From the Middle School High School Principal

on

 A presidential week

It's been a week of presidential news, with Trump visiting the UK, and heads of state dominating the news. 

So too at ISA we have been thinking a lot about what it means to be a student 'president' forging a new path for the role.

Firstly we discussed with students what they wanted the role to be.  It can be many things - ceremonial, social events, advocacy, governance etc.  Interestingly, from 128 survey responses from students, the answer was clear.  This is what they wanted

The student president's role is focused on Advocacy for student voice and Governance in terms of being a part of inputs and recommendations for decision making in Middle and High School. 

We also clarified what this 'student agency' means to us.  Our Council of International Schools, Pathway project created this definition of the kind of agency they wanted.

Co-agency happens when the younger and older generations in our community share decision making by listening, openly communicating and taking action together as change makers.  This agency is aligned to the rights of the child in Scots law and the UNCRC.

In these statements you can see the beginnings of a powerful conception of the kinds of leadership students want from their president.  

Finally we asked students what issues they wanted their president  to work on.  These were the top two issues.
  • Gender equality, rights, misogyny and gender positivity.
  • Educating peers, identifying and reducing incidents of racism and microaggressions

The president and vice presidents of High School, supported by the Middle School presidents and vice presidents will meet with me as principal weekly on a Thursday to use service design models like the 'double diamond' and IDEO's design toolkit to work with groups of their peers to understand issues and design interventions to address the issues in ways that positive improve our community.

In a world where fear and unkindness is often the easiest path to election success, it is inspiring to me that in our ecosystem and community, the things that students most want in their leaders is the ability to bring people together, address inequality and injustice to make sure everyone belongs and is valued for being who they are.  There is something that all our politicians of all persuasions could learn from in that.

Comments

Post a Comment