Week 32 - Activity #8:
“…reflective practice is interpreted and understood in different ways, within our discussion, reflective practice is viewed as a means by which practitioners can develop a greater level of self-awareness about the nature and impact of their performance, an awareness that creates opportunities for professional growth and development. As explained in Chapter 1, awareness is essential for behavioral change.” Osterman and Kottkamp (1993).
I have been on this journey of formal 'learning' for a little while now, starting my Post Grad Diploma of Education four years ago and then beginning my Masters of Ed last year but then, Mindlab came to Rotorua...an opportunity I couldn't pass away. I thought I would cope with ease however I was wrong! I've struggled and found parts of this course difficult on many occasions and I can certainly say, I've been 'stretched'. Even though I began this Mindlab journey with two other colleagues passionate about learning and have benefitted greatly from our interactions, I have also enjoyed the ‘mixing and mingling’ among other like-minded people too.
I found the first 16 weeks of this course exciting as we experienced many ‘hands-on’ activities using different tools while observing different theories and models of learning. These experiences allowed me to consider practically, how I could best use technology to supplement and support learning in my classroom while understanding some of the research and evidence underpinning these. The second part of the course has been difficult to find motivation to keep going, but I’ve been lucky to have one of my colleagues still here alongside me as we keep pushing each other (my other colleague has a great job stretching her inquiry and elearning skills and strengths and, she is ‘totally’ happy!).
Additionally to this learning journey, I have always looked closely at myself and at how I could improve my teaching practices to better meet the needs of my students. But it has been in recent years where this reflective practice has become more critical, more meaningful and at times, uncomfortable. Using research and evidence to support my learning is more explicit. Teaching as Inquiry has played a role in supporting my reflective process by creating a cyclic framework of experience observation and review. The key here, is for oneself to always seek a better way of doing something, to identify weaknesses and strengths and to work towards improving while remembering, there will always be something I can make better :)
Only two? The PTCs resonating with my learning and personal reflective practice are:
Criteria 5: Show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning:
Despite not formally having any leadership role as such, I have behaved in different contexts, as a 'change agent', offering support to colleagues when needed and especially during moments of 'just-in-time' learning. This was evident during my time at a school, while working through our ICTPD contract. Implementing digital technology in an innovative way to support my learning and the learning of my 5 year olds took time and thought but set me on a path where I was supported by theory and research. While working towards completing and then implementing the LDC assignments, taking on a leadership-type role among colleagues was exercised in a more practical sense, where I was guiding and leading rather than just working alongside them. We began to look at how we could implement digital technology into their classroom programmes with the needs of these teachers and their students in mind. This is an ongoing process and will most likely continue until the end of the year with again, the experience, observation and review process.
Criteria 7: Promote a collaborative, inclusive and supportive learning environment:
I believe the environment I have created for my New Entrant students is an inclusive and supportive learning environment, engaging and nurturing children into transitioning from pre-school to a formal learning setting, where students become comfortable in taking learning risks. Even though, my children do collaborate in many tasks, I don’t believe I am enabling my students into collaborating at a deeper level exploring richer problems in a real-life context nor am I empowering my students with a greater sense of ‘student agency’, which through this course, my interests in creating an innovative learning environment and developing deeper student agency has become an interest of mine.
What Now?
After Mindlab, which in a way, I’m a little sorry to see the end of despite these last few months being trialling to say the least, I will still be a little busy:
Well, I guess this is it. Thank you for the ‘ride’ and I wish all others well in their journeys. I’ll be returning to the Google+ community for a while but then soon it will be a little like returning to an empty building…you all would’ve moved out and moved on. Nevertheless, thank you J
References:
Ministry of Education (nd). Practising teacher Criteria and e-learning . Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/Registered-Teacher-Criteria-and-e-learning
Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.(1993). Reflective Practice for Educators.California.Cornwin Press, Inc. Retrieved on 7th May, 2015 from
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Week 31 - Activity #7:
Crossing boundaries…My interdisciplinary connection map
Creating my interdisciplinary connection map took time to consider and develop. My closest friends have been colleagues at one time or another and these people are also within my communities of learning or practice. These are the people or ‘giants’ who inspire and support me, and from these personal/professional communities of practice, we have branched into many different forums of learning, exchanging ideas and knowledge with others pertaining to finding ways of supporting student learning outcomes.
