TL Under Construction

This working party meeting happened just before the school term break and so while it was minuted, I haven’t had a chance to reflect on it yet. Better do that now as the next meeting is in a couple of days.

This was the second meeting of the working party that I’m taking through the Six Core Steps decision-making process as outlined in The Practical Decision Maker

You can read about the first meeting here

I’d adopted what Beck & Yeager (1994, p. 196) define as Style 1Leadership, Directing. This was important as I needed to come across as strong and committed from the beginning. This group consists of school council members, the principal and teachers and I have seen meetings with this group get hijacked and side-railed in the past. The group needs to remain focussed and see real progression as we are working through problems that have been worked through before but not solved.

Expectations were made set out at the first meeting.They now must be maintained. I have been insisting on RSVP emails so that attendance is reinforced as an expectation. This is working so far. Twelve out of fourteen members attended the second meeting (one was overseas, the other home with an unwell child).

I did stuff up on a couple of the expectations we set and I hope this has not damaged my reputation as a leader too much. We forgot to read the list of positive norms before starting the meeting. This is important in maintaining a positive mindset for this group and I slipped over into a democratic leadership style (Goleman as cited in Fullan, 2004, p. 43)!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Wingdings; panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:2; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 268435456 0 0 -2147483648 0;} @font-face {font-family:”Arial Unicode MS”; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1 -369098753 63 0 4129279 0;} @font-face {font-family:”\@Arial Unicode MS”; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1 -369098753 63 0 4129279 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} h1 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; page-break-after:avoid; mso-outline-level:1; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-font-kerning:0pt; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic;} h2 {margin-right:0cm; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; mso-outline-level:2; font-size:18.0pt; font-family:”Arial Unicode MS”; font-weight:bold;} h3 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin-top:12.0pt; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:3.0pt; margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; page-break-after:avoid; mso-outline-level:3; font-size:13.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; font-weight:bold;} h4 {margin-right:0cm; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; mso-outline-level:4; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Arial Unicode MS”; font-weight:bold;} p.MsoBodyText, li.MsoBodyText, div.MsoBodyText {margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; font-style:italic;} p.MsoBodyTextIndent, li.MsoBodyTextIndent, div.MsoBodyTextIndent {margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:27.0pt; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} p {margin-right:0cm; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Arial Unicode MS”;} span.quoteclass {mso-style-name:quoteclass;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} /* List Definitions */ @list l0 {mso-list-id:626159427; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:1771439356 -1674406838 1041029106 -142714668 1301049346 -1651578008 2038718800 -817327298 666539128 1192899508;} @list l0:level1 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:36.0pt; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-18.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Symbol;} @list l1 {mso-list-id:630280981; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:42493368 -783401794 -673007824 1032766642 1787857446 1386763846 682638634 -618602652 -1879292618 -1278322042;} @list l1:level1 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:36.0pt; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-18.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Symbol;} @list l2 {mso-list-id:2097744365; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:-456472368 2000710978 -252560628 -1177257084 -719659800 1170232100 1578738 -1506106568 252877552 -1790790780;} @list l2:level1 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:36.0pt; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-18.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Symbol;} ol {margin-bottom:0cm;} ul {margin-bottom:0cm;} –>  too soon by letting them persuade me into allowing the meeting to run overtime.

They wanted to finish the task they were doing,but I won’t let that happen again. I think the group was over-tired by then and not functioning at their best. I also think the strict time-frame of two hours per meeting was an important promise (on my part) that this process won’t turn into mind-numbing marathon meetings that don’t accomplish anything (a common past occurrence).

The first task for the group at this meeting was to begin defining the problem. We went over the four categories of problems: New Venture, Short-Fall, Improvement and Opportunity (p. 25). And I was surprised (given the circumstances) that there was not quick consensus that there is a short-fall problem. Some members expressed the opinion that they would like to look at the problem more positively — as an opportunity not a short-fall (the mind-set session obviously worked). Luckily, the group is still very much in a forming stage as described by Tuckman (as cited by Law & Glover, 2000, p.75) Beck and Yeager, (1994, p. 189). The group is polite and formal, receptive to being directed and seeking clarification and we were able to finally agree that the SITNA was a threat to the viability of the school (p.40) and must be addressed so, in fact, it is not an opportunity but a short-fall.

The next step in the case of a short-fall SITNA was to identify desired conditions. I chose to try a device recommended by Harvey and Bearley (2001, pp. 220-222) called Snow Card structuring because the SITNA involved several issues and needed focussing. Snow Cards allows for members to generate a number of ideas and then they are grouped to narrow the list and more clearly define the desired conditions. Thirty-two cards were generated and then sorted into seven categories. This categorising did not take too long and I think the complexity of the problem was again made clear when it became apparent that there were seven areas that the members felt were part of the SITNA (perhaps an indication that they are not yet to the root of the problem).

The most time-consuming part was describing as accurately a possible what the ‘desired conditions that they want the solution to achieve” would look like for each area. This is where we ran overtime and the quality of problem solving/creativity deteriorated.

