The Human Side of Changing Education: Engage the Mission and Passion of Educators
Dr. Bob Maxfield welcomed Julie (Wilson) Jungalwala, author of The Human Side of Changing Education and Director of the Institute for the Future of Learning, to the Podcast for Leaderful Schools, as part of the series on resetting education after the pandemic. Guests are asked to reflect on what we ought to be doing differently in education as we emerge from the pandemic. Dr. Maxfield’s regular co-host, Dr. Suzanne Klein, was unable to join him for today’s conversation, and in her place Dr. Elaine Middlekauff joined as acting co-host.
Julie (Wilson) Jungalwala grew up in North Ireland and first came to the United States in 1997, for a six month project in San Francisco. After about a decade of working in adult development, leadership and management development, she “recognized a recurring theme that much of what she taught people in those programs, as well as in coaching sessions was essentially to unlearn what they’ve learned through a standardized system of education.” That revelation prompted her to create the Institute for the Future of Learning as a non-profit; with a mission to help transform the one size doesn’t fit all model of education. While studying for her master’s in Education at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, Ms. Wilson Jungalwala recalled the impact of Dr. Eleanor Duckworth’s “Having of Wonderful Ideas” class. Professor Duckworth studied directly with Piaget, enabling Ms. Julie (Wilson) Jungalwala to experience what inquiry-based learning actually is from a learner’s perspective.
Currently the majority of her work is writing about the topic, coaching leaders, keynote presentations, workshops and conducting research. She credits the research she did for Arthur Levine of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation with the genesis for her book, The Human Side of Changing Education. “When we're asking schools to change, we're asking people to change. If we're not focusing on the adults we're never going to see the outcomes that we're looking for with the students. When you're asking human beings to change it goes against how we're wired. I think about David Rock’s research on neuroscience and leadership and the acronym SCARF: status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness. All those are thrown up in the air when school or district is going through change.”
“You've got a lot of folks with an amygdala hijack; we lose our rational thinking mind but also too few change initiatives actually tap into what is an unbelievable force for change, which is the fact that I would say 99.9% of the teachers I know enter the profession because of the mission that's in their hearts to deliver. Rather than engage in what Richard Boyatzis called “negative emotional attractors”, if you were to tap into that mission as part of an overarching change process then you've got some real opportunity for change. The biggest tool is the passion and the mission that's inherent in every single person in your building. Apply Carol Dweck’s growth mindset to adults. I have seen some folks really turn around if you actually start being curious about their experience, what they see as being potential obstacles, how we might come together to mitigate or overcome those obstacles and what is it we're actually moving towards. It's part of a broader adult development behavioral change arc.”
Dr. Maxfield wondered what has gotten in the way of unleashing the passion and mission of teachers. Julie (Wilson) Jungalwala posited it is a “century plus bureaucracy. The goal of any system is status quo. Practically every human being, at least in the western world, has gone through school and has a very distinct set of mental models of what it is, and what it isn't. The system is resistant to change and the vast majority of people have an idea of what school is therefore, we need to do more of that. Go ahead and change, but don't do anything to jeopardize my child's future. There's so many external forcing function pieces in place to hold this, again not one thing, just a lot of significant forces at play at once.”
When asked what tools she would encourage people to embrace, Julie (Wilson) Jungalwala replied, “When you start asking people what's right with them as opposed to fixating on what's wrong with them, you're much more likely to enter into a productive conversation. Another great tool or resource is Richard Boyatzis's work. His latest book, Helping People Change, gets into the neuroscience of how coaching with compassion is so much more helpful, and actually produces behavioral change compared to coaching with compliance. In The Human Side of Changing Education, I profiled the work of William and Susan Bridges on managing transitions. I use that framework because they talk about how change is an event and it's external, while transition is internal, it's a process and it's psychological. You need to start with the people, their vision for what's possible, bring people into the co-creation of that change, and then with each other, we get through that change together, and each person's experience is different.”
The final tool Julie (Wilson) Jungalwala would recommend is Joseph Campbell and his framework, The Hero's Journey. “I see that narrative arc with leaders leading change. Your school will not transform if you're not transforming. As a leader if you can make your learning explicit that gives others permission to do the same. It helps reorient the schools to become 'institutions of learning' as opposed to 'institutions of knowing'. As the teacher, as the superintendent, as the principal, ideally you're modeling what it is to be a lead learner. What excites me about it though is I think there's tremendous opportunity here for leaders to emerge. And that's what brings me back to Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, on the call to adventure. If we could help each other really listen to the mission that's inside each of us and help us move forward with that, then great change would be possible.”
“There were school districts doing tremendous work before COVID. A local school district was three-four years into a high-quality interdisciplinary project-based learning curriculum that was superb. With COVID, they were back to here’s your desk, space, all the pods and the physical set up of the room felt like 10 years in the past. From the book, The Third Teacher, how things are physically set up has a significant impact. I wrote an article on Corwin’s blog describing a school district in Maryland in which each teacher committed to become a master in mind brain education. When district leaders thought about bringing adults and students back to school, they modeled leading with well-being for adults and students alike.” Julie (Wilson) Jungalwala acknowledged that with COVID “the stakes are heightened as the veil is lifted and we can’t ignore it, and sides are more entrenched. There is the potential here for schools to play a very different role and that takes level 5.0 leadership to lead that work. I read an article by Arundhati Roy, the writer and activist, and she gave this clarion call with the heading “Pandemic Is a Portal” and I thought this is where we are. Humankind is going through a massive transition right now. There's tremendous opportunity here for leaders to emerge. That brings me back to Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, on the call to adventure. If we could help each other really listen to the mission that's inside each of us and help us move forward with that, then great change would be possible.”
