Teach & Serve III, No. 31 – Union. Now.
March 14, 2018
I welcome any chance to have dialogue among constituents at the school. I welcome every opportunity to discuss our shared work. I welcome all who wish to make the school a better place.
This is not a post suggesting that all faculties and staffs need to unionize, despite the title. However…
In my previous position as an administrator at a Catholic high school, periodically, talk of a faculty union would bubble up. The school I was at did not have a union, though many Catholic schools do, and discussion of it seemed to fall outside the norm of the typical way of proceeding. But, if one paid attention to when this talk surfaced, its genesis was most often tied to initiatives that were not well explained, decisions that felt capricious or moments following staff upheaval. That is to say, the talk of a union was usually motivated by some kind of challenging event in the life of the institution.
I will not suggest that I always greeted this talk with an open mind and heart, but I will not suggest that I did not. I do not actually recall, instance-by-instance, how I did respond when I was in formal leadership.
I can share how I would respond now (and I think this is how I responded back then as well).
I welcome any chance to have dialogue among constituents at the school. I welcome every opportunity to discuss our shared work. I welcome all who wish to make the school a better place.
Sometimes these conversations surface around challenging issues. So much the better. As educational leaders, we ought to seize on the moments in the lives of our schools that cause disruption. Further, if we are the cause or if something we have done ignites controversy, we should be able to discuss it, evaluate it, explain it (in as much as discretion and legitimate confidentiality allows).
When we, as educational leaders, hide from conversation about the difficult moments in the lives of our institutions, we are doing those institutions and the people who work in them a profound disservice. When we attempt to silence those who wish to engage us, we are on the way to destroying trust and rapport.
It is very hard to come back from those moments.
Do I believe all schools need some kind of faculty forum or faculty union? No, I do not. Do I fear them because of the very nature of their existence? No, I do not.
Organizations such as these can be very helpful in moving dialogue, in understanding institutional history, in providing avenues for more voices to be heard. Educational leaders who recognize and engage with organizations like this have a better chance to hear what they need to hear and lead how they need to lead. Educational leaders who fear and shut down these types of groups will, periodically, find themselves circling the wagons until the issue fades or the anger dies down or the confusion resolves.
Leaders only have so many times they can circle those wagons before they have outstayed their welcome.