Before I fully delve into the ETL523 Digital Citizenship content, I need to briefly determine what I think digital citizenship is, in terms of being an educator of (young) children.
Merriam-Webster Definition of Citizenship (2020)
Digital citizenship is primarily an add on to citizenship. We must behave in a civilised manner in life, both face to face (citizenship) and online/electronically (digital citizenship). If at first students have no concept of citizenship
– that is, a communal bond and respect for living and working harmoniously together for the greater good –
then they will similarly have no concept of digital citizenship (living and working harmoniously together for the greater good electronically).
Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L), Social Emotional Learning (SEL), citizenship/ethics should be integral to every aspect of our 2020 teaching day. We must help students regulate through consistent SEL, relate to them via whole school programs like PB4L, so that we may reason / rationalise with them with lessons on citizenship and ethics (these being Dr Bruce Perry’s 3 R’s as provided by Beacon House, 2020).
Furthermore, I would add that as teachers our rationalisations / lessons must all be able to be reflected upon and evaluated and revised continually using some form of collegial quality teaching standards, such as the Quality Teaching Framework (QTF)…perhaps this could be my contribution to ETL523, to link Digital Learning Environments to the QTF…
The below notes are from reading ETL523 Module 1 ‘What is digital citizenship’:
Digital citizenship therefore, is not just about keeping students safe online, or giving students the skills or devices to access technology. It is helping students become productive members of an digital (learning) environment…digital citizens of a globally digital social society. This is supported by the video by ISTE, (2018) Rethinking digital citizenship.
Furthermore, as detailed by Greenhow (2010), Ribble, Bailey, and Ross (in their book, Digital Citizenship in Schools, ISTE, 2007), consider the 9 elements of digital citizenship to be: digital etiquette, digital communication, digital access, digital literacy, digital commerce, digital law, digital rights and responsibilities, digital health and wellness, and digital security.
Digital citizenship requires technical, individual, social, cultural and global awareness, which must be considered by teachers in the practical terms of students’ understanding the concepts of: safety, privacy, copyright, fair use and legal compliance, etiquette and respect, habits of learning (responsible, reliable management of online activity), literacy and fluency. This is best demonstrated by the Enlightened digital citizenship model of Davis & Lindsay (2012):
Davis, V. Lindsay J. (2012). Enlightened Digital Citizenship Model. Retrieved from Module 1
References
Beacon House, (2020). Dr Bruce Perry’s 3 R’s. Retrieved from https://beaconhouse.org.uk/resources/
Greenhow, C. (2010). New concept of citizenship for the digital age. Learning & Leading with Technology, 37(6), 24-25.
Lindsay, J., & Davis, V. (2012). Flattening classrooms, engaging minds: Move to global collaboration one step at a time. Allyn and Bacon. Chapter 5: Citizenship. (available on CSU DOMS as a downloadable PDF)
Merriam-Webster, (2020). Definition of Citizenship. [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/citizenship
A key aspect of both L3 and Accelerated Literacy pedagogies in the K-6 Australian classroom is providing ‘quality texts’ for a learning focus as a whole class. No matter what pedagogy is the flavour of the month in a given educational setting, utilising quality texts is the key to unlocking student potential.
In answering the question, ‘what makes a quality text?’ we must keep in mind that it is closely related to ‘what makes a good writer?’ In many classrooms over the last 5 years, I’ve witnessed teacher and administrator despair at the low quality of writing being produced by students…and yet the instructional texts being chosen by schools or educators have most recently been phonics based, ‘guided readers’ or ‘decodable’ readers / texts (see my previous post regarding my feelings about texts used to teach children how to read).
What makes a quality text? Well, I present the idea that: if you give children boring, out of context, un-relatable, poor quality texts in which to learn to read, you will get boring, out of context, un-relatable poor quality writing produced by students.
So, what makes a quality text / quality writer? See the quality book: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore (2012) by W.E. Joyce. (This was also adapted as an award winning short film (Joyce, 2011). This book is something I try to show every class that I teach while being a casual teacher (and otherwise). I show the movie, then I ask the students, depending on time, to explain why some books fly and some do not – ergo, what makes a quality text. They explain: its a book that is funny, exciting, interesting, takes them places they’ve never thought of or been to before, or that creates a picture inside their heads. In one class, they were using the 7 Steps of Writing strategies and could see the link to quality texts and quality writing clearly, answering ‘sizzling starts,’ etc.
Its not hard to help students make the link from quality reading to quality writing…we just have to work on getting rid of those boring books being used exclusively by educators and administrators…
A key factor that is often overlooked in the teaching of reading (such as the L3 / Reading Recovery / Phonics / Decodable readers debates) are the objectives of the K-10 English syllabus:
Image: K-10 NSW English Syllabus Objectives (NESA, 2012).
Of specific interest to me as a prospective teacher librarian, and indeed, all who attempting to grasp the content outcomes of literacy, are the concepts of
‘Students will value and appreciate the importance of the English language as a key to learning‘
‘Communicating through speaking, listening, reading, writing, viewing and representing’
‘The personal enrichment to be gained from a love of English, literature and learning’ and
‘The independence gained from thinking imaginatively, creatively, interpretively and critically.’
As educators, we can get caught up in the content / outcomes / assessments / learning progressions / teaching students ‘how’ to do things like read and write, that we forget the ‘why’ objective(s) of teaching English in the first place: to unlock the door of learning, enabling enrichment of life through independent thought and communication.
Bitmoji Christy – Swoon
While reading Barone (2011), I was impressed by the determination of reading being more than just learning how to decode and learning how to comprehend – something that has been a bugbear of mine over the years while attempting to implement first, the Accelerated Literacy pedagogy, followed by the L3 (reading & writing) pedagogy in my stage 1 EAfS NSW Far West classrooms, the NSW Learning Continuums, followed by the ACARA Learning Progressions, as well as the recent push for teaching synthetic phonics and using decodable readers – leading to the question of whether the school library collection should be ‘levelled’ based on ability. (Learning to read / Reading to learn is something I discussed in a previous blog post). We must engage our students with texts and enable them to become lifelong readers! We must not just focus on the ‘how’ to read, but also the ‘why.’
So often, we explain ‘why’ or ‘what’ we are learning when it comes to writing or math outcomes…why do we not explain the purpose for reading lessons?
Barone (2011) explains the ‘why’ we read, something we should be clarifying in our ‘W.e A.re L.earning T.o’ lesson introductions, in greater detail: “Reading to learn to read: Young children and adults alike engage in reading in order to learn to read. Teachers, parents, or tutors carefully select books that are just right for independent reading or a bit challenging for reading supported by a competent reader. Reading for pleasure: Adults and children read just for the joy of entering an imaginative world. Or they read just for the pleasure and satisfaction of learning something. Reading to enjoy vicarious experiences: Some books allow readers to discover what it was like to participate in a historical event, live in a different environment, or survive hardships. Readers are able to take on the persona of a character to better understand an event beyond their personal realm. Reading to develop background knowledge. Frequently, readers pursue topics that inform them about the world and important events. It is not possible for adults and children to experience everything directly; books offer these opportunities. Reading to understand: Adults and children often read biographies and historical fiction to understand an event or person. Others read to better understand an aspect of science or a scientist and the motivation behind a discovery. Reading to understand who we are: By exploring how characters solve dilemmas, readers can reflect how they might respond to similar circumstances and thus come to know themselves better. Reading to ponder: Adults and children read to explore ideas and beliefs—for instance, the beliefs of a culture or community—to compare them with their own. Reading to appreciate: Adults and children read to appreciate the quality of a book or the art within. They reread a favourite phrase or explore an illustration for the pleasure they derive from it. Reading to engage in conversation: Reading opens opportunities for adults and children to exchange ideas. They argue about a character and why he or she did something. They disagree about whether they both liked the same book or author. Importantly, this exchange allows readers to enjoy and appreciate a book more fully. (and) Reading to solve problems: Books can help readers solve a current problem they are facing” (Barone, 2011, p. 4-5).
We need to consider our ideas of childhood as teacher librarians, because we will be struck by conflict within ourselves and in our school contexts when it comes to 1. curation of resources, and 2. 21st century pedagogical approaches such as curriculum and behavioural ideologies. As stated in my teaching philosophy, I support the view, based on Piaget’s theories, that ‘childhood’ is a social construct and that human beings are, across the world, simply at varying stages of our physical, mental and social development. In terms of nature vs nurture (sometimes referred to as Locke vs Rousseau) I prefer Rousseau’s view of childhood as something curious, charming and valuable…something to nurture.
What is a child / Why as the question? “Events such as the development of mandated curriculum for the non-compulsory years, the implementation of diagnostic tools and assessment regimes in the first years of school, and moral panic of paedophilia are all under pinned by certain views of the child and ideals of childhood” … “(Thus,) it might be timely to re-examine our understandings of children and childhood” (Woodrow, 1999).
What is a child / Then and now / Plurality: “Ever since JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS (1592–1670) published his Didactica Magna (1649) and JOHN LOCKE (1632–1704) produced his treatise Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693), observers of children have been occupied with attempting to understand, document, and comment on what it is and what it means to be a child. … A child has been defined as any person below a notional age of majority, but this has been variously interpreted and there have been many differences throughout history in the ways that societies have come to recognise the exact beginning and end of childhood. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has for its purposes identified childhood as that stage of life experienced by any person between birth and fifteen years. Article 1 of the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that a child is any person under the age of eighteen. … The eighteenth-century philosopher JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU (1712–1778), in constructing an ideal childhood, described what he termed the “age of nature” as occurring between birth and twelve years. For the Austrian-born philosopher RUDOLF STEINER (1861–1925), childhood was a state of physical and spiritual being roughly between the ages of seven and fourteen years, indicated initially by certain physiological changes such as the loss of the milk teeth. … Biological-anthropologists, taking a bio-cultural perspective, regard childhood as a stage in development unique to humans, the function of which is the preparation for adulthood. However, advocates of a new sociology of childhood such as sociologist Alison James have pointed out that: ‘chronological age is sometimes of little use when comparing childhood across very different cultures and societies. A ten year old may be a school child in one society, the head of a household in another. As such, the new sociology of childhood prefers to identify a “plurality of childhoods” rather than one structural conditional term’‘ (Bourke, 2008-emphasis added).
