Marketable skills
3 Training and post-secondary
G. Local Community
1 Promote community
2 Community partners
3 Culture and heritage
H. Society
1 Democratic / civil society
2 Publicly-funded
3 Healthy society
4 Caring society
5 Sustainable / prosperous society
6 Rights: language
7 Rights: denominational
8 Rights: Aboriginal
9 Rights: land
I. Global
1 Appreciate diversity
2 Global awareness
3 Adaptive students
4 Respect for the environment
Learning Environment
K. Safe/ inclusive Learning Environment
1 Safe environment
2 Nurturing environment
3 Person-centred / inclusive environment
L. Student Learning
1 Focus on high quality learning
2 Technologically advanced
3 Focus on providing engaging work
4 Highly qualified faculty
5 Decisions made in the best interests of the child
6 Parental participation in decision-making
7 Student participation in decision-making
181
Ethical
morality
Responsible
Emotional Positive
Develop
attitudes
Productive
Physical
develop
Civic
Develop
Physical
Develop
Vocational Competitive in M arketable
Prep
the workplace skills
C
D
E
F
Provide high
quality
Student
Learning
K
Tech advanced
Person-centred
/ inclusive
Provide
nurturing
environment
Safe
environment
Safe/
inclusive
J
Adaptive
students
Global
awareness
Appreciate
diversity
I Global
Leadership and
direction
Contributing
member of
society
Respect for
environment
Best interests
of the child
Sustainable/
Caring society prosperous
society
Self-sufficient
Literacy
5
Life-long
learning
Effective
comm
4
Highly
Provide
qualified
engaging work
faculty
Healthy
society
Publiclyfunded
Democratic
/civil society
H Society
Culture and
Heritage
Community
partners
Promote
community
G Local
Training and
postsecondary
Public service
Joy for
learning
Team
collaboration
Social
Develop
B
Social
interaction
Critical
thinking / prob Creativity
solving
3
Foster
Cognitive/
cognitive
Academic
develop
2
A
1
Moments of Formal Education overlaid on the Purposes of S chooling Framework
Parental
participation
Rights:
language
Reach
potential
Acquire
knowledge
6
Student
participation
Rights:
denomin
Emotional
skills
Participate in
the arts
7
Standardized
Rights:
aboriginal
Promote
confidence
Improve
student
achievement
8
Authentic
Rights: land
Spiritual
develop
9
Democratic
Citizenship
Respect for
others
10
Systemic
Sustainable
Appendix C: Four Moments of Formal Education Compared with the Purposes of Schooling Framework
Four Moments of Formal Education Compared with the Purposes of Schooling Framework
Table C1
Learner Development
Integration into
community
Learning
Environment
182
Appendix D: Interview Participant Questions
1. Tell me about your school and community.
2. What has been occupying your time today and this week?
3. What initiatives or special events have been happening in your school this year?
4. How were they chosen? And why?
5. Were there initiatives or special events that your school had the opportunity to include
but chose not to? Why or why not?
6. What do you think students need to learn in school?
7. What is your understanding of Inspiring Education and the new Alberta Education Act?
8. What impact do you think it will have on students and teachers five years from now?
9. How would you describe your leadership style?
10. What are some of the accomplishments that you have been particularly proud of since
becoming a school leader?
11. What are some of the challenges that you have had found frustrating since becoming a
school leader? How did you address them?
12. Principals are often tasked with many responsibilities. What approach do you use to deal
with the multitude of responsibilities that need to be dealt with?
13. What is your approach to supporting staff and students in handling the multitude of things
that come their way? The “too much stuff” of schooling.
14. What would you like to tell new school leaders about implementing significant change
within a school?
