Me?

What Can You Do For Me?

I spoke with a lead teacher recently who told me that when interviewing and employing (particularly beginning) teachers, one question they have started to ask is, ‘What can you do for me as a teacher?’.

We are entering a new age in which ‘what can you do for me’ is changing how people perceive a workplace.

In a world of change and flux, teachers also have a life they are living.

Complexity and change are no longer extreme or uncommon but reality. All people are trying their best to navigate the pace, mobility and consumeristic demands of today’s world and its expectations.

As someone who cares about education, and you do care, this question of ‘what can you do for me?’ may feel uncomfortable. By default an educator is one who tends to give unconditionally, this is a trait that keeps us in the job, ‘what can someone do for me?’ often seems a luxury and uneccesary. Yet this question makes sense and is probably sensible within schools today to preserve our role as a caring human who supports the learning journey of others yet also has a learning journey of their own.

So what do you want out of your education workplace?

As a leader what would you say if someone asked you, ‘what can you do for me?’ You would no doubt think about what the school can do rather than what you can do.

If teachers are beginning to ask this of their workplace how do we unpack these highly subjective interrogations?

So rather than combine too many elements (although we may do this in time) it is important to firstly consider:

What is important for you?

Have you ever taken time to think about this?

Possibly no.

And, out of interest, are ‘what is important’ or ‘what can you do for me’ the right questions? These answers will change depending on the circumstances.

Possibly, ‘what do you want to see in your workplace?’, ‘what conversations do you want to be a part of?’, ‘who do you want to know?’, ‘how do you best learn?’, ‘what do you want to know?’, ‘what aesthetic elements are important?’ to you are more specific questions?

If these questions are difficult, then taking time (and courage) to begin to think about this may be exactly what you need to do before you plan your next lesson.

You may find the initial thoughts that come to mind have been handed to you by others, told to you, are secondary answers, so dig a little deeper. What do you want or what can you do for me could be replaced by what are your values and what elements of your workplace can support this?

Until next time,

Mon x