Cage-Busting Teacher 201: Managing Up
Welcome back to our cage-busting teacher series!
With the release of Rick Hess’ book The Cage-Busting Teacher last week, we’re in the midst of a series spotlighting Rodel Teacher Council members’ reactions to the book. Council members Robyn Howton and Tim Brewer joined me to chat about cage-busting and what they want Delaware teachers to know about Rick’s book. We asked Robyn and Tim to read chapter three of Rick’s book, titled “Managing Up,” and have a conversation with us about it. Today we’re sharing part one of that conversation.
MANAGING UP FROM A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVE
Here’s the introductory passage from chapter three of Rick’s book, titled “Managing Up:”
Teacher mythology is littered with go-it-alone heroes. You’ve seen the movies. Richard Dadier in The Blackboard Jungle. Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver. John Keating in Dead Poet’s Society. Glenn Holland in Mr. Holland’s Opus. Erin Gruwell in Freedom Writers. Ken Carter in Coach Carter. You know the drill. They fight to change lives despite the obstacles thrown up by idiot administrators, blithering bureaucrats, inertia, and low expectations. These movies are stories of teachers battling the System. The heroes deliver some terrific results, but their handiwork is the product of singular gifts, charisma, or ferocious will. Their approach is exhausting. And when their flame finally burns low, the cage remains. As one teacher wryly observes, “You can only be a martyr for so long.”
Cage-busting asks for more than martyrdom. In return, it offers more. Cage-busting helps teachers start to dismantle the cage and to morph that naysaying principal into a supportive one. This means seeing where the cage is real and where it’s illusory. It requires understanding where administrators are coming from and offering them viable solutions. And it requires marshalling allies to help put moral authority to work. As Jonas Chartock, CEO of Leading Educators, says, “If you don’t know how to manage up to your principal or manage laterally to your colleagues, it’s like you’re alone in that cage.” It may not be as cinematic, but this kind of action is much more likely to create schools where greatness is more than an extraordinary, movie-worthy phenomenon.
Let’s hear from Robyn and Tim about managing up:
Rachel Wiggans Chan: Can you both share any initial thoughts/comments about cage-busting and managing up, based on what you’ve read?
Robyn Howton: I think of managing up as being aware that everyone has an agenda—and hopefully we all have the same bottom line—the success of our students. When I approach an administrator with an idea, I always frame it with why it is the best course of action for students.
Tim Brewer: Great point, Robyn. As I was reading the different examples, I kept thinking about how these people had the students’ best interest first, and informed the administration rather than question them.
RH: Right. Informing people is different than bringing complaints or the dreaded “lunchroom gripe session” that does nothing to promote new approaches to problems.
TB: I also liked when Hess mentioned that we (teachers) are very concerned about our students and we tend to forget about the administrator having responsibility for all the students. That’s another thing we need to consider when speaking to administrators.
RH: It also struck me that managing laterally is a part of solving problems. Not trying to go it alone but finding like-minded teachers to work with in creating a new solution.
TB: The Lone Ranger type! That is great if you happen to be a student in that teacher’s class. Hess mentioned Ben Owens in the first part of the chapter and how he compared being an engineer to teaching and the differences in workplace culture were very dramatic. As an engineer you were not expected to have all the answers, and you needed to network to find a solution to the problem. As a teacher you sometimes get put in a box.
RH: As I do the work with BRINC and creating a model blended [learning] class, I have been very conscious of how much I don’t want to be “the exceptional teacher.” I want all kids in the building to get the same experience my students are benefiting from. I think as a younger teacher I liked being the teacher all the kids wanted to get—now, it is more satisfying to see a former student I mentored and a former student teacher creating dynamic, engaging classes in my building.
TB: Robyn, you mentioned earlier about lateral leadership and I think you gave a great example of the teacher that reaches a point of not only creating great lessons for their own students but reaches the other students in the school through other teachers. The teachers are excited and the students are excited—I think that’s what a cage-busting teacher is really about.
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Thanks to Robyn and Tim for joining me for this conversation about managing up. Tune in next week to read about how the Rodel Teacher Council was featured in The Cage-Busting Teacher!
Are you a cage-busting teacher? Consider applying or nominating a colleague for the Rodel Teacher Council! Application deadline is May 8.