183
Appendix E: Keyword Coding of Alberta Education Act, 2012 and Alberta School Act, 2000
Table 4
Keyword Coding of Alberta Education Act of 2012 and Alberta School Act of 2000
Legend
Included in the preamble of the Alberta Education
Included in the preamble of the Alberta Education
Act, 2012
Act, 2012
Included in the full text of the Alberta Education
Act, 2012 but not in the preamble
Included in the full text of the Alberta School
Act, 2000 but not in the preamble
Alberta Education Act of 2012
abilities
aboriginal peoples
adaptability
aesthetic potential
animals
arts
aspirations
attitudes
belonging
best interest of the child
Canadian Charter of Rights
capable
caring
challenging
choice
citizen
civil
Cognitive Development
collaborative
communication
community (partners in d-m)
Compassionate
confident
Constitution
Contributing member of society
creative
critical thinker
Culture
decision-making
democratic
denominational education
Alberta School Act of 2000
abilities
aboriginal peoples
adaptability
aesthetic potential
animals
aspirations
attitudes
belonging
best interest of the child
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
capable
caring
challenging
choice (learning opportunities)
citizen
civil
Cognitive Development
Collaborative
communication
community (partners in d-m)
Compassionate
confident
Constitution
Contributing member
creative
critical thinker
Culture
decision-making
democratic
denominational education
(continued)
184
Table E1 (continued)
Legend
Included in the preamble of the Alberta Education
Act, 2012
Included in the preamble of the Alberta Education
Act, 2012
Alberta Education Act of 2012
diligent
diverse (nature and heritage)
diversity (of people)
elders
emotional development
engaged thinkers
engaging environment
equitable
ethical
Fair
First Nations, Metis, Inuit
focus on students
fulfilled (personally
future (of society/province)
Global Awareness
heritage
high quality education
high quality faculty
high standards
inclusive environment
individual process
innovative
intellectual development
knowledge
land rights
language rights
learning opportunities
lifelong learning
literate
love of learning
minority rights
multicultural heritage
nature (environment)
needs (students)
nurturing environment
orderly (environment)
orderly (student)
Parental participation
partner (community)
Alberta School Act of 2000
diligent
diversity (of people)
diverse (nature and heritage)
elders
emotional development
engaged thinkers
engaging environment
equitable
ethical
Fair
First Nations, Metis and Inuit students
focus on students/student centred
fulfilled (personally
future (of society/province)
Global Awareness
heritage
high quality education
high quality faculty
high standards
inclusive environment
individual process
innovative
intellectual development
knowledge
land rights
language rights
learning opportunities
lifelong learning
literate
love of learning
minority rights
multi-cultural heritage
nature (environment)
needs (student)
nurturing environment
orderly (environment)
orderly (student)
Parental participation
partner (community)
(continued)
185
Table E1 (continued)
Legend
Included in the preamble of the Alberta Education
Act, 2012
Included in the preamble of the Alberta Education
Act, 2012
Alberta Education Act of 2012
partner (student as a)
personal development
physical development
pluralistic
positive attitudes
positive school environment
post-secondary education
potential
problem-solving
Productive
prosperous society
publicly funded
publicly useful (students)
Religious education
resiliency
resourceful
respect (students)
respectful (environment)
responsible
rights
risk-taking
Safe (environment)
Skills (student)
social development
student achievement
student leadership
success
sustainable
talent
teamwork
Technologically advanced
thinkers
training
values and beliefs
welcoming
well-being
workforce
Alberta School Act of 2000
partner (student as a)
personal development
physical development
pluralistic
positive attitudes
positive school environment
post-secondary education
potential
problem-solving
Productive
prosperous society
publicly funded
publicly useful (students)
Religious (education / environment)
resiliency
resourceful
respect (students)
respectful (environment)
responsible
rights
risk-taking
Safe (environment)
Skills (student)
social development/engaging
student achievement
student leadership
success
sustainable
talent
teamwork
Technologically advanced
thinkers
training
values and beliefs (common)
welcoming
well-being
workforce
Team
collaboration
Critical thinking
2
Productive
Safe/ inclusive
K Learning Context
J
H Global
Provide high
quality
Safe environment
Adaptive
students
Appreciate
diversity
Tech advanced
Respect for
environment
Rights: language
Reach potential
Acquire
knowledge
6
Best interests of Parental
the child
participation
Sustainable/
prosperous
society
Leadership and
direction
Contributing
member of
society
Caring society
Self-sufficient/
discipline
Literacy
5
Life-long learning
Effective comm
4
Provide engaging Highly qualified
work
faculty
Provide nurturing Person-centred /
environment
inclusive
Global awareness
Healthy society
Culture and
Heritage
Training and postsecondary
Public service
Joy for learning
Creativity
3
Democratic /civil
Publicly-funded
society
Community
partners
Promote
community
G Local
Society
M arketable skills