What is a child / Plurality in the law: “This plurality, it has been argued, is partly reflected through the prism of children’s own definition of themselves. … The age at which a person can be considered capable of moral reflection upon their actions has altered over time according to changes in the understanding of childhood. Thus, for example, according to nineteenth-century English common law, it became established that children should be exempt from criminal liability under the age of seven. This was raised to age eight in 1933 and to ten in 1963.” (Bourke, 2008).
What is a child / Then and now: “…proper perspective is something that is sorely missing in debates about the state of children and childhood today. It is easy to forget, for example, that only a few hundred years ago, children could not even be said to have a childhood” (Guldberg, 2009, p.46-47). “Whether or how much parents in medieval times could be said to love their children, today’s separation of a distinct world of childhood with its own clothes, games, entertainment, literature and education is undoubtedly modern. Over the past century or so the family has become increasingly focused emotionally and financially on the welfare of the child in ways that would have been unrecognisable to people in previous centuries” (Guldberg, 2009, p.48). “The modern view of childhood is understood to have been built upon the ideas of two great philosophers, JOHN LOCKE and JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU. Locke’s idea of a tabula rasa – the mind as a blank slate at birth – presents adults with the responsibility for ‘what is eventually written on the mind,’ writes Postman (1994, p.57). From the ‘Locke-an’ conception comes the view of the child as an ‘unformed person who through literacy, education, reason, self-control, and shame may be made into a civilised adult’ (Postman, 1994, p.59). Rousseau, on the other hand, put forward the Romantic view of the child – highlighting the charm and value of children, arousing ‘a curiosity about the nature of childhood that persists to this present day’ (Postman, 1994, p.58)” (Guldberg, 2009, p.50). “Only in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with the drastic decline in child labour and the advent and extension of compulsory schooling, could childhood really be said to exist in the modern sense. It was not until the 1870 Education Act, which gave rise to a national system of state education, that schooling became a priority in the UK” (Guldberg, 2009, p.51). “In the distant past, people had no choice but to treat children as little adults. Now that we have a more advanced society, it is up to us to protect childhood as an important stage of development rather than ‘pathologising’ it as a dangerous, unhappy time; and to help children on their way into adulthood, rather than seeking to keep them infantile for ever” (Guldberg, 2009, p.56-emphasis added).
What is a child / Children’s rights: “A ‘right’ here is defined as a claim to treatment, according to law or policy; a ‘child’ is defined as a person under the age of 18 years, as per the Children Act 1989” (Daniels, 2000, p.8).
What is a child? “Socially, the child is receptive to the different biases of the culture (they are) born into, and the particular ways in which these are transmitted to (them) by (their) parents or caregivers. Because of this, any search for the ‘natural child,’ over and above the minimum common ground, faces difficulties.” … “ Receptivity to a prevailing culture is itself a constant characteristic of all childhood” (Tucker, 1977, p.99). “The dividing line between ‘childish’ and ‘adult’ behaviour is constantly being redrawn both in minor and major ways, so emphasising the essentially relative and social nature of these terms.” … “In the early nineteenth century…the audience for Punch and Judy shows would consist of people of all ages; it was only by the end of the nineteenth century that children would make up practically the whole crowd” (Tucker, 1977, p.103). “At the same time, typically childish clothes—the sailor suits and frilly dresses of affluent children in former times—are giving way to more adult fashions at increasingly early stages in a child’s life. Soon it may only be the baby in the first year who has his own distinctive outfit” (Tucker, 1977, p.107). To quote PIAGET (in Tucker 1977, p.114-115-emphasis added): “With regard to mental functioning, the child is in fact identical with the adult; like the adult, he is an active being whose action, controlled by the law of interest or need, is incapable of working at full stretch if no appeal is made to the autonomous motive forces of that activity. Just as the tadpole already breathes, though with different organs from those of the frog, so the child acts like the adult, but employing a mentality whose structure varies according to the stages of its development.”
What is a child? / A socially constructed stage of life: Viewing the child as existing through its relations with others and always in a particular context…there are may children and many childhoods, each constructed by our ‘understandings of childhood and what children are and should be’ (Dahlberg, 1999, p.43). “Childhood is understood not as a preparatory or marginal stage, but as a component of the structure of society—a social institution—and important in its own right as one stage of the life course, no more or less important than other stages” (Dahlberg, 1999, p.49-emphasis added).
References
Burke, C. (2008). Theories in childhood. In Encyclopaedia of children and childhood in history and society. Retrieved from http://www.faqs.org/childhood/So-Th/Theories-of-Childhood.html
Dahlberg, G., Moss, P. & Pence, A. (1999). Constructing early childhood: What do we think it is? Beyond quality in early childhood education and care: Postmodern Perspectives. Falmer Press.
Tucker, N. (1977). Summing up: what is a child? In What is a child? London: Fontana/Open Books.
Woodrow, C. (1999). Revisiting images of the child in early childhood education: Reflections and considerations. In Australian Journal of Early Childhood, Vol 24, (4).
Prioritising tasks and making time for personal wellbeing is easier said than done and I have realised this along the course of the case studies. While I was initially judgemental about the head teacher in the case study not following my advice from case study 1, I am more understanding now.
It is very difficult to focus and critically analyse and apply information when you are emotionally distracted by familial or personal issues. It is important to be proactive and have support structures in place before a stressful event occurs, such as recognising possible triggers and identifying coping strategies to deal with those triggers – much like we do as teachers by setting up our classroom structures.
Much like the head teacher librarian in the case studies, I have a lot on my plate. Work for me has been tumultuous for nearly my entire adult life. I have only been employed as a permanent employee for a mere 6 of my 32 years in gainful employment. I have had several genetic defect and life-threatening operations and 2 complicated pregnancies. I have immigrated from the U.S. and have lived for 22 years in Australia without my birth family. I have lived for 6 years in the Far West of NSW and have found the climate (both in terms of weather and work) challenging. Thus, I have had to work very hard over the years to try to prioritise travel and home life over work and career status…not easy when teaching is your passion!
I thought I had it all together!
I’ve tried to develop some hobbies that do not require other humans (photography, gardening, reading, playing with my dog) and learnt to take time to do these hobbies when I am feeling overwhelmed.
I have tried to prioritise my home life over my work life by shutting off and leaving work at 5:00pm each day. This has been made easier by only working 2 days a week and working in a NSW Department of Education Preschool that locks its doors at 3:30 each day.
I also set limits on parts of the house for electronics as to where they are not allowed (e.g. the kitchen/dining areas, toilets and bedrooms) in order to ensure that our family are sharing spaces appropriately and interacting authentically together in these spaces.
I have tried to combat the lack of permanence in my job and lack of power and control over my destiny, by attempting a masters degree in Teacher Librarianship. (Although my work hours have been modified to include this, which adds to my stress).
I try to live life in the moment, focussing on what I need to do in the next minute, rather what I need to do later or tomorrow or in 5 years time. It is great to have a vision, and strategies to achieve that vision and I’m very thankful to finally have this. It is also important to recognise that sometimes the steps towards the vision begin by simply swinging your legs out of the bed to start the day and thinking of nothing else until you’ve achieved that goal.
Photo by Elijah O’Donnell on Unsplash
Then something happens that isn’t expected – as it always does.
Both of my children are on the autism spectrum, and it is likely both my husband and I are also (although only my youngest is the only one to recently obtain a diagnosis of ASD, ADHD and SPD). While I’ve always known that my boys are different and I appreciate and enjoy difference and I was not worried about going to Manly for a week for the diagnosis process, the final diagnosis of my youngest, particularly when there is a major assignment due for my degree, has caused my life to re-enter a state of flummox. What I didn’t plan for, was how to tell him about his diagnosis and how to deal with his emotional state following that discussion.
Thankfully I have my very supportive husband has looked after the children full time to enable me to complete it. Thankfully, we’ve been talking to the children regularly about ASD, so the news, when we can sit down and discuss the plan for delivering it, won’t come as such a shock.
Thankfully, through the support structures were in place through CSU, I had applied for and was granted a week extension on my assignment.
I’ve also located the ‘Personal (Wellbeing) Strategic Plan’ provided by the ETL504 course resources, have saved it to my files and will include it in my repertoire (see also the link in the menu on the left side of this blog). I hope this will help me in the future to be more proactive in my personal wellbeing and possibly help others too.
Following the reading of several articles and websites, [including Toor, Weisberg & Walter, (2010); Kachel, DelGuidice, & Luna, in Levitov, (2012); SirsiDynix, (2016); Smith (2013); Bonanno & Moore (2009); ASLA (2019); and ALIA National (2014)] it is time to lift our game in advocating for school libraries in Australia.
This is an area that was briefly covered in the ‘Introduction to Teacher Librarianship’ course, where I found a book chapter that details several marketing roles that teacher librarians should / could utilise: Chapter 9 ‘Why a marketing background is a good fit for the library profession’ by Beth Canzoneri in Lowe-Wincentsen, D. (2014).
Thus, I’ve created a short GoogleDoc survey to help ensure any library in which I’m employed is adequately advocating for the library amongst all avenues and facilities available. (See also the menu link to the left of this blog).
NOTE: This is a very simple idea for managing what is a very complex area, linked to the school / library strategic plan, mission, vision and values, (about which I’ve gone into more detail in other blog posts).
