WHY EDUCATORS CHOOSE NOT
TO BECOME INVOLVED WITH
INVITATIONAL EDUCATION:
REASONS AND REALITIES
Diana H. Brown
Lake County Effective
Teaching Center
Lake County Public Schools,
Lake County, Florida
William Watson Purkey
Professor Emeritus
The University of North
Carolina at Greensboro
Six reasons for not becoming involved with Invitational Education were obtained by the senior author through personal and written interviews with teachers and principals at six Lake County schools, three schools implementing Invitational Education, and three schools who had chosen not to become involved.
| Reason 1. | “We don’t need Invitational Education because we’re already invitational.” |
Reality: Being inviting is not enough. It is vital to be able to explain why a school is inviting and to have a language of transformation to talk about the inviting process. Without a language, it is difficult to communicate the concept or to address the symbolic structure of the school. Even if a school is already doing some inviting things, the better the school is, the better it can be. For those schools who want hard evidence of how inviting they are, the “Inviting School Survey-R” is available from the International Alliance for Invitational Education.
| Reason 2. | “Invitational Education is just another bandwagon. We were here before it arrived and we’ll be here after it’s gone.” |
Reality: Invitational Education is a trend, not a fad. It is more than a program, policy, or process. It is a philosophy that addresses the basic question of how human beings relate to each other in and around schools. Invitational Education has existed for over twenty years because it is a way of looking at what people do in the name of education.
| Reason 3. | “Invitational Education involves more work. It is one more demand on overworked teachers, principals, and saturated schools.” |
Reality: Invitational Education saves time, energy and money. It offers a comprehensive organizational structure that consolidates efforts and energies through the “5P” framework (People, Places, Policies, Programs, and Processes) which maximizes performance in and around schools. Inviting Schools report fewer discipline problems, greater school attendance (by both students and teachers), better academic achievement, greater family and community involvement, higher teacher morale and fewer student failures. This results in less work and greater success for everyone to celebrate.
| Reason 4. | “Invitational Education is a weapon to force schools to change.” |
Reality: The very essence of Invitational Education is to offer something beneficial for consideration. Forcing schools to be inviting would be antithetical with the very spirit and nature of Invitational Education.
| Reason 5. | “Invitational Education is limited to professional concerns in education.” |
Reality: A basic tenet of Invitational Education is the “Four Corner Press.” This “Press” gives equal attention to each of four dimensions (see diagram). When any one of these dimensions is missing from a school, the school begins to “miss” like an automobile with a bad sparkplug.
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Being Professionally Inviting with Self
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Being Personally Inviting with Self |
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Being Professionally Inviting with Others
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Being Personally Inviting with Others |
| Reason 6. | “Invitational Education is a touch-feely, feel-good, cotton candy approach to education that ignores academic rigor. |
Reality: School academic success is of great importance in Invitational Education, and everything is aimed at honest achievement. Through trust, respect, optimism, and intentionality, invitational theory integrates the importance of academics with human character resulting in student success. Invitational Education is research-based and its supporters are prepared to discuss substantive issues with educators, families and the public.
REFERENCES
Brown, Diana H. “Invitational Leadership,” Lake County Schools, Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida, May 19, 1997Purkey, W.W. & Novak, J. (1996). Inviting School Success. 3rd Ed. Wasworth.