Icons of Educational Leadership: An Analytical Overview

Icons of Educational Leadership serve as analytical filters based on recurring themes observed in both well-funded and struggling school districts over the past decades. These icons are categorized into three levels: Primary Belief Systems, Secondary Outcomes, and Tertiary Tools  used to control resources and manage pushback.

Primary Beliefs

• Hubris and Fear: Unhealthy hierarchies are often built on hubris and fear. Hubris blinds leaders to criticism and growth, while fear becomes a primary motivator, compromising ethics and silencing voices.  Fear will often become the primary driver in subordinates (especially middle and lower management) serving as its internalized voice of decision-making in addition to serving as the base environment from which a superior provides safety to subordinate.  This continues down the chain of command throughout the hierarchy and can be witnessed as departments or school sites become de facto fiefdoms focused on self-preservation.

• Reflective Questions: What motivates you, your school site, or your boss? Do you feel empowered to provide input and criticism, or is there a shroud of silence around authority? Which leaders build you up, and which do not? 

Secondary Outcomes

In environments dominated by hubris and fear, employee thinking and policy often become reactive and cult-like.

• Cult of Culture: How does the hierarchy behave in your learning community? Does it appear democratic and transparent on the surface, but result in cronyism-based groups? Do departments have hidden policies where obedience to a boss outweighs doing what is right?

• The Dance of the Lemons: Does your district have high turnover? Are students, families, and employees used as steppingstones for better job titles in other districts? Are you worried when new leadership arrives instead of excited? Why?

• Management over Leadership: Does your district function where learning is a rigid process and student learning functions as a commodity?  Does it operate like a large machine, or a community based on relationships and trust? Do leaders function as managers following orders or as leaders pushing your community forward?

Tertiary Tools

Certain tools become apparent in accomplishing agendas that may be questioned and challeneged by other stakeholders. These methods are used by various levels of authority, from classroom teachers to top leadership.

• The Broken Tongue: One might prejudge a seasoned teacher as cynical based upon the negativity spewing from them, however, in many cases the negativity is the residue of previous years of broken promises and even bold-face lies. How would you rate the honesty and follow-through of leadership in your district? Can you trust the policies and directives given to you, or is there a feeling of missing information or politics hidden from view?

• Hidden Knowledge: In the public sector it is difficult to control others via the paycheck or job security. Often, a good alternative to get others to follow along (without sincerely involving them in the process) is to control information to shape the narrative they see. Is information sprung on you last-minute, within a small window for response, or when you are wiped out by decision-fatigue? Do you see actions that appear to be missing a clear, logical cause or motivation? Do you come to find out additional information leaks out after the fact that would have been helpful earlier? Does your local culture always have a strong air of mystery and missing information where you have to play detective in addition to your regular responsibilities?

• The [Choke] Chain of Command: Does your school district have a rigid chain of command for delivering criticism and information up the hierarchy? Do criticisms erode as they filter up, making the process feel like self-inflicted punishment for speaking up? How much of a run-around do you experience when interacting with bureaucracy?

• Weaponizing...: Are various components, beliefs, and groups weaponized? Are emotional appeals used to influence your perception and actions instead of logical arguments with counterpoints? Does the focus shift to suit the leader's needs, alternating between helping all learners and focusing on one specific group?  Is urgency a recurring component of decision making?  Is consensus valued aloud, but peer pressure a better description of how group agreement is reached?

• Data as Deception: Just as fiction can reveal profound truths, the opposite is can be used to accomplish hidden agendas by using factual data can to misguide and create false narratives. Does your learning community prioritize data in decision-making? Do they discuss the methodology, scope, application, and limitations of the data as well? Are data and research practices skewed or biased? Is this ever discussed? Do people in your district talk about data they haven't read themselves? Do you feel bombarded with information that confuses rather than informs?  What data never seems to find its way into meaningful discussions?