FESE HandBook v03c 15112023 MEV- COMPLETO - Flipbook - Página 43
LOUISE STOLL / LANGUAGE FOR LEARNING LEADERSHIP
Language shapes thought and affects how people respond. The way
you think innuences the way you speak and the other way around.
Changing how people talk actually changes how they think. For example, if you teach people new colour words, this changes their ability to
discriminate colours (Boroditsky, 2011). In addition, in an experiment
evaluating humour in cartoons, Ellen Langer (1997) found that people
approached the task differently and enjoyed it more or less depending
on whether the activity was described as work or play.
Language is also critical to workplace motivation. Policy language
that labels schools as failing – a number of terms are used – does not
support them to improve (Myers and Goldstein, 1998: Munoz-Chereau
et al., 2022). How you function at work is also innuenced by what and
how leaders and managers communicate. It can be motivating or demotivating; it matters for job satisfaction. Language reduces uncertainty,
is involved in making meaning, and reaforms employees9 sense of their
self-worth as human beings, which is why it is so fundamental to workplace motivation (Sullivan, 1988).
Furthermore, language conveys what is important. Think about the
names of Ministries. In England, the Department for Education has,
over time, been called the Department of Education and Science, Department for Education and Employment, Department for Education
and Skills, and Department for Children, Schools and Families. These
terms demonstrate different emphases. Your system may also have gone
through name changes.
So, the language all leaders use really matters. Both what they say
and how they say it have consequences. While their actions are critical
too, the foundation of this piece is the words leaders in and connected
with schools and school systems choose. Note the word 8choose9. It is always a choice to use one word rather than another, even if it has become
habitual. The trouble with always sticking with the same terms is that
language evolves over time, with experience and in context. As David
Shariatmadari (2019, p: 36) points out:
There is no perfect dictionary in the sky with meanings that are
consistent and clearly deoned: real-world dictionaries are constantly
trying to catch up with the 8common deonition9 of a word.
When I think about learning leadership, what then are the words that
come to my mind?
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