Whether on traditional school calendars, or in those balanced or year-round, summertime brings with it opportunities for recalibration and rejuvenation for Assistant Principals. One of my many favorite things to do each summer was walking leisurely through my school’s hallways when no one was around, thinking fondly of the year gone by, and envisioning how I could be of better service to those around me in the year ahead.
My role as architect helped insurmountably each summer season.
Not an actual architect, mind you, but one figuratively as creative and potentially, as environmentally influential.
Each summer, I was an architect of counterspace.
As I share in All Other Duties As Assigned: The Assistant Principal’s Critical Role in Supporting Schools Inside and Out, opportunities for Assistant Principals to cultivate counterspace are powerful, indeed.
Here’s how I conceive of it:
“Think about the wide array of students you have in your school and how some seem to fit in more seamlessly and function than others . . . the bottom line is that some students feel more connected with school as you have designed it, and others feel less connected, or othered” (p. 138).
Ok, are you with me?
Now, as Assistant Principals, we have obligations to create spaces where all students experience a sense of belonging, so they feel a part of things—a place to go where they are valued, known, and matter. This is what the notion of counterspace is all about. Counterspace is a place where those of similar experience, perspective, or identity gather to celebrate one another and affirm their shared experience among the larger whole of the school.
Some fit more snugly with the larger whole of the institution and the way school is done; others experience more incongruence with structure or dynamic.
All need counterspace, especially the latter.
I share with educators, “Counterspaces need a physical element to them, a demarcation of territory where certain students are allowed and encouraged to go to be with their group” (p. 139). This is some of what’s on my mind each summer as I reflect back and think with about what we have accomplished and look ahead with hope anew. And yes, physical space—or place—has much to do with it.
So . . . what does this all mean [to me] anyway?
It means during the summer season, it’s time to cultivate our counterspace.
It’s time to take our principals, custodians, secretaries, counselors, teachers, staff, and maintenance teams on a stroll through the school and have conversations regarding which students meet where, what gets done socially and interpersonally, and who does and does not have a place. We might even involve students.
Further . . . ask ourselves, ‘What can we invest in to create more counterspace?’ As I note, “Look for spaces in the library, at the ends of certain hallways (nooks and crannies), in the gym mezzanine, in school courtyards, and on school groups if weather permits” (p. 140). While doing so, think about how you might maintain and buff-up existing spaces each summer season so that they have a fresh look and viability for the fall ahead.
Don’t change things radically, especially if it has to do with seating capacity or structural orientation. These things already have a way ‘of being’ to them—for students. Don’t disrupt students’ abilities to gather, in terms of how they’ve decided to gather prior if it’s working out for all involved. Don’t give students an unwelcome surprise, with something no longer around that they value.
Would almost be as bad as little kids having their age-ole’ playground equipment stripped from recess, as their newfound, frown-engendering fall surprise! Oh, and this does remind me . . . the need for counterspace exists in all schools, for all grade levels, so let's keep that in mind.
What we as Assistant Principals can do, of course, is to find new ways of creating and expanding opportunities for counterspace, so that groups can gather in the context of the school’s whole, yet with respectful partitioning so that they have the comfort and distance to step more into themselves, authentically.
In sum, take time this summer to cultivate your counterspace and give students a place to nurture their individualities, enjoy their dualities, and embrace their identities; while keeping a mindful watch, offer respectful autonomy and agency to them in the process. In doing so, you’ll “…admittedly [provide] for a certain degree of separation and some might say segregation, yet in the end, with your intentional support, what it does is bring students together in engagement around their own identities, which actually furthers your school’s main purpose if it is to be inclusive” (p. 140).