Preliminary Thoughts
Anja Becker cruised through the high school’s second-floor science wing. Anja was in her second year as principal and was thinking about the time and effort required for her school to comply with the new division directive. After adjusting the agenda for the staff meeting, she visited each teacher in their classroom. She wanted to ensure that her colleagues had time to make sense of how the new mid-year grading protocol would immediately affect teaching practice. Anja knew that the news would be met with frustration. As she left Neil’s biology class his words rung angrily in her head; “Anja, it would be nice if the superintendent directed us to chat about something that actually affected student growth and learning.” Anja couldn’t help but worry how the staff meeting would go. Her thought was interrupted by Kelly the school caretaker who was exiting the student washroom. “Graffiti again,” Kelly said on the way to get cleaning supplies. Anja walked into the washroom to see, written in black sharpie on the bathroom mirror, the phrase “if you are not questioning the system, you are the system,” but the second “the system” was crossed out and replaced with “you are a zombie of the system.”
If you are not questioning the system, you are a zombie of the system.
Introduction
As a long-time principal, I was acutely aware of moments when I wondered how, or even why, I would help translate outside of school directives into meaningful inside of classroom practice. Admittedly, I often questioned if the initiative might actually inhibit student or staff learning. Introduction of these directives often left school folks feeling frustrated because decisions were being made from a perspective a long way off from actual practice. “How would they have any idea what we need?” my colleagues would ask me. There were times that I simply could not justify the change and instead dutifully shared the directive as a simple part of the job; “let’s get this done and move on.” In those moments I felt a little less me. Leading for compliance did not align with my own “why” of leadership. I closed off my educator’s filter and simply just did what I was asked, because that was my job. As my career lengthened those moments became easier to handle. The graffiti anecdote illuminates the idea that any system influences our behaviour, energy levels, and decision-making. This is true of the school system and ultimately true of the principalship.
The Principalship
“They have changed since becoming the principal,” is a commonly stated about new school leaders. Grading, professional codes of behaviour, discipline, hierarchy, and society, all shape leaders and leader behaviour. When new to the principalship, it is amazing the things that become important which in the past barely got noticed. Parent satisfaction, teacher communication, school achievement reports, opinions highlighted in media, and annual assurance plans take on new meaning. Colleagues notice the change of focus.
I have come to understand that nearly every principal has a story about how their perceptions of education and schooling changed during the first months of the role. Principals begin their career wanting to focus their leadership on the “important things.” Learning, enlivened professional communities, and high expectations for growth are often origin starting points, but discipline, organization, and management begin to creep into a principals’ everyday work. Being a leader necessitates “big picture” thinking, accounting for the visions of system stakeholders (government, parents, businesses) while balancing the realities inside the school (Butt & Olson, 1985). Accounting for the big picture is not only seductive, but teachers who become principals often feel ill-prepared for how the big picture can change what and how they perceive schooling. For example, a person new to the role is thrust into having to make decisions through the filter of concepts like accountability and compliance, where colleagues are all of a sudden depicted as people who need to grow and develop. New principals are taught that classroom visits are integral to increase “academic press” and they are expected to supervise and evaluate colleagues which can feel more like school surveillance than nurturing a growth mindset. The new principal is influenced by the norms of many management models which situate them as the knower and the rest of the school as people who need to go from not knowing to knowing better. The principal is often the person who hears first about new initiatives and required changes and this knowledge from the outside has an effect.
Hegemonic Influence
In schools the influence of the hegemony (society’s dominant way of thinking) is present. Under effective school management, practice focuses on austerity, acceptable behaviour, and knowing expectations to meet common educational standards. However, more recently, outside-the-school stakeholders have begun to view the school as a site to meet their needs. Parents, school division offices, politicians, and media have readily and easily put pressure on school leaders to respond to their perceived needs muddying the view of what schooling is really about (Biesta, 2023). In the field of education, good practice leads to meeting professional standards and public expectations for schools within a community (Alberta Education, 2023). Unfortunately, this definition of “good practice” can mean that the principal focuses less on the idea that teachers and students ARE the education system and instead views them as characters in need of constant improvement.
Schools as Places to Fix: They Should Learn to do Their Taxes
Search Google for “schools these days” and the millions of hits highlight one general theme; outsiders to the school think something needs to be addressed, fixed, or changed. As the intermediary between outsider influence and the reality of day-to-day action in the school, principals are required to interpret and translate hopes and expectations into realities. This creates a challenge for principals. “They should learn to do taxes,” is proudly weaponized as if this one outcome might be the Rosetta Stone of public education. “They should teach about cell phone safety,” (as if these things are not done). A principal can become numb (never mind disillusioned) when trying to navigate such a system.
Recently, it is also easy for leaders of learning to get lost in the post-pandemic narrative of trying to rescue students from a “learning loss” place of deficit, to the place where they “should” be, where should is defined by a utopian pre-pandemic standard, rather than by what is best now. While principals are charged to see the big picture, their main role is to support people in the action of learning (Timperley, 2011; Wood, 2023). This can cause tension when their distance from classroom practice and lack of direct control of outside initiatives, can lead to objectifying the work of students and colleagues.
