Barth, Roland S. (2001). Learning By Heart. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Pp. ix + 244.
$24.95 ISBN 0-7879-5543-4
Reviewed by Sidney C. McDougall
El Paso (TX) Independent School District
November 1, 2002
Learning By Heart by Roland S. Barth will elicit both anguish and hope in every teacher and principal. Barth asks if your teachers and principals are bright, stubborn, willful idiosyncratic goats or a herd of sheep? The author calls us to reexamine our individual contributions or lack of contribution in our schools. Roland Barth offers us perspectives on educational reform from his own journey in education from public school teacher and principal, Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, to Harvard University faculty member and founding director of the Harvard Principals' Center. My appraisal of Barth's intent is to ask readers why they are waiting for the next school reform tide to ease their school ship into safe harbor? Utilizing all of his lifetime experiences in education, Barth, an avid sailor, shines his lighthouse towards all of us adrift in the sea of state-mandated examinations, curriculum committees and disheartened students and parents. School reform will not come from a research-based program; it resides within each of us. Among the teachers and principals with whom I work, all feel stifled and overwhelmed by current mandates. Barth did not offer me a ready-made solution based on empirical evidence. He kindly reminded me and the school community that reform comes from within us. Teacher education students, current teachers, and school principals may feel empowered by Barth's vision.
Barth opens the heart of every school to a thorough examination. He uses many personal experiences as both a teacher and principal to reflect on his own mistakes and triumphs. From a phenomenological perspective, Barth interviews some of the real stakeholders in education; the teachers and administrators. Barth emphasizes that the real experts on school reform are found at the local level. Teacher interviews illustrate that our experiences, doubts, and potential powers are alike whether we work in New England or Alaska. The book is designed to be a consciousness awakening and is the culmination of Barth's reflections on school reform and leadership during his own convalescence. In the search for local school experts, Barth points out the imbalance of administrative power between teachers and administrators. Although humor abounds throughout the book, self reflection can be potentially painful and the reader will soon know if he or she contributes to or sabotages positive school reform efforts. Focusing on our own need to continually learn, discuss "nondiscussables", and be leaders, Barth's vision is compelling for any teacher or educator frustrated by the status quo in their school. Barth as a critical theorist insists that both teachers and administrators need to initiate their own school reforms and not rely on "expert" or university-based research to hand them reforms. Passivity will not honor the uniqueness of their schools.
Four main themes emerge in Barth's text. A viewpoint of current school culture comes from both Barth's educational experiences and interviews with teachers and administrators. Anyone involved in teaching, administration or teacher education should reflect on Barth's observations. Barth explodes the idea of an at-risk student; his view is not one based on a notion of disadvantage and continued failure. An at-risk student is "any student who leaves school before or after graduation with little possibility of continuing learning" ( p. 15). School culture threatens punishment of students for not learning and promulgates students' desire to end learning and escape the threat of schools and universities, not to joyfully continue learning. A unique notion of Barth's, in addition to a new definition of at-risk learners, is one of at-risk educators. Both administrators and teachers of all grade levels should take note of their own learning. Most teachers stop learning and are watching television instead of reading journals and discussing instructional strategies with colleagues. Students are not the only ones who should be engaged in learning. Barth observes about "burned-out teachers" that "To hold low expectations for them and their capacity as learners is just as destructive and corrosive as believing that those youngsters on the other side of the tracks cannot learn" (p. 29). I believe that Barth wants the reader to grasp that not only students and teachers possibly fail when learning stops, the entire school fails.
Most educators live with a linear curriculum model similar to Barth's Transmission of Knowledge. Knowledge (K) is all of the information that students are to assimilate and it becomes Curriculum (C) which is handed to the Agent (A). The agent can be a teacher, computer, or video presentation. The Student (S) is to be the receiver and his Knowledge (K) will be tested and evaluated. Barth's model holds no surprises; in education, we are all part of the model. Schools meet the needs of the Transmission of Knowledge which is reinforced by a staff development model that one of Barth's interviewees' characterizes as "sit n git." Teacher training for at-risk educators plays only one radio station, termed by Barth as "WDTT-Didactic Teacher Talk" (p. 35). While aware of this aspect of school culture, Barth challenges all educators to change the radio station in order to become lifelong learners.
