An Ethic of Care and 21st Century Schools

[Before getting into the post itself, I just wanted to thank Scott McLeod for inviting me to be a part of LeaderTalk. As more and more administrators start to blog, it is my hope that this project is able to increase the level of transparency of our schools, open up the discussion about school design and school sustainability, and be a place where educational leaders of all stripes can tackle many of the issues we face as we move our schools into the 21st century.]

As we talk about reforming education and building 21st Century schools, I think it's important not to let all the talk be about the tools or even about project-based learning, but that we take a look at a deeper notion of student-centered schools. In most common usage, the term "student-centered" means that the work of the classroom involves student-ideas, student-passion, student-questions. And that's amazing stuff, but that only begins to really explore what the phrase can mean.

For me, "student-centered" goes beyond what happens on any given project or in any one classroom. It has to speak deeply to the idea that our students' lives are the most important thing at the school. We have to care about who are students are, who they want to be, who they can be. At our school -- the Science Leadership Academy -- the first qualification after "Must have PA certification" is "Applicants must be committed to the idea that we teach students first and our subjects second." That, to me, is the heart of what it means to be student-centered. The best pedagogical writing about this idea that I've ever found is done by Nel Noddings who writes about the ethic of care.

But how do you manifest the ethic of care in a school? Where does it live? For me, it's about creating an Advisory or Family Group class. How do we insure that we see kids as more than just students
of the subject we teach? We build into our schedule a class where we are the curriculum. We build into every teacher's schedule time where they have a group of 15-20 students, not as students of a subject, but as people. And we give that time priority by including it as one of our teachers' preps. And we model how important Advisory is by being advisors ourselves.

The 21st Century school needs more than just technology, and it needs more than classes where student ideas are valued. As our society gets more complex, as the choices confronting our students get harder and harder, our schools must live by the ethic of care, so that every student knows that there are adults who will be her advocate, who will listen and who will value her thoughts, her ideas, who she is, and who she can become.

For those wondering how a school might structure an Advisory curriculum, be sure to look at The Advisory Guide: Designing and Implementing Effective Advisory Programs in Secondary Schools published by Educators for Social Responsibility.

Comments

[Kimberly Moritz]

Great inaugural post Chris! At the end of the year faculty/staff meeting, I lined the halls with our student's names. Every student's name went on a blank sheet of paper that I posted in the hallway. At the end of the meeting, teachers and staff were asked to go into the hallway and to sign their names to the papers of any student with whom they felt they had a connection. This was defined as knowing something about this student outside of the classroom and believing that the student would come to them if needed. At the end of the exercise, we took the students who only had a couple of names and mixed them into small, mentoring homerooms. The best news was that every student paper had someone's name on it. That's an exercise we should do again this year and every year after this one. We're looking at an advisement period next year, in the middle of the day--this is a great way to connect every kid with a caring adult.

[Matt Hillmann]

Thanks for leading us off, Chris! We used a password-protected Zoomerang survey to do the same thing as Kim's school. It allows us to not only make sure the connections are there, but also analyze on a broader level if we are connecting with all students. We have considered turning the tables and having students complete the same survey -- which adults in our school do they have a connection with...we might find some interesting results!

[brian saxton]

Chris,
Great job in starting off this exciting venture. With so much talk around Web 2.0, technology, NCLB, curriculum and everything else it is easy to lose track of what really matters at a school. The students. Connecting with students is what takes a good teacher and makes him/her great. I am excited to visit the link about "advisory" at the secondary level. Currently we do not have an advisory and thus I feel that sometimes our teachers lose track of making those connections. It is so important to remember that the job of working in a school, from custodian, to teacher, to principal is about moving those students forward and connecting to them in a way that transcends the classroom is so very vital.

[Chris Lehmann]

Thanks to everyone for their comments... and Brian, some schools do have everyone from custodian to teacher to principal as advisors. At SLA, I have an advisory, and it isn't hard to see that, in time, our sys admin will, our secretary will. Students can learn from many different people, and we all can learn from them.

[brian saxton]

Chris,
I agree with you in that everyone could/should be an adivsor. Many times I hear kids come back and say, "the custodian was my reason for coming to school, or the office manager really made me smile each day." Sometimes we forget that there are more people out there than the teachers. And some of the time, those peripheral people have the biggest impact on the students.
Brian

[Karalin]

I am a beginning doctoral student in Higher Education Administration. I am looking at conducting a study of female college/university presidents and the Ethic of Care. Does anyone know of an already developed and normed instrument?

Karalin