The Purpose and Power of a Mission

by Danny Mucinskas

In pursuing short or long-term goals, at the individual or organizational level, a clear understanding of your mission can be a powerful source of focus and motivation. The start of a new year is the ideal time to realign priorities and to reflect alone or open conversations with others about your shared and personal missions.

Institutional missions are “enduring statements of purpose that distinguish one organization from other similar enterprises” (David & David, 2003), and most large organizations today have mission or vision statements. Missions may serve multiple roles (Bain & Company, 2018; Bittencourt & Willetts, 2018), including:

• To differentiate an organization within a field of similar ones.

• To establish a visible purpose and describe the processes necessary to fulfill it. 

• To provide a binding focus on common goals and a framework for shared behavior.

• To attract support from others who share a complementary mission.

 In education, missions such as “lifelong learning,” “critical and creative thinking,” and “productive contributions to society” are common (Wiggins & McTighe, 2007). Mission statements of schools in particular have been linked to:

• Values promotion among stakeholders and even improved relationships and student behavior (Lovat et al., 2010).

• Character education outcomes, if the school is able to build an open climate, establish a shared vocabulary, and engage in role-modeling (Arthur et al., 2017; Berkowitz et al., 2017).

A recent study of secondary schools by The Good Project showed that schools with a strong mission-driven ethos are likely to attract like-minded individuals and that community members may use mission statements as a way of judging actions within the school context or beyond it.

Given what we know about mission statements, it is worthwhile for educators and students alike to take time to explore existing missions or to create a new one together.

The Good Project offers a few activities that can help identify a mission and how it intersects with values, role models, or “good work”:

• School Mission (link) – Students write down their school’s mission statement or draft a new one, and then consider the values important to the community.

• Group Brainstorm: Identifying Mission (link) – Students answer a series of questions about the school mission in small groups and identify someone who might exemplify the mission in practice.

• School Mission Reflection (link) – Students brainstorm together about areas of agreement or disagreement about their school mission and what “good work” means at their school.

Additionally, a personal mission statement related to excellence, ethics, and engagement can help individuals do “good work” on a daily basis. The “What Is My Mission? (link)” activity guides users to set their own mission statement. This process may allow people to better see where their own mission diverges from the missions of those around them or the organizations that they are a part of.

As outlined in our video on the 3 Ms (Model, Mission, Mirror), the process of writing a personal mission statement may therefore open conversations about whether friends, colleagues, and others in communities share similar goals and how to better align perspectives.

We encourage all of our readers to take a moment to pause and consider your mission in the coming days. Additionally, think about how you can have conversations with those around you about your personal and institutional missions, where alignments can be strengthened, and where misalignments can be bridged.

---

References

Arthur, J., Kristjánsson, K., Harrison, T., Sanderse, W., & Wright, D. (2017). Teaching character and virtue in schools. Routledge.

Bain & Company (2018). Mission and Vision Statements. Retrieved from https://www.bain.com/insights/management-tools-mission-and-vision-statements/. 

Berkowitz, M.W., Bier, M.C., & McCauley, B. (2017). Toward a science of character education: Frameworks for identifying and implementing effective practices. Journal of Character Education, 13(1), 33-51.

Bittencourt, T. & Willetts, A. (2018). Negotiating the tensions: A critical study of international schools’ mission statements. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 16(4), 515-525. 

David, F.R. & David, F.R. (2003). It's time to redraft your mission statement. The Journal of Business Strategy, 24(1), 11-14.

Lovat, T., Clement, N., Dally, K., & Toomey, R. (2010). Values education as holistic development for all sectors: researching for effective pedagogy. Review of Education, 36(6), 713-729.

Wiggins, G.P. & McTighe, J. (2007). Schooling by design: Mission, action, and achievement. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Good Work and How It Happens: Reflections of a Teacher and Middle Manager

By Arlene Pang

… be true to the mission of bringing out the best in our students…
… be exemplary in the discharge of our duties…
… guide our students…
… continue to learn and pass on the love of learning…
… win the trust, support and cooperation of parents and the community…”

The Teachers’ Pledge is recited by every student teacher in Singapore on graduation day as a commitment to the hard and heart work of teaching. Five short statements together exemplify the spirit of teaching and the good work of a teacher—work that is ethical, excellent and engaging.

It is easy to define and recognize good work, but what are some of its enablers, the factors that allow it to happen? Reflecting on my experiences and observations as an educator, I have identified several key factors that have supported and sustained me in my attempts to fulfil my commitment to the profession. Other than the first, these did not exist in the beginning of my career—instead, they came into play as new developments and milestones emerged, and as the nature of my work, my roles, and my responsibilities evolved over time.

