This may seem random but there is a point.....
What questions can we ask teachers to help them to understand why consistent language and rules are important?
How do feel when the principal changes the "rules" and doesn't tell you what is going on?
How do you feel when you don't know about things that are going on at school?
What do teachers do that is disrespectful to other teachers? And can we agree on it?
ie Make unilateral decisions about playground behaviour and safety
turn up late for agreed meetings/duties/PD, fail to take action on decisions made in meetings.
fail to keep up with communications - how do you communicate with people who won't read emails or noticeboards and then can't remember or agree on the content of verbal exchanges.
How do you create change with people who won't play the game?
How do we make people feel comfortable airing their grievances?
Then how do we lead staff into the unknown of 21st Century skills?
AND what impact does this sort of discord have on student learning?
Children get inconsistent messages about what is the correct behaviour in class and in the playground. They learn that there is one rule for one teacher, and they learn that the teacher making their own rules thinks that they know better than the principal....it serves to undermine the leader and perpetuates the problem.
Am thinking that this week's PD with me about fixed vs growth mindsets might be very timely!
Very keen to hear more Angela! Let me know how the PD goes :)
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of parallels between the teacher as a leader of students - leading the learning - and of a school leader as a leader of other teachers. Sure one is an adult child relationship and the other an adult adult one, but as time goes on I am finding that the similarities are many and strong.
ReplyDeleteWith reference to your comments about teachers respecting other teachers, there is a lot of focus upon how the leaders should lead (and rightly so), but there is less focus upon how teachers need to respond to leadership. I'll illustrate by going back to the classroom teacher student relationship again. A situation that all teachers have to develop skills around is how to get students to cooperate with how you are leading their learning. Even in a strong independent learning situation there has to be at least some criteria that the student needs to be targetting, if not some agreed content. How many times have you seen teachers struggling with students who are not cooperating - off task, behaving badly, whatever - the teacher is doing their best to lead and the students are just not following. Now I am not wanting to open a discussion on the whys and wherefores of that scenario, but rather draw the parellel between that situation which most teachers have experienced and school leaders trying to lead.
How many times do school leaders face an audience that has at least some teachers who arrive late, have not completed required reading or sit their arms folded scrutinising every word in an air of negativity and spend the next few days complaining in the staffroom about leadership in the school. As one eg our school's Annual Implementation Plan of our Strategic Plan is prepared by leadership, then send to all staff to examine. Everyone is invited to give feedback. This is followed a week or more later by a staff meeting to discuss and amend as appropriate. Some of the most vocal critics, who seem to always present their grievances as an attack on leadership, come to this meeting without having even read what they were sent. I work in a fantastic school and most staff are fantastic, but there is a group who are never happy. I don't mind feedback - positive or critical - it is all good as long as it is well informed.
So teachers have a responsibility to listen to their students and do their best to engage them. However, students have a responsibility too, It is not all on the teacher. Likewise, school leaders have a responsibility to lead well, to listen, to be good communicators, to be collaborative. However, teachers have a responsibility to cooperate with that leadership and treat school leaders with respect. It is a two way relationship and has to be to work. Undermining and complaining it easy to do - and not very respectful and not very brave either!
Responsibility - thanks Alan. I really like the way you have drawn the comparison with the work we do with students - I will be able to use that when I present my LSDA and LIP projects this week in our staff meetings/pd sessions. Another thought I just had was, if you can't build a PLT within your own school, you can go outside your school (der obviously like we are doing), but because we are a staff of 4 teachers and one prin, I am thinking of our small schools cluster. The learning I am doing this year is really rebooting my networking skills and network. It's also making me question whether I am being respectful enough of my principal as well.
Delete