Four quadrants of PLCs

Five roadblocks to teacher leadership

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I am reading Learning by Heart, by Roland Barth. Many schools including my own have a reference to creating "life long learners" in their mission statements, but are we actually doing this? What is our culture of learning in our school?  I believe establishing this type of culture for our kids starts with all of us. We need to establish a culture of learning, and that will trickle down to students.

"There are at risk students and at risk educators, an at risk educator is: any teacher, principal, guidance counselor, or librarian who leaves school at the end of the day or end of the year with little possibility of continuing learning." Roland Barth 

According to Barth, there are two types of schools: learning-enriched schools and learning-impoverished schools.  It doesn't take long to figure out if a school places a focus on learning.  I believe you can feel it when you enter the building, and all one has to do is to take a peek at what is occurring in the classrooms.

"If they (students) see adult models who are done, baked, cooked, finished as learners, they to what to be done, baked, cooked, finished as learners." Roland Barth 

So how do we create a culture of learning?  I think it starts with developing teacher leaders.  I believe all teachers should and can lead in some way.

"The way to learn is by leading; the way to lead is by learning." - Roland Barth

So why do very few teacher leaders exist in most schools?  Barth mentions reasons as to why below.

1. Our plate is full

Most of the time teacher leaders have a full plate and see school leadership as an add-on OR they feel leadership is only for the principal and superintendent.  The mantra is, "they lead and I teach."

2. There's never enough time

It's all about time, and time is why the plate is full.  How often as leaders do we use our busiest people, because we know it will get done?  (I am so very guilty of this!) One way we have started to attack the time issue is to use a weekly late start for collaboration.  I believe it is a start for developing our capacity and opening the doors to sharing.

3. Opposition from colleagues

I have seen this first hand, it is hard to believe that we have opposition from our teacher's colleagues when they put their neck out to lead. We organized our two in-service days this year around teacher led professional development.  I thought it was some of the best PD I have seen, it was informal and teachers learned from each other.  We recently received some survey results back and a few hint at resentment towards these teacher leaders that put their neck out there.  This was mind boggling to me.

4. Caution and insecurity

Why is sharing our craft knowledge so risky?  Barth shared a story from a Rhode Island teacher that may shed light on this.

"When a teacher is truly passionate about her work, others are threatened because they don't feel it, or can't impart it to their students.  Sometimes I feel impeded in my work by teachers and administrators who are threatened by my enthusiasm."

This taboo prevents teacher leaders from wanting to present something great that is happening in their classroom.  It's a shame that we allow this to happen.  I think it goes back to the beginning of this post.  Do we have culture of learning or a culture of isolation? A culture of learning encourages and promotes the sharing of best practices.  People are open and willing to critique themselves.

5. Active resistance to teacher leadership

Toxic environments prevent teacher leaders.  Those people who constantly say, "It can't be done" kills teacher leaders.  Barth says there are two groups that prevent teacher leadership. The first group is well practiced at sitting back and waiting for new ideas to die.  The second group actively sets up road blocks.

"Want to reorganize the day? Can't.  The contract doesn't allow it.  Want to form interdisciplinary teams? Can't." 

Regardless of how strong the superintendent or the principal are they may never be able to cushion teacher leaders from these groups. Therefore according to Barth, "teacher leadership can turn into ostracism."

So what are we doing to keep our teacher leaders safe from being outcasts and promoting the idea that every teacher can lead?  This is my struggle.

Secrets of change..

We are in the midst of a lot of change at Rugby Public Schools.  We have implemented a late start this year to set the tone for where we want to go with teacher collaboration.  We are creating a culture of professional learning, by providing embedded time to read and learn about best practice.  The focus is on the teacher, and creating an atmosphere of continuous learning from the top to the bottom.  There is various research that supports the teacher as the number one influence on student achievement.  Along with all this comes the scary word... change.

I am finishing up the Six Secrets of Change by Michael Fullan.  I am going to talk about the first four, because I believe they are the most important.  Fullan talks about the following secrets, which to me aren't really secrets they are just what good organizations do.

Secret One: Love your employees 

Fullan feels that loving the customer (student) is equally as important as loving the employee (teacher).  Can we even have balance between what is best for teachers and students?  I don't know that for sure. I try to base all decisions with the student in mind and many times that is in direct conflict with the teacher.

Secret Two: Connect peers with purpose 

"Show me a cohesive, creative organization, and I'll show you peer interaction all the way down."

It is so important that we setup and establish job embedded time for our teachers to collaborate. We are learning from each other, and that is key to improvement.  The types of conversations and work that is being accomplished during our collaboration time is amazing.  We would never accomplish this work in any other way.  We cannot expect them to collaborate effectively without goals, we must give them direction.  Fullan refers to this as tight-loose, meaning we need to provide the direction, but give teachers the flexibility to make it their own.

"When teachers within a school collaborate, they begin to think not just about "my classroom" but also about "our school." Fullan 

Secret Three: Capacity building prevails AND Secret Four: Learning is the work

"The quality of the education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers." Barber and Mourshed

These two secrets are very similar in my opinion and fit nicely together. Building capacity is about learning.  As school leaders we know we can't pick and choose who we want in our schools. That is why it is so important to develop capacity within our schools.  In my opinion this cannot be done voluntarily, we have to establish a system that forces this.  I am all about job embedded time that forces professional learning to occur in a nice way. :) I wrote previously about our changes to professional development.

"People have built quite successful careers - describing the hill, measuring the hill, walking around the hill, taking pictures of the hill, and so forth.  Sooner or later, somebody needs to actually climb the hill." Pfeffer 

Do you provide opportunities for teachers to engage in substantial learning about their practice in the setting in which they actually work?

We aren't there yet, but I believe we are heading in the right direction.  Change isn't easy, but it is essential for progress!

The moral imperative

The moral imperative is something that must happen because it is the right thing.  In education the moral imperative gets in the way of our own selfish motives. Reforming education is hard, and messy.  In my experience, the way we do things in education is largely based on anecdotal evidence.  Meaning that we embrace methods that we feel are successful based on how we have been taught and what has worked for us.  These methods are not grounded in research.  We think they work, and rarely question them.  What we perceive as working may not always be truth.

The moral imperative is important to consider, because without it we remain stagnant.  Doing the right thing for kids and keeping the focus on kids can be difficult for us adults.  Why did we enter this field? We begin to lose sight of progress when we forget about the moral imperative.

At what point do we realize that maybe I am not impacting as many kids as I could?

At what point do we question ourselves and become critical of our practice?

At what point do we begin to look at ourselves in the mirror and not out the window?

For us to really move forward as an education system we have to continue learning. We have to be okay with coming to the realization that what I have been doing is possibly not working.  I think we are reaching a pressure point in our district where we are questioning everything.  It is an uncomfortable feeling, but a feeling we need to have.  Discomfort can be good for all of us.  

Mark Edwards a superintendent in North Carolina recently wrote an excellent book titled, "Every Child, Every Day." The slogan in the district really keeps the focus on the moral imperative and doing what is right for every child and reminding ourselves to do it everyday.