In addition to describing current school culture, Barth reflects on solutions for change as his second main theme. Any reader seeking a programmatic solution will be disappointed. Barth's school reforms come from within not from reorganization of the classrooms or a new curriculum. The power of school reform lies within educators and administrators and their willingness to become lifelong learners. He often draws on experiences sailing on the sea and one of his daughter's learning experiences while sailing to illustrate his points. Even if you are not familiar with sailing, Barth describes a common, early childhood experience; feeling invulnerable, coming to crisis, feeling vulnerable and being rescued. Barth is not asking us to jump out of swings or climb trees to become comfortable again with vulnerability. He is asking readers to step outside their classroom or office. Teachers and administrators are not to practice in isolation but instead are to make connections and remain vulnerable. Both are imperative to lifelong learning.
Outward Bound sailing experiences are examples of learning by doing, i.e., experiential learning. Student and teacher together experience the real world and their interaction leads to knowledge. Teachers know they should be incorporating hands-on experiences and administrators know to create community-based instruction for their students, but this is not the dominant model. A major difficulty with the experiential model is how the students are evaluated. Barth answers that qualitative methods, such as portfolios, would have to take the place of numeric grades. Although I value portfolios for our students, Barth's model of learning does not fit the current mandates for criterion-referenced grade level testing. Larger administrative changes would have to take place and school reforms currently echo "accountability" for both schools and teachers.
Important to seeking solutions for our diverse school culture, is the legitimization and celebration of craft knowledge. Barth is critical of educational research which he describes as "a mile wide but only an inch deep" (p. 56). Formal educational research might spend only a matter of minutes in hundreds of classrooms. Barth refutes current policies that educational reforms must be scientifically based. Valued are "inch wide and miles deep" (p. 56) experiences of the teacher who has spent numerous years in the same classroom. Teachers themselves do not value their own craft knowledge and legitimization is one type of school reform. School culture prohibits any one teacher standing out and therefore, all of the wisdom of tenured teachers is silenced. I agree with Barth that teachers' participation in faculty meetings is passive and no one teacher is comfortable standing up and sharing his or her craft knowledge. Sharing and celebrating craft knowledge will aid our school personnel to become lifelong learners. Barth reminds us of the power of reflection on our practice in observation, conversation and writing. Educational and cultural differences are the norm in our schools although we try and group students to diminish difference. Reflection and learning, by students, teachers and administrators, is enhanced by diversity. Barth offers an example of the Harvard Principals' Center; the participants selected were from both rural and urban schools with diverse student populations in order to enhance learning.
An important and third main theme of Barth's book is leadership. Who is a leader and what distinguishes teachers and principals as leaders? Barth's answer is that all teachers should and can lead. Teachers should not remain passive subordinates. A barrier to the idea of "teacher as leader" is teachers themselves. Every school has teachers who will defer all decision-making to their principal due to the school hierarchy. Teachers should be viewed as equal and be given the opportunity to lead with adults not just students. Principals would have to relinquish some of their power and Barth argues that everyone, both teachers and principals, would expand their leadership in their school. Barth anticipates both teachers' and principals' reasons why teachers could never become leaders. School demands on teachers would have to be shifted in order to allow teachers to be leaders. Teachers are overwhelmed with staff development, class sponsorships, fund raising activities and parent meetings. Due to time constraints, currently most teachers do not have a window of time available for another uncompensated duty. However, Barth accurately points outs the paradox: "those teachers who seem to have the least time and the most on their plates are the very ones who always seem ready and able to take on the additional work of school wide leadership. Like most principals, I soon discovered that if something had to get done, I needed to find a busy person to do it" (p. 92).
An additional roadblock to teacher leadership is the emphasis on standardized testing. Every teacher is spending every minute of their day trying to raise scores. Barth finds fault with teachers, even if they manage to create some time, delegate some of their responsibilities and not spend all of their time towards standardized testing; teachers keep other teachers from being leaders. Having taught high school, I am aware of how any school reform was met with resistance mostly by tenured teachers. Even a strong principal cannot always overcome resistance, often passive, by other teachers. Barth honestly depicts teachers' need for better personal and interpersonal skills. He interjects ideas from other teachers as to how a teacher can lead. One idea is to lead by following, in that participation is valued. Teachers should also either choose to join committees, lead alone and lead by example. The goal, Barth reminds us, is that teachers are reformers at the school-level.
The second half of the book mostly advises principals on how to create teacher leaders and on what leadership skills a principal should possess. Principals are viewed as builders or barriers. Principals are traditionally viewed as the leaders of the school. Barth argues that the example a principal sets is greatly influential to school reform. Teachers assume "to be a leader is to be like an administrator. I don't like the plight of administrators. I want none of it for myself. Therefore, I will stay away from teacher leadership" (p. 107). Every reader who has worked in education will fit Barth's description of a principal as barrier or builder to their own experience with principals. A barrier principal protects their power and selects teachers for leadership roles who are aligned with the principal's own agenda. Culture building principals are secure in their positions and develop and support teacher leaders. Barth suggests eight factors that influence the success of a principal creating a culture of teacher leadership:
- Expect: When principals expect teachers to become leaders, they instill the equally lofty message that all teachers can lead.
