Perhaps you’ve already heard the difference between managing and leading. If not, the Harvard Business Review notes:

Management consists of controlling a group or a set of entities to accomplish a goal. Leadership refers to an individual’s ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward organizational success. 

There is no mention of where in the hierarchy of an organization a leader emerges, so why do we usually think that a leader needs to be in a role on the top steps of the hierarchy? Schools are organizations with many examples of leaders at lower levels of the hierarchy, like teachers and staff, that demonstrate leadership. I think when we discuss who is a leader, we should consider their ability to influence, motivate, and enable others, as mentioned above. However, due to the normalization of leadership = higher position, many teacher leaders don’t view themselves that way or minimize their ability to rise to positions on the hierarchy of leadership. In this case, those in positions of leadership have a responsibility to take note of and mentor staff who don’t see themselves as leaders or have leadership potential. How can leaders already in positions of power on the hierarchy support those who have the potential but either don’t perceive themselves as having the skills or are fearful of taking on a leadership role or even leading a specific project?

When I was the elementary principal at a private, all-female American curriculum school in Kuwait, my team included teachers from all over the globe and had a variety of degrees from a variety of universities.  It was my responsibility to manage the day-to-day routines as well as to guide change and improvement in teaching and learning. There was no way I could do all that if I didn’t delegate some of my responsibilities to teachers and para-professionals who would benefit from the experience of taking a leadership role in some tasks. Some of the women I tapped on the shoulder asked me how I knew they would be able to lead a task or project. I told them I had observed them in their teaching role and also how they handled their students and worked with their team members. Some were fearful of failure if they led the task and politely told me they were not ready. I respected their decision even if I didn’t agree. Many who took up my challenge applied for positions as head of a department or as vice-principal. Para-professionals I mentored returned to complete their undergraduate degrees or complete a teacher certification and then applied for teaching positions. 

So, what key traits did I notice in my team members that showed me they had leadership potential? 

Here are my top 5:

They are…

1. Self-motivated 
2. Long-term thinkers who don’t fear change
3. Relationship-builders and team players
4. Empathetic and Compassionate 
5. Decisive after listening to and considering alternatives

Self-motivation is key to leading. You can’t wait for someone else to come up with an idea or push you forward. You need to wake up in the morning ready for action and be organized enough to make things happen.

Being a forward-thinker means seeing into the future while being grounded in the present and understanding the past. It also means you are able to plan short-term to reach a long-term goal. And finally, it means you aren’t afraid of change because you are planning for it. 

Building healthy professional relationships is also key to effective leadership. Leading isn’t a solo endeavor. It’s a team effort. Little can be accomplished if you don’t have a supportive team around you but building a team takes the right kind of person. It needs a combination of skills such as communication, collaboration, trust, respect, and valuing the potential of human capacity. 

Empathy and compassion are often used interchangeably; however, empathy is important for making connections with others so they feel valued and compassion helps them feel validated.  Empathy means you understand their feelings and compassion means you’re ready to step up and do something to help them resolve a problem. 

Decision-making is an art and a science. The art is knowing when the science you have is enough to make a decision. In simpler terms, gathering all the information and data, delegating tasks to your team members, receiving feedback from your team, then making an informed decision are the art and science of decision-making.

School leaders have a responsibility to cultivate and mentor other school leaders, especially if they want sustainability in programs and systems. I’ve found that the best place to start is with our teachers and staff. 

Want to Learn More?

The Essential Handbook for Highly Effective School Leaders: How school leaders maximize teacher commitment, engagement, performance, and retention by Tim Nolan.

Leaders in Succession: Rotation in International School Administration by Patrick Lee

Posted by: Ilene Winokur, EdD

Dr. Ilene Winokur has lived in Kuwait since 1984 and is a professional development specialist supporting teachers globally, including refugee teachers. Ilene has been active in learning innovation for over 25 years and is passionate about narratives related to belonging. Before retiring in 2019, she was a teacher and administrator at the primary and pre-college levels. Her work has focused on supporting multilingual learners and increasing their success in English-based curricula. As a teacher, she earned her teaching certification in ESL to increase her toolbox of strategies to ensure her students felt included, valued, and seen. As a school leader, Ilene mentored her team members about techniques such as scaffolding and tiered questioning that support language acquisition. Ilene advocates for instilling a sense of belonging in students, which is the subject of her books Journey to Belonging: Pathways to Well-Being and Finding Your Pathway to Belonging in Education.

