THE LEARNING SCHOOL AN ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT APPROACH
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THE LEARNING SCHOOL AN ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT APPROACH
SUE DAVIDOFF SANDY LAZARUS
JUTA
Special thanks to Allan Kaplan for providing^ the artwork on which the cover design was based
First published in 1997 Second edition 2002 Reprinted 2003 © 2002 Juta & Co PO Box 24309, Lansdowne, 7779
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. In terms of the Copyright Act 98 of 1978, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means (including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system) without permission in writing from the publisher.
ISBN 0 7021 5662 0
Subediting: Pat Hanekom, Cape Town Typesetting: AN Dtp, Cape Town Cover design: The Design House, Cape Town Printed and bound in South Africa by IINCE
DEDICATION To our children: David, Paul, Marc, Greg, and Rebecca And to all the children and youth of South Africa
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FOREWORD TO THE FIRST EDITION The current reconstruction of the South African schooling system has entailed a variety of government policies, task-team reports, national and provincial laws, and developments in the field of curriculum. All these are designed to produce an effective educational structure and practice consistent with the democratic values that lie at the heart of our new political dispensation. Basically, this involves the equal citizenship of all South Africans, the protection of their human rights, and participation in decision-making by all affected by the decisions. At the macro level this is done through elected representatives; at micro level, such as in a school, the participation can be more direct. These values must be reflected not just in the speeches of politicians and educationists, but must permeate the learning experiences of young people at school. This means that the values must fundamentally affect the ways in which schools are developed, managed and appraised, and therefore the ways in which teachers work and are supported in their work, both as individuals and as members of professional teams. And, of course, if they are to be of any use, any suggestions about the implementation of these processes must be realistic. In recent years it has increasingly come to be realised that, for the implementation of improved strategies in education, the effective unit is the individual school. Cooperative arrangements among clusters of schools can be very valuable, but on a day-to-day basis it is the culture of the individual school that has the most impact on the quality of learning. While this is hardly surprising, this fact and its implications were not always recognised. Curricular plans of great potential can be effective only to the extent that school-level implementation is possible. Competent and committed teachers will obviously be concerned to ensure that syllabus design and teaching strategies positively affect the learning of their students. But the extent to which this can take place will inevitably be deeply influenced by central features of the school as a whole: the culture and values of the institution, its decision-making processes, its staff relationships, its use of resources, its processes of planning and evaluation. The best-laid teaching plans may go awry if the overall milieu of the school is not supportive, encouraging and stimulating to the staff and students involved, and if the school is not so organised as to enable good teaching and learning to take place. Furthermore, any grant of new resources to a school will be wasted if they are not properly allocated and controlled. It is, of course, not only to schools that these points apply. They are equally relevant to institutions such as hospitals, businesses, government vii
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departments, voluntary associations and political parties. The extent to which any of these organisations fulfils its aims will depend to a great extent upon the way in which it is organised. The systematic study of the development of organisations of different types has provided many insights of value to the development of schools. This is a very timely book. It combines three elements essential of its task. Firstly, it embodies the perspective of a democratic South African education system, as expressed in recent national policy development and legislation, such as that embodied in the South African Schools Act of 1996. The values at the heart of this book are those central to a democratic society. They include the exercise of basic human rights by all individuals, a fair distribution of resources, participative decisionmaking, access to necessary information on the part of people affected, accountability on the part of those in authority, equal opportunities for the development of all individuals, a compassionate treatment of all, and a prohibition of discrimination on the basis of race, gender or culture. Secondly, its draws upon international knowledge and experience concerning the ways in which change takes place in education and the ways in which schools can be improved. Thirdly, it reflects its authors' obviously extensive practical experience in working with teachers as individuals and in groups, and their very honest reflection upon that experience. A distinctive feature of this book is the effective interspersing of, on the one hand, the presentation and discussion of facts and ideas, and, on the other hand, an evolving case study of a particular school. Both facets of the treatment are rich in insights and in wisdom. Enterprising school personnel will certainly wish to work with their colleagues in pursuing the initiatives suggested. The book is both realistic and challenging, and meets a very important need in this crucial phase in the reconstruction of our school system. I commend it to all who are involved in this vital process. PETER HUNTER
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION When this book was first published in 1997, reconstruction in education was in its infancy. The turning around of decades of apartheid education into an equitable and truly educational system was young and quite unformed. Much of the focus of the first edition of this book was about exploring ways of deconstructing old patterns and entrenched realities and thus transforming some of the iniquities of the past. Since then, there have been a plethora of policies that have been put in place to support such a process. In many ways, in terms of educational policies, South Africa has a progressive, holistic and well-rounded education policy framework which takes into account educational, social and political realities; which looks at redress; which explores the values underpinning the educational process; which addresses bias and discrimination; which places at the forefront good leadership and management practice; which understands the complexities of provision for students with special learning needs; which strives to make teachers accountable; which brings parents and the community into the very heart of school life; which reaches into different notions of the learning process and curriculum development within this; which highlights the importance of ongoing professional development for teachers ... the scope of such policies is comprehensive, detailed and potentially can play a fundamentally transformative role in our education system. The sobering reality is that enabling policy frameworks are only part of the story. They are a necessary and vital part of the bigger picture, but on their own they are not sufficient. The challenges and orientations which are outlined in this book remain: the building of a 'learning school' is not an overnight and simple process. It is a complex and multifaceted process of unlearning and learning again; a process of undoing the strictures and strangleholds of old attitudes, and then developing new ways of seeing, being and understanding. In all of this, there is a thread of understanding that needs to permeate schools. There is also a thread of understanding that needs to permeate the policy-makers: that change — real change — lasting and meaningful change, cannot and will not happen without passion and commitment, and over a period of time. New ways of being need to emerge out of a sense of purpose and a sense of belonging: that education, teaching and learning can make a difference, can impact on the lives of young people in significant ways, and on the quality of life in the communities which the schools serve. And that, while the new policies play a vital role in the process of shifting out of the old into new practices, there is much more that is needed. IX
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In an ever-increasingly materialistic world, we need to restore a sensibility for those elements of life that are not always measurable and tangible; for developing the capacity in people to become truly human in order to infuse our world with humanity. This seems to be the single most important task of our time as global and other trends leave in their wake an increasing lack of humanity, lack of respect for the earth, for each other, for human rights. What comes to mind is the notion of soulfulness; a need to foster a sense of soul, a renewed sense of reverence and possibility, a building of trust in the knowledge that perhaps the most important education that we can receive is to learn how to love, to be able to trust, to be trustworthy, and to understand that the deeper our knowledge and understanding of ourselves, the more profoundly we can relate to and connect with others. And the more we are able to relate to others, the more we develop and the more we enable others to grow — the more this happens, the more human our world becomes. What we are talking about here is a need for education to become a healing force in society. Our fractured society needs healing, and schools, as organs of society, need to provide that service; need to understand their educational responsibility in these broader, yet more urgent and compelling terms. Societal change is dynamically linked with the life experiences and opportunities of each individual in that society. And those experiences are fundamentally shaped by the experiences in the institutions which we call schools. Policy-makers need to enable schools and teachers to make those connections, to find their calling, their vocation, to respond with passion to the needs of our times. This means building shared understandings of the need for change, the meaning of change, and the ability to manage change purposefully. This is a time of challenge, often of chaos, of seemingly huge external difficulties and constraints. But it is also a time of enormous possibility. The scaffolding is there, and it is up to us, each of us involved in educating young people, to take up the challenge, to walk towards the future knowing that each step creates the future as we walk the path. And that, in spite of external constraint, the future of our children and our land depends so vitally on how we engage with our task. January 2002
CONTENTS DEDICATION
v
FOREWORD PREFACE
vii ix
INTRODUCTION
xv
Purpose of this book Our approach How to use this book
xv xvii xix
CHAPTER ONE: SCHOOLS IN CONTEXT
1
Our global context Our South African context Our educational context The local community context The school The classroom The educational purpose of schools: from authoritarianism to authority
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
CASE STUDY: THE STORY OF YELLOWWOOD HIGH SCHOOL
11
CHAPTER TWO: ORGANISING FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING AND DEVELOPING SCHOOLS
17
A framework for understanding schools The school as an organisation An integrated framework Elements of a school as an organisation 1. School culture 2. Identity 3. Strategy 4. Structures and procedures 5. Technical support 6. Human resources 7. Leadership, management and governance 8. The context
17 17 19 21 21 23 24 26 29 32 36 39
Organisation (school) development Organisation development An integrated approach to school development The process of change
41 41 43 45
Guidelines and exercises
46 XI
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CHAPTER THREE: CULTURE AND IDENTITY
49
The ideal school: South African values and vision
49
A framework for understanding the school's culture Organisational culture Norms and values: the cornerstone of culture Revisiting Yellowwood High School: the culture
51 51 53 54
A framework for understanding the school's identity . . . . Organisational character and direction Vision and mission Core purpose Revisiting Yellowwood High School: identity
54 55 55 57 59
Organisation development interventions A starting point: beginning our work with Yellowwood High School Conducting a normative analysis Conducting an environmental analysis Defining the core purpose Vision-building
59 60 65 66 68 68
Guidelines
72
Workshop exercises and other activities Normative analysis Values clarification (helping to make values more conscious) . . . Environmental analysis Vision-building Mission statement
73 73 74 74 74 75
CHAPTER FOUR: STRATEGY
77
Framework for understanding the strategy element of school life Strategic planning process Goal-setting The planning process Evaluation Revisiting Yellowwood High School
78 79 80 83 84 87
Further organisation development responses From mission to goal-setting Developing plans of action Developing evaluation structures and procedures
89 89 93 95
Guidelines
97
Workshop exercises and other activities Strategic planning process Goal-setting Conducting a SWOT analysis
97 97 98 98
CONTENTS
Developing plans of action Developing evaluation structures and procedures CHAPTER FIVE: STRUCTURES AND PROCEDURES
A framework for understanding the structures and procedures of school life Structural arrangements Decision-making Accountability Information flow/Communication systems Democracy Revisiting Yellowwood High School
98 99 101
101 103 104 107 109 110 112
Further organisation development responses 115 The democratisation project 115 Reconstruction and development of structures and procedures of the school 118 Decision-making procedures 118 Improving information flow 119 Guidelines
120
Workshop exercises and other activities Understanding and developing the structures and procedures of your school Decision-making Accountability Building a democratic school
121
CHAPTER SIX: TECHNICAL SUPPORT
121 121 122 123 125
A framework for understanding the technical support element of school life Access and control of material and financial resources Teaching and learning support Financial management Administration Key administrative tasks Revisiting Yellowwood High School
125 127 130 131 134 134 135
Further organisation development responses Resource and financial management Administration
136 138 139
Guidelines
141
Workshop exercises and other activities Developing awareness and skills in resource and financial management and administration Developing a proposal for a project or acquisition of resources
142 142 144
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CHAPTER SEVEN: HUMAN RESOURCES
145
A framework for understanding human resources in the school Human resources utilisation Human resources development and training Personal and interpersonal dynamics Service conditions Psychosocial and learning support Revisiting Yellowwood High School
146 147 147 150 152 153 154
Further organisation development responses
155
Guidelines
159
Workshop exercises and other activities Conflict management Appraisal Interpersonal relationships
160 160 161 162
CHAPTER EIGHT: LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
165
Leading and managing The qualities of good leaders and managers Leadership and management: What do they mean? Leadership and management styles Leadership functions: Task and maintenance Empowerment and other issues of power Building leadership and management capacity Governing bodies and leadership and management Revisiting Yellowwood High School
166 166 168 170 173 174 176 177 177
Further organisation development responses
178
Guidelines
182
Workshop exercises and other activities Observation and listening skills Facilitation Managing change Stress management Time management
183 183 183 184 184 184
CHAPTER NINE: LAST REFLECTIONS
185
APPENDICES
189
REFERENCES
202
INTRODUCTION Improving teachers and schools is the key to improving pupils (Fullan & Hargreaves 1992:4)
PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK Over the past few years, there has been an increasing demand from teachers and principals at schools to address issues beyond the classroom and relating to the school as a whole. Readers will probably be familiar with concerns about low morale among teachers, tensions between teachers and administrative staff (principals, deputies, heads of departments), conflict among staff members, discipline problems with students1, lack of vision and direction ... and many more issues which make schools an unhappy place to be for many teachers and many students. This highlights a real challenge to provide quality education and therefore develop effective schools. While there are obviously teachers who are concerned with the quality of education they deliver in the classroom, for others the general problems they encounter in the school on a daily basis present enormous obstacles to even thinking about their commitment to quality education in the classroom. It is exactly these kinds of concerns and challenges that this book addresses. We realise that every classroom is located within a school, and is affected by what happens in the school. Teachers' commitment to quality classroom practice depends, to a great extent, on how the school environment can support their endeavours. Ultimately, what we would like to create is an environment at schools which is enabling — which supports teachers in a lifelong process of personal and professional development. This in turn will create a supportive environment within which students can learn and develop — developing their own potential for the benefit of society as a whole. These are, indeed, the central goals of education. What exactly is this enabling environment? It is an environment that is flexible enough to change and adapt to environmental demands. It is also an environment that is able to manage change. We can be certain that we are all going to have to cope with ever-increasing processes of change. An 'ideal' school will be able to do just this. A school which is not completely captured by its own history and confined to set and traditional ways of doing things will be in a far stronger position to provide quality support and therefore quality education for students. An 1 We are aware that some people talk about 'pupils', others prefer the term 'students' or 'learners'. While recognising that this varies from situation to situation, we have chosen to use the words 'students' and 'learners' interchangeably throughout the book.
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enabling environment is one which acknowledges and supports the contributions of each teacher in the school; which recognises that every teacher is potentially a change agent and provides scope for teachers to make their unique contributions in the life of the school. In this book we will explore ways of building such an enabling environment, and of showing the vital ways in which principals, teachers, other staff, parents and students can and must participate in the development of the school. Central to our explorations will be an understanding of the school as an organisation. Building organisational coherence is crucial if we want to address the issues mentioned above with the certainty that the issues will be dealt with at their source rather than symptomatically. Learning to think organisationally, to understand the way in which schools work, and to enable them to work optimally, where all the various interdependent aspects of school life weave together, are the challenges of organisation development interventions. Organisation development aims at enabling members of the organisation to understand elements or aspects of organisational life, and then to use this understanding in order to improve the organisation. In this book we explore the value of organisation development in general, and organisation development in schools in particular. Ultimately, the purpose of organisation development is to make the school experience more meaningful for teachers and students. In South Africa, there is a need to rekindle the love of learning and the love of teaching; to re-ignite the process of teachers becoming learners and our students bringing their own knowledge and experiences actively into the classroom and the school. This is part of rebuilding the culture of teaching and learning. While organisation development interventions are often conducted outside the classroom setting, this is not to say that the classroom reality will not be affected by such interventions. Indeed, since what happens in classrooms is so deeply affected by what happens in the school as a whole, attending to organisational issues is an extremely effective way of improving classroom practice. In this book, we provide a framework for understanding schools as organisations, and how such organisations work. This framework accompanies readers throughout the text, so that ways of understanding organisational realities will become a means of identifying, understanding and solving problems at a school and classroom level. We need to remember that schools are part of society, and are affected by their immediate and broader social, political and economic contexts. Similarly, schools can and must impact on their contexts and play a vital role in contributing towards the development of humanity, dignity and hope in society. We need to hold this educational purpose close as we begin the process of change and development in our schools. From our fractured past in South Africa, much of this purpose and hope has been eroded. Part of the challenge of educational reconstruction is to build a sense of dignity and professional pride for our teachers,
INTRODUCTION XVII
and a sense of future possibilities for our students. If the locus of change and appropriate control is really shifted to the schools, and teachers are given both responsibility and support for their important work, we have the possibility of regaining what has been lost over so many decades. We also need to ensure that the other central roleplayers and contributors in the educational process — support staff, parents and students — become a vital and meaningful part of the ongoing development of the school. Development is a process that has no end. Teachers don't stop learning to become good (and better) teachers once they have received their initial training. Learning occurs throughout their teaching career, whether they realise this or not. Making this process of improvement — or development — conscious is part of the purpose of this book, encouraging teachers, principals, support staff, students and parents to become lifelong learners, in their classrooms, schools, and in their lives generally. If we look at the conditions required for effective learning to take place, we cannot divorce this from teachers' needs in order to be able to provide such quality learning. This means creating a school environment that supports, facilitates and encourages a quality learning experience which feeds into the development of quality education in South Africa. Finally, and related to this last point, we hope, through this book, to highlight the understanding that bringing about change in the school setting is not just about practising a set of techniques or acquiring a new body of knowledge. It is about the inculcation of wisdom, true insight and imagination as part of the process of transformation. OUR APPROACH We approached the writing of this book with some basic assumptions and perspectives. One of those is that organisations are like living systems. This means that all the different parts, or elements, of that system are interdependent. If one part is not working well, this will affect the entire system. Similarly, attending to the problems of one aspect of the organisation will probably affect the others, or at the very least lead us on to addressing issues in other elements of the organisation. Organisations are not static — they tend to have a life of their own, with their own cycles and phases of development. Understanding schools as systems means that we look at the school holistically, not in a fragmented or piecemeal way. Thus, real development in a school should ultimately touch on every aspect of school life. We also believe that the self-understanding that people in the schools have is extremely important. This means starting with where people are in the school. This self-understanding is the basis for any process of change. There is always some degree of self-understanding in any school, but often people's perceptions vary, and these differences are often a source of conflict in the school. Often, too, there are many dynamics occurring below the surface in schools — dynamics of which
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we are often unaware. Our approach, therefore, is a critical one, by which we mean that we do not accept everything at face value. Rather, we try to look beneath the apparent phenomena, to understand the way in which self-understandings have been shaped by a range of social, political and other circumstances outside of the school and the individuals in the school. In organisation development processes in schools, we therefore attempt to deepen the self-understanding of schools by making the invisible more visible and understandable. Fundamental to our approach is the belief that it is the people in schools who make a difference, and without people changing, shifting attitudes and behaviours, very little change can be anticipated. However, changing people is not enough — it is a necessary but not sufficient aspect of change. Structures in and outside of the school need to change too, to encourage, support and reflect the changes that people are committing themselves to. Therefore we believe that intentional change involves focusing on both people and structures. We recognise that change is an extremely complex process. It is not a one-off event, where one course or workshop will 'do the trick'. Change takes time, is often painfully slow (for the impatient!), is unpredictable (we can never know for sure what the outcomes of any process will be, and very often unanticipated events occur which are most surprising), and can be very threatening. It often feels safer to be in an old, but known, situation, even if it frustrates us, than to leave it for the unknown, which is really what change is all about. We also believe that there is no blueprint for change. What this means is that each situation, each moment in life is unique, and will never be repeated. It follows then that each situation needs to be assessed in terms of its own unique reality, because what works perfectly in one situation might not work at all in another setting or even in the same setting on another day. However, there are principles about the change process which are developed and made explicit throughout this book. We look at change from a developmental point of view — that is, progressive changes over time, involving restructuring of the system towards more complexity and more differentiation. If you look at the development of people, you will see that their change from infancy to adulthood is not haphazard. It follows various laws and processes of development which are true for all people, but which vary in the way they unfold and express themselves from person to person. As we get older, both biologically and psychologically there is a developing complexity. We view organisation development similarly. That is why we talk about organisation development as the development of the organisation towards greater coherence, yet at the same time greater complexity and differentiation. This differentiation means that we can look at the various elements of an organisation and understand their individual roles, functions and contribution to the organisation as a whole.
