Leading From the Seat You Sit In

My goal today is to talk about parent leadership. And one of the things I really try to advocate to those doing work in educational settings is to lead from the seats that they sit in. And the focus, as I said earlier, is about parent leadership and influence today. I'll have a conversation around what that looks like in schools and districts across our county and the nation 

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Transcript

Mars  00:04

Hello, everybody, we are in another session of our FACE podcast for San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools. And today, I'll be your host. I'll be solo today. I know in the past, we'd mentioned having some guests, we talked about having Ibis Cordero from Chino Valley Unified School District with us today. But we've had some scheduling challenges. So we're going to pivot a little bit with this session. And our goal is to talk about parent leadership. And one of the things I really try to advocate to those doing work in educational settings is to lead from the seats that they sit in. And the focus, as I said earlier, is about parent leadership and influence today. And I hope to have a conversation around what that looks like in schools and districts across our county and the nation. And have a short summary around Karen Mapp dual capacity framework just to talk a little bit about the challenges and how we can create programs so that parents can be engaged as leaders in schools and districts also want to talk a little bit about the challenges that parent leaders may encounter as they go through that process, along with the benefits of being engaged in leadership roles, and then how leadership, particularly parent leadership can influence the improvement in our educational systems. Because the goal is we want to get better at what we do. And having diverse opinions in and supports in our schools, helps improve our educational systems. And then, you know, where can parent leaders begin to engage in their schools? Where's where's the starting points? How do we get, you know, in to those gateways of getting into school systems to to be leaders. So with that being said, I talked a little bit about wanting to get into the dual capacity framework, which is something that was developed out of Harvard, under the leadership of Dr. Karen Mapp. And what she talks about is that there are challenges for engagement in schools, for educators and for families, and it creates this gap. And so the goal is how do we make that gap shrink? And get into what we call effective partnerships that support students? And school improvement, which is the main goal, right? What's best for kids? How can we improve the academic achievement of kids, the social, emotional, part, decrease, you know, substance abuse, all the things that go with our communities as a whole. And so the dual capacity framework is a great place to talk a place to talk about where the challenges are, what are some of the essential conditions that districts should have in place to be able to make that happen? Are there any policies and program goals that we can focus on, and then again, increasing the capacity of our parents, our educators to become partners in the work of, you know, school improvement, parents in leadership roles may encounter various challenges, and some of the things that I think about our time constraints, you know, many of us are busy with a variety of things like work, and being in leadership roles can be challenging. And I also say that anyone can be a leader. The question is, do you want to be a leader? Right? Like we all say, everyone can be a parent, but then we become parents, and we're trying to figure it out. Right? So we all have the capacity to be leaders, but those time constraints can be challenging, you know, finding meaning times that times active participation in school initiatives can be demanding. The other challenge is communication barriers, you know, how do we effectively communicate with diverse groups, diverse opinions, teachers, administrators, and so language barriers or miscommunication may arise, which impacts relationships and cooperation. The other piece is resistance to change. Some parents may face some resistance, right? They come in with these ideas, these thoughts. And you know, they may be working with a school principal, and they're like, no, we want to just keep things status quo. Changing school policies or practices can be challenging. So that resistance to change is one of those inclusivity and representation ensuring that all voices are heard and represented can be challenging, especially in our culturally diverse communities. Right now, we're having a lot of challenges with different thoughts, ideas and philosophies and, and helping, you know, increase student achievement. And so striking that balance to include the perspectives of various backgrounds may require some intentional effort. limited resources, as we know, budgets are sometimes challenging. And in good times, you know, the money's usually a lot of issue and then as you have, you know, economic challenges like inflation and declining enrollment in some districts, budget constraints can be be challenging. And so understanding what those budgets look like, having the capacity to understand that, and having those in leadership, you know, give the information around what the budgets look like so that as you're leading from the seats that you sit in, you have an understanding of that. The other challenge is bureaucracy. Look, government entities move much slower than private entities. And so having that understanding can can be a challenge, but also help you understand to navigate our educational system. And so that requires time and effort to just learn that conflicting priorities, you know, many parents will come in with some priorities that they want, and trying to align those with the goals of the school in the district can be a challenge. And so finding common ground among our diverse perspectives may require some negotiation and compromise. And then I talked a little bit about diversity, but how do we manage the understanding of our diverse backgrounds, our values or expectations, and also bringing unity and collaboration among the diverse groups? So that requires a lot of effective communication? And relationship building? role