Part 3

Taking Up the Task

12

Changing Schools Through Staff Development

"I'm sick and tired of these professors that Don brings in every year to 'inspire' us on our in-service days," George said. "The next day I feel like I've been involved in a hit-and-run accident. They breeze in here and then just as quickly breeze out. It's the same thing at the teachers' conventions. We have these wonderfully inspirational keynotes with little relevance to what I do in the classroom, and then lots of workshops on classroom strategies. Even if I do get excited about an idea, I often don't really knew how to put it into practice."

"I know what you mean," said Lisa. "I did get excited about cooperative learning several years ago, and I tried it for a few weeks, but it seemed to take so much more energy to set it up that I sort of ran out of steam. It didn't seem like anyone else was trying it, so I had no one to talk to."

"Did you really? I tried it myself and I thought I was the only one doing it. We could have talked about it together. Maybe we would still be using it! „

"Come on, George, when do we ever talk about that sort of thing around here? We rarely discuss classroom activities as a staff."

"But, Lisa, maybe we could try it again. Maybe some other teachers would be interested. Perhaps we could set up a group to talk about it, sort of like a study group. We used to have something like that about fifteen years ago. I wonder what happened to the practice?"

"Well, do you think Don would support us in this? He seems to be a bit keener lately on us trying out some new things. Maybe he would support our efforts? "

If Christian schools are to improve teachers will need to develop opportunities to engage in learning themselves. If a Christian school is to be a vital, enriching community of learning, it ought to expect and honor the growth of its teachers and principals. Certainly, the school exists not for the teachers but for the students. But the students will derive the most benefit when the working environment is not only congenial but also stimulating for the teachers. It is not possible "to create the conditions for productive learning when those conditions do not exist for education personnel" (Sarason 1999, I3).

Perhaps the principal's response to George and Lisa would be something like this:

"I've been hoping for this for same time," said Don. "I'd be happy to support you. But I'd rather see a slightly larger group working together. What about Mary Anne and Sheryl? Would they be interested in joining you? See if you can find a time in the week when two or three of you are not teaching. Then I'll cover an additional period adjoining that one by getting in substitutes, and maybe teaching one of the classes myself. I would like to get back in the classroom a bit more anyway. I think I've become out of touch in many ways. I've talked to several other principals recently who have described the benefits they've experienced in teaching classes for some of their teachers so that they could work together planning an integral unit. Why don't you get a group together and then jot down a short proposal so I can share what's happening with the board'?"

Our argument throughout the book has been that community is central to the faithful flourishing of the Christian school as an agent of God’s grace. In the professional development of teachers, we believe that personal and communal growth are essential for staff development. Teachers must continue to learn personally and communally in ordor for them to encourage learning in students. In this chapter, we will argue that, in addition to a teacher's personal growth, collegiality -- professional communal relationships -- is essential to communal staff development. Two approaches, collegial study groups and collaborative action research, are presented as avenues that schools can employ to enhance learning for teachers and consequently for students.

Teachers are called to a life of discipleship, to proclaim the creative and redemptive work of Jesus Christ in their teaching. As teachers allow their hearts and minds to be transformed by the Spirit of truth, they will experience a renewal that provides them with grace and courage to fulfill their calling. It is because we are sought and known and loved by Jesus Christ that we become capable of seeking and knowing and loving students and colleagues in our teaching and learning (Palmer 1983, 113).

Teachers must look for and be provided with opportunities for developing their own gifts. We do not fully know what our gifts are when we first begin to teach. In our interactions with students and colleagues we gradually became aware of our strengths and weaknesses. As we learn to teach we must continue to expand our ways of knowing about teaching. We must set goals for our own development and look for and design learning experiences that will stimulate our own professional growth.

Teachers can use various professional opportunities to develop their gifts. Participating in professional conferences in one's area of specialization (both inside and outside the Christian community) brings teachers into contact with colleagues facing similar challenges and difficulties. Visiting other schools provides teachers with different approaches to teaching particular courses or topics. Becoming involved with government or institution-sponsored task forces enriches teachers with opportunities to reflect on their own framework and deepen their convictions. Personal growth also occurs as teachers commit themselves to revising units that they currently teach or reexamining the content and approaches used in one or more courses.

The school is often conceived as a technical delivery system. Neither the teacher nor the student is expected to exercise much judgment in the process. The curriculum is seen as setting the boundaries to teachers' interest in their students, who are measured in terms "of their relative success or failure in assimilating the lesson plan" (Schön 1983, 331).

The curriculum distinguishes the school from other settings in which education occurs. It is a systematic and dynamic program of instruction, and ongoing reflection on it is crucial to the professional growth of teachers. It should not constrain teachers' relationships with their students, because it is the curriculum rather than the students that is being tested as to whether it most effectively promotes learning for responsive discipleship. It will be in this curriculum-testing that the judgment of the teacher will be realized, refined, and developed. Christian Schools geared to responsive discipleship will enable teachers and principals to be actively engaged in learning to teaching as a continuous process.