On my way Bitmoji
In the future I’d like to use the resources below to help create a marketing strategy for my library…
References
ALIA National. (2014, January 6).Promoting your school library[Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/Va5mo6ik2_M
Kachel, D., DelGuidice, M. & Luna, R. in Levitov, D. (Ed.) (2012). Activism and the school librarian – Tools for advocacy and survival [Libraries Unlimited version]. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Lowe-Wincentsen, D. (2014). Skills to Make a Librarian : Transferable Skills Inside and Outside the Library. Amsterdam: Chandos Publishing. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=927792&site=ehost-live
SirsiDynix. (2016, October 6). Library connections video[Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/e6m1rTDiqlI
Toor, R., Weisburg, H. K., & Walter, V. A. (2010). Being indispensable : A school librarian’s guide to becoming an invaluable leader (epdf). Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Canadian Library Association (2014). Key Steps for Implementation. Leading Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.Canadian Library Association (CLA). (2014). Leading Learning Framework – Standards, Themes and Growth Indicators for School Library Learning Commons. Leading Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.Baker, S. (2016). (Permission to use image granted by the IASL Secritariat)Future Ready Schools (2019). The 7 Gears. (Permission to use image requested)Alliance for Excellent Education (2016). Future Ready Librarians. (Permission to use image requested).
These images are great resources and worth remembering and utilising for developing a future ready school library ‘learning commons.’ Where are Australia’s ideas for future ready libraries? Are they just for members of ASLA only or is the ASLA ‘futures’ white paper the only resource we’ve yet to produce? Why are we relying on the resources from North America?
References
Alliance for Excellent Education (2016). Future ready librarians [Image]. In Future Ready Schools. Retrieved from http-/1gu04j2l2i9n1b0wor2zmgua.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Library_flyer_download
Baker, S. (2016). Figure 1. The six Ts of transformation model. [Image]. In School libraries Worldwide, 22(1), 143-159. Retrieved from http://www.iasl-online.org/resources/Documents/PD%20Library/11bakerformattedfinalformatted143-158.pdf
Canadian Library Association. (2014). Key Steps for Implementation. [Image]. In Leading Learning- Standards Of Practice For School Library Learning Commons In Canada. Ottawa, ON- Canadian Library Association. Retrieved from http-//clatoolbox.ca/casl/slic/llsop.html
Future Ready Schools (2019). The 7 Gears [Image]. In TheFuture Ready Framework. Retrieved from https///dashboard.futurereadyschools.org/framework
The funnel of professional learning transference (Cole, 2012 p.6). (Permission to use image granted by Education Services Australia as the legal entity for the Education Council).
I was just saying to my husband the other day about how different this degree is to the training we receive as teachers. Even things that we are interested in, often get attended, our enthusiasm is strong as we walk through the doors of our school and then, mysteriously, we never seem to implement what we’ve learnt with any real vigour, or if we do it soon peters out, lost in the quagmire or superseded by the next training course we attend.
My husband is a Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) Assistant Principal External Coach and the PB4L team in NSW are focussing on this exact phenomenon and implementing strategies demonstrated by Cole (2012), who explains very clearly why this occurs in the image (above) ‘The funnel of professional learning transference’ – Used here with permission from AITSL).
Most of us never make it to reflecting and/or seeking feedback to improve mastery, much less adding the practice to our repertoire and very very rarely helping others to adopt the practice.
This is where PB4L and QTR are both so beneficial! Out of all of the lessons I’ve modified based on training I’ve received, only one has stood out as something that I would fight vehemently to keep in my practice and that is the L3 shared reading lesson that I did in QTR. Following the successful lesson (where I received helpful feedback from three peers who had not attended the L3 training), all three wanted to learn how to implement the lesson (or series of lessons as it were).
Bitmoji Do It!
I can see how this will help my assignment and help me create a community of practice in my library and at my future school(s)! I am totally capable of reflecting, helping others reflect, adding skills to my practice and helping others add them to theirs…Now to get it into my discussion paper somehow…
A blank page start & roses for Carolyn; Photo by Lumitar on Unsplash
In 2010, I was teaching part time job share on a stage 1 class at a South West Sydney primary school and had the honour of being led by my husband (acting assistant principal for stage 1) and Carolyn (Draper) Mozayani, Deputy Principal.
Working with my husband as my supervisor (something that had already been successfully attempted by another married couple at the school) was an interesting challenge of professionalism. He also supervised my job-share partner and it was very difficult not to come home and vent my frustrations to him. He helped me see how to better communicate with her via a communication journal and to make sure that the communication between my colleague and myself was being correctly encoded and decoded.
Working with Carolyn was an absolute dream. She was the most kind and patient and positive person with whom I have ever worked. She unfortunately passed away with cancer in 2015 after getting married and having a child (her biggest life goals). But the memories of her and the professional development she offered, remain. Her main mantra was for students to always witness calm, patience and kindness in words and actions. She also helped introduce several whole school initiatives, including a ‘building a community of practice’ how does it look, sound and feel (unpublished) document (image below):
Carolyn Draper Mozayani’s (2010) Building a Community of Practice
In this document, it is interesting to note that data collection is the first item on the list, yet I felt no stress or pressure regarding its implementation (unlike my stress during other whole school data collection initiatives at different schools in the last three years).
I want to honour her memory and leadership by trying to build a community of practice myself. But before we try to build one, what exactly does a ‘community of practice’ actually mean? More on this in Assessment 2!
In terms of networking and collaboration, being on the social club / committee is key for the TL! Why would people want to collaborate with you if you hide in the library and fail to socialise? “Get out there gorgeous!” as Carolyn would say.
I suppose I will have to keep reading the modules to develop more ideas on building a community of practice, like how to write a vision / mission statement and how to write a strategic plan…fingers crossed it all comes together!
“Change management is important but change leadership is essential” (Pennington, n.d.). Leadership versus Management:
Have a clear understanding about the difference between leadership and management, because if something turbulent happens that means an organisation or school is required to implement change and we are stuck in management tasks, we can’t lead (Kotter, 2013).
Therefore, leadership (leading) is: creating a strategy and vision for the future and creating an environment that motivates others to join the vision and strategy; whereas management (functional) is: planning, budgeting, organising, staffing controlling and problem solving (Kotter, 2013).
[I won’t write too much more about management versus leadership because I think I’ve written loads about this in my blog posts for ETL503 Resourcing the Curriculum]
Nick Skillcom’s (2019) definition of innovation (Permission to use image granted by Nick Skillcom)
Innovation versus change:
I think we also need to have a clear definition as to what is innovation versus change. The two seem to be being used interchangeably in this course, and in some ways that could be dangerous, particularly given the ‘change fatigue’ discussed in my previous post(s). Innovation is change that is adding value for both the company and the customer [as detailed by Nick Skillcom from Idea to Value (2019)], but change doesn’t necessarily do this and promoting a ‘change culture’ frightens me. We need to remember to match innovation (and subsequent change) to goals. Perhaps a ‘change culture’ is an innovative culture that is open to change, but not necessarily constantly changing?
Innovation by Nick Skillcom (2019) (Permission to use image granted by Nick Skillcom).
These are interesting, given the wording of the principal standards from the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL): “Identify the need for innovation and improvement; Develop a process and common language for change; Maintain their values whilst adapting flexibly and strategically to changes in the environment; Embed a culture of continuous improvement (AITSL, 2015).
Innovation: In order to recognise necessary innovations, I need to identify my passion. What’s my passion? Literacy. Quality literature. Education of children. Helping others find their passion. Encouraging colleagues to promote the social and emotional learning of students.
Professional Goals: 1. linking my practices to research; 2. linking my practices to the ASLA librarian standards.
Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash
Leading from the middle:
The whole premise behind this is to build capacity in others, which is what we do as teachers every day (Gottlieb, 2012). First we must lead by doing, and must get to know our team at a personal level. Gottlieb (2012) has many ideas about how to run a meeting or series of meetings to achieve this.
Morning meetings that build personal connections link to the teacher/students’ ‘morning meeting’ idea in the new wave of positive behaviour for learning and trauma informed practice pedagogy promoted by the Berry Street Educational Model (BSEM) or the Responsive Classroom.
Gottlieb (2012) also suggest we create a website page of our team ‘biographies’ to help team members get to know each other and reinforce such things as: What are your values or strengths? What excites you about our strategic plan or mission? Why are the things we do in our library important? What is your personal journey that has brought you here, or what is your personal teaching and learning philosophy?
Well hell’s bells, I thought of this ‘Spotlight’ idea too about two years ago and my supervisor at the time thought it was a great idea! Unfortunately, his son fell ill and he had to move away before the idea came to fruition (and his replacement did not renew my contract). Time to dust off the idea and utilise it in my future library!
Implementing an innovation culture (not a change culture!):
Bitmoji – Climate
Opinion based on my own experience: Changing the work culture in a school is a really big deal. Some might even say, insurmountable. When inundated with ‘top down’ policies, budget constraints, and a ‘to be run like a business’ mantra (influenced by a employment policy for administration staff that literally advocates for nepotism; ‘local schools local decisions;’ promotion on ‘merit’ being rorted – particularly for leadership positions; the bullying of bureaucrats and top-level executives resulting in the bullying of leaders; resulting in bullying of teachers, resulting in bullying of students, resulting in bullying on the playground; the oversupply of teachers (particularly new scheme teachers) in primary and the undersupply in secondary; the push to employ more (new scheme) temporary contract teachers (who struggle with building relationships with students – one of the main indicators of academic success) in primary over offering permanent positions – pitting the temps’ against each other in competition for the few permanent positions that arise; laying off temps in favour of ‘free trial’ teachers in from the city on incentive schemes, etc) trying to change a school culture from the bottom up, (or ‘the middle’ as per Gottlieb, 2012) at this stage is all but futile.
And while I agree that we need to develop as teachers, I am struck by Lortie’s (1975 in Oberg, 2011) terms “presentism, conservatism; and individualism” as being hinders to the change process. When I read this, I saw it as the bureaucratic level trends in society and global political trends rather than or in addition to the trends in teacher attitudes towards ‘change’ / innovation.
A Google dictionary search defines the terms as: “Presentism: uncritical adherence to present-day attitudes, especially the tendency to interpret past events in terms of modern values and concepts.”…”Conservatism: commitment to traditional values and ideas with opposition to change or innovation; (or) the holding of political views that favour free enterprise, private ownership, and socially conservative ideas.”…”Individualism: the habit or principle of being independent and self-reliant; (or) a social theory favouring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control.”
