Teaching Cultures and School Based Management: Towards a Collaborative Reconstruction

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Teaching Cultures and School Based Management
Towards a Collaborative Reconstruction

• By Andrew C. Sparkes and Martin Bloomer
• Presented By
• Colleen Degruchy Julia Grant
• Byron Koop
• Donna Kriger

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Introduction Article SummarySchool cultures
are unique. The culture within a school, can
add to the crisis in education as well as
contribute to part of the solution.Relationships
within a school culture need to be
collaborative, positive and creative to promote
and advance change. Teachers and schools need
to form partnerships with parents and the
community.Teacher isolation and individualism
is common.
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Article Summary ContinuedTeachers must seek to
form and take part in collaborative
relationships. Contrived collegiality only
contributes to a negative school
culture.Teachers must be Wise Consumers of
Educational Theory and be wary of hidden
agendas associated with new initiatives.
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Main PointsTheme 1 The Role of CultureEach
school has its own distinct culture.The culture
within a school is defined by its values,
relationships, shared experiences, common goals,
and conflicts.Culture can be used to frame both
the crisis and the solution to the crisis.
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The Role of Culture (continued)Culture
provides schools with possibilities and
constraints.Strong relationships between
students, staff, parents and the community are
the foundation of culture.
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Theme 2 Teacher Isolation Referred to in the
article, through the toolkit metaphor.As
teachers, we seem to link isolation to autonomy
(being our own boss).Isolating ourselves to our
classrooms, provides teachers with an artificial
sanctuary.As teachers, we tend to over use a
limited number of tools (skills) from our toolkit
(repertoire) to establish routine and
familiarity.
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Teacher Isolation (continued)Isolationism,
Conservatism, and Individualism are common tools
pulled out of the Teacher Toolbox.Isolation
provides teachers with a means to escape the
pressures being placed on them.
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Theme 3 Contrived Collegiality vs.
Collaborative CulturesContrived Collegiality is
merely administratively contrived interactions
among teachers which enhances administrative
control.Contrived collegiality is similar to an
imposed or forced friendship/relationshipCon
trived collegiality results in a negative school
cultureCollaborative cultures are impossible to
mandate and require time to develop.
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Contrived Collegiality vs. Collaboration
(continued)Collaborative cultures require help,
support, trust, openness, valuing others, etc. in
their foundations.Collaborative cultures result
in collaborative schools which are highly
involved in their communities.Collaboration can
occur despite the environment, but to stay
collaborative, there must be involvement in and
support from the environment.
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Theme 4 Parents and Teachers Partnering
TogetherParents perception of education is
formulated largely by their children and the
media.Parents and teachers share a common
interest in the education and welfare of our
students.Partnering with parents, will allow
for a wider recognition of teacher
professionalism.Parent partnerships will lead
to a stimulation in the political will to reform
education in a positive manner.
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The Authors Reality TunnelThe authors appear
to be coming from a position of Social
Activism.The authors seem to share some
political discontent as it relates to the
education system in the United Kingdom.The
authors believe that teachers do not see
themselves, nor their profession in a positive
light.
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Reality Tunnel (continued)Collaborative
cultures are valued by the authors, however, they
believe that efforts being made to obtain them,
are failing for a variety of reasons.Teacher
s must partner with parents to effect positive
change in education.
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The Authors AssumptionsSparkes and Bloomer
assume that teachers desire to be more engaged
and accountable in their profession.They assume
that the inclination and/or time to participate
in active partnerships with parents exists.That
parents are indeed desiring to be involved in the
education of their children.That teachers will
make more time for students in their already busy
days.
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Author Assumptions (continued)Teachers are
motivated by what is best for their
students.Collaboration will draw teachers out
of isolation.Positive relationships between
administrators, staff, parents, and students will
be a natural evolution to follow collaborative
efforts.
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Authors Reasons For WritingAuthors see the
teaching profession threatened by the pressures
being placed on them.Authors wish to see
personal autonomy preserved.Authors to prevent
the establishment of bureaucratic
control.Sparkes and Bloomer want to sound a
warning that contrived or imposed collegiality
does not work in forming educational partnerships.
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Reasons For Writing (continued)Authors want to