My interpretation of interdisciplinary practice is the integration of ideas and principles from different disciplines, and synthesizing these together in order to create a more complete framework by which to practice by and support student learning. As Mathieson and Freeman (1997) highlight, these processes are not new however, how interdisciplinary practice is being integrated is making the difference. Inquiry learning appears to be indicative of interdisciplinary practice and had been advocated for by Bloom many years earlier (1958 as cited in Mathieson & Freeman, 1997). Rich learning experiences and conversations can greatly benefit students, especially when challenged with real-life issues, making connections between “information and to connect such knowledge to the needs of everyday living” (Mathieson & Freeman, 1997) providing opportunities for problem solving, opening the door for deeper understanding and meaning.
Mathieson and Freeman (1997) explore different interdisciplinary themes or trends emerging:
Choose 2 Potential Connections as Future Goals:
Completing my ACET Portfolio
One very near future goal is to complete my ACET Portfolio. In a way, this is an in-depth teacher inquiry requiring different processes and different fields of knowledge to synthesize into a reflective and evidential portfolio, demonstrating, I am an experienced teacher displaying exemplary teacher practice to meet student learning outcomes and needs in creative and innovative ways, especially those of my priority learners. Since studying (started back in 2012), I have looked at teaching practices in different ways, I’ve looked at colleagues in different ways and essentially, I’ve been observing how my pedagogical teaching practices are impacting upon student learning outcomes. Despite believing, I was reflective in my teaching practices, it is only recently, I have started to really scrutinize myself in in-depth and critical ways. Considering these components of my learning-self, I believe I am in a better position to submit a portfolio of such. I also count myself lucky being a participant in different communities of practices or communities of learning. I am surrounded by ‘giants’ (Oh I love that saying) and it is the support and co-collaboration of information and knowledge between contributors from these groups I thank.
Returning to and completing my Masters of Education
Yes, I had already started my Masters of Education before deciding to learn with Mindlab – the opportunity was just too good to pass up! I intend to continue back on this particular journey next year as I have promised my children to spend the rest of this year being ‘nice and normal’ with more time dedicated to them (tissues please).
Over recent years prior to starting with Mindlab, I had been hooked into restudying by learning more about the social-cultural theory of my teaching practice, or better still, why am I here? What qualities do good teachers have? How can I improve to become one of these ‘good’ teachers? The pre-belief was, if I’m a caring and passionate teacher with the integrity of meeting student learning needs anyway I can, I’ll find the way and four years later, I still believe that. If I care, I’ll find the way and especially, I’ve recognised this as an aspect of my personal/professional teaching ethic – oh, and I want to be one of those ‘good’ practising teachers or should I say exemplary! Psst! Through the course of my studies, I sure have met plenty J
I have unexpectedly acquired more elearning type papers then initially anticipated, especially with the recent addition of Mindlab papers. However, I have also become quite interested in innovative learning environments within single celled classrooms (well, I actually have two classroom spaces) and the development of student-agency, encompassing personal skills such as self-motivation and self-determination.
Benefits and Challenges
Some Benefits:
I believe I’ve ‘harped’ on about a multiplicity of benefits occurring in not only this blog post, but previous postings regarding interdisciplinary teaching practices but here are a few key words which come to mind:
Some Challenges:
· Time – I haven’t got enough time to do everything in one day (eg teaching planning, teaching, study, assignments, children and sports, family)
· Prioritising – I have to prioritize better and not ‘beat myself up’ when I can’t finish something
References:
Lacoe Edu (2014, Oct 24) Interdisciplinary Learning [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA564RIlhME
Mathison,S.. & Freeman, M.(1997). The logic of interdisciplinary studies. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, 1997. Retrieved from http://www.albany.edu/cela/reports/mathisonlogic12004.pdf:
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Image 1 - My interdisciplinary connection map using coggle.com
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"We have to realise that as educators, we're always telling our students to be lifelong learners, well, education doesn't stop when you get your teacher's licence, you have to be a lifelong learner. Too often we profess it, but we don't follow it. And we have to get educators to consistently and constantly educate themselves and the tools for education today, life in technology."