Wealth doesn’t ‘trickle down,’ but leadership attitudes seem to, as supported by Harvard Business Review (Zenger & Folkman, 2016).
The trick is to try to stop the ‘trickle down’ effect from reaching the students – and in that, the buck stops with me! I’m reminded of the social emotional lesson (learned from BSEM trauma informed practice teacher training) that I teach to students about things they can control. (I can’t control the bureaucrats or political arena, but I can control myself!)
Thus, to combat anti-innovative mindsets, I will aim to address my personal presentism, conservatism and individualism mindset(s) through: professional development, personal reflection, collaboration, questioning the validity of top-down changes (such as data collection, standardised testing, and mandatory curriculum), as well as battling the conservative practices of social inequity and lack of cohesion that trickle down to school inequities–further disadvantaging marginalised students (Oberg, 2011).
Regarding ‘top down’ changes and conservative practices: I will confidently ask my team(s) the question: ‘How can this innovation (such as a behaviour peg chart or stoplight ‘welfare’ policy), which is intended to improve teaching and learning, contribute to making a difference for all stakeholders and all students, or will it make a difference only for those already advantaged (such as those who are meeting outcomes, have social capital, or who come from economically stable, privileged backgrounds)?’ (Oberg, 2011 p.2).
I will get to know the teaching and learning philosophies influencing teaching practices, the school’s attitudes towards innovation (or if it is simply ‘change’), how the teachers interact (in isolation or collaboratively), the executive team roles and goals, and the methods for determining success – both professionally and academically (Pratt, 2017; Oberg, 2011, p.2; Green 2011).
I will proactively start in ‘my’ library by being patient with the innovation process (Pratt, 2017; Oberg, 2011), working flexibly and collaboratively with all stakeholders, setting SMART goals that are based on both the school mission/strategic plan/library mission/strategic plan of improving teaching and learning as well as based on evidence/research based innovations of 21st century teaching practices such as differentiation (Oberg, 2011; Green 2011).
Things I currently lack but need in a future teacher librarian role (according to Green (2011, p.23)): “established authoritative position, credibility amongst peers, a vision that is based on best practice and, importantly, a mandate to implement or produce change (innovation).”
I need to utilise my skills in linking practice to researched evidence, marketing, ICT and QTR (as well as from training and experience received from BSEM, L3, AL and TEN, etc) in my library and collaborate with teachers, offering professional development in these areas, in order to help them utilise evidence-based practices, helpful computer technologies, effective lesson structures or to professionally and collaboratively evaluate their lessons or units of work (Green 2011).
References
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL). (2015). Interactive leadership profiles. In AITSL.Retrieved from https://legacy.aitsl.edu.au/leadership-profiles/interactive-profiles/leading-improvement-innovation-and-change
Pennington, R. (n.d.). How to make change work. In Educational leaders: Leading and managing change. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Leading-change/Leading-and-managing-change
Pratt, A. (2017). The challenge of implementing change. SCIS Connections, 103. Retrieved from https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-103/the-challenge-of-implementing-change
Skillcom, N. (2019). What is innovation? 15 experts share their innovation definition. Retrieved from https://www.ideatovalue.com/inno/nickskillicorn/2016/03/innovation-15-experts-share-innovation-definition/
Zenger, J. & Folkman, J. (2016). The trickle down effect of good and bad leadership. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/01/the-trickle-down-effect-of-good-and-bad-leadership
The creation of our group may have been, according to Belbin (2010) doomed from the start due to the way the group members were selected (which was, presumably and due to the constraints of our online study, fairly random). The creation of a balanced team is very challenging (as detailed in my previous post) and some of the problems that we are showing (mere cracks really, not necessarily conflicts) are indicative of the challenges of creating that balance.
Roles and Participation:
I think our group at this stage of the process are struggling to identify our roles. The person who previously accepted or chose the role of submitting the final ‘Case Study 3’ group post, was displaying a need to maintain that role in the ‘Case Study 4’ post (although she had put her hand up at the start to say that she would not be able to participate as much in case study 4 due to her workload constraints and I was the person in charge of the final submission this week). Perhaps her need to exert herself was a result of her feeling like she had something to prove e.g perhaps she was not happy with her level of participation (Roberts, 2012)?
I know I was not 100% happy the previous person in charge of the submission, as she cut several sentences from my work without checking with me. Rather than approach her regarding this, I chose to defer on the side of caution and recognise that, at the end of the day, working together as a team was more important than the integrity of my work being recognised.
Moreover, leading by example, when it was my turn to be responsible for the final submission, I was very careful to only lightly edit the other team member’s work so that it maintained a consistent and positive flow (e.g. changing the word ‘staff’ to ‘team member’ or ‘library team’). When the person in charge of the previous submission questioned this and suggested I edit the text, I explained why I had not ‘micro edited’ the work of other team members as it can become ‘problematic.’ I am not sure if she got the message but I am hopeful that it doesn’t cause further conflict.
Communication:
The lines of communication are also having a negative impact on our group dynamic (Roberts, 2012). Aside from the communication being 100% electronic (and therefore limited in volume, tone and body language) one of the participants bar myself and one other have contributed to the ‘getting to know you’ forum in our group. In a physical / face-to-face setting, everyone would join in on the discussion about themselves less likely to just sit silently and ignore the conversation like they are in online communication.
Furthermore, the communication is challenging as there are so many options. Some are posting their submissions in the wrong case study and feeling like there are too many areas where the submissions could go (the blog, the discussion the wiki or email).
Where to from here?
The creation of my team in the future will need careful consideration from the employment stage right through to the project completion stage.
In terms of communication, I’m not sure how to make it more clear except to say that a better understanding of where we are meant to chat versus submit our individual work could be more narrow? Maybe if everything was done in either the discussion section as a draft and then in the blog as a final and not anywhere else?
I think, in the future, I might need to be more assertive–rather than avoiding the conflict (Plocharczyk, 2013) and when it is my turn to be ‘in charge’ I lead the team in identifying everyone’s roles or at least helping them be more aware of the possible range of roles that we take on in groups at any given time (such as those listed in my previous post from Roberts, 2012; Porteus, n.d.):
Leadership Thought: Is the case study group work about learning the leadership content better or is it a means in which to learn how to interact in the group as we mean to go forward in our own library or school teams?
References:
Belbin, R. M. (2010). The art of building a team. Chapter 9, pp. 97-106. Team roles at work (2nd ed.). Retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central.
Plocharczyk, L. (2013). Managing conflict and incivility in academic libraries. In K.Blessinger& P.Hrycaj(Eds.),Workplace culture in academic libraries. Retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central. [Elsevier Science version]
Porteus, A. (n.d.). Roles people play in groups. StanfordUniversity. Retrieved March 5, 2017 from https://web.stanford.edu/group/resed/resed/staffresources/RM/training/grouproles.html
Leading change, solving problems, building teams, effective communication & conflict resolution
Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash
Kotter’s 8 steps for leading change (in Madsen, 2016):
Create urgency – a compelling case for change
Form a powerful coalition – a team formed with key people as change champions
Create a vision for change – short, clear, understandable, emotional, relevant and creative
Communicate the vision – showcase it and demonstrate it
Remove obstacles – physical or emotional, fears, concerns; use feedback to overcome obstacles
Create short term wins – phases or steps where each step offers reward
Build on the change – repeat the steps 1-6 so that it becomes routine
Anchor the change – embed it into every day practice
“When facing a problematic situation, people can consciously choose to draw on powerful ways of thinking and acting—such as striving for accuracy and drawing on past knowledge. And as a person becomes more disposed to use a particular facet of practical intelligence, that disposition can grow and become more sophisticated” (Claxton, et al., 2016 p. 4).
Soft Skills / Dispositions / & 7 Ways to Problem Solve:
Soft skills or the preferred term: ‘dispositions’ are necessary for today’s workforce: effective communication, collaboration, ability solve problems and fitting in within the school vision. Claxton (et al., 2016)
Removing obstacles & Problem solving is probably the most challenging aspect of soft skills/dispositions (that and fitting in to the school vision – or what is perceived as the school vision). Complex problems cannot be solved easily and have to have a different approach as listed below (BNET Video, 2011; McNamara, 2017; & Belbin, 2010):
Define the problem / Identifying needs in a statement or group of statements from stakeholders: What, where, how, with whom, when and why is a problem happening and what is the most urgent aspect? (Role titles: shapers and coordinators);
Collect data about the problem (the what) and its causes (Role titles: Team members);
Analyse the data for the cause (the why) (Monitors, Evaluators and Specialists);
Plan a solution or action plan and implement it (the how); Consider what end result we want, plan the steps for success (use SMART steps), identify resources required including time and participants; and determine the roles of each stakeholder for the process; (Role titles: Plants and Resource investigators);
Evaluate the success or failure based on more data; How will we know we have achieved our goal and solved the problem?; (Role titles: Monitors, Evaluators and Specialists)
Standardise a solution – make it work in other areas; (Role titles: Implementors and Coordinators); and
Learn something from this process as a team- what did we do well / poorly / where to next? (Role titles: Motivators; Team workers; Resource investigators; Completer finishers & Implementors).
This problem solving process is also applicable to our teaching practice as pointed out by Claxton (et. al., 2016, p.4), in that we can encourage soft skills / dispositions in our students by having them solve problems by asking themselves questions like:
“How can I draw on my past successes with such problems? What do I already know about the problem, and what resources do I have or might I generate? How might I approach this problem flexibly, looking at the situation in a fresh way? How can I draw upon my repertoire of problem-solving strategies? To make this challenge clearer, can I break this problem into its component parts and develop a strategy for understanding and accomplishing each step? Are there data I can draw on? How do my beliefs, values, and goals interact with this problem? Are any attitudes or emotions blocking—or enhancing—my progress?”
Photo by Providence Doucet on Unsplash
What is a team?
While reading Belbin (2010) I am struck by the realisation of what was motivating my previous employer to choose me as the teacher who needed to be the one to not have their contract renewed: he didn’t believe I conformed or ‘fit’ into his vision of the school or the culture he and his executive team were building…and maybe there were times that I was taking a counter-productive role…?