When looking ahead to the 2022-2023 school year, Julie (Wilson) Jungalwala advises listen to teachers. “We could really start to bring the teacher voice forward and listen to their experience. We could have more teachers and parents and students in conversation together to talk about their experience. I would like schedules to fundamentally change. Teachers have no time for prep and students have no time for recess. Neuroscience tells us that kids need time for recess. That's when the brain does the majority of its work and secondly, we all know that we need time to prep, to debrief, to be with colleagues.”
A driving question Julie (Wilson) Jungalwala introduced was what we should put under the heading of D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate). “What should we not resuscitate from the old model? What's just one of the things we should stop doing? School change is too much like evolution by barnacle, where we just stick one thing on top of the other. We never take a step back and say, okay what's working well. What should we keep? What's not working, what should we stop, and then what should we start doing?”
For future prospective teachers, Julie (Wilson) Jungalwala hopes “principals and superintendents will go out into their communities and find teachers that represent the diversity of the children in the classrooms, and invite a much broader and diverse range of people into the profession and honor the difference that they will bring. If I'm a child in the classroom and I can see a role model, a teacher who can reflect back my lived experience and the best of it and what's possible, then we have a tremendous opportunity for change right there in the communities. I'd also diversify the age. I know so many people who tell me they failed at retirement, so many folks in education. You can't not do what you're doing, so you find opportunity elsewhere all within the broader learning umbrella. There is massive talent there, so when you think more flexibly about recruitment in general, you can see what might be possible.”
Dr. Maxfield supported increasing flexibility and broadening the options for teachers. “Does getting into teaching require signing a regular contract? Maybe you teach in a high school three days a week, because you've got a particular passion and we figured out a way to certify you to do that. That could allow that recent retiree to have some free time but still do what he or she likes.” Julie Wilson Jungalwala expanded that idea to include flexibility of role: subject matter experts, pedagogical experts, coaches. With the challenges of recruiting teachers and teacher education students, there are corresponding shortages of school administrators. Dr. Maxfield noted “with forty new or newer superintendents in the Detroit metropolitan area, the candidate pools were smaller. The problem is not getting better and the pandemic has accelerated that as well.”
In closing, Julie (Wilson) Jungalwala gave some final words of advice to those who want to do things differently and better as we move forward. “I'm prepared to bet that your listeners have a mission; that they have a clear call to adventure; they do have a sense of the work that they would like to do; the change they would like to see in education. Rather than allow the fear, uncertainty and doubt to bubble up, your only job once you hear the call to adventure is to take the next step. Take the tiniest baby step, and if that seems too big, make it smaller. And once you start taking those baby steps, it's like a trail of breadcrumbs, you start to get some traction and then you start to meet people of like-minded mission and connect yourself with those folks. That's your support group, you need them, and they need you. So ground yourself in your call to adventure, your mission, take tiny baby steps with relentless consistency and do not do this work alone, find your peace.”
https://www.the-ifl.org/ Julie M. (Wilson) Jungalwala (@juliemagretta) / Twitter
Jungalwala (Wilson), Julie Margretta, The Human Side of Changing Education: How to Lead Change With Clarity, Conviction and Courage, Corwin, May 24, 2018.
Books and articles referenced in the Podcast
Boyatzis, Richard, Helping People Change: Coaching with Compassion for Lifelong Learning and Growth, Harvard Business Review Press, Illustrated edition, August 20, 2019.
Bridges, William, Ph.D. with Susan Bridges, Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change, Da Capo Lifelong Books, January 10, 2017. (25 anniversary edition)
Campbell, Joseph, The Hero’s Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work, New World Library, March 11, 2014.
Duckworth, Eleanor “The Having of Wonderful Ideas” & Other Essays on Teaching and Learning, Teacher’s College Press: 3rd edition, November 24, 2006.
Dweck, Carol S. Ph.D., Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Ballantine Books, December 2007.
Mau, Bruce, A collaborative project, OWP/P Architects +VS Furniture + Bruce Mau Design O’Donnell Wicklund Pigozzi and Peterson (Author), Bruce Mau (Author), David W. Orr (Foreword), The Third Teacher: 79 Ways You Can Use Design to Transform Teaching & Learning, New York, Abrams Books, March 1, 2010.
Rock, David Dr., Neuroscience research and SCARF, Dr. Rock holds a professional doctorate in the Neuroscience of Leadership from Middlesex University in the UK. https://www.euroleadership.com
1 page summary -Understanding David Rock’s SCARF Model https://conference.iste.org/uploads/ISTE2016/HANDOUTS/KEY_100525149/understandingtheSCARFmodel.pdf
Roy, Arundhati, “The Pandemic Is a Portal” in Rethinking Schools.org, Volume 34, No. 4 https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/the-pandemic-is-a-portal/ This text is abridged and excerpted from “The Pandemic Is a Portal,” in Azadi: Freedom. Fascism. Fiction., forthcoming from Haymarket Books. Used by permission of Haymarket Books. Copyright © 2020 by Arundhati Roy. Roy, Arundhati, “The pandemic is a portal”, Original publication in the Financial Times, April 3, 2020. https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca
Stern, Julie and Julie Wilson Jungalwala, “Slow and Steady Summer School Planning”, Blog: Corwin Connect, May 17, 2021. https://corwin-connect.com/2021/05/slow-and-steady-summer-school-planning/