Making the shift from a newsroom to a classroom is Chandini Misra who will be joining as the Head of Senior School at Repton Al Barsha in September 2021. Misra strongly believes that girls should not be intimidated by STEM subjects, and also reflected on the importance of freedom and agency in inculcating leadership qualities in students.

• What made you move from Journalism to Teaching?
• Why is student leadership important?
• How do you empower students to be good leaders?
• As increasing female representation in STEM is important, what do you do to encourage young girls to get excited about STEM education?

What made you move from Journalism to Teaching?

There are more similarities than one might initially think. At the heart of journalism is an ability to capture interest through storytelling; and as a consequence, educate others. I was often surprised by the apathy that people showed towards current global and political affairs, especially young people. This was where my desire to enter the field came from, and what started as a hobby on a student radio station at university later became my work. Before university, I had volunteered to teach Maths and Chemistry to students in Issenye School, Tanzania; and naively loved it. Naively, because I had no real idea of the pressures, hours, and emotional roller coasters that actually came along with the profession when I was eighteen years old.

When the BBC headquarters moved to Manchester, I decided to venture back to the classroom with the initial aim of remaining in London. Becoming a teacher was hard work, but I knew I wanted to make an impact and dove in headfirst. I chose an inner-city school in Tower Hamlets, East London and I loved every exhausting minute of it.

Despite similar hours, a full school day was intense and I found myself viewing a spare five minutes as an oasis of free time – long enough to print some resources, use the bathroom and enter a handful of behaviour points into the system. The school day felt like it was over within minutes; and was full of unpredictable challenges and immensely rewarding moments.

As my training progressed, despite an offer from another established newsroom in London, I realised the classroom was where I wanted to be. I regret nothing about becoming a teacher. It’s the best job I’ve ever had and am ever likely to have.

Why is student leadership important?

Leadership begins with identifying and understanding our values. This is no small feat for young people who are discovering so much about themselves and the world around them. In doing so, young people are equipped with self-assurance, which naturally leads them to make better decisions. It enables students to become advocates for their own needs and the needs of others. It lies at the heart of building a sense of community and builds effective relationships.

Outside of the spheres of the classroom or workplace; leadership also nurtures introspection, a willingness to make mistakes and learn from them, and self-improvement. This, and coaching conversations, can have a powerful impact on students’ emotional wellbeing and self-esteem. For me, this is most important; more so than the natural successes that student leaders later display as leaders in the increasingly dynamic workplaces of the future.

How do you empower students to be good leaders?

I never fail to be amazed by the insights that young people can bring to a situation that might be assumed as understood by adults. Our students are at the centre of everything that happens in a school, and therefore their feelings and ideas deserve to be treated as such.

Students are good leaders when they are given the agency, freedom and responsibility to be honest about what they experience and what could make it even better. Trust is an important first step in this and must work in all directions. As school leaders, we must be trusted by our students to model the behaviors that we encourage; and we also need to trust that our students will do the same and value their opinions.

There should seldom be decisions or evaluations on school matters that students have not been involved in. If we ask our students what features they would like to see in their common room; listen, engage and praise the collaborative way that they have gathered their feedback; we rule out suggestions like free sweets for all students. Instead, we obtain quality representation and, often ideas that we would never have thought of ourselves. This is a particularly exciting opportunity for Repton Al Barsha where the Executive Council of students is already playing an important part in the design of the secondary specific learning environment.

Our students deserve a seat at the table, and by encouraging and showing them the language of leadership and its key behaviours; we create lifelong learners and a healthy sense of collective responsibility.

As increasing female representation in STEM is important, what do you do to encourage young girls to get excited about STEM education?

I have definitely been shaped by my own experiences in this. I studied at a fantastic girls’ school in the U.K. where I never saw my gender as an issue in these subject areas, albeit being only one of two students that studied A-level Further Maths. I was lucky enough to have teachers who inspired me, in particular my female Chemistry teachers.

I then entered Oxford University where I was the only female in my cohort at my college. This was not a straightforward transition, and I would often keep answers or questions in my mind rather than vocalizing them around very self-assured male counterparts who showed much less fear of making mistakes. The experiences, relationships, and confidence that I built there are invaluable; and definitely shed light on the issues of underrepresentation in STEM and academia.

This stayed with me when I entered the classroom. I frequently celebrate the accomplishments of women who have made considerable advances in STEM and refer to women who inspired and continue to inspire me. I bring bigger picture thinking into lessons, assemblies, and even one-to-one discussions to remind girls, and indeed all students, that STEM doesn’t just live in a laboratory, research center or technology company.

Breadth and balance is also crucial; the skills that underlie STEM fields, such as curiosity, evidence-based decision making, problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication should be meaningfully interwoven into students’ school experiences. Focusing on the interdisciplinary nature of STEM and the language we use is also important; as shown in a study by the National Academy of Engineering; when a group of students were if they wanted to be engineers, girls were twice as likely to say no. But when asked if they would like to design a safe water system, save the rainforest, or use DNA to solve crimes, the girls answered yes.