Objectification
“How are we going to get these kids to grade level?” or “How am I going to get these teachers to buy into the new initiative?” Seeing people simply as objects to move from not knowing to knowing is a common leadership pressure and a sign that the system zombie fungus might be present (plant tongue firmly in cheek). Objectifying teachers and students can cause the principal to lose sight of their main purpose in the story of education (Langer, 2016). A learning-focused environment places the learner, (whether a student or educator), as the central figure rather than an object to be moved. When the leader’s focus is on student learning (as an action not an outcome) and the object is the curriculum, the school becomes more aligned with notions of education (Dweck, 2008; Harris & Jones, 2021; Langer, 2016). Conversely, when blind adherence to curriculum or the standards becomes the first focal point, and the student or teacher becomes an obligation to move from “don’t know” to “know,” the principal feels the effects. We principals do not plan to undergo this zombification process. We instead, seek to bring life to our school communities (Cherkowski, 2016). But the pressure to meet outcomes efficiently and effectively can lead to objectifying.
Efficiency and Effectiveness
It is easy for a principal to be influenced by austerity bias that can shape their behaviour and usefulness. We hardly even question the value of determining effective and efficient use of scheduling and resources, even in education when learning often takes its own sweet time. To make ideas meaningful, time is required for in-school educators to translate out-of-school initiatives. But this time and space is often hindered by cultural norms where professional “down-time” can be perceived as leisure time, rather than time to make meaning stick. Leaders focused on effectiveness and efficiency can create conditions that stifle the learning community; the opposite of what principals want for their schools. In my practice I fell into this trap by saying things like “let’s not waste time here folks. It’s been a long week. Let’s get to it and wrap it up.” There is, then, a need to consider how principals can ensure that a day in school brings life, nurtures the joy of learning, and meets expectations (Brown & Moffat, 1999; Wood, 2023). Let’s start with recognizing zombification.
Zombification
The HBO series The Last of Us (Mazin & Druckmann, 2023–present) depicts zombies as creatures who become, as the result of a fungal infection, devoid of the joy and love relished by the living. The process of zombification takes hold quickly, altering the victims’ behaviours so that what was once essential to them is disregarded. The result is a deadened existence where zombies seek to simply feed (sorry for that image) rather than to thrive. Such a mindless state depicts people simply as useful and admittedly frustrating objects, who do not align with the non-thinking, non-caring desires of the zombie.
The education system is an arrangement of policies and standards that regulate educational experiences. Students and staff learn under common conditions that, theoretically, ensure effective and efficient growth and achievement (Deal & Peterson, 2016). These normal expectations can minimize the value of the individual learner’s needs and hopes. Even our Pollyanna-esque expectation that students and educators thrive regardless of the conditions in the local community, breeds a sort of discounting of the individual’s ownness. While standards of practice are arguably needed to ensure that each student’s given situation does not limit their own chance of success, unthinking adherence to outside the school processes and standards can result in the objectification of students (Langer, 2016).
The Principal as a Learner: An Antidote to Zombification
Being a learner means being aware in this moment. A mindset to notice novelty (Langer, 2016)- rather than “I know this already” -can open a leader to listen, see, value others, and co-create solutions. I am involved in a study of 10 school-based leaders (2024) who are bringing ‘learning to the front of mind” during daily practice, and early reports are that when this happens, leaders feel in the moment with their work and colleagues. Being in the moment with others can nurture life, the aha experience, and just might keep at bay the fog of zombification. The principal is challenged by the sentiment “just give me an answer and tell me what you want,” when outside the school expectations are valued over inside the school expertise. This can wedge leaders into knowing this already. Being in a space of I don’t need to learn here places the leader in the realm of being a knower. You guess what happens to those who dwell in I know this already!
Zombification of the principal begins as we take steps away from our own genuine reason for entering educational leadership. Ask a principal why they tried leadership, and I am confident that they will respond with something like, “I wanted to make a difference to help our community learn in all the best ways.” They may add that they worked for a leader who valued learning and people, and wanted to do the same. Once in the principal’s chair however, so many competing expectations begin to cloud the naïve “leading wholly for learning” philosophy and zombification sets in.
Individuals’ specific experiences, biases, and perspectives give them unique interpretations of the world (Gadamer, 2004). Educational leadership grounded in the minute-by-minute action of learning deepens empathy for the challenge it is to genuinely be a learner (Wood, 2023). Being in the learning world while making decisions for the optimal development of students provides the viewpoint necessary to lead growth (Fullan & Quinn, 2016) in a system geared towards efficient achievement of outcomes. Being open to learn from novel or mundane moments is, then, a key aspect of leading learning.
Conclusion
The metaphor of zombification is utilized here as a tool to support ethical principal practice to protect and enrich the people working in school leadership and those that they serve. It should not be viewed as a rallying cry against standards, but rather as a hope that people be considered as the reason for standards. The metaphor provides a way to recognize that the realities of school leadership can inform us of the need to be a leader of learning. The primary purpose of school leaders is to nurture a setting suitable for learning (Timperley, 2011; Wood, 2022), yet the system seems to get in the way of supporting that action. To resist, the principal has to play a fundamental role in maintaining the learning community (Bae, 2018); as the saying goes, if the principal sneezes, the school catches a cold (Whitaker, 2012). Modelling the process of being a learner will not only highlight the practice, but also ensure that leaders remain tuned towards growth and development as they translate the desires of the system. Starting here, to truly bring the action of learning to the front of mind, just may help principals stay grounded in the reason that they got into this gig.
Dr. Kevin Wood works and lives under the shadow of the Rocky Mountains on Siksikaitsitapi Confederacy Land. He is a presenter, speaker, and educational consultant grounded in his experiences as a former public-school teacher and principal. Kevin works as an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Lethbridge researching leadership and learning.
Kevin can be contacted at k.wood@uleth.ca or woodconsultation@gmail.com
References
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