Mock Mediation

I participated in a mock mediation that simulated a conflict between two faculty members.  I found the mediation framework to be a useful tool.  Often as a teacher I find myself in a position to mediate conflict between students, and having a set structure to regulate the process would save time and increase accountability to decisions made.  Based on the mock experience, I believe the structured format also decreases the tendency of a more aggressive party to attempt to dominate the conversation.  I found myself considering the next steps of this process, i.e. the follow-up with teachers and the method of archiving and tracking such documentation. 

My primary realization during the mock mediation process was that it is impossible to duplicate the environment of a true mediation.  This mock event was patterned after an actual conflict from my campus experiences of the past, and I know that the emotional component of the conflict was significant.  What I feel this experience did not prepare me for is the de-escalation of hostility at the outset of the mediation.  When personal feelings of pride, embarrassment, degradation, or devaluation stem from a conflict, it both raises the stakes and magnifies the challenges of finding an equitable solution that repairs an effective collegial relationship.  I do believe that working to build empathy for an opposing perspective through the use of  “I statements” and role reversal create a foundation for finding those areas of consensus and problem-solving.  

A school environment is one rife for conflict:  the various wants and perspectives of such a broad base of stakeholders almost ensure that not all waters will flow calmly.  I agree that prevention is vital, through the establishment of clear goals, expectations, and group norms.  However, this will not ensure that no conflict will arise.  I have seen first-hand in my career how an administrator’s intervention in conflict can affect the overall culture of a school:  the importance of effective mediation of conflict cannot be overstated.  This structure, which calls for direct dialogue, active listening to opposing parties, and a functional plan for resolution, creates a culture of collaboration over conflict, a standard that any administrator would do well to follow.

Thinking Like a Leader

I had the privilege of participating in the study group discussion about administrative decision-making and problem-solving skills.  Not only did the discussion present excellent insights, I think that the simple occurrence of the discussion reveals a vital component of administrative skill set development:  the ability and desire to collaborate.  Last week the lecture discussed some paradigm shifts that must occur in 21^st century principals, and one of those shifts called for a recognition of staff as colleagues.  In doing this, an administrator has now created a pool of knowledge, experience, and perspectives to utilize in their decision-making process.  Then, the principal must have the strength of conviction and the personal integrity to take all of that information and move forward with confidence.  Because, while many can be part of the decision-making process, in the final analysis the administrator stands as the face of accountability for those decisions.  Our study group shares, discusses, argues, and supports; then, in the end, we each put forth our own product and stand behind it.

So the question then becomes, “Is it nature or nurture?”  As many have stated eloquently before me, the ability to make effective decisions and solve complex problems requires both an innate skill set and an adequate body of experiences.  I have been a teacher for about 15 years, and during that time I have seen great teachers become outstanding administrators, I have seen great teachers die on the vine at the administrative level, and I have seen good, but not stand-out, teachers become truly exceptional administrators.  What were those great teachers lacking that kept them from excelling at the next level?   To my mind, this is where experience takes the fore in determining success.  A study group colleague mentioned in her discussion board post that administrators emerging from only a short tenure in the classroom must “learn everything on the fly”:  this sharply steeper learning curve can prove costly for a young administrator, as their choices have abruptly become much more high-profile and weighty.   In the same vein, a classroom teacher who spent years in growth and development in the classroom comes to administration with a true sense of how to work through a problem in order to find solutions.

I have what I hope is a healthy respect for the consequences of decisions.  In my post regarding ethics, I discussed the need for transparency, accountability, and trust in making ethical decisions.  Using this frame of reference, I consider myself a strong, ethical decision-maker.  I am constantly humbled by the vast amount of knowledge and experience that surrounds me on my campus, and I call on those resources as I make professional decisions.  I believe that my colleagues would consider me a person of significant knowledge and experience in my own right, and that they would tout my communication skills with all manner of stakeholders in all manner of situations.  I have a strong sense of conviction, and this gives me the ability to make a final decision and stand accountable to it.   This conviction might, in fact, also reveal my greatest challenge to decision-making:  the sense of meta-cognition that is required to assess to results of decisions and adjust them if necessary.  I tend to make a decision and move on; the spirit of ‘Continuous Improvement’ is one where I am still working to hone my skill.

