Bringing it All Together Leadership and Change Six
Bringing it All Together: Leadership and Change Six Leadership and Change Concepts West Virginia 21 st Century Leadership for 21 st Century Schools November 13, 2009 Jerry Valentine Professor of School Leadership Director, Middle Level Leadership Center University of Missouri 1
Where is your team (school)? Confident Charlie… Confident Charlie In Baseball terms it’s: • A walk, a double…bottom of the ninth… home team wins! • High Fives for everyone! • We celebrate our victory! In Schooling it’s: • I Get it…it makes good sense • We are all on the same page • We can do that in our school! 2
Where is your team (school)? Distraught Daryl… Distraught Daryl In Baseball it’s: • Breaking the neighbor’s window or striking out to end the game • Watching the other team celebrate In Schooling it’s: • Another confusing explanation that will never help my school. • My faculty will never understand • We can’t possibly do that in our school. 3
Reflection after each change/leadership concept on the continuum from Charlie to Daryl? It makes sense…we understand it and address it at my school…we are on base all the time It makes sense…but this is a constant challenge at my school…I don’t know if we can get on base, much less score 4
Leadership Matters • Chuck’s presentation confirmed unequivocally that… Leadership Matters to school and student success! Leadership for Second-Order Change is essential! • So, let’s look at “Leadership FOR Change” Let’s begin with this concept: “If you are not improving, you are declining” 5
Why We Must Change: The Knowledge-Implementation Gap o t s ed e N n tio ly t n a st ge n a h n o C s a c u & Ed t p a Ad s ce i t c ra at c u Ed P l a ion es c i t c P a e r E i f P c B f al So o eo n g e o d i dg le at e c l w u o w n o Ed n K t t K r s n e e i p B a t x f n E o i a e M g EP B d e f o e l e W w dg f e i l o w n o n n K K io e t t r a a r t u e d n O e Mo / w m n e o l i p tat n e m I m e l Our Implementation with No New Knowledge No New Kn owledge, L ow Effort ty C t Bes 6
Where is your team (school)? Knowledge-Implementation Gap Confident Charlie Distraught Daryl 7
Lewin’s Freeze/Unfreeze/Transition/Refreeze Model of Change 8
Mountain Stream Ice Flow: Freezes, Thaws, Reshapes, Refreezes with the Environmental Factors of Sun-Shade-Current Flow-Water Depth 9
Freeze-Unfreeze-Transition. Refreeze Explanation • Freeze is our current state—the way we are… • Unfreeze is the time we spend realizing and accepting that we need to change. • Transition is the actual implementation of the change • Refreezing is stabilizing the organization so the new change can be internalized and maintained until it needs to be changed • Learning organizations are in a continuous cycle of change from freeze to unfreeze to transition to refreezing just as the mountain stream transitions in the fall or spring 10
Same Concept, Different Visual Lewin’s Stages of Change: Current State Unfreeze Transition Freeze 11
Continuous Change… Continuous change is a condition of life in schools… We cannot afford to refreeze and stay frozen! 12
Where is your team (school)? Freeze-Unfreeze-Transition-Refreeze Cycle Confident Charlie Distraught Daryl 13
Low Comfort with High Staff Anxiety Comfort-Discomfort-Comfort Cycle: Staff Anxiety During 2 nd Order Change Optimism with Decision to Change current conditions Persistence Realization of needed change Realization of urgency for change Comfort w/ ongoing change Engagement & Problem Solving Frustrations of implementing the change TIME 14
Where is your team (school)? Comfort-Discomfort-Comfort Cycle Confident Charlie Distraught Daryl 15
2 nd Order Change and Rationalizations Against It • 2 nd Order Change requires a significant departure from the norm and often means a shift in status or power. – Comment: Why change. The way we have always done it works! – Which really means: I don’t want to change that much. And I resent those young teachers with their new ideas. • 2 nd Order Change is a threat to personal values, beliefs, and abilities. – Comment: That will be a lot of work. Why change that much? I just don’t believe it’s the right thing to do. – Which really means: I do not believe most kids can learn even if we make the change. We will never get “those kids” to learn. • 2 nd Order Change is a slow, evolving process over time. – Comment: This takes too much time and I have too many things to do now. Besides, I plan to retire real soon. – Which really means: I don’t want to work that hard at this stage in my career. I am considering retirement, maybe in the next 16 several years.