I really did not know what to expect when using the Snow Card structuring devise and was very impressed with the quality of description the group produced and how we were able to combine the ideas into categories. It feels cohesive, it feels on track. I think the group felt the same.

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Photo from: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/?display=103621&

Beck, J., & Yeager, N. (1994). Making teams work: An underused window of opportunity. In The leader’s window: Mastering the four styles of leadership to build high-performing teams (pp. 183-206). New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Harvey, T. R., Bearley, W. L., & Corkrum, S. M. (2002). The practical decision maker: A handbook for decision making and problem solving in organizations. Lanham, ML: Scarecrow Press.

Law, S., & Glover, D. (2000). Leading effective teams. In Educational leadership and learning: Practice, policy and research (pp. 71-86). Buckingham: Open University Press.

I am still waiting for the day when I will have to pull a (3x-5) out of my pocket and multiply it with a (2x-1). I keep one in my bag in case of emergencies - thankfully I haven’t had to use it yet; its been so long I’m not sure if it’s even any good any more. Do polynomials go off? I honestly wouldn’t know - I never understood what polynomials were although I apparently knew enough to get a pass in high school algebra.

Fullan’s (2004) Leading in a Culture of Change asks the reader to consider the statement “Information is not pertinent until people decide what it means and why it matters.” Also to consider “It is a mistake to focus on information rather than its use.” Oh how I wish someone had explained that to my maths teachers way back then. If only they had thought to spend time sharing the ’secret’ of the why as well as the how. Without a use, the information on how to do the procedures never turned into learning, I gained no knowledge from the time spent in class.

Education is now making the shift from an emphasis on distributing facts (information) to creating and sharing knowledge. And creating a culture of sharing is one of the jobs of a leader. Fullan suggests that the conditions have to be right in order for this to occur. Quality relationships is the key, of course.

What interested me the most in this chapter  was Fullan’s take on the relationship between good relationships and a culture of knowledge sharing.  He cited Dixon’s observation that

… the exchange of knowledge happens only in organizations that have a noncompetitive or a collaborative culture. It follows that the first thing you have to do is to fix the culture and then get people to share. But I have found that it’s the other way around. If people begin sharing ideas about issues they see as really important, the sharing itself creates a learning culture. I have, of course, inserted an important caveat in that sentence: “about issues they see as really important” (Dixon as cited in Fullan, 2004, p. 124).

It interested me to compare it with an earlier blog quote I had

… many persons express the conviction that effective human relationships improve communication far more than communication improves relationships. (Savage, 1989, p. 109)

Do they contradict each other? If so which is right? What needs to be tackled first; relationship-building or communication/sharing?

Its one of those cyclic issues and perhaps that’s one of the reasons that collaborative cultures don’t develop easily. No one knows if its OK to start or where to start. In fact my own experience (tacit knowledge!) has been exactly that, no one wants to be the first. This is one of the places in which TLs can really take a lead. Someone has to break the ice, step up to the plate, lay their cards on the table and we have the training to do it.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/salmon/463619313/

Fullan, M. (2004). Building relationships. In Leading in a culture of change: Personal action guide and workbook (pp. 77-114). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Savage, W. (1989). Communication: Process and problems. In C. Riches & C. Morgan (Eds.), Human resource management in education (pp. 103-119). Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

Like a Siamese twin Faith must come with Hope. Sergiovanni (2005) defines faith as the set of assumptions people make when they have hope in something. And he points out that our faith/assumptions will suggest pathways to be taken.

Individuals with high hope possess goals, find pathways to these goals, navigate around obstacles, and develop agency to reach their goals (McDermott, Pedrotti, Edwards, and Houske, as cited in Sergiovanni, 2005, p. 81).

So here’s something I have faith in (a project I’ve begun work on at school) –

• the more children read or are read to, the better readers they will become

What is my Goal –

• to turn every one of the children at our school into a ‘reader’; each student, a child who enjoys books and stories no matter what their literacy level is.

What are my pathways?

• I’m working from the lower end of the school up. A large amount of good stories and books (fiction and non-fiction) are needed to hook students from Prep and build on their love of reading from there.
• I’m working with the Prep teacher Wendy to start on a Power Readers book bag system as suggested by David Loertscher.
• I’m going to talk to the parents of the Preps, along with their teacher. We’ll talk to them about the importance of reading, we’ll spell out the book bag program, we’ll pass on the information from Mem Fox’s website and Steven Krashen’s studies.
• I’m going to excite the kids by showing them new acquisitions on a regular basis, by listening to what they want to read and following up with requests quickly. I’ll continue to read and talk about books with them when they come to their weekly library session.

What are the obstacles?

• budget restraints (I’ll make picture books one of my collection development priorities in next years budget and try to get the parent support group on board)
• parents who don’t have time/inclination to read to their children (education, constant reinforcement needed, make it matter to them)

How will I measure my efficacy?

• books are being taken out by the child on a regular basis on their card
• I see them reading a book in ‘library’ time on a regular basis (photos for reference?)
• anecdotal evidence from teacher/parent - follow up on class meeting nights.
• student developmental reports done by the classroom teacher.

I’ll keep you posted about how it all goes.