INTRODUCTION xix
Similarly, differentiation implies internal restructuring to meet changing goals in an organisation, different relationships between people, and different procedures to reflect a changing culture. Effective and meaningful change requires ongoing reflection and evaluation. We strongly support the need for such ongoing evaluation, and see the approach of reflection-on-action (or action research) as an important contribution here. Action research is dealt with further on in the book.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK This book is meant to be used as a handbook. We have therefore attempted to make it as practical and accessible as possible. So, while we recognise the theoretical basis of what we are saying, the book is not an academic work in which theoretical concerns are given priority. We believe that the best way to learn through this book is through insights, and emerging principles, rather than a 'do-this-do-that' approach. This is in keeping with our understanding that there are no blueprints for change, but that if the basic principles and insights are captured, then they can be applied in a variety of situations. At points, however, more specific guidelines will be given to enable easier 'experimentation' with the ideas expressed in the book. We follow the experiential learning model, where theory and practice are linked throughout. So our framework will inform any analysis, but needs to develop continuously as a result of practice. Emerging insights from practice can further inform our (theoretical) organisational framework. In other words, theory informs practice and practice informs theory in an ongoing and dialectical manner. The book is aimed primarily at teachers and principals, simply because from an organisational perspective, teachers and principals (as well as administrative support staff) have a crucial role to play as people located as employees within the organisation — people at the coal-face, if you like. However, the book will also have relevance for all the roleplayers who are involved in the development of the school, including school governing bodies who are collectively responsible for the development of the school as a whole. The format that the book follows tries to reflect the above. Initially, we present a case study of a typical South African school, Yellowwood High School. In the chapters following, you will find: Q the framework — the theory that underlies the scenario, and informs the appropriate organisation development interventions; Q organisation development interventions or responses to address the issues raised in the scenario; Q guidelines and principles; Q possible workshop exercises to be used.
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CHAPTER ONE
SCHOOLS IN CONTEXT It seems to me that if the world is to change for the better it must start with a change in human consciousness, in the very humanness of modern man (Havel 1991:11)
OUR GLOBAL CONTEXT At the start of the twenty-first century, various trends are evident. First, our world seems much smaller than it ever was, as it has become easier to travel much faster. Information can be relayed around the world instantly; making distances between places seem almost illusory. New and more sophisticated forms of information generation and sharing are being developed constantly, so that people can access information held anywhere merely at the touch of a button or the click of a mouse. And people are able to communicate across the world with others whom they might never meet, also through sophisticated computer networks. There is so much information, so many specialisations within specialisations, that knowledge acquisition and processing can become an overwhelmingly daunting affair. It seems almost impossible to keep up with the technological developments taking place in every area of life. Change is occurring at an ever-increasing pace. What we perceived to be a miraculous discovery a year ago by today's reality is already outdated. Where we used to send letters as a form of communication, which took some time to arrive, and again a little more time for the reply to return, we now have fax machines and electronic mail which ensure that all correspondence can be conveyed instantly. Constant change and increasing demands upon time are part of our current reality. The faster things move, the more time is left to accomplish even more. Potentially, the stress on us is enormous. However, there is another reality in this process of globalisation, and that is, broadly speaking, the growing gap between the rich and the poor, between what we know as the First World (or developed countries) and the Third World (developing countries). Sophisticated technology does not reach the remote rural, exploited and impoverished communities that characterise the major part of Third World realities. For these people, life continues at a pace similar to how it has been for decades; yet quality of life is eroded simply because more often than not these communities are touched, in some way or another, by the demands of First World realities. Demands to supply labour, demands to buy products or perhaps even demands to accept First World waste. In South 1
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Africa, we live with these two extremes in a highly polarised way. A drive through any major city in South Africa will indicate the extremes of wealth and poverty existing side by side. We reflect, in microcosmic form, the giant global reality. Our rural communities are the most disadvantaged of all in every respect. Within the context of organisation development there is recognition of the need for more participatory forms of engagement at the workplace. Throughout the world, language about empowerment, about workers' rights, about participation in decision-making processes, about human rights, about the relationship between lack of productivity and alienation are coming to the fore. The global trend towards a greater degree of participation in the workplace is reflected in the field of education as well, with, for example, shifts away from top-down management styles in education. Other shifts are towards the recognition of the vital role that teachers need to play as curriculum developers and as partners in the shaping of the direction of the school. As far as students are concerned, the trend is towards more active and collaborative learning processes, and equipping them with the necessary skills and understanding that they will require when they leave school. The responsibility of parents in contributing towards the vision, direction and management of the school has also increased, particularly with policies such as the South African Schools Act (1996). While all these trends towards democratisation are evident in South Africa, they occur in only a minority of schools. On the whole, the history of authoritarianism, of top-down control of schools, of teachers, of students, and of curricula remains entrenched as a very real part of the culture of most schools. The global trend towards 'managerialism' evident in business and educational contexts exacerbates this. The drive towards developing efficient organisations and management systems is evident in our country, and in our education system. We are now faced with the challenge of developing efficient and effective schools in the context of commitment to democracy! OUR SOUTH AFRICAN CONTEXT South Africa has gained political freedom in the context of its apartheid past. Initial feelings of euphoria, of a sense of new beginnings and possibilities, have largely been replaced by the sober reality of the limited resources (at all levels) available to attend to the multitude of problems which we face. We have been crippled by apartheid and our reconstruction out of the ashes of human degradation is needing more than we ever realised: more courage, more resources, more hard work, more tenacity. Many people have lost faith; clearly, our struggle is not yet over, although it takes new forms that require new understandings. We stand at a threshold, with a sense of endless possibilities, with a ©Juta & Co.
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vision of the unfolding of a young democratic country respecting and supporting the human rights of every citizen. However, levels of political and criminal violence are exceptionally high. The news we receive speaks of an angry, frustrated and poor society, with the high number of unemployed people causing a multitude of social problems. These cycles of violence and anger often spill over into schools and other educational institutions. Gang warfare threatens the lives of teachers and youth at schools, drugs and drug dealing occurs at many schools, and schools are regularly torn apart by theft and vandalism. At these schools, both teachers and students feel their lives are at risk. In addition to psychosocial issues such as violence and substance abuse, South Africa is facing the consequences of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This challenge relates to all aspects of our life, including education. The current challenge in South Africa is the building of a truly humane society - a society which respects the rights of the individual, a society which unites rather than divides, and which enables its citizens to participate meaningfully and creatively in its ongoing development. The same is true for schools, as specific organs or institutions of society. We will return to this later on in this chapter.
OUR EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT Apartheid South Africa has left a legacy of extreme authoritarianism. Schools, as 'ideological state apparatuses' (Althusser 1971), have to some extent reflected and reproduced the values and ideology of the state. While many schools developed as 'sites of struggle' (Giroux 1983) against state ideologies, few schools (if any) were able to move away from the rigid authoritarianism so familiar in our South African culture. So, while resistance to apartheid ideology contained in the classroom curriculum occurred, the way in which schools were structured and the way in which they functioned reproduced the heavy-handed disciplinarian approach which was one of the hallmarks of the apartheid regime. This culture still exists today. Over the past few years there have been an enormous number of new policies that have been introduced to address the imbalances of the past, and to address and transform impoverished notions of education. These include policies relating to school governance (with an emphasis on community and parental involvement in schools), an outcomes-based curriculum, teacher education, appraisal, professional development, inclusive education and support services. Clearly, these new policies are designed to create an enabling environment at schools for good teaching and learning. They are designed to shift educational practice, to support teachers and to ensure that teachers are accountable for the work they are doing, and to build good management practice at schools. ©Juta & Co.
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For many schools, and teachers, the introduction of so many new policies over a relatively short period of time has proved to be confusing and overwhelming. While there has been a commitment from departments of education to provide, for example, training in the new outcomes-based education, often the training has been inadequate, and teachers have been left to manage fairly radical methodological changes with little real ongoing support. While most of these policies are a move in the direction of a more holistic and integrated understanding of educational practice, ultimately the implementation of such policies rests with education managers and teachers. And the success of such implementation depends on the meaning that they can make of these policies, and the support they experience during this intense time of educational transformation. In other words, new policies need to be accompanied by well thought-through implementation strategies. And such strategies need to take into account the subjective realities of teachers - their daily work, their understanding of what they are doing, and why they are doing it, their view of the value of new policies, so that they can, at the very least, accept and manage them meaningfully and effectively. The introduction of all these new policies has raised expectations for a new educational order in post-apartheid South Africa. However, lack of resources and, in some instances, lack of shared vision has meant that things have remained much the same. Insufficient money to buy resources, both human and material, so necessary for our educational reconstruction, make the future seem bleak for many. This needs, however, to be seen in the context of redress: where too many resources were provided for a very small and privileged minority, the more equitable redistribution of these (limited) resources will result in more for many schools and considerably less for few. As a result of the above and other factors, many of our teachers are demoralised. Decades of unequal provision of resources have left most schools seriously under-resourced. The effect that this has on the morale of teachers cannot be underestimated. Teaching sometimes up to 90 or 100 students in a crowded classroom where there is no room for anyone to move; teaching in a school which only has bucket toilets; teaching at a school which has insufficient textbooks, no photocopier, little equipment, no sports facilities ... these have been the realities that many of our teachers and students have lived with on a daily basis. Yet, in spite of the most disenabling realities, many teachers have managed to achieve remarkable successes in terms of fostering a real love for learning and by being extremely innovative with almost no resources.
THE LOCAL COMMUNITY CONTEXT It is self-evident that schools exist within particular community contexts, and that these contexts are part of what shapes the school and gives it its identity. Whether a school exists in the midst of an informal settlement, ©Juta & Co.
SCHOOLS IN CONTEXT
a working-class area, a rural or urban area, an area controlled by gangs, or in an affluent middle-class area, has an impact on the life of that school. The way the community and the school relate to each other is crucial if the school is really to meet community needs, and if the community is to support the school in accomplishing this. We are living in times of changing family contexts. We can no longer take for granted the norm of the nuclear family. There are many singleparent families, either through divorce or separation, or through mothers not having married their children's fathers. Often children do not live with their parents, but rather with grandparents or other relatives, for a variety of reasons, including because of being orphaned through the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In many nuclear families, both parents are working, and young people are expected to fend for themselves and their younger siblings. On the other hand, unemployment has a destabilising effect on family life. The anxiety of insufficient income, as well as the lack of self-esteem which often results from not being able to find employment, can affect the quality of family life profoundly. The impact of family and local community dynamics on the life of a school cannot be emphasised enough. If these factors are not taken very seriously in school development initiatives, we will not achieve the dreams that we have set for ourselves in terms of social transformation. THE SCHOOL The school is where most educational policy is put into practice. If teachers do not implement what the policy provides or expects, then that policy needs to be reviewed, or the implementation process needs to be re-examined. Policy needs to address real needs experienced by teachers and schools. Teachers need to participate in and contribute towards policy formulation. This has occurred minimally in the past and, although current policy development trends clearly aim to include teachers in the process, this remains a daunting challenge at all levels of policy formulation. The school is at the heart of educational change. It therefore needs to be equipped to manage such change effectively, which means that it needs to become a learning organisation. In looking at classroom practice and experience as the centre stage of school life, we need to look at the whole school - that is, all the aspects of school life which intersect with the classroom. But the whole school is more than all of its aspects or pieces, more than the sum of staff, students, parents, buildings and the broader community. The school is an organisation, a system of interweaving parts, linking together in particular ways. It is not possible to understand any one part without reference to the interweaving system which sets the constraints and possibilities for the experiences of each part. A school is a particular kind of organisation. Beare, Caldwell and r Juta & Co.
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Millikan (1989:172-173) describe school organisations in the following way: Organisations are essentially collectivities of people, who define policies, generate structures, manipulate resources and engage in activities to achieve their desired ends in keeping with their individual and collective values and needs. In the human service organisation called a school, one of these desired ends is helping people to learn.
What is significant in this description of schools as organisations is that they are seen as expressing both individual and collective needs and values, and that they are not static structures, but have a life of their own. This supports the notion of the whole school being greater than the sum of its parts. Schools are particular kinds of organisations because they are not autonomous. They are accountable to departments of education, and therefore decisions that are made at school level (as mentioned above) are constrained by a whole range of policy, political and legal issues. We need to remember that schools both reflect and perpetuate broader societal values. They can, and have, perpetuated policies such as 'apartheid', and they can, and hopefully will, support the development of a democratic South Africa. THE CLASSROOM In our attempts to build effective schools, we need to hold as our main concern the quality of education in the classroom. Classrooms, like schools, do not exist in a vacuum, but in a particular context. The context for the classroom is the school, and each classroom is affected by the culture and identity of the school as a whole. In order to really make learning a relevant, creative and vibrant experience for our students, we need to build the surrounding classroom environment or milieu in such a way that it can support relevant, creative and vibrant teaching. Within the classroom milieu various dimensions of experience are occurring simultaneously (Donald, Lazarus & Lolwana 2001; Pielstick 1988). There is the physical environment of the class: its size; its appearance - whether there is graffiti on the walls or pictures which are topical and aesthetically pleasing; its resources - whether there are sufficient desks, books, doors, storage space; its general condition - whether the windows are broken, whether it can be kept relatively warm in winter and cool in summer, whether the desks are sturdy or rickety ... all these would affect the kind of learning and teaching occurring in the classroom. ©Juta & Co.
SCHOOLS IN CONTEXT
The social environment - how the students relate to one another, and to the teacher - is also an important aspect of classroom experiences. Teachers' roles need to include mediating classroom dynamics, ensuring that students learn to mix with one another in open, honest and nonjudgemental ways. Gender, race, 'size' or 'intelligence' (big is bully and clever is better) and other group dynamics need to be carefully guided so that qualities such as tolerance, openness, confidence and trustworthiness can be developed. The instructional environment - what is taught and how it is taught is a crucial aspect of the classroom experience. Instructional practice needs to be carefully thought through, so that what students learn and the way in which they learn equips them to enter into the world beyond school with confidence and the necessary skills. The instructional environment needs to encourage active participation from the students at all levels, and needs to address the diverse learning needs of all the students concerned. From this brief exploration of schools in context, it is obvious that from the single student in the classroom to the world at large, there is an interdependent, interweaving relationship. We cannot begin to explore the purpose of education without first placing it in context and understanding that none of the aspects described above is static. The task, the purpose of education, therefore, needs to be explored within a vast and ever-shifting set of multidimensional realities.
