Article+Summaries

= This page is an archive of some of our discussion around the research. The page is NOT required reading for the presentation, but you are welcome to take a look! =

http://www.michaelfullan.ca/Articles_98-99/03_93.pdf

(1993, a bit old, but interesting..)

https://vista4.srv.ualberta.ca/webct/urw/lc5122011.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct

(from required reading and same author as above!)

Here's another one... Oberg, Dianne (2009) Libraries in Schools: Essential Contexts for Studying Organizational Change and Culture Library Trends, Volume 58 (1) Summer 2009, pp. 9 - 25 .muse.jhu.edu/journals/library_trends/v058/58.1.oberg.pdf

I'm attaching a file of my (very brief) notes from the readings. In reflecting on the readings, I kept going back to the "missions" associated with affecting change. I see the main missions as being: Mission: Creating a Vision- Tu Loan Mission: Building Capacity- Nancy Mission: A Culture of Collaboration- April Mission: Recognizing Barriers to Change- Nancy Mission: Tapping Emotional Intelligence- Tu Loan Mission: Acknowledging Partners- April Robert Greenleaf's idea of [|Servant Leadership] fits well within the application of teacher's as change agents from a leadership perspective. Maybe it could be its own Mission: Servant Leadership? OR it may fit in well with Mission: A Culture of Collaboration? If we are divvying up pages, I would love to delve more deeply into this concept...........

These are very similar to Fullan's ideas on what is needed to affect change.

Could this serve as a starting point for an organizational structure?

I think so. It will make definitely give us something concrete to organize around. Could you possibly just copy and paste your notes on here? This way, we might be able to add stuff to it.

Nancy' Notes.... Fullan (1993)
 * Importance of ‘moral purpose
 * 4 core capacities:
 * o Personal vision-building
 * o Inquiry
 * o Mastery
 * o Collaboration
 * Barriers to change
 * o The way teachers are trained
 * o The way schools are organized
 * o The way the educational hierarchy operates
 * o The way political decision-makers treat educators
 * “The professional teacher, to be effective, must become a career-long learner of more sophisticated pedagogies and technologies and be able to form and reform productive collaborations with colleagues, parents, community agencies, businesses and others.” (p. 9)

Fullan (1998) > ** learning and engagement, to make changes, and to get results." (p. 4) **This could be a good discussion question, what "external pressure and support" would be helpful? > >
 * Teacher education as ‘the worst problem and the best solution’ (p.2)
 * Local implementation depends on collaborative cultures (p. 4)
 * Compliance requirements (the ‘wake-up call’) plus capacity (motivation, skills and resources) (p. 5)
 * “Make students your prime partners; respond to parents’ needs and desires as if they were your own; become more assessment literate; refuse to mind your own business; develop and use your emotional intelligence; help to recreate your profession.” (p. 6) **This ties in so well with Robert Greenleaf's notion of Servant Leadership, I wonder if we could connect the two?**
 * ** "Under conditions of local external pressure and support, teachers in several MSIP secondary schools become energized to focus on student **
 * "Agencies like school districts, teacher unions, universities either become part of the problem or fail to help." (p. 4) ** How does this apply to our unions? Are they helping the teaching profession or hindering? Good connection to the collective agreement bargaining that is happen BC wide right now.........
 * "addressing the incredibly difficult matter of developing rapport between top-down and bottom-up strategies" (p. 5) What does this look like? What issues have occurred in Canada?
 * "addressing the incredibly difficult matter of developing rapport between top-down and bottom-up strategies" (p. 5) What does this look like? What issues have occurred in Canada?

Fullan (fr. Centre for Development and Learning 2000)
 * Interplay of pedagogy and assessment to produce improvement
 * Importance of internal school development
 * Road to collaboration – build own model and local ownership thru process
 * Importance of external partners (parents; technology; corporate partnerships; universities & teacher-training)
 * “…there is a fusion of three powerful forces: the spiritual, the political and the intellectual.”
 * "Most outside forces threaten schools, but they are also necessary for success. In order to turn disturbing forces to one's advantage, it is necessary to develop the counter-intuitive mindset of 'moving toward the danger' (Hargreaves & Fullan, 1998).
 * "When there is a rapport among parents/ community, teachers/school and the student, learning occurs. The problem is what to do when such rapport does not exist." Is RAPPORT the difference between outside forces being a threat and being a help?

Oberg (2003)
 * Importance of school culture (discussion of Butler & Dickson’s 12 norms of positive school culture)
 * Creation of shared vision
 * Implementation as process of learning something new and deepening understanding
 * Importance of program evaluation (evaluation as having ‘educative purpose’)
 * Normative changes to how people think, feel and act, not just structural changes
 * Leadership must be shared
 * Changes in how people work together- process is for renewal and "strengthening the school's capacity for learning and improvement" (p. 23)
 * "A positive school culture provides a positive environment for change." (p. 24) This could fit in with Mission: A Culture of Collaboration

Oberg (2009)
 * “Schools that want to improve student learning need to develop collaborative cultures, to become places where people share their ideas and where there are structures in place to facilitate people working together” (p. 10)
 * Stages of change: adoption; implementation and institutionalization or continuance (p. 14)
 * Norms of teaching that can be barriers to change: (p. 12)
 * o Conservatism
 * o Individualism
 * o Presentism
 * Change as involving uncertainty and risk-taking
 * Change as personal, affecting everyone differently
 * § Self-concerns
 * § Task concerns
 * § Management concerns
 * § Rewards and costs also personal
 * Change takes time
 * Collaboration
 * o Where autonomy and independence are valued, becomes difficult
 * o Costs of collaboration to teachers in time, effort, lifestyle and self-esteem
 * o Factors supporting: shared beliefs/norms; expertise in process, meaningful groupings

Ross, Hannay (2001)
 * Change capacity: breaking free of structures that inhibit innovation; honouring dissonance; forging new relationship
 * 2 approaches to change: control initiatives (top-down) vs commitment approach (grass-roots)
 * 4 domains of capacity: human; organizational; structural; material
 * Site-based management as key element in ability to achieve change
 * Inclusionary decision-making models within collaborative frameworks
 * External partnerships (sideways dimension): union; university

Kitchen (2009)
 * Importance of addressing individual teachers in their specific contexts
 * Importance of caring and relationships
 * Value of collaboration
 * Authenticity; open, non-judgmental; trusting; respect
 * “…professional development is more likely to be successful and lasting when teachers become committed to facing problems and confident that those offering assistance will demonstrate congruence, acceptance and empathy.”
 * Reject the ‘grand narrative of expertise’ as ineffective

Sitch (2005)
 * Increased pressure for accountability and higher professional expectations for teachers
 * Eroding of teacher autonomy through “…mandated duties and instructional time, restrictive curriculums and standardized testing.” (p. 2)
 * “If teachers are going to be considered professionals by the bodies that govern them, by adherence to rules and conduct and according to the standards of decision-makers…then they must be afforded the respect and autonomy given professionals.” (p. 7)

Case (1994)
 * “…a wider tendency in education systems to attempt systematic reform by responding in simpleminded ways to complex challenges.” (p. 2)
 * Need to improve conceptualization and operationalization of given change
 * o Gap between the theoretician and the practitioner
 * o Tendency to conceptual vagueness
 * o Educational goals vs institutional control
 * Real change only comes with success in the classroom

Apple (1986)
 * “de-skilling” of teachers
 * Proletarianization of teachers
 * Role of patriarchy (gender issues within education)
 * interesting comment about state taking over curriculum when it was deemed educators (mostly women) weren't doing a good enough job
 * reflecting on his stats, not surprised by % of men in leadership role -> even today, at my school team leaders are predominantly male. How about at your school? At my present school, the leadership team is mainly women (learning leaders, that is); 1 female AP and 2 males. Principal is male. At previous school, almost exclusively male, even though more teaching staff was female. Ex: the social dept. I worked in had a male LL, 2 male teachers (incl. LL) and 7 female. Present school is much more balanced, and I think attuned to issues around power and gender, power and race, etc. We have women in very key positions, and they seem to help shape the culture. Ironically, it's seen as a 'tough school' given the area of Calgary we draw from (the closest to 'the 'Hood' that you get in Calgary). But its very caring compared to many or most.
 * Intensification and loss of time to keep up with the field
 * thus relying more on "experts" -> i see this today with teachers not having time to create their own lessons, resort to buying pre-made units, not time to collaborate (i was very fortunate to have flexible schedule to collaborate with teachers on new units, great sense of accomplishment when we create something unique and see it come to fruition with students, makes our job so much more engaging and rewarding) I always felt like I was 'just surviving', especially when I took on a learning leader position. It removed much of the joy of the work b/c I was always stressed and never as prepared or organized as I wanted to be.
 * i really connected with what he had to share about the intensification of our job and how taking time to "relax" was not necessarily the best way to counteract the intensification the guilt!
 * Increasing Isolation first piece of advice I was given when I started teaching: 'Kill your own snakes.' I really internalized that and only in the last few years have learned better how to collaborate. Oberg talks about that as one of the norms of teaching that is counterproductive to change (individualism).
 * ‘professionalization’ adds pressures
 * i was a bit uncomfortable about his point that teachers are not helping their cause when they are pushing the "emotion" argument to counter the intensification of their job (p208)-> we are talking about primary kids, emotion is important, or is it because i'm female i feel this? i'm sure male primary teachers feel the same way. don't fathers feel the same way? I think relationships are the most important part of teaching at all levels (I'm senior high and kids still need you to be there emotionally, without being enmeshed). And that's impossible without caring. I also think the caring part applies both to teacher student relationships and teacher - colleague realtionships (Kitchen)
 * i was a bit uncomfortable about his point that teachers are not helping their cause when they are pushing the "emotion" argument to counter the intensification of their job (p208)-> we are talking about primary kids, emotion is important, or is it because i'm female i feel this? i'm sure male primary teachers feel the same way. don't fathers feel the same way? I think relationships are the most important part of teaching at all levels (I'm senior high and kids still need you to be there emotionally, without being enmeshed). And that's impossible without caring. I also think the caring part applies both to teacher student relationships and teacher - colleague realtionships (Kitchen)

