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Improving Relationships Within the Schoolhouse
Roland S. BarthMarch 2006, Vol. 63, Number 6
Pages 8-13Educational Leadership
Synthesized by Bobbie W. Pfingstler, Ed.D., Supervisor of Curriculum and InstructionCentral Intermediate Unit # 10
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Relationships among the adults Trusting, generous, helpful, and cooperative
among administrators and teachers = trusting, generous, helpful, and cooperative between teachers and students
Trusting, generous, helpful, and cooperative staff = trusting, generous, helpful, and cooperative relationships between students and students;
Therefore, trusting, generous helpful, and cooperative relationships between teachers and parents.
Greatest Influence on Student Achievement
Set Good Examples
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Fearful relationships among administrators and teachers
Competitive, suspicious, and corrosive relationships among administrators and teachers
These qualities disseminate throughout the school community.
Least Influence on Student Achievement
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Relationships in a School Culture enrich or diminish
School Culture
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Leadership of the principal Issues of race Underperforming teachers Personal visions for a good school Nature of relationships among the adults
within the school
Roland Barth’s Non-discussables(Just discussed in the parking lot, during the car pool, at the dinner
table)
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When non-discussables take extraordinary power over us
When non-discussables litter the schoolhouse floor.
When non-discussables lurk like land mines When non-discussables trip wires emanate
from each.
What Paralyzes School Improvement?
The talk
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Adversarial Relationships Parallel Play Congenial Relationships Collegial Relationships
Relationships in Schools
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2- and 3-year olds – busily engaged, but seldom interacting
Live in separate caves. Self-contained classroom – door shut Cost of concealing – don’t learn to examine
and improve our practices from our colleagues.
Parallel Play
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“We educators have drawn our wagons into a circle and trained our guns – on each other.”
7th grade algebra teachers lobs a metaphorical hand grenade, saying to parents, “You don’t want your child in that classroom. All they do is fool around with blocks.”
“You don’t want your child in that classroom; it’s a grim, joyless place with desks in rows and endless worksheets.”
Educators withhold craft knowledge: child development, professional development, leadership, and curriculum. (Ex. Lack of courage, generosity to share, retired teachers and principals)
Too often educators root for the failure of their peers rather than assist with their successes.
Adversarial Relationships
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Interactive and positive Pouring coffee for colleague. Principal gives a teacher a ride home. Personal and friendly
Congenial Relationships
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Collegiality Hardest to establish “Getting good players is easy. Getting them to play
together is the hard part.” Casey Stengel Collegiality is about growing a professional learning
community. Educators talking with one another about
practice. Educators sharing their craft knowledge. Educators observing one another while they
are engaged in practice. Educators rooting for one another’s success.
Collegial Relationships
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Adults in a Congenial/Collegial School
Other School
Congenial Parallel Play
Collegial Adversarial Relationships
Education-related conversation in faculty room.
No students in faculty room
Continual discourse about student evaluation, parent involvement, curriculum development, and team teaching.
No talking teaching in faculty room
Educator Talk
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Typical meeting begins with a participant or two sharing a front-burner issue about which they have recently learned as important or useful.
New teacher explains how students were evaluated in a previous workplace.
Parent shares at a PTA meeting an idea about helping children with homework.
Principal shares with other principals a new policy about assigning students to classes.
Educators no longer feel pretentious or in violation of a taboo by sharing their insights.
Educators Share Craft Knowledge
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Hold each faculty meeting in the classroom of a different teacher. Show and tell reading area, science corner, and student projects on weather. Each teacher hosts the meeting. Anxiety gets reduced.
•Move to peer observations:•You visit me this week; I visit you next.•What we see and say will be kept confidential.•Decide prior to visit the purpose.•Agree on day, time, and length of the visit.•Have a conversation afterward to discuss observations and share our learning.
Principal dangles a carrot and sticks:
Time: “I’ll cover for you or get a sub.”Administrative fiat: “Before March 31, I expect each of you to observe for one half-day in the classroom of each teacher to whom you might be sending students next year.” Social Pressure: A chart on the wall of the faculty room noted who had and hadn’t yet observed.
Principal observes other principal during faculty meetings. “You can lead where you will go.”
Observing One Another
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Do Something!
Offer to help difficult students. To take a youngster or two into their classrooms.
•Let teacher observe them handling same students. •Meet after school and reflect on the day.•Share manipulative curriculum materials capable of engaging students with their short attention spans.
Teachers take on burning issues:•Integrating language arts and social studies•Multi-age grouping•Colleagues put relevant articles into your mailbox. •Share effective practices from other schools in which they have worked.
Everyone on the faculty periodically assess how things are going and what they can do to help.
Rooting for One Another
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Has to make relationships among adults a discussable.
Be the minesweeper, disarming those landmines.
Foster collegiality: •State expectations explicitly. For instance, “I expect all of us to work together this year, share our craft knowledge, and help one another in whatever ways we can.”•Model collegiality: Visibly join in cheering on others or have another principal observe a faculty meeting.•Reward those who behave as colleagues: Grant release time, recognition, space, materials, and funds to those who collaborate.•Protect those who engage in these collegial behaviors. “I observed something in Janet’s classroom last week that blew my socks off, and I’ve asked her to share it with us.” (Leaders should run interference for other educators.)
What School Leaders Can Do
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Empowerment Recognition Satisfaction
Success in our work
Masterful teacher, principal, or student – active participants!
A Group of Colleagues