Tom Whitby, #edchat founder; Connected Educators
Activity #6:
Social networking isn’t new, predating the internet however, social media online has allowed communication and the building of new social network connections to occur between people at a phenomenal rate whether it be for personal or professional purposes. Due to its asynchronous nature, social media is a powerful tool opening the door to a multitude of learning opportunities for teachers and students alike, not bound by time nor location. Using a social media forum such as ‘Twitter’ can for example, allow NZ teachers to pose a question leaving home for school, and by the time they’ve reached their classroom, teachers can expect a collection of answers and suggestions from colleagues here and abroad.
No one can deny the potentiality of social media occurring for educators and students is huge, but there is a darker element to using social media therefore monitoring and precautions have to be accounted for such as educating students about becoming digi-safe and digi-aware citizens when using the online world.
1. What are some key features of social media that are beneficial for teaching and learning? Why?
The most obvious beneficial key feature of social media for teachers is developing connections with people from a variety of different backgrounds, surrounding oneself with passionate like-minded educators who are willing to share and co-collaborate knowledge and advice. Twitter or Facebook allows people to ‘Follow’ others almost instantly, to join specific groups or ‘communities’ of interest, allowing teachers to find and use different platforms to engage students and support learning and furthermore, connecting students to the wider world to enhance their world-view at a more profound level of understanding. Professional development does not need to only occur within the realms of the physical world, PD is readily available with a few taps upon the keyboard.
For teachers, learning opportunities available online are enabling students to learn and use a range of new skills such as Web 2.0 tools whilst enhancing literacy and communicative skills and especially, their personal voice. For example, ‘blogs’ can be dynamic and effective ways of allowing students to be responsible when showcasing their learning to families and with each other, creating a digital footprint to be always available to return to. Creating connections with classrooms from other countries, allows students to see how same aged peers live, how they are educated, how life is different or similar and importantly, observing issues arising for their peers which students might not necessarily need to contend with in their own countries, hence encapsulating a world-view.
2. What are potential challenges that teachers need to be aware of when integrating social networking platforms into teaching activities? Why?
Keeping students safe when online at school and at home are integral aspects of becoming a digi-safe citizen. As mentioned earlier, the darker element of social media can be destructive and extremely harmful for impressionable young minds such as cyber bullying or worse, exposure to online sex-extortion as I had briefly mentioned in an earlier posting. For me as a teacher and a Mum, I dread exposure of any child to these damaging components social media can pose therefore the best plan of attack is to prepare children and make them ‘mindful’ of potential dangers (age appropriate).
Students connecting with the wider world must become empowered by being aware and ‘armed’ to cope. Preparing students into becoming responsible online citizens must be a necessity and starting young may help develop an automaticity, a habitual behaviour which is second nature. Becoming a responsible online citizen involves an array of necessary strategies such as learning internet etiquette when interacting with others, learning to use technology for positive outcomes for themselves, the community and their school, learning about cyber bullying and its harmful effects, and the tools to keeping oneself safe. Additionally, investing time into developing empathy for others involving values such as ‘caring for others’ or ‘being kind’ should not overlooked.
Another challenge is finding a platform best serving teacher and student needs. Finding one may take time, and especially if the teacher is not yet comfortable with using social media as a medium for student learning opportunities. This is even more problematic if teachers are not yet ‘connected’ but they themselves can see potential learning outcomes beneficial to students.
