John Dewey - The Nature of Method

"I believe that interests are the signs and symptoms of growing power. I believe that they represent dawning capacities. Accordingly the constant and careful observation of interests is of the utmost importance for the educator.

I believe that these interests are to be observed as showing the state of development which the child has reached.  

I believe that the prophesy the stage upon which he is about to enter.

I believe that only through the continual and sympathetic observation of childhood's interests can the adult enter into the child's life and see what it is ready for, and upon what material it could work most readily and fruitfully.

I believe that these interests are neither to be humored nor repressed. To repress interest is to substitute the adult for the child, and so to weaken intellectual curiosity and alertness, to suppress initiative, and to deaden interest. To humor the interests is to substitute the transient for the permanent. The interest is always the sign of some power below; the important thing is to discover this power. To humor the interest is to fail to penetrate below the surface and its sure result is to substitute caprice and whim for genuine interest." (Dewey, 1897)


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Criticisms on the Theories of E.D. Hirsch

"On the all important issue of race, Hirsch rejects the view that racism accounts for the problem with many schools in the inner city. He deals with the problem of racism by folding it into his overall concern with schools' failure to provide a core curriculum to all students. In his analysis, Hirsch fails to consider that race, class, and gender influence both content and the way it is presented, and, moreover, that they influence it in a way that reproduces patterns of dominance in our society.

Hirsch's philosophy is based on what is sometimes called a transmission
view of meaning: teachers hold meaning in their heads and their job is to
transmit it in the most efficient way to the heads of students. Whole class
instruction, telling, and rote memorization are frequently seen as the most
effective means for accomplishing this. And standardized tests are the most
effective way to tell if the task has been accomplished. (I suspect this is why,
in analyzing uneven academic achievement, Hirsch does not examine factors
such as class size and unequal funding.)" (Walter Feinberg, 1999)


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Motion Leadership - Notes from Michael Fullan Video

6 Secrets of Change


1. Love your employees
2. Connect with peers with purpose
3. Capacity building prevails
4. Learning is the work
5. Transparency rules
6. Systems learn


- theory comes from practice (two way street)
- turn around entire systems (whole schools, whole districts, whole provinces/states)
- WHOLE SYSTEM REFORM
- "collective capacity" and "collective competencies"
- high quality teachers and high quality principals
- take mystery out of complexity - do things well (simplexity)




Problem: how do you elicit change when people involved don't want to change?
(9 ways to help people get on board)


1. Relationships first
- if you come off too strong or too slow or too fast, people won't want to change or get on board (first create relationships with people involved, then create change)


2. Implementation dip
- first 6 months of change can be rocky or slow


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A Working List of Educational Theorists

Kieran Egan -


Wenger - Community of Practice


Bennis and Nanus - 


Siemens - Connectivism


Hargreaves and Frink - Sustainable leadership


James Ryan - Inclusive leadership


Darling-Hammond - 


Michael Fullan - Motion leadership (change theory)


Christine Sleeter - multicultural education


Wheatley -


Gilligan and Shakeshaft - Feminist theory


Pestalozzi - "heart, hand, head"


Dewey -


Freire -


James Neil -


Seymour Papert - constructionism


Jean Piaget - constructivism


Lev Vygotsky - social constructivism


Elliot Eisner - 5 orientations to curriculum


Hilda Taba -


Franklin Bobbitt - 


Ralph Tyler - 


William Pinar -


Lawrence Stenhouse -


F.W. Taylor -


Horace Mann - 

Phil Schlechty - 21st Century Schools

"Given wisdom, leaders stop trying to control everything and stop taking charge of everyone and see themselves as one part of a complex operation." (Schlechty)


http://www.schlechtycenter.org/meet-phil-schlechty


"Teachers are leaders and those they most often lead are students. This is an old idea and one that has appeal to teachers once they accept the fact that it is the performance of their putative followers that is of most importance in school. The performance of leaders can make a difference in the performance of followers, but it is the performance of followers that determines the effectiveness of the performance of leaders. Teachers are more dependent on students than students are dependent on teachers. Teachers cannot teach without students being present, but students can learn without teachers and increasingly they can learn anytime and in any place. Schools are no longer as essential as they once were and they will be increasingly less essential if they are not transformed into learning platforms. Teaching is increasingly available to those who are motivated to learn, and schools are not the only places where teaching and teachers exist."(Schlechty, 2010)


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Peter Senge - Shared Leadership

Leader as Teacher


“Leader as teacher” is not about “teaching” people how to achieve their vision. It is about fostering learning, for everyone. Such leaders help people throughout the organization develop systemic understandings. Accepting this responsibility is the antidote to one of the most common downfalls of otherwise gifted teachers – losing their commitment to the truth. (Senge 1990: 356)


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