Competitive in
the workplace
F Vocational Prep
Responsible
Positive attitudes Ethical morality
E Physical Develop Physical develop
D Civic Develop
C
Emotional
Develop
Social interaction
B Social Develop
A
Foster cognitive
develop
1
Cognitive/
Academic
Alberta School Act, 2000
8
Student
participation
Rights: denomin
Emotional skills
Spiritual develop
Rights: aboriginal Rights: land
Promote
confidence
Participate in the Improve student
arts
achievement
7
Purposes of Schooling Framework for the Alberta School Act of 2000 and the Alberta Education Act of 2012
9
Respect for
others
10
Appendix F: Purposes of Schooling Framework for the Alberta School Act of 2000 and the Alberta Education Act of 2012
Table 5
Learner Development
Integration into community
Learning
Environment
186
Productive
Team
collaboration
Adaptive
students
Appreciate
diversity
I
Safe environment
Provide high
quality
K Safe/ inclusive
L Student Learning
Tech advanced
Literacy
5
Respect for
environment
Caring society
Contributing
member of
society
Rights: language
Reach potential
Acquire
knowledge
6
Best interests of Parental
the child
participation
Sustainable/
prosperous
society
Leadership and
direction
Life-long learning Self-sufficient
Effective comm
4
Provide engaging Highly qualified
work
faculty
Provide nurturing Person-centred /
environment
inclusive
Global awareness
Democratic /civil
Publicly-funded
society
H Society
Global
Healthy society
Community
partners
Promote
community
G Local
Culture and
Heritage
M arketable skills
Training and postsecondary
Public service
Competitive in
the workplace
Responsible
Joy for learning
F Vocational Prep
E Physical Develop Physical develop
D Civic Develop
C
3
Critical thinking /
Creativity
prob solving
2
Positive attitudes Ethical morality
Social interaction
B Social Develop
Emotional
Develop
Foster cognitive
develop
A
Cognitive/
Academic
1
Alberta Education Act (2013)
Table F1 (continued)
Learner Development
Integration into
community
Learning
Environment
8
Student
participation
Rights: denomin
Emotional skills
Spiritual develop
9
Rights: aboriginal Rights: land
Promote
confidence
Participate in the Improve student
arts
achievement
7
Respect for
others
10
(continued)
187
1
Competitive
Vocational
M arketable
in the
Prep
skills
workplace
F
Safe/
inclusive
Student
Learning
J
K
H Global
Society
Adaptive
students
Appreciate
diversity
Provide
PersonSafe
nurturing
centred /
environment
environment inclusive
Provide
Provide high Tech
engaging
quality
advanced
work
Global
awareness
Healthy
society
Culture and
Heritage
Training and
postsecondary
Highly
qualified
faculty
Respect for
environment
Caring
society
Best
interests of
the child
Sustainable/
prosperous
society
Contributing
Democratic
member of
underst
society
Public
service
Selfsufficient/
discipline
Literacy
5
Life-long
learning
Effective
comm
4
Joy for
learning
Creativity
3
Democratic Publicly/civil society funded
Community
partners
Physical
develop
Physical
Develop
E
Promote
community
Responsible
Productive
Civic
Develop
D
G Local
Ethical
morality
Emotional Positive
Develop
attitudes
Team
collaboration
C
Social
interaction
Social
Develop
Critical
thinking
2
B
Foster
Cognitive/
cognitive
A
Academic
develop
8
Rights:
denomin
Emotional
skills
Rights:
aboriginal
Promote
confidence
Improve
Participate in
student
the arts
achievement
7
Parental
Student
participation participation
Rights:
language
Leadership
and direction
Reach
potential
Acquire
knowledge
6
Standardized Authentic
Rights: land
Spiritual
develop
9
Democratic
Citizenship
Appendix G: Moments of Formal Education Analysis of the Alberta School Act of 2000
Alberta S chool Act, 2000
Learner Development
Integration into
community
Learning
Environment
Respect for
others
10
Systemic
Sustainable
188
1
3
Safe/
inclusive
Student
Learning
K
L
Adaptive
students
Appreciate
diversity
I Global
Provide
PersonSafe
nurturing
centred /
environment
environment inclusive
Provide
Provide high Tech
engaging
quality
advanced
work
Global
awareness
Healthy
society
Democratic Publicly/civil society funded
Culture and
Heritage
Training and
postsecondary
H Society
Competitive
Vocational
M arketable
in the
Prep
skills
workplace
F
Community
partners
Physical
develop
Physical
Develop
E
Highly
qualified
faculty
Respect for
environment
Caring
society
Best
interests of
the child
Sustainable/
prosperous
society
Contributing
Leadership
member of
and direction
society
Public
service
Promote
community
Responsible
Productive
Civic
Develop
D
Selfsufficient
Literacy
5
Life-long
learning
Effective
comm
4
Joy for
learning
G Local
Ethical
morality
Emotional Positive
Develop
attitudes
C
Team
collaboration
Social
Develop
Social
interaction
2
Critical
thinking /
Creativity
prob solving
B
Foster
Cognitive/
cognitive
A
Academic
develop
8
Rights:
denomin
Emotional
skills
Rights:
aboriginal
Promote
confidence
Improve
Participate in
student
the arts
achievement
7
Parental
Student
participation participation
Rights:
language
Reach
potential
Acquire
knowledge
6
Standardized Authentic
Rights: land
Spiritual
develop
9
Democratic
Citizenship
Appendix H: Moments of Formal Education Analysis of the Alberta Education Act of 2012
Alberta Education Act, 2013
Learner Development
Integration into
community
Learning
Environment
Respect for
others
10
Systemic
Sustainable
189
190
Appendix I: Copyright Permissions