Co-operation not competition - NZSPC

Media Release
29 September 2009

Co-operation not competition - NZSPC

A new player on the horizon has the potential to potential to pit colleagues in schools against one another, New Zealand Secondary Principals’ Council (NZSPC) chair Julia Davidson says.

Davidson, who replaces Graeme Macann as NZSPC chair, spoke at PPTA’s annual conference today about her views on the “new union in town”.

“For the first time there is a new (principals) union (SPANZ) …and we are each vying for membership as the contract negotiations loom.

“Principals have to make a decision – ‘which contract will I end up signing, so effectively who will be my bargaining agent?’

For Davidson this is a “purely rhetorical question”

“I joined PPTA as soon as I could. I was going to be a teacher, and secondary teachers were looked after by the PPTA.”

Most principals still thought of themselves as teachers, Davidson said.

“The bottom line is that we probably got into the job because we wanted to help students and we thought we could make a difference.
“In that regard we are no different to most teachers in schools today.

”The easiest way to do the job is to work with our staff to a common goal. Co-operation, not competition (despite tomorrow’s schools best intentions), “ she said.

Principals acknowledge that they need to attract good teachers and middle and senior managers.

“To do this, we need to support the secondary teachers as the negotiate their collective.

“So if this is your M O, why would you want to be in an organisation that is in competition for the resources and aims to set colleagues in the same school against one another?”

Davidson finds it “deeply ironic” that some of the people who became the most “fervently anti-union principals” of recent times were now creating their own union.

“I would have thought that if, as a principal, you truly cared about your staff and the students in your school, it would be in your best interests to belong to the same professional organisation as your staff.

“Our jobs are different, but we are essentially wanting to work together to achieve the same goals. We need to accept that we are basically teachers who do another aspect of the job – we aren’t leading industrialists or CEOs of gazillion dollar companies,” she said.

Principals needed to take a very public stand that NZSPC represents the ethical face of principalship.

“I believe we need to be united with our staff in protecting all that is good about the state education system in New Zealand as we head into the potentially murky waters in the years ahead and this may be a place from which to start.

“Staying in PPTA puts principals in a group that see more than the needs of their own school, now – they think nationally, and well into the future. Collaboration and community are more important to our members than competition. This isn’t about right or wrong, it’s about an ideology stance and it really matters.

ENDS

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