Andreea MOTAC,

1st year, MA in Applied linguistics - teaching EFL

Assignment:

For each of the 3 cases below – clearly identify the real issue(s) and suggest concrete steps to
improve the situation.

Be (very) specific.

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1. Mary Smith, a young teacher, worked frenetically, arriving early at school, staying late,
taking work home and rushing from one class to another. Each evening she would return home to
grade papers and write reports, eventually slumping exhausted in front of the television while
dozing over an article in a teacher development journal. Although she planned holidays with her
boyfriend, she almost always cancelled them to cope with another 'crisis' at school. Her
boyfriend at first had become angry at the extent of Mary’s job commitment but, failing to
influence her behaviour, he lapsed into sullen resentment.
Mary’s work became increasingly haphazard and she spent endless hours on trivial things. She
became pallid and underweight, smoked incessantly and had a truly worn-out look.
Mary's consuming passion was teaching and she devoted her few leisure hours to working with
student groups in a drama club. Once she overheard herself described as a 'workaholic type', but she
dismissed the observation as a shallow remark from an irresponsible and weak colleague. Another
young teacher said, 'Mary gives too much and she takes no nourishment for herself. I'm afraid that
she will crack up'. It came as no surprise to Mary's colleagues when they heard that she was in
hospital with chronic exhaustion.
Mary was fortunate; she recovered and returned to her job. But she adopted a new attitude
toward life and work. She said, 'I still want to work and to achieve but I'm not going to drive
myself like a machine.'
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2. A young teacher, Andrew, went to see an experienced mentor, Martin, for some 'career
counselling'. The following is a segment of their discussion:
Martin: How are things going?
Andrew: Pretty well. Plenty of problems, of course.
Martin: I've always found that problems can be divided into two main categories. One
category is concerned with finding the best way to achieve a specified goal. The
problems in this category I call 'technical problems'. The second category is much
trickier – it's concerned with choosing the right or appropriate way to behave. The
problem is not how to do it but what has to be done. I call the problems in this category
'value problems' because, in the end, it all depends on what you think is important and
worthwhile.
In my experience the value problems present more of a challenge to most people. I
think it is part of a manager's job to have a clear stand on such matters. Like it or not,
we are all concerned with moral choices.
Andrew: I'm not involved with moral issues. My job is to get things done. They hire me to
solve problems and achieve results. It's for politicians and priests to explain why we
do things. I am a manager and that means I am supposed to get things done.
Martin: It's true that your job is to get things done. But you are also a kind of gardener and
your job is to cultivate a healthy and productive unit. That requires more than slick
problem solving on your part.
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Andreea MOTAC,
1st year, MA in Applied linguistics - teaching EFL
3. It was an important day for John Morton. At 31, he had achieved much as a school
principal, and his energy and successes were well-known in the educational
community.
On this day, John was meeting the Inspector General to discuss his future.
Naturally ambitious and confident, John expected to hear about the promotions in
store for him. 'Perhaps it will be an assignment as personnel manager or inspector to
broaden my general management experience'. On his way to the School
Inspectorate, John felt a surge of excitement.
He was greeted warmly and told, 'John, you are one of the finest of our younger
principals. You have achieved much and I want to compliment you on the energy,
creativity and decisiveness that you show. I have been considering your future career
and there is no doubt in my mind that you could hold a more senior position.'
John was swelling with pride as the Inspector General continued, 'But John, I have to
express a real problem that prevents me from promoting you now. You do not have a
clear successor. The people in your school recognize your quality and are loyal to
you, but none of them stands out. You have used them well, but you have not
developed them. You are a star who shines too brightly alone. We need strength in
the school as a whole. That is a serious weakness and, until it is put right, there can be
no promotion for you.'
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Andreea MOTAC,
1st year, MA in Applied linguistics - teaching EFL

1. In the first case, the problem described is that Mary Smith used to be a workaholic.
Being at the beginning of her career, Mary’s passion and dedication for teaching led her to self-
neglection. What Mary did was to give up her leisure hours and her time with her partner in
favour to her passion. In other words, she neglected her psychological and social needs as seen
from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and concentrated mainly on her self-actualization needs.
Skipping the base of the pyramid and focusing only on its top made her believe that she would
find self-fulfilment. However, in reality, this affected her health. There needs to be a balance
between one’s needs otherwise one can harm oneself.
What Mary could do to improve her situation would be to establish a precise daily to-do
plan in order to better organize both the time allocated for work and self-improvement at work
and the time for herself. For example, from 8 am to 12 pm - classes; from 12 pm 12:30 pm –
lunch; from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm - drama club (not more than one hour a day and only three
times a week); from 2 pm to 6 pm - time for herself and her partner; from 6 pm to 7 pm - read
articles; the rest of the evening/night - time for herself (one - two hours can be added in the
schedule for lesson planning/paper grading); no work on Saturday and Sunday.

2. The issues behind the second case are that Andrew, the young teacher, acts only as a
manager and not a leader, and that he is more of an explainer rather than an enabler or at least
involver teacher. Martin, the experienced mentor, explains to Andrew that there are two types of
problems: ones that concentrate only on problem-solving, knowing how to do something, and
others that focus on moral issues, knowing what has to be done. What Andrew does not
understand is that a good teacher should know as well what has to be done. She/he should be a
leader for their students, a good example to follow, she/he should be resilient, visionary and
teach students the importance of teamwork. Moreover, from Andrew’s reply, it seems that he is
interested mainly in presenting/teaching his subject without minding to find out the best way to
make it easily understood by his students. He is the teacher as an explainer type and not the
teacher as an enabler who places the student in the centre of attention and insists on the message
to go across (from teacher to student).
In order to improve the situation, Andrew should see teaching more like a vocation rather
than a job and understand that he has to be a leader too not only a manager. He should determine
the objectives he wants to achieve for each class, learn to empathize with his students and
establish with them a common goal. Nevertheless, Martin should explain to Andrew the main
role of a teacher −to form or carve out students’ personality −and her/his objective −students’
autonomy − and emphasize the importance of teamwork and feedback.

3. In the third case, the school principle seems to be an autocratic leader. I believe the
issue here is that John Morton adopted the autocratic leadership style in the wrong environment.
In the above text it is mentioned that John was highly known for his contributions in the
educational community which means he was very good at his job. He was a good manager, a
good organizer, he had got the how and what but lacked charisma. The reason he was not
promoted is that he concentrated mainly on problem-solving −what to do and when and who to
do what –neglecting the development of the individuals in his team and of the team as a hole. He
should have placed as much importance on his employees, the teachers in his school, helping
each one of them develop professionally and mentally.
To improve the situation, John should encourage collaboration and communication
among the teachers in his school in order to build up a team. He should stop telling everyone
what to do and how and encourage them to speak up their minds, come up with their own ideas
in order to become autonomous. Moreover, he should learn how to empathize with people, listen
to his employees’ opinions, show them support and also organize teacher and management
trainings for them.