Colleagial conversations

Last year I led the IB workshop Leading and Managing Teams.  In this workshop we explored professional inquiry and team learning, and considered how sustaining and growing teams requires leadership that takes account of the needs of the learning community.  We also learnt about how a dialogic team engages in discussion about pedagogy within and outside their own school.  I kept these ideas in mind as I read through Chapter 1 of Anne and Fiona's book Finding our way: Developing a shared pedagogy.  This chapter is all about discovering the power of true collaboration and how leadership "emerges between people, not above them".  Over and over the message that strong teams depend on shared values, trust, respect and mutual accountability is central to this chapter.  The role of the leader is to bring focus to this team, and to cultivate curiosity and deep listening that will ultimately result in a shared pedagogical vision:  the purpose, values and principles that guide the teaching and learning within a school community.  This vision is the team's commitment to how they see children, their beliefs about the role of educators and the education they will create together through a collective responsibility for children's learning and well-being.

The importance of dialogue

Anyone who has done a workshop with me will know that I often talk about the difference between discussion and true dialogue.  Anne and Fiona point out that dialogue welcomes the diversity of perspectives as team members listen and earn from each other.  This means that collaboration doesn't happen by chance but instead emerges from a deliberate and sustained effort to cultivate trust, to nurture relationships and to foster a shared sense of purpose.  It is the role of the leader to create the space for this dialogue which honours individual and at the same time guides to team towards a deeper connection, a collective vision and a" shared responsibility for children's flourishing".  It is not the role of a leader to come up with a predetermined path with little space for teachers to think critically - otherwise teachers will just be passive implementers, will lack ownership and motivation and may feel a disconnection with the purpose of their work.  The goal of leadership is to "foster a culture of exploration in which educators navigate uncertainty with confidence, curiosity, and trust in one another".

Collaboration - the heart of leadership

It's quite a shift for a leader to decide to lead through collaboration rather than through control.  A courageous leader recognises that rich and lasting changes don't emerge from compliance, but instead from dialogue, inquiry and shared purpose.  It requires leaders to make space for uncertainty, difference and co-construction, a space where difficult questions can be raised, diverse experiences honoured and new understandings can emerge.  In this approach the leader is the "curator for collective thinking" who creates the conditions for dialogue and reflective practice.  In this context, educators feel hopeful, empowered to take risks and confident in sharing their insights.  Chapter 1 therefore lists a number of leadership roles:

• Fostering a culture of collaboration through regular team meetings where joint decisions are made about curriculum
• Developing a system of support and ensuring schedules, funding and infrastructure align with the team's pedagogical goals, including time for collaboration and investing in professional learning
• Clarifying vision and values, defining shared beliefs and using these as a reference point in decision-making
• Honouring perspectives and leveraging individual strengths
• Encouraging reflective practices
• Facilitating thoughtful dialogue by ensuring many perspectives are explored and common understandings are developed
• Modelling inquiry and curiosity, for example through the use of open-ended questions
• Creating space for experimentation where teachers can try new approaches, take risks and learn from both successes and challeges
• Ensuring alignment between children's rights and responsibilities, for example including children in classroom agreements
• Supporting documentation and storytelling about the children's learning process
• Building partnerships with families and communities
• Providing ongoing professional learning opportunities, which can include reading, conferences, visits and workshops.

How do leaders build a shared purpose?

Finding our way includes a number of different tools in each chapter that leaders can use with their teachers.  One of the first ones in building a shared purpose is to discuss values.  In almost every IB workshop I lead, I start the first session asking questions about values, as these are important to the learning that will take place.  We need to ask the why questions, not just discuss what and how we teach.  Therefore it's important for educators to consider what they care about and how these values are visible within their classrooms.  A good leader will have teachers explore their own experiences, passions, values, skills and talents and then will bring these together to see how each person's strengths contribute to the group's identify and capabilities.  Through listening to the voices of others on the team, teachers are given the opportunity to construct new knowledge and understandings about themselves.  Ultimately this can help them develop a sense of collective identity and belonging.  

The importance of inquiry in challenging assumptions and practices

In PYP schools we often talk about student inquiry, but it's also important that teachers are inquirers as well.  Just like the children, teachers need to ask questions, explore diverse viewpoints, challenge assumptions and construct new knowledge together.  Listening to others in the learning community also ensures that pedagogical practices reflect the identities, needs and stories of the community.

One important role of a leader in building a shared understanding is to ask teachers to examine their habitual practices such as classroom routines, and whether these reflect their values.  A good example of this that I've seen in several schools is deciding to do away with a reward system such as stickers and certificates for Learner profile attributes, as teachers decide to move away from extrinsic motivators towards more intrinsic motivation and responsibility.  Beliefs and values are made visible through the teachers' actions.  Decisions about "how space is used, how materials are chosen and how relationships are nurtured are often shaped by assumptions about how children grow, engage and make sense of the world.  Surfacing these beliefs provides a powerful stimulus for meaningful dialogue and insight, enabling teams to chart a more intentional and coherent path forward".

How teams construct pedagogy

We considered how teachers co-construct knowledge with children, in the same way pedagogical leaders need to mirror these pedagogical values and engage with teachers to foster a culture of ongoing learning where they build new understandings together.   Professional growth emerges through professional learning, dialogic inquiry, relationships and shared experiences.  And at times this can be uncomfortable!  For example when teachers believe in co-planning the curriculum with their students, this shifts teachers away from being the holders of knowledge and the deliverers of the curriculum.  Our roles and professional identities has changed to being thinkers, researchers and collaborators.

In IB schools we always talk about what we do as being values-driven.  Our experiences in these school and practices in our classrooms shape these values and what our community believes about children, learning and the role of education.  However in many schools that I visit there is also another agenda - one that is linked with standardised testing - which may get in the way of our own agency and autonomy.  In particular, in schools driven by a national curriculum, it is often politics that dictate what, when and how we should teach, and at times this may go against our own professional judgement and knowledge of child development.  School inspectors often prioritise knowledge and skills - which can be measured, and place little value on creativity, curiosity, social-emotional development and so on.  And the impact on teachers is bigger workloads, more documentation and accountability, and poorer teacher well-being as there is a lack of trust in their expertise.

One call in Finding our way is for time - time for children to wonder, express themselves, connect with others and to grow their own identity.  Later in the book there is a whole chapter about time (which might be the next one I read).  Sadly in almost every school I visit, time is always in short supply.  

Each chapter in Finding our way ends with lenses for leaders and talking points for teams.  It also contains a toolkit that leaders can use as part of their continuing professional development of teachers - in this chapter the focus being on building teams.  Here there are seven different tools:

• From me to we
• Reflections and stories that define us
• Seeking clarity - responding to ideas
• Mapping shifting perspectives over time
• Examining taking-for-granted practices
• Connecting beliefs to practices
• Values, actions, barriers and supports

More thoughts coming once I have read another chapter.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay