On Monoculture
As I spoke with others at our table, I became increasingly uneasy, until finally I realised what was gnawing at me: if all of us (schools, educational leaders, teachers, etc.) were to adopt this tack, wouldn't all schools essentially look the same? Wasn't this an effort to homogenise education? The homogenisation of education is something I've been watching for years.
Hard Facts & Half-Truths: Teacher Observation
One of the pillars of belief in the independent and international school world, a belief shared by most governing boards who rely on school management for an accurate indication of teaching quality in schools, is that the head of school is a skillful, highly-qualified observer of teachers, due to that person’s years of experience in education. It’s not just the head of school, though; it would include division heads, directors of curriculum and instruction, and others—anyone who ever observes teachers in some form of evaluative capacity. The operative cognitive underpinning here is: “They’ll know a good lesson when they see it.”
Leftover Spaces
What if...the pandemic were to force new health and safety regulations that result in a reduction of what the maximum capacity of a space is? What if, instead, we considered what it would mean to measure spaces by their 'ideal capacity,' and what would that look like?
A Marketing Crisis in the Making: Are Schools Prepared?
Consumers are increasingly feeling distrustful—of companies, politics, even the news. They no longer know who or what to believe, and as a result, marketers must perform at the highest levels of integrity to build consumer trust. The ability to achieve this will be a huge differentiator for Quantum Marketers and their brands.
On Subtraction
In a May 2021 panel discussion on reimagining the K-12 educational experience, I proffered that we should consider a new type of leadership, what I termed 'subtractive leadership' at the time. In education, we are absolutely brilliant (and I mean brilliant) at addition. By contrast, we're awful at subtraction. I'm not talking about acumen in mathematics; rather, I'm talking about our propensity to add more and more to the plates of teachers, counselors, coaches, administrators...everyone.