Professional Development

Relationships Matter: fostering and sustaining resilient teachers

Qing Gu reports on how quality relationships and resilience form the foundations of teacher self-efficacy, growth and sense of fulfillment.

Why relationships are crucial

Malcolm is a Year 9 English teacher with 26 years of experience. Despite all the pressures of working in a highly demanding inner city school he says it was the closeness of the relationships with his colleagues that made him feel that this environment, and his department in particular, was the ‘best place’ that he had every worked:

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      string(365) "asleaders in a particular area. In order for teacher leadership to become embedded, heads willtherefore need to become “leaders of leaders” striving to develop a relationship of trust withstaff, and encouraging leadership and autonomy throughout the school.’12How teacher leaders blossomAs we have considered, many believe that to tackle barriers ..."
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      string(292) "With the demands of their job, it can be easy for senior leaders to forget what it’s like at the chalk face and make decisions that adversely affect life in the classroom. That’s why, says Graham Handscomb, we should be encouraging teachers to take on a leadership role. But how?"
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      string(5523) "asleaders in a particular area. In order for teacher leadership to become embedded, heads willtherefore need to become “leaders of leaders” striving to develop a relationship of trust withstaff, and encouraging leadership and autonomy throughout the school.’12How teacher leaders blossomAs we have considered, many believe that to tackle barriers, headteachers and seniorleaders should make concerted moves to relinquish power so that teacher leadershipcan flourish. However, another perspective is that teacher leadership is something thatbubbles up within a school in an emergent manner.‘Distributed leadership is not something “done” by an individual “to others”,’ claimBennett et al., ‘rather it is an emergent property of a group or network of individuals inwhich group members pool their expertise.’13Underpinning such a process is the need to foster certain values and establish asupportive culture. In particular, it seems that within the context of an educationalenvironment where there is continuing radical change and transformation, developingappropriate attitudes and values related to teacher leadership is critical.48Vol 7.5School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comLeadershipSkillsDistributedleadership In a South African context, Grant found that therewere three prerequisites for teacher leadership:■ a collaborative culture with participatory decision-making and vision sharing■ a set of values which assist to develop thiscollaborative culture; and■ distributed leadership on the part of the principaland formal management teams.14On the first of these, the evidence was clear that aschool that wishes to embrace teacher leadership wouldneed to develop a culture that supports collaboration,partnership, team teaching and collective decision-making. Such a culture of collaboration is seen as acrucial feature of teacher leadership.There are also strong claims that this leads toconsiderable improvement gains: ‘The collaboration andcollegiality fostered through teacher leadership has beenshown to lead to an enhanced capacity for change andimprovement at the school and classroom level.’15Values are also a key ingredient in fostering a cultureof teacher leadership. The key values emerging from theresearch appear to include transparency, trust, respect,a sense of worth, communication, consultation andownership, spiced with perseverance, flexibility andenthusiasm. Courage is also singled out—both in termsof senior leaders ensuring genuine distributed leadershipand of teachers willing to stand out from the crowd:‘Courage was arguably the most common value to bementioned in relation to teacher leadership,’ reveals Grant.‘One teacher said: “A true teacher leader is one who hasthe courage to take the initiative to make this change”.’15Professional learning task: It’s amatter of valuesReflecting on all that you have read and studied above,consider the exercise of teacher leadership in your ownschool or organisation (or one with which you are familiar).What are the values that underpin this? How are thesevalues demonstrated in the daily life of the school? Whichvalues would you prioritise as being essential, not just forencouraging teacher leadership, but also for sustaining it inthe longer term?Graham Handscomb is Editor of our acclaimed sisterpublication, Professional Development Today. He isan Honorary Professor at University College Londonand Managing Director of Graham HandscombManagement Services.Knowledge trails1. How to improve poor teaching without alienating staff – Energising teachers to take the leadin improving teaching and learning across the school is an inclusive, non-confrontational approachto raising low standards. Marcella McCarthy explains.library.teachingtimes.com/articles/how-to-improve-poor-teaching-without-alienating-staffReferences1. Katzenmeyer, M. and Moller, G. (2001) Awakening theSleeping Giant: Helping teachers develop as leaders. 2ndedn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.2. York-Barr, J., and Duke, K. (2004) What do we know aboutteacher leadership? Findings from two decades ofscholarship. Review of Educational Research, vol. 74(3),pp255-316.3. Harris, A. and Muijs, D. (2003) Teacher Leadership:principles and practice. National College for SchoolLeadership [pdf] Available at: dera.ioe.ac.uk/5132/1/download%3Fid%3D17417%26filename%3Dteacher-leadership-principles-practice-full-report.pdf [Accessed9 August 2016].4. Zoe Branigan-Pipe (2012) Teacher Leadership andLearning Program.Available at: youtube.com/watch?v=7Var8vnM8pE [Accessed 9 August 2016].5. Leithwood, K. (2003) Teacher Leadership: Its nature,development and impact on schools and students.In: M. Brundreet, N. Burton, and R. Smith. Leadership inEducation. London: Sage.6. Harris, A. and Muijs, D. (2003) Op. cit.7. ibid.8. Bush, T. (2003) Theories of Educational Leadership andManagement. London: Sage.9. Harris, A. and Muijs, D. (2003) Op. cit.10. Grant, C. (2006) Emerging voices on teacher leadership:Some South African views. Educational ManagementAdministration & Leadership, vol. 34(4), pp511-532.11. Lambert, L. (2003) Leadership Redefined: an evocativecontext for teacher leadership. School Leadership &Management, vol. 23(4), pp.421-430.12. Harris, A. and Muijs, D. (2003) Op. cit.13. Bennett, N., Havey, J.A., Wise, C. and Woods, P.A. (2003)Distributed Leadership: A desk study. National Collegefor School Leadership.14. Grant, C. (2006) Op. cit.15."
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Leadership

Harnessing the power of teacher leaders

4 Oct 2016

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      string(5685) "Hopkins, D., Gu, Q. & Brown, E., with Ahtaridou, E., (2011) Successful School Leadership: Linking withLearning and Achievement. Maidenhead: McGraw Hill Open University Press. ■ Day, C. (2011) Building and Sustaining Successful Principalshipin An English School. In L. Moos, O. ■ Johansson & C. Day (Eds) How School Principals Sustain Success over Time – International Perspectives.Dordrecht: Springer. ■ Day, C. and Gu, Q. (2014) Resilience Teachers, Resilient Schools: Building and Sustaining Quality in Testing Times. London:Routledge. ■ Day, C. & Gurr, D. (Eds) (2014) Leading Schools Successfully: Stories from the field. London: Routledge. ■ Day, C., Sammons, P.,Leithwood, K., Hopkins, D., Gu, Q., Brown, E. with Ahtaridou, E. (2011) School Leadership and Student Outcomes: Building and SustainingSuccess. Maidenhead: Open University Press. ■ Day, C & Leithwood, K (eds) (2007) Successful school principal leadership in times of change:International Perspectives. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. ■ Dewberry, C. and Briner, R. (2007) Report for Worklife Support on the relationbetween well-being and climate in schools and pupil performance. London: Worklife Support ■ Engel, M., Jacob, B. A. and Curran, F. C. (2014)New Evidence on Teacher Labor Supply, American Educational Research Journal, Feb 2014, Vol 51, No. 1, pp. 36-72. ■ Firestone, W. A., Schorr, R.Y. and Monfils, L. F. (Eds) (2004) The Ambiguity of Teaching to the Test: Standards, Assessment and Educational Reform. New Jersey: LawrenceErlbaum Associates Inc. ■ Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and punish: the birth of the prison London: Penguin. ■ Foucault, M. (1986) Language,Counter-Memory, Practice. Selected Essays and Interviews. D. F. Bouchard (Ed) New York: Cornell University Press. ■ Foucault, M. (1997) SelfWriting. In: Rabinow P (ed.). The Essential Works of Foucault 1954-1984, ■ vol.1: Ethics. Harmondsworth: Penguin. ■ Haiyan, Q; Walker, A; andYulian, Z. (2015) Research on Chinese Principals and Their Work. In Arlestig, H; Johansson, O; and Day, C. (Eds) etc forthcoming. ■ Hansen, D.(2005) The Call to Teach. NY: Teachers College Press. ■ Hargreaves, A. and Fullan, M. (2012) Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in EverySchool. London: Routledge. ■ Jiang, M. L; Chen, J. J; and Lv, P. (2010) Xuexiao neihan fazhan zhong de xiaozhang lingdaoli ( Principal leadershipin school improvement-a survey of 331 principals of Pudong District of Shanghai). Quanqui Jiaoyu Zhanwang (Global Education), 39 (8), 78-83.■ Johnson, B., Down, B., Le Cornu, R., Peters, J., Sullivan, A., Pearce, J. and Hunter, J. (2012) Early Career Teachers: Stories of Resilience. Report froman ARC Linkage Project (2008-2012): ‘Addressing the Teacher Exodus: Enhancing Early Career Teacher Resilience and Retention in ChangingTimes’. Adelaide, South Australia: University of South Australia. ■ Leana, C. (2011) The Missing Link in School Reform, Stanford Social InnovationReview, Fall. Leland Stanford Jr. University. http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_missing_link_in_school_reform ■ Leithwood, K., Day,C., Sammons, P., Harris, A. & Hopkins, D. (2006) Seven strong claims about successful school leadership. Nottingham: DfES/NCSL. ■ MacLeod,D. and Clarke, N. (2009) Engaging for Success. Enhancing performance through employee engagement. IPA. ■ Ministry of Education (2001)The curriculum reform guidelines for the nine -year compulsory education (trial version). Retrieved from http://edu.cn/20010926/3002911.shtml ■ Ministry of Education (2011) The professional standards of secondary teachers (trial version). Retrieved hhttp://www.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/s6127/201112/127830.html ■ Ministry of Education (2013) The professional standards of principals ofthe compulsory education stage. Retrieved from http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/s7148/201302/147899.html [inChinese]. ■ Moore Johnson, S. (2007) Finders and Keepers: Helping New Teachers Survive and Thrive in Our Schools. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass. ■ Raaen, D. (2011) Autonomy, Candour and Professional Teacher Practice: A Discussion Inspired by the Later Works of Michel Foucault,Journal of Philosophy of Education, 45 (4): 627-641. ■ Robinson, V, Hohepa, M & Lloyd, C,(2009), School leadership and student outcomes:Identifying what works and why. Iterative best evidence syntheses (BES) programme, Ministry of Education, New Zealand. Available at www.educationcounts.govt.nz/topics/BES ■ Santoro, D.A. (2011). Good Teaching in Difficult Times: Demoralization in the Pursuit of Good WorkAmerican Journal of Education, 118(1), 1-23. ■ Seashore-Louis, K. (2007) Trust and Improvement in Schools, Journal of Educational Change,8: 1-24. ■ Shulman, L. S. (1998) Theory and practice and the education of professionals, The Elementary School Journal, Vol. 98, No. 5, pp. 511-526. ■ Slater, H., Davies, N. and Burgess, S. (2009). Do teachers matter? Measuring the variation in teacher effectiveness in England. Bristol:The Centre for Market and Public Organisation. ■ Stobart, G. (2014) The Expert Learner: Challenging the myth of ability. Maidenhead: OpenUniversity Press. ■ Syed, M. (2010) Bounce: How Champions are Made. London: Fourth Estate. ■ Tschannen-Moran, M. (2004) Trust matters:Leadership for successful schools, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass. ■ Zeichner, K. (2010) Rethinking the Connections Between Campus Coursesand Field Experiences in College and University-based Teacher Education. Educação Revista do"
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Professional Development

School leadership as an influence on teacher quality

14 May 2015

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      string(4678) "48develop resilient schools – the flywheel of change……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………➜How to…■■ Schools at risk – the need for resilience“Collins (2005) draws a contrast between great socialsectors and great businesses. He likens the building ofchange in social sectors to turning a giant heavy flywheel,slowly pushing until at some moment the flywheel fliesforward with almost unstoppable motion. The power ofthe flywheel breeds support which breeds greater success,which breeds more support”. Orcutt, 2008, pages 2-3).Much that has been researched and written regardingresilience in schools reflects this image of the buildingof pressure for change and a tipping point that whichbrings with it a momentum of support and success.Allison (2011/2012, pages 79-80)) outlines five “signalsthat indicate that a school’s resilience is at risk”:Top leaders stop learningPeople blame everything on the budget■■Leaders ignore critical indicatorsToo many initiatives drain peopleSuccess goes uncelebratedThere is widespread realisation that schools are verypressurised environments, with the potential to generatedamaging levels of stress. Consequently a great deal ofattention has been given to the capacity for schools,teachers and leaders to develop resilience: “…withineducation, there is an increasing recognition that thenature of teaching and learning and the contexts inwhich this takes place demands what we might call‘everyday resilience’; that the capacity to be resilient isan important factor in teaching and teacher effectivenessover time; and that resilience can be developed.” (Day,Edwards, Griffiths & Gu, 2011). By implication, theabsence of such resilience is seen as critical.■■■How to… develop resilientschools – the flywheel ofchangeAbsence of resilience at the most senior levels of leadership in schools can present itselfas deterioration in the general functioning of the school and can be evidenced in a varietyof areas. These include loss of direction in terms of funding and budgeting; curriculumdevelopments; teaching and learning strategies; control of discipline; staff-pupil relationshipsand school- community relationships”(Birkbeck, 2011, page 14)Professional learning task: Absence of resilienceRead the full account of Allison’s five risks (2011/2012) to resilience by clicking on the link at the endof the paragraph, and the Birkbeck extract which follows. Comment on these and your perspectiveof factors which put school resilience at risk and the consequences that lead from this. What wouldyou say are the top three risks and the effects they potentially have on school life?Allison (2011/2012) The Resilient Leader can be accessed at:http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec11/vol69/num04/The-Resilient-Leader.aspx■■ Extracthttp://www.ascd.orhttp://www.ascd.or49developresilient schools – the flywheel of change……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………➜ How to…■■ Growing school resilienceSo there is a good deal of evidence that resilience is a vital ingredient in successful schools. However, it is clearthat resilience capability varies between different teachers and school contexts: “… although some teachers sufferstress and burnout as a result of the demands of the job, others do not and … therefore context counts. It seemsthat some school environments are better than others at fostering a capacity to deal with the challenges of teaching(Day & Gu, 2010). It became equally clear that rather than continue to focus on stress, a more productive approachwould be to focus upon resilience.” (Day, Edwards, Griffiths & Gu, 2011).Schools are stressful, pressurised places and teachers can respond positively or negatively in the presence ofchallenging circumstances (Day, 2013). What can make the difference is the quality of individual and organisationalleadership: “If"
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Professional Development

