Leadership Trends 2024-2025: Trend #3
By Tim Bentum | February 10th
We are back this month with the third of five Leadership Trends for 2024-2025. These trends are being released once per month in the Edvance Notice between December and April.
As a quick reminder, these five broad Christian school leadership trends were generated based out of two days of discussion, debate, learning, reflection and engagement between the Edvance Directors and Cohort Leaders in August of 2024. Here are a few caveats that will help you read these trends with an eye towards leading more effectively in the current school year towards the flourishing of your Christian school community:
The goal of these trends is to equip school leaders and boards with information and relevant discussion topics that may be useful around a board or leadership table. They are not ‘prescriptive’, in the sense that Edvance endorses the trend or its resultant factors. Rather, the trends are more ‘descriptive’, creating space for dialogue and debate. In addition, these trends are inherently broad and general and do not apply equally, or perhaps at all, to each Christian school communities. However, at the very least, these trends may create an opportunity for learning, growth and empathy in and between school communities who may be wrestling with similar issues.
Although the trends may at times be challenging to read, each entry ends with some concrete steps that school leaders and boards can take to move forward in a hopeful, God-honouring manner in the face of challenge.
Happy Reading!
Trend #3: Individualism vs. Collectivism
Context: The modern west is, by many metrics, a highly individualistic society. By individualism, I mean a cultural force affecting everyone that bends towards independence and self-reliance as opposed to a more collective or communal way of living. Undoubtedly, in taking a long view of history, there are many things to be celebrated about increased personal freedom and agency. Ideas like the ability to pursue the ‘American (or Canadian) Dream’, personal agency to act in our local and global communities, and structures that give the average citizen a voice to speak for themselves and for those on the margins are all positive developments. Although ideas like democratic norms are constantly challenged, there is clearly much to celebrate in the modern west’s journey towards individualism.
Having said this, along with the move from a more collectivist culture to a more individualist way of seeing the world, there are also many challenges to be wisely discerned. In Christian schools, leaders need to be aware that they are swimming in a cultural milieu of individualism that have in some ways been taken to new extremes. In the midst of this, a school is an institution that relies on a collection of people working together and operates in the interests of its students as a whole.
One common example of this growing individualism is that Christian school leaders face the reality that parents are increasingly see themselves as ‘consumers’ rather than ‘co-owners’ or ‘partners’. This multi-generational shift has meant that parents, in general, are more interested in Christian schools for what they can offer their children right now, with less consideration given to the school’s history, its context, and its future trajectory. To be sure, there is a careful balance to discern.
Another common example of the rise of individualism as seen in Christian school communities can be seen in the way our brains may be re-wiring to expect instant gratification or quick solutions to issues in our lives. Our smart devices teach us to ‘swipe’ to new packets of information if we are not entertained by what we presently see. Amazon Prime has conditioned us to expect highly specialized consumer items on our doorstep by later this afternoon. Artificial intelligence, as amazing and potentially helpful as it may be, can also cause humans to grapple less with deeply human tasks like discernment and reflection, as English papers can now be written in the blink of an eye.
All of these societal and cultural forces have re-shaped expectations of the Christian school and the pressures on school leaders.
Issue in Brief: School leaders, particularly those with many years of service at a Christian school, could be struggling with the ‘consumer’ (rather than ‘partner’ or ‘co-owner’) mindset that is now prevalent in the minds of many parents who send their kids to Christian schools. Some parents may have too high (or perhaps too broad) a set of expectations of what a Christian school can actually deliver for their students, given current tuition levels and available staffing.
Having said this, ‘the times are a-changing’ (to quote Bob Dylan), and there is no going backwards. School leaders must understand that a ‘collectivist’ mindset is not necessarily the default, or even the most prominent, mindset walking through the doors of their school. Christian schools are a part of, and a contributor towards the wider Canadian culture. As such, Christian school leaders must understand their role in being a ‘faithful witness’ in the culture, while simultaneously maintaining a vision of eschatological hope in chaotic times. Within this tension, Christian school leaders have an opportunity to define and model for parents what it means to embody a healthy communal educational worldview, a worldview that saturates the pages of the Biblical story.
Steps to Consider: Here are two ideas with associated questions for boards and school leaders to consider as they prayerfully discern how to navigate a culture that increasingly bends towards individualism:
- Modeling Communal Living – Leaders would do well to audit their own cultural assumptions about community and our need to be the ‘body of Christ’, as noted in 1 Corinthians. A practical way to build a culture of ‘we’ and not ‘me’ is to focus on and celebrate group achievement towards common goals. When you look around your school building, are individuals predominantly praised or is teamwork recognized? Are multiple, varied voices considered when making large decisions, or are major decisions made quickly with little input? Is the educational vision the central driver of direction and decision-making or do special interests and individual voices seem to overwhelm the process? All of these questions require careful discussion and discernment around a board or leadership table. (Boards may want to refer to Edvance Flourishing Schools Health Indicator A.1 – “Mission and vision drive all decision making”)
- Slow Down, Go Deep – A major force driving individualism is the stunning ability of our culture to deliver (at least to some degree) on our consumer desires. Andy Crouch has named our technological abilities, ‘magic’. Unfortunately, the problem with this ‘magic’ is that it quickly wears off and, in the process, often means that we have traded a part of our humanity for immediate, temporal gratification. Where in your school schedule, resources, staffing and otherwise can you slow down the pace of your school? Where can you provide opportunities to go deeper into reflection and relationships? If humans are forced to slow down, they more naturally notice other humans, creating opportunities to build a deeper sense of the communal. Where can your school model deeper discipleship, doing less, creating silence, space and time for reflection and prayer? How can we, as adults, model basic spiritual practices for our students? (Boards may want to refer to Edvance Flourishing Schools Health Indicators B.2 and C.1)