Week 26: Current issues in my professional context

I have worked in my current position for the last five and a half years and over this time I have seen a substantial change in the culture of our organisation.  My values as a teacher have always been guided by a desire to provide the best possible education for all children in partnership with their parents and families (Werner Andrews, 2015).  To do this I believe in critically reflecting on my work and engaging in ongoing professional learning to ensure that my practices have a strong base in current research and theory.  When I first joined the team of managers responsible for ensuring the quality of teaching and learning in our 70 kindergartens and early childhood centres is of a high level I was surprised to find a wide range in the quality of education being provided.  In an organisation where teachers get substantial professional time during the term and in the term breaks I had expected to find innovative teaching and a culture of continual improvement.  What I found was, although some sites were providing a high quality of education, many were quite average.  A culture of 'that's how we've always done things' prevailed.  Changes in management and the make-up of the team I worked in facilitated what Stoll (2000) refers to as reculturing.  As a team we recognised that we needed to work closely with teaching teams to provide the professional learning specific to the needs of each team and to work alongside the teachers as they put their new learning into practice.  By reducing the number of teams each manager worked with we were able to work on building trusting relationships with the teachers (Brown III, 2015).  We have also supported the development of groups of head teachers and teachers from across the organisation to work together and support each other. This has facilitated the development of collaboration, problem-solving and partnerships across the organisation - strategies for innovation promoted by Hargreaves(1994) (cited in Stoll, 2000). We developed a set of quality indicators that clearly showed the level of teaching and learning that was expected in our organisation.  At the same time as we were doing this the Chief Executive led a project to develop a set of values for the organisation.  After gathering data in a employee engagement survey which showed a high level of engagement in and loyalty to the organisation groups of teachers were asked to put forward what they saw as the values that should underpin our work.  From these values further consultation happened with the management and administration staff.  The result of this project was the development of the following values;

These values now inform the teaching and decision making across the organisation and accomplishment in them is celebrated each year at the AGM.

Current issues in our organisation;

While schools have been implementing national standards and dealing with the challenges that testing and reporting bring, in early childhood education we have been increasingly aware of the trickle down effect this is having.  Parents have always been concerned about their children being 'ready for school' and as the pressure goes on to be achieving national standards in the first year of school they are becoming more and more concerned about how a free play curriculum prepares their child to succeed.  To address these concerns we are working to ensure the early literacy and mathematics learning that is happening is highlighted in children's assessments.  We are also working more closely with schools to ensure that children's transitions are smooth and support the continuity of learning.  Many schools are now teaching in the new entrants classes in ways that more closely reflect the team teaching that happens in early childhood.  They are also establishing learning environments that look very similar to those of early childhood centres.  One of the kindergartens I work with is participating in a teacher swap for one afternoon every second week.  Both the primary and early childhood teachers are gaining greater insight into the curriculum in each area as well as gaining a greater depth of knowledge of and continuity for the children.

If we teach today as we taught yesterday, then we rob our children of tomorrow. (Dewey, 1916)

References:

Brown III, G.  (2015)  Strong one, lasting one: an elementary school principal's ability to establish a positive culture by building trust.  Journal of cases in educational leadership, 13(4), 309-316.

Stoll (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London. 

Werner Andrews, S.  (2015)  Parents as partners: creating a culture of collaboration and respect with parents.  The NAMTA Journal, 40:1, 129-137.