0.4 The art of successful school-based management  (Page 29/36)

Watch a child enter a classroom for the first time and one can see real stress. Observe a middle school student“fumble”with the combination on a locker and one will see frustration and sadness. Consider the novice teacher after hisfirst day teaching and one will see exhaustion. And then watch a new principal conduct her first conference with angry parents of aspecial needs child. She looks all over the desk for the child’s folder (that is right in front of her) and then becomes embarrassedwhen the parents point it out to her! Signs of stress again!

Everything we do involves some level of stress. We wake up with it. We live with it during the day. Andthen we try to sleep in spite of it. About the only way we can avoid stress is to do nothing, engage no one, and think of no newideas. But it is Mark Twain who reminds us that the most tiring thing to do is nothing because we can never stop to rest!

If we can assume for a moment that stress is a necessary part of the school leader’s life, that it is in fact a central fabric of the schooling process then we can begin theprocess of embracing the energy that comes with stress and thereupon help students learn, teachers teach, and principals lead.Addressing stress for leaders in schools today, let us consider three questions:

• What are the possible consequences of stress on leadership style?
• In what ways can stress affect morale and productivity among principals and teachers?
• What are some possible strategies for helping principals and teachers manage change, and its accompanying stress, so that theycan support learning amidst difficult times?

In a recent article, Jerry Patterson and Kelehear (2003) acknowledged that leaders create culture and thatthey have a responsibility to change it. When leaders are in a high state of stress, their leadership styles necessarily create aculture that is under stress as well. Schools that function in an atmosphere of unmanaged stress regularly begin to be dysfunctionaland unhealthy. Teacher attitude and morale deteriorate. Leadership and teachers cease communicating. Students feel ignored and unsafe.The whole place becomes“tired,”filled with frustrated and angry teachers and students.

School cultures in tough times, like the people in them, lose the ability to reflect and self-evaluate. Thenegative energy associated with stress creates“blind spots”so that what is clear to an outsider is ignored, or at least notnoticed, by those inside the culture. When the leadership’s stress begins to change, however, then the school culture reflects thatshift. People are more open to critique. They communicate more often and more accurately. Teachers and principals pay attention tostudent needs more easily. Leadership absolutely affects a school’s sense of wellbeing and efficacy.

It does not take us long to recognize the source of much of the stress that many principals and teachersface. Given the various calls to address safety, overcrowding, drugs, gangs, low teacher pay, teacher retention, schools’personnel can feel overwhelmed. Add to that stress the competing demands of increasing assessments and reporting in a world ofdecreasing funding, and we begin to see a prescription for emotional, professional, and economic collapse. Specifically,consider the pressure many principals and teachers are under as they try to come to terms with being“highly qualified”and achieving“adequate yearly progress”(AYP) coming from the federal mandate,“NCLB.”These are not easy times for schools. Leadership style, school culture, teacher morale, and student performance allsuffer in a community where tensions are high and emotional support is low. Uncontrolled, unidentified stress can drain the life-bloodof even the best schools.