TAMAM continues…

We found it intriguing that the challenges and concerns voiced by the attendees at the excellent TAMAM conference were not unlike those heard in many other places around the world. Among those issues were:

• How do we motivate people who don’t want to change?

• In a country where power in distributed among a few, how do we create equitable relationships in school communities and teams and between coaches and those coached?

• How do we keep from deferring excessively to those in authority?

• Many women now in the profession went into teaching when they had few choices. Now things have changed (even in Saudi) and women can choose among many professions.  Many women who were forced into teaching see it as a job, a burden, not a profession—how do we awaken them?

• How do we change a culture in which the principal is supposed to know everything?

• How do we develop new relationships with the ministries and directories so that they will support rather than contradict our initiatives? (note the discussion in the last post).

• Can everyone lead? And, if so, what does that mean for us?

For you educators out there…sound familiar?

One of the many lengthy conversations I had with a woman was about these very issues—particularly how we can change cultures in order to cause people to accept and initiate change.  She related what she tells her daughter about empowerment. Her eyes were warm and smiling as we spoke; that is all I could see of her face as it was buried within her full burka.

Linda

 

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 31st, 2011 at 7:40 am and is filed under Education, Leadership, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.