Building collaborative teacher leadership through establishing norms

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Leadership in Action Name Course Professor Date

Leadership in Action Teacher leadership is considered as an important element towards the success of the teaching faculty at my school. One of the most vital components of teacher leadership at my school is teamwork, which primarily entails creating an environment where teachers collaborate with each other to enhance their teaching experience while improving learning. However, my school has a very old staff who are reluctant to change and run to the union whenever they are asked to try new things. Therefore, establishing a collaborative teaching environment in this school is relatively challenging despite the significance of such an environment in improving teaching practice and learning outcomes among students. This process will require several processes including establishing norms (forming ground rules), goal setting and force-field analysis, and team tasks and evaluation planning. Part 1: Establishing Norms As part of promoting collaboration among staff who are reluctant to change, establishing norms or forming ground rules is a vital step towards achieving what I plan to do at my school with my team. Forming ground rules will help me to effectively introduce shared leadership, which has proven difficult to do because of reluctance to change by the very old staff. In this case, I have engaged my team to help formulate ground rules or norms that will govern shared leadership at my school. The formulation of these ground rules will involve the use of the “Forming Ground Rules Protocol”, which is a vital tool towards developing norms that shapes how team members work together (Wentworth, n.d.). Ground rules or norms are significant for a group that seeks to work together on challenging issues or a group that intends to work together over time (Wentworth, n.d.). Based on the “Forming Ground Rules Protocol”, establishing ground rules is a process that requires the involvement of all team members in an exercise that takes approximately 30 minutes to complete. During the formulation of the ground rules, I worked together with my three colleagues from the innovation council for change and technology inclusion. We undertook each of the eight steps in the Forming Ground Rules Protocol to come up with the group’s norms on how to interact during meetings. The process also entailed recording information provided by team members for each of the steps in the protocol, taking notes on their responses, and seeking for clarifications where necessary. The culmination of the process was the creation of a list with items that are more manageable and making necessary changes to any ground rules that could prove difficult to follow or abide by. The first ground rule is that all meetings will commence and end on time and no session will extend beyond 2 hours. Secondly, phone calls are not allowed during meetings except for emergencies. Third, members are required to eliminate or reduce side conversations during meetings. Fourth, one individual or team member will speak at a time during our sessions. Fifth, everyone will be given an opportunity to share his/her thoughts or ideas on issues being discussed. Sixth, all ideas will be treated with respect. The seventh ground rule is that judgments on shared thoughts or ideas will only be made once every individual has had an opportunity to share. The next rule is that during debates, everyone should focus on facts surrounding the issue not on personalities. The ninth rule requires members to every effort to meet commitments and communicate beforehand if any of the commitments cannot be met with valid reasons. Finally, every member of the team is responsible for enforcement of these ground rules/norms. Part 2: Goal-Setting and Force Field Analysis Goals of Action Plan 1. Creating collaborative organizational culture.

2. Promoting adoption of technology in teaching practice.

3. Bridge the gap between 21st Century teachers and veteran teachers.

Objectives 1. Provide recommendations to the Administration after 1 month.

2. Facilitate establishment of in-house training and development program for teachers within the next 6 months.

3. Replace the current conventional teacher in-service activities with technological tools by December 2018.

Driving Forces 1. Strong support from the administration including financial resources.

2. Collaboration among team members.

Retraining Forces 1. Potential lack of support and resistance to change.

