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Hi Imac!

Great Question! I believe that providing quality education the single most important issue in education today. Advocates of Invitational Education (IE) maintain that the effective implementation of its philosophy can lead to quality education in schools. Invitational Education provides a framework for making schools a more exciting, satisfying, and enriching experience for everyone – all students, all faculty and staff, and all visitors. This framework goes beyond reforming or restructuring; its goal is to transform the fundamental character of the school. Invitational Education asserts that everybody and everything in and around schools adds to, or subtracts from, school safety. It centers on four guiding principles of respect, trust, optimism, and intentionality. 1. Respect: Everyone in the school is able, valuable, and responsible and is to be treated accordingly. 2. Trust: Education is a cooperative, collaborative activity where process is as important as product. 3. Optimism: People possess relatively untapped potential in all areas of worthwhile human endeavor. 4. Intentionality: Safe schools are best realized by creating and maintaining inviting places, policies, processes, and programs and by people who are intentionally inviting with themselves and others, personally and professionally. By centering itself on respect, trust, optimism, and intentionality. Invitational Education provides a common language of transformation and a consistent theory of practice. Rather than relying on one program, one policy, or one process, Invitational Education addresses the total zeitgeist, the spirit within a school. It has a wider focus of application than traditional efforts to make schools safe. It is concerned with more than grades, attendance, academic achievement, discipline, test scores, and even student self-esteem. It is concerned with the skills of becoming a decent and productive citizen in a democratic society. Implementing Invitational Education encompasses a long and arduous process which may also be difficult to sustain. These schools prove that implementing the paradigm has taken a long time and that the journey is not over yet. Schools considering a process of school improvement through IE should realise that this approach is not designed to give fast fixes to issues in education. However, it does have the potential to bring about tremendous change in the quality of schools. IE provides an opportunity for people to work together and reconfigure education and learning.

Hi Imac!

Great Question! I believe that providing quality education the single most important issue in education today. Advocates of Invitational Education (IE) maintain that the effective implementation of its philosophy can lead to quality education in schools. Invitational Education provides a framework for making schools a more exciting, satisfying, and enriching experience for everyone – all students, all faculty and staff, and all visitors. This framework goes beyond reforming or restructuring; its goal is to transform the fundamental character of the school. Invitational Education asserts that everybody and everything in and around schools adds to, or subtracts from, school safety. It centers on four guiding principles of respect, trust, optimism, and intentionality. 1. Respect: Everyone in the school is able, valuable, and responsible and is to be treated accordingly. 2. Trust: Education is a cooperative, collaborative activity where process is as important as product. 3. Optimism: People possess relatively untapped potential in all areas of worthwhile human endeavor. 4. Intentionality: Safe schools are best realized by creating and maintaining inviting places, policies, processes, and programs and by people who are intentionally inviting with themselves and others, personally and professionally. By centering itself on respect, trust, optimism, and intentionality. Invitational Education provides a common language of transformation and a consistent theory of practice. Rather than relying on one program, one policy, or one process, Invitational Education addresses the total zeitgeist, the spirit within a school. It has a wider focus of application than traditional efforts to make schools safe. It is concerned with more than grades, attendance, academic achievement, discipline, test scores, and even student self-esteem. It is concerned with the skills of becoming a decent and productive citizen in a democratic society. Implementing Invitational Education encompasses a long and arduous process which may also be difficult to sustain. These schools prove that implementing the paradigm has taken a long time and that the journey is not over yet. Schools considering a process of school improvement through IE should realise that this approach is not designed to give fast fixes to issues in education. However, it does have the potential to bring about tremendous change in the quality of schools. IE provides an opportunity for people to work together and reconfigure education and learning.

Hi Lisa, It certainly does seem like an oxymoron when we say, “come on in” yet we place restrictions on the invitation. I believe a balance is necessary between inviting people into our building and maintaining the safety and security of our students as well as the integrity of the educational programs that are occuring in our classrooms. Communication with families and the community is paramount to develop boundaries and define a welcoming environment.

Schools lock doors to maintain the safety of the students. It is important to monitor who comes in and out of our school therefore all guests need to begin their visit at the office. The school leader sets the tone of the school and works to develop a culture that exudes an inclusionary and welcoming environment. As you mentioned in your background on intentional leadership, these leaders must build trust, respect and optimism among all school community members.

Hi Imac,

Your question reads loud and strong for me. You may want to ask staff who work at Durham Public what is posted on the front door of their Board Office. In the past I have used their approach as a model--it begins with an invitation and welcome to start their visit first with the receptionist. Schools in New York start out with a quote of the law—failure not to report to the front desk is a msideminnor subject to arrest.

Great question when considering the importance of involving the community in the education of students.

