Professional Learning Cultures and Teacher Attrition in Times of Political Conflict

As a retired superintendent and now professor of educational leadership, I spend a lot of my professional time with superintendents, assistant superintendents, and building leaders.

The level of stress on leaders has probably never been greater. Their perseverance in the face of unprecedented events has been inspiring. While trying to manage the vicissitudes of the pandemic, superintendents are being confronted by political reactionaries.

Board meetings have become contested spaces with activist parents often armed with scripts provided by national partisan organizations, challenging curriculum and professional development related to “divisive” topics, such as race, equity, and gender identity. They come seeking to overturn policies and practices designed to protect the most marginalized of students. They come calling for the ban of classroom or library books with content they deem to be “divisive” or morally offensive, in some cases, having never read what they contest.