Empowering Teachers Through a Professional Learning Community

Leadership in Action
My Thinking about Professional Development
Talking about professional development has enabled me to rethink my definition of personal development by looking at it from a different angle. Reflecting back on my internship program, I have realized that my thinking of professional development has been transformed as occasioned by the different variables in the workplace. It continues to change as it encounters intense and competitive learning strategies that employees apply in real life situations. I have realized that professional development is dynamic because of the employers’ need to evaluate the knowledge and skills that employees have. In the end, employees are constantly being judged by looking at their capabilities in the changing and competitive work environment. The reasoning arises from the fact that the movement experienced in the workplace resonates to changing the position of the goalpost every season. Such encounters could be related to new technology, legislation, or the ever-changing customer’s demands. Therefore, professional development should be taken as an individual initiative because it trickles down to one’s desire to remain competitive in the changing work environment.
Teacher Leadership and Leadership in the Schools
The conceptualization of teacher leadership and leadership in schools has changed because teachers have identified the need to engage in institutional change. The whole idea of working competently is not enough because they want to bring about transformation because their working environment is seemingly charged and unstable because of the activities of various stakeholders in the education sector. They no longer want to play the role of educators only. They wish to serve as change agents who contribute positively to building relationships that empower learners to be useful members of the society (Servage, 2009).
The Impact of Parker Palmer’s Article
Parker Palmer’s article has influenced me positively. It has encouraged me to be a change agent in our schools. The change starts with the school leaders who are requested to go beyond their responsibilities and look at their capabilities in helping their students to become better individuals in the learning environment. Therefore, school leaders are obligated to create a different learning environment for teachers to encourage trust and collegiality (Palmer, 2008).
The first step to be undertaken requires the building of collegial communities around work. In such a scenario, the teams created will seek to help teachers do their job by honoring them and later empowering their human spirit. The teams will focus on knowing the other people and their needs thereby ensuring that the work environment is built on their relational trust. While doing so, previous factors that might have contributed to failure are identified and resolved. Secondly, the teams created will support teachers when doing their inner work. The last one will relate to knowing how to work with images, stories, metaphors, and silence. With the strategy, teachers will be tapping into a deeper layer of human knowledge. Moreover, the reclaiming of identities is relevant in work environments for teachers. Having a deep soul searching exercise will help the educators attain this and drive them to be powerful when it comes to performing their duties. With such measures, Parker asserts that the educators will be deepening their professional agenda of learning and thus, will be able to move forward to attaining their educational mission (Palmer, 2008).
Palmer’s article resonates with many teachers because he has identified the need to have an education system that gives students a brighter and better future. Therefore, the educators should be standing on the edge with their minds and hearts ready to take the next step of ensuring that learning is meaningful. Therefore, politicians should not influence the education system because the value of learning concerning the need to evaluate the content delivered.


References:
Palmer, P. J. (2008). On the edge. Journal of Staff Development, 29(2), 12-16.
Servage, L. (2009). Who is the “professional” in a professional learning community? Canadian Journal of Education, 32(1), 149-171.