Principal as the Chief Learning Leader
Should the principal be the CEO with due qualifications and degrees? What is most important is that the Principal should be the Chief Learning Leader — someone who leads by example and never stops learning.
Should the principal be the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) with due qualification and degrees? Are owner-driven schools, which look at the school purely as a business enterprise, better than schools run by charities? Such questions always make us think and we do debate this matter often.
Many good schools are owner-driven and do not have the principal with the degree of an academician. What is most important, however, is that the Principal / Head of the School should be the Chief Learning Leader.
What Is Learning?
Learning is the act of acquiring new, or modifying and reinforcing, existing knowledge, behaviours, skills, values, or preferences — and may involve synthesising different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow learning curves.
Learning is not compulsory; it is contextual. It does not happen all at once, but builds upon and is shaped by what we already know. To that end, learning may be viewed as a process, rather than a collection of factual and procedural knowledge.
The Chief Learning Leader
The learning institution is always in evolution and is able to understand the needs of the pupils and deliver to the happiness of all stakeholders. What is imperative is that the Chief Learning Leader (CLL) must understand that knowledge is not just information and acquiring of skills, but a road to infinite possibility.
For the head to be held high, and true freedom to be experienced, the learning institution must ensure that the CLL is a person who leads by example. Just having a degree or certification is not enough — learning is a never-ending process, and this is the only way to build schools that learn.
Schools That Learn
In Schools that Learn, Peter Senge argues that teachers, administrators, and other members of school communities must learn how to build their own capacity. From Senge's perspective, real improvement will only occur if the people responsible for implementation design the change itself:
"It is becoming clear that schools can be re-created, made vital, and sustainably renewed not by fiat or command, and not by regulation, but by taking the learning orientation."
The Principal / CLL must be able to motivate, coach, inspire, teach, mentor, be a visionary, ensure teamwork and — above all — lead by example.
Building Your Own Capacity
Education is simply building your own capacity. This must be the goal of each individual, including the CLL. Senge makes a powerful argument regarding the need for a systems approach and learning orientation — introducing the idea that "industrial age" assumptions about learning must be challenged and replaced with a culture of continuous inquiry.
The most effective school leaders I have known are those who never stopped being students themselves. They read widely, reflect deeply, and bring that learning back into their schools every single day.
Sandeep Dutt is a School Improvement Coach with over 40 years of experience transforming schools across India and Singapore. He is the author of My Good School: Where Passion Meets Education and founder of the Good Schools Alliance. He runs the Good Schools Masterclass for school leaders, principals, and educators.