Improving Relationships Within the Schoolhouse

Roland S. BarthMarch 2006, Vol. 63, Number 6

Pages 8-13Educational Leadership

Synthesized by Bobbie W. Pfingstler, Ed.D., Supervisor of Curriculum and InstructionCentral Intermediate Unit # 10

Relationships among the adults Trusting, generous, helpful, and cooperative

among administrators and teachers = trusting, generous, helpful, and cooperative between teachers and students

Trusting, generous, helpful, and cooperative staff = trusting, generous, helpful, and cooperative relationships between students and students;

Therefore, trusting, generous helpful, and cooperative relationships between teachers and parents.

Greatest Influence on Student Achievement

Set Good Examples

Fearful relationships among administrators and teachers

Competitive, suspicious, and corrosive relationships among administrators and teachers

These qualities disseminate throughout the school community.

Least Influence on Student Achievement

Relationships in a School Culture enrich or diminish

School Culture

Leadership of the principal Issues of race Underperforming teachers Personal visions for a good school Nature of relationships among the adults

within the school

Roland Barth’s Non-discussables(Just discussed in the parking lot, during the car pool, at the dinner

table)

When non-discussables take extraordinary power over us

When non-discussables litter the schoolhouse floor.

When non-discussables lurk like land mines When non-discussables trip wires emanate

from each.

What Paralyzes School Improvement?

The talk

Adversarial Relationships Parallel Play Congenial Relationships Collegial Relationships

Relationships in Schools

2- and 3-year olds – busily engaged, but seldom interacting

Live in separate caves. Self-contained classroom – door shut Cost of concealing – don’t learn to examine

and improve our practices from our colleagues.

Parallel Play

“We educators have drawn our wagons into a circle and trained our guns – on each other.”

7th grade algebra teachers lobs a metaphorical hand grenade, saying to parents, “You don’t want your child in that classroom. All they do is fool around with blocks.”

“You don’t want your child in that classroom; it’s a grim, joyless place with desks in rows and endless worksheets.”

Educators withhold craft knowledge: child development, professional development, leadership, and curriculum. (Ex. Lack of courage, generosity to share, retired teachers and principals)

Too often educators root for the failure of their peers rather than assist with their successes.

Adversarial Relationships

Interactive and positive Pouring coffee for colleague. Principal gives a teacher a ride home. Personal and friendly

Congenial Relationships

Collegiality Hardest to establish “Getting good players is easy. Getting them to play

together is the hard part.” Casey Stengel Collegiality is about growing a professional learning

community. Educators talking with one another about

practice. Educators sharing their craft knowledge. Educators observing one another while they

are engaged in practice. Educators rooting for one another’s success.

Collegial Relationships

Adults in a Congenial/Collegial School

Other School

Congenial Parallel Play

Collegial Adversarial Relationships

Education-related conversation in faculty room.

No students in faculty room

Continual discourse about student evaluation, parent involvement, curriculum development, and team teaching.

No talking teaching in faculty room

Educator Talk

Typical meeting begins with a participant or two sharing a front-burner issue about which they have recently learned as important or useful.

New teacher explains how students were evaluated in a previous workplace.

Parent shares at a PTA meeting an idea about helping children with homework.

Principal shares with other principals a new policy about assigning students to classes.

Educators no longer feel pretentious or in violation of a taboo by sharing their insights.

Educators Share Craft Knowledge

Hold each faculty meeting in the classroom of a different teacher. Show and tell reading area, science corner, and student projects on weather. Each teacher hosts the meeting. Anxiety gets reduced.

•Move to peer observations:•You visit me this week; I visit you next.•What we see and say will be kept confidential.•Decide prior to visit the purpose.•Agree on day, time, and length of the visit.•Have a conversation afterward to discuss observations and share our learning.

Principal dangles a carrot and sticks:

Time: “I’ll cover for you or get a sub.”Administrative fiat: “Before March 31, I expect each of you to observe for one half-day in the classroom of each teacher to whom you might be sending students next year.” Social Pressure: A chart on the wall of the faculty room noted who had and hadn’t yet observed.

Principal observes other principal during faculty meetings. “You can lead where you will go.”

Observing One Another

Do Something!

Offer to help difficult students. To take a youngster or two into their classrooms.

•Let teacher observe them handling same students. •Meet after school and reflect on the day.•Share manipulative curriculum materials capable of engaging students with their short attention spans.

Teachers take on burning issues:•Integrating language arts and social studies•Multi-age grouping•Colleagues put relevant articles into your mailbox. •Share effective practices from other schools in which they have worked.

Everyone on the faculty periodically assess how things are going and what they can do to help.

Rooting for One Another

Has to make relationships among adults a discussable.

Be the minesweeper, disarming those landmines.

Foster collegiality: •State expectations explicitly. For instance, “I expect all of us to work together this year, share our craft knowledge, and help one another in whatever ways we can.”•Model collegiality: Visibly join in cheering on others or have another principal observe a faculty meeting.•Reward those who behave as colleagues: Grant release time, recognition, space, materials, and funds to those who collaborate.•Protect those who engage in these collegial behaviors. “I observed something in Janet’s classroom last week that blew my socks off, and I’ve asked her to share it with us.” (Leaders should run interference for other educators.)

What School Leaders Can Do

Empowerment Recognition Satisfaction

Success in our work

Masterful teacher, principal, or student – active participants!

A Group of Colleagues