2 nd Order Change and Rationalizations Against It • 2 nd Order Change addresses complex problems requiring new, thoughtful, and often creative comprehensive solutions. – Comment: This new change may be too hard for all of our faculty to learn how to do. It will fail if we don’t all do it well. – Which really means: Some of us may have trouble doing this. I don’t think I will be able to do it. • 2 nd Order Change supports double-loop and organizational learning which means building a culture of continuous study, problem-solving, implementation, evaluation. – Comment: I don’t understand why we need to become a learning organization. We have always been able to refine what we do and make it work. – Which really means: I am not good at creative thinking and problem solving. I don’t understand organizational learning. I am not really sure I can do higher-order thinking. I never come 17 up with good ideas.
Three Perspectives of Leadership for Continuous Change • Authoritative (Decide then Inform) • Participative (Ask individuals and groups for input. Involve then Decide) • Collaborative (Engage everyone meaningfully. Reach a consensus, make a covenant, develop collective commitment) 18
Authoritative, Participative, or Collaborative? Principal Teacher Authoritative 19
Authoritative: Increase Pressure, Decrease Resistance to Make Change • Increase the force/pressure to make the change By increasing incentives, power, authority, negotiate (transactional) Decrease the forces that create resistance to the change By decreasing fear, anxiety, impediments, negotiate (transactional) • If resistance was low, leaders did not worry about resistance and just increased force/pressure to make change; • If resistance was high, leaders increased force/pressure to make change while trying to decrease resistance to change • Basically…change was MANDATED! 20
Authoritative, Participative, or Collaborative? Teacher Principal Teacher Participative 21
Authoritative, Participative, or Collaborative? Teacher Teacher Principal Teacher Collaborative 22
Where is your team (school)? Authoritative-Participative-Collaborative Confident Charlie Distraught Daryl 23
Traditional Faculty “Discussions” Principal Talks Teachers Listen (sometimes) 24
A Model of Faculty Collaborative Conversations for Change Whole Group Small Groups 25
Collaborative Conversations Change Cycle Collaborative Conversations Collective Commitment Relationships/Trust Collective Success Collective Support Collective Change Collective Efficacy 26
The Significance of Collaborative Conversations Actions Professional Relationships Trust Commitment Efficacy Professional Community Organizational Learning School Change 27
Where is your team (school)? Collaborative Conversations Confident Charlie Distraught Daryl 28
The Design Team (for Change) Provides Leadership • Develop and maintain a teacher-leader team that leads the faculty and champions continuous improvement • If the Team’s Name reflected their tasks, they might be called: – The Design Team – The School Improvement Team – The Think-Tank Team – The Capacity Building Team • Members of the Team should be respected, quality, teacher leaders who care and want to make a difference across the whole school • Painter et al. Engaging Teachers in the School Improvement Process, 1999. 29
The Design Team (for Change) Provides Leadership • The principal should participate as a member of the Team • The Team’s responsibility it to be on the edge of knowledge and needed change and support the development of a culture for change across the school. • The principal (and usually outside support) help guide the work of the team and build capacity of the team to analyze, problem-solve, and design for change • Painter et al. Engaging Teachers in the School Improvement Process, 1999. 30
Where is your team (school)? The Design Team Confident Charlie Distraught Daryl 31
Purposeful Community • A purposeful community is one with the collective efficacy and capability to develop and use assets to accomplish goals that matter to all community members through agreed-upon processes. • Marzano, Waters, Mc. Nulty 2005 32
Staff Capacity Assume that lack of personal and group capacity is the problem…. and work on it continuously. • Fullan, 2005 33
