Getting Unstuck: Creating the Heart-centered School Vision
“Visioning, at its best, is organic. It’s a reflection of the human beings involved with the process. It has to be a collective belief of how we want ours systems to operate, our people to be treated, and how we want to move forward. And while there’s a framework in visioning, there has to be a level of fluidity because just as human beings change, systems change.”
Today on Getting Unstuck
In this episode of “Getting Unstuck,” we’re joined Dr. Christine Mason, Founder and CEO for the Center of Educational Improvement and Dr. Melissa D. Patschke, Principal Upper Providence Elementary School, Royersford, PA. They and Paul Liabenow are the authors of Visioning Onward: A Guide for All Schools.
The Essential Point
As the authors describe it, “visioning” is more than just another prescription for a lofty sounding Mission or Vision statement that we see adorning the walls of most schools. Instead, Visioning is a step-by step process that helps schools and communities imagine in a heart-centered way what they want on behalf of their students. It’s a process that can lead to transformative change.
Listen for:
The three elements of heart-centered leadership and how they integrate into the visioning process.
Why visioning needs a strong framework, but an equally strong ability to adapt.
What the authors mean by the cultural “pieces” – the “pieces” of the vision that actually drive behavior.
“We began to realize that if we’re going to do visioning right, it needs to be really systematic. People need guidelines. There’s been a lot of false steps. And if you look at what’s happening with schools with visioning over the last 15 to 20 years, it had been really usurped by school improvement planning, which is very much a top down procedure where in fact, schools followed some formula and quickly came to goal and objectives. They forget about that whole dreaming part – about what they could be – and with that, some of the heart left education.”
Author Bios
Christine Mason, Ph.D., Executive Director,
Center for Educational Improvement Director, Childhood- Trauma Learning Collaborative
Established in 2010, the Center for Educational Improvement (CEI) has joined with a number of leaders in mindfulness; science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM); neuroscience; and social emotional learning to advance 21st century learning in schools. CEI focuses on innovations, building exemplary schools and principals, conducting professional development, and undertaking research to create exemplary learning environments. Heart Centered Learning® is CEI’s signature approach to social emotional learning. Heart Centered Learning includes five elements (5 Cs) that lead to compassionate action—consciousness, compassion, confidence, courage, and community. Through these 5 Cs, students become equipped with the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, feel and show empathy for others, resolve conflicts nonviolently, think creatively, and overcome obstacles to succeed in the classroom and in life.
The visioning that is recommended by CEI builds off of Chris Mason’s (CEI’s executive director) earlier work. From 2011 to 2017, CEI worked with a team of principal leaders to develop our conceptual design for increasing compassion in schools (see Figure 0.2). In 2017, CEI piloted our approach, including an instrument for guiding schools in implementing heart centered visions with schools in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and West Virginia. As we worked with these pilot sites, we formalized our process for helping schools implement their visions for 21st century learning in ways that are responsive to the social-emotional needs of students.
CEI is currently expanding our efforts to build compassionate schools. Chris is a coauthor of Mindfulness Practices: Cultivating Heart Centered School Communities Where Students Focus and Flourish (Mason, Rivers Murphy, & Jackson, 2018) and Mindful School Communities: The Five Cs of Nurturing Heart Centered Learning (Mason, Rivers Murphy, & Jackson, in press), which serve as primers for school leaders to develop mindfulness–compassion protocol. CEI recently conducted a validation study for an instrument we have developed to help cultivate compassionate schools (Mason et al., 2018). The instrument, the School-Compassionate Culture Analytic Tool for Educators (S-CCATE), drives a process for reviewing a school’s strengths and needs to begin to consider a vision for a compassionate school. That process is being used as a part of a project with Yale University’s Program for Recovery and Community Health and its Childhood-Trauma Learning Collaborative, which Chris is directing.
Dr. Melissa Patschke, Principal
Upper Providence Elementary School, Royersford, PA Spring City Elementary, Spring City, PA
Dr. Melissa (Missie) Patschke has served public education for more than thirty years. She has taught in a variety of special and regular education programs, worked at the middle and elementary levels, and served students from both urban and suburban areas. Missie has hosted national webinars, trained national mentors, and published articles featuring best practices for schools. She has shared her messages on the international platform through exchanges and collaborative projects. She presently serves on the board of directors for the Pennsylvania Association of Elementary and Secondary School Principals and for the National Association of Elementary School Principals. Through these respected networks, Missie partners with leaders across the nation to advocate on behalf of what’s right for children and schools. Missie is passionate about shared visionary practices that elevate our impact for children through whole child philosophies, culturally responsive schools, service learning, global networks, mentoring, positive school cultures, and increasing leadership capacity.
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From our publisher:
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Using a three-part framework—Assess, Ready, Change—this book leads educators to examine a school’s imperatives and readiness for change, identity the tools and abilities required to manifest change, and take action by defining the roles and processes necessary to effectively implement both sweeping change and smaller day-to-day adjustments.