Cultural Proficiency

The following continuum is drawn from an article entitled, “Cultural Proficiency: Tools for Secondary School Administrators” (Nuri-Robbins, Lindsey, Terrell, & Lindsey, 2007) :

Cultural                                   Cultural                                          Cultural        

Destructiveness                      Blindness                                    Competence

  Cultural                                Cultural                                          Cultural

Incapacity                         Precompetence                                 Proficiency

Public school can be an absolute hotbed of intolerance and cultural dissonance in the absence of strong, culturally proficient leadership.  A campus and its students can be buffeted between the strongly-held beliefs of various stakeholder groups, and much too often the public school environment falls prey to the most virulent intolerances in our society.   It seems many initial efforts to acknowledge and understand diversity are marked by inappropriate overtures.  From America’s early attempts at racial integration of schools through busing to my own awkward first implementation of differentiation for mainstreamed students, part of the learning curve involves making mistakes.  We over-compensate for the slights and discriminations of the past, and in doing so we create new ones.  A teacher with the best of intentions for providing a differentiated classroom can alienate both LEP learners through too overt accommodations and content mastery, and gifted learners through a disproportionate amount of project-based and independent study.  Here no child’s academic needs are served while maintaining both her dignity and her role in the whole classroom.  My experiences in vibrant, culturally diverse campuses throughout my career have given me a real-time education in the value of embracing cultural differences, and the real risk in ignoring them.  I do believe that while entire districts can and should have policies in place to facilitate cultural proficiency, the bulk of the responsibility to this charge falls at the campus level.  Each campus has a unique set of needs and opportunities, and it is necessary for a campus administrator to assess those and implement activities and communication that will speak to her campus’ specific profile.  I struggle with my own embedded cultural mores, and I know that part of my work as an administrator would involve retooling the way I think about creating opportunities for a campus to begin dialogue about those barriers. 

I currently work in a school environment which I believe is, on the whole, at the cultural competence stage of the continuum.  We recognize the benefit in giving value to our diversity, and we look for ways that we can accomplish this.  Our weakness is that our action tends to happen in fits and starts.  We have an International Night on our campus, where many of the cultures of our campus community are given an opportunity to share information and connect with the larger community.  However, we are at times lax in taking this opportunity to continue the lessons of the moment in our classrooms and using it to springboard instruction.  We also find that, with the overwhelming pressures of district and state assessment, creating opportunities to add these cultural components to instruction does not receive all of the attention it deserves.  We have engaged in some pieces of professional development, for example Ruby Payne coursework and sessions on developing home/school relationships; yet, these opportunities have not truly turned into school-wide initiatives, acting rather as ‘consciousness-raising’ activities with inadequate follow-through.  Cultural proficiency is the gold standard for which we all strive in our classrooms and on our campus, and I think that my school does much to work proactively toward this goal in all areas.  Accepting and celebrating diversity in all of its forms is a basic tenet of our campus improvement plan, and the professional development opportunities and campus activities that I have mentioned previously are results of that focus.  I believe this goal can never be achieved completely, because there is always more to learn about others, and there are always opportunities to learn and grow as a campus and as a community.

Nuri-Robbins, K., Lindsey, D. B., Terrell, R. D., & Lindsey, R. B. (2007, September). Cultural proficiency: tools for secondary school administrators. National Association of Secondary School Principals: NASSP Principal Leadership , 8 (1), pp. 16-22.

Ethics in the Schoolhouse

     In education, we often speak of ethics in the profession.  The very word can create a charged atmosphere among teachers and administrators.  Where can we begin to frame the conversation?  I view the concept of ethics as a function of three core conditions: transparency, accountability, and trust.  When discerning the ethical ramifications of an action, we ask ourselves, “Am I comfortable with any and all persons involved having complete knowledge of my action and its consequences?”  We evaluate the decisions we make through the lens of the people our choices will affect.  We consider, “Am I comfortable with shouldering the responsibility for any outcomes that result from this action?”  As educators we live in a world of accountability, and no choice can be made simply for its own sake.  The decisions we make directly affect the lives of our students, and therefore the larger world:  we accept the burden when we enter the profession.  And finally, at the heart of all of our decisions, we ask, “Does this choice value the students to whom I have been entrusted?”  Educators are indeed custodians of the public trust.  We are the institution entrusted every day with the most valuable resource of our community, and that trust must be brought to bear on each and every decision. 

     An administrator is the face of the schoolhouse and acts as the north point on a campus’ ethical compass.  The decisions are not simple:  many opinions vie for attention, and the consequences of one action mix inextricably with the consequences of another.  There is also no question that the intersection of cultural value systems can create miscommunication and conflict.   Finding true acceptance that even some of our most cherished beliefs are not shared by all can be an enormous obstacle.  Morals by their very nature have a deeply emotional component:  they reside at the core of our character.  This makes conflicts in this arena all the more volatile and all the more challenging.  A leader cannot help but to fall back on their personal morality to discern appropriate action, and it would not be appropriate to ask them to do otherwise.  However, adherence to an accepted set of guidelines, such as board policies, creates a common language for dialogue and a standard that does not depend on emotional judgments.  And so administrators are called once again to strike a balance, between choices of value and policy, and between personal values and community norms. 