THE EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE OF SCHOOLS Many books have been written about the educational purpose of schools, from many different perspectives - sociological, psychological, philosophical - and within these broad categories there are many different positions and arguments about the purpose of schooling. However, we would argue that the purpose of schools and schooling should be preparation for life: preparation to cope and engage with life and contribute towards a quality of life which all fellow citizens can enjoy. What does this mean in practice? Schools are important locations for the socialisation of young people. Together with family life, the school is one of the most powerful socialising agents. The responsibility is, therefore, to provide a place of learning which is safe yet exciting and challenging; a place where the confidence of young people can be developed; a place where their selfconcept can be positive and intact; a place which has meaning, and which provides rich, enjoyable times. This responsibility is enormous, because if we recognise the importance of schools as socialising agents, we must acknowledge the responsibility to provide opportunities for personal development in the context of the development of a humane society. ©Juta & Co.
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Schools have largely become places where a certain rigidity of patterns and habits have set in, without much thought given as to why we are doing such things. Routines such as exams every term, chains of reaction to 'crimes' and 'punishments', students having to line up, having uniform and hair inspections, learning unfathomable information off by heart, learning to remember rather than to understand ... all of these practices, and many more, are part of the daily reality of schools. The routines set in, and meaning is made through the routine working efficiently and well. Often the pedagogical purpose of such practices is neither questioned, nor clearly understood: how does it really benefit our young people in terms of preparing them to take up positions of responsibility in life? We need to seriously rethink the way in which our schools are structured and operate, the way our students learn, the way teachers learn and teach, the way people relate to one another, and ensure that these practices truly reflect the values and capacities we are trying to develop. If we accept that schools are powerful socialisation forces for young people, then we need to recognise that it is not only classroom learning that influences and shapes the thinking, values, insights and skills of these young people, but all the experiences that they have at school. This means that the values the school holds, the way teachers relate to one another, the way decisions are made, the way teachers relate to students, the physical appearance of the school, the resources (or lack of resources) available for teachers and students, the surrounds of the school, the way the grounds are kept, the condition of the buildings and the furniture ... all these aspects shape the perceptions that students develop about the world and about themselves and, to a large extent, define their expectations about what life beyond the school is about. We therefore cannot afford to concentrate on classroom practice alone, for two reasons. The first is that what happens in the classroom is only one aspect of what students learn and experience at schools. And specific knowledge content is probably going to be one of the first things they forget when they leave school (or even before leaving school). The second is that, as we have argued above, classrooms are part of schools, and if we want to improve what happens in classrooms, we need also to attend to the classroom's environment - the school - to ensure that this supports and upholds excellence in the classroom. So we need to develop a new vision, a new imagination about schools and school life. We need to let go of old ways, old habits, and make changes that honour human dignity. We need to have a picture of the kind of society we would like to live in. We need to have imagination, and we need to be idealistic. We cannot afford to be bogged down and limited by the horrors of the past. We need to see our role as educators as vital in terms of building that new society. And then we need to model our schools, in every respect, on that kind of society. Every aspect of ©Juta& Co.
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school life teaches our students something about themselves, and something about life. Are these the insights that we really want them to have, because each insight, each perception, each action and each expectation makes a contribution towards the building of a particular kind of nation? How, for example, can we expect young people to develop dignity and self-respect when we deal with them in ways that are humiliating and cynical? How can we expect young people to grow up confident and assertive when we do not provide adequate opportunities for them to practise being confident, for giving them responsibilities, for encouraging them to participate meaningfully in school life? How can we ask them to develop trust in others and trust in themselves when the underlying message of so many of the rules at schools communicates that people are not trustworthy, and that they will be immediately punished for not obeying the rules? How can we ask them to obey rules if they have had no say in drawing up the rules? How can we demand respect from our students if we do not give the same respect, nor earn it by being exemplary adults? This is not to suggest that all of our past educational practices have been negative or destructive: there is much from the past which is positive and rich, and which we can build on. We are suggesting that we need to be conscious of letting go of old ways of working which are not congruent with the 'deeper' goals of education. One major challenge in South Africa is letting go of the authoritarianism of the past. In order to make apartheid work, an extremely authoritarian mode of operation and communication was necessary. This was evident in the way the government operated, the way the civil service operated, the lack of consultation with the people of South Africa, the expectation, from the highest levels of office to everyday life, that laws were made to be obeyed unquestioningly, and that any transgression of these laws or rules was to be punished in varying degrees of severity. For the most part (with the exception, of course, of the resistance movements) we learned to become a passive, obedient society, not challenging commands from the top, accepting and fearing those who had the authority to tell us what to do, what not to do, when, how, and so on. This acquiescence was reflected in our schools, where principals held enormous powers, but were still bound to the authority of the Department of Education, and where teachers 'controlled' students but were controlled by higher authorities in terms of what they were allowed or not allowed to teach. This needs to become part of an old way of being. Part of the new way needs to be the development of real authority for all South African citizens. What does this mean? It means developing, in all people, the knowledge, skills, capacities and attitudes they need in order to make clear decisions about their lives. It means providing the base for people to participate in and contribute towards a meaningful life. It means enabling people to become authors - writers - of their own lives, rather ©Juta& Co.
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than having merely to obey meaningless rituals and rules created by others for the maintenance of the status quo. If we talk about participatory democracy, or if we talk about engaging people at a grassroots level to build a nation of empowered people, we have to provide the skills and opportunities for people to do or become just that. What happens at schools lays the foundation for what will happen later on. Without a vision of an open, warm society, with work for all, with deeply humane values building the structures to support us, we will be stuck in the old. How our schools are organised, therefore, becomes a crucial dimension of the extent to which we are able to provide such a foundation for our students and for our society.
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CASE STUDY
THE STORY OF YELLOWWOOD HIGH SCHOOL Yellowwood High School is situated in Don Park, an urban area which houses middle- and working-class families, with a sprawling informal settlement not far away. It is coeducational, with approximately 1 000 students and 37 teachers, including the principal, Mr Strider, and two deputies, Mr Witbooi and Ms Molefe. The teacher:student ratio is approximately 40:1. The school, which is fairly new, has few physical resources. The grounds, while quite large, are tidy but undeveloped. There are few trees and plants, so little protection is offered for students from sun, wind and rain during breaks and physical education classes. There are no rugby, netball, soccer or hockey posts, or proper cricket pitches. There is a shortage of classrooms, and to address this space shortage temporarily, some prefabricated classrooms have been erected. Classrooms are fairly crowded, and in most there are not enough desks, so students have to share desks. There is currently no space to accommodate wheelchairs in these classrooms. There is no hall, and so all assemblies are held outside. This means that students and teachers are exposed to the weather and often it is extremely hot or extremely windy. In the grounds of the school during informal times you will find students most frequently separated by gender and race - boys seem to stay with boys and, likewise, girls with girls. Similarly, the various race groups at the school do not seem to mix very easily. Formally structured sports and other cultural events do, however, intentionally attempt to reflect a mixture in terms of both race and gender. There are few teaching aids in the school: three overhead projectors, one TV, one computer for the teachers, and three rather old computers for student use. There is one science laboratory with very little equipment in stock. A secretary serves as receptionist, and provides administrative support and backup for the principal. In her office there is a computer and one photocopier, which is fairly old and tends to break down frequently. As a result, only certain teachers are allowed to use the machine. This causes tension among the staff, because teachers sometimes do not have the resources they require for a lesson, since copies have not been made in time. There is a library at the school. However, there are very few books in it; many of them are tattered and in very poor 11
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condition and rather dated. Reference books and books that can be used for research purposes are extremely few and very outdated. The number of books in the library seems to drop dramatically each year. A caretaker lives on the property. His job is to look after the school after hours (which he does very well), to keep extra keys for each room (so that he can open them), and to do general maintenance work. He has a good relationship with the students. The school is prone to vandalism, and often after weekends there are many more broken windows and desks, and some doors have disappeared. The caretaker's time is therefore more or less cut out for him. He does not seem to be able to keep up with his maintenance responsibilities. While there is a school uniform - blue dresses for girls; flannel pants, white shirts and blue ties for the boys, blue jerseys and blazers - not all of the students come to school in their uniforms. School begins at 8 am and ends at 2.30 pm. The timetable, changed and developed recently by the principal and two senior teachers, runs on a seven-day cycle, with 50-minute periods. Teachers' free periods average two per week, with heads of department having five or six periods per week free. The timetable seems to be working effectively at present. Inside the school building, the entrance boasts several framed awards on the walls for athletic successes in interschool competitions. The staffroom is a long room, with tables (covered with plastic tablecloths) running along all the sides. Teachers tend to sit in the same places every day. The notice board has some outdated notices of courses and workshops being offered by inservice projects, current and old notices about sports fixtures, and various notices from the Department of Education. Current community activities are also displayed on the notice board. A teacher union notice has graffiti scrawled on it - an indication that some staff members disagree about the issue of union affiliation. As you walk past the classrooms, you will find many of the teachers talking, and the students listening passively. Often the teachers are facing the boards rather than the students, and writing, while students copy down notes. In some classes it's hard to believe that there is a teacher in the class, as pieces of chalk fly around, students brawl and hysterical laughter can be heard down the corridor. In other classes, however, students are working together in groups and appear to be focused and enthusiastic. The Grade 12 results fluctuate from year to year, but the average pass rate is about 60 per cent. Teachers tend to arrive in the staffroom soon after the break bell has rung, and to leave often some five or ten minutes after the end of break. Stafrroom chatter tends to be mainly about problematic students within school life. For the rest, conversations relate to life outside the school, weekend activities, topical discussions and general gossip. There are frequent murmurings about the ineffective school management, and frustrations about issues such as unfair treatment of staff. Many teachers ©Juta & Co.
CASE STUDY: YELLOWWOOD HIGH SCHOOL 13
express frustration at the lack of direction of the school, and there is a tendency to identify problems and issues without the commitment to finding solutions to them. Relationships between the teachers tend to be fairly relaxed. Many are on first-name terms with one another, but the older teachers are not addressed by their first names by any staff members. There are some definite staff cliques. Young teachers find it very difficult to express their views about anything controversial, and male teachers tend to be more dominant than females. There are three white teachers (all women) on the staff, and one black African teacher. The rest of the staff are either 'coloured' or Indian. The white teachers sit together at breaks (and at meetings), and the African woman usually sits on her own. There is a strong sense of demotivation at the school. One manifestation of this is that very little is happening at the school after hours. In this regard, it is only the first term that is busy because of sports activities and meetings. Another manifestation of the low morale of teachers is that there is an extremely high rate of absenteeism - seldom is there a day when every teacher is present at school. Staff meetings are held fortnightly for two hours. The agenda is drawn up by one of the deputy principals, and the meetings usually relate to the nitty-gritty of running the school. The real decision-making power rests with Mr Strider and his two deputy principals. Consultation with the staff about decisions is mostly so that the staff can rubberstamp the decisions which have already been made. The staff is usually asked to vote; however, staff decisions can be vetoed by management. This apparent democracy yet real lack of accountability is a source of frustration to many staff members, who feel powerless and angry in the situation. There is an ad hoc staff development programme at the school, and some teachers are engaged in studying for an undergraduate degree or postgraduate studies; they often take leave to study for their exams. This usually coincides with exam time at the school, and causes a certain amount of tension among the rest of the staff who feel resentful about having to carry an additional load. A few other teachers attend nonformal courses offered by inservice projects. Professional development thus depends primarily on the commitment of individual teachers. Several teachers have tried to institute a more formal staff development programme, but have met with resistance from the principal, and with apathy from the rest of the staff. No formal teacher appraisal takes place at the school except for when the Department of Education requires it. The teachers still feel that, despite the new 'language' used by the Department, this is still a form of inspection, and so they resist it. The management style is one which focuses on administrative efficiency, with the emphasis on paper work being done timeously. Teachers' record books are handed in to the principal fortnightly, and he ( Juta & Co.
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scans them and returns them without comment. Mr Strider usually visits teachers' classes when there have been problems or complaints, but otherwise his attitude is one of leaving the teachers to get on with their work. His main concern is with regular testing and a good pass rate in exams. He is not entirely trusted by the staff. He insists that his 'door is always open', and seems approachable and pleasant, but teachers on the whole perceive him to be authoritarian, rigid and rather dogmatic. He is extremely defensive when staff members confront him about various issues. However, his good administrative skills result in a relatively smoothly run school. The staff find one of the deputy principals, Mr Witbooi, aggressive and unreasonable. He is the metalwork teacher, has a light teaching load, but is seldom in his classroom and always complains about being too pressurised. The other deputy, Ms Molefe, is very quiet, and invariably supports the principal in his decisions. However, she is also fairly sympathetic to staff concerns, although she does not seem able to do much about them. There is a school governing body (SGB) at the school, comprising the principal, the two deputies, three parents and two community leaders, one of whom is a religious leader. One of the parents is an accountant. The SGB meets on a quarterly basis, and occasionally on an ad hoc basis when there are urgent matters to discuss. It has been very difficult for the school to draw community people on to the SGB, and in this instance the two community people do not attend meetings very regularly. The SGB tends to concentrate mainly on the financial management of the school. A general feeling of mistrust exists between the staff and the SGB. The principal is aware that legislation regarding school governing bodies has changed and that this governing body needs to be democratic in its approach but he has no idea of whether he will be able to rise to the challenge, and therefore fears it. When parents' meetings are held, generally very few parents turn up to the meetings. The teachers are concerned at the lack of parental involvement, particularly because drug abuse is becoming an increasingly problematic issue in the neighbourhood, and there have been several cases of students in possession of drugs at school. The community within which the school is located is predominantly Christian, with a fairly strong Muslim community. Heads of department are in the following subjects: maths, science, English, Afrikaans, history and geography. There is no school counsellor, and the school nurse and school psychologists never seem to visit the school. The medium of instruction at the school is English, although for most of the students at the school, English is a second language. Because of the general dissatisfaction at the school, after much pressure from a few teachers, a workshop was held which aimed (initially) to provide a mechanism for the staff (as a whole) to express their concerns ©Juta & Co.
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with a view to finding a longer-term solution to addressing them. The following are some of the strengths and weaknesses highlighted by the staff during the workshop:
Strengths Q Well-cared for (neat) grounds and school building. Q Attempts being made to integrate the school on racial and gender grounds. Q School administration, including timetable management, generally well done. Q Athletics successes. Q Some attempt at creative teaching. Q Teacher collegiality evident at times (fairly relaxed relationships). Q Regular staff meetings (although the way they are run is problematic) . Q Individual teachers taking initiative in terms of self-appraisal and self-development. Q An active school governing body.
Weaknesses O Overcrowded and inaccessible classes. O Q Q Q Q Q Q
Lack of physical resources. Lack of adequate sporting facilities. Low teacher morale. Discipline problems with students. Cliques on the staff. Division and mistrust between management and general staff. Lack of vision.
O Some mistrust and conflict among staff members. Q Lack of accountability. Q High absentee rate of teachers and students. Q Very little formal staff development. Q Lack of parental involvement in the school.
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CHAPTER TWO
ORGANISING FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING AND DEVELOPING SCHOOLS An innovative school is a school that has learned how to learn ... (Dalin & Rolff 1993:5)
In this chapter we give a broad overview of the way in which we develop an understanding of the school as an organisation. We also introduce you to the framework we will use throughout the book. This framework shows the various elements of organisational life which make up any school. Within this framework we will look at contextual factors impinging on any school, and we will emphasise the important role of leadership and management within the school. A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING SCHOOLS When you examine the scenario outlined in the previous section, it seems, at first glance, that Yellowwood High School faces a whole range of random, unrelated problems which appear insurmountable. This probably has the effect of making you feel powerless and therefore unable and unwilling to try to do anything about it. However, there is a way of understanding these problems so that knowing better how to deal with them becomes possible.
The school as an organisation As outlined in chapter one, schools are organisations. They have features that are common to all kinds of organisations. However, it is recognised that schools are a particular kind of organisation - with specific educational goals and ways of pursuing those goals, and thus with particular characteristics and relationships between elements of organisational life. The educational purpose of schools and the particular country's vision for schools influences the particular way in which the school as an organisation structures itself and functions. The framework outlined below attempts to capture this specificity of schools as organisations, providing a particular emphasis on the curriculum as a guiding factor. 17
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Figure 2.1 Elements of a school as an organisation
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ORGANISING
FRAMEWORK
In every school there are particular aspects or elements that make up that organisation, and each of these needs to be functioning healthily for the whole to be healthy. Any unhealthy or malfunctioning element will have a negative ripple effect throughout the system. This is a central feature of any system. We need to become familiar with the different elements of the school system and how they interrelate in order to understand where the particular strengths and weaknesses of the organisation lie, and, therefore, where we need to focus for effective change. It is important to remind ourselves and to emphasise that an understanding of the organisation, in this case the school, needs to be developed within a sociological understanding of the school and, more specifically, within the education system, which is located within broader South African society, which is dynamically located within the context of global trends and dynamics. We cannot adequately understand the problems that arise or the solutions that should be pursued without this broader insight. In the framework outlined below, an attempt will be made to constantly maintain this broader analysis, keeping in mind the complex nature of schools within the historical and current context, as well as future imperatives, of South Africa and the world. When working with and in order to understand schools, various roleplayers need to be taken into account at various moments in the life of the school. This includes the academic and support members of staff, the principal, students, parents, various community leaders and groupings, education administrators, and various education support service personnel. Although the more (visually) obvious members of the school community are the teachers and students, we should not forget the important contribution of the other roleplayers to the life of the school.
An integrated framework The framework for understanding and working with schools (Lazarus and Davidoff - in collaboration with members of the Faculty of Education and the Teacher Inservice Project at the University of Western Cape, 2000) outlined below is an attempt to provide a tool for understanding the key elements of the life of a school in such a way that it helps to make sense of organisational dynamics within an educational context. The school's core purpose, referred to above and in the previous chapter, is a central consideration in this regard. The realities and demands of the particular context in which schools 'live' also provide an important landscape for understanding and working with schools. This means that the framework has to take into account social factors that relate dynamically to school life, and, in particular, educational policies that provide a vision and pathway for school development in this context. A major challenge in developing a framework for understanding schools is to identify the key threads in the emerging policies in education •r Juta & Co.
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and to accommodate them in some way in the framing of both problems and development challenges. An attempt has been made to do this in the framework outlined below, with a particular emphasis being on the challenge to develop democratic practices and structures in education, and to take seriously recent education policy developments which emphasise the need to build inclusive and health promoting schools (Department of Education, 1997, 2001; Department of Health, 2000). When comparing this framework within the context of international trends, it is interesting to note that the framework draws from all the major organisational theories and perspectives (Dalin, 1998). The four primary perspectives on organisations and school development that Dalin refers to include: (a) The structural perspective, which regards organisations as 'rational' systems, concerned with realising set goals by means of the most effective structure and procedures. This perspective includes classical organisational theory, open-system theory, contingency theory and socio-technical theory (p32). (b) The humanistic perspective, which is concerned with people's contributions in organisations, with the interaction between people, focusing on human needs and motivation. Mayo, McGregor, Argyris and Herzberg are representatives of this perspective, according to Dalin (p37). (c) The political perspective, which regards organisations as scenes for battles and conflicts of interest, particularly around resources. Representatives of theories within this perspective include Marx, Baldridge, Cyeert, March and Gamson; Berg and Wallin; and Barnard (p40). (d) The symbolic perspective, which is an alternative to rational thinking, focusing on the meanings people in the organisation give to what takes place. Myths, rituals, ceremonies, organisational culture, and metaphors are central to this perspective. Selznik, Blumer, Corwin, Weick, March and Olsen, and Moxnes are representatives of this perspective according to Dalin (p43). Dalin also refers to some integrated theories that draw from two or more of the above perspectives. He refers specifically to approaches developed by Mintzberg, Senge and Gomez (St Gallen Group) in this regard. Dalin, himself, favours an integrated approach drawing from the different perspectives in appropriate ways. By drawing on all these perspectives, the framework presented below represents, in Dalin's terms, an integrated approach to understanding and working with schools. ©Juta & Co.
ORGANISING FRAMEWORK
Elements of a school as an organisation Before going into some detail about each of the elements identified above, we need to remember that one can seldom separate any element from another as they are intertwined in so many ways. It is therefore difficult to talk about any one element without referring to others. So, while the separation of elements in this discussion is important for the purposes of analysis, their interdependent nature must be kept in mind at all times. In particular, the dynamic relationship between society, school, and the individual (people in the school setting) is a thread that runs through the entire analysis. L School culture
figure 2.2 Culture
The culture of the school is placed at the centre of the framework because it both determines and reflects how the elements of school life develop. The culture of the school comprises the values, the underlying norms that are given expression in daily practice, and the overall ethos of the school. A way of describing the culture of a school is to look at 'the way we do things around here'. This could include: Q The way in which students are or are not involved in the life of the school (., Juta & Co.
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G Attitudes and patterns relating to parent participation in school life Q The way in which people relate to one another G The approach adopted to leadership and management in the school Q The approach adopted to student discipline and teacher discipline in the classrooms and school as a whole Q Patterns of behaviour around time-management (e.g. punctuality) Q The way in which diversity is handled in the school, including how inclusion of students and staff who have been historically marginalised or excluded from the teaching and learning process is or is not facilitated G The ways in which the school does or does not promote the wellbeing of the school population Q The value given by all members of the school community to teaching and learning processes as well as particular practices developed around the core purpose of the school All of the above and other values and norms in a school relate to the way in which the environment either supports or hinders the teaching and learning processes. The teaching and learning environment is therefore a central organising feature of school culture. This is in light of the fact that the core purpose of a school is teaching and learning and that the curriculum comprises all the strategies required to make this happen. School culture is determined by many external and internal forces. School cultures reflect a particular society's values and norms. In South Africa, therefore, irrespective of specific differences that do occur between different types of schools, the dominant values and norms of society reflect themselves in our schools. Unless we are aware of this aspect, it is unlikely that attempts to improve the school will be successful and sustainable. At Yellowwood High School there is an overriding culture of demotivation in the school. The teachers leave soon after school ends and leave the staffroom late after break, and little discussion around educational issues takes place informally in the staffroom during breaks or during staff meetings. The culture of the school also reflects a gap between management (the principal in particular) and the staff as a whole. Younger teachers are fairly silent, and men tend to be more dominant than women. This reflects a particular way of relating, determined by particular views of social and power relations. We will now look at the other elements that have been identified in the framework.
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2. Identity
figure 2.3 Identity All schools share a particular identity determined by their core purpose of promoting teaching and learning for the purposes of achieving the aims of education. It is this purpose which makes schools different from other kinds of organisations. Within this broad identity, every school develops its own particular identity, its own organisational character. We can explore this identity by asking: 'How does the school identify itself or how is it viewed from outside?' 'Is the school known for a particular characteristic, for example, academic excellence, or sporting achievements?'' Who are we and where are we going? becomes the central, guiding question here. The 'who are we' question relates to identity and character, while the question of 'where are we going' relates to one important aspect of this element of school life: the broad purpose of the school and the direction in which it wants to move, reflected in its vision, particular mission, and broad aims. When we look at Yellowwood High School, we can see that it has a fairly strong sporting and academic identity, reflected, for example, in the framed awards in the reception area at the school, and in its improving exam results. ( , Juta & Co.
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3. Strategy
Figure 2.4 Strategy
This element of school life has two major components to it: strategies to promote organisation development and strategies that focus on curriculum development. The former refers to strategies adopted to develop the school as an environment for teaching and learning, focusing on setting goals, planning, and evaluating the organisational context. The latter refers to strategies adopted to develop all aspects of the curriculum, focusing on setting goals, planning and evaluating the curriculum. The element of strategy includes stated areas of achievement or goals, as well as criteria for measuring those achievements (often referred to as outcomes and indicators). Once goals have been set, planning to achieve those goals becomes an important set of activities. Once plans have been implemented, evaluation relating to the goals set and the processes pursued has to be conducted. This process of setting goals, planning action steps to achieve the goals, and ensuring that the process is evaluated in an ongoing way, is known as strategic planning, an important concept in all organisations, ©Juta& Co.
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but also within the context of curriculum development. It is the central organising action within this element. It includes a process of strategic decision-making where a school Q sets out to understand and monitor changes in its environment; O anticipates future trends; Q sets appropriate aims and goals; Q plans strategies to achieve these goals; Q implements action; and Q evaluates implementation in terms of the goals set and outcomes expected. Strategic planning relates directly to all other aspects or elements in the school. For example, it includes the review and development of the school's identity and culture; incorporates the development of procedures and structures to support the goals set; requires access to and the development of both technical and human resources to achieve the goals; and is dependent on effective leadership, management and governance. The process of evaluation highlighted in this element refers to: Q Organisational evaluation and development Q Curriculum review and development Q Teacher appraisal and development Q Learner assessment and development All of the above have recently received a great deal of attention within the education policy development processes in South Africa. They link directly to the concept of quality assurance, which is central to the movement towards a more accountable system of education that strives intentionally to achieve 'quality education for all'. When we look at the scenario outlined in the previous section we note that, in terms of goal-setting, planning and evaluation, there is very little evidence of clear strategic planning (or thinking) at Yellowwood High School. There is also an apparent absence of clear educational (or other) goals that staff have set for themselves. In any case, clear planning requires first and foremost a clear vision, mission and aims, which is not evident at Yellowwood High School. We have also discovered that very little evaluation or appraisal is taking place at the school - either in terms of classroom practice, or in terms of whole-school development plans.
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4. Structures and procedures
Figure 2.5 Structures and procedures
The next aspects of school life that we need to consider are the structures and procedures of the school, since these two aspects provide the basis for how systems interrelate within the school, and between the school and its broader environment. Structures and procedures allow the different aspects of school life to interrelate in a coherent way. Within school contexts, structures consist of ways in which individual and team contributions are combined within organisational units such as departments and committees; how these relate to one another; and lines of responsibility and accountability within and between these units. Procedures refer to the rules, regulations and methods whereby these structures relate to one another. Four central aspects of this element of school life need to be understood and developed: structural arrangements, information flow/ communication, decision-making, and accountability. (a) Structural arrangements There is a saying in one view of management that 'form follows function'. What this means is that the core purpose and function of an organisation, in this case a school, should determine the kind of structures that are developed, and the way in which they are arranged. Important ©Juta & Co.
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considerations in the development of this element of school life should therefore include the following questions: 'What kinds of structures are needed to fulfil the school's function?' and 'How should these structures be arranged in terms of both vertical and horizontal axes?' The answers to these questions would or should be located within a particular vision and value framework. Within the context of the South African education system, this includes, amongst other principles, ensuring that the structural arrangements Q reflect the principle of democracy, and in particular, appropriate devolution of control and responsibilities; Q facilitate effective and efficient management; Q provide opportunities for coordinated intersectoral collaboration in order to achieve holistic understandings of problems and solutions, and to develop comprehensive strategies and programmes. The principle of coordination is a major challenge in the context of relatively rapid and radical education reform which is characteristic of South Africa at this point in history. The development of numerous and uncoordinated education policies since 1994, and the varied attempts to implement these policies at all levels of education governance, has resulted in numerous committees and other structural forms being created. This raises a major challenge to schools which need to find ways of drawing these different structures together in a coordinated way to facilitate more effective management of change and, ultimately, to pursue the core purpose of the school in an effective and efficient manner. (b) Information flow/communication This aspect of structures and procedures relates to systems that provide a link between the different aspects in the school. This includes Q how different departments or units communicate with one another; Q how communication flows between governance and management structures and the rest of the school; and Q what and how information is shared with others in the school. Questions that could be asked to help in analysing this aspect include: 'Are there recognised lines of communication between units and people?' 'What kind of information is communicated and how is this done?' and 'Who has access to which information?' If only a few people have access to important information, then clearly only a few people can make informed decisions about important matters. It is clear, therefore, that information flow cannot be separated from the decision-making process (discussed below). In schools that are striving to establish a democratic ethos it is important to ensure that ©Juta & Co.
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access to appropriate information is facilitated. This helps to establish transparency in the school. Access to information is a way of bringing about a sense of shared ownership of decisions on the part of all concerned. Shared ownership is likely to encourage commitment to seeing decisions through because people have been empowered by their knowledge of the situation and participation in the decision-making process. This, in turn, is likely to result in a higher level of staff morale, and reduction in suspicion and uncertainty. (c) Decision-making Decision-making structures and procedures refer to specific structures, rules and methods developed in the school that provide the framework for making decisions around the various tasks of the school. Questions that help us to analyse decision-making processes in a school include: Q Who makes the decisions, and how? Q Are they made by one person, through consultation, by consensus, by majority vote? Q Are structures and procedures in place to facilitate decision-making processes where the voices of teachers, students, parents and others can be heard, or does the principal, with or without heads of departments, make decisions on his or her own? Q Is there some form of appropriate representation in the meetings where crucial decisions are being made? Q Are the decision-making procedures transparent and clear to everyone so that a sense of ownership of the decisions is fostered? Decision-making structures and procedures relate very closely to issues of control and management of the school and are therefore central when considering the development of a democratic organisation. If we understand democracy, in its simple definitional form, to mean the appropriate involvement or participation of all relevant roleplayers in decisions relating to their organisation either through direct participation or representation, the school's structures and procedures need to reflect this. (d) Accountability The question of accountability is crucial in South African schools at present. This refers fundamentally to responsibility and reporting systems. Traditionally, teachers have been accountable to their principals, and, ultimately, to the education department officials. In more recent times, facilitated particularly through new legislation (South African Schools Act, 1996), accountability to the parents of the school has been emphasised. Principals have traditionally been accountable to the education departments, the parents, and often the community within which the school is situated. Principals have also had to account for their actions and decisions to teacher unions and student representative bodies. ©Juta& Co.
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We need to understand how accountability operates in a school. We need to ask the question: Who is accountable to whom, and for what? When it comes to school development, we need to identify and set in place an accountability system that fosters the fundamental aims of the organisation. If one of the aims is to be democratic, then a system that optimally and efficiently allows for accountability to operate between all aspects of the system needs to be developed. Accountability that operates in one direction only (such as in a 'top-down' hierarchical management structure, or, alternatively in a 'bottom-up' system where 'the people' control the management) will not further the aims of democracy. From our case study it seems that the structures and procedures of Yellowwood High School do not lend themselves to transparency, trust and a 'democratic' ethos. Decision-making clearly does not involve all staff members actively, and structures to support, for example, staff development, are non-existent. There seems to be little accountability in the school, evidenced by the high absentee rate of teachers, as well as teachers taking time off for their own studies - often at the expense of their students' needs. Procedures around who has access to, for example, the photocopier, are clearly unsatisfactory and cause resentment among the staff. 5. Technical support
Figure 2.6 Technical support ©Juta & Co.
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The next element, technical support, is one aspect of school life which is often ignored to the detriment of the school's development. It includes resource access and control, teaching and learning support, finances, and administration. (a) Resource access and control Access to and control of resources are of central concern to any organisation. In the school context these resources include: Q
Finances
G Teaching materials and equipment G Learning support materials and equipment G Equipment and materials relating to administrative support G The school facilities themselves Questions that facilitate an analysis of this aspect of school life include: 'Are these resources available and accessible to those who need them?' 'How does one access these resources?' 'Who takes care of the resources in the school?' and 'Are the resources fairly distributed?' Conflicts in many schools in South Africa have been related to the mishandling of and mistrust around financial and other resources. Resource management in a school context includes exploring various strategies for accessing resources that are needed in a school, including: Q accessing budgets within the school and from the district and provincial structures; G writing proposals and obtaining resources from the private and business sectors; G obtaining resources from local and other communities; G developing one's own resources. Resource management also includes the control of these resources. This includes: Q allocating resources obtained in a way that optimises the use of these resources in terms of needs and demands within the school; Q maintaining the resources; G up-dating the resources. (b) Teaching and learning support This aspect of the element of technical support is important to highlight because the teaching and learning function of the school, which constitutes its core purpose, is dependent on the teachers having access to teaching materials and equipment. This includes texts, manuals, and ©Juta & Co.
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other written materials, audio-visual equipment, teaching aids, and other physical materials required to facilitate the teaching process. Material resources are also required by learners themselves to facilitate their access to the curriculum. This includes texts and other book resources, computers, assistive devices (for some learners with disabilities), basic stationery, and so on. For both the teachers and students, the school facilities need to promote rather than hinder the teaching and learning process. At the level of access, the school grounds, buildings and classrooms need to be accessible to all learners (including learners with disabilities who may require specifications that facilitate their access), safe (in terms of the physical and psychosocial environment), and conducive to effective teaching and learning. (c) Finances Historically, principals and teachers have had little experience in managing school finances. As schools gain greater financial autonomy, supported by recent education legislation (South African Schools Act 1996), this becomes an increasingly important aspect of school management. Within the context of the move towards devolved financial control and responsibility in schools in South Africa, national and provincial budgets provide both constraints and opportunities for school development. It is important that efforts are made to ensure that these budget allocations are adequate to support effective teaching and learning in the schools. Then, within the school itself, the development and management of local budgets becomes a major challenge. (d) Administration The area of administration incorporates secretarial support, and administrative work relating to the running of the school and to the teaching activity itself. There have been dramatic inequalities around provision of administrative support in the (previous) various departments of education in South Africa. In the majority of schools, principals have to fulfil numerous administrative functions, often to the detriment of their managerial role. Teachers, too, suffer from a lack of administrative support, and more often than not carry enormous workloads. Their administrative responsibilities often leave insufficient time for paying adequate attention to their primary responsibility of classroom work. If you wish to build a democratic school, administrative support becomes particularly important. As has been mentioned, information flow is crucial if transparency and access are to be achieved. Efficient administrative support is crucial in ensuring that this occurs. The element of technical support (as with all the elements) is intimately linked with the others. In particular, the availability and use of resources is a central concern in the strategic planning process, where capacity to ( Juta & Co.