Imagine you traveled to a country where the people didn’t speak English. How would you communicate with others about your basic needs like a place to stay, your meals, and what parts of the city are safe? Would you panic or feel scared? What would you need to feel safe? How could others who speak the local language help and support you to make you feel safe? This is how language learners often feel in your classroom. English learners in Kuwait’s private schools often lack confidence in their ability to communicate in English and immigrants around the world face similar obstacles.

Newcomer students may also be coming from a traumatic situation if they’re a newcomer or recently resettled. Your role as a teacher in making sure they feel safe is vital if they’re going to succeed in your classroom. If they’ve been uprooted from their homes due to war or a natural disaster, they lack a sense of belonging because they were forced to leave their homes. They may have gaps in their education due to displacement or are unfamiliar with the local language. We know that all students need to feel a sense of belonging at school and “(w)hile a sense of belonging is necessary for all students to succeed in school, students from immigrant and refugee backgrounds are particularly affected.” What do we mean by belonging? Naashia Mohamed explains,

Students’ sense of belonging refers to the feelings of being accepted by teachers, peers, and any other individuals at school, and feeling like they are part of the school community. When students feel that they are a part of a school community, they are more likely to perform better academically and are more motivated to learn. Studies also show that the feelings of security, identity, and community associated with a sense of belonging affect students’ psychological well-being and social development.

When students feel that they are a part of a school community, they are more likely to perform better academically and are more motivated to learn.

Dr. Ilene Winokur

It’s important to establish a safe environment that begins with trust and respectful relationships from the first day of class. All students need to believe they are treated fairly, so if accommodations are made for some students, including language learners, their peers need to be aware of the reasons you are scaffolding their lessons. In addition, there are several steps you can take to ensure all of your students feel a sense of belonging like greeting them at the door every day or as they come on the screen. Another step is making sure you pronounce their names correctly. Sometimes students who are new will be shy about correcting their teacher so explain that it’s important to you. After all, it’s part of their identity.

Another way to increase your students’ sense of belonging is by creating an environment of caring, collaboration, respect, empathy, and compassion among your students. Modeling this whether you’re inside your classroom or with your students or colleagues will go a long way to showing your students the way. We need to make sure our students don’t feel like the other. In an article for the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society (Berkeley), john a. powell and Stephen Menendian (2016) define “othering” as a

set of dynamics, processes, and structures that engender marginality and persistent inequality across any of the full range of human differences based on group identities. Dimensions of othering include but are not limited to, religion, sex, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status (class), disability, sexual orientation, and skin tone. (p. 14)

You might be saying to yourself, ‘How do I handle differentiated lessons or accommodations for my students? Won’t that make them feel different and othered?’ Truthfully, it won’t if you handle it correctly. If your students know you have their best interests at heart because you’ve shown them you care about how they’re progressing in your class, they won’t focus on how you’re delivering the lesson. Also, they will champion your efforts to ensure their success if you explain to them, from the beginning of the year, that each student has different needs, strengths, and areas that need improvement. Your job is to help them reach the stated outcomes by supporting their efforts, celebrating their successes, and giving them focused feedback to support their progress.

My experience teaching English in Kuwait at the grade 3 level and pre-college intensive courses spans 25 years. Within that time, I have tried numerous methods to support my students’ English language acquisition while overcoming their lack of confidence and negative self-talk (lack of self-belonging) about learning the language. My action research shows a direct link between the achievement of language and content objectives through project-based learning (PBL). The best resource for PBL is the Buck Institute for Education: PBL Works

Students work on a project over an extended period of time – from a week up to a semester – that engages them in solving a real-world problem or answering a complex question. They demonstrate their knowledge and skills by creating a public product or presentation for a real audience.

As a result, students develop deep content knowledge as well as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication skills. Project-Based Learning unleashes contagious, creative energy among students and teachers.

Project-Based Learning unleashes contagious, creative energy among students and teachers.

Dr. Ilene Winokur

PBL is authentic learning that is meaningful to students. They make connections to their interests, background knowledge, and learn the language throughout the process. Writing, reading, listening, and speaking are all necessary components of the projects. They are making meaning and connections to the learning because it’s meaningful to them.

According to PBL Works,

English Language Learners are one of the groups that tend to be looked over when thinking about who is “ready” to do PBL. But all students are ready if armed with appropriate scaffolding by their teacher. In fact, if we look at learning in terms of growth, EL students are likely to show huge success due to how immersive PBL is in communication skills and critical thinking.

