Collaborating – Sharing – Learning

In the early nineties, Roland Barth wrote about the power of school improvement through teacher collaboration in his book Improving Schools from Within. He placed teachers in one of three groups when describing the initial resistance to collaboration. It may be useful to personally reflect on these group descriptions and place where one personally stands now, how one has moved, and the possibilities yet to come.

(1)  Teachers who are unable and unwilling to critically examine their teaching practice and unable to have other adults – teachers, principals, parents – examine what and how they are teaching …

(2)  Teachers who are quite able and willing to continually scrutinize and reflect on what they do and make use of their insights to effect periodic change. They plan tomorrow on the basis of how things went today. But these teachers are uncomfortable accepting examination of their practice by other adults …

(3)  A small number of teachers who are able and willing to critically scrutinize their practice and are quite able and willing, even desirous, of making their practice accessible to other adults …

                                                                                                            Barth, 1990, p.53 

Global Survival Skills

Our children today live in an environment, which demands educational experiences to help them cope and succeed in a rapidly challenging global society. This in turn demands that as educators, we examine and tend to the practical ends and means of their educational experience. Harvard professor and researcher Tony Wagner, author of The Global Achievement Gap questions whether conventional curriculums in the United States pay sufficient attention to what other researchers have named 21st. Century skills. He posits seven “survival” skills that our children will need in order to engage, succeed and excel in their future environments.

1. Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
2. Collaboration (including across networks) and leadership by influence rather than authority
3. Agility & Adaptability
4. Initiative & Entrepreneurialism
5. Effective Oral and Written Communication
6. Accessing & Analyzing Information
7. Curiosity & Imagination

In his research Wagner gives examples of countries that understand the importance of education to their social and economic futures. One example is Singapore, whose educational motto is: Thinking Schools, Learning Nation. To quote from Singapore’s Education Reform Movement: Thinking Schools will be learning organizations in every sense, constantly challenging assumptions, and seeking better ways of doing things through participation, creativity and innovation. Thinking schools will be the cradle of thinking students as well as thinking adults and this spirit of learning should accompany our students even after they leave school.

This is the kind of learning community we should be developing in our schools: where teachers engage in collaborative and reflective learning and in turn provide learning opportunities through teaming and collaboration in the classroom; where questions are asked and welcomed and used to influence, reason and promote thinking and deep understandings; where teachers and children are both encouraged, supported, empowered and motivated to be the best they can be.

The Concern for Climate and Learning

Educators strive to create a positive climate in their schools by promoting collegiality, collaboration, teacher initiative and positive discipline. They also seek to improve the learning experience of their students through curriculum initiatives aligned to missions of academic excellence. Ideally, when the two concerns for climate and learning are well integrated, synergy occurs and great things can happen.

A simple model that looks at the concern for climate and the concern for learning, allows us to locate our schools in relation to four quadrants.

While our institutions may not exactly fit in any of the four quadrants, the location allows us to try to correct the balance between the concern for climate and learning. Some schools may find themselves located close to the bottom right quadrant, where test results are everything, with teachers and staff burned out in the process. Others may identify with the upper left quadrant where everyone is nice but where learning takes a back seat. This model suggests that we can do better than that by moving towards the upper right quadrant.

In moving towards a high climate-high learning model, trust issues may surface, especially among staff members used to a low climate-high learning environment. Collaboration and collegiality, important components of high climate, need to be learned and nurtured in safe ways first. Gradual progression can occur as trust builds among the community. Small, manageable and purposeful commitments towards high climate-high learning are a sure and steady path to becoming a great school.

Lessons from the Jesuits

This summer I attended a Catholic principal's orientation in Menlo Park, California in the quiet and reflective retreat setting of the Vallombrosa Center. While there, I recalled a recent book by Chris Lowney called Heroic Leadership. The book traces the history and achievements of the Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits. In the book Lowney draws out the leadership qualities and personal experiences of a number of Jesuit protagonists, all to illustrate the foundational principles that still form the core values of the order.

Lowney describes a unique way of working and living that integrated four leadership principles – self-awareness, ingenuity, love, and heroism. Translated into practical application for the layman, these principles offer an interesting leadership perspective.

"Heroism encourages people to aim high and keeps them restlessly pointed towards something more, something greater." Such leaders are filled with a conviction of meaningful purpose that it "brings energy, imagination, ambition, and motivation to their work." In the early Jesuit context this often meant the ultimate sacrifice. In our current context, this means staying the course and having the courage to make the tough decisions; to question why things are done; to face and overcome our challenges, daunting as they may be; to have those difficult conversations that need to be had; to take the side of right rather than the expedient or mighty.

"Ingenuity disposes people not just to think outside the box but to live outside the box." It is the belief that there are solutions to problems and that we are capable of thinking through and arriving at those solutions. It is the love of learning and the ability to continually put our learning and talents to creative use.

"Love lends purpose and passion to ingenuity and heroism." It is the belief in theory y rather than theory x, the ability to give people the benefit of the doubt and to view people as well intentioned, trustworthy and as "uniquely endowed with talent and dignity."

"Self-awareness roots and nourishes the other leadership virtues." Through self-awareness, we learn who we are, what we stand for and what we believe in. Self-awareness is a life-long project and the Jesuits practiced the virtue three times a day – upon arising, after the noon meal, and after supper. In our context, it is asking "did I teach the last class with loving interest in my students, or did I go through the motions?" It questions whether we are practicing ingenuity, love and heroism in our daily routines.

Heroic leadership invites us to consider the impact we have with our many daily interactions. We are challenged to consider how we relate to those around us and whether our presence adds to or diminishes the beauty of our world. It is to believe in a world of love rather than fear; to re-invent ourselves while holding true to the principles of self-awareness, ingenuity, love and heroism.

Quotations are taken directly from Heroic Leadership by Chris Lowney.

Chado - The Art of Tea

During my six years in Japan, once a week, I would learn to make and serve a traditional bowl of tea. To the uninitiated, the Japanese Tea ceremony may appear forced, tedious and even contrived. At its very core however, it is all about serving others through a dedicated craft. The Way of Tea is the call to take the time to ensure that whatever you do offers the greatest possible benefit for others, and to remember to be thankful for things received. It is expressed in the sincere and simple act of preparing and serving a bowl of tea and receiving it with gratitude.

The Way of Tea is based on the four principles of harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility. Harmony dispenses with pretensions, walks the path of moderation and embraces humility. Respect opens us to a proper relationship with nature and our fellow human beings. Purity, the act of cleaning the tea utensils, represents the clearing of worldly attachments that enable people and things to be perceived in their true state. tranquility is arrived at by practicing the first three principles. (adapted from Tea Life, Tea Mind by Soshitsu Sen XV)

As educators, we can apply the principles of Chado in our relationships with colleagues and students. Harmony reminds us that openness and humility is the key to all learning. It is the humble that realize that the more they learn, the more they do not know. Respect reminds us to look deep into another's heart to come to understanding. As an administrator or teacher, have I given my colleagues or students the time they need with me? Purity helps us look beyond the effects of social and economic influences on our students, understand their individual needs, learn how to help them, and view instructional differentiation in an imperative light. Hopefully, by trying to do this consistently, we may achieve pride of craft and arrive at our own sense of peace and tranquility.

In my move from Kobe back to Florida, I packed my Chado utensils in the hope that I may still have the opportunity to prepare and serve a simply delicious bowl of tea.

The Multiplier and Mozart

As this is my last month in Japan before I return to the the US, I took the opportunity to revisit the village of Tamba, where the natural availability of quality clay has nurtured the craft of a good many master potters. Each shop is managed by a resident master potter, whose inner vision of beauty and utility distinguishes his creations from those of his neighbors.

Later, after lunch at Sasayama, we visited an old sake (rice wine) factory. Here, I heard the strangest tale of quality differentiation. Attached to one of the sake fermenting vats were audio speakers where the music of Mozart is played to the fermenting brew. The brewed sake is bottled and sold as a Mozart special. Later, to the skeptics among us, the brewer had us taste the sake from two vats with identical brew formulas – one nurtured by Mozart and the other without the Mozart factor. There was a definite discernible difference. Perhaps it was the effect of the vibration of the music on the yeast or perhaps it was a clever marketing gimmick. Whatever it was, I was impressed enough to walk out with the purchase of a Mozart special under my arm.

Even if the second story is suspect, they both analogize what I would describe as the "soul" of the creative outcome. In terms of an educational institution it is its core beliefs, that deep inner rhythm of uncompromising values commonly shared by its members that influence all thought and action and ultimately the hearts and minds of its students. Two institutions may have identical academic standards, professional development initiatives, curriculum delivery and assessment methodologies, etc, but have discernibly different outcomes.

Good quality clay (good, caring and well meaning people) united by a shared vision (a deep, joyful sense of meaning and purpose) is the key to the real Mozart factor. That's the multiplier that has the potential to harness the synergy inherent in all our technical educational reform initiatives.

Facilitating Performance

During an exit interview with a senior, I asked if there was any teacher that really connected with him and helped move him along as a student. He named a teacher with high expectations and standards who was always willing to help him understand the difficult material. He credited this teacher with helping him overcome the fear of a subject that followed him from elementary school. He added that although the teacher's course was even more challenging and demanding than any course he had before, he never once felt pressured, put-down or intimidated in the class, or in the presence of this teacher. 

This caused me to consider the kind of environment I thrived in when I was teaching. I recalled that I was most comfortable and effective when the following were in place.

(1) A clear understanding of expectations 

(2) A close alignment of my personal values with those expectations

(3) A helpful, supportive and accessible supervisor

(4) Friendly, helpful and supportive colleagues

(5) The freedom to try something new and be allowed to fail and learn from it

(6) The knowledge that I am doing something important and meaningful

I am sure there are a number of other considerations that could maintain welcoming, healthy, productive, and even "joyful" learning environments. Often however, these important factors are crowded out by an array of well intentioned school initiatives. 

Our challenge is to ensure that these very basic environmental considerations are not just one of our many educational initiatives, but remain, the very plate that supports them.