References:
Joosten, T.( 2013. October 22). Pearson: Social Media for Teaching and Learning. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/tjoosten/social-media-for-teaching-and-learning-27456257?ref=http://professorjoosten.blogspot.co.nz/2013/10/pearson-social-media-for-teaching-and.html
Office of Ed Tech. (2013, Sep 18). Connected Educators. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=216&v=K4Vd4JP_DB8
Social Media For Kids. (2014, Aug 15). Social Media For Kids® The Social Media Education Experts.[video file]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2rOekhi20E
Tvoparents. (2013, May 21). Using Social Media in the Classroom.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riZStaz8Rno
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Activity #5 – Legal and ethical contexts in my digital practice
“Teaching in schools has long been considered a moral activity (Wilson, 1967; Tom, 1984; Goodlad, Soder and Sirotnik, 1990) largely because it is recognized that how teachers fulfil their public duties influences the lives of vulnerable young people.” Hall, (2001, p1).
I viewed the first video (tweeting teacher who likes to party) and just groaned. I keep my Facebook clean and I do not ‘friend’ students unless I haven’t taught them for many, many years. Even then…I take a long time to consider ‘Yes’ or ‘No’? 'Friending' parents also takes some time to consider.
According to the Code of Ethics for Certified Teachers, the professional interactions of teachers are governed by four fundamental principles:
· Autonomy to treat people with rights that are to be honoured and defended
· Justice to share power and prevent the abuse of power
· Responsible care to do good and minimise harm to others
· Truth to be honest with others and self
Doing the ‘right thing’ is constantly in my mind. These principles are considered during my daily interactions with students, whanau and colleagues while I carefully observe how my actions may impact upon these groups of people. At times however, I also consider the actions of parents where other people’s children may be impacted upon. For example, parents taking photographs of their child during a Kindy-school visit and other class students appear in the photographs too. The parent wants to post these to Facebook.
The dilemma is, many of our parents are avid social media users and posting images of themselves and/or family members does not involve in-depth consideration. Not a problem yet, if other children have been ‘captured’ within this image especially in my class, a parent does not have permission to post. Or…they must edit and alter it so they can J I’ve only had this situation occur a couple of times without incident, and parents involved have been most apologetic. My moral and ethical duty to my present Whanau is, I am caring for the safety and well-being of their children. My moral and ethical duty to new Whanau is, I am letting them know when their child starts school, I will care for them in this manner too.
Our class has a wikispace where I embed many online resources I use for various topics to support learning in my class (eg brain breaks, topic). Children do not directly access these independently unless they click on YouTube clips too many times which means they will be directed to this site, in which case they are to click off the screen immediately and let me know. Ipad apps are pre-loaded and do not require internet access. However, if an unexpected moment does occur where I search for an image via the internet, my children must close eyes, turn around while I pull out the TV cord and turn down the volume…no, not extreme. I have 5 year olds. If I misspell a word and an inappropriate image pops up, I could be ‘doing-a-whole-lotta-talking’ in the afternoon at pick-up time! My ethical duty to my children is ‘I must keep them safe and minimise harm’ and be honest about why we ‘do the things we do’.
At the beginning of each year, parents sign consent forms which in part, allows me to post images/videos of their children to our class wikispace and allows children to view websites during learning time (resources embedded into our class wiki). Parents are encouraged to engage in discussions with their child regarding their safety and behaviour when viewing online resources. Our forms are very basic – an issue. Another issue is when these forms are signed and returned, I already know, these discussions have not occurred for many families. Parents seem complacent to the possible dark side of the internet and merely return the signed form.
I do not want to scare parents of any dark implications social media/the internet can cause, but I would like parents to have a deeper consideration of what it means for child images to be posted online before they indicate ‘Yes’ on the form. My intentions are honest and images are used for good purposes however, images can be stolen…and being aware is only one aspect of keeping digi-safe.
