Current Issues in my Professional Context

                     

Organisational Culture 

Some great articles on the reading list - wish I'd had some of these years ago. Really stoked to get time to read Hargreaves Professionalism and Professional Learning in full and Stoll (1998) too. Hargreaves with his clear images gives expression to lots of hunches and hmmmm moments I have experienced in my community of practice.

For example, I’ve often had the sneaking suspicion that politicians fulminating against teachers are drawing on their own rather sentimental or sometimes negative experiences at school – while education culture has radically changed in the last 30 years. As McCulloch’s work showed, the politicians ‘tend to  draw on their own biographical […] memories of schooling as children’ (As cited in Hargeaves, (1996)) As a PPTA member that's important to know.

As McCulloch (1997) has shown in Britain, pre-professional images are also highly influential among many Ministers or Secretaries of State for Education, who tend to draw on their own biographical (and sometimes sentimental) memories of schooling as children, instead of referring to broader histories of education as a public project, as they go about the business of formulating Professionalism and Professional Learning educational policy.

I’ve often thought that we teachers can get stuck in a kind of churn-it-out mode that’s not helpful to seeing new opportunities. So I frequently ask myself if things can be done better. My own school culture illustrates this itself with its careful inquiry approach.

I think the climate of our school, if you walked into it, as Elizabeth Warner (2015) says, is serious, busy (at work), warm and stable. With two consecutive principals who have had balanced, open mindsets, the culture is now one of hard-working professionals who respect one another, informed by (sometimes unremitting) updates to our PD which is followed through in consistent, considerate ways. Tasks in new or repeated strategies are discussed and supported by fairly gentle reminders and plenty of offers of support and go-to people. The school is effective, improving and moving (Stoll 1998). I participate in my school’s practice fully. 

my school is 

effective, improving and moving 

Sue Sullivan :-) 2016

In addition, there is an atmosphere of promoting teachers to positions of responsibility and really supporting them quietly as they grow in confidence in their new role. I have seen that over the years in my school and I really respect it.  This is the empowerment aspect Mark Wilson speaks of in ‘Building a Culture of Success’ (Wilson, M. 2013).

M. Wilson 2013

Equally important is the vision and our community is great at that – though the powerpoint sessions seem full of data at times, yet we all know the achievement results for students, how the school is tracking and more widely with whom we are collaborating in the local community, The Papanui Learning Cluster, as in the PHS Charter on the school webpage. So we are well-informed, we have opportunity to discuss and give our viewpoints, our goals are plain and encouragement and support is evident. And we have some sub-group cultures – sport efforts are widely acknowledged, arrival of babies to staff or family deaths are shared, and we have a weekly session of real creative hilarity on a Friday where different departments get to share the roles at the raffle prize distribution.

Current Issues

Is everything perfect? Well I doubt if it is anywhere and I have to say, no, it’s not perfect for me. The main community I work in is one of three classes that each spend their whole day with their teacher. Our classes do not suffer the “fragmented individualism” described by Hargreaves (1982) for most secondary students. Our students are adults. I have been there 13 years. Sometimes it is an unhappy place for me. It has caused me to endeavour to grow immensely – on a personal level. My professional profile is already packed with enthusiasm and endeavour and some recognized success as I have striven to find better ways for my students to learn.

But my efforts to find a place of shared goals and unity have fallen short of that ideal. I did not recognise myself as a possible leader until my mindlab course. Or I might have proceeded more slowly when I sought to enthuse my two colleagues in a concept or approach or a device.  I might have considered what they want and where they are at and where they want to be. Instead of assuming they envisaged serving our students in the same way as I did.

Perhaps there is there a climate of avoiding challenges, a stage Fink (1999) says is “most problematic from the cultural change perspective”. Indeed it has been challenging for me.

I’m still researching, creating new learning approaches, drawing students out into the edge of their abilities, enjoying my wider practice environment and caring for my students as best I can, as per Hargreaves and Goodson (1996), ‘being passionate about teaching, and caring for students’ learning and lives’. Perhaps I need to understand better ‘what others value’ (Dunkelblau in ‘What is School Climate and Culture’). That must include my immediate workmates. Or it has no sense.

References

Fink, D. (1999). Good school/real school: The life cycle of an innovative school. New York: Teachers College Press.

Hargreaves, D.H. (1982). The challenge for the comprehensive school. London: Routledge. Hargreaves, A. (1994).

Hargreaves and Goodson (1996),

Hargreaves, A. and Goodson, I. (1996) Teachers’ professional lives: aspirations and actualities. In I. Goodson and A. Hargreaves (eds) Teachers’ Professional Lives (London, Falmer).

Papanui High School Charter (2016) Retrieved from http://www.papanui.school.nz/school-information/school-charter

Stoll, L. (1998). Department of Education, University of Bath Reprinted from School Improvement Network’s Bulletin, No. 9, Autumn 1998 Institute of Education, University of London

Wilson, M. (2013). Building a culture of success. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_8Bjz-OCD8

Warner, E. (2015) in What is school culture and climate? Academy for SELinSchools Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-_NvhlcusQ