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implement plans to achieve goals set is determined by both human and material resources. Furthermore, structures and procedures set in place to achieve the goals set for the school can only operate if adequate administrative support and resources are provided. At Yellowwood High School, technical support is limited: administrative support from a secretary helps school management but not necessarily the rest of the staff. The physical equipment at the school is clearly inadequate, as are the buildings and the development of the playing fields at the school. Moreover, only certain teachers have access to available resources, which causes tension and mistrust. 6. Human resources
Figure 2.7 Human resources
The human resources aspect of school life involves issues concerning members of the staff (education managers, teachers, and support staff), the parents, the students, various community leaders and groupings, education administrators, and various education support service personnel providing itinerant services to the school. Five aspects relating to human resources in a school context are highlighted for consideration here: human resource utilisation, human ©Juta & Co.
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resource development and training (including staff development and appraisal), personal and interpersonal relationships and dynamics, service conditions, and psychosocial and learning support. (a) Human resource utilisation Identifying what human resources are needed to promote effective teaching and learning in the school is an important aspect of human resource management. Once these human resource needs have been identified, the people need to be found and then deployed in the best possible manner. This is not or should not be a mere technical exercise where people are viewed and treated as commodities, but rather where individual needs and goals are linked with the needs and goals of the school. The above focuses primarily on teachers who constitute the core human resources in terms of the service provided to the students. But, it does also include maximising the use of support staff, parents, the students themselves, community resources, education administrators and various education support service personnel to build a supportive and effective culture of teaching and learning. This means that the 'line' between the school and its community becomes porous, with non-traditional roleplayers playing a more active role both in developing the school as an environment for teaching and learning, and in the process of curriculum development and provision. (b) Human resource development and training This element includes the area of staff development which, in a school context, usually refers to teacher or professional development. This incorporates education and training opportunities through various forms of inservice programmes. Without ongoing programmes and processes to encourage and support staff development, schools become out of touch with educational trends and teachers lose the sense of renewal and inspiration which is such an essential part of a meaningful education. This aspect links to other elements in the school in various ways. For example, staff appraisal, identified as an aspect of the 'strategy' element, should be closely linked to staff development. A second example relates to the process of strategic planning, where the question of capacity within the school in terms of both material and human resources has to be addressed. Teacher or staff development programmes need to be developed around the particular needs of the individual staff and school situation and should correspond with the vision. For example, if you want to build an 'inclusive and health-promoting school', insights, knowledge and skills relevant to participation in such a system should be facilitated. While teacher development is the main focus for this aspect of school c.Juta & Co.
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life, development of the other roleplayers should also receive attention if the development of the whole school is to be achieved. This includes providing capacity building for: Q The school governing body, so that they can optimally fulfil their governance functions Q Administrative, secretarial and other support staff in the school Q The parents, to facilitate their optimal involvement in the life of the school and to strengthen their support of students in home contexts Q The learners, so that their capacity to teach and support one another is developed Q Community groupings, so that they can participate in the school community in meaningful ways, and so that the school's resources can be optimally shared with the local community. The support provided by 'district' support systems can play a central role in assisting the school to meet the above challenges. (c) Personal and interpersonal relationships and dynamics This area of the 'human resources' element of a school refers to the informal interpersonal relations among the staff and other roleplayers of the school. It includes consideration of personal histories and issues, as well as various group dynamics issues, with conflict and conflict management being one key area. In order to enable people to operate at maximum potential, schools have to work consciously at the establishment and maintenance of teams, rather than assume that when people work together they naturally function as a well-knit unit. Competent teams are developed through conscious effort, and through reflection on group dynamics for the purposes of addressing weaknesses and developing strengths. Conflict and other group and interpersonal dynamics need to be understood in relation to other elements in the school and, indeed, in relation to broader social dynamics. For example, power dynamics, particularly around the areas of potential domination (for example race, gender, social class, differentiated ability) should be understood and addressed within the context of the elements of the school as an organisation. (d) Service conditions This area includes recruitment of staff, induction of new staff, job descriptions, scales of remuneration, leave conditions, and other personnel policies and practices. In South African schools, conditions of employment are of particular concern. Many of the problems we face in schools are directly related to ©Juta & Co.
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a lack of fairness and equity in relation to service conditions. In the face of these inequities, the question of affirmative action needs to be addressed urgently in order to build appropriate and just conditions of employment for our current teaching force. Questions that should be asked to highlight strengths and weaknesses in this aspect of school life include: 'Are conditions of service perceived to be fair?' 'Are policies developed to ensure just working conditions?' 'How are inequities being redressed?' 'What criteria are used to recruit staff?' 'Are new members of staff adequately inducted into the school?' and 'Are job descriptions appropriate to the needs of the school's tasks?' At Yellowwood High School we are aware that, in terms of human resources issues, there are fairly good collegial relationships among staff. However, there is some conflict around union affiliations and certain gender, racial and age issues. Many teachers seem to show little interest in the quality and development of their subject work, and no formal staff development programme is in place in the school. There is little opportunity for staff to contribute meaningfully towards the life of the school and the shaping of its direction, since most of the decisions are made by the principal. Conditions of service are unclear in terms of study leave for teachers writing exams, and these issues have never been discussed by the staff as a whole. (e) Psychosocial and learning support In response to the need for support of the transformation processes occurring in schools in South Africa at present - relating to massive policy changes and demands in recent years - and in response to the need for ongoing additional support that some schools, teachers, students and parents will always require in order for learners to access the curriculum successfully, various forms of education support services have been identified as necessary (Department of Education, 1997; 2001 White Paper 6). These support services focus on providing Q support to the school (including various aspects of organisation development); Q support to teachers around all aspects of the curriculum (including support in particular learning areas) (curriculum development); Q direct learning support for learners who require it; Q psychosocial support for learners, teachers, and/or parents; and O medical support for learners who require it. Within the context of the local school, these support services can to a large extent be provided by the school community itself (teachers, support staff and students themselves), but additional resources are often needed. This is where the optimal utilisation of human resources ©Juta & Co.
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becomes important. Within the micro context of any school, there are formal education support services that can or should be able to be accessed on an itinerant basis, and the local community support system provides a natural base from which to draw support. The latter requires schools to understand their own 'community profiles', that is, the support systems that do exist around them, and how to access and work in partnership with these valuable resources. 7. Leadership, management and governance
figure 2.8 Leadership and management
At the heart of school life are leadership, management and governance. It is these aspects of school life that ensure that all other aspects are held together and developed. What do we mean by 'leadership' and 'management'? It has been said that leadership is the art of facilitating a school to 'do the right thing at the right time', while management is the discipline required to ensure that the school 'does things right', or functions well. Another way of looking at it is to see leadership as directing a school, and management as holding the school, maintaining the well-being of the school and ensuring that the systems set in place are working well. Louis and ©Juta & Co.
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Miles, referred to in Fullan (1991:157-158), ... make the distinction between leadership and management and emphasize that both are essential. Leadership relates to mission, direction, inspiration. Management involves designing and carrying out plans, getting things done, working effectively with people. ... Louis and Miles list the main 'action motifs' for 'leadership' and 'management' for change. The leadership aspects involve (1) articulating a vision, (2) getting shared ownership, and (3) evolutionary planning. The management function concerns (1) negotiating demands and resource issues with the environment, and (2) coordinated and persistent problem-coping.
The 'inspirational' aspect of leadership highlighted by Louis and Miles deserves further comment. Leaders in school contexts have an important role to play in drawing people together and motivating them to take leaps into often risky futures. This is particularly important in an unstable context of educational change, currently being experienced in South Africa, where this aspect of leadership can assist in transcending the many fears and anxieties common in such a situation. While a distinction between leadership and management is made here, it is important to note that they are closely associated functions that cannot be attended to separately. Leadership and management relate not only to those in positions of power (for example, principals, heads of departments), but also to leadership and management capacity: the ability of all those in leadership positions (and potentially that means every teacher and other roleplayers in the school) to be creative and responsible leaders. A healthy school, within this broader understanding of leadership and management, is one in which leadership capacity is developed in all staff members and other constituencies, through ongoing personal and professional development processes. As Holly and Southworth (1991:xi) put it: 'Leadership ... is not necessarily the property of the privileged few; it is the right and responsibility of us all.' This element involves particular aspects of leadership: different styles of leadership, leadership functions, qualities of a leader, as well as the development of leadership capacity. It also involves particular aspects of management: different approaches to management, management functions, management strategies, and management training. Capacity building of the governing body of the school is also an important aspect of this element. The concepts of power and control are central to any consideration of leadership, management and governance. How power is used through these functions in a school fundamentally reveals the school's values and ©Juta & Co.
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norms with regard to power relations, which usually reflect the values and norms of society. So, in South Africa, where hierarchical forms of leadership and management have been the order of the day in virtually all social institutions (e.g. government, family, religion), it is not surprising that we see these hierarchical power relations playing themselves out in the school institution. Although there has been a move towards a more consultative style of leadership and management, this has sometimes become too laissez-faire, allowing many voices to be heard, but giving inadequate guidance. This has often resulted in a lack of direction and, in some cases, chaos. The challenge is to develop the sensitivity and wisdom to use the right style of leadership 'at the right time'. This means at times being directive, at times negotiating within a consultative framework, and at times delegating control and responsibility to others (Heron, 1992). We can see, particularly from the above, that this central element of organisational life is closely linked to other aspects of school life and, in particular, reflects and maintains central aspects of the school's culture. Working with this element must, therefore, include an engagement with the system as a whole. Looking at leadership and management at Yellowwood High School, it is obvious that Mr Strider doesn't have a sense of, and therefore does not utilise, the teachers' talents and skills. As a result he does not value his staff sufficiently, nor does he encourage or inspire them. He is perceived to be dogmatic and somewhat bureaucratic in his approach to management, since his main concern is with technical and administrative details. Clearly he has not motivated the staff with a vision or unique sense of purpose for Yellowwood High School. While the school governing body is technically representative of all key roleplayers, there is clearly dissatisfaction with the way in which it is currently working. Within the context of South Africa, school governing bodies have a central role to play in developing a common vision for the school, incorporating the values and principles embodied in the school's mission statement in a school policy that can guide the practices in the school, and overseeing (but not doing!) the financial and other central aspects of school management. These bodies therefore play a central role in providing leadership to the school. A school's policy - in national, provincial, district and school-specific terms - reflects the identity of a school. It encapsulates particular principles that act as guidelines for practice. Attempts to understand and change schools should take seriously the need to review and develop policies for the purposes of ensuring that they reflect the education system and school's values. This is a central role of the school governing body. ©Juta & Co.
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8. The context
figure 2.9 The context or external environment of the school Perhaps the overriding aspect of schools as organisations that should be taken into account, but is often underemphasised or ignored in organisation development interventions, is the broader contextual element. This includes consideration of the factors linked to the various aspects of the milieu, including social, political, economic, technological, legislative, ecological, physical, cultural and institutional dynamics. Problems and solutions to these problems within a particular school need to be analysed and identified within the above contextual factors. If an understanding of and response to school issues does not take these dynamics into account, they are unlikely to be addressed in any satisfactory way. The relationship of the school within an education system located within a particular society and global context has been discussed in some detail in chapter one, so will not be explored in detail here. However, it is important when considering the overall framework for understanding and working with schools that we remind ourselves of the key factors to consider in this regard. The micro-, macro-, and global levels of the broader system should be included in environmental analyses, and should consider the following issues. CJuta & Co.
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(a) Micro context In the context of schools as organisations, this includes resources in the local community context. This covers formal education support services as well as various forms of community resources such as the families of learners, community organisations, business institutions, various forms of community support systems (pockets of community support where one would perhaps least expect it!), religious institutions, local health, welfare and other governmental services, and local government and municipal services. Consideration of this context also includes various local dynamics that impact upon and are impacted upon by the school. These could include social dynamics such as poverty, violence, political coalitions and divisions, and so on - as well as dynamics relating to the school within the local education system itself. (b) Macro context In this framework, this includes the national and provincial education policy and management framework within which schools operate; other national and provincial policies that impact on schools, particularly economic policies; physical and people resources available within the provinces and country as a whole; and various systemic dynamics that reflect and perpetuate particular values, norms and practices in society. As has been mentioned at various points in this book, schools cannot be understood or developed in isolation. They are part of an education system which is located within broader societal structures and dynamics. The impact of these factors is enormous and they provide both the constraints and possibilities for development. (c) Global context Although not always in an obvious way, international trends and dynamics also have a major impact on school life, both inhibiting and fostering development in various ways. There are trends in education in other parts of the world that impact on the developments in this country, particularly as many educationists and education policy formulators keep in touch with, are influenced by, and contribute to international debates on various aspects of school life and the curriculum. These trends include, for example, the international movement towards school-based management, within a more decentralised system of education. And then, behind these educational trends are other political and economic forces which play a major role in determining the kinds of education policies and practices being developed here and in other parts of the world. Using the previous example, the move towards school-based management reflects a particular response to international political trends towards decentralisation for the purposes of both democracy, and economic efficiency and accountability. All of this relates to the concept of globalisation, which is viewed by many in education as a major determining force in the lives of all of us. ©Juta & Co.
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The context within which Yellowwood High School is located - its immediate community, its educational landscape etched by a particular educational and political ideology, and the broader national trends in the country - is evident in the physical location of the school, the lack of resources, the relationship between principal and staff, and between the school governing body and staff. All of these can and need to be understood in a context which extends beyond the immediate boundaries of the school itself.
ORGANISATION (SCHOOL) DEVELOPMENT The organising framework outlined above provides a way of seeing and understanding the particular points of intervention to begin a process of organisation development at the school. We can see that every aspect of the life of the school can be analysed in terms of this framework; this in turn makes it possible for us to begin to work towards building coherence and effectiveness at the school.
Organisation development Our particular understanding of schools as organisations rests on a belief that development of the organisation is not only possible, but is a necessary aspect of integrated school life. The importance of schools engaging in organisation development processes is underlined by our understanding of processes of change. Very often, when we think about educational change, we think of changes that teachers need to make in their classroom settings - using new (and more interesting and relevant) materials, developing new teaching methodologies, and possibly also changing old attitudes and values and developing new ones which suit the new approaches mentioned above (Fullan 1991). However, while important and necessary, these changes need to be placed within the context of the whole school as the immediate environment which will either constrain or enable individual teachers to make these changes and develop professionally. In other words, we need to build a school environment which is supportive of change - for the individual teachers, as well as for the school as an organisational whole. This means that the school needs to be a learning organisation - an organisation which is constantly and systematically reflecting on its own practice, and making appropriate adjustments and changes as a result of new insights gained through that reflection. In this way we are talking about professional teacher development (with the emphasis on 'people' change) and organisation development (organisational change) in order to equip the school as a whole to become more effective in its purpose and goals. We cannot develop an organisation (school) without developing the people who work in the school; thus professional (human resource) development is seen to be a necessary aspect of organisation development. ©Juta & Co.
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Bennis (1969:2) puts it in the following way: Organization Development (OD) is a response to change, a complex educational strategy intended to change the beliefs, attitudes, values, and structures of organizations so that they can better adapt to new technologies, markets, and challenges, and the dizzying rate of change itself.
Because it is living, an organisation needs to be developing all the time, and the essential purpose of organisation development, according to Dalin and Rust (1983:21): ... is to improve the health and functioning of school organizations ... Organization Development is holistic or systemic in that it concentrates on the organization more than on the isolated individual or practice.
Dalin and Rust (1983:22) describe organisation development in the following way: Organization Development is a self-correcting, self-renewing process, undertaken by the members of an organization, although external support usually exists in the form of consultants or selfassessment instruments. The consultant rarely imposes solutions but assists the members of an organization in identifying for themselves what the strengths and weaknesses of the organization are and what changes shall occur in the organization. However, it is the members of the group itself who are ultimately responsible for the way the organization is to be transformed.
Organisation development can be described as a 'normative reeducative' strategy for managing change, which is aimed at facilitating development of people and the organisation as a whole for the purposes of optimising human fulfilment and increasing organisational capacity. A central focus in organisation development is that of the culture of the school. Often, when we talk about organisation development interventions, what we are really describing is changing the culture of the school. Strategies aimed at improvement and change are unlikely to be effective and sustained if the overall culture of the school is not recognised (made conscious) and then transformed. Organisation development has its origins in the business world. More recently, however, organisation development has become an important strategy for building organisational capacity in many different kinds of organisations, including schools. It is an important strategy for school development and, indeed, is often used synonymously with the term 'whole school development'. ©Juta & Co.
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When we look at school organisation development, we need to take into account the particular and central purpose of schools. It is about learning and all the strategies used to facilitate learning. The curriculum and curriculum development give the school its particular nature, and are therefore intricately linked to the organisation development of the school. Curriculum development is affected by the organisational structure of the school and in turn gives shape to it.
Some of the key characteristics of organisation development include: Q a focus on the development of people and structures; G a reflection of humanistic and democratic values; Q collaboration and self-determination; Q a focus on organisational self-renewal; Q an emphasis on rational planning, including goal-setting and planning accordingly; Q a particular focus on creating an effective open problem-solving climate; Q an ongoing process which reflects the action research or experiential learning cycle of ongoing planning, action and reflection.
The types of strategies used in organisation development include: Person-centred strategies which take the form of educational interventions, included among which are staff, student and parent development; structural change strategies which tend to concentrate on changing structural aspects of the school itself - for example management structures and processes, regulation and policy, codes of conduct; also included here would be structural aspects relating to the environment within which the school operates (the broader context).
An integrated approach to school development The school development framework outlined in this chapter provides the broad frame for development in the school. Recent education policy developments that highlight specific sets of spectacles and foci for development, for example the development of inclusive schools (Department of Education, 1997 and 2001) and health promoting schools/sites (Department of Health, in collaboration with Education and Welfare, 2000), need to be located within this framework, thereby ensuring that C'Juta & Co.
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all elements of school life are taken into account and developed accordingly (LazaniSj Davidoff & Daniels, 2000). A health promoting school
Q aims at achieving healthy lifestyles for the total school population by developing supportive environments conducive to the promotion of health. Q It offers opportunities for, and requires commitments to, the provision of a safe and health-enhancing social and physical environment (World Health Organisation, 1993:1). The concept of health is used here to refer to physical, social, environmental, economic and spiritual well-being, and not merely the absence of disease. It is directly relevant to the core purpose of schooling insofar as it relates to the development of students, and in relation to the extent that physical and psychosocial factors either hinder or promote effective teaching and learning. In developing effective schools, the five strategies outlined in the Ottawa Charter (1986) should comprise one aspect of the school's development. These strategies include: Q building school policies which support health and well-being; Q creating safe and supportive teaching and learning environments which include the creation of human rights; Q strengthening community action and participation through enhancing and expanding the relationship between schools and the community; Q promoting personal skills of members of the school community, through health and life skills education and encouragement of healthy physical activity and recreation; Q providing access to and re-orientating education support services towards an accessible, integrated, systemic, preventative and health promotive approach - with a particular focus on reducing the numbers of learners experiencing barriers to learning and development and addressing factors that place learners at risk. Within the context of education, the concept of inclusion or inclusive education refers to one of the major challenges facing education in South Africa, namely, how the education system can be continually restructured in order to respond positively to the diverse needs of all learners. Inclusive education
Q acknowledges that all children and youth can learn and that all children and youth need support; ©Juta&Co.
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Q ensures that education structures, systems and learning methodologies meet the needs of all learners; Q maximises the participation of all learners in the culture and the curriculum of education institutions and identifies and minimises barriers to learning; Q focuses on changing attitudes, behaviours, methodologies, curricula and learning environments to meet the needs of all learners; Q acknowledges and respects differences in learners, whether due to age, gender, ethnicity, language, class, disability, HIV status, etc; Q acknowledges that learning also occurs in the home and community, within formal and informal contexts. (Department of Education, 2001) Within the context of school development, this perspective focuses primarily on issues of diversity and discrimination, with an emphasis being placed on developing a welcoming, non-discriminatory and flexible environment and curriculum, where access to learning is facilitated through addressing barriers to learning and development at all levels of the system. Perhaps what is most important to highlight regarding the incorporation of the health promoting and inclusive schools perspectives in school development are the values that are emphasised. This includes the values of promoting well-being through empowerment of all members of the school community, and a commitment to the development of a supportive, welcoming and inclusive ethos which respects diversity and addresses all forms of discrimination. These are not new values in South Africa, but they are given more substance around issues that place so many learners at risk of experiencing learning breakdown or exclusion.
The process of change We all know that change is an inevitable part of life. Rhythms and cycles of change are part of the realities of all of our lives. As such, we are all changing as our circumstances and life realities change constantly. However, it is important to recognise that within these cycles of change, where broader social issues affect our day-to-day lives and where our day-to-day lives shape broader social changes, we have a responsibility to engage consciously in changing in chosen directions. It is perhaps like being at sea in a boat with a captain, a rudder and a definite destination, which will determine our direction. We will still be vulnerable to the rise and fall of the swells and to galeforce winds, but this will be in the context of knowing where we want to go and steering ourselves in that direction to the best of our (and the boat's) ability, given sea and weather conditions. ©Juta & Co.
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Or we can go to sea in a boat which has no rudder or captain, and will therefore be swept in whichever direction the wind happens to be blowing. Engaging in an organisation development process means deciding to choose a conscious direction for your organisation (or school) - one that will most likely enable the school to become more effective in its focus, orientation and purpose. It is important to recognise that such change, even though consciously chosen, is still very likely to be threatening, painful and difficult for those engaging in it (Fullan 1991). Because change is essentially complex, unpredictable, and because it does not occur in a straightforward, linear way, organisation development processes need to take into account this complexity. Fullan (1993:19) underlines this when he asks the question: How is change complex? Take any educational policy or problem and start listing all the forces that could figure in the solution and that would need to be influenced to make for productive change. Then, take the idea that unplanned factors are inevitable - government policy changes or gets constantly redefined, key leaders leave, important contact people are shifted to another role, new technology is invented ... recession reduces available resources, a bitter conflict erupts, and so on. Finally, realise that every new variable that enters the equation - those unpredictable but inevitable noise factors - produces ten other ramifications, which in turn produce tens of other reactions and on and on. It also needs to be understood that there is very likely to be resistance to change as participants in the process move from a situation which is known (whether it is pleasant or unpleasant need not necessarily detract from the safety of familiarity that it offers), to a situation which is unknown, and which might or might not be better than the situation which has preceded it. This phenomenon of resistance to change contributes towards the unevenness of the process. We need to help schools to understand the complexity of change, to recognise that there might well be resistance from unexpected quarters and that they will not easily be able to predict the process. An understanding of their school as an organisation, with its interdependent elements, capable of being developed, is a crucial aspect of organisational change. GUIDELINES AND EXERCISES The following are some broad principles relating to ways of addressing organisational issues in schools. Q In school development it is important to develop an understanding or analysis of the school that helps all concerned to identify strengths and weaknesses for the purpose of improving things. Q Finding out what the various roleplayers in the school consider to be the strengths and weaknesses of their school is an important first step. Because organisation development facilitates and develops ©Juta & Co.
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self-understanding and self-renewal, it is crucial that the issues are identified by the relevant roleplayers in the school itself, and not by the principal or organisation development consultant or other education department support personnel alone. One way in which you could do this is to ask all roleplayers, through workshops and/or interviews or questionnaires, to write down their views of issues facing the school, or strengths and weaknesses of the school. These could then be shared in a workshop format, or compiled on paper. Q The framework outlined in this chapter could then be introduced to all concerned through a workshop. For the purposes of helping participants integrate the framework and making it meaningful in their own contexts, you could ask them to rework the framework in a way that satisfies their picture of the school. This framework helps participants to organise and make sense of their strengths and weaknesses. At this point you could, together with the participants, link the issues they initially raised with the elements identified in the framework and in this way help them to categorise the issues so that some order is made of the overwhelming number of issues or problems usually facing one. You could then make an overall analysis of where most of the school's strengths and weaknesses lie, and what potentially should be targeted for change. Q Besides using this framework for a holistic analysis as described above, you could use it as a means of understanding and solving a particular problem. One way of doing this could be to hear the participants' views of the problem; then introduce them to the framework; then ask them to redefine the problem and pursue solutions in the light of the framework. Q This framework is also useful as a basis for grappling with problems or development around a particular element (to be pursued in more detail in the ensuing chapters) of organisational life. The major purpose for doing this is to retain a holistic and complex understanding and intervention approach. For example, if a school requests assistance in developing a code of conduct, it would be helpful to explore, with the school, what underlying concerns are prompting this need. Through such a process, it might well become evident that there is a lack of accountability (an issue relating to structures and procedures) through ineffective leadership and management. Initial steps would probably be building leadership and management capacity, and developing a vision for the school, accompanied by appropriate strategic planning. Q The framework is particularly useful as a basis for strategic planning (to be pursued in more detail in chapter four). It reminds all concerned of the need to include analysis and development of all r Juta & Co.
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aspects. Very often, for example, 'planning' at schools consists of deciding on a timetable, days for outings, sporting and cultural events, staff meetings, and so on. However, planning which does not support a particular vision (identity), or identify the need for restructuring to support the realisation of such a vision (structures and procedures), or take into account the current capacity at the school or the capacity building required (technical support and human resources) will not help the school to move forward significantly.
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CHAPTER THREE
CULTURE AND IDENTITY ... the moral role and importance of today's teacher is probably greater than it has been for a long time (Fullan & Hargreaves 1992:28)
In this chapter we will be exploring the culture and identity elements of organisational life. It is within these elements that we will be exploring the values and norms, and the purpose, vision, mission and direction of the school. We will also look at ways in which this identity is shaped, and how it relates to the other elements of organisational life. THE IDEAL SCHOOL: SOUTH AFRICAN VALUES AND VISION The culture and identity of a school is (in) formed primarily through the values and norms of the society within which it exists. These values and norms are usually made visible in education policy. In South Africa, the values espoused in all education policies are congruent with the country's Constitution. Key values that have been highlighted include a commitment to building democratic structures and practices; equity and redress in relation to historic inequalities; addressing prejudice and discrimination and accommodating diverse needs through a commitment to building an inclusive education and training system; and promoting the well-being of all members of the school community. These values act as the foundation for the school development processes explored in this book. Over the past few years, there has been much talk in South Africa about building schools as 'learning organisations'; a concept popularised and worked with extensively by Senge (1994). While the very title of this book implies and takes seriously the notion of the school as a learning school, it is important to explore this a little further - what do we mean when we talk about the school as a learning school/ organisation? For many people it might seem self-evident that the school is a learning organisation, because this is where students come to learn! A learning organisation is an organisation which has learnt how to learn about itself, and about the world within which it exists and functions. In being able to learn, a learning organisation is able to understand and make sense of its own patterns and organisational reality, and also its broader 49 49
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context. In this way a learning organisation displays self-understanding, and understanding of itself in relation to its world. If there is learning which is occurring as part of the life of the organisation, this learning builds insight into the people within the organisation - both of themselves and of one another; of the core purpose of their work, and of their work in response to the communities which they serve. A learning organisation is predicated on an assumption that such understandings build confidence, openness and lack of defensiveness, which further enable the organisation to move and grow towards greater consciousness. For self-understanding is about greater and greater consciousness, both individually and collectively. Many of our actions, individual and organisational, are governed by unconscious needs, are coloured by lack of understanding of ourselves, are strained by lack of self-acceptance. To the extent that we develop deeper insight and consciousness, to that extent will our actions be informed, creative and imaginative. This enhances the quality of all that we engage in, as we systematically remove the obstacles to clear vision. The more conscious we are, the more able we are to learn, and the more we learn, the more conscious we become. Lack of defensiveness arising out of this allows us to be flexible rather than rigid, open rather than dogmatic, yet centred in a value system which provides a base for being and for working with integrity and sensitivity to our own and others' needs. Such a process of building understanding enables the organisation to be both responsive and proactive. Responsive in being able to both understand and be mobile and flexible to adapt to such understanding of needs expressed 'out there'; proactive in being able to anticipate forces which are working and coming towards the organisation, and to be able to plan and respond accordingly. Living in a learning environment is a constant process of listening (and therefore 'hearing' what is going on), and observing (and therefore 'seeing') what is happening at deeper and deeper levels) keenly and closely. It is a constantly interweaving process of giving and receiving, listening and talking, being receptive and active, moving and standing still, with equipoise and inner silence. It means being in touch with oneself and the world in a space of inner meaning and purpose. A learning organisation is one which constantly, in an ongoing way, infuses meaning and purpose into its daily practice. What is the practice of a learning organisation? It is one of engaging in reflection - reflection on all activities, on the pulse and life of the organisation, on the quality of what is being produced - in the context of broader social dynamics, needs and demands. It is one of creating spaces for people to meet, to talk, to engage with one another, to explore and share understandings and orientations and to revisit, together, vision and possibilities. It is about thinking together, feeling together, and building synergy through depth of sharing. It is about ©Juta & Co.
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working towards wholeness, building the whole of one's vision into each part one engages in, and seeing the relationship between the whole and the parts. A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING THE SCHOOL'S CULTURE
Organisational culture Before we begin to talk about the organisational element which we refer to as the identity of the school, we need to say something about the culture of any organisation, and of the school in particular. We see this as an extremely important aspect of school life - one which has a profound effect on and is affected by every other element in the organisation. The culture of an organisation, or school, diffuses its particular qualities and characteristics into every corner of school life. Very often, it lives, influences and affects the life of the school in ways that people in the school are barely aware of. If, for example, the culture in a school is one that does not support innovation, or resists change, or is fundamentally disinterested in the educational process, any attempts to bring about a change, without addressing the existing culture, will probably be ineffective. The concept of culture is a complex one. The culture of a school can be defined (Clarke et al in Sparks 1991:52-53) as the peculiar and distinctive 'way of life' of the group or class, the meanings, values and ideas embodied in institutions, in social relations, in systems and beliefs, in mores and customs, in the uses of. objects and material life. Culture is the distinctive shapes in which this material and social organisation of life expresses itself. A culture includes the 'maps of meaning' which make things intelligible to its members. These 'maps of meaning' are not simply carried around in the head: they are objectivated in the patterns of social organisation and relationship through which the individual becomes a 'social individual' ... Culture is the way the social relations of a group are structured and shaped; but it is also the way those shapes are experienced, understood and interpreted.
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Figure 3.1 Framework for understanding schools: culture
The culture of a school relates to, as we mentioned in chapter two, 'the way we do things around here'. It comprises the values and norms of the school, the unwritten 'rules' which determine and establish a certain set of behaviours, a particular way of being, relating, working in the context of the school. It tends to ensure a certain measure of conformity, so that over time, individuals who work there begin to express the culture of the school. It is the ethos or climate of the school, affected, obviously, by its outer context. The culture of the school is the most pervasive aspect of school life, and touches and affects every other aspect. Where, for example, there is a culture of malaise at a school, of teachers arriving late, not preparing lessons adequately, resenting being at school after the last bell has rung, then this will affect the way teachers think about and value their teaching. It will affect the way in which people relate to each other, the way meetings are run, the way information is shared, the way the school is managed. If we do not understand or recognise the culture that exists at a school, attempts at change and innovation could prove futile, because we are not acknowledging or dealing with the aspects of school life that will most likely hinder processes of transformation. One of the ways of changing the culture of the school, therefore, is to help people working in schools to identify what the culture is. ©Juta & Co.
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A term that we often hear in South Africa is that schools need to develop a 'culture of teaching and learning'. This phrase aptly captures the complex dynamics that come together to either foster or inhibit the development of particular activities - in this instance, teaching and learning. In the context of debates in South Africa, a culture of teaching and learning would be one in which all roleplayers value the processes of teaching and learning; where the norms reflect a commitment to the teaching and learning process; where practices reflect this commitment; where the resources needed to facilitate this process are available; and where the school is structured in such a way as to facilitate these processes. Since teaching and learning are activities which form the core purpose of the school, it is desirable that the culture of the school is such that creative teaching and learning is recognised and valued in such a way that all other activities are designed to enhance and support quality classroom practice. So we can see that the culture of a school embodies the values and norms that determine the development of all other elements. Likewise, if a particular culture is to be developed, you would have to ensure that the various elements of the organisation are congruent with the values espoused (and practised).
Norms and values - the cornerstone of culture Norms are the unwritten 'rules' in an organisation, the rules that guide the way things are done or not done: what is said and what is not said (can we talk openly about sex, or political affiliations, or religious concerns?); who speaks most assertively (men or women, older or younger staff members?); what happens when it's someone's birthday? More often than not, the norms have not been thought through consciously by the staff, but rather happen through established patterns and habits. There may be no obviously particular reason for these norms, but they live unconsciously in the life of the school. Some of these norms are made visible through school rules. It is helpful to assist people in the school to become aware of these norms, so that they can make conscious choices as to which norms they would like to have operating in the school. Having been made conscious, the new, chosen norms can become a kind of'code of conduct'. Our values are embedded in everything that we do. The values of any school are usually expressed in the form of principles which form the basis for all levels of policy. Very often, you will find (in any person, or in any organisation) a discrepancy between what people say they value, and how they behave or act. Schools might say they value freedom of speech, but in reality stifle the expression of any oppositional thoughts. In an organisational context, people need to discover and articulate the values they wish to perpetuate and then ensure that there is congruence between these stated values and what happens in the classroom and school as a whole. ( Juta & Co.
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Revisiting Yellowwood High School: the culture In Yellowwood High School, there is some form of a culture of teaching and learning, in that the principal is concerned about Grade 12 examination results in particular and examination results in the school as a whole. Clearly, there has not been a complete breakdown in a culture of teaching and learning, yet the nature of the process of teaching and learning at Yellowwood High School is being called into question, as it would seem that the principal has a fairly narrow view of educational practices. In the staffroom, there is a somewhat old and stale feeling. Teachers sit in the same places always, notices on the notice board are outdated. The structure of the staffroom does not facilitate easy communication, and there seem to be cliques among the staff. Generally the conversation does not indicate a high interest in educational matters: if anything related to the classroom is spoken about, it tends to be complaints about 'problem students'. Teachers grumble and show dissatisfaction about many aspects of school life, but are generally not willing or able to do anything about it. Teachers are demoralised, and parental participation is sadly lacking. All these are negative aspects of the culture of the school. A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING THE SCHOOL'S IDENTITY
Figure 3.2 Framework for understanding schools: identity ©Juta & Co.
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Turning now to our organisational framework, let us explore the identity of a school more carefully. We mentioned in chapter two that every school has its own identity. Within this element, we find the organisational character and direction, the core purpose, the vision and the mission of the school.
Organisational character and direction What do we mean by the identity of the school? In looking at the identity of the school, we would begin to answer the question 'Who am 1?' (or 'Who are we'?). The identity of the school is defined by how people perceive the school from the outside (a 'good' school, a 'progressive' school, a school which 'picks up all the drop-outs that other schools reject'), and from the inside (we are the 'poor' school in the neighbourhood - under-resourced and neglected, or, we are the school setting the trend in terms of teaching large classes innovatively). It is the way the school is identified and identifies itself - as an academically oriented school, a school which excels in sport, or as an 'alternative' school which might have no uniform, or a different curriculum. Schools might have positive or negative identities, internally or externally. Very often we find that schools develop negative self-identities through lack of a clear vision and sense of purpose, and through lack of effective leadership. These schools usually become dominated by circumstance and external constraints. When a school does not have the capacity to respond creatively to the circumstances with which it is faced - how it, as this particular school, in this neighbourhood, in this country, at this time, needs to be responding to the context within which it is located then a negative identity is bound to develop, and this spirals in on itself, tending to make the teachers feel despondent and therefore less motivated to give of themselves. This further reinforces the negative identity. Having a clear, positive vision, and the human and material resources that can contribute towards the realisation of this vision (in the context of societal needs), help to engender a positive identity for the school. Within the element broadly defined as identity we find the aspects discussed below.
Vision and mission The vision of a school is the particular way in which it envisages itself contributing meaningfully towards society. The vision is the consciously chosen path that the school establishes and the sense of meaning which it attaches to its contributions. The vision is a picture of the school in its ideal form; a picture towards which all the roleplayers in the school the teachers, the parents, the students, the broader community, the (JJuta & Co.
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department of education - can aspire and with which they can identify. Without a vision to work towards, it is very easy to lose a sense of the purpose of schools and education. It is crucial that the vision of the school is one which everyone connected with the school can share. Realising a vision, or even attempting to realise one (because we know that we seldom manage to achieve all our ideals, but need them as a touchstone, a way of measuring our endeavours, something to be able to move towards) will not work in a school if staff, students and parents are expected to work towards someone else's (perhaps the principal's or the department of education's) ideal. The very essence of a meaningful vision is that it belongs to everyone, that everyone feels a sense of ownership of the vision and can therefore participate enthusiastically and with commitment towards its accomplishment. This does not mean that individuals in the school need to submerge their individual wishes or dreams for the school. Nor does it mean that everyone in the school will end up having exactly the same thoughts, values and ideals. A shared vision is one where common values are distilled and translated into practical realities in the classroom, in extramural activities, in the restructuring of the school, and in staff development programmes. Individual differences should become part of the richness of the fabric of school life, rather than divisive and alienating elements. Building a shared vision should be a creative process which includes (a) sharing values, hopes and dreams, (b) understanding environmental trends, constraints and possibilities, (c) looking at the human resources available in the school, and (d) integrating all of this into a colourful tapestry which expresses who we are, what we can bring, and what we believe in. Having an opportunity to articulate what it is we value and believe in, and want to build and engender in the school, is one way of dealing with differences. It is when the different attitudes and values are not spoken about that they are likely to become obstacles towards building a shared present and a shared future. The vision is the flame which lights the school, which gives members of the school community a sense of pride, a recognition and detailing of the unique contribution that this school alone can make. Schools are centres of learning, and in this way have much in common with one another. However, no one school is identical to another and it is in the particular characteristics which differentiate one school from another that the uniqueness of a school lies. Part of the vision-building process is enabling these unique qualities to shine through, to be the flame of inspiration that guides the school and holds it together in a common sense of purpose. Once developed, the vision needs to be translated into more practical and specific aims. ©Juta & Co.
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Individual visions built by school communities for their particular schools need to be conceived within broader national and regional policies. It is therefore important that a particular school's vision does not go against such policies. An example of one provincial department of education's vision is: ... to implement national education policy creatively and to ensure that the best educational climate and conditions are established in all learning institutions in order that all learners and educators within its boundaries develop in mind, body and spirit and become mature and valued members of the South African nation.
Note that contained within this vision (statement) is the contextualisation of the province within national education policy. A mission statement is a written verbalisation which captures and draws together all the strands of the vision. The mission expresses the will and intent of the school. It is the visible what, how and why of the vision ... this is what we believe in, or stand for, or are building towards; these are the values that inform this; this is why these values and intentions are important to us; and this is how we intend to accomplish our aims. A mission statement is written in simple, succinct language, where each word chosen carries special significance. The language in the mission statement captures the ideal towards which the school is striving. It helps when the mission statement is placed where it can be seen regularly, and where it can become a public statement of the commitment of the school to the achievement of certain aims embedded in certain values. It gives the school a reference point, a statement against which it can be evaluated, and which can be revisited and re-evaluated as the school continues its ongoing process of development. It is necessary to reflect, from time to time, on whether the mission statement still reflects the aims and ideals of the school or not.
Core purpose By 'core purpose' we mean teaching and learning. We have spoken about educational purpose in chapter one. When we look at schools as particular kinds of organisations, we see that the purpose of schools, generally speaking, is an educational one - that is, to provide an appropriate and meaningful education for young people. This would obviously include concepts such as pedagogy and curriculum (what we teach and how we teach it - what the students learn in the classroom and in the context of the school as a whole), which are central to all schools in society. This broad, global purpose is then further defined by the education policy of a particular society and it filters down to more localised aims for particular schools. Thus we are looking at the ©Juta & Co.
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general purpose of education, and within this, the specific purpose of a particular school. It is important to hold the purpose within the overall vision of the school. The purpose of any particular school cannot be seen in isolation from its immediate environment - the community which it is serving. As we mentioned in chapter one, the purpose of education is to prepare young people to take up meaningful and creative positions in life, to empower them to make a contribution towards building a vigorous, respectful and well-resourced nation. However, every school is situated within a local context, and this will, to some extent, determine the purpose of its particular contribution. It is therefore crucial that schools have a certain degree of autonomy (within broad national educational principles) and strong links with their community, because the people governing the school are best placed to identify community (and student) needs. It is important that all young people have a fair and equal opportunity to develop their full potential. Therefore education cannot afford to remain too localised. Thus there is a need for a national core curriculum with possibilities for arriving at additional curricula choices by the provincial and local authorities (including people at schools). Education should not be so localised that students do not have the ability, through their education, to move into different contexts. The purpose of a school should not only be determined by political and socio-economic needs. We should not limit ourselves, for example, to the need for maths and science skills. Rather, we should think about a more holistic education that will equip our youth to cope in an unpredictable world, to have the confidence to take initiative and to have an entrepreneurial spirit. We need to think about general life skills and capacities when we talk about educational purpose, not only about content knowledge. Each student, each teacher, each school has a unique contribution to make towards building a strong and vibrant nation. Schools need to think proactively about the kind of society they would like to live in, and how their school can build towards that. The way the school is organised, the ethos and purpose of the school, the subjects that are taught, the way the subjects are taught ... these and other curricula aspects are essential building blocks towards the transformation and ongoing development of society. Sadly, too often we forget that schools are not only about passing grades and university exemption. They are about providing a nourishing and supportive place of learning, of socialisation, of developing sound interpersonal relationships, of preparing to participate fully in life. Schools are places where learners' physical, psychological, spiritual and social development is being fostered. The implications of this in terms of particular curricula choices and decisions that schools undertake is vital. The purpose and direction, the ©Juta & Co.
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vision and mission of the school, and the curriculum, need to be clarified. Thus methodology and content need to be congruent with overall vision and mission. Once a school has developed its mission statement, implications in terms of classroom practice need to be teased out so that teachers, collectively and individually, know how they can contribute towards the vision of the school in their classroom practice. In South Africa, for many decades we have witnessed the purpose of education being subverted nefariously to fulfil the apartheid state. Besides Christian National Education being compulsory, unequal quality and provision in schooling strengthened a white-dominated state. Verwoerd, the grand architect of apartheid, claimed that there was 'no use in teaching a bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it in practice' and that 'people who believe in equality are not desirable teachers for natives' (Walker 1995:12). As we look to the future, we need to have clarity and a self-critical attitude towards our educational purpose, and how it will impact on the generations to come. This is our greatest challenge.
Revisiting Yellowwood High School: identity In terms of the identity of Yellowwood School, we note the athletic achievements, something of which the school is proud. Academic results fluctuate from year to year but the school has nevertheless developed a good name in this regard. Note that the issues identified by the staff at the initial workshop relating to the identity of the school were: Q strong athletic achievements; Q reasonably good matric/Grade 12 results; Q lack of vision. ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONS The framework for understanding schools as organisations (see chapter two) is not a technical and quantitative tool used merely to identify problem areas and starting points. It is a guiding framework, a way of organising information in such a way that it is easier to see patterns and to begin to understand what lies beneath the surface. The framework helps to understand and structure seemingly random aspects of school life. Each school is different and what works in one situation might not work at all in another. There is no set order of where one might begin a process of change at a school. So much depends on the sensitivity, judgement and wisdom of the people facilitating the process, and their ability to critically facilitate an interpretation of the phenomena and come up with an appropriate starting point. ©Juta & Co.
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As you will remember from chapter two, organisation development is a strategy for managing change at an organisational level. One of the basic assumptions in organisation development theory is that organisations are living, and therefore have the potential to develop and grow. Organisation development interventions assist organisations (in our case, schools) in becoming more integrated, coherent and able to manage change and development creatively and effectively. Organisation development is not an ad hoc and haphazard approach to change - an anything-goes-start-and-end-where-you-wish way of working. Using the suggested framework allows particular responses to the individual needs of each school, but in a systematic and structured way.
A starting point - beginning our work with Yellowwood High School In this section we describe the way in which we responded to the situation at Yellowwood High School, and what transpired as our work with the school unfolded. We had been asked to come to work with the school because a certain small group of teachers had reached a point of frustration where they were no longer able to tolerate the emptiness of their daily grind, the simmering conflicts, their feelings of impotence and the students' lack of interest in school. Because of the current orientation, through both policy and practice, of departments of education towards providing appropriate support to schools, especially from the district or area level, we felt that it was important for us to work, from the outset, with the area manager who was responsible for Yellowwood High School. We asked the permission of the staff, and ascertained whether they might feel any degree of discomfort with our working with a departmental 'official'. There was some discussion around this, but because relationships between schools and departmental personnel were shifting, there was agreement, although some hesitation was expressed initially. The area manager, Ms Pietersen, spoke to the staff about her own understanding of the process, and her desire to work collaboratively with consultants from outside of the department, and her open and honest approach put the staff at ease and reassured them of her intentions. These were the 'presenting problems' - the reason why we were asked to come to the school. Clearly, what teachers expressed to us was a small part of something much bigger. However, it is important to start with where teachers are (and to help them to understand where they are). We regard it as crucial to any change process that we do not come in as outside experts with all the solutions to a school's problems. Thus a fairly common starting point will be to facilitate a process where participants (staff, principal, possibly parents and students, depending on ©Juta&Co.
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who the request has come from) express their perceptions about the school, its strengths and weaknesses. Since the identification of the problem and the request to deal with it came from a group of teachers, we felt that we needed to work with them, but to also identify other people who needed to be part of the process. We felt that it was important to have the perspective of people other than only the teachers with whom we initially met. We therefore asked if it would be possible to arrange some focus group interviews, with small groups (three or four) of people who felt comfortable to talk in front of one another. We wanted to deepen our understanding of issues at the school by hearing the perspectives of representative groups of people. There was an openness to this request, and we found people remarkably willing to share their concerns. All responses to our questions were treated confidentially, but carefully documented by us. This initial intervention is not merely a data-gathering exercise. Certainly it is a way of providing a fuller picture of the school, and of getting a sense of what people's perceptions are (these perceptions are extremely important, since the way people see things affects the way in which they behave in that situation). But it is also an intensely therapeutic intervention - a way of allowing people to begin to let the pressure out, to air their frustrations, to express their concern and anger, and also some of their appreciation. We are aware that it is only the first intervention, which means that there is a lot more reflection, digging and exploring to do, but as a first step it is a powerful method for bringing issues into the open and letting off steam. We are also aware that providing a space, a forum in which people can speak about their concerns, while being therapeutic, can also potentially overwhelm them with some of the negative issues that emerge. The role of the facilitator, therefore, is a powerful one, and it is extremely important that a balanced (and true) picture of the school is created, and that obvious leverage points for addressing some (not all) of these concerns, are identified. At our first workshop, held with the staff, and after doing an icebreaker (to 'warm' the atmosphere a little), we asked everyone to sit quietly on their own and think about the things at the school which made them feel positive and enthusiastic, and which made them look forward to coming to school each day. We also asked them to think about all the things at the school which gave them cause for concern, which made them feel negative about coming to school. We asked them to brainstorm as many issues as they could on their own in each of these two categories. We then put the staff into groups of six, where we asked them to share their thoughts and ideas, and to come up with, in each group, what they regarded (collectively) as the six most important positive and the six most important negative features of the school. At this point, a teacher stopped us, and said that they had spent enough time together talking ©Juta & Co.
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about the school in the past, and that this would be a repetitive waste of time. Now was for the time for action, she indicated. We obviously had to take this objection seriously. Nothing is more likely to thwart a process right at the beginning than participants feeling that they are wasting time and covering old ground. We simply asked, therefore, if that was a commonly felt sentiment, and whether everyone in the room felt that they had had an opportunity to express their concerns in previous meetings and discussions. We obviously asked the right question, because it immediately became apparent that a large part of the frustration was that many people on the staff had not felt free to talk and to share their concerns. They asked us to continue with the process. While we had a particular purpose and plan for this workshop - to provide a forum for staff members to air their concerns for the school - as facilitators we also had to be prepared to address whatever unanticipated issues might arise during the process. Thus, it would not have helped the process to ignore these concerns and to press on with our agenda. We had to be equipped to deal with dissent and conflict as they arose. (This will be highlighted further in chapter seven.) The issues of concern that emerged from the small group discussion were: Q overcrowded classes; Q lack of confidence to deal with diverse learning needs; Q lack of physical resources; Q lack of adequate sporting facilities; Q lack of a culture of teaching and learning; Q low teacher morale; Q discipline problems with students; Q cliques on the staff; Q division and mistrust between management and general staff; Q lack of vision; Q general mistrust and conflict among staff members; Q lack of accountability; Q high absentee rate of teachers and students; Q little staff development; Q lack of parental involvement in the school; Q lack of access to available physical resources; Q gender, age, language and race and different ability issues; Q authoritarian, top-down leadership style; Q little appraisal or evaluation taking place; ©Juta & Co.
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Q 'old style' approach to teaching - centred more on teacher than on learner; and Q lack of professionalism at the school. These, then, were their major concerns. A formidable list indeed, but probably not that uncommon in schools in South Africa. The areas of school life which made them feel positive and excited about the school were: Q excellent record in student athletics achievements; Q some innovative classroom practice; Q improved Grade 12 results last year; G efficient management; Q active school governing body; Q good relationships among the teachers; and Q some staff development activities taking place. At this point we introduced the organisational framework, and asked teachers to analyse and locate their issues in each element as they understood it. At the end, we shared with them our perceptions, and suggested that in their particular case, part of the problem seemed to be a general malaise and lack of vision, direction and commitment. If we could get the participants to actively engage in a vision-building and strategic-planning process, it would, we felt, begin to address many of the other areas of concern expressed by the staff. Some team-building was also clearly advisable, but we felt that it would be good to design the vision-building exercise in such a way that it would help to build teamwork in the school. This meant that we would need to explore group dynamics as we went along. Central to any organisation development intervention are the themes of team-building and group dynamics. As long as there are interpersonal dynamics within an organisation which hinder participation, which stifle enthusiasm and which inhibit initiative and confidence, the organisation will be constrained in its process of development. Thus ongoing reflection on these dynamics and (simultaneously) the development of skills and understanding to make us more sensitive to the ways in which we relate to one another and how groups operate, are essential aspects of any organisation development intervention. It is not sufficient for us as facilitators to be conscious of the interpersonal dynamics: we need to help the participants themselves to take note of how they relate to one another and the kinds of dynamics which have become part of the life of the school. Making these dynamics conscious and practising new (constructive, open and receptive) interpersonal skills are all part of the process of team-building. ( Juta & Co.