Schön (1983,39-40) suggests that teaching is often thought of as a process of problem-solving: decisions are made by selecting the means thought to be best suited to achieving ends that have already been established. But there is really a prior step, that of problem-setting, in which we define the decision to be made, the ends to be achieved, the means that may be chosen. In planning, teachers merge their varying concerns in the curriculum, deciding what will count as meaningful in teaching and learning, and what will and will not count as progress.

In the Christian school, teachers will have the primary goal of setting biblically-inspired problems. To be in the world but not of it always implies a disjunction: we continually face the question of how we should feel uncomfortable in contexts where we are most tempted to feel at home. We are called to question the accepted patterns and beliefs in the light of Scriptures. By the very nature of teaching, teachers are called to articulate what many others may leave implicit. We are called to actively shape knowledge where others may be tempted to take it for granted. It is in this very problem-posing that Christian teachers have constant opportunities for spiritual growth, which must be at the heart of our professional growth.

Staff development involves more that personal professional growth. The failure of individual teachers to sustain innovations verifies the need to go beyond individual growth. Similarly, the failure of curriculum dissemination models alerts us to the inadequacy of a merely structural approach. Growth will need to be both personal and communal in nature. Although often professionally isolated from one another, teachers in Christian schools differ from other teachers in one important respect: they share a common faith, they acknowledge one Lord. Their common faith provides a basis for working out goals for learning that direct their teaching. The challenge that Christian schools face is to allow a common confessional bond to grow into collegiality. The spiritual bond that unites teachers personally will then become the basis for mutually supportive collaboration in day-to-day teaching and learning. Collegiality does not imply uniformity of practice. Rather, it consists of teachers communally working out what it means to be faithful to the Lord's purposes for learning.

Research into effective professional development programs has identified a number of significant features (Fullan 1982, 286-87; Australia 1988). The focus of staff development should be on the day -- today tasks faced by teachers. The school setting has a pivotal role in the development and application of ideas, the practice and sharpening of skills, and the critical appraisal of curriculum. Teachers need to relate new knowledge to their career and classroom experiences and to apply and critically evaluate new practices in their own contexts. They should be involved in planning and control of the program. Teachers have significant roles as resource persons at both the one-to-one level and the formal level of workshops or courses.

A program of staff development should include the following components: theory, demonstration, practice, feedback, and application with coaching (Joyce and Showers 1981). A variety of formal and informal elements should be coordinated: training workshops and sharing workshops, teacher-teacher interaction, one-to-one assistance and meetings. If staff development is to be successful, follow-through is crucial. A series of sessions, with intervals in which teachers have the chance to try things out, is much more powerful than even the most spectacular "hit-and-run" workshop. In this process, teachers should be provided with ready access to relevant internal and external support services.

Teacher commitment to staff development should be supported by creating deliberate opportunities and incentives for career-long participation in professional learning. The interest and support of principals is vital to maintaining a healthy climate for staff development. In many ways the principal is the head learner -- experiencing, displaying, modeling, and celebrating what is hoped and expected of teachers and students (Barth 1990, 46).

Institutional change and professional development are closely related. Both should be part of the ongoing growth of schools. Boards, schools, principals, and teachers need to commit themselves to the pursuit of personal and collective professional learning. Because the goal of professional development is to improve student learning, the impact of the program on students (as well as on teachers and on the broader school context) should be conscientiously evaluated.

Fullan (1982, 87) suggests that two of these points are crucial. First, "the absence of follow-up work after workshops is without doubt the greatest single problem in contemporary professional development." This is intimately connected with his second observation: professional development will require the involvement of far more than just those people responsible for organizing the program. What is required is "systems of peer-based interaction and feedback among teachers combined with external assistance." In other words, it is only when collegial relations between teachers become a normal part of the school culture that effective change will be possible.

Finally, innovation-focused and action research modes of professional development are complementary approaches and both should be employed in the school. Innovation-focused professional development is a program to facilitate the introduction of a new approach to teaching (such as cooperative learning) or a new program (such as Philosophy for Children). Action research staff development is an approach that takes the classroom concerns of the teacher as a starting point and focus. The former involves bringing in an idea from the outside, the latter works froth the inside out. Neither one excludes the other; indeed, both would encourage two-way movement across the boundary between the school and the outside world.

If these two approaches are conceived as means of building collegiality, with a focus on concerns that teachers have about their daily practice, they can become a significant part of the school culture and a powerful force for its ongoing reformation.

We have previously discussed peer associates (chap. 4) and teacher planning teams (chaps. 8 and 10) as important practices for teachers working together in a school. Here we will first discuss collegial study groups as a way of learning about particular innovations and of becoming more reflective about classrooms. Second, we will consider ways in which a school can organize for collaborative action research.