Niagara

Wow that’s unfortunate because I have seen first hand how invitational leadership is very effective. My principal took the “Stop” sign down from the front of the school and replaced it with a welcome sign that asks people to please report to the office to check in. He also took down a “staff only” sign from one of the doors. This may seem small but it’s all the little things that count. At a leadership session that my Board offers, our Director said to us the following and it stuck with me: “They won’t remember what you said. They won’t remember what you did but they will always remember how you made them feel”

I think that this relates well to invitational leadership.

Hello Imac,

Our school has two buildings and all our doors are locked for security reasons. Teachers and staff have the passwords so that we can get to classes between periods. I honestly never thought about it as “stopping” the community from coming in. I looked at it as a safety issue. I don’t think we want just anyone walking around in the school? Our front door says to come through the front and go to the reception area. Parents can get a visitor pass and continue on.

If the parent is spoken to professionally, I don’t see why they would be offended by someone making sure all is secure. After all, the safety measures are there to protect the children.

Just my thoughts.

Hello: Your comment is very valid. As educators we continue to promote community partnerships to develop pathways for student success, yet we close the doors. This is a sad reflection of our community. Have we lost trust in our fellow man? This focus on safe school environment has also put restrictions on our ability as teachers to have student explore technology to promote critical inquiry. Boards have implement firewalls to prevent students and teachers from accessing web information. The restrictions on cell phone use, iPods, home-based laptops etc is contrary to the development of critical thinking. How are we thinking about creating an educational process and environment which allows teachers, students and community to be safe and yet be able to explore, expand beyond the boundaries of the school? We invite and encourage students to develop critical thinking skills but we put up road blocks to explore beyond the boundaries of the school and the textbooks in the classroom. Are we too afraid to change the face of the four walls of the classroom? Does keeping the “bad” out prevent the “good” from being a discerning learner?

Hi Shelly I agree, it is very difficult to take chances in the classroom especially where technology is concerned. I am not sure what we are afraid of. One of the problems at the elementary level is that teachers don’t have the experience with technology so some use the computer class as a “free” period. I think that if we trained teachers to use technology, it wouldn’t be as concerning. I use technology in the classroom quite a bit and you would not believe what the kids can come up with sometimes whith very little help at all. I am continually surprised at what they are capable of creating. If we are going to try using a program that I am unfamiliar with, I simply tell them that I haven’t used the program before and that it will be a learning experience for all of us. With a great deal of excitement, the kids will come up and show me something that they learned and they are quite happy to teach the teacher something. It’s great. I understand that there are down sides to using technology and I have a very lengthy conversation with them at the beginning. If we monitor our kids while they are creating these great works, problems will be minimized or maybe even eliminated.

Hi lmac, Your question is a thought provoking and interesting one. You are correct in saying that at the school level we promote partnerships between school and community, and yet we seem to set up these blockades. While I believe that in our changing society, safety is of utmost concern when it comes to students at school, I do believe that it is necessary to create a more “welcoming environment.” I believe that this can be done by ensuring that the message of “safety” is conveyed to the staff, and parent community in a way that is understandable and non- threatening. While I believe that locking the doors to a school is a necessary precaution, I believe that the message can be construed in a way that is uninviting. Having administrators visible outside of the school building at the beginning of the year welcoming parents, and reminding them to sign in at the main office should they wish to be inside of the building may go a long way. I also think that the message that schools are happy to have visitors is an important one that should be conveyed to the community. The message must often times be repeated, however, it must be said in a way that allows for the partnership between school and community to remain intact.

A theme of balance seems to be re-occurring. Parents and the school community should be actively involved but there is a risk in them becoming “too involved”. People who are not directly linked to a school may not fully understand how a school functions and the parameters within which we must operate. I remember a situation early in my teaching career where a community member volunteered to coach the football team. The volunteer bought all the equipment but then thought he had the right to run the team as he saw fit which often went against the philosophy of school sports. He would tell students they could skip classes and he would constantly put teachers down. I remember him even once yelling at the principal in front of the office staff. When the principal tried to have him removed from this volunteer position he was unable to do so as the volunteer was going to sue him for wrongful dismissal. There is so much more I could say but I don’t want to get sued as the person is currently a public political figure. I know this is an isolated event so my thought would be to be as invitational as possible but make sure that there is ongoing commuication about everyone’s role.

In summary, invitational leadership is a model that everyone can relate to. The four main principles (respect, trust, optimism, intentionality) can be applied with any culture and climate of any school. Sonya talks about the framework being very “transformational”. It certainly does promote change in that partnerships are easily created with this model. When we are working together, change is easier. These partnerships are dependent upon trust and respect which are two of Purkey and Seigel’s (2000) four principles. Intentionality is important because it suggests clarity in the message. When we have signs at our front door that say “STOP”, what is our message? By saying “Welcome please report to our office” are we not sending a more positive message? This is intentional and positive. We want people to come in so we should say it and then outline the required policies. This relates well to the final principle and that is optimism. At times it is difficult to see the positive side of things but looking optimistically at various situations can really change a particular mindset. How many times have we asked our students to look on the bright side of a situation and we hear the valued response, “oh, I see”. We need to practice what we preach!