It is interesting to me that Belbin (2010) suggests that the word ‘team’ is often maligned as to mean a ‘group’, ‘flock,’ ‘squad,’ or ‘audience’ rather than what it should be: reciprocated and dynamic engagement between unique and varied individuals.
Effective companies create a balanced or hybrid culture &/or a hybrid team, capable of protecting the company from problems that arise and the destructive work culture cycle [As a ‘team’ arises (however it may come about), a ‘visionary’ work culture is created and the need to be connected to the culture results in conformity. Conformity then results in an inability to speak up and solve problems, which, in turn, results in a leaders becoming ‘hard nosed’ towards members of the team in order to motivate and engage them. A group of leaders become ‘the shapers’ and a group of followers become ‘the team’ (Belbin, 2010)].
Creating a balanced team in 8 steps:
Creating a balanced team begins with the vision of employment based on a need for a diverse range of team members, rather than someone who ‘fits’ with those already employed – a focus on skills rather than personality or conformity (Belbin, 2010);
Goals of the company need to be clear as this will effect the creation of individual job roles (Belbin, 2010);
Roles need to be well communicated so that all stakeholders are knowledgable about the abilities within the team (Belbin, 2010);
Roles need to be flexible, so that as the team grows or changes, so too can the roles and voids can be filled or accommodated (Belbin, 2010);
There are many kinds of roles that people can have, but according to Porteus, (n.d).; and Roberts, (2012), they all have one of three themes: Roles for tasks: Initiator- contributor: suggests new ideas; Information seeker: clarifies details; Opinion seeker or consensus tester: looks for opinions or values of others; Elaborator or clarifier: provides examples; and Orienter: summarises and keeps everyone focused. Maintenance roles (working smoothly): Encourager: Offers acceptance or praise; Harmoniser: mediator in conflicts; Expresser: senses group feelings and seeks clarification; Gatekeeper: keeps communication flowing; Compromiser: one who attempts conflict resolution; and Standard setter: testing overall group satisfaction with the process. Counterproductive roles: Aggressor: putting others down; Blocker / Un-cooperator: negative, stubborn and difficult; Withdrawer: removed from interactions either physically or mentally; Side-conversationalist: whispering, giggling, or having private conversations that distract or exclude others; Degrader: puts people down either directly or through jokes; or Dominator: is controlling or monopolises the group;
Start with a talented person in the required area and find a manager who can relate well to that person, defending, guiding, supporting or mentoring them (Belbin, 2010);
Keep team numbers small wherever possible (Belbin, 2010);
The team must form an agreement on their operational style (Belbin, 2010).
Photo of Christy Roe’s training notes from a Skillpath seminar (2002)
14 Rules for Effective Communication:
I worked in a call centre in the finance sector for many years in my 20’s just after I immigrated to Australia. Luckily, my employer was a large, publicly listed company who invested heavily in employee training and as a result, I have an in-depth understanding of communication — I just need to remember it all! Much of what was said in the videos in Module 3.2 (2019) Leading Change was a refresher for me.
We need to recognise and follow the school’s hierarchy (seeking clarification and improving policies in times of doubt);
We need to keep communication open even in challenging situations, utilising a variety of communication formats and refrain from being distracted;
We need to remember to begin and end with positives and emphasise areas in which we agree (particularly, in Australian settings, performing an Acknowledgement of Country and brief welcome to individuals at the start of every meeting);
We must consider the communication device carefully, taking into account ease of communication, our (direct) words (30% of communication) as well as the other (indirect) 70% of communication: body language, tone and volume (or lack thereof in digital formats);
We need to consider our own encoding barriers and the barriers of our receiver: environment preferences, knowledge, age, personality, habits, background, social customs, emotional and mental diversity;
Because of the barriers listed in #6, we also need to make a real effort to be careful and thoughtful of what we say and how we say it, e.g. adjusting language to suit the situation; using jargon, technical terms versus informal language; and trying to use ‘I’ statements wherever possible as opposed to ‘you’ statements;
We need to be respectful, (rather than the most recently maligned ‘political correctness’) in both formal and informal situations;
We need to be clear, concise and consistent when communicating across all platforms, regardless of whether your communication is about positive or negative information;
We need to keep and open mind and be willing to compromise – and not just expect compromise from the receiver;
The receiver decodes the message amongst ‘noise’ in the background, physical, mental or emotional issues that must also be considered; We need to monitor the receiver for active listening;
Request or expect regular and ongoing feedback from the receiver (eg. ‘what I heard you say was…’) which we should not be jumping to conclusions, getting distracted nor thinking of our own response but instead, we must actively listen to the receiver’s message and remember what they have said; and
We should respect the receiver’s confidentiality and avoid gossip [‘triangles.]
We need to follow up and action anything that comes up in our conversations and survey our team to see if we are being productive leaders, such as a 360 Degree Feedback Survey (or similar).
Photo by Chris Sabor on Unsplash
Conflict Resolution:
Conflict (or ‘dissensus’) can be a great avenue for ‘win/wins’ and authentic change in an organisation (Plocharczyk, 2013, p.308). Our job as leaders in times of conflict is: timely, transparent and open communication, listening (actively), responding with new points of view and perspectives, and resolution by encouraging creative innovations – never avoidance (Plocharczyk, 2013, p.311). We need to focus on the process/’the how’ the work is being done, rather than the people/’the who’ doing the work (Johnson in Plocharczyk, 2013 p.316). We need to have proactive, clear guidelines and policies for behaviour defined and communicated simultaneously, so that everyone understands the policy and the restorative practices that will occur in the event of inappropriate behaviours.
Types of conflict (more than one can occur at a time): Intra-personal (conflict within yourself); Solution: releasing anxiety through talking to others; Interpersonal (individual conflict with another person); Solution: adjustments or mediation; Intra-group (individual conflict within members of a team); Solution: embracing the conflict as necessary part of problem-solving (see this article by Jacob Stringer on New Compass about consensus versus dissensus) and goal achievement or mediation; Intergroup (a group conflict with another group in the organisation); Solution: clarification of goals, interests, competition, resources, or group identity (Evans, 2013); and Task /Organisational (individual conflict with others based on the constructs or policies of an organisation such as tight budgets, shared resources, unequal workloads, unclear future employment, boredom or undefined values, goals, objectives or role descriptions); Solution: ‘integrative conflict management’, collaboration, analytical thinking, problem solving, mediation from a third party, or clarification/revision of company policies (Plocharczyk, 2013, p.311).
So what kind of conflict manager will I be? I took the survey suggested in the module but I didn’t really get much out of it. The questions seemed repetitive and out of context. I often get emotional at conflict situations, depending on who they are with. (I have anxiety, undiagnosed, in all social situations but particularly those that are new or unfamiliar). I recognise that and try to listen more than I speak.
I like the idea of having a policy on behaviour (like the NSW DET Code of Conduct) and utilising the Positive Behaviour for Learning / Restorative practice techniques that we use with students also in my work team. I realise there are those who disagree that behaviour is communication but I do believe that it is. And it is my job to listen to that behaviour and act appropriately. I will try to use Judy Ringer’s checklist in times of conflict, and a 360 Degree Feedback Survey (or similar) to make sure I am communicating and responding appropriately… Hope I will be up to the challenge!
Belbin, R. M. (2010). The art of building a team. Chapter 9, pp. 97-106. Team roles at work(2nd ed.). Retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central.
Bender, Y. (2005). Building effective communication, Part 1, p.3-18. The tactful teacher: Effective communication with parents, colleagues and administrators. Chicago, IL: Nomad Press. Retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central.
BNET Video. (2011, June 8). 7 step problem solving. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZXDGQSuF9I [4.38 mins]
Claxton, G., Costa, A., & Kallick, B. (2016). Hard thinking about soft skills. Educational leadership. 73-6 p.60-64. Retrieved from https://www.learningpersonalized.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Hard-Thinking-about-Soft-Skills.pdf
Davies, L. (n.d.). Effective Communication. In Kelly Bear. Retrieved from http://www.kellybear.com/TeacherArticles/TeacherTip15.html
McNamara, C. (2017). Problem solving and decision-making. In Free Management Library, Retrieved from http://managementhelp.org/personalproductivity/problem-solving.htm#guide
Plocharczyk, L. (2013). Managing conflict and incivility in academic libraries (part 12). In K.Blessinger& P.Hrycaj(Eds.),Workplace culture in academic libraries. Retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central. [Elsevier Science version]
Porteus, A. (n.d.). Roles people play in groups. StanfordUniversity. Retrieved March 5, 2017 from https://web.stanford.edu/group/resed/resed/staffresources/RM/training/grouproles.html
Based on my readings of Module 4 and 5, I’ve added a GoogleDocs Survey to help create or evaluate a strategic plan, mission, vision and values to the left menu bar of this blog.
Here are also some practical websites offering tips and steps for creating and evaluating the process of a shared vision, strategic plan, objectives and goals:
ETL504 Module 3.1-Change in Organisations (2019): Improving the impact of change conflict with a shared vision and strategies for improving the work culture or climate
Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash
Change can be put into effect by various ‘change agents’(managers, team members or consultants) and can be planned or unplanned and is either required based on internal or or external demands. Change from external demands is from sources such as: the marketplace / SES of the LGA; governing bodies / laws / regulations such as those required by ACARA or NESA; technological advances; the labour market such as the availability or oversupply of teachers; and economics / funding / the economy / budgets (Module 3.1, 2019).
Change required based on internal demands is from things such as: the school structure / eg. the school’s strategic plan, the library’s strategic plan, the school vision, the library vision, the school mission statement or the library mission statement; the workforce–from the principal to the GA; equipment, eg. buildings / pencils and; attitudes–the various backgrounds, experiences, religions, ethnicities and cultural groups of the stakeholders of the school (Module 3.1, 2019).
Some blockers to change might be caused by uncertainty, personal loss for ‘the way we’ve always done it,’ or genuine concern that change isn’t in the schools best interest (Module 3.1, 2019).