clarity? How do we define the understanding that the specific responsibilities and expectations of apparent leader How do we know what I'm supposed to be doing? What is my role to be here and given input into the educational system? With that, sometimes misunderstandings and conflicts arise. And so how do we get that clarity and a lot of it has to do with again, going back to that communication piece, communicating, understanding and building those relationships. And as in everything, when you bring various diverse perspectives into a room, there's going to be conflict. And so how do we get into conflict resolution, addressing those conflicts with the parent community, you know, bringing the staff together to just have an understanding on both sides, and then the effect of developing effective conflict resolution skills to maintain positive and productive environments. The other thing is, I find that many parent leaders are the only ones that are doing the work, there might be a small group of parents that are doing the work. And so they get burnout. And so parents involved in these leadership roles, you know, have so many demanding responsibilities that they'll decide, you know, what, I don't know if I can do this anymore. And so they, they leave. And so that's the challenge that we have to overcome. And then our policies, right policies change, year to year, when there's different thoughts and ideas, we create these policies that sometimes have an unintended consequences. And so advocating for policy requires just a good understanding of our educational landscape, our systems, and in addressing these challenges involves a combination of effective communication, again, collaboration, proactive problem solving, just encouraging open dialogue, that can provide the support for our structures that will help contribute to overcoming these obstacles. So those are just few of the the challenges. But there are so many benefits when we get into this work. And the benefits that I look at is, as a parent, it increases your self confidence. It increases your social capital, because you're amongst other parents that then become kind of a support mechanism for you. increase civic engagement. And that's something that I tell parents and people in the community all the time, get involved, come out in support, come out to board meetings, you know, go out to your city council meetings, find out what's going on in the community, stay engaged in the political landscape, as much as you may not like politics, have an understanding of what's going on in your community, and empowered communities that affect changes benefit children, you know, from our individual and collective actions, because that's again, as I said earlier, the goal is to improve academic achievement improve outcomes for children. I always hear from leaders that leadership is influence and that is a true true statement. parent leadership is considered a key component of comprehensive Family and Community Engagement frameworks, particularly in the state of California since 2012, when local control came into effect, it became a mandate to have parents and community partners as part of the decision making process and shared governance. Yet, what I find across districts across our county in the state of the nation, is that it is one of the most underutilized strategies in education. So how do we get involved? What can I do? You know, I want to be a parent leader. Where's the start? Well, all schools have PTAs or PTOs. Most of them anyways, and if not, they have a school committee, like English language advisory councils, or African American parent advisory councils or school site councils, or Community Action councils or superintendent advisory councils, I say, you know, find out when those are happening, and just show up and find out how your skills and abilities can possibly help enhance the work that goes on in those councils. The other thing that I encourage folks to do attend those school board meetings, look, I have the hat from a previous podcast, you probably remember I have the hat of being board president in a local school district. And so I always encourage folks come to those board meetings, sometimes our board rooms are empty, find out what the priorities of the district are, where they're spending their dollars, and then have conversations with those of us that are in governance to to help create change that we may not see, sitting from the seats that we lead from. I want to talk a little bit of also about principles that guide effective leaders. If you're going to be a leader, I tell people nobody's out. We have leadership experiences, perhaps from different places, or spaces of either power, or privilege, or from subordinate experiences. And so if you're that subordinate experience, kind of leader, you know, the kind of leader you don't want to be, and you also know the leader that you might want to be from that perspective. If you have it from power and privilege, then you also have to take a step back and say, you know, how can I work with others in a collaborative way that brings collective impact. And then leading and learning requires discomfort, you're gonna have courageous conversations around things that you may not believe in or understand. And so having those conversations that have said earlier on the challenges, helps bring some some unity, some understanding, but you are going to have some discomfort initially. And then at the end of the day, servant leadership is expected when you're a leader, serving the people being people focused, I think sometimes we lose that we become self centered in our own, you know, values, ideas, and we forget about being people driven. In the public sector, particularly, it's important to understand that it is our role to serve all students, all people no matter what their backgrounds on, and I think that becomes a challenge sometimes when we think about things like religious beliefs and, and other experiences that come into play. But at the end of the day, in public service, our role is to to be able to serve all people, leaders create a clear vision, a shared vision, and that's important to understand. And then creating a positive culture even through turbulent times, how do we stay positive as we move the work collectively forward? The other thought about is how do we shift our