Creating a System to Lead a Learning Culture

EAF 485 is a course designed to support students to understand the critical role of the principal not just to manage a complex organization, but to lead the re-culturing of a school that can learn and change, creating a system that creates collective efficacy and improves teaching and learning for every student. Now imagine that you have just been appointed the principal of  a school (choose one to meet your needs):

a PK-6 school with 600 students
a 6-8 middle school with 750 students
a high school with 1600 students

with a long history as a low academically performing school. Teacher morale is very low and there is little parental involvement. You are new to this community and want very much to turn the school around, but you clearly have many challenges. Like all districts in the state, funding is very tight.

A principal has the responsibility to create a school’s culture; Schein describes a set of mechanisms to embed culture.  Describe what you would do in the first two to three years that disrupts the status quo and facilitate a second order change to improve the core work of instructional improvement. Describe how you would lead the transformation of this school into a successful learning culture, where every student is succeeding academically and socially, where teachers continuously improve their knowledge and practices, and where teachers, students, staff and parents are proud to be affiliated.

Courageous Leadership for Social Justice

Many of our discussions have included multiple and consistent references to courageous leadership. Whether examining data to improve teaching and learning, evaluating faculty and staff, or leading for change, the principal is singularly in the cross-hairs when it comes to making numerous building decisions which inevitably will cause dissatisfaction among one or more stakeholder groups. Matthews and Crow discuss this frequently, and Shields' articles both make this point clearly.

Describe an example of courageous, socially just leadership with which you are familiar, and consider how this could serve as a model for you in preparing to lead change as a building-level leader.

A shift in cultural practice begins with recognizing where the building it at in terms of educational practices and where they need to go in order to provide authentic instuction and learning opportunities for all students.  Progress in this area can be measured in few ways - participation levels and support of teachers (the more the better) and proof of student learning through data based resources.  Trust comes with proof of effectiveness.  if and when teachers can see they are a part of something great they will have greater buy in and trust in the overall purpose.

Bach to Rock

One of the biggest ways I have experienced a shift in the culture of practice lately is at a more global level than any of our individual districts or buildings. In December of 2010, Winnebego teacher and blogger Nick Jaworski issued a challenge to then MENC (currently NAfME) to start apying attention to a suddent recognition of music education in pop culture. Following television shows like "America's Got Talent" and "American Idol" that popularized competitive singing, the sitcom world finally came up with one of the most engaging, popularized recognitions of music education to date, "Glee." Jaworski's challenge did not go unrecognized when in February of 2011, MENC responded with a Survey on the website about "the Glee Effect." Jaworski soon got in touch with MENC CEO Michael Butera to explore the new ways in which MENC could begin to engage this formerly untapped population.

Since then, several things have happened. First, Nick organized a small group of Illlinois colleagues to simply get together and discuss the implications of this kind of popularity of music in the media, and how we could use that to expand our audience. It has been a long recognized reality that the typical music program only attracts around 20% of any given school for its performing ensembles. The burning question for years has been about how to recruit the other 80% into our performing ensembles. Nick's question involved a culture shift - How do we engage the other 80% with music?

As Nick's small group of music educators grew larger and larger, the NAfME, and even the IMEA began to recognize the urgency of such endeavors, and it established the Secondary General Music Division. Our state organization has also abolished the requirement that students entering the composition contest be members of performing ensembles, opening it up to a wider range of students and making a statement that music was not only for those who could sing or play an instrument.

While this growing change is very global in terms of the music education world, I feel like the process Nick used as he went about changing the culture of our state and even national organization had some important steps for leading change at the local level - some addressed in the text and some not.

1. Be Passionate About the Vision - Nick's passion for engaging the other 80% of students and reaching them where their lives intersect with music was key in his ability to communicate the mission and encourage buy-in among other members. The reality is that passion and excitement is often contagious. We do have to recognize in our passion, however, that sometimes the resistors are equally turned off by this passion. Finding a gentler way to communicate with them may be the key to their buy-in.
2. Establish a Group of People Who Buy-In to the Mission - Allow those people to be the visionaries and the brain-stormers. As more people begin to see how the vision is set in motion, others will begin to envision their own manifestation of the vision in their unique situations.
3. Never Stop Researching - One of the key elements in changing cultures is being able to demonstrate how that change is affecting the end product. Much like the PLC "movement," as data is produced that shows your cultural shift has made positive changes and then some, more people will readily buy in. How could you not? :-) In addition, there is always room for improvement. Research shows that people are most effective at their work when they feel as if they are moving forward. Always strive to find areas of potential so that there's always something to look forward to.