1. Personal Beliefs, Values, and Sense of Mission      

An orange starfish in the sand

A story is told of a man walking along a beach, its entire length strewn with starfish washed up from a recent storm. He encounters a boy picking up the starfish one by one and tossing them back into the ocean. When queried, the boy explains that he is helping the starfish who are unable to return to the ocean on their own. If they remain on the beach, the heat of the sun would dry them out and the starfish would perish. The man remarks that, given the multitude of starfish on the beach, the boy would not be able to save all of them to make much of a difference. Undeterred, the boy picks up another starfish, tosses it back into the ocean and replies, “It made a difference to that one.”

Many of us begin our careers with the Starfish Story in our minds, believing that we can “make a difference” by saving one student at a time. Driven by this sense of mission, I spared no effort to do what I believed would make a difference: persevered in teaching a class that was failing badly; organized after-school study sessions and conducted extra classes; wrote motivational cards to students; ran consecutive camps and overseas trips; and made house visits. I observed the positive outcomes of my efforts on the students and was spurred on to do more. I enjoyed the work and experienced flow. Overall, it was work that was definitely ethical, excellent and engaging.

However, as the number of competing commitments and the level of expectations on me as a teacher increased over time, it became harder and harder to rely on personal beliefs, values, and motivations alone to sustain good work. As a programme coordinator, I was more driven by targets and awards that the school could win rather than by a sense of mission and calling. I started to measure success based on the number of targets I achieved and exceeded, rather than on the impact of my work on my students. I was engaged and motivated to do excellent work but for the wrong reasons. At the same time, I was running short on my own resources to sustain the work—physical, psychological, emotional and social resources—and I would have given up, had the next factor not come into play.

2. Positive Mentorship

Amidst my frustrations, support came in the form of a mentor—a more experienced colleague who offered (sometimes unsolicited but appreciated) counsel and advice. More importantly, my mentor had no reservations in correcting me (sometimes harshly) to bring my focus back to my sense of purpose as an educator whenever I seemed to stray from the path. Both of us have moved on to different schools, but the mentoring continues. When my morale is low, or when situations at work arise and decisions need to be made, I know I have an encourager, sounding board, and moral compass to keep me moving in the right direction and to help me decide on the best possible course of action.

3. Sense of Belonging and Responsibility to the Profession

For a long time, teachers were confined to thinking about work only in our own classrooms, departments, and committees. A turning point for me as a teacher was when I received a binder from the Academy of Singapore Teachers six years ago with the words “Ethos of the Teaching Profession” embossed in silver on its white cover. A sense of delight passed through me as I read the documents inside, which articulated the shared beliefs and professional pride of Singaporean educators—placing the child at the center of what we do, honoring the profession, pursuing professional excellence, educating the child within our unique national context and valuing parents and the community as partners in education. The Ethos provided a common language and a shared point of reference for decision making, especially in the face of ethical dilemmas. No longer was teaching about “me and my beliefs”—it was now about “our beliefs as educators in Singapore.”

Coincidentally, before leaving for my post-graduate studies in HGSE, I was posted to do a short stint in the Ministry of Education and placed in a work team that focused on engaging educators in conversations on professionalism and on our shared Ethos. Good work had taken on a new dimension. I noticed in conversations how teachers frequently referred to the shared beliefs and used them to guide their decision-making processes. The attitude had shifted from “me as a teacher and the good work I do” to “us as a body of professionals and the good work we do.” My sense of responsibility to the profession heightened as I saw news stories about how the (un)professional misdeeds of a small group of educators (e.g. forgery of answer scripts, embezzlement of school funds and sexual misconduct by educators) could cause public disregard for the overall profession. In HGSE, I took Howard Gardner’s Good Work course, which provided me with the “3 Es of Good Work” framework (excellence, engagement, and ethics) to think about the work that is done in schools and how, upon completion of my studies, I could and would do good work as a teacher again.

4. Realization of Personal Influence

My appointment as a middle manager in recent years provided me with another perspective on good work. Adjusting to the demands of my portfolio and trying to keep school programmes afloat (note: not thriving, as I would have preferred as an indicator of excellence), I lamented the lack of support and resources given to me to do my work well. Then a realization hit me—while I wished for the outside support and resources to do good work, what was I doing in the capacity of my management appointment to support the efforts of others to do good work?

Hence, my understanding of doing good work as a middle manager was transformed: good work was not just about delivering strong school programmes but also about developing and supporting others so that good work becomes pervasive in schools. This realization added a new dimension to my conception of good work—in addition to bringing about personal satisfaction, good work could be spread and multiplied in others as well!

Good work does not happen by chance. Knowing that these are some factors that enable good work to happen, what can we do as educators to remain committed to the work on an individual level and as a community? As I begin what is hopefully my next decade as an educator, here are some things I will strive to do on a personal level and that fellow educators could consider undertaking as well:

1. Preserve my personal sense of mission by staying connected to the profession at multiple levels—other than within the school, through professional networks and professional learning communities where there is a shared sense of mission.

2. Continue to be mentored and intentionally mentor others, and in doing so, help others to plug in to the wider teaching community.

3. Take initiative not just in asking for support and resources but also in providing these for others.