McCallum Brings New Passion for Public Education

Inside AASA

Since joining AASA in January as associate executive director of strategy and communications, a new position, Erin McCallum has engaged in what she calls “deep listening” to gain insights, stories and pain points from superintendents and association staff. That will help her design content and communications strategies to move the needle on public education in an increasingly political climate.

She’s no stranger to navigating tough political and cultural waters while advocating for change. For the past 16 years, she has led local, national and global political and issue advocacy campaigns and has applied her strategic communication skills at the senior organizational level across issues and across aisles.

More recently, she worked with campaigns and candidates from big-city mayors and national presidential candidates to environmental organizations and public affairs firms.

Originally from Australia, McCallum discovered her passion for consensus building early in her career while working to find common ground between environmental and animal activists, hunters, ranchers and politicians for a campaign to protect wolves from extinction.

“Her experience brings a new set of skills and perspective to AASA’s communications and marketing efforts,” says David Schuler, AASA executive director. “The plummeting public trust in public education makes this a key priority for AASA and public education leaders.”

The following interviews with McCallum and Schuler by managing editor Liz Griffin have been edited for length and clarity.

Why did you take this position?

McCallum: When I was applying, I asked Dave, “What’s your grand vision?” He told me, “Saving public education,” and he was serious. He doesn’t just want it to survive, he doesn’t just want it to go back to what it was or to nibble around the edges with incremental reform.

He is passionate about reimagining the future of public education. That means elevating student voices and telling compelling, positive stories. It means innovating. That resonated with me. That’s imperative not just for the future of our schools, but for the future of our democracy.

As professionals, educators and people, we often are so focused on what’s going wrong, on what could be better, that we forget to tell the incredible, diverse and inspirational stories coming out of our nation’s school districts, driven by the optimism and insatiable curiosity of our youngest minds.

What’s your role at AASA?

McCallum: I see a large part of my role as sourcing and then sharing these compelling stories about public education with a goal of unifying people around the basic values we largely all share: love for our children, love for our country and pride in our community.

Why does the cause of public education interest you?

McCallum: The heart of my work has been to engage, inspire and then mobilize people to make changes, big and small. I can’t think of a cause more directly responsible for the future of our kids’ — and therefore our society’s — health and well-being than public education. I’ve been thinking about this more often after recently becoming a mother.

The rhetoric around public education has become overtly and unnecessarily politicized. We need to approach messaging and consensus building around public education as we would any other campaign that disrupts a toxic narrative. And that’s with good storytelling.

How will you persuade people who hold a different point of view?

McCallum: That’s the million-dollar question! I was very fortunate to have been trained early in my career on Marshall Ganz’s teachings around the power of storytelling and developing a public narrative.

I approach messaging campaigns with an organizing, as opposed to a marketing, mindset. I practice “radical empathy.”

Another increasingly important leg of this work is inoculating ourselves and others against disinformation. Educators know the importance of teaching critical thinking skills and discernment and again I go back to the importance of absorbing information with genuine curiosity and a willingness to inhabit a different point of view. We need to cultivate those skills.

Lastly, no matter the campaign, issue or candidate I’ve worked to advance — from marriage equality to education reform — I’ve always sought ways to find shared values. Maybe it’s a memory in our collective consciousness or a value like fairness or the freedom to love who we want or a place like a national park we can all agree is special and needs protecting.

There are many ways we can create unity instead of division.

How is communication and messaging about public education changing?

Schuler: Ten years ago, my board presentations required a lot of reading. The purpose was to share information and to leave board members with the feeling that I and the school district knew what we were doing.

Nowadays, I’m still conveying information, but my purpose is to leave people with an emotion. Emotions tap something deeper in people and build a better connection. I share stories. Often, I am trying to change the public’s negative perception about public education to counter the anti-public education sentiment that has deepened in recent years.

What makes a more positive narrative and a more engaging story?

McCallum: At a really basic level, it’s about getting out of our heads and into our hearts. Tapping into joy, emotions, humor, our imagination. Fewer PowerPoints and tables and white papers, more images and conversations and creativity.

Every parent and teacher knows that kids and imagination, optimism and joy go hand in hand. They’re our best messengers, and yet we hear from them least. We can change that.

Inside AASA is an occasional column about principal employees and priorities of the association.