Change Management Strategies: “Planned, incremental change is always best” because work, workflow, attitudes & behaviours are all impacted by change (Module 3.1, 2019).
Change is initially confusing and challenging, but leaders can reduce change conflict or change-induced fatigue or stress by: linking the benefits of the change to the school vision or long term goals, anticipating where conflicts might arise and having a plan ready for how to ease them, education, communication, participation at all levels of the organisation and leadership facilitation, support & negotiation (rather than manipulation or coercion) (Module 3, 2019).
Bitmoji – Climate Work climate or culture:
In schools it is key that we create a ‘learning organisation’ within 7 dimensions classified by Kools and Stoll (2016): “1) developing and sharing a vision centred on the learning of all students; 2) creating and supporting continuous learning opportunities for all staff; 3) promoting team learning and collaboration among staff; 4) establishing a culture of inquiry, innovation and exploration; 5) establishing embedded systems for collecting and exchanging knowledge and learning; 6) learning with and from the external environment and larger learning system; and 7) modelling and growing learning leadership” (Kools & Stoll, 2016, p.3). This can also be understood by points listed in this infographic by elearning infographics.com (2013):
eLearning Infographics. (2013). (Image provided for uploading and embedding into blogs for free by eLearning Infographics).
Teams should also meet regularly for ‘wellness checks,’ including all stakeholders (leaders, staff, students and families) and change agents must remember that people learn best through: interdependence, change and the social constructs of reflective practise, conversing, inquiring and acting (Fleet, et al., 2016).
Fleet, et al., (2016) point out that positive change initiatives require: effective leadership, a positive school culture or climate, effective employment procedures, support, participation at all levels of the school (promoting a sense of respect for leaders who are able to perform the tasks that they expect others to be able to perform, individual ownership, consensual involvement & team-wide willingness to participate in changes or innovation) and creating a shared vision and mission statement.
Bitmoji: Vision Quest Shared vision:
‘Transformational’ or ‘distributional’ leaders need to develop a shared school vision in order to develop trusting relationships, solve complex problems, have a clear focus on teaching and learning, and a willingness to engage with the community (Fleet, et al., 2016; & Holmes et al., 2013). When creating a shared vision, Holmes, et al. (2013) reminds us that it takes a lot of time (sometimes frustratingly), as well as effective communication skills and patience in order to ensure inclusivity. Furthermore, sharing and communicating the school’s journey of change initiatives with the community promotes a shared understanding (Fleet, et al., 2016).
If every change or proposal (organisational, financial, teaching & learning) links to the school vision and strategic management plan then the changes are ‘well justified’ can receive whole school and organisational support and funding and this, in turn, further contributes to a positive school learning culture or climate and creates a ‘bottom up’ (rather than ‘top down’) influence (Fleet, et al., 2016; & Holmes, et al., 2013).
Bitmoji: ‘Bottom Up!’ influence Top down influence:
‘Top down’ influences often sidetrack school innovations, change or reforms and super-cede relationship building because trust takes more time than what is allowed by governing bodies (Holmes, et al., 2013). ‘Top down’ mandated changes have very little uptake by teachers, because they react with a range of negative emotions, believe they aren’t given neither time nor education to understand changes nor support prior to or at implementation, and that changes from the top are transitory and will soon be obsolete (Clement, 2014, p. 42).
A whole school approach to change is more likely to have teachers driving the change based on the school goals and agendas and within their own time parameters, leading to more understanding and less stress or conflict (Clement, 2014, p. 43). ‘Change fatigue’ or ‘innovation fatigue’ or ‘reform fatigue’ can result in teachers as we are in a constant cycle of mandated education reform (such as continual curriculum change) which presents as dissatisfaction, exhaustion and perceptions of increased workload, lack of support, training and resources and unrealistic mandated implementation timelines (Dilkes, et al., 2014).
“Cynical, realistic and even enthusiastic teachers suffer change fatigue after years of rapid and continual curriculum change” (Dilkes, et al., 2014 p.45).
Bitmoji: Following the leader Leadership:
“Principalsmust be managers as well as leaders, dealing with the pragmatics of managing a complex system, being the human face of relationships amongst school personnel, learners & the community, as well as offering constructive visionary leadership to carry the school through the mundane, through the complexities of diversity, politics & bureaucratic infrastructures to the desired future” (Fleet, et al., 2016, p. 73). Humour, patience, flexibility, accountability, commitment and thoughtfulness are the skills of “visionary” leaders, as well as the ability to understand that knowledge and genuine learning communities and pedagogies are socially constructed (Fleet, et al., 2016 p 74).
Teachers can often express that they feel stress, physically, mentally and behaviourally (Module 3, 2019) and some ideas to help alleviate stress are: develop a whole school approach to growth mindset, flow and/or mindfulness; encourage a work-life balance (eg. stick to a work timetable then stop working at that agreed time-including emails, and think about something other than work every day, etc); do a ‘what I can control versus what I can’t control’ mind-map in order to identify stress triggers; ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’ by prioritising or focusing on what really matters to you or what is a top goal; do a ‘stress’ survey and discuss the stresses identified openly as a team; find someone to talk to or to collaborate with; set S.M.A.R.T. goals; accept and give recognition to and from colleagues; seek and offer appropriate training and supports; and say ‘no’ and encourage others to say ‘no’ sometimes (Bailey, 2013; Cross, 2015).
Reflection on change conflict, fatigue and stress:
Is change conflict, fatigue and stress in my school representative of: individual and whole school stress management or coping mechanisms not being in place; a lack of a true growth mindset in teachers or leadership, a lack of a ‘invested interest’ from all stakeholders because of ‘top down’ mandated change, a lack of understanding of the benefits of the particular change and how it relates to the school vision and student outcomes, poor communication about the change(s), a lack of understanding about how to implement a change, insufficient time given to implement the change, a history of consistent change creating a ‘why bother’ mentality, backlash from the community who’ve been left out of the decision making process or who haven’t had adequate communication about the change, or a reaction to the change itself due to consistent change creating ‘change fatigue?’
Reflection on downsizing:
Bitmoji – You’re Fired
I have worked for a clothing company who when into administration and closed down.
I was also retrenched once from a marketing position.
Later, as a temporary teacher, I did not have my contract renewed at one school and
I did not have my contract renewed at another school the following year.
In the first and second and third instances, I felt that my employer looked after me to some degree, two found me work elsewhere (to some degree), one gave me access to external counselling and an external c.v. creation training service at no cost, but one (the last and most recent) did hardly anything to ensure my mental and financial health was in any way looked after as recommended by Wolfe (2019). I put this down to inexperience and arrogance of the leader(s) who thought downsizing by not renewing my contract was in the best interest of their school…although, it would have been better to have asked the staff for alternatives to laying off a teacher (Wolfe, 2019).
Similarly, as suggested by Wolfe (2019), my extreme level of poor mental health was not assisted by the lack of communication as to why I was selected to be ‘downsized’ but the other 8 temporary teachers were not, many of whom were not communicated with regarding my situation, creating a terribly insecure work culture (without any communication from the top, most asked me what happened, resulting in further distress).
References
Bailey, A. (2013, November 6). 10 ideas to help teachers beat stress. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/nov/06/teachers-beat-stress-10-ideas
Change in Organisations: 3.1 [Study notes]. (2019). In ETL504: Teacher librarian as leader. Retrieved from Charles Sturt University Faculty of Education and the Art’s Interact 2 website: https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_42385_1&content_id=_2928579_1
Cross, D. (2015). Teacher well being and its impact on student learning [Slide presentation]. Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia. Retrieved from http://www.research.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/2633590/teacher-wellbeing-and-student.pdf
elearning infographics.com. (2013). How is a learning organisation differentiated. Retrieved from https://elearninginfographics.com/how-is-a-learning-organisation-differentiated-infographic/
Kools, M. & Stoll, L. (2016). What Makes a School a Learning Organisation?, OECD Education Working Papers, No. 137, OECD Publishing, Paris, Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1787/5jlwm62b3bvh-en.
Holmes K., Clement, J. & Albright, J. (2013).The complex task of leading educational change in schools,School Leadership & Management, 33:3, 270283, DOI: 10.1080/13632434.2013.800477
I found the format for the chat a little disconcerting. When it was time to have my ‘say’ about the issues in the case study, I felt intense anxiety at how fast everyone’s comments were flashing up. I wanted to read them, not only to learn but also to make sure I wasn’t doubling up or saying something totally off the wall compared to what everyone else was saying but it was just too fast. So, I had to just look quickly at my notes and put up a short comment.
Where to from here:
If given the chance in the future, I will try to have something ready that I can just cut and paste quickly.
Case Study 3 – group post
I tried to utilise the strategies for leadership that I felt were important, not in terms of me being the leader, but in terms of what it would take for us to work well together as a group. I wanted to take the time at the beginning to get to know each person in the group.
However, the resulting responses (and almost entire lack thereof) showed that the other members of the group (bar one and myself) did not want to or were not able to take the time to offer any information about themselves. They seemed to simply want to either 1. make it known that they expected us to pick a leader off the cuff (supposably them?) or 2. appropriate time and responsibilities based on their external commitments.
I suppose I went wrong by oversharing or putting nearly everyone off in the way my ‘about me’ was worded in the link to my blog page. Perhaps getting to know each other is seen as a waste of time when everyone else simply wanted to ‘get down to business.’
Overall, I was left feeling out of sorts. As if I’ve missed some social cue, or misread the situation and am now outside the group. I feel as though I’ve set myself apart, rather than made sure I led from the middle, as I had hoped.
Where to from here:
For now, I will let it go and hope for a better result next time. Maybe I will just start smaller with simply a few sentences about myself and hope that others feel comfortable sharing more as we go along…
REFLECTIVE: “Derive happiness in oneself from a good day’s work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us.” Henri Matisse
(Matisse n.d.)
Free image provided by Simon Matzinger on Unsplash.com
It is amazing to me how we all grow up getting used to the amazing structures of the past without acknowledging their significance in our present. Much like the ancient buildings showing through the fog in the image from Simon Matzinger (above) so are the structures of organisational, managerial and leadership theory from past and present all around us.