Projects can be tailored to any and all subjects. When using this method with language learners, scaffolding is a must. Planning by the teacher must be intentional and well-thought-out. PBL mentions several scaffolding strategies for successful PBL planning with language learners. I have summarized them here:

Research must be accessible and students shouldn’t be left on their own to search. They should be guided to look for podcasts, leveled books, short articles, etc. that can be chunked into smaller bits. Model the search and research process the first time they are assigned a project.

Provide background vocabulary of Keywords to support them. Building schema around the topic gives students valuable context before beginning the project. This supports their confidence and efficacy when they encounter words or phrases they’re unfamiliar with. Help them make connections to their prior knowledge.

Depending on the student’s level of language fluency, provide visuals for instructions such as pictures, gifs, or icons. Videos using Screencastify to record your instructions give the student a way to view them multiple times or stop at certain points.

Set the stage from the beginning of the year by teaching collaboration to all of your students. Don’t assume they know how to work together. This is where empathy and sharing of ideas and resources through teamwork support their feeling of personal belonging. Collaboration creates respect for others and helps them embrace differences.

Teachers should be actively involved in interacting with students as they work in groups. Asking tiered questions that guide students towards the next short-term goal is essential. Keep anecdotal notes of student progress and let them know you value what they’re doing.

Post project progress timelines, keywords, and related resources on a bulletin board and keep adding to it for the duration of the project. This will provide ongoing support to students who might not work as quickly as others.

You may be wondering how PBL Works recommends assessing students working on projects. They have created a set of research-based rubrics with four main areas: Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Self-Directed Learning, and Complex Communication. The rubrics act as a guide for giving focused feedback to students about their progress in each area from Beginning, Emerging, Developing, to Demonstrating. When using these rubrics, they recommend teachers modify them based on local context.

Learning a new language in an academic environment is daunting, so creating ways to integrate feelings of belonging (validation, acceptance, feeling valued, having agency) while conquering the language and content objectives will go a long way toward successful achievement of those goals. Project-based learning that is planned for and implemented well can help students accomplish it all.

Ilene’s Bio:

Dr. Ilene Winokur has lived in Kuwait since 1984 and is a professional development specialist supporting teachers globally including refugee teachers. Ilene has been active in learning innovation for over 35 years, is an expert in professional development, and is passionate about narratives related to belonging. Prior to retiring in 2019, she was a teacher and administrator at the elementary and pre-college levels for 25 years. Her blog, podcast, and book focus on the importance of feeling a sense of belonging.

Link to purchase Journey to Belonging: Pathways to Well-Being: https://journeys2belonging.com/3C5Ojig

You can connect with Ilene on

Twitter: @IleneWinokur

Instagram: @ilenewinokur

Facebook: IleneWinokur

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilene-winokur-edd-08683527

Blog: https://wke.lt/w/s/vNkgVJ

Website: https://www.ilenewinokur.com

To purchase her book: https://journeys2belonging.com/3C5Ojig

School experiences can have a long-lasting effect on how we perceive ourselves and our capabilities/lack of.

Today’s post delves into self-concept or what I call self-belonging and how we can attain it and support others, like our students, to find themselves and their sense of self-belonging.

Graduation speeches are usually upbeat and celebrate the time a student spends in the years leading up to their final year before adulthood. It was a bit different at my son’s high school graduation in 2005. Ahmed, my son’s friend, and the class salutatorian* gave a moving speech to his fellow classmates filled with this message: We are so much more than our grades, our SAT scores, and the rank of the universities that accepted us. His speech was a response to the negative beliefs about his entire senior class, the largest in the school’s 40-year history; 132 students. From the time they were in the elementary grades at this K-12 school, the whole class was labeled troublemakers, even the well-behaved, achieving students, and all were regularly disciplined. Even in their final year, discipline meant the loss of privileges such as having their own space to get together between classes and being allowed to move around campus with less supervision than lower grade levels.

Ahmed’s speech left me speechless and sad. I still have a copy of it to remind me of what schools shouldn’t do to students. Students shouldn’t be labeled, shamed, or punished for poor behavior without someone first trying to find the root cause of the problem. But that’s exactly what happened. In 7th grade, my son received a “D” grade on a literature response essay. My son is fluent in English, and an avid reader of books much higher than his reading level. However, when I began asking him questions about the book he used for his essay, his answers showed me that he only had a superficial understanding of the plot, characters, etc. I was shocked and made an appointment to see his teacher whose excuse for not exposing my son to a deeper analysis of the book was the poor level of reading comprehension by the majority of his classmates and a lack of English language support in middle school.

