Instructional Leadership in a Culture of Change

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Instructional Leadership in a Culture of Change

• Dr. Jim Nolan
• Penn State University

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Why Change Efforts Fail?

• Failure to understand how people experience
  change in contrast to how it was intended lies at
  the very heart of the spectacular lack of success
  of most social reforms. ( Fullan)
• Most people who try to change education, whether
  it be a classroom or the system, do not
  understand how people involved in the changes
  think. (Bogdan and Biklen)

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The Experience of Change

• Teachers play a central role in the change
  process because they are both the objects and the
  subjects of change.
• Change adds to the uncertainty of teaching.
• The added uncertainty increases teacher guilt.
• Change results in a greater workload for
  teachers-intensification.

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Imposed Change and Veteran Teachers

• When change is imposed on veteran teachers, the
  implicit message is often not just that the new
  idea will be better, but also that what the
  teacher has been doing for years is ineffective
  or even harmful. (Sikes)

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Why are veteran teachers often cynical about
change initiatives?

• As we age, we begin to realize that our power to
  change the world is limited.
• They have seen innovations come and go -each one
  being touted as the best approach- even if it
  contradicts the last innovation.
• Sometimes it seems all that people in power
  really care about is the appearance of change.

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Resistance

• Redefining and rethinking resistance to change

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Change Implementation

• Implemented
• Not Implemented

• Good Idea Bad Idea
• Success Failure
• Failure Success

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The Zone of Wishful Thinking

• Many change agents refuse to acknowledge that
  their ideas have any flaws or weaknesses. They
  foresee only smooth sailing ahead. They are in
  the zone of wishful thinking. (Hill Cielo)

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Typical Approach to Resistance

• One approach sees resistance to change as
  something that must be overcome at all costs.
• This approach results in ignoring the objections
  and putting down the resisters.

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Alternative Approach to Resistance

• Resistance is seen as something that should be
  attended to and honored.
• Absence of early conflict is seen as a bad sign.

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Honoring Resistance

• Identify the motive and act accordingly, e.g.
  admire, empathize, dismiss.
• Think through the substance of the resistance -
  never dismiss it.
• Resisters are our friends. They spend energy
  where you and I will not - finding the flaws in
  our own plans.

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Leading for Change

• Designing Professional Development to Promote
  Reculturing and Change-Sustaining Learning

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Embrace the Tensions Think Inside the Paradox

• Stop pretending you have the answers!
• You only have to know what the right questions
  are.
• Never a checklist, always complexity.

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Embrace the Tensions Think Inside the Paradox

• Cultural change (leaders) value the tensions
  inherent in addressing hard-to-solve problems
  because that is where the greatest
  accomplishments lie (Fullan, 2002, p.19).

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The Tensions We Live

• Difference
• High Stakes Assessment
• Standards
• Design down
• Student needs
• Student needs
• Reduce taxes

• Commonality
• Developmentally appropriate practice
• Individuality
• Teach up
• Parent desires
• Teacher needs
• Improve quality

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Confronting the Contradictions Internal Languages

• I am committed to the value or importance of
• Open and direct communication

• What I do or dont do that prevents my commitment
  from being realized
• I dont talk to people whom I am really upset
  with.

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Confronting the Contradictions Internal Languages

• Competing commitments I may also be committed
  to
• Avoiding conflict whenever possible

• What assumptions and BTB conclusions do I hold
  that underlie my behavior
• I assume that if we have conflict we will not be
  able to work together collaboratively.

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Aim at both individual and organizational
development

• norms of collaboration
• norms of inquiry, experimentation and risk-taking
• norms of continuous improvement
• It must be OK to say I dont know or I am
  puzzled.
• It must not be OK to choose to stay in that state
  of mind.

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Make Connections

• Every initiative should be connected to a larger
  vision and integrated with other initiatives.
• Choose to do a few things well- Just say No
• Selective innovation

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Think big Start small

• Large enough to require noticeable, sustained
  effort.
• Not so overwhelming as to induce watering down as
  a coping mechanism.
• Not Very much like we have been doing.

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Focus on What Really Matters

• Focus on commitment to students and student needs
  rather than to the specific innovation
• Squaring this stone vs. building a cathedral

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Emphasize Learning, not Receiving Knowledge

• Asking questions is often more powerful than
  giving answers.
• It is the walking that beats the path, not the
  path that makes the walk ( DeGues, 1997)
• Involve teachers in creating solutions not just
  implementing them.

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Provide for Multiple Forms of Job-Embedded
Learning

• Study groups
• Action research
• Peer observation
• Individual goal setting and self-directed
  learning
• Critical friends groups

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Incorporate key elements of training

• Theory
• Demonstration
• Practice and Feedback
• Collegial follow-up
• Expect the implementation dip- make sure support
  is available at that time.

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Balance Team and Whole School Structures

• Teams are a powerful force for implementation
• Beware of balkanization and in group/out group
  dynamics
• Create a whole school vision

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Provide Time

• Rethink structures, routines, schedules
• Change as a process not an event
• The parking garage lesson

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Promote Diffused Leadership

• Unwarranted optimism
• Sustained leadership over time
• Top down and bottom up
• Supportive cohort

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Find Ways to Institutionalize the Initiative

• Communication to non-participants
• Second, third, and fourth wave training
• Celebration
• Staff turnover
• Structures

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Evaluate on an Ongoing Basis

• The professional development process itself -
  satisfaction changes in knowledge, skills, and
  dispositions
• The expected products- implementation and impact
  on students
• Unexpected outcomes

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References

• DeGues, A. (1997) The living company. Boston
  Harvard School Business Program.
• Evans, R. (1996) The human side of school change.
  New York Teachers College Press.
• Fullan, M (2002) The change leader. Educational
  Leadership 59 (8), 16-20.
• Guskey, T.R. Huberman, M. (Eds...) (1996)
  Professional development in education. New York
  Teachers College Press
• Hill, P.T., Cielo, M.B. (1998) Fixing urban
  school. Washington D.C. Brookings Press

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References

• Hargreaves, A, (1994) Changing teachers, changing
  times Teachers work and culture in a postmodern
  age. New York Teachers College Press.
• Kegan, R., Lahey, L. (2001) How the way we talk
  can change the way we work Seven languages for
  transformation. San Francisco Jossey-Bass.
• National Staff Development Council (1995 2001)
  Standards for staff development (Elementary
  School Edition. Oxford, OH. NSDC.
• Nolan, J. Meister, D. (2001) Teachers and
  educational change The lived experience of
  secondary school restructuring Albany, NY SUNY
  Press.

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References

• Renyi, J. (1996) Teachers taking charge of their
  own learning. Washington, D.C. National
  Foundation for the Improvement of Teaching
• Sikes, P. (1992) Imposed change and the veteran
  teacher. In M. Fullan and A. Hargreaves (Eds.)
  Teacher development and educational change.
  London Falmer Press.
• Sparks, D. (1995) A paradigm shift in staff
  development. ERIC Review 3 (3), 2-5.