2. Existing union contracts.

The goals for action include to help create an organizational culture that is centered on collaboration between teachers towards improving teaching practice and students’ learning outcomes. Secondly, the team seeks to promote the adoption of innovative teaching tools and practices i.e. Google classroom and online resources that help meet the needs of 21st Century students. Third, the team seeks to help bridge the gap between 21st Century teachers and veteran teachers in the institution’s teaching fraternity. In light of these goals, the objectives include to provide viable recommendations to the institution’s administration after 1 month. Secondly, the team seeks to help establish an in-house training and professional development program for both novice and veteran teachers within the next 6 months. The program will enable them to learn new, innovative teaching practices and incorporate them in the classroom environment. The third objective is to help replace the current traditional teacher in-service activities through introducing the use of Google classroom and our online resources and technology in lesson planning to our colleagues in scaffolding designed program. This will allow the administration to increase the technology requirements gradually, which will not interfere with union contract requirements. We seek to introduce this program in the Spring Semester 2018, and have the second and third scaffold implemented before our Middle-States review in December 2018. The first driving force towards accomplishing these objectives is strong support from the administration despite feelings of limitations by union contracts. According to De Nobile (2013), downward supportive communication is considered vital towards enhancing job commitment and satisfaction as well as lessening turnover intention of school staff. Support from the administration including financial support and resources will motivate the team members to work hard towards achieving the established goals and objectives. Additionally, the support from the administration will help towards promoting and establishing a collaborative learning culture in the school. Based on a publication by Ontario Leadership Strategy (2010), support from the administration influences development of a collaborative learning culture and environment. The second driving force is collaboration from team members with tremendous experience and professional training that reflects the current needs of our school community. Collaboration helps in improving teacher practice, supporting data-driven instruction, and enabling a team to remain committed towards implementing ideas (Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy, 2016). However, our ability to meet the desired goals and objective could be hindered by potential lack of support and resistance from experienced teachers unwilling to re-invent their day-to-day lesson delivery. The second barrier to success is the likelihood of veteran teachers to run to the union because of the introduction of new teaching practices. Part 3 – Team Tasks and Evaluation Planning Assigned Tasks: 1. Identification of union contract issues that could hinder the accomplishment of these goals and objectives by Colleague 3. 2. Development of recommendations for the administration relating to this leadership initiative by Colleague 1 and Colleague 2. 3. Creation of the in-house training and professional development program by Colleague 1, Colleague 2, and Colleague 3. 4. Creation of the required steps for adoption of Google classroom and other online resources by the whole team. 5. I was assigned the task of supervising all activities and ensuring they are carried out on efficiently and effectively. Evaluation Methods: The evaluation of the effectiveness of this leadership initiative will involve the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data. We agreed to conduct the evaluation once every quarter after the implementation of the project for a period of one year. The first measure that will be utilized in collecting data relating to the effectiveness of the initiative is conducting observations and interviews on its impact on teaching practice and student outcomes. In this regard, the team will conduct observations on how the project has contributed to changes in the learning environment and how these changes are affecting teaching practice and student outcomes. Data from the observations will be recorded by each of the team members depending on their own observations. Additionally, the team members will conduct interviews of veteran teachers and novice teachers to obtain their feedback on the impact of the initiative. Secondly, the team members will conduct surveys on students and the administration with regards to the impact of the initiative on student outcomes. The surveys will be utilized to collect quantitative data, which will be statistically analyzed to determine the effectiveness of the program. Data from the various measures will then be analyzed in terms of emerging themes/patterns and in light of the desired goals and objectives of the initiative as well as needs for improvement. This processes will help to determine whether the initiative is a success in dealing with the current problems. Reflections The success of this leadership initiative will be crucial towards promoting collaboration between team members and others at my school. If successful, the project will help establish an organizational culture where veteran teachers collaborate with 21st Century teachers to adopt technology and modify their teaching strategies. In this case, veteran teachers will no longer depend on the conventional teacher in-service activities for their teaching, but will embrace modern teaching technological tools and resources. This will provide a suitable framework for collaboration between the teaching faculty. Additionally, this leadership initiative will help enhance collaboration between teachers and students since online learning resources like Google classroom promote increased collaboration between educators and learners. This will particularly be more beneficial to students with learning struggles. As a result, the success of the initiative will contribute to better teaching strategies and improved student outcomes. Through this process, team members will become teacher leaders by being able to identify issues in the learning environment and working together to resolve the issue. In this case, team members will have played a critical role towards promoting the enhancement of teaching strategies to improve student outcomes, which is an important aspect of teacher leadership. Additionally, the success of this initiative will help build a stronger community of teacher leaders at my school through creating an organizational culture of shared leadership and collaboration among staff.