How Maslow's Inspiration Informs K12 Leadership

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What do Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Bloom’s Taxonomy have in common? Educators are used to following these models to build children up from a starting point to the triumphant peak of humanity.

According to Abraham Maslow’s theory, humans fulfill deficiency needs first. Once these boxes are checked (think full bellies, adequate shelter, and a friend or two), Maslow theorized, then humans are ready to look toward self-actualization, otherwise known as becoming all they can be.

Maslow’s before Bloom’s, the simplified adage goes, and Bloom’s Taxonomy represents another step-by-step blueprint for building knowledge from concept to mastery. These pyramids (think staircases, towers, and mountains) all build upward and onward, mirroring how people imagine growth. As children develop and fulfill lower-level needs and knowledge, they can set their sights on bigger and better things.

Maslow’s Hierarchy reigns in the world of human development because it makes sense in Western cultures. One must build upon where he started from to make progress. But as we learn more about Maslow, we also discover the roots of his theories. How did Maslow puzzle out lessons from First Nations teaching and make them fit a Western audience?

In 1938 Maslow traveled to Canada where he immersed himself in the Siksika, or Blackfoot, tribe. There the Siksika community planted the seed that Maslow would nurture into his hierarchy of needs, but with a twist: in the Blackfoot community, self-actualization comes before anything else.

While students need to build from the ground up, educators and staff in schools are expected to keep learning and growing, too. After all, professional development is incredibly different from student development. By examining the roots of Maslow’s inspiration, K12 leaders help their teams level up as professionals and humans. Let’s explore three truths about growing in an educator role.

 

Your community needs you

Contrary to Maslow’s destination being self-actualization, in the Siksika tribe children arrive on earth self-actualized. Instead, their motivation to grow comes from the goal of serving their community.

Your particular brand of becoming “all you can be” as an educator fulfills a community need. Choosing to become an educator means you’re agreeing to build professional relationships. This mirrors the Siksika idea that self-fulfilled individuals’ next level-up comes from sharing their gifts with their community.

 

You facilitate self-actualization

The penultimate level of the pyramid Maslow’s theory often spurs within humans (in this case, small ones) is the search for beauty, truth, richness, and more within their lives. Translate this to a thirst for learning.

As educators live out their profession, they are in turn facilitating the growth of other people—students are quite capable of exploring their own version of self-actualization. In addition, schools have evolved to provide many of the lower-tier “deficiency needs” as families struggle to do so, clearing the way for higher-tier needs to bloom.

“Getting kids to experience a level of success motivates them,” Art Greco, a middle school teacher with 30 years of classroom experience, explains. “Don’t compare yourself to someone else, but compare yourself to yourself.”

 

You can achieve the OG peak of self-actualization

In the Siksika tribe, no one used a pyramid to describe the goals all members of the tribe held. (Interestingly, there’s little evidence Maslow used a pyramid either.) Still, like many models of human motivation, there is an ultimate goal to strive for. For Maslow, this became self-actualization. For the Siksika tribe, this looks like making a name for yourself your community remembers fondly.

 

 

Maslow’s Hierarchy is far from perfect, and better models of human motivation exist. But for one of the best-known theories, it has provided millions of people with a framework to achieve their goals and guided others to comfort and achievement, too. By acknowledging and delving into the roots of his own inspiration, we can learn even more from his predecessors who led him to his conclusions. Motivation is as unique, mysterious, and fleeting as each human’s life. Hold on to what moves you forward.
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