In the article, Facilitating Change in Our Schools, Linda MacRae Campbell, M.A. identified nine guidelines for
According to Michael Fullan (2016) in his book, The New Meaning of Educational Change, successful organizations that demonstrate change followed principled concepts of change. The reason for their success if that there is tangible proof of alignment in keeping components of actions. Fullan (2016) stated that successful change incorporates five factors. In this essay, three of the five factors will be discussed and an example of an organization using components of the change be revealed. Often when organization shave to go through the process of change it means either they have gone through change to repair broken areas or they are going through change as a reflective exercise before embarking on a larger scope of practice perhaps to expand into new growth within their organization. In either course, the larger concern is that organizations must embrace change and engage in meaningful constructed ways to promote the best growth with the fewest steps to reach accomplishment. A key decision factor to change is whether an organize will change because they adopt a model and see a better way or whether they want to save their resources. Fullan (2016) suggested that the reason for the change is largely to work is because, the organizations, “Define closing the gap as the overarching goal,” “Assume that lack of capacity is the initial problem and then work on it continuously,” and “Stay the course through continuity of good direction by leveraging leadership,” (Fullan, 2016,
Even after all of this mistreatments, we have explained how we felt towards our school policies and education. However, our grievances have been ignored. We have been open enough to follow school rules but these have to change. We can't keep on moving forward with ridiculous policies that should have a second choice or opinion. We are announcing that we will improve our schools with these new Grievances and make it work.
Educational policies and procedures need to be reviewed on a regular basis to keep them up to date with the changes within the school establishment and government legislation. Senior members of staff will gather together in a meeting to discuss what needs amending and updating within the policies and procedures. A senior member of staff will then draft the new policy or procedure and send it over to the governors to be
In the past six year the dynamics of the school has change slightly due to new administration but has become stable in the past two years. The Political Frame can be associated with members the School Leadership Team (SLT). They collaborate in the decision making for the school. They use different methods such as persuasion, negotiation and coercion to achieve what they believe are the best decisions for the school. However, once you enter this group there is an unspoken code that you adhere to as a
I have noticed that the staff respects our principal no matter what she asks. There might be murmurs among the staff, but the job gets done just as she has asked. During grade level meetings, the same applies. The principal states the objective of the meeting and then allows for any discussion. She is direct in how she answers but everyone leaves with a general understanding of what the expected outcome is to be. I believe that debate often leads to a “dead end” in most cases because one person already has their outlook on the situation and so does the opponent. The discussion leads to a long, drawn out meeting in which there is no reasonable solution. “If participants choose to suspend individual opinions and remain open to hearing what other speakers think, they engage in reflective dialogue, which allows new thinking and ideas to emerge (Issacs 2009).” In reading this article, this particular quote stood out because listening will from both the principal and the teacher will definitely be beneficial to both parties and most times than none, a consensus will be met. How do we as training leaders transform our thinking from directive to dialogue and more open discussion? Issacs (1999) states that implementing four components could definitely teach us better communication skills. They are “deep listening, respecting others, suspending assumptions, and voicing personal truths (Isaacs 1999).” When
I have gained an extensive amount of knowledge during my time as a student school board member. Prior to my time on the board, I had little insight into the amount of work that goes into running a school. I didn’t consider who hired the teachers that were such a vital part of my education or who coordinated sporting events. Although the board is not directly involved in every aspect of running the school, it has the ultimate oversight. Managing a school is a big job that requires a lot of decision making, and it is impossible to please everyone with these decisions. It was difficult for me to see upset community members at the first few board meetings I attended. I didn’t like seeing anyone unhappy with the decisions I played a part in making.
Change is inevitable and for any school district to be success change is necessary. My school district is constantly going through changes; curriculum changes, assessment changes, teacher evaluation changes, and more, each year it’s something different.
Applying this reactionary philosophy of organizational change to post-secondary public school systems is the exact jumpstart that this environment truly needs. Indeed, this particular approach is especially applicable to post-secondary public school systems because it places a strong focus on the change aspect of organizational change, taking steps to improve with every failure. This is useful because this environment is one of "live and learn." That is, post-secondary public school systems oftentimes rely on management theories that must be tweaked and changed as weaknesses or flaws emerge in them. On the other hand, this particular organizational change theory would essentially anticipate these failures, and pre-construct varying concepts and theories around these failures, essentially preparing for them before they even occur (Weick & Quinn, 1999).
As a future principal I believe this can be an important conversational piece between staff and administration. I would want to inform staff about the importance of communication between school district personnel and how we want to protect the integrity of what we are doing. I also believe, by listening and taking what my staff has to say seriously, that things such as this can be avoided. As a servant leader, listening to my employees is a vital piece of helping
When a school has a low AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) there has to be new programs implemented to help the school’s achievement. If the policies are being implemented by a new administrative figure the faculty is unsure of their intents and purpose. The faculty members will either embrace the new policies implemented by the administrator or completely go against them. Kurt Lewin wrote that "An issue is held in balance by the interaction of two opposing sets of forces - those seeking to promote change (driving forces) and those attempting to maintain the status quo (restraining forces)" (Connelly, 2016). For change to happen the status quo must be disrupted and the resisting forces must be reduced.
It is my opinion that the better people are educated on a particular change or event, the more apt they are to accept it. It is those issues where there is unknown that causes anxiety and friction when implementing something new. Therefore having a staff meeting simply for the purpose of letting teachers know what to expect is crucial to getting off to a good start.
Many teachers feel that building administrators decide what practices are best for all teachers. District initiatives are rolled out without any input from teachers. When this happens teachers do not feel valued. Sometimes these decisions are made from central administrators and building principals are blamed. Even when central administration brings a group of teachers together to have an open dialogue and discuss possible changes, teachers feel as if decisions have already been made, and this is just a formality to appease them. I do not believe there is an easy fix for this problem. Although equality is central in creating a true partnership, parameters still need to be in place so that best practices are in place. In order to build a partnership, administrators need to provide teachers with options, within these guidelines, so that we can all work towards a common goal. If we want to build a culture of equality, not only do administrators need to listen to teachers’ viewpoints, teachers need to be open to administrators’ perspectives as
In the article, “Who Decides What,” the principal reminded readers about the importance of clarification necessary about the amount of autonomy given to teachers. In this case, there needs to be an expectation that rigor must increase in the scope and sequence. MindTools.com published an article entitle, “The Vroom-Yetton-Jago Decision Model.” In the article, the author wrote that one shouldn’t make autocratic decisions when team acceptance is crucial for a successful outcome. Therefore, the administrator should not be so authoritative that he or she shuts down any potential for change. As chapter six states in Practicing the Art of Leadership, one way to motivate facility is through fair process. Changing instruction and achievement expectations is naturally going to be a participatory effort. The Team Decision Making Inventory #7 noted the advantage of authority rule with discussion. It gains commitment from all team members, develops a lively discussion on the issues using the skills and knowledge of all team members, and is clear on who is accountable for the decisions of the team. This is ultimately what needs to happen in this case study situation. It will take a group effort to initiate change, and decision-making should include the people who the decisions are directly
As educators, we know about the pendulum of education. There are many times that I have been introduced to a new curriculum for it to go away within the next three years. Acknowledging their concerns and expressing that if this program has a way of improving our teachers that we would need to work with it. Maybe, we as a pilot school could help fix or repair attributes in the TKES. Trying to keep everyone positive is the key here.