- Relinquish: If principals relinquish some of their responsibilities, they enlist the creative powers of the faculty.
- Entrust: Teachers will not become leaders if the principal reasserts authority with the first angry phone call from a school board member or parent.
- Empower: Do not just ask teachers to maintain and monitor a principal's solution. Allow a teacher to create a solution, maintain and monitor it.
- Include: Stop rewarding competence with more work. Allow other teachers who want to learn a chance.
- Protect: Protect teacher leaders from other teachers by publicly supporting their efforts.
- Share Responsibility for Failure: Share responsibility as well as success.
- Give Recognition: Teachers need recognition such as compensation, Master Teacher titles, or acknowledgement in the district newsletter.
With both teacher and administrator shortages, Barth's eight factors would greatly influence the campus by empowering teachers and educating principals as leaders. The most programmatic aspect of the book is several chapters on how to become a principal. Barth uses his own experiences in directing the Harvard Aspiring Principal's Program as a guide for training novice principals. Barth quotes Brent (1998) as to the current status of university training of principals: "graduate training in educational administration does not positively affect administrative performance." (p. 120). Barth states the importance of a principal to school reform but (a) how do you identify those likely to become outstanding principals, (b) how do you get them to become principals, (c) how do you prepare them for the overwhelming job they assume, and (d) how is their learning sustained once they are principals?
Both principals and university-based educators in educational administration will find much of interest in the principles of the Aspiring Principal's program. In the Aspiring Principal's program, based on Barth's earlier description of an experiential model of learning, Barth states that the current norm of educational administration programs is that the majority of time a student spends is in the classroom with a small amount of time devoted to the internship. Conversely, the Aspiring Principal's Program creates a residency similar to that of a medical residency. An experienced principal, known as a distinguished principal, mentors the aspiring principal for a two-year period. Distinguished principals select and recruit Aspiring Principals. Each Aspiring Principal creates a personal learning plan containing the school activities that led to learning. Examples were given of one plan in which the Aspiring Principal began mentoring programs, facilitated staff meetings, investigated school theft, proposed budgets and presented at conferences. The reader will be reminded of Barth's earlier argument for portfolio assessment of students based on experiential learning.
The final and fourth main theme in the book is a review of earlier identified impediments to school reform and conditions that will enhance school culture reform. Barth again asks all educators, including the school principal, to be a lifelong learner. According to Barth, "A final impediment to the school principal becoming the principal learner is that by engaging visibly and publicly as a learner, she admits I don't know it all. To be a learner is to admit imperfection" (p. 146). The conditions that facilitate a principal's learning are: (a) recognition, (b) learner-center, culture of playfulness, (c) risk-taking, (d) visibility as a learner, (e) constructing one's own knowledge, (f) incorporate the liberal arts, (g) sense of wonder, (h) collegiality, (i) reflection, (j) self-assessment, and (k) intersection of the personal/professional. The reader will find incorporating the liberal arts, i.e. poetry, dance, history and philosophy, an interesting idea to become integrated with Barth's description of education as technocratic and sterile. School reform also entails identification of the school-based reformers as well as identifying needed reforms. Barth challenges everyone in education to be prepared to acknowledge their contributions to school problems and change each one of our own assumptions and practices.
Both teachers and principals will enjoy the self-reflection that Barth elicits from the reader. The commonality of experience of all educators make this an enlightening book, and I highly recommend it for teachers and principals. Even though many of Barth's interviewees are based in New England, all of their experiences resonate as real and common among teachers. Educators involved in university-based educational administration programs will appreciate the second half of the book describing the experiential program and residency at Harvard's Principal's Center. Barth makes a great contribution in that the book empowers teachers and principals and asks for school reform from within. No outside, scientific-based research is necessary for teachers and principals to recognize problems with their own "hearts" as school-based reformers.
About the Reviewer
Sidney C. McDougall is a doctoral student in Educational Leadership and Administration at the University of Texas at El Paso and an Educational Diagnostician with the El Paso Independent School District. As a part-time faculty member at the University, she has taught courses in special education, classroom management and at-risk behaviors. Her research interests are educational reform, leadership, assessment, special education and teacher education.
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