If we don’t take the time to reflect on and recognise the structures that exist and influence our actions, we are but living in a fog. Thus, I’ve spent a lot of time and brain energy this week on the subject…and as I peer into the fog of the history and research, I fear I have but scratched the surface.
I’m not alone in my experiences of poor leadership/management/organisational structure. I’m sure many of us in our mid 30’s and beyond have some war stories to tell…in my very first officially paid position in a grocery store, the front end manager and his assistant stole nearly $40 000 from the company (which became evident in the scandal that erupted when I accidentally took home a pack of $1 bills in my apron and nobody noticed until I turned it in the next day). Was this because they lacked the necessary leadership ‘trait‘ of integrity but it was assumed that they had that trait when they were hired? Was this because of the organisational structure being ‘divisional’ (Kokemuller, 2017) without actually any vision or sharing of vision?
I had quite a few retail positions in my youth. In one position, I worked in a bookstore and the manager was passive aggressive and controlling, possibly anal retentive…he would put dusting skills into our performance appraisals as a critique and used a texta to draw outlines of where he wanted the office supplies to go. Everyone on staff was very friendly and hard working and we all just managed ourselves and the store with very little need for input from him. Was this because of his leadership skill or ‘traits’ and lack thereof? Was he in an environment that called for a ‘transformational’ leader but he was stuck in the ‘autocratic’ leadership mindset? Did he have a lack of control over us that made him feel irrelevant?
POWER: “Part of the task of the leader is to make others participate in his leadership. The best leader knows how to make his followers actually feel power themselves, not merely acknowledge his power” … “Leadership is not defined by the exercise of power but by the capacity to increase the sense of power among those led. The most essential work of the leader is to create more leaders” Mary Parker Follet (in Janse 2019).
In my office worker years, I learnt that I am good at being an office worker, in that I can do the work to a very high standard. I can type and shuffle papers and find quick and cost effective solutions to most any problem. I watched as many of my white, male colleagues received promotions despite the fact that I was doing the same job much better than they had been. And, oh boy, do I hate the lack of humour, the dearth of beauty, the monotony and, most of all, the sense that I was not doing anything that improved the world. Why are offices so often designed in the ‘divisional’ (Kokemuller, 2017) way? Why do people who socialise really well receive promotions when people who do their jobs really well remain in those positions – is it because some people are perceived to have more ‘statesmen’ ‘traits’ and that makes them more suited to leadership positions? How actually important is it to be able to do the job of the subordinate well prior to or while being a leader of that subordinate? Is it part of being more efficient within the ‘scientific‘ management theory?
When I became a teacher (in the Australian education system), my first impression still rings true: schools try to mimic what they believe business structures to be like. A parody of sorts. A reproduction. However, there is one key difference in the business structure of education: our shared goal to improve outcomes for the children at our schools, and indeed, thus improve the world. We shouldn’t limit ourselves to the machine or divisional organisation structures. We have it in our capacities to aim for the ‘professional’ and ‘innovative’ structures (Kokemuller, 2017). Let’s lead the way for business, not the other way around!
VISION: “The most successful leader of all is the one who sees another picture not yet actualised. (They see) the things which are not yet there… Above all, (they) should make (their) co-workers see that it is not (the leader’s) purpose which is to be achieved, but a common purpose, born of the desires and the activities of the group” Mary Parker Follet (in Janse 2019).
I’ve been told, at various times in my teaching career, that I got my degree the ‘easy’ way or ‘through the back door’ by doing an early childhood degree. I sometimes hear little snippets about where I should be placed within a school because of this also…as if I am not capable of working with older students because my university training 12 years ago, despite the fact that as a casual teacher I’ve worked with ages 3 to 14. Even in the first case study for ETL504, I was curious why one of the ’employees’ needed her degree specialisation to be pointed out. Was it because we have to treat early childhood trained educators differently because they aren’t as clever as the rest? Is this part of the bureaucratic and ‘divisional,’‘machine’ organisational structures, or are we identifying the early childhood specialisation as a means to create a ‘professional’ structure (Kokemuller, 2017)?
APPRECIATION: “Unity, not uniformity, must be our aim. We attain unity only through variety. Differences must be integrated, not annihilated, not absorbed” Mary Parker Follet (in Janse 2019).
As written in my previous post on this blog (see below) entitled “Creating a Collaborative Climate – The Triple C’s” on the 21st of May 2019, we are expected to collaborate when so much of the stuff behind the scenes or ‘beneath the fog’ isn’t set up effectively. The amount of control we have over the organisational set up is limited, those old buildings have been around for too long and are stronger than one person. However, we can work on building a collaborative climate within those organisational structures. In addition to the items listed in my Triple C blog post, I would add team building to the list.
INVENTION “Conflict is resolved not through compromise, but through invention” Mary Follet Parker (in Janse 2019).
Team building is something in which office human resources managers are proficient and schools would do well to take note of their advice. Trust, communication, conflict resolution and productivity are increased when team building occurs (Al-Bakri 2017). In my Triple C blog post, I recommended and I still recommend that instead of ‘meetings’ where information is disseminated, we could host ‘yarning circles’ as recommended by The Salvation Army (Worthing, 2018). While I am not promoting and am not religious, I respect the ideas recommended and would love to host a staff yarning circle in my library with my team. I’d also like to investigate team building activities such as those provided by beyond the boardroom or other companies in Australia.
Until then, here is my previous blog post on workplace climate change:
Janse, B. (2019). Mary Parker Follett. Retrieved from toolshero: https://www.toolshero.com/toolsheroes/mary-parker-folett/
Kokemuller, N. (2017). Mintzberg’s five types of organizational structure. In Hearst Newspapers: Small business. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/mintzbergs-five-types-organizational-structure-60119.html
Matisse, H. (n.d.) Henri Matisse Quotes, BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved from https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/henri_matisse_140869
A good leader must ‘know thyself’ and ‘model best practice’:
We need to be prepared to take on the traits of a leader: to practice and engage in identifying problems, correctly analyse problems, develop solutions using tested theory, tools or techniques, and apply these when needed.
We need to be able to strategically plan for our own practice as well as for the library by knowing ourselves and our staff, effectively organising and managing time, assessing strengths, weaknesses and job roles.
We need to be able to make the library an information resource, not just a source, by enabling continual ‘physical and intellectual access’ for our patrons.
We are part of something much bigger than ourselves:
Remember that the library is part of the greater school context, the greater community, the greater educational context and the greater context of the state and federal government curriculum and funding bodies.
We must understand the nature of information services and information management:
Information services: are contextually designed, satisfy need(s) of specific stakeholders and a range of users, offer support facilities, turn sources into resources, and promote both visible and invisible benefits. Information services are exactly that: services.
Information management: manages information that could be human, intellectual and technical.
(Colvin 2000) Competitive and effective managers / leaders reject the administrative, economic or scientific models of leadership and mechanical organisations and instead embrace and encourage: shared values, recognition, appreciation of judgement, innovation or creativity, and building relationships as the most important aspects of a living and breathing, humanistic organisation’s success.
The big issues are “how to attract and motivate the best knowledge workers, the value of teams, organising by projects, using infotech wisely and the flattening of hierarchies.” (Colvin 2000) … Management versus administration: “Iron authority has its uses but it has serious problems as a way to manage a fast-moving, adaptable, creative enterprise.” (Colvin 2000).
Administration is aligned with the mechanistic model: “functionally organised, many tiered hierarchies”(Colvin 2000). It could also be the economic model / scientific management: “…millions of free agents zoom(ing) around in cyber-space selling their knowledge-worker services hyper efficiently to such organisations as may require them from moment to moment…and in which buyers and sellers of everything connect for near anonymous transactions at that instant’s mutually optimal price” (Colvin 2000).
Organisations are “more like organisms than machines” (Colvin 2000).
People are “complex creatures…most likely (to be) ‘knowledge’ workers rather than physical labourers.” (Colvin 2000).
Managing is the ability to “create, judge, imagine and build relationships” (Colvin 2000). The human centred model views “values as the basis of managing the 21st century corporation…lots of people with aligned values constitute an awesome power…creating, articulating and sustaining the organisations values, thus become(s) one of management’s most important jobs…(Q)uirky humans…still very much need interaction, recognition and relationships…(M)anagement is a human art and getting more so as infotech takes over the inhuman donkey work – the ox work – of the world…Most managers now seem to understand that they will find competitive advantage by (quickly and effectively) tapping employees’ most essential humanity, their ability to create, judge, imagine and build relationships” (Colvin 2000).
Henry Mintzberg (Kokemuller, 2017) classifications for organisations:
Entrepreneurial: non-elaborated, flexible structures closely controlled by a Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Machine: bureaucratic set-in-their-ways corporations or government departments
Professional: similar bureaucracy to machine, but with largely professional, competent, specialised, autonomous and knowledgable workers pushing the ‘economic engine.’
Divisional: large corporations with centralised control with divisions supervised by vice presidents.
Innovative: cutting-edge leadership in new industries with innovative leaders using de-centralised decision making which allows talented leaders to make judgments efficiently.
Look out for more reflection on these classifications in my next post!
References
Colvin, G. (2000). Managing in the information era. Fortune, 141(5). Retrieved from http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2000/03/06/275231/index.htm?iid=sr-link1.
Kokemuller, N. (2017). Mintzberg’s five types of organizational structure. In Hearst Newspapers: Small business. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/mintzbergs-five-types-organizational-structure-60119.html
Firstly, it must be said that I am vastly under-qualified for the leadership position at the facility in this case study.
Luckily, it is a hypothetical situation or I might have to have a nervous breakdown as the first thing I would do on Monday morning’s diary entry. Thus, my first reaction is that I need to use something like the graph from Skills You Need to start managing my time more analytically and prioritising tasks more effectively. For example, am I trying to chair too many committees when my staff are falling apart? Am I too busy trying to make myself look good to bond with employees who are running the library, possibly inefficiently?
