Mahoney
Teaching
Teaching is why I am at Gonzaga. I was first invited to teach at Gonzaga as an adjunct in September, 1991. That assignment led to three more adjunct assignments in spring and summer, 1992. Those assignments led to my being invited to teach full-time as "Teacher in Residence" in the Department of Administration, Curriculum, and Instruction in 1992. I taught at the rank of Assistant Professor on annual contracts for eight years. In August 2000, my ninth year at Gonzaga, I was placed on a tenure-line contract. In 2002-2003 I was reviewed for and promoted to Associate Professor. In 2003-2004 I was successfully reviewed for Tenure. In 2006, I applied for, and was for promoted to, Professor.
I want to briefly describe my commitment to teaching and how that commitment extends in a natural way to my commitment to educational leadership. In my preparation for and in my practice of teaching students in K-12 classrooms, I believed the primary task of the classroom teacher was to create and maintain an environment that ensured that students' individual talents and strengths were recognized and encouraged to flourish; an environment that supported students in their attempts to work through the difficult developmental tasks and academic challenges of growing up; an environment that assisted parents in developing perspective as they raised their children.
I believe the role of the educational leader is much the same, but on a larger, organizational level. Educational leadership expands the realm of responsibility and, consequently, intensifies the total impact one has on the learning environment. I believe in a systemic approach to the improved functioning of the organizations in which we work. I believe if we encourage people to use their professional and expert power, our schools and the other places we work can become self-shaping environments in which practitioners, teachers, administrators, and students share both the responsibilities and the opportunities for making meaningful decisions about the organization.
I am professionally dedicated to school renewal, not school reform. The difference between reform and renewal is that reform is about whatever is politically fashionable, pendulum-like in popularity, and usually under-funded, lacking in professional development, and short-lived. Renewal is about the process of individual connections in the lives of educators working together to understand and improve their professional practice. Renewal is not about a point in time; it is about all points in time. Renewal is about continuous critical inquiry in action related to principled innovation, including current practices, that might improve education. Through the courses I teach in the various programs in the School of Education, my job is to be engaged in, and help engage people in, an ongoing process of renewal.
I feel blessed to be able to work with nurses and administrators in the Master of Anesthesiology Education program in Spokane, with teachers and administrators in the Master of Arts in Leadership and Administration program in Canada, and with teachers and future administrators in our Principal Certification program in the state of Washington. It is my honor to be with you as we work together to improve the lives of others.