Supporting those in the firing line: portraits, personality and privacy.

Supporting those in the firing line: portraits, personality and privacy. Mike Bottery Professor of Education University of Hull

The purpose • To describe a research approach which tries to capture how individuals do their job by writing a ‘portrait’ of them • To describe the kinds of impact this approach had on those interviewed • To reflect on why these portraits seemed to have such impact

A very brief background • Decades of education systems and policies apparently more interested in results than people • A major literature on problems of ‘leadership sustainability’ • So how did these individuals feel about their jobs? • The contrast between individuals in two different systems…

So what is portrait methodology? • Three stages: • (a) A semi-structured interview, which is then transcribed • (b) from this, the creation of a 5,000 word portrait of that individual, their challenges, ambitions… • (c) then sending the portrait and the transcript to the interviewee for their thoughts • It provides a story of an individual’s hopes, ambitions, and concerns

Three essential aspects of portrait methodology • It’s PERSONAL – it’s what the interviewee wants to talk about • It’s by a PEER – not a hierarchical examination where data is used as evidence in a judgement of performance • It’s PRIVATE – its contents aren’t disclosed to anyone unless the interviewee agrees

70+ full portraits in the UK and HK so far: similar underpinning values… • An overwhelming focus and priority on their students’ well-being: ‘to make a difference to their lives’ • Focussing on the personal and local, and sometimes the day to day • Taking note and dealing with larger issues when these affected the values and practices of their school • However, due to personality and context, there is no simple pattern of principal response to the issues and challenges

Understanding each personality and context is critical for understanding the challenges • Harriett C. and Ofsted pressures – a new UK principal in a difficult school driven by local authority pressures rather than his own judgements… • John L. and thriving on 14 hours a day – an experienced HK principal who embraced the challenge of keeping his school open • Michael K. the chess player – an experienced UK principal who used a wider political experience to defend his judgements

And systemic comparisons • UK principals were much more defensive and worried about external inspection • HK principals saw such inspection bodies as much more supportive critical friends • But both cohorts felt bogged down by the amount of directives and paperwork: • ‘I don’t even have the time to think that I don’t have the time…’

The portrait approach as a supportive and developmental tool. • It seemed to help individuals know themselves better: • It doesn’t matter how many courses you’ve been on, and how much you know intellectually about the processes of being a head. If you don’t develop an appreciation of yourself as a person...and [of] your own emotional understanding...you will never make a good head. (UK)

What kind of impact did the research have? 1: Affective impact. • The interview ‘…was a conversation asking me to think about who ‘I’ was; it was quite cathartic…I felt slightly uplifted in that I had the opportunity to talk about how I felt…’ ( UK) • ‘…I was not sure what to expect but this [the portrait) is far more soul searching and involved than I believed it could have been.’ ( UK) • ‘I just wanted [in the interview] to have some outburst of my frustrations.’ ( HK)

2. Third-person impact • ‘It was written in such a way that it was almost in the third person, but I recognised the third person…’ (HK) • ‘I gave the portrait to my admin officer and she said ‘yes, that’s absolutely you…’ (UK) • The portrait ‘… enables me to look at myself as a third party. Therefore I can get to know my own strengths, weaknesses, and working style better....’ (HK)

3. Reflective impact. • ‘It gives you time to stand back and think…’ (UK)…. ‘You are stimulating my thinking and give me some thoughts…’ (HK) • Affirmative Impact: it ‘…legitimized in my mind the importance of this area of study…’. (UK) “… it is something concerned with strengthening or reaffirmation..’ (HK) • Defensively Affirmative impact: [I’m] working in a profession under attack on so many fronts..’‘…it’s something I can hold onto, and can say ‘hey, that’s the best I can do, and if that doesn’t fit with the requirements of an agenda, then so be it…’

4. Developmental Impact • ‘I have to upgrade myself, or update myself…so that I can be a learned person before my teaching fellows and also my students...if they know that their principal is still a learning one, a life-long learner, they can also be learners as well…’ (HK) • ‘… but it doesn’t mean that I can’t learn something from that…if you’re just being angry, it is not enough’. (HK) • ‘It made me reflect even more deeply about how my own persona influenced my leadership role and how I perceived it…’ (UK)

5. Discovered Impact • ‘…I was aware of [my emphasis on a values driven approach] but only in the background, and not to the extent to which it drives my leadership..‘…the process of reflection emphasized the importance of this, and I became more overt in my articulation of values in leading.’ (UK) • .. when I read the portraits again, I think my past experience could be usefully employed to help teachers succeed, …so I decided to stay in the education career…’ (HK) • . ‘Before the portrait process it [retirement] might have been a throw-away comment, but now it was something I needed to think about.’ (UK)

6. Life-changing (REF) impact • ‘…the portrait process had a direct and long lasting effect on my leadership role and I am grateful for its contribution to changing my life...’ (UK) • ‘…mentioning creativity impacted on me a lot…’ Producing ‘…new musicals for all students in Hong Kong… would not have happened without the impact or without the portrait…’ (HK)

professionalism The impact of the research suggests • that reflection generated by the process might be a highly effective and supportive form of CPD. • So why did the approach seem to be so effective?

Deconstructing the 3ps – (1) the value of the Personal • The need for the personal and moral commitment to the people in their care – it’s not just a job, it’s a vocation • The alienating effect of ignoring the personal, and the dangers of ‘designer leadership’ • The danger of emphasising results over people • Ultimately research suggests that sustainable results come through good relationships and are seen as meaningful for people and their communities

The value of the Peer • The need for the non-hierarchical conversation • The absence of power differentials in a discussion • The dangers of silence or right-answerism(particularly where external objectives and punitive accountability are in place) • An essentially element of democracy is equal rights to disagreement – • A better context for free and creative exploration of ideas – better both ethically and pragmatically

The value of the private • The need for individual privacy in one’s working life: • Pragmatically – ideas are initially better off being nurtured, and not being exposed to the harsh light of the public view; increased likelihood of the exploration of the creative and the risky • Ethically – the need to restrict the expansion of the ‘greedy’ organisation; the tendency to see privacy as a weakness, a failure to commit, almost a crime; not everything should be a public record of achievement – do we need to re-define the boundaries?

A Final thought • “The moral test of Government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.” • A moral test of a society is the degree to which it supports the right of the individual not to be known – both in private and public spaces. Portrait methodology may be a small contribution to the support of the individual

Supporting those in the firing line: portraits, personality and privacy.