Perhaps delegating the sorting of my correspondence, reports, memos and emails into ‘now, soon, later’ by a secretary, who could then create my schedule for the week, would be a good idea. If this isn’t in the budget then I will need to allocate time specifically in each day to organise myself.
After reading the background of the case study, I am similarly overwhelmed. In my work experience in marketing, I was at a corporation of similar size to this school and it required a Human Resources (HR) team to support the smooth running of the management and staff. We had a vibrant HR manager who, following a corporate restructure, ran a series of ‘meetings’ where we worked together to improve the workplace culture, and I believe this workplace is in serious need of these HR intervention ideas.
The video from the Bastow Institute’s Tracey Ezard on ‘Building Trust and Collaboration’ (2015)supports this view, offering helpful tips on how to improve the quality of relationships and build trust and risk taking through: discovering each person’s potential and capabilities, admitting my own failings as a leader, appreciating each other and being authentic in what we say and do.
Some ideas on how to achieve an improved workplace culture specifically would be to: do the VIA character traits survey and discuss the results; Build individual and communal philosophies via the GoogleDocs survey that I created; Then collate the results of these into the school library website or intranet to encourage pride and unity.
I would also seek to enhance the external support for those staff members who have challenges at home with childcare and children with disability, possibly through a crèche or respite care. (Not sure what to do about the bloke sleeping at his computer in sight of students. Maybe a having a friendly, helpful and private chat about his health and some options for improving his engagement at work would solve the issue?)
It is clear that some training is necessary and I would look to provide opportunities for the Berry Street Educational Model (BSEM) training for the whole team, but particularly for Liam, Peta, Dani, Victoria, Shelley and Bobbi, who (for various reasons) are not connecting appropriately with students and/or teachers and library staff. While the BSEM training was created to help educators support students with trauma backgrounds, it has the simultaneous effect of building skills in educators like empathy and understanding and the ability to form connections, as well as opening us up to changing our environments, responses and attitudes to better suit the students.
Similarly, the whole team would benefit from a visit from Keynote Speaker: Rachel Robertson, who explains her ‘No Triangles’ strategy as well as many other useful ideas for improving workplace culture.
Further training in relevant technology used by the library and possible ideas for additional technology is also needed, particularly for Shelley, Allison, Bobbi & Melissa. This could be achieved in house by training sessions by Lydia, Liam, Derek & Malia. In support of the staff, I should also have an understanding of the relevant technology and use it daily.
Marlia & Liam could also be trained in the ‘LANS & Networking configurations’ by Derek, who is likely to leave and take his knowledge with him. (And what’s up with that Derek? Do you need to feel more valued or has that ship already sailed?)
The issue of lack of student and teacher engagement in the library needs a whole team approach. Data needs to be collected, possibly through surveys or programs like Oliver to determine the severity or areas of disengagement. Once the data has been collected and collated, it will need to be analysed by the whole staff and ideas for improving engagement need to be shared with everyone based on and supported by recent information science and educational practise research. One aspect of this would be the whole staff having more input and contributions during the actual teaching of student lessons.
Finally, due to the constant staff turnover, a lack of clear direction or goals, and a lack of unity, everyone has ambiguous roles and responsibilities-including me. While I see from the diary that I am meeting with them one-on-one, this needs to be formalised into a performance and review schedule where I first meet with everyone around the same time to determine the specific roles and detailed responsibilities of the respective jobs within the sub-groups of the library, e.g. my roles, the TL’s roles, the tech’s roles, the assistant’s roles and the IT department’s roles. Atlassian has a great structure for a team meeting activity to help achieve this. Some 6-12 months afterwards, I could meet with individuals to review their performance and determine their success or needs relating to their roles and responsibilities.
The task at hand is large. I’m glad it is just hypothetical and am looking forward to hearing input from others in this subject on how they would handle it on Monday…
Here is what I know so far about Teacher Librarians (TLs) as leaders:
It would be such a shame to do all of this work for a Masters of Education and not be viewed as a leader (if only in name only and not recognised in a formal employment title and matching AP salary). I have written about this aspect of the degree and profession in my blog. (See the posts with ‘Leadership’ and ‘Roles and Responsibilities’ tags.)
The library is the heart of the school (Roche, 2018) and this places the TL as in a prime centre position to demonstrate leadership…but what sort of leadership style would I have?
Librarians, stereo-typically, are lovers of books and as such, can sometimes find social situations challenging. Leading, as opposed to autonomy or autocratic behaviour, does not always come naturally. Speaking for myself, I have always found the biggest challenge in adulthood to be working with other adults.
Is it cruel to say that a teacher librarian could become a leader in a DET primary school when the trend has become to have an untrained teacher as a school librarian (or a temporary staff member) and as such, the opportunity to be a leader is nearly impossible and as valuable as it would be, it is in fact an unrealistic expectation?
I am looking forward to revisiting this post at the end of the ETL504 subject to compare what I’ve learnt to these observations.
References
Roche, C. (2018). Making the library the true heart of the school. SCIS. Issue 105. Retrieved from: https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-105/making-the-library-the-true-heart-of-the-school/
I enjoyed the CRAAP test video , CRAAP rubric and Get REAL rubric, and I was searching for information seeking processes and look what I found! A BS-O-Meter! I can’t remember what forum discussion I was in that mentioned we needed one of these, but voila! Here it is! (I will put it into the forum discussions later):
BS-O-Meter Image by Libby Young (2019) of Furman University, James B. Duke Library. Used with (email) permission. CC Licence 4.0
These devices help us teach the digital literacy aspect of information literacy. What is information literacy? I have grown to understand it better and better and particularly found this quote to be important:
“Understanding information literacy as a catalyst for learning necessitates a move away from exploring textual practices towards incorporating an understanding of the sociocultural and corporeal practices that are involved in coming to know an information environment” (Loyd 2007, pp. Abstract).
Information Literacy is but one form of the the vast aspects of literacy, sometimes referred to as multi-literacies, multi-modal pedagogy or trans-literacy. And basically what it boils down to is that, because of the multiplicity of literacy, educators (including TLs!) need a “pedagogical repertoire” in order to teach all aspects and forms of literacy (Kalantzis & Cope 2015).
I am heartened by the American Library Association (2016): “Information literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning. It is common to all disciplines, to all learning environments, and to all levels of education. It enables learners to master content and extend their investigations, become more self-directed, and assume greater control over their own learning. … …Information literacy, while showing significant overlap with information technology (digital literacy) skills, is a distinct and broader area of competence.”
According to the ALA, (2016) we must help our students become information literate individuals who can:
“determine the extent of information needed;
access the needed information effectively and efficiently;
evaluate information and its sources critically;
incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base;
use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose; and
understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally” (ALA 2016).
In the Teacher Librarian field, inquiry teaching models have been identified as the best means for enabling information literacy in students.
Maniotes and Kahlthau (2014) explain that inquiry teaching models support the information literacy (and research) for all ages because it is learning centred and focuses on emotionally stimulating questioning and deep understanding rather than product-driven answering and fact finding.
The inquiry teaching model is not presently taught very often or with rigour in most educational settings and this is where, according to Maniotes and Kahlthau (2014), the TL is vital!
In the upper years (age 9 and above) the use of Guided Inquiry Design (GID) is one of the models that is popular. Maniotes and Kahlthau describe it as a framework of inquiry learning design, as represented in 8 sequential phases “Open, Immerse, Explore, Identify, Gather, Create, Share, and Evaluate” (Maniotes & Kahlthau 2014, pp.Abstract).
As I teach the younger years predominantly, I have chosen to work with the Super3 and Big6 Inquiry teaching models and I am hopeful that I can do the pedagogy justice. I am certainly going to give it my best shot!
References
ALA (2016). Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher education. Retrieved from: https://alair.ala.org/handle/11213/7668
Maniotes, L. K., & Kuhlthau, C. C. (2014). MAKING THE SHIFT. Knowledge Quest, 43(2), 8-17. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/docview/1620878836?accountid=10344
Young, L. (2019). BS-O-Meter. [Image]. Retrieved from: https://libguides.furman.edu/medialiteracy/framework
The role of the teacher librarian thinking prompts from the ETL401 Module 3.2 discussion forum:
“Prioritising the TL roles:.. TL roles that might ‘fly under the radar’… Lamb vs Herring vs Purcell vs Valenza… What to give up, according to Lamb and Valenza, in order to be a proactive TL… Purcell’s ideas of the prioritisation of the TL roles vs my ideas…” These things I found difficult to grasp in the form of these questions but I found Karen Balmer’s forum post on ‘Module 3.2 The role of the teacher librarian’ posted on the 21st March 2019, provoked the most thought.
I particularly liked Karen’s statement that “the role has evolved significantly… 21st century skills that TLs should be helping to develop in their students. There also seems to be general agreement with what Herring’s (2007) asse(r)tion that ‘school libraries do not exist in a vacuum…'”
I was concerned by Herring’s statement that unnecessary emphasis is placed on reading for pleasure – as I think Herring has missed the mark, in a pursuit to support teaching information literacy when the aspects of literacy (learning to read, and reading to learn – or reading for pleasure) should in fact be taught together (one purpose, not outweighing the others) and should not be seen as in any way separate. (More on that in this blog post.)
Like Karen Balmer, I agree with Purcell that our role should be that of a team or school (curriculum) leader, (curriculum) partner, information (literacy) specialist, teacher and administrator (of the library and strong teaching and learning) programs.
Finally, Karen and I prefer how Lamb puts being at media specialist of 21st century teaching and learning in the fore-front of the list of roles, including information technologist, administrator and (last but not least) a teacher, with the additional roles of ‘curriculum consultant, community collaborator and digital detective’ as varying in priority on any particular day, depending on the needs of the stakeholders. In this, Lamb identifies how the social aspects of the role, or collaborating with educators as colleagues is vital.
References:
Balmer, K. (2019, March 21) Module 3.2 The Role of the Teacher Librarian [Online Forum comment]. Message posted to: https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_42380_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_78883_1&forum_id=_147404_1&message_id=_2093678_1