References:
Collste, G. (2012). Applied and professional ethics. Kemanusiaan, 19(1), p17-33. Retrieved from https://app.themindlab.com/media/12728/view
Educational Council. (n.d.). About the code of ethics for certified teachers. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/about-code-of-ethics
Hall, A. (2001). What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers. Paper presented at the IIPE Conference, Brisbane. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Developing-leaders/What-Ought-I-to-Do-All-Things-Considered-An-Approach-to-the-Exploration-of-Ethical-Problems-by-Teachers
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Activity #4:
“…issue of Maori achievement with the education disparages in our country which are common with other indigenous peoples around the world, which have been essentially an artefact of colonialism…”. Bishop, R. (2012)
A Personal Account on Education J
I once disliked the word ‘colonialism’ for the mere fact I felt it was over-used to represent Maori non-achievement and I believed, when Maori weren’t achieving, let’s blame it on ‘colonialism’. However, I see things a little differently in recent years. I see colonialism for what it is, an event which took place and the ‘shock waves’ are still evident today. Bear with me, Maori who could adapt quickly to change did, and those who couldn’t, struggled. Now imagine, an inability to transition to a new way of life compounded and copied over generations…a chain ball effect if you will and if you were lucky to be a generation who could break the cycle, ‘yay’. This is not to take away from the fact that Maori do over-represent numbers in prison and there are many aspects to the ‘why’ and ‘how’ they got there, but colonialism was a catalyst. I am also not saying, there is a genetic defect here either as Bishop states “…Maori are an incredibly educable population” and “…if Maori people can achieve at tertiary level to the highest degree a tertiary institution has got to offer, why can’t they get through secondary level?”.
This is certainly not a dig at secondary institutions as I know there are many innovative and creative schools with passionate teachers. Becoming disillusioned may be a factor but students who are under-achieving here were possibly under-achieving at the primary sector and may have been ill-prepared at pre-school level – a pattern is emerging: these students were never ready and not enabled to become ready. Furthermore to this, is the level and type of engagement occurring between student and teacher. A teacher who cares, nurtures and supports their students and is highly engaging, is bound to capture the aspirations of a student who believes their teacher is interested in them and their well-being.
From research collated over 2000 to 2008, Bishop surmised “it is [agendic] teachers who are the key to making a difference for Maori students, that is teachers who have agency, who understand themselves to be able to weave together all those things necessary in classrooms to create a context, a learning context where young Maori people can bring themselves to the learning conversation.” The student’s own experiences, cultural understandings and where students can make sense of the world is part of the process of a learning conversation and this is the same for non-Maori students. All students need to have an active part in their learning.
Our school’s philosophy is based on ‘I Care’ for myself, others, property and environment. ‘CARE’ is an acronym for Care, Achievement, Responsibility and Effort. Our school’s core values are based on this simple statement and staff had worked hard to create classroom environments encapsulating an inclusive and responsive curriculum not only for students and staff but for the wider community as well. Our mission statement is ‘Education with Care’ and our vision is ‘Caring, responsible, life-long learners’. Despite being a small word, its intent is huge. When I first joined this staff, students appeared to ‘breathe’ the word, action its intent nicely and I could feel the positive impact of staff collegiality. This is also a brain-based school where students learn about what switches them off or on to learning and how they can help themselves to learn therefore, the key competencies and principles such as learning to learn, as outlined in the NZC, are integrated throughout classroom programmes.
The educultural wheel characterises our ‘I Care’ philosophy nicely, by outlining the implementation of an inclusive and responsive curriculum for all students, with a focus on priority learners. In my last post, I mentioned the role passionate teachers who are making a difference have in our schools. They are attentive to their student’s needs and are able to engage students as ‘partners in learning’, that is students who are enabled and encouraged to participate in the ‘learning conversation’, to find and use their ‘voice’.
However, as mentioned in an earlier posting, our school culture is slowly changing. ‘I Care’ certainly still has a prominent part in classrooms, but it is not so readily shared between management and staff as once was. Communication could improve…greatly, in terms of how leadership and senior management inform staff of changes occurring for example, a Senior Teacher found out she was no longer in this role while away sick for 1 day. The rest of us were present at a staff meeting. I texted her of these changes, she was quite upset at finding out this way. The Principal had had ample time to prepare her with this news and his vision of upcoming changes prior to the staff meeting. There are more examples but these are petty and annoying to bring to light.