mindsets? How do we shift the mindset that you belong there? Like I said earlier, everyone has the capacity to be a leader. But how do we begin to think about, you know, having you think that you belong there, a leader is more than someone who is widely recognized. I see people behind the scenes influencing changes in governance changes and policies, just from being behind the scenes. So you don't have to have organizational authority. Everyone has influence. You know, we normally think of leaders, as you know, our bosses are those entrusted to lead the communities like board members, or councils or supervisors or congressman or assembly people, right. But at the end of the day, those that are leading from being a parent, or a teacher, or a staff member, or a student, or whatever role or hat you wear, you're still a leader, and you have influence. And then too many people lack the will to want to change or to develop their leadership potential. It's easier to go with the flow. And at the end of the day, we can't continue to stay at status quo. We've got to be able to have your perspectives, your ideas, your philosophies. So trying to be in leadership. I'm going to ask you these questions. These are rhetorical questions, but it'll make you think a little bit about if you care about your community and want to contribute to its well being, you should lead if you feel grief, or sorrow or anger for what is being lost from individuals, to species or the planet, or in faith in people's potential or generosity or creativity, kindness and love, then you belong there. If you have chosen service many times and refuse to give up then and you have determination, then you are a leader. If you yearn for your community to just be better, right to thrive, to celebrate, to to, you know, to do whatever it takes to get improvement in your community, you belong there. And, you know, if you are aware of the increase in the Fear and Conflict but refuse to succumb to these things, then you belong there. So I just want to remind you all that you all have the capacity to lead from the seats that you sit in, because leadership is influencing others. I've always heard though sometimes people say, you know, I'm not the leader type, I would do that. But I just don't have the authority. Great leaders have an ability to influence others in powerful ways. Just remember that. So again, remember that leadership is influencing through communication. Communication is the greatest tool for effectively influencing people. Leaders can only exercise influence if people are willing to be influenced. And that's the other piece, right? You know, being a boss, you know, one of those authoritative kind of leaders, those don't make leaders, a leader makes their influence felt by examples. And generally, the stronger the engagement of the team members as leaders at some level, the more effective the organization. So, I'm gonna go through some characteristics of servant leadership, because I want to make sure that I hit that that point home, be a good listener, right listening to to understand not listening to respond, empathy, how do we feel about others? How do we feel, you know, to to improve our leadership capacity? How do we empathize, right? How do we help also in the healing, when things have been wronged, or people have been wronged, we got to heal. Also got to bring awareness, awareness of just things that are out there that we may not know about. Persuasion is another good one, you know, how do we persuade individuals to do good? Having conceptualization, meaning, you know, I want to see something happen, I can see the concept developing, but I just don't know how to get there. But if you have that, that aspect, you're a good leader. Having foresight to understand what the future may bring, part of governance in school districts is understanding the the economic landscape that may happen 2, 3, 4 years from now. So having that foresight, so when you're making decisions today, that you can be able to understand what those decisions and how they may affect the future. Stewardship, being careful and responsible, around things that are entrusted in you. Right, I talked about money. So if you're in governance, and you're spending money today for that future foresight piece, like I talked about earlier, understand that you have to you're entrusted to care for that. And then the commitment to the growth of other people, you know, in my role in the work that I do, I always work hard to build the capacity of others to lead. Because everything has a season, there's going to be a point where one day, I need to step away or others in the community may not want me to lead anymore. But if I was able to help you grow as a leader, it might help you step in to that role, the role that I have now as a leader, and then building community bringing people together, you know, building networks for individuals out there in the community. So those are important pieces. as I as I think you know, you being a leader in the work. Other competencies that I see is having self awareness, having self management, having social awareness, and then managing relationships. And I keep talking about relationships, relationships, is key to being leaders, right being that influence, being a coach and a mentor, understanding how to deal with conflict management, being inspirational, and then working in works of teamwork. So I hope today that you know, what I discussed in this podcast around leading from the seat that you sit in, has given you something to think about, I hope it inspires you that if you listen today, if you're a parent, to go out and start leading, be involved get in get involved in those councils I talked about earlier. Right? And and don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to lead from the seat that you sit in. Again, I hope this was powerful for you today. Thank you for joining us in today's face podcast, sponsored by San Bernardino County Superintendent Schools, Family and Community Engagement. I am your host today Mars Serna. I hope to have my little sister from another mister back. She's having some challenges in her life. And so today, you know, keep her in prayer and hope that things work out for her. And we hope to have her back in a session and we will be back soon. So thank you again for listening. Enjoy, and take care of yourselves.