Definitely an improvement from Freire's work, but it doesn't really help me with conceptualizing this topic. Both authors really focused on the oppressed, Apple with teachers and Freire with students. I don't quite see how it has anything to do with Teachers as Change Agent/Agent of Change except that their views on education as it was, was not viable as those involved in education were severely oppressed by capitalism/industrialism Freire to me really has to be understood in a context of societies (developing countries) with a massive underclass. I guess the basic principal of making students aware of their current realities, and moving them to question and vision other possibilities holds for everyone, but really, even in my school (immigrant, refugee, working class, struggling), kids probably wouldn't describe themselves as 'oppressed.'

The gender issue still plays somewhat of a role today, don't you think? Maybe not as severely disadvantaged as the 1980s, but it's still there. Especially in terms of how we relate to people around us, and leadership styles. I think we still have double standards about how we expect women to respond/behave vs men.

Friere (1970) I'm having a really hard time reading this! Thanks for the summary. I had to read Friere for a social justice course I took back in my undergrad. //Still// hard to read. He's South American, no? That class consciousness/social justice thing... almost too much. There needs to be some balance. I don't think the kids feel that they are oppressed, because I don't think they're at the age that they even know what's going on! I can't quite understand how this has to do with leadership.. .I agree!
 * Education for change (“To exist humanly is to name the world, to change it) (p. 147)
 * Pedagogy of the oppressed
 * o Mutual trust; love; critical thinking;
 * Awareness of current situation – posed a problem that requires response (intellectual and active)
 * rejection of the 'banking model' of education (student as //objec//t of education)
 * "self-sufficiency is incompatible with dialogue" (p148) -> I'm not sure if I agree with this point. It is true that to have dialogue, you must interact with another, but element of self-sufficiency is crucial in developing dialogue, cannot always depend on others, one can have dialogue with oneself (?),
 * sure takes him a long time to get to the point of education!
 * is he saying that students are the "oppressed" because they have no way in what they learn? (anti-dialogical)
 * I see this in practice in some classes, most classes... "old school", matter of classroom management?
 * "Authentic education" = "A" with "B" relationship, need to consider students' needs and interests when engaging in "dialogue"
 * very humanistic
 * Starting point (oh the meat of the article!) of organizing education or political action: ASPIRATIONS OF THE PEOPLE,must pose a question that illicits a response -> they must care,
 * but what happens if they don't feel there is a need for change?
 * what do you do with a staff that is complacent? happy with what's happening
 * "why fix something that is not broke"
 * seems like a top-down approach...almost paternalistic? what do you think? I think this is where the dialogue idea comes in. If I remember correctly, F. rejects the model of 'teacher as expert'. Instead student and teacher embark on a journey together as partners . Educator must enter into the relationship with humility, acknowledging that the teacher also becomes the learner . //"This task implies that revolutionary leaders do not go to the people in order to bring them a message of 'salvation', but in order to come to know through dialogue with them both their objective situation and their awareness of that situation" (p. 151)//
 * i meant that his view was very paternalistic..he is almost too much for me!
 * "danger lies in the risk of shifting the focus of investigation from the meaningful themes to the people themselves, thereby treating the people as objects of the investigation" -> he preaches a relationship of "reciprocity" between SA and ST with a goal to change (reflection plus activism)

HIS CONCLUSION WAS SO DARK!!! Because this is a mandatory read, I guess we have to include it in our presentation.... but how?!! It was so esoteric, I couldn't understand half the stuff! My thought was lets keep his stuff really general. Yes please!!! Since his thing was 'pedagogy for the oppressed' (consciousness raising to overcome/rise above oppression) what if we just talked about his in the context of vision for change? And that idea of education as having a moral purpose. Carla states that we need to "try to show divergent perspectives on our chosen issue", are Freire and Apple the "divergent" perspectives? I really struggled with Freire's chapter, is it possible just to touch on their readings briefly and somewhat shallowly (maybe within the barriers to change mission section) and focus our attention and efforts on the readings that support empowering teachers to be change agents??

On that note, I really like that line of Fullan's about change being a "fusion of three powerful forces:the spiritual, the political and the intellectual." Maybe that's Freire.