 |
EDU 8672 |
|||
| Bookmarks: Start by developing a shared vision... Identify and form a cadre of teacher leaders... Thinking about instructional leadership...
|
Despite the fact that many instructional leaders once were full-time classroom teachers and, over the years, came to loathe much of what was prescribed for them under the moniker of "professional development"¾believing many of these programs irrelevant to the challenges confronting them in their classrooms¾the role of instructional leader seems to have altered this assessment. Now, as these former classroom teachers-turned-administrators ponder how they will design "meaningful" programs to foster their teachers' professional development, the thoughts of these administrators turn inevitably to providing teachers with skills training. Ironically, the "irrelevant" and "meaningless" approach to professional development these instructional leaders previously loathed and decried¾one constructed upon providing for teachers' deficits (Tiezzi, 1991)¾is the approach these administrators now actively promote! Start by developing a shared vision... Without doubt, it is important that instructional leaders provide for their teachers' deficiencies, where any deficiency is present. But, for instructional leaders to focus exclusively upon remediating deficiencies is to overlook the fact that most teachers are not deficient and are intrinsically motivated to continue their professional development. For these teachers, there are alternatives approaches to programming for professional development that should be considered. For Starratt (1984), the first step in designing a professional development program involves focusing teachers upon the world outside of their classrooms and beyond the school itself by exploring what the future portends. The purpose for surveying this expansive terrain is to enable teachers to consider how they might proactively respond to the challenges that most likely will be confronting their students when they are adults in the 21st century (p. 81). All too often, professional development programs are more reactive in nature, driven by stakeholders outside of schools who vociferously call for and use political power to mandate change inside of schools. Starratt (1984) proposes four megatrends for teachers to consider and debate. First, the emerging global economy will require workers who can "think for a living." In addition, asserts, people will accord higher esteem to those workers capable of providing "quality service" than to those seeking power. Moreover, the new economy will require workers who possess greater maturity as well as refined personal and interpersonal skills, especially those associated with community building, conflict resolution, and consensus building. Lastly, attitudes toward work will change as people will accord primary consideration to "quality of life" issues rather than focusing exclusively upon job-, career-, and productivity- related issues. If Starratt's vision of the post-Industrial economic order is accurate (and there is no reason to suspect that it is inaccurate), the first step in designing a professional development program is not for instructional leaders to prescribe skills training to remediate teacher deficiencies. Nor is the first step to provide more expert teachers one-shot "dog and pony" shows telling them what they should be doing in their classrooms. Instead, the challenge confronting instructional leaders at this time is to engage teachers in a visioning process that will enable them to engage in professional discourse directed at constructing a more comprehensive and ambitious view of schooling. The goal of this visioning process is not only to forge a shared vision but also for teachers to consider how they will use their skills and acquire the skills they will need to enable their students to become capable of responding to these and other as of yet unforeseen challenges once they begin living their adult lives early in the 21st century. The initial challenge in designing a professional development program is not so much an "either-or" or "zero sum" calculus of providing for teachers' deficiencies or stimulating their interest in pedagogical techniques. More importantly, the initial challenge is a matter of leading teachers to expand their vision of schooling to encompass presumed societal challenges that will be confronting their students after graduation. Then, as teachers possess a shared vision about what they should be attempting to accomplish within the school, they can identify more precisely what they need to translate their shared vision into curriculum and instruction. Then¾and only then¾does it make sense for instructional leaders to consider programming for professional development, especially as this relates to how the teachers will translate the shared vision of schooling into curriculum and instruction and as they identify what they will need collectively if they are to translate that vision into learning experiences in an effective and efficient manner. Identify and form a cadre of teacher leaders... Indeed, the visioning process Starratt (1984) identifies is transformative of schooling and not just as this process impacts teachers. In addition, it offers the promise of transforming the very purpose of instructional leadership. By reframing the role and its functioning away from the direct supervision of teachers (a industrial conception based upon predetermined goals and objectives set by school districts), instructional leadership becomes more of a service to the professional community of teachers, namely, providing for professional development that is more supportive and coordinative (a phenomenological conception based upon teacher learning and teacher-defined professional improvement activities). Thus, as educators embrace a shared vision about schooling, the instructional leader's purpose moves beyond simply providing for professional development (although this certainly is part of the instructional leader's work) as the instructional leader begins to form a cadre of "teacher leaders" that can provide the school an internal resource of professional expertise (Feiler, Heritage, & Gallimore, 2000). These women and men will serve as the "experts" who, in turn, will identify the professional development program needed for the teachers to become more capable of translating their shared vision of a preferred future into curriculum, instruction and, ultimately, improved student learning. Given this purpose, the second step in designing a professional development program is for instructional leaders to search out and identify a cadre of teachers who exhibit expertise in curriculum and instruction, who are recognized by their peers as experts, and who possess leadership skills (or appear to possess the potential to lead others). These are the women and men the