My son and many of his classmates, including the salutatorian, walked into college with a deficit mindset due to low self-esteem, self-efficacy, self-confidence, and self-worth based on hearing they “weren’t able to…”, “they lacked X skills,” throughout their school years. It’s difficult to continue doing your best when all that’s recognized is your worst. And while I tried to support him and do my best as a parent to minimize the effects of the constant negativity, my son, now in his mid-30s and working at a demanding job that appreciates his skills, has begun to believe in his capabilities and gain a sense of self-belonging.

It’s tough growing up without a positive self-concept. I spent the first 35 years of my life doubting myself, second-guessing my decisions, and wondering if people liked me or were just saying they liked me. It wasn’t until I found my sense of self-belonging in my mid-30s that I finally stopped my negative self-talk and started to believe in myself. In elementary school, I remember having to suck on cinnamon candy to stop my stomach from feeling queasy because I was so anxious about failing or making a mistake. In high school, I couldn’t wait to graduate, so I enrolled in summer school to have enough credits to graduate a year early. There are two times I remember feeling like a failure. In 7th grade, I received a “C” grade for an art project I worked on for many hours and was so proud of, and it convinced me I was not creative. The second memory I have is failing my first test in biology class in 10th grade. That reinforced my belief that I was unable to learn science. I was devastated and thought I’d have to repeat the subject. Since I already doubted my abilities, my self-efficacy in science and art, those grades reinforced my self-concept and negatively impacted my sense of self-belonging..

So, what is self-belonging? According to Healthline, “[y]our sense of self refers to your perception of the collection of characteristics that define you. Personality traits, abilities, likes and dislikes, your belief system or moral code, and the things that motivate you — these all contribute to self-image or your unique identity as a person.” This is what I refer to as “self-belonging”. It’s essential to our well-being because, without it, we doubt if people really like us for our authentic selves, we question each decision we make, and it negatively impacts our personal and professional relationships. So how can we develop self-belonging? Here are a few tips from my own experience:

1. Be mindful and intentional about choosing to build your sense of self-belonging. Make a commitment to spending time and effort at it.
2. Build time into your schedule for daily reflection and use that time to make mental or physical lists of your personal and professional accomplishments, your strengths, and what obstacles you’ve overcome.
3. Find someone you trust and who values you to talk about the list from #2.
4. Celebrate your accomplishments (see #2) whenever you begin to doubt yourself. Make this a habit.
5. Don’t feel shy about sharing your accomplishments with others, even strangers. Learn to feel good about “bragging” to others. This will eliminate any thoughts you might have of “impostor syndrome”.
6. Surround yourself with people who value you for your authentic self and don’t insist that you “fit in”.
7. Practice giving yourself grace; allowing yourself to make mistakes because you’re human and valuing those mistakes or failures as opportunities to learn and grow.

Self-belonging plays an important role in how students navigate school. Without a sense of belonging, learning becomes secondary to what happened at home, or how others are treating me. If I don’t have self-esteem or self-efficacy, I won’t try to move out of my comfort zone because I’ll be worried about failing in front of my peers and my teacher. According to a recent interview (Allen and Gray, 2021) of Emeritus Professors and authors of the groundbreaking 1995 paper about belonging and human motivation, Baumeister and Leary, “There has been much discussion about whether self-esteem is important for education, and self-esteem is substantially (though probably not entirely) rooted in belongingness.” Baumeister notes, “belongingness remains an important driving force. If we can explore new ways to harness that motivation to strive for superior academic achievement, it would benefit plenty of individuals as well as society as a whole.” Leary emphasizes the point when he states, “belonging plays an important role in the degree to which students are motivated to go to school in the first place.”

How can we help students cultivate a healthy self-concept and a sense of self-belonging? We can plan lessons that encourage independent thought and action, that give them choices to explore, be curious, and learn about the world around them. Students who need a bit more guidance along the way should be able to choose topics that interest them and books that represent them. We can build their self-confidence by recognizing their accomplishments and giving them focused feedback about the areas they are still developing while supporting them along the way.

My life is so much happier and healthier because I found my sense of self-belonging and I wonder how much better my life would have been if I had found it before I was 35 years old. Think of how much better school and life would be if we could find our self-belonging when we’re younger.

*graduating student with the second-highest grade point average

Find out more about self-belonging on my website and while you’re there, sign up for my monthly newsletter filled with strategies and ideas for cultivating a sense of belonging in your classroom and your school.

You can find out more about Self-Belonging in my book, Journey to Belonging: Pathways to Well-Being.