Book Study:
Empowered Schools, Empowered Students
By: Pernille Ripp
Overview
The beginning of the book discusses why there is a need to empower all stakeholders within the educational system, rather than only administrative or traditional power holding positions, like principals. There are two main parts of the book Empowered Schools, Empowered Students by Pernille Ripp. The beginning of the book focuses on how principles and administrative positions can work to give teachers and other stakeholders within the school power within the educational system. The second part of the book focuses on how teachers can give students more power within the classroom in order to motivate them in the classroom and engage them with the curriculum. Ripp addresses the challenges of empowering others in the school system and also the benefits of doing so. Throughout the book, Ripp provides many real-world examples that allow the readers to see how the tools and techniques that are suggested can be successfully implemented. Finally, Ripp discusses the importance of empowering yourself so that you can ultimately empower others within the school system including other teachers, students, and principles.
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Highlights
Some of the key points that Ripp makes is that in order to implement empowerment across the school and within all stakeholders, principles and teachers need to work as a team rather than in a power-based hierarchy. Ripp states that “The empowered school is one where all voices are heard, dissenting opinions are valued, and staff is trusted. The principal is not simply the leader, but a voice in the discussion- just not THE
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voice.” Ripp goes on to state that in order to have empowered teachers and students in the school, each stakeholder must work together to do self-reflection, to declare the intent of why things need to change, to make goals together as a group, and to create a plan of action together. Finally, Ripp stresses the importance of implementation and that the “empowerment plan of action cannot be seen as forced or as extra work or it will fail” and “therefore, the plan should be determined by all of the stakeholders”. Ripp emphasizes the importance of getting connected and says that “whether you expand your local circle of educators or you take the plunge into Twitter or Google Plus to link with a global education community, now is a great time to get connected.”
Critique
One of my key critiques of the book is when they discuss why some principals, coined “the Lone Ranger,” do not empower other stakeholders in the school system. The book cites many reasons such as fearing “to stand out”, lack of trust “that the teachers will do the right thing”, habit of “inner circles,” and time because some believe it is “simply easier to not change anything because it will take up valuable time”. These are the main reasons why Ripp states principals do not allow the majority of teachers to have power within the school. However, I think that Ripp is also missing a key component of why some principals, either new or long-termed tenured, do not empower teachers and that is training. Often the educational systems’ power hierarchy is a traditional system that principals either experienced when they were students, when they possibly taught in a school, or how they were taught. This idea ties in with Ripp’s point about habit, however, I believe both habit and training go hand in hand with this issue. A lot of principals may struggle to give others power within the school system because they were never taught how to do so. They may only know how the traditional system works and how to operate within that system. Principals, much like teachers need professional development in order to make these changes. This book, Empowered Schools, Empowered Students, is a key part of that professional development.
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Teacher Takeaways
Ripp emphasis the importance of self-reflection, being open with our students and creating a plan of action with the students. Ripp states that “we tend to hide our insecurities from students, and yet most students would trust us more if we showed more of our humanness”. For teachers, it seems the key is to be honest with ourselves and with our students in order to facilitate empowerment with our classrooms. Ripp also states that teachers should give students a voice in the classroom but in order to do that they must also teach students what it means to have a voice. Ripp states that “Having a voice means having a say, a decision in what happens within the classroom or the school”. Ripp also emphasizes the importance of being honest with students and recognizing “as a teacher our roles and our place changes every day and sometimes every minute”. Finally, Ripp stresses the importance of making room for failure and for success because “too often we simplify failure and how we must embrace it because that is the only true way to learn”. Ripp points out that if students were to only learn through failure they would become discouraged and disengaged in the classroom, and therefore, there should be a “chance of failure- absolutely- but chance of success as well”.
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“we tend to hide our insecurities from students, and yet most students would trust us more if we showed more of our humanness”.
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Professional Development
If I were to lead a professional development about this book in particular it would be centered around the idea of the collective rather than the hierarchy. I would get teachers and myself together to work through the idea of how empowerment can work within the classroom. First I would ask teachers to share how they start the semester with new students, what a usual day in their classroom looks like, and how they believe they are empowering their students. Based on that discussion and after discussing the key points in the book, I would have teachers, individually, reflect on what they think is great in their classroom with relation to empowerment and what they think needs work or needs to change. After reflecting, I would work with teachers in groups to share their reflections and ask them to work together on ways to implement change for the sake of empowerment. I would work with teachers to help facilitate ideas and discussion on how things could be improved along with the things that I myself need to work on. Finally, I would set up some communication system, whether it be with a flipgrid or slack message so that teachers could update the successful implementation and new challenges that they have in order to further facilitate collaboration.
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Additional Resources
Along with the book, the Corwin group also has a website with many different resources and ideas that teachers can use. On this website, teachers can find access to many different blogs centered around the idea of empowerment including but not limited to Leadership Reflection, Innovation Day, and Teacher Reflection. The website also has a link to some Amazing podcasts along with some ideas about student blogging and blogging through the fourth dimension. If you are not convinced about this book, the website also has multiple reviews from many different educators, including an IL State teacher of the Year, who all endorse and stress the importance of reading Empower Schools, Empowering Students. You can also find Ripp’s Twitter feed on the website where she gives different resources, ideas, and plans for educators to use, not just related to empowerment, but to many different issues within education.
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