Creative Approach to School Management

By Dorota Ekiert-Grabowska

Originally appeared in the International Creativity Network Newsletter, volume 4, number 2, 1996, pages 7, 10.

Editor's Note: This article comes to us from a visiting scholar in residence at the Center for Creative Learning in Sarasota, Florida. Dr. Ekiert-Grabowska is a professor of education and director of the Management Development Center at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland where she designed and taught a course in creativity for school principals.

School management demands not only knowledge about education and management but also a creative approach and the ability to use productive thinking skills. There is a need in Poland, as in other places, to include creativity courses in teacher training institutions and also in professional development programs and postgraduate studies for principals, long distance learning materials, and in-service courses so that there will be more creative work with parents, teachers, and students.

Many principals do not realize how this kind of knowledge can be helpful in their everyday professional lives. They accept their role as decision makers but do not realize the extent to which their decision making could benefit from knowledge and skill in effective problem solving. Very often they unintentionally become "idea killers" instead of "idea supporters. " They often do not understand the creative behaviors of some of their teachers and fail to support creative methods of teaching, seeing them as a waste of time.

What does creative school management mean?

Creative school management, as I use it, means that the principal is aware of creativity, understands opportunities which are offered to learn and use creative thinking skills, is familiar with techniques of creative and critical thinking, and is able to use these skills effectively in solving problems. It is a way for them to become self-actualizing professionals.

In the theory of management, one well known concept is the "creative organization" (Kuhn, 1988). We try to convince principals that a school should be a "creative organization. " We analyze its features, talk about culture and climate, vision, mission and goals of schools; however we do not sufficiently stress the fact that a creative organization can not be attained if the people working there are not creative and if the management is not creative at all!

Plans and Direction for Using Creativity in School Management

As the director of the Management Development Center (MDC) at the University of Silesia, which offers postgraduate studies for principals all over the country, I decided to include creativity in the program of postgraduate studies to promote creativity in Poland. Postgraduate studies for principals will combine a method of distance learning with residential courses. The framework for it will focus on the kinds of decisions principals must make, and address the question: "How might Creative Problem Solving help in decision making process?" The first year of postgraduate studies is intended only for principals, but in the future we plan workshops for more diverse groups of participants.

I also plan to establish a Creative Self-Development Center, in which we will provide consultancy, self-diagnosis sessions, seminars, and training for schools' staff and educational administrators as well as for business managers.

What are our goals?

Through our program we want to:

• make principals aware of:
  • their personal references or creativity style and how it can help them attain better results;
  • strategies for generating a wide range of ideas;
  • strategies for analyzing and evaluating ideas in order to find useful solutions for their problems; and
  • the three essential components of Creative Problem Solving and how to use them for their own benefit as school managers and for the benefit of their staff and school as a whole.
• make them skillful in:
  • using several strategies for generating new and original ideas; and
  • using strategies to analyze and evaluate ideas.
• increase their abilities to:
  • generate original and new ideas and put them to work;
  • turn selected ideas into real action; and deal more effectively with many different kinds of problems challenges opportunities.

References

Isaksen, S. G. (1988). Human Factors for Innovative Problem Solving. In: Kuhn, R. L. (Ed.) Handbook for Creativity and Innovative Managers. McGraw-Hill.

Treffinger, D. J. , & Isaksen, S. G. (1992). Creative Problem Solving, An Introduction. Sarasota, FL: Center for Creative Learning, Inc.

Treffinger, D. J. , Cross, J. A. , Feldhusen, J. F. , Isaksen, S. G. , Remle, R. C. , and Sortore, M. R. (1994). Productive Thinking. Volume 1: Foundations, Criteria, and Reviews. Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt.

Contact Information: Center for Creative Learning, 4152 Independence Court, Suite C-7, Sarasota, FL 34234, USA, phone: (813) 351-8862.