Collegial study groups and action research will enable teachers to begin to practice collaborative procedures and to do so over an extended period. These approaches are considered as models of how teachers may work jointly in the resolution of educational problems and as incentives for more pervasive institutional change. Successful implementation of these staff development practices will provide the impetus for an ongoing revitalization of the culture of a school.

"Well, Lisa, how do you think our group is going? We've managed to look at quite a bit of material on cooperative learning now, and I feel much more confident about it."

"So do I, but I'm wondering whether it might not be time to go a step further. There's been the five of us involved, but I think we could do a great deal for the life of the school if we could get more people interested."

George agreed, but he remembered all too well his last few years of feeling depressed about teaching to think that there was any point in coercing teachers into a study group. He knew that the study group had been a great help to him in helping to refresh his vision, but he knew also that he had been ready to take the step. "Tell you what, Lisa, why don't we identify a few time slots before school on one or two days of the week, and see how many people would be interested in signing up to meet once a month."

As it turned out, George and Lisa were surprised by the enthusiasm of their colleagues. Within a few days, more than twenty (out of ninety) teachers had volunteered. Because time was the selecting factor, the groups were quite varied in their composition. Each contained teachers from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds, teaching levels, and experience.

"I'm really excited about what's happening," Don said to them. "But I think we have to make sure we get off to a good start. I want us to delay until after our next professional development day, and I'd like to spend the whole day focusing on some team-building, process-oriented activities. I don't want to co-opt the study groups by any means, but I want to show that you have my full support. I'm sure that's important. I would like to see us develop a coordinated, long-term plan, but I'm willing to allow the groups themselves to take a large part of the initiative for this. Congratulations!"

The initial day was a great success, giving the teachers a sense of being supported by the administration at the same time as they had the chance to sort out some basic issues and approaches to their work as groups. Over the months that followed, each of the four groups took on its own identity, developing particular concerns about the life of the school.

These were not only study groups but also peer support groups. As well as exploring particular concepts and materials, each teacher developed a professional growth plan. But most importantly, they learned to be able to talk with each other about teaching (Paquette 1987, 39). Rather than focusing on personalities, whether teachers or students, they became accustomed to talking about their teaching practice. This was a habit that carried over into the staff room, so that over the months there was a subtle but steady shift in conversation, away from gripes, sports, and recipes.

"You know, Lisa, " George commented, "how we started out talking about cooperative learning and the value of support when you're trying out a new approach? Don't you think there's something of an irony in what's happening now? People haven't just influenced each other in the way they teach and what they teach within the same subject areas, there's been a cross-fertilization across subjects. We started out trying to get the kids to work more cooperatively, and now we find we're the ones cooperating! "

Don had noticed this too. A few years ago, he had looked at the integral units being developed by some Christian schools, and thought how impossible that would be to achieve at his own school, except of course in the elementary school, where at least some teachers had developed several unit studies. But now he wondered. Perhaps the next step would be to get his teachers into interdisciplinary teams; the correlation that was becoming more apparent in their teaching could then maybe give way to some real integrated units and who knows, maybe real integrality somewhere down the road (Meichtry 1990, 11-12).

Staff development can also occur through incorporating collaborative action research into one's teaching. This is an approach that is compatible with a biblical view of knowing in many respects. It has three main features. First, it is collaborative, a communal approach that recognizes the contribution that can be made to understanding a situation by a group of people with different gifts and insights. It involves teachers working together and provides a practical strategy for helping teachers to break out of the isolation of their classrooms. In the Christian school, such interaction about the actual task in which teachers are engaged should be a central feature.

Second, this approach incorporates action. Action is not an implication or an outcome of research, it is part and parcel of it. Almost the first step taken after identifying a problem is to ask, "What action will I take to remedy it?" It thus reflects the biblical view that knowledge entails responsible action, and that it grows out of concrete experience. After implementing this action step and having set in place some procedures for observing its impact, the collaborative group provides an opportunity to reflect on the effects of that action. Reflection is used not to reach a definitive conclusion but to decide what action to take next. In other words, action research is not a commitment to one act but rather to ongoing acting.

Third, this strategy is a means of research. This is not the abstract, theoretical, quantitative research so often found in academic journals of education, but it is research all the same. This type of research method gets teachers involved in finding out in a careful and systematic way about what is going on in their school. It asks them not to take things for granted but to look critically at the life of their school, to frame questions about the day-to-day actions of teaching and learning. It enables them to look for answers to their questions that are not mere assertions, opinions, or prejudices but are supported by evidence and argumentation. White coats are not required; calculators and computers may come in handy but are not mandatory

Collaborative action research is an ongoing process designed and carried out by practicing teachers. It is an approach that accepts "the wisdom of practice" (Shulman 1987). It credits the teacher with a craftsperson's understanding, a knowledge gained on the job. It says that this knowledge counts for something, that it is not only the knowledge of general principles and scientific laws that is of value but also the knowledge of particular situations, of how to act appropriately in response to concrete problems.

The first meeting of a group of teachers beginning a process of collaborative action research might look something like this: