When I Reflect About My Collegial, Professional Learning Community

Researchers and experts in educational leadership argue that collaboration and partnership between unions and school systems are necessary pre-conditions for creating a trusting collaborative learning culture in schools and districts. For example, in Leithwood’s (2006) study of teachers’ working conditions, he points out that “teachers’ internal states and their classroom performance contribute much more positively to student learning when there is a consistent, largely uncontested sense of direction for change in the province.” Michael Fullan (2010) in All Systems Go extends this argument, suggesting that “there is no way to make whole-system reform work without the entire teaching profession and its leaders working together for the collective good.” The writings of these and others open doors to greater collaborative efforts between school systems and teachers’ unions both to improve working conditions for teachers and to build teacher satisfaction and morale, and in turn, positively impact teaching, learning and student achievement.

Why does it take so long to establish a PLC? Kruse and Louis (2009) suggest that trust is a key element of organizational culture that is often taken for granted, and routinely overlooked. High trust, they assert, is associated with improved performance on a variety of measures such as student achievement and parent engagement. Low trust is associated with stress and anxiety.

Kruse and Louis note that:

• Even where there are pockets of high trust among like-minded teachers in a school, there may be weak relational trust within the larger organization.

• Relationships between teachers and administrators may be less trusting than those among teachers, with the result that teachers may look cynically at an administrator-initiated change.

• Change itself decreases trust because it alters and disrupts the norms and functions within the organization.

Trust, then, is required for the development of effective collaborative learning cultures, and a factor that must be considered. Although leaders can’t be solely responsible for creating a trusting culture in the school or district, their words and actions set the tone and lay the foundation.

The goal I have for using this collegial experience to enhance my advocacy, policy, and/or system development work on behalf of young children, families, and the early childhood community is to apply the skills I’ve gained and developed in this course to my work.

Reference:

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/leadership/ideasintoactionspring.pdf