Thank goodness, most people I know are the ‘on the shoulders of giants’ types of people, striving to make a difference for their students, no matter how small and these are the people I want my children to surround themselves with.
References:
Bishop, R. (2012). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations [video file]. Edtalks. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994
MOE, (n.d.). Working as a community. The educultural wheel. Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Inclusive-Practice-and-the-School-Curriculum/Implementing-an-inclusive-curriculum/Working-together/Working-as-a-community
Savage, C., Hindleb, R., Meyerc, L., Hyndsa, A., Penetitob, W & Sleeterd, C. (2001). Culturally resposonsive pedagogies in the classroom: indigenous student experiences across the curriculum. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(3), 183-190
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Image 4 - Our School
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Activity #3:
The ‘Machine Age’ allowed for schools to prepare students with specific skills-sets and knowledge. Educational trends were based on the economies of the day. Sir Ken Robinson speaks of a need to reform educational systems operating on models from last century. We are trying to prepare students into taking their place in unstable 21st century economies and maintain their sense of cultural identity while countries integrate with the world through the process of globalisation. Many schools are locked in the past whilst others are striving to address the need for change.
The ERO 2012 Report identified three key issues pertaining to improving student learning:
i) Students-centred learning
ii) Responsive and rich curriculum, and
iii) Assessment used for students’ learning.
I have chosen to discuss the first two issues.
i) Students-centred learning:
Shifting the focus to student-centred learning speaks volumes about teaching an inclusive and responsive curriculum not only encompassing students but the school as a community in its entirety, the wider community included. ERO findings indicated a component of successful schools was the high level of care exhibited towards students from the school and its wider community. This ‘practice of care’ is shared collegially amongst all staff especially from the leader, collaboratively working to find innovative ways of addressing issues of student engagement and achievement for the diverse range of student needs, especially for priority learners.
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“Effective leaders have a strong sense of ethical commitment to making school a place that fosters students’ learning and wellbeing.” ERO 2012 Report, p9.
Leadership (here I go again!) is a prominent aspect of success in terms of inspiring and leading staff to operate as one, to enable staff into creating learning communities or taking part in existing ones in order to focus on improving student success. Herein lies an issue of ‘leadership’. Great leadership, forward-thinking and inclusive management can ‘model’ and ‘drive’ a school towards success, while on the flip side, poor leadership can leave staff feeling negative and embittered with teachers toiling to meet student learning needs. How do you change a ‘leader’ who operates in the ‘authoritative mode of senior management team’ and, ‘the staff’? You can’t as the power lies ‘you-know-where’, however, the teacher is in control of the classroom realm and their professionalism.
Mahuika, Berryman and Bishop (ERO, 2012) relate to students as ‘partners in learning’ and making learning transparent – knowing and understanding the ‘why’ and ‘what’ gives good reason to ‘do’. Part of this process is to enable students into becoming life-long connected learners by embedding essential skills-sets as identified in the New Zealand Curriculum document into our classroom programme and curriculum: the Values, Key Competencies and the Principles. However, many of us are still not engaging students into being ‘partners in learning’, they are remaining ‘just the student’. We need to ‘up-our-game’ too by improving the competency of our teaching practice, our pedagogy and how we support student learning.
ii) Responsive and rich curriculum:
If we are to enable a student-centred learning environment and practice, we must also observe developing a better understanding of what a responsive and rich curriculum looks like.
“…the principles put students at the centre of teaching and learning. When they are not fully enacted, students do not have opportunities to experience a broad and deep curriculum that caters for their interests, strengths and learning needs, and promotes their independence, self responsibility and engagement.” ERO 2012 Report, p12.
Passionate and hardworking teachers entrenched with an ‘I Care’ philosophy underpinning teaching practices will be naturally working to infuse an inclusive and responsive rich curriculum (well, I believe). They will be searching for creative and innovative ways of engaging, supporting and arming students with essential skills of learning to learn, inclusive of self-motivation to learn and striving to aim high.
But then again, sadly we teachers are not all the same and nor do we all work amidst a cohesive collegial staff with an inspiring and innovative leader. So what of those who don’t have an iota of these characteristics? Maybe NZ should take a leaf out of Finland’s ‘education system’ and keep those (teachers) who do and get rid of those who don’t.
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References:
ERO, (2012). Evaluation at a glance: Priority learners in New Zealand schools. Retrieved from http://www.ero.govt.nz/publications/evaluation-at-a-glance-priority-learners-in-new-zealand-schools/
MOE (n.d). Principles, The New Zealand Curriculum. Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Principles
MOE, (n.d). The Educultural Wheel - Implementing an Inclusive and Responsive Curriculum.
The RSA.(2010, Oct 14). RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
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This is a NON-RELATED-TOPIC posting :)
Righty-ho! Despite being behind by at least 2 (OK, most definitely 3) blog posts on 'relevant topics', I have been replying to postings regarding 'School Culture', hence the adequately named, 'Still Stuck on 'School Culture'.
A component of an inclusive and inspiring 'school culture' is how the leader manages and helps to instil a greater sense of staff collegiality...one for all and all for one! That kind of thing :) Below are two prime examples of leaders I believe exhibited this component (amongst many others). I have had the privilege to work with these leaders who held the same values and teaching ethics as I did and who have inspired me on many occasions. :) Below are links to two recent articles written on these Principals:
Mr Pope - I taught for 6 years with Mr Pope as my Principal;
Mr Brebner - I had recently joined his staff in 2013 but he left last year:
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Before you proceed any further...
WARNING! This posting may not be as positive as one would expect!
Activity #2:
Our school has undergone a few changes in the past year and a half with a change in leadership and the conceptualization of our 'School Culture' has 'arisen like a spectre' (spectre has been used as is intended). The climate of the school has altered and the future, like in many situations, is uncertain and dare I say it, 'balkanisation' is beginning to rear its head in a once 'almost-collegial-I-Care-tranquil school staff'.
While no school culture is perfect, some are more preferred than others and I refer to the spirit of staff collegiality, staff input is valued (your wishes might not actually come into fruition but at least you got to let others know what your ideas/beliefs were without persecution) and staff are a community willing to go the 'mile' together, all in 'it' for the good of all...that kind of thing! Furthermore, the culture of a school has embedded within its centre the unseen factors, the 'known' without having to be 'said' or 'how a school feels' and 'behaves' because these are the norms and quiet expectations..."the way we do things around here" (Stoll, 1998, p9).
All school cultures must evolve and move otherwise becoming stagnant but how the school works towards an evolution for improvement may be more difficult than assumed but change is never easy! Well...in part. I believe the process of change can be made easier if everyone is on 'the same page', information is transparent to all involved and staff are willing to 'roll up sleeves and pitch in' because 'that's what we do'. Over this past year however, I feel the transparency of knowing information is disappearing because only 'those in the know, know'. Our teaching and support staff are a good staff and don't mind the hard work and even though we do not need appreciation shown and said aloud, we do need to feel our worth is valued.
What happens however, if the school culture evolves into two communities or multi-communities who are beginning to pull apart? This isn't going to be a pretty picture as conflict and rifts are more than likely to appear despite staff appearances of trying to be civil and polite. The doomed 'them' and 'us' parody (yes, intended) is appearing and what I marvel at, is the small amount of time our school culture went from 'almost ideal' to the 'them and us'.
Leadership will always play a great part and I don't mean the many facets of leadership occurring throughout staff. I refer to the Leader at the top who is our role model, the inspirational person who is to guide and keep our staff together as we face the multitude of everyday challenges (Oh gosh, I just romanticized the notion of Leader). As Schein (as cited in Stoll, 1998, p13) surmises, "The only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture".
How is our Community of Practice (excluding Senior management) coping with or trying to address these issues? Sadly, they are starting to leave.
How should a CoP address these issues?
