What do school or university principals dream of? What made them decide to take on the responsibility of the position is often not the salary or working conditions but rather the opportunity to steer the development of the institution toward a particular vision, which they have adopted or developed through their experience, or which they represent in the eyes of those who chose them.
Educational institutions most often have several dozen or hundreds of teachers and almost as many support people. Coordinating all these people and guiding their actions through a shared vision is one of the school administrator's greatest challenges. The functions of the institution go far beyond the mere transmission of knowledge: daycare, food, extracurricular activities, guidance, accommodation, finances, equipment, public relations, personal support, transportation, hygiene, etc. Essentially, it's about keeping teachers and staff motivated and involved to deal with every possible situation, with the necessary confidence and creativity.
Creativity? We know that the most successful institutions enjoy a great deal of administrative autonomy, but that ministerial, administrative, financial, regulatory, health and other constraints systematically eat away and undermine the spaces of autonomy left to administrators, where they can exercise their decision-making power. This tendency to control has a chilling effect on their motivation and drives away the most dynamic and innovative candidates. Yet one of the most obvious ways of attracting skills is to provide an open environment in which to exercise them and to reduce arbitrary constraints.
Despite this, the presence of exceptional constraints has been an opportunity for several school principals to demonstrate their ability and creativity to pursue their mission successfully, precisely because the urgency has broken down multiple administrative and political locks. One of the best incentives for principals is the satisfaction of being able to do what they want to do. A well-defined framework and autonomy for the rest is probably a generic dream among school principals. Let's make it happen.
Denys Lamontagne - [email protected]