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Sergiovanni, T. (2005). Hope, Trust, Community, Other Virtues. In Strengthening the heartbeat: Leading and learning together in schools (pp. 75-100). San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass.

A culture comes to exist and is passed on when the people within a group understand their group’s purposes and ‘live their values’ on a daily basis. School cultures are no different. So if leadership is action as discussed in my last journal entry then leaders must be the ones to live the values the ‘loudest’ or as others call it ‘walk the talk’.

Fullan (2004) lists three vital personal characteristics that  when practised by leaders are infectious: Hope, Energy and Enthusiasm. Sergiovanni (2005) suggests there are four leadership virtues that when embodied will give a leader leverage to transform a school culture: Hope, Trust, Piety and Civility. Both recommended cultivating them in order to be more effective.

Hope can seem a bit ‘pie in the sky’ in the face of all the change in the world of education and especially in the current climate of uncertainty in the TL’s world. But I liked the definition Sergiovanni turned to in his fourth chapter– it was termed realistic hope.

… is based on the attempt to understand the concrete conditions of reality, to see one’s own role in it realistically, and to engage in such efforts of thoughtful action as might be expected to bring about the hoped for change (Menninger, Mayman and Pruyser, as cited in Sergiovanni, 2005, p. 78).

I see examples of this every day from Teacher-Librarians through discussions on  the OZTL_Net listserv forum and through the efforts of advocacy groups like The Hub, ALIA and SLAV.  It definitely doesn’t look like ‘pie’; its hard work, like writing to politicians, it’s getting the message out to the media and to busy parents and new parents who don’t yet know the importance of TLs to their children’s futures.  Its true– hope is infectious. These efforts have affected me and I must do my best to create a similar feeling in my school community.

Hope implies action, here’s what I’ve done so far:

• write a fortnightly piece in the school newsletter - always included is something about educational benefits of the library program
• feedback to parents when their child takes up a new interest/topic in their reading or gains some new insight through a book. I encourage them to talk to their child about it.
• started and maintain our school Hotspots site which is a pathfinder for each of the classes’ themes on a blog fully accessible from their homes. I mention the URL frequently in the newsletter and remind the kids to use it at home.
• organised an author event that included parents - what a success this was in bringing the whole community together over quality children’s literature.

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Picture from: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/?display=21586&

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Fullan, M. (2004). Leading in a culture of change: Personal action guide and workbook. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Sergiovanni, T. (2005). Hope, Trust, Community, Other Virtues. In Strengthening the heartbeat: Leading and learning together in schools (pp. 75-100). San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass.

Everybody loves a rebel with heart. And reading Sergiovanni’s book Strengthening the Heartbeat: Leading and Learning Together in Schools, reinforces for me something I’ve always believed and is so succinctly summed up by the author — “[there is] doing things right and doing right things (Sergiovanni, 2005, p. 19). Sergiovanni talks of how systems can sometimes lose the point of leading and leaders — focussing too much on the managerial, authority role of leaders. He suggests that in order for schools to thrive, leadership must be re-examined, redefined and re-distributed so communities can be formed that lead and learn together. His definition of leadership has further clarified for me how TLs (and other teachers) can truly be leaders, ‘leading from the middle’  –

… thinking about leadership as a practice makes more sense than thinking about leadership as an expression of individual agency. Practices may be singular or group. Regarding leadership as a practice helps us to see teachers and principals as members of communities of practice within which knowledge is used  and exchanged to achieve goals with little regard for roles and positions. Within communities of practice, for example, leadership activity takes place at the level of the community rather than at the level of individuals. (Sergiovanni, 2005, p. 49)

As a faculty member of an alternative, democratically aligned school, this definition interests me greatly. It fits very well with what happens in the classes and amongst the students. However this is not practised amongst the staff and wider community. (At times it becomes obvious where we have not applied the philosophy of the school beyond the students and it always hits me hard. Q. How can this be? A. No time to consciously examine this issue, complete focus by teachers on student/class day-to-day issues.)

Sergiovanni’s definition of leadership I find strengthening. It is not about someone giving you permission to lead. It’s not about getting out in front and saying, “I’m going to lead you.” Its not about roles and positions or positioning at all, it’s about action. I can relate to this, I have quietly taken action this year and begun to lead by walking the talk, and by saying, “I’d like to [do] … ”

What would our school be like if we all adopted a leadership of practice? Well it would improve, it has already. This year I’ve won a literacy grant, I’ve got parents now raising money for the library, I’ve got library sessions for the classes on a weekly basis, … things are changing and for the better. How to encourage the others? Well it always seems to come back to building relationships. Sergiovanni quotes Lambert as suggesting that leadership is a ‘pattern of relationships’.

Leadership is a reciprocal process that enables participants in an educational community to construct meaning that leads toward a shared purpose of schooling’ (Lambert as cited in Sergiovanni, 2005, p. 51)

Building trusting relationships and sharing, acting with moral purpose always …all very hopeful business. =)

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Photo from: http://www.morguefile.com

Sergiovanni, T. (2005). Leadership as entitlement. In Strengthening the heartbeat: Leading and learning together in schools (pp. 41-54). San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass.