Lindsay Whorton knew she wanted to be in education when she was still a young student, after helping a friend with his schoolwork. However, her academic journey led her into educational research and leadership, rather than instruction. While she admits feeling a “lingering disappointment” at not being in the classroom teaching, she recognizes that her current position as President of the Holdsworth Center allows her to confront the challenges educators face from a unique perspective.
“There are things that I can say that I think you’re not allowed to say,” Whorton said to a crowd of students and faculty during a recent campus visit. “I can use my role to point to hard truths that I think are not getting enough attention.”
In her new book, A New School Leadership Architecture, Whorton aims to address the confluence of two problems: the overload of leadership responsibilities faced by principals and the lack of pre-service training and development among new teachers.
“It’s a recipe for those teachers to not get the support and development they need,” Whorton said, “and for principals to feel like they’re working extremely hard but are failing.”
Whorton’s new school leadership architecture proposes a four-level framework for spreading out leadership responsibilities, which she calls “player-coach responsibilities,” throughout the traditional school structure. In this system, leadership training is reorganized into small, incremental steps rather than a single, large leap from teacher to assistant principal or principal.
“The most important thing is to make sure that every school has a plan for how teachers are going to get the coaching and support that they need,” Whorton explained.
"What I appreciated most about the evening was Dr. Whorton’s reminder that strong leadership starts with listening, reflection, and a willingness to keep learning,” Frank Hernandez, dean of TCU’s College of Education, said. “That message aligns closely with how we think about leadership in the College of Education."
Whorton said she hopes the book and perspective are encouraging. “I hope that educators who feel this book will feel seen and recognized, that they will see there’s somebody who gets how overwhelming this experience can feel.”