instructional leader will form into the "teacher leaders" who, in turn, will develop school capacity (King & Newmann, 2000, p. 579). They will supervise, assess, and evaluate their colleagues as they strive to improve curriculum, instruction, and student learning, all based upon a shared vision. Feiler, Heritage, & Gallimore (2000) identify three activities for this cadre of teacher leaders. First, they should work directly with the principal (or instructional leader) in reviewing the school's vision. The explicit purpose for these meetings is to set goals and to assess progress toward meeting those goals. But, the implicit purpose for these meetings is to develop a "shared vision" and to relate all that will be done in the school more explicitly to this shared vision. Second, the teacher leaders should be involved in extensive classroom visitation. They do so not simply for the purpose of supervising, assessing, and evaluating teachers. Instead, these visits help the teacher leaders to develop a more comprehensive, school-wide perspective about curriculum, instruction, and student learning as these are currently transpiring within the school. Third, the teacher leaders should spend time providing direct assistance to teachers through cooperative lesson planning, demonstration lessons, offering feedback, sharing assessment strategies and, providing the resources that teachers need and/or request. Prior to engaging the cadre of teacher leaders in these activities, it is crucial that instructional leaders provide the cadre the training, support, and coordination its members will need to be capable of shifting and adapting their strategies and interventions as they deal with individual teachers. In this way, the teacher leaders will tailor one dimension of professional development¾supervision and evaluation¾to each teacher's unique needs and requirements, depending upon one's level of professional experience and development (Berliner, 1986; Carter, 1990; Kagan, 1992) as well as each teacher's unique classroom context. Developing a cadre of teacher leaders does not come without cost. If these teacher leaders are to utilize their expertise and provide this professional service within the school, instructional leaders will need to provide this cadre sufficient release time from regular instructional responsibilities so that its members will be able to fulfill their leadership responsibilities. At a minimum, instructional leaders should consider release time in the amount of 20% of the teacher's full-time schedule (Feiler, Heritage, & Gallimore, 2000, p. 67). While Feiler et al. argue that this time should be a single block (for example, one day each week), it can be argued that instructional leaders should envision providing time for this work in smaller blocks (for example, two or three mornings or afternoons each week) with a common block for the cadre to meet as a group and with the instructional leader at least once weekly. Thinking about instructional leadership... Starratt's (1984) "developmental perspective" concerning teacher growth challenges instructional leaders to consider how they will enrich teachers in order they will may become more capable of developing "home grown" responses to the challenges that teachers must confront if they are to educate youth for responsible adult citizenship the 21st century. Engaging teachers in formulating a more comprehensive vision of schooling, one that focuses attention upon preparing youth for the world that will await them upon graduation, is the first step in constructing the foundation for meaningful professional development. As teachers communicate with one another about the purposes of school, they will formulate positions about curriculum, instruction, and student learning. More importantly, however, professional discourse will heighten the teachers' sense of personal and professional efficacy as they connect what they do within the school to important social, economic, and ethical purposes beyond the school. Identifying, forming, and developing a cadre of teacher leaders (Feiler, Heritage, & Gallimore, 2000) is the second step in building a foundation for meaningful professional development. This cadre can assist instructional leaders to fulfill their responsibilities in a way that will make teacher supervision and evaluation more of a supportive and coordinative function concerned primarily with teacher professional growth and development. Using teacher leaders to appraise the progress of their colleagues toward meeting school-wide goals frees up time for instructional leaders to attend to the broader school-wide aspects of curriculum, instruction, and student learning. To this end, then, instructional leaders should consider developing a shared vision and identifying and forming a cadre of teacher leaders as the initial step in designing a comprehensive professional development program. All of this coalesces, then, as the instructional leader and teacher leaders formulate a comprehensive, long-term goals to guide the direction of the school's professional development program. All of this presents instructional leaders several challenges as these abstract ideas are made more concrete in instructional leadership behavior:
Envisioning professional development, then, does not begin with programmatic thought about what instructional leaders will do to increase the teachers' expertise and improve student learning outcomes. Rather, the a priori mission of the school and its goals provide the substance for instructional leaders, teachers, and various stakeholders to engage in defining precisely what it is that they must do together in order to bring the school's mission and goals to fruition in the learning experiences provided to students. Berliner, D. C. (1986). In pursuit of the expert pedagogue. Educational Researcher, 15(7), 5-13. Carter, K. (1990). Teachers’ knowledge and learning to teach. In W. R. Houston (Ed.), Handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 291-310). New York: Macmillan. Feiler, R., Heritage, M., & Gallimore, R. (2000, April). Teachers leading teachers. Educational Leadership, 57(7), 66-69. Kagan, D. M. (1992). Professional growth among preservice and beginning teachers. Review of Educational Research, 62(2), 129-169. King, M. B., & Newmann, F. M. (2000, April). Will teacher learning advance school goals? Phi Delta Kappan, 81(8), 576-580. Starratt, R. J. (1993). Staff development, supervision and appraisal. In Transforming life in schools: Conversations about leadership and school renewal (Chapter Ten, pp. 83-97). Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia: Australian Council for Educational Administration. Tiezzi, L. J. (1991) Influences of a professional development institution on teachers' learning about teaching reading to Chapter I students. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. |
|||
