Snapshots of Inquiry: Mission, Vision, Values.
Schools stand (and fall) by their Mission, Vision and Values. These statements are central to school improvement, the development of strategic plans, accreditation and evaluation processes… which can all sound rather administrative and distant from the reality of the classroom and other learning spaces on a day-to-day basis.
Particularly in schools that espouse an inquiry-based, student-centred, constructivist (insert progressive adjectives of choice here) learning philosophy, it is a sad irony when the development and dissemination of these statements takes place in a static, top-down fashion. As progressive leaders in a rapidly changing world, we need to focus on engaging the community in inquiry.
Broad learning-community / stakeholder consultation in the generation of these statements is increasingly considered to be 'best practice', but where do we go from there? Once the statements are created, how do we generate active learning community inquiry into Mission, Vision and Values, starting in the most important place: with the learners?
I am interested to hear from others. How does your learning community meaningfully inquire into its own Mission, Vision and Values? Feel free to message me, or to post a response below.
IB Field Representative at International Baccalaureate
7 年Dear Joe, thanks for sharing. IB values in Mission statement, learner profile and approaches to teaching & learning makes core for all its programmes. I believe if we as educators believe in it, it will definitely be visible in our practice. Our learning community can clearly see our passion and build upon it. As Chris has mentioned we should 'live' it rather than 'laminate' it. However, I also believe in explicitly addressing mission statement, learner profile and ATL in our classrooms. Being transparent with students and sharing with them what are your strengths and weaknesses as a learner, how do you perceive mission statement also helps. It makes everything more authentic.
Head of Upper School
7 年Ahh the old propensity to laminate... like The Learner Profile, whenever I see these statements too ubiquitously displayed on walls methinks they do protest too much
Teacher and Curriculum Content Developer
7 年Interesting stuff, Joe. Any effort to engage with the Mission and Vision of an organization is helpful towards 'living it' rather than 'laminating it'.