Teachers transitioning to school administrator roles have factors to consider that teachers who decide to stay on teaching in a classroom may not need to be concerned with. These factors determine a happy transition or a sad failure that will be a detriment to the teacher’s future happiness, self-esteem and confidence in a profession he or she once loved so much.
Teachers must realize that teaching and school administrator roles are different tracks albeit in the same location. While teachers are more concerned with one or a few classes of students, school administrators deal with whole school approaches, decision-making and the public. Teachers have the opportunity to impact students on a one-on-one basis whereas school administrators deal with matters that impact the student population and the opportunity to come face to face with individual students are much fewer.
To make the transition a happier one, teachers must not view the transition as a dead end. Transitioning to a school administrator role should be viewed as temporal. While some rise in ranks, others may prefer to return to classroom teaching and focus on teaching rather than administrative roles. Both teachers and administrators play different but important roles in ensuring a successful and healthy school environment.
Teachers should never look upon going back to being teachers as a form of demotion. Rather, with the experience of administration behind them, these teachers become more valuable staff as even if they had not been excellent administrators they would have gained more experience in management and knowledge of the teaching world. Moreover, usually the more capable teachers are invited to an administrative role. They would likely return to a teaching role and be more equipped to meet the demands of a teacher more professionally.
Being a school administrator demands different skills from that required of a school teacher. A school administrator spends more time with various stake holders of a school. He needs to see the various departments as a whole and not as parts or be supportive of only some departments. He is a different communication channel for the parents with regards to the future of their children. He reports to the Education Bureau and bears responsibility for the running of the school.
His most important skill is knowing how to enhance human relationships. A school administrator who is not able to communicate well with his colleagues is doomed to fail even if he has the best plans in his hands. He needs to know when to be at the helm of a project and when to let go of it to his school executive managers. He needs to show he is level headed. He needs to know when to get out of a situation when the temperature starts to rise and when to get in again and resolve matters in a most amicable manner.
Because of his responsibility to more than the classes a classroom teacher teaches, a teacher recognizes that by being a school administrator, he is no longer on par with his teaching colleagues. He is often made the supervisors of those who used to be his teaching peers. He needs to look beyond friendships and play his role well. He cannot be seen to be partial to anyone, including teachers of the same department he once was with.
A school administrator no longer shares the same office as his teaching colleagues. He needs the privacy of an office that provides personal space, a comfortable environment to meet up with agitated parents, with visiting administrators and with his staff. A larger percentage of his time will be spent out of the school building. He will be at meetings hosted by relevant stake holders, officers from the Education Bureau and a host of suppliers interested in a piece of the school pie.
A school administrator cannot be seen to stand solely on the side of his teachers’ myopic views. He must be one who is able to have an eagle’s view of problems and to find solutions that meet the needs of all involved. Win-win solutions are difficult to find but not important and often all it takes is an effective communicator and problem-solver to find them. He must be able to bridge relationships and put the students’ interests in top priority without antagonising anybody else unnecessarily.
A school administrator has more responsibilities than a classroom teacher. A school administrator must be able to pick up these new responsibilities with ease and as quickly as possible so that progress in the school is not impeded. He must be able to make changes for the better. If not, it is best that he steps aside and let someone else take his position. He must be humble enough to acknowledge that the new shoes are too big for him for the better of the school community. His greatest responsibility is to ensure that his school continues to progress, with or without him.
A school administrator needs to be able to build good relationships with more people, let alone his school staff. He needs to have a good working relationship with members of the Education Bureau or Ministry, entreprenuers who can excite his staff and students to greater achievement, vendors who can supply better quality to his school, the community that will send their children to his school and garner support from his supervisor in his plans for his school.
Teachers who are not comfortable on the social front with adults are unlikely to succeed in a school administrative role that requires a different set of relational skills. Although they may build successful relationships with parents of their students to work towards better students, more is required of them in an administrative role. Teachers who shun the public or the spot light are unlikely to transit into any administrative role and be successful in it.
An administrator has positional powers that teachers do not have. He must realise the great responsibilities he has in welding these new powers. If not properly administered, these powers can lead to more destruction than gains. A wise administrator handles his powers with much thought, advice and team decisions.
Teachers transitioning to an administrative role will realise that he must be forthcoming in deciding on and meeting his training needs. He must be quick to spot his shortfalls and seek the relevant training to deal with them and neutralize their effects. He must find ways to ensure that his shortfalls do not impede his work and decisions in his role as an administrator.
Teachers who are invited to transit into a school administrative role would usually have been assessed to bear the many qualities required to make a successful administrator. However, they must also realise that needs change with the passing of time and that the demands on a school administrator will increase, not decrease. Teachers must be able to view all the important factors that make or break a good administrator and be determined to succeed in the transitioning into an admininstrative role and play that role well eventually.
Lokemun Magar