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Schools are complex. There’s disagreement about their purpose, and how this purpose is best achieved. Schools constantly morph and evolve, and perhaps most significantly, they’re full of children – the most unpredictable of humans. When faced with such complexity, the temptation can be to make sense of it by simplifying. Our working memory quickly becomes overloaded by complexity, so navigating reality becomes much easier if we strip out the extraneous detail. With leaders increasingly required to know everything that’s going on in their school, the ability to invent proxies for the messy reality of school life is essential. We need to know that every pupil is learning in every subject, so we have a data system for that. We need to know if standards are rising, and use a quality assurance programme to provide that information. It’s management by dashboard – a series of flashing lights that warn us if the organisation is malfunctioning. Generalisations might be an inevitable feature of management in an era when leaders are expected to be omniscient and in control, but our schools are suffering from an excess of genericism, which occurs when simplicity comes at the expense of richness and diversity. The accountability imperative When a well-meaning leader’s attempts to understand what’s going on begin to interfere with what actually is going on, the school will find itself having to accommodate managerial needs over and above the pupils’ needs. The organisation becomes geared towards the imperative to be accountable. Leadership genericism, if permitted, infects all aspects of school life. When leaders insist on common lesson structures and the application of particular techniques, teaching becomes homogenised. Observation schedules are drawn up that allow leaders to check off instances of teachers using ‘retrieval practice’ and ‘low-stakes testing’. This type of generic pedagogy pays no regard to disciplinary distinctiveness or the expertise of subject teachers, who will be best placed to know the needs of their class and peculiarities of their subject. Whole-school assessment systems, while potentially a beneficial feature of schools, can begin to intrude into the curriculum. The authenticity of assessment is corrupted when its form and timing is imposed for the convenience of reporting and tracking. Such requirements do damage to students, robbing them of curriculum time and providing a false narrative on their progress. Beyond being inefficient, leadership genericism also drains the morale of professionals who know they’re being distracted from their moral task. Nothing is more frustrating for teachers than having to commit to work which will have little benefit – or perhaps be even detrimental – to the pupils in their care. Management speak See also the roles we give our leaders. We put leaders in charge of ‘progress data’ and ‘tracking’, and in so doing prioritise the metric over the substance of the curriculum. ‘Self-evaluation’ and ‘quality assurance’ is the language of the all-knowing leader, tasked with designing a rigorous monitoring system for revealing teachers’ talents or incompetence. Management speak reflects the dominance of a managerial culture – the antithesis of the trusted community of practitioners their teachers thought they were joining. Our vocabulary gives us away. As a school leader, I long for simplicity but am mindful that the pull of genericism is strong. Those holding me to account and those looking to me for leadership seek clarity and certainty. We want the aircraft pilot to be in control, which is why I’ve practised my authoritative voice and calm demeanour. It’s what is expected of me. Expertise in school leadership involves thriving in conditions of uncertainty. Those who learn to live with ambiguity will flourish, whilst others will drive themselves insane attempting to impose their will on the storm. As school leaders, we must resist over-complicating things, but avoid the simplistic. If we want richness and diversity in our organisations, then we have to accept that leading a school is anything but simple. School leadership is anything but simple THE LAST WORD School leaders’ efforts tomonitor what’s going on shouldn’t ride roughshod over the complexities of what’s actually happening, says MatthewEvans ABOUT THE AUTHOR Matthew Evans is the headteacher of a Gloucestershire secondary school and author of Leaders with Substance: An Antidote to Leadership Genericism in Schools teachwire.net/secondary