RSA#2 Creative leadership: a challenge of our times

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RSA#2 Creative leadership: a challenge of our times

To be a successful PLC, leadership is essential.  The leadership needed, according to Dufour and DuFour, Eaker, and Many (2010), has to “understand that deep reform will require support and pressure” (p. 253).  To gain support, one must realize that leadership is not a solo act.  Widespread leadership is essential for it fosters active involvement and the support of many.   The active involvement allows educators to feel confident to try new ideas and if it fails, they can learn from it rather than feel penalized.  Pressure is also used because leadership must be “flexible on implementation and firm on the essence of the initiative” (p. 256).  One must be receptive to ideas and variations, yet keep the group focused on the goal of increased student learning. A way to keep the group focused is through creative leadership.

Stoll and Temperley state “creative leadership is an imaginative and thought-through response to opportunities and to challenging issues that inhibit learning at all levels.” This allows for “culture and structures, including resources, to help open up possibilities for thinking about things in different ways” (p. 2). This culture of growth is obtained through risk taking, empowerment, confidence, and a sense of urgency.  Risk taking involves a fear of failure.  Failure should not be feared but embraced for it can be learned from.  The resulting lack of fear increases confidence and leads to empowerment and the generation of new ideas and processes.  In turn, this creates more active involvement and “widespread leadership.”

            A PLC is only as good as its leadership.  Without creative leadership, battle lines are drawn and nothing gets accomplished. Creative leadership is needed in all schools for there is a sense of urgency to get the education system to a level where learning can take place for all students.  To accomplish this goal, the educator must learn as well.  The best way to do this is to “learn by doing” (p.266).  Teachers need to take a proactive role and not wait to be asked or assume someone else will do what is needed.  Take the necessary steps and become a creative leader at their level: classroom teacher, grade level team leader, or department head.

References

Dufour, D., Dufour, R, Eaker, R., & Many, T. (2010). Learning by doing: A handbook for professional learning communities at work. (2^nd ed.). Bloomington: Solution Tree Press.

Stoll, L., Temperley, J. (2009). Creative leadership: A challenge of our times. School Leadership & Management, 29 (1), 65-78. doi: 10.1080/13632430802646404

RSA#1: A PLC and Changing School Culture: Using Documentation to Support Collaborative Inquiry

RSA#1: A PLC and Changing School Culture: Using Documentation to Support Collaborative Inquiry

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            A PLC has one purpose: increase student learning by improving educator performance.  There are different arguments on how to achieve this common goal.  One way is for educators to collaborate, and in the book Learning By Doing, Richard and Rebecca Dufour, Robert Eaker, and Thomas Many (2010), stated “the fact that teachers collaborate will do nothing to improve a school (p.119).  The group must be focused on goals they may work as a team and not as a group.  Educators must “work interdependently to achieve a common goal for which members are mutually accountable [or] they are not a team” (p. 153).   The article chosen helps support that collaboration is good and to how make it work.

                The article discusses the use of collaboration to improve student learning by providing guidance to educators through documentation.  According to Heidi Given, Lisa Kuh, Debbie LeeKeenan, Ben Mardell, Susan Redditt, and Susan Twombly (2010), “teachers who engage in collaborative inquiry often struggle with questions about how to define their work, share power, and validate their process.” (p. 2).  The article explains through examples of organized collaboration the use of documentation fixes this problem. In addition to providing the examples it also addresses the “tensions and shifts teachers experience in collaborative work” (p. 3).

            The concept of a PLC has been around for a long time, yet for many schools the implementation seems to be an issue.  Learning By Doing and Changing School Culture helps explain how to deal with the issues and tensions that arise from collaborative processes.  In order to create an environment conducive to learning and to achieve a shared mission and vision, “a collective purpose . . . cannot be accomplished by working alone” (p.139) An organized collaborative system with well defined goals is not an end but a beginning.

Work Cited

Dufour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Many T. (2010). Learning By Doing (2^nd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Given, H., Kuh, L., LeeKeenan, D.,  Mardell, B.,  Redditt, S., &  Twombly, S. (2010). Changing School Culture: Using Documentation to Support Collaborative Inquiry. Theory Into Practice, Vol. 49 Issue 1, 36-46.  DOI: 10.1080/00405840903435733