They would work towards supporting each other in positive and productive ways, look for advice from the wider community, be innovative and creative sparking inspiration amongst each other, openness to voice opinions professionally and respectfully and be responsible for our 'success', our team can improve even if the school as a whole might not be, rise above the 'crap' and believe in what is important...teaching our students who deserve the best, and if in the end no resolution is in sight (which is a real possibility), find another home.
If we cannot depend upon our Leader to manage this culture (OMG, please make the shift from Laissez-faire to transformational already), to hear and react upon issues raised by staff, to work towards mending the rifts which are beginning to appear and build better staff collegiality, then this culture is inhibited to evolve.
References:
Stoll (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Understanding-school-cultures/School-Culture
Images Used:
Image 1 - 'School Culture is'. Retrieved from: https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=947&q=school+culture&oq=school+culture&gs_l=img.3...34.1411.0.1535.14.7.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..14.0.0.a90AC1tutEI#imgdii=_km_1nl9gfK4EM%3A%3B_km_1nl9gfK4EM%3A%3BXfav8DkF4zYpNM%3A&imgrc=_km_1nl9gfK4EM%3A
Image 2 - 'They Build Culture by Example'. Retrieved from: https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=947&q=school+culture&oq=school+culture&gs_l=img.3...34.1411.0.1535.14.7.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..14.0.0.a90AC1tutEI#imgrc=OZb8wvcaPAMPTM%3A
Image 3 - 'Why School Culture is Important?' Retrieved from: https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=947&q=school+culture&oq=school+culture&gs_l=img.3...34.1411.0.1535.14.7.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..14.0.0.a90AC1tutEI#imgrc=_km_1nl9gfK4EM%3A
"Participating in these 'communities of practice' is essential to our learning. It is at the very core of what makes us human beings capable of meaningful knowing".
Wenger, (2000)
Activity #1:
As humans, we are social beings, interacting with a multitude of different groups of people, creating networks for different reasons but always taking 'learning' from these connections whether intended or not. Wenger (2000) surmises it is within these CoP where we will find 'meaningful knowing'.
We seek to find 'those' who are similar to us, the people we feel most akin to when forming our 'network of learning' and 'those' who will support us as we support them. Within my school, I work within a recently formed vertical team/syndicate which is my immediate community of practice, but it is yet another community of practice I thrive in and not this one.
Who are my CoP?
These are the 'like-minded' people who set out to uplift their pedagogy to further improve teaching practices which in turn, best meets the needs of students and their learning. These are the people who do not 'stand still' for long, they are reflective in their practices and are willing to improve, adapt or change for the betterment of their practices and students and enjoy the company of 'others' who mirror the core values of the community of 'like-minded-ness'. They are willing to share what they know and willingly learn alongside others. They look to further connect and interact with others forming new networks. Within this CoP, dynamic relationships have formed not only between colleagues I work and have worked alongside but also from the connections formed through other mediums such as online groups (eg facebook, twitter) or learning groups (eg educamps). These are my friends and colleagues I trust and respect. These are teachers.
I have acquired a great deal from these colleagues over the years and I hope I have in return, done the same for them in terms of mutual sharing of resources (in its many forms) and knowledge. Learning often brings viewing the world around us with new lenses or new eyes, putting things into different perspective.
What is my practice?
I have taught within the Primary School sector for more than 20 years now, with at least half of this time within the Junior end of the primary school, and over this time, I have seen how effective and essential a CoP can be but I have also seen how some within these communities have been toxic to the community of learning and practice.
Wenger talks about 'competence' developed through direct participation within the group and the norms and expectations formed through the engagement and interactions of its participants and here within lies the core values (for me) - where we are fueled by further learning, becoming more competent within our craft of teaching by evaluating and examining how we think, scrutinizing our teaching practices and questioning why we do what we do. Critically looking at oneself is not always a comfortable experience, this act may be a little painful but this learning in itself allows choices and decisions to be made :)
Image retrieved from: http://www.slideshare.net/allisonpollard10?utm_campaign=profiletracking&utm_medium=sssite&utm_source=ssslideview
References:
Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organisation, 7(2), 225-246. Retrieved from sagepub.com.
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