promote the transformation of education and the
teaching profession into a more collaborative and
accountable model.Finally, the authors wish to
raise an awareness that parents and teachers need
to partner on educational principles that are
student focused.
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Opinions Regarding the Validity of the Authors
ArgumentAgree1. Contrived collegiality does
not work and tends to divide rather than
unite.2. Collaborative cultures will promote
student achievement.3. Genuine collaboration
together with shared leadership is necessary.4.
Teachers are becoming de-professionalized and
need to work collectively to prevent its
advancement.
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Disagree1. It is naïve to think that
teachers, partnered together with parents can
exert enough influence on the political landscape
to bring about significant change.2. That
teachers should allow full parental involvement
in all facets of education.
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Have the Authors Overlooked Anything?To a
certain extent, the authors have overlooked the
process needed to move from non-collaborative to
collaborative cultures. They have not supplied
us with any practical means by which to achieve
collaborative cultures.The authors have not
made any recommendations on how to change school
culture.The authors appear to not have
considered that some form of contrived
collegiality may be necessary to initiate the
collaborative process.
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Related SourcesEducational Leadership, The
Journal of the Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development has published several
articles and volumes related to this topic. 1.
Volume 61, Number 3, November 2003, The
Challenges of Accountability 2. Volume 61,
Number 8, May 2004, Schools as Learning
Environments 3. Volume 60, Number 6, March
2003, Creating Caring Schools 4. Volume
57, Number 7, April 2000, Sustaining
Change
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Application of Themes/Arguments to
Local/Provincial ContextColleenSome of the
things we are experiencing in British Columbia
areThe British Columbia Ministry of Education
is taking more control and therefore, B.C. is
beginning to become centralized as opposed to
decentralized. Many educators are beginning to
feel more stressed and overworked. The pendulum
is definitely swinging in favor of less autonomy
and more centralization.
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JuliaReading and reflecting upon this article
confirmed for me the fact that, for collegiality
and collaboration to be successful, it really
cannot be forced on people. For a number of
years, I have worked in a small school with less
than twenty staff members, with approximately 1/3
of the staff turning over each year. Those that
remain work in isolation. It has been difficult
to have any sort of foundation in place which
would allow collaboration. On occasion,
collaboration is forced or mandated in a top-down
manner, but in the majority of cases, it has
failed. It has become clear that teachers who
are driven into isolation or who choose to be
isolated cant suddenly be thrown into a
situation of collaboration and expected to
embrace it.
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ByronSocial justice is a concern for me. Ive
spent most of my life working in one fashion or
another with students and families that are
disenfranchised and disadvantaged. What role can
these families play in the reconstruction of
education and how do we bring them to the
table?In Alberta, I think weve had lots of
vision with little planning or consideration of
the details leading up to where we want to go.
What type of structures must, should, could be in
place to facilitate a positive change? Parent
partnerships should have a role, but how much and
what do they look like? Not every parent has an
altruistic end in mind and not all competition is
positive.
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DonnaIn Saskatchewan, decentralization is in
its infancy. As teachers, we need to be wise
consumers of the educational theories that come
our way. I am certainly wary of the possibility
of hidden agendas arising through new
initiatives. The article by Sparkes and Bloomer
has raised my personal awareness that SBDM can
lead to contrived collegiality or collaboration.
I see collaborative cultures as being slow to
establish and certainly impossible to mandate.
We, as teachers, need time and opportunity to
develop relationships which are collaborative.I
truly believe leadership must have the ethics and
the guts to mediate for the best interests of
their teachers and schools .
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Questions to Consider1. The authors discuss at
length, the importance of parental involvement in
our schools. What do you see as the advantages
or drawbacks to encouraging this involvement?2.
Contrived collegiality or forced partnerships
are often the result of furthering someones
vision. As leaders, how do we go about promoting
true collaboration in our schools that is not
contrived?
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Questions to Consider (continued)3.
Immediately, upon entering a school, its culture
becomes quite apparent. As leaders, how do we go
about improving, maintaining, or changing the
culture within our schools? What are some
indicators that change is in fact necessary?4.
What role can disenfranchised and disadvantaged
families play in the restructuring of the
education system? How do we get these families
to the table?