Building Leaders

     My district possesses its own leadership development program, entitled the Strand Program.  While I have always been aware of this program, I had not given it a serious investigation, as I never intended to pursue a principalship.  However, I was intrigued by the work mentioned in the article, “Bridging the Gap: Building Leadership Capacity” (Swinney, 2007), and I wanted to analyze the similarities and differences between the Strand Program and the program in Auburn City Schools.  The Auburn City school system recognized a human resource need evolving in their district regarding the retention of top level teachers and administrators and the development of leadership among the current staff within the district.  In response the district, in coordination with Auburn University, created a leadership academy available to teachers and administrators within the district.  This academy met on several occasions and worked with a variety of topics related to challenges and charges of administrators, from diversity to budgeting to site-based decision making.  The academy format built relationships and collaboration between teachers and administrators in attendance, and served the dual purpose of facilitating ongoing professional development for current administrators and encouraging the leadership potential of district teachers. 

     The main thrust of the reading involved a school system’s efforts to create collaboration between parties within the district and to facilitate growth and retention of quality educators and administrators through contextual, collaborative professional development.  This relates to the following State Board for Educator Certification’s (SBEC) principal competencies:

Competency 1: The Vision of Learner-Centered Leadership and Campus Culture

1:1 - implement strategies to ensure the development of collegial relationships and effective collaboration.

Competency 6:  Human Resources Leadership, Management, Professional Development and Appraisal

6:2 - facilitate the application of adult learning principles and motivation theory to all campus professional development activities, including the use of appropriate content, processes, and contexts.

6:4 - implement effective, appropriate, and legal strategies for the recruitment, screening, selection, assignment, induction, development, evaluation, promotion, discipline, and dismissal of campus staff.

6:7 - engage in ongoing professional development activities to enhance one’s own knowledge and skills and to model lifelong learning.

Competency 7:  Learner-Centered Organizational Leadership and Management

7:4 - use strategies for promoting collaborative decision making and problem solving, facilitating team building and developing consensus.

     The article speaks directly to the concerns that I stated in an earlier question:  professional development needs to have relevancy to its participants, and collaboration needs to happen at all levels within the organization.  This leadership academy could be a model for campus-level professional development as well, where campus administration does not merely sit in the back working on other projects during the presentation, or use professional development time merely as an avenue to further personal goals and objectives; rather, administration plays an active role in the learning and the dialogue, and uses feedback from the faculty to determine what specific concepts and subjects should be addressed in that forum.  This article prompts me to take a much more serious look at the Strand Program within my district.  Although I am still not inclined to actively pursue a principalship in my district, I recognize the need for all members of a school organization to be able to participate as faculty leaders.  The competencies addressed in this assignment are the rules of governance that all schools should be following, which means that any educational leader needs to have an awareness of the competencies and their application.  I would like to have any available resources in my toolkit to respond to situations in my classroom, on my campus, and out in the larger community.

Swinney, A. (2007, May/June/July). Bridging the Gap: Building Leadership Capacity. Best Practices , pp. 14-15.

Campus Culture in Transition

It is interesting that in this first step of my coursework's new management and leadership direction, the week’s discussion involves an analysis of school culture.  That very concept has been much on the minds of my faculty recently.  My school thrived for many years under a leadership team that had a unique sensitivity to balance:  balance between faculty and other stakeholders, between various teams, between administration and staff.  Achieving this balance is somewhat of a rarity, and the benefits of it showed in the staff and parent commitment to the school community.  However, no situation can remain static indefinitely.  Change comes, and I believe any organizational culture can be defined by how it responds to the natural process of that change.  A  new leadership team took the reins on my campus last year, and we are still adapting to a new leadership style and vision.  Equally strong, capable leaders can present with very different skill sets and challenges, and such is the case at my school.  To our credit, we have strong relationships with each other and with our community, and I believe those relationships help us adapt and embrace new ideas.  I do believe that even positive change throws a system out of its former patterns, and that readjustment can produce some ‘growing pains’.  Even in a seemingly "perfect" school, there are areas of growth, and a new leader is called to find those opportunities to refine and enrich the  a campus.  One of the most pressing and complicated challenges of a new administration is to look closely at the systems and relationships that were most effective on campus, and to work at preserving those standards of excellence even while implementing a new leadership vision.   Conflict is inevitable, and the new leadership will make its mark through communication, collaboration, and modeling of best practices as it resolves these differences and guides the campus.  I have high hopes that my campus will weather the rough seas of change and emerge even stronger and more effective on the other side.

A New Day, A New Plan

I finished my previous course about a month ago and took a much-needed hiatus over the holidays.  I prepared to jump back into coursework with curriculum design, only to discover on the Friday before class was to begin that the university had restructured my degree plan.  The new slate of coursework would enable graduates to take not only the technology facilitator's certification exam, but also the principal's certification exam.  I must confess that I have never been interested in becoming a campus principal.  Both my skill set and my interests lie in a completely different direction.  However, the choice to transfer into the new degree plan was nonetheless a simple one.  We work in an environment where ever more qualified candidates are competing for what  at times seems to be a dwindling pool of opportunities.  Much of principal certification involves leadership and management, including the human resource management course that I will now be offered.  The skills of a leader serve candidates in any number of fields, and so it seems apparent to me that an opportunity to both hone those skills and attain a certification of mastery is one to be seized.  In short, I am taking my own road less traveled, and we shall see where it leads.