The Big Picture of Meaningful School Change through Transformational and Distributive Leadership • Build Commitment for change through Meaningful Involvement • The Teacher makes the difference…Develop Individuals, Teams, and Whole Faculty (what happens in the classroom makes the difference… what happens outside the classroom enables what happens in the classroom) • Redesign the Organization, Internalize Continuous Change Processes into a Collaborative Culture (Second-Order) 34
Final Thought… Continuous Collaborative Conversations are the centerpiece for secondorder, meaningful, continuous school change! 35
Where is your team (school)? Confident Charlie Distraught Daryl 36
References and Recommended Readings • Berliner, David (2005). Our Impoverished View of Educational Reform. Teachers College Record, August> • Cotton, Kathleen (2003). Principals and Student Achievement: What the Research Says, ASCD. • Danielson, Charlotte (2003). Enhancing Student Achievement: A Framework for School Improvement, ASCD. • Du. Four, Richard, et al. (2004). Whatever It Takes, National Education Service. • Du. Four, Richard, et al. , Eds. (2005). On Common Ground: The Power of Professional Learning Communities, National Education Service. • Fullan, Michael (2003). The Moral Imperative of School Leadership, Ontario Principals Council/Corwin Press. • Fullan, Michael, et al. (2006). Breakthrough, Corwin Press. • Fullan, Michael (2006). Turnaround Leadership, Jossey-Bass. • Hargreaves, A. and Fink, D. (2006). Sustainable Leadership. Jossey. Bass. 37
Recommended Readings • • • Hopkins, David, et al. (1994). School Improvement in an Era of Change, Teachers College Press. Kanter, R. (2004). Confidence: How Winning and Losing Streaks Begin and End. Corwin Press. Lambert, Linda (2003). Leadership Capacity for School Improvement, ASCD. Leithwood, Kenneth et al. Eds. (2000). Organizational Learning in Schools, Swets & Zeitlinger Publishing. Leithwood, Kenneth, et al. (2001). Making Schools Smarter: A System for Monitoring School and District Progress, Corwin Press. Leithwood, Kenneth, et al. , Eds. (2006). Teaching for Deep Understanding: What Every Educator Should Know, Corwin Press. Leithwood, Kenneth. (2005) Teacher Working Conditions that Matter. Toronto: Elementary Teacher Federation of Ontario. Marzano, Robert, et al. (2001). Classroom Instruction that Works: Research Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement, ASCD. Marzano, Robert (2003). What Works in Schools: Translating Research into Action, ASCD. 38
Recommended Readings • Marzano, Robert (2005). School Leadership that Works: From Research to Results ASCD/Mc. REL. • Nye, B. , Konstantopoulos, S. , & Hedges, L. (2004) How Large are the Teacher Effects! Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, #26. • Painter, Bryan, et al. (1999). Engaging Teachers in the School Improvement Process, NASSP/Middle Level Leadership Center, University of Missouri. • Painter, Bryan, et al. (2000). The Use of Teams in the School Improvement Process, NASSP/Middle Level Leadership Center, University of Missouri. • Pheffer, J. & Sutton, R. (2000) The Knowing-Doing Gap, Harvard Business School Press. • Quinn, David, et al. (1999). Using Data for School Improvement, NASSP/Middle Level Leadership Center, University of Missouri. • Reeves, Douglas (2006). The Learning Leader: How to Focus School Improvement for Better Schools, ASCD. • Tschannen-Moran, Megan (2004). Trust Matters: Leadership for 39 Successful Schools, Jossey-Bass.
Recommended Readings • Valentine, Jerry (2001) Frameworks for School Improvement: A Synthesis of Essential Concepts, International Confederation of Principals Recommended Web Reading or Queensland Elementary Journal 2002, or Middle Level Leadership Center, University of Missouri. • Valentine, Jerry, et al. (2004). Leadership for Highly Successful Middle Level Schools, NASSP. • Valentine, Jerry, et al. (2006). Project ASSIST: A Comprehensive, Systemic Change Initiative for Middle Level Schools, Paper presented at American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, San Francisco, April. (Available from author or at Middle Level Leadership Center web site). • Wheatley, Margaret (2005). Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time, San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. • York-Barr, Jennifer, et al. (2006). Reflective Practice to Improve Schools: An Action guide for Educators, Corwin Press. Jerry Valentine, Middle Level Leadership Center, 211 Hill Hall, University of Missouri (573) 882 -0944 Valentine. J@missouri. edu www. MLLC. org 40
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