I’ve got a dilemma. Do I write blogs and publish them or not bother?
Working in a school that is the only secondary school in a small localised Multi-academy Trust it is essential that we are outward facing in order to check-in, get validation and constructive responses to our ideas, and benchmark ourselves. I have largely done this through networking, visiting schools and receiving visitors at our school to share the ideas. A couple of times I have even dipped my toe in the water of presenting at edu-events to expand our reach and get more diversity and views in the feedback we receive. This has been brilliant and I have developed a local network of colleagues who I admire and know will provide honest feedback. Within this there is a further trusted circle with whom I can share virtually everything knowing that I can expect (almost) unconditional support and hefty challenge in equal measure.
I have also discovered EduTwitter where I have deliberately ensured that I follow people that challenge as well as support my thinking so I can view ideas through different lenses and ensure that I’m not creating an echo chamber. I am aware that EduTwitter is a small sphere and know a huge number of educators who I admire that don’t interact with it at all. So why bother at all?
The truth is, I love to read the blogs and ideas regardless of angle or topic. As a school leader with my own particular experience and areas of expertise – it is empowering, useful and refreshing to seek out a range of views on a broad range of areas and subject specialisms. I share these often back in school leading to rich conversations that may support, challenge or test our thinking and direction of travel.
But, I am a consumer. Other than supporting known or unknown colleagues through retweets and likes; retweeting the amazing work happening at my school or the occasional ‘humorous’ response to a comment from a friend, I do not contribute.
I don’t really have the time or energy to get involved in the half-termly twitter spats and am willing to observe the hardcore edu-twitter antagonists from the sidelines, quietly shaking my head. I should probably do more to support the innocents who unknowingly wander into this arena with a genuine thought or comment in the form of a tweet, for which they get marmalised and spat out. But I don’t. It’s tiresome and these trolls enjoy nothing more than defending their often closed position being unreasonable at best and aggressive and rude at their worst. I can do without that.
That is not the dilemma I have. My dilemma is whether I make a positive contribution to the rich tapestry that is presented daily through blogging or not?
The ‘Yes’ Argument. Blog away my friend.
I think that we are doing some great stuff at our school. I am happy to share this with my network and our visitors and we often gain great feedback or some questions that make us revisit what we are doing. Sharing this with a wider audience would gain more lenses, more questions, more views with which to improve our school.
Greater exposure of the positive work that we are doing is a crucial part of school leadership. Since deliberately, expanding our local network and raising the visibility of our school we have seen a significant upturn in interest in our school both within the community and local education circles. This in turn has led to greater number of applications for posts in a geographical area where recruitment is hard.
A further argument that is often for blogging is: who are you blogging for? The argument goes, just blog for you. If you are blogging for you, not bothered what others think and are genuinely grateful for feedback then go for it. It is interesting to see how your thoughts and ideas change(or not) over time.
Also, linked to this is that your view is valid – or at least as valid as everyone else. There will always be someone who is more experienced, wider read, more (research) informed. But you are a product of your unique experience to date and that experience, whether good, bad or indifferent will have moulded your views and philosophy. We have a responsibility to be informed
Blogging itself is not the issue. Publishing is the issue. I love to blog. It helps me gather my thoughts, edit, review and reflect. Ideas that were previously random or loosely articulated become cogent when I write them down. This, in turn, aids the verbal articulation of thoughts to others when I return to school. Sometimes I share these written musings within the trusted circle and am grateful for the feedback. So what is the resistance?
The ‘No’ Argument. Exposure = Vulnerability
Someone who I respect greatly, with whom I shared my dilemma and the arguments shared here responded with this.
“Many of the people who are doing the best work and having the greatest influence on education, aren’t blogging.” Member of my trusted circle
This is a powerful argument. Leading a school with the huge responsibilities to the students, parents, staff and community that come with the role is a big job. Big enough perhaps to be satisfied with just doing that really really well. Do the work for the students in your context, get external validation from your network and don’t worry too much about anyone else.
With greater exposure also comes greater vulnerability. We all feel it. Imposter syndrome is real as we question everything from our experience and ability to do the job, to the validity of our views. But do we need to exacerbate this further by opening ourselves up for scrutiny in a very public forum where sometimes the security of being hidden behind a screen, keyboard and perhaps anonymity means that individuals feel empowered to be hyper-critical, aggressive and mean? The scrutiny moves beyond the strategy or views presented into to criticisms of spelling, punctuation and grammar and sometimes the realm of the personal. In these days where protecting our mental well-being is so important, should we just avoid putting ourselves in these situations?
Having said this, being able to be vulnerable and show this, is an important part of leadership (@Heale2011 talks articulately about this in his TEDxTalk). We should be able to role-model both our vulnerability and resilience by putting out our ideas for scrutiny and accept the response with good grace and professionalism. However, this may be especially important so for the teams and individuals that we work closely with on a day to day basis and less so for the keyboard warriors who wont give you a second thought following their twitter sport.
Additionally, is the alternative worse? Self-promotion and the sharing of views and opinions as absolutes, within a carefully crafted echo-chamber of followers who lavish praise and support is potentially damaging also. The lens narrowing so far that all else is unacceptable. Maybe the supreme confidence is an asset and I’m envious. Or perhaps, in education, where context is crucial, little is concrete and valid views can be wide-ranging and successful, the lack of self-awareness or vulnerability is problematic.
The dilemma remains
Therefore the dilemma remains. The arguments are formed and understood. This blog in itself is a kop out. Write a blog about the insecurities or writing a blog and see what the fall-out is before deciding whether to publish any of the many blogs, that are written but remain unpublished, that may actually express a view.
So do your worst and offer some feedback. If you write and publish – how do you counter the arguments? If you would like to but don’t how can we create an environment or system that allows you to be brave?
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