How to... develop resilient schools – the flywheel of change

21 May 2013

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      string(326) "... of what works in the classroom. Over the lifetime of the project 27 schools have worked togetherwith LCLL colleagues to develop a group of lead teachers or kochis who can offer expertise to all schools in thenetwork. Lead teachers source material for kyozai kenkyu, visit other schools to lead lesson ..."
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      string(5695) "order to achieve the aims they have set out for their casestudents. The nine areas are:1) Consideration to pupil voice, i.e., engaging pupils in decisions about the teachingand learning process and responding to their feedback2) Understanding of the pedagogical process, i.e., understanding the link betweensubject-matter knowledge, teaching processes and knowledge (and beliefs) aboutchildren and their development3) Clear thinking about longer term learning outcomes as well as short-term goals,i.e. understanding how individual lessons fit to a longer-term sequence of learningoutcomes4) Building on pupils’ prior learning and experience, i.e., leading learning fromthe pupils’ current developmental level to a higher level of potentialdevelopment5) Scaffolding pupils learning, i.e., supporting developmental changes in learners,including social and emotional support and fostering motivation6) Using a range of techniques, including whole-class and structured group work,guided learning and individual activity, i.e, planning, organising and implementinga range of effective teaching approaches to advance pupil learning?7) Developing higher order thinking and meta-cognition, i.e. making good use ofdialogue and questioning in order to advance students’ understanding of theirlearning processes8) Embedding assessment for learning, i.e. using student achievement to inform nextsteps in instruction and helping students to be self-regulating and working to theirown goals rather than by comparing to others9) Inclusivity, i.e. taking into account the needs of a diverse range of students;encouraging all students to achieve equally highly; and avoiding crude categoriesand stereotypesMobilising knowledge: beyond the lesson study groupAs identified in Figure 1 above, key to the success of lesson study is the spread oflearning across research groups, either through observing other groups’ researchlessons or through the publication and sharing of group findings. In Japan, theoutcome of most schools’ lesson study projects are published and made available toneighbouring schools for free or sold in local bookstores. Teachers can purchase lessonstudy reports that relate to and may enhance their own research project, ensuring theyare not ‘reinventing the wheel’.Many lesson study reportspublished by Japanese teachersand schools can be found at majorbook stores in Japan. (Photo: MakotoYoshida) schools we support to buildin time at the end of the year forthe research groups to share theirfindings will all staff.All research lessons in Japaneseschools are watched by all schoolstaff (including the school nurse andadministrative staff!) and they also allobserve the post-lesson discussions.In addition, at the end of a two orthree year research project, a schoolmay open its research lessons to theentire district, ensuring that lessonsabout great teaching and learning are58Vol 7.5School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comProfessionalDevelopmentLessonstudy shared with all teachers in the district. In several of our lesson study projects, we haveworked towards ‘open house’ research lessons (see case study below).The kochi also plays a key role in enabling knowledge mobilisation across schools.Chokshi and Fernandez (2004) describe how Japanese lesson study groups operatewithin networks supported by one kochi, so that they can share findings and poolprofessional knowledge. Our lesson study experts have been able to share learningacross the many lesson study networks they have supported in terms of teaching andlearning, as well as the successful implementation of lesson study. We have also workedto develop teachers as kochis for their own school networks (as in the case studybelow), to build capacity for the mobilisation of knowledge.Case study: Connecting Knowledge, Rosendale SchoolThis three year project funded by the London Schools Excellence Fund sought to develop a network of schoolscommitted to lesson study as a model for professional learning and to thereby extend and deepen teachers’understanding of what works in the classroom. Over the lifetime of the project 27 schools have worked togetherwith LCLL colleagues to develop a group of lead teachers or kochis who can offer expertise to all schools in thenetwork. Lead teachers source material for kyozai kenkyu, visit other schools to lead lesson study, and periodicallyfacilitate ‘open house’ research lessons which visitors from participating schools can attend. The project has builtcapacity for a continuation of lesson study beyond the duration of the funding and built a team of kochis who arecommitted to sustaining the project both within their schools and across the network.Planning for impactSchool leaders considering experimenting with lesson study and/or evaluating andmaximising the impact of existing lesson study projects may wish to consider thebelow questions:1. To what extent has your school invested in a long term approach to professionallearning and does your proposed cost-impact analysis for lesson study take thisinto account?2. How can your impact analysis support teachers to focus less on the short termquantitative analysis of pupil assessment data and more on the longer termqualitative analysis of pupil learning?3. Can a process be put in place to gather long term evidence of impact on pupillearning?4. How can you enable teachers’ voices to shape the school’s professional59Vol 7.5School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comProfessionalDevelopmentLessonstudyReferences1) Chokshi, S. and Fernandez, C. (2004). Challenges to importing Japanese"
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Leadership

SLT 7.6 Lesson study: making and measuring impact

13 Mar 2017

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