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We emphasised that the process of addressing their concerns was not something that could take place in one or two workshops. They needed to understand that change is 'a process, not an event' (Fullan 1991), and that a fairly long period, possibly up to a year or more, of working together needed to be considered if they wanted to ensure sustainable and lasting change. However, we also emphasised the fact that they should begin to feel the benefits of our working together almost immediately, and that together we would identify the initial small steps which would contribute towards a lasting picture of a more effective (and fulfilled) school. It is not fair to expect people to trust in a long-term process when it appears to them that nothing is really improving. They agreed to this, and we decided to begin the vision-building process at a weekend retreat, away from the school. We asked whether there were parents or students who should participate in this process. While parent and student involvement in this process was recognised as an ideal and an essential aim, part of the problem, however, at Yellowwood High School was a lack of parent involvement, and a learners representative council which had no credibility and did not understand what its task was in the life of the school. They asked for time to raise the necessary funds for accommodation, transport and food. Three weeks later, we went away together for the weekend. While we understood the need for the vision and strategic plans of the school to be developed by the governing body, in the case of Yellowwood High School we were faced with a demoralised staff with no visionary leadership and little sense of purpose or direction. They felt that they had little in the school that could draw parents in to participate enthusiastically in the renewal of school life. Their (the teachers') perception was that parents were uninvolved because the school offered so little for parents to engage in with any degree of enthusiasm. The staff expressed the feeling that once they had infused themselves with a new sense of purpose and dedication, they would have something real to present to the parents. Since there was no functioning parent forum, part of the process of vision-building would need to include this very issue. We did emphasise the importance of having parents present during this process, and asked Mr Strider (the principal) to invite some parents from the school governing body to attend the workshop. Similarly, with the students, a dysfunctional learner representative council meant that there was no organised student structure or voice. Clearly, one of the things that needed to be addressed over the coming weekend was the role of students in the life of the school. In the meantime, however, we. requested that a staff member arrange for the grades eleven and twelve to nominate two representatives from each grade to attend. ©Juta & Co.
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Conducting a normative analysis A fundamental part of any vision-building process is a thorough analysis and reflection of where the organisation (or school) is at the time. Before we could move into the future we had to assess where Yellowwood High School was at the time. You cannot know in which direction to move until you have a clear sense of what your starting point is. A normative analysis is a process of uncovering the unwritten rules, the values and norms operating in the school, as perceived and felt by members of the school community. While often-espoused values express commitment to certain ideals, practices at the school highlight another set of values which are often contradictory. It is these underlying, practised values which we try to uncover in a normative analysis, because very little can shift if these patterns, habits and practices remain entrenched at an unconscious and habitual level. Activities to deepen the picture of the school are important if one is to ensure that the process is not superficial. It takes time to build sufficient trust - among colleagues at the school and between the participants and the facilitators - to allow more sensitive issues to emerge. Time, for example, needs to be given for people to uncover the norms operating at the school, and for people to move beyond the intellectual analysis and to express their feelings. We had begun with focus group interviews with some staff, and a 'strengths and weaknesses' exercise in our workshop three weeks previously. We reminded participants of what they had identified as the strengths and weaknesses of Yellowwood High School. We asked them to add anything that they felt was missing. Discipline problems with students were emphasised. A 16-year-old student from the school had become pregnant and they were concerned about how to deal with the situation. Conflict between staff members was also highlighted, and it emerged that there were two staff members who had not spoken to each other for five years because of an unresolved conflict. The one person cried as she felt the pain and anguish of carrying this tension for so long. She felt that she wanted to deal with it as soon as possible. It was suggested that that very evening she should approach the other person concerned, and begin to talk about the schism between them. One of the facilitators offered to assist in the process, pointing out the importance of approaching the situation by acknowledging her own feelings and part in the 'cold war', rather than moving into a mode of blame and resentment. In this particular instance, it was not appropriate for the conflict between the two staff members to be dealt with publicly. However, it was also not appropriate to shelve it indefinitely. It needed to be addressed as soon as possible, but confidentially and in privacy. After taking participants through several exercises (see section: workshop exercises) to deepen their feeling for and understanding of the school as it was at that time, we did an environmental analysis. f : J u t a & Co.
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Conducting an environmental analysis Another dimension of the vision-building process is to analyse the environment - to look at the trends, to anticipate environmental changes but also to look at environmental 'expectations' - what those whom we are serving expect of us. Here we analysed social and educational trends in the past decade, and looked at current trends and at predictions of these into the next decade. Doing this gave participants a much better sense of what they might anticipate, and therefore prepared the ground for looking more holistically and critically at their role as educators and their school as a centre of teaching and learning. Some of the 'predictions' they came up with were: Q things are going to get a lot tighter before South Africa begins to experience economic expansion; Q the job market is going to be tough; Q high levels of unemployment mean that people will have to find innovative ways of earning a living; Q South Africa is going to house more drug lords, and is going to become an important venue for the sale of drugs; Q the number of HIV/AIDS patients and orphans is going to increase dramatically; Q crime and violence will continue; Q more pressure will be placed on teachers because of teacher: student ratios - much support will be needed; and Q computers and technology will become much more evident in the educational process - but this only for the wealthier schools. Some of the expectations of the school by the community which it served, as perceived by participants, were: Q parents expect the school to take total responsibility for the students, so whenever there is a problem, they look to the school to address it; Q parents expect their children to pass: failure is the school's failure; Q as a consequence of the education department's policy of redress, the school is expected to make do with fewer teachers and few resources; Q parents want the school to have an academic identity, and to excel in maths and science; and Q parents expect 24-hour-per-day commitment from teachers, but are not themselves prepared to get involved. With all this information generated, we were now ready to enter into a ©Juta & Co.
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vision-building process. There was a clear sense of where the school was and what constraints there were in its functioning (vivid and powerful pictures were drawn of the school which captured, metaphorically, where the school was, what brought it down and what created possibilities) . Metaphors were also written which captured the essence of how people experienced the school (for example, working at the school was like walking through slightly moist clay against the wind, or like being on a ship on stormy seas without a rudder and without a captain). We also had a sense of contextual (external) realities impinging on the school. It is important to note here that this part of the process could not be rushed and skimmed over. The deeper you are able to go, the more creativity and commitment are likely to be tapped. The more uncovering of the blocks, old habits and patterns that cripple the school, the more that energy can be utilised consciously in more positive ways. The more the strengths and possibilities of the school become evident and uncovered, the more hope there is of real foundations upon which to build. The closer you get to the essence of the issues, the more depth can be realised in transforming and restructuring the school. Trying to do a vision-building process when participants are feeling demoralised and bogged down by all the issues of concern, when awareness of what the difficulties and blocks are has not been raised, is merely to take a school round in circles rather than moving towards the future. This is why a normative analysis needs to highlight both positive and negative aspects of school life. As mentioned, all of these activities were done in groups of between six and eight people. In between each group exercise, we raised awareness about group dynamics: who was participating, who was not, who was influencing the group, how this was happening, what the atmosphere in the group was like, and so on. This meant that while the participants were going through exercises in an attempt to deepen their understanding of the school, they were also reflecting on how they worked together, and how each of them could contribute towards better communication, more openness and honesty, and more careful listening. This meant that we were simultaneously addressing interpersonal issues and concerns around other aspects of school life. The groups were changed from time to time, which meant that people who not did not usually work together would find themselves in a group, needing to come to some shared understanding. While focusing on the content of the activities, we were also highlighting the process of working together as a way of doing team-building right from the beginning. It was somewhat difficult for the members of the group that included Mr Strider to express themselves openly and honestly. However, in one particular group session, a more confident and assertive teacher spoke up about the situation and the whole group, including Mr Strider, began to explore the problem. Trust had begun to take'hold among the people, f.Juta & Co.
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and they obviously felt safe to confront the problem at this point. Although the situation was not immediately transformed, at least it had been spoken about, and some easing of the tension began to take place. As facilitators, we are always careful not to push the group (or individuals in the group) to places where they might feel threatened and unsafe, or for which they do not seem ready. However, we are aware that we also have a responsibility to raise the participants' awareness of habits or patterns of communication or thinking that they might slip into unconsciously.
Defining the core purpose At this point we wanted the participants to focus on the core purpose of the school: what was it that they saw as their primary, essential responsibility at Yellowwood High. What, at the heart of everything, were they trying to achieve with the students when they came to school every day. We wanted them to think beyond Grade 12 (or other grade) examination results - we wanted them to think in terms of the future lives of the students, and of their roles in preparing these students appropriately, and adequately, for their, and for the country's future. The teachers saw as their core purpose the development of confident, responsible, respectful young people, able and willing to learn, and to apply their learning in a variety of situations, and able to cope with uncertainty and adversity.
Vision-building For vision-building, we need to move into the future. From the previous exercises we had developed a good idea of what the future will look like and what internal and external constraints and possibilities are likely to be a force in the reshaping of the school. We had a grounded and realistic starting point; now imagination and inspiration were necessary to ensure that Yellowwood High School would indeed be in a position to make a unique contribution. We had asked that the administrative and other support staff be present at these workshop processes. Altogether there were 33 participants: 26 teachers (including the principal, but excluding eleven teachers who had not turned up for the weekend), the groundsman (and maintenance person), the caretaker, the person responsible for cleaning the school, one parent and three students. They were divided into groups of eight, and asked to choose a facilitator for their group. This person had the responsibility of ensuring that everyone participated in the process, that people listened to one another without interrupting, that the atmosphere in the group remained conducive to creative working together, and that the task itself was completed in the allotted time. A scribe (who would ©Juta & Co.
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take responsibility for writing up the group's activities) and spokesperson (this person would be responsible for reporting back to the group as a whole at the end of the exercise) for the group were also nominated. These roles would then be rotated during the weekend so that as many people as possible had an opportunity to facilitate and also to report back. We gave each group the same exercise: It is five years from now. The Department of Education has organised a competition to see which school in your area has contributed most effectively to the process of transformation and development. Describe your school, as it is (five years hence), what it has achieved during this time. Give your school its new identity, its new direction and purpose. Describe it as vividly as you can. Remember that there are financial constraints in terms of what the Department of Education has been able to offer. Make it idealistic yet realistic.
Groups were given 45 minutes in which to complete this exercise. However, at the end of this time, no group was ready and so we had to give an extra 15 minutes in which to complete the task. Most importantly, when teachers (and the other staff, parents and students present) felt that their voice was being taken seriously, that their vision of how they would like their school to be was taken seriously, they had renewed energy for the process. This is the central principle in the vision-building process: the vision needs to belong to all the relevant roleplayers. They need to have a central part in the shaping of the vision, so that when it comes to the doing - the implementation of it - there is commitment because it belongs to them. Each group presented its 'Yellowwood High School: Five Years From Now' scenarios. We left the presentation open: there could be drawings, models, dramatic presentations - whatever the group felt was the most effective way to convey the character of their new school. We then, after careful discussion and responses to the presentations, asked for volunteers or nominees (two from each group) to take the information, the pictures and the responses, and to come up with a composite description of the new Yellowwood High School: one which captured all the elements that people agreed about and felt excited about. This is the vision of the new Yellowwood High, developed by the subgroup: Yellowwood High School is a community school. This means that there are strong links with the community and great parental involvement, both of which feel a strong sense of ownership and pride in the school A result is that the school is no longer vandalised, and sophisticated security systems are not necessary because the school is a vibrant centre which offers hope and meaning for the people of the community. There are extramural classes in the afternoon ©Juta & Co.
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for out-of-school youths; these have been organised by a group which takes responsibility for planning and liaising with people. The group comprises students, teachers, parents and members of the community. Adult basic education and literacy classes, as well as various other adult education activities, are also offered in the evenings and at night. The school is bustling from eight in the morning until ten at night throughout the week. The school is run democratically by a school governing body comprising two teachers, one administrative or support staff member, two students, seven parents, two community leaders, and the principal (ex officio). Various structures within the school operate: a parent-teacher association, a learner representative council, and task groups set up by the staff as pan of their new focus and orientation; these include a curriculum development group, a staff development group, a discipline group, the extramural group (mentioned above), a maintenance group, a fundraising group and an appraisal group. Teachers, parents and students are represented on all of these; and each has an elected coordinator. A coordinators' group also meets regularly, and includes the principal and the two deputies. They are also all working on one or other of the task groups. There is a teacher support team (to identify and address developmental challenges, social problems and special needs), comprising a school psychologist, a nurse, the learning support coordinator in the school, two teachers, a parent and a student representative. All the groups are actively involved in the life of the school, and there is no longer a top-down management structure. People feel empowered, enthusiastic and committed, and as a result the students are showing far more interest in their work. The atmosphere at the school is vibrant, relaxed and open. Since there is more openness regarding the school curriculum, teachers are drawing students into the curriculum development process more actively. This means giving students opportunities to talk about their educational needs, both in terms of content and methodology, and to research environmental trends so that they can make informed contributions. The curriculum has become broader: life skills (including, sexuality education, substance abuse and other relevant topics) are integrated into the curriculum, and various crafts have been added. The guidance teacher is also the school counsellor and has certain periods set aside for counselling, and some days after school. Art is offered as a Grade 12 subject, but is also pan of the curriculum in grades eight and nine. Drama is not offered for Grade 12, but all grades eight and nine students have a double period of drama every fonnight. There is a dramatic society which puts on a production every year. Accounting has been added to the school curriculum, and German and Latin removed. All teachers have been involved in a staff development process for teaching large groups including learners with diverse needs, and facilitating group work, so that they do not feel unduly concerned about the large classes they are having to teach. The fundraising group has managed to raise sufficient funds to purchase a reliable and efficient photocopy machine, and several computers. The library ©Juta& Co.
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has expanded, it is used extensively and many more books are available. It has also become a community library, with a variety of books available for the broader community. Parents run the library on a roster basis. Several classrooms have been repainted and renovated to provide access to learners with physical disabilities, and there is a more ambitious five-year fundraising plan to build a school hall. Personal relationships among the staff are more open. There is a greater sense of collegiality and trust, and people genuinely feel they are working towards the same goal. Conflict still exists, but it is handled more openly and the school guidance teacher is often called upon to mediate a conflict situation between people. A peer appraisal system is in place (which further develops a sense of collegiality among staff), and staff have generated their own set of criteria for appraisal (within the context of departmental requirements), based on the vision for their school. The school reflects the commitment to 'inclusion', ensuring that the curriculum addresses' the diverse needs of all students, including learners with disabilities. Grade 12 results have improved considerably: the pass rate is now 90 per cent. Students who have passed through the school often return and speak about how confident they feel about coping in a world of uncertainty, and how their education at Yellowwood High School has built self-esteem as well as a variety of life skills upon which they can draw. As a flourishing school, Yellowwood High School contributes assertively towards policy formation for teachers, students and the school as a whole. The school community has a clear sense of what makes things work well, and these insights are applied in a variety of situations. In their own school, the new culture and ethos, built by the school community, are translated into a policy framework for the school, or even a code of conduct.
We, the community of Yellowwood High School, commit ourselves to the holistic education and development of all the people in our school community, by providing a safe and nurturing learning environment, led democratically and supportively in the interests of all those involved with the school. Our commitment is based on the principle of respect for the rights of each individual for the collective good. We aim to do this by offering a relevant and integrated school and after-school curriculum, based on the principle of full, active and critical participation by all those involved. We will ensure continuing relevance through a process of ongoing critical self-reflection and staff development.
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This was the vision that the staff agreed upon. It needed to find expression in a mission statement, and the same group volunteered to draw up a mission statement, and to present it to the staff the following morning. GUIDELINES In order to facilitate a similar process as meaningfully and effectively as possible, the following are suggested guidelines. You will note that they are not blueprints or workshop instructions, but ways of building sensitivity for meaningful developmental processes. G Vary the size and composition of the group: do work in pairs, triads, self-selected groups and groups selected by the facilitator. Q As far as possible, processes should be participatory, ensuring maximum participation from all those involved in the process. Q Do not rush into the vision-building process: while it can be very inspiring and exciting to develop a new vision, it needs to be grounded in the knowledge of the current situation (normative analysis) and context of the school (environmental analysis). Rushing this process, or side-stepping it, will severely limit the effectiveness of translating the vision into action. Q Always watch group dynamics - all people need to have opportunities to talk, especially if they lack confidence; dominating people need to learn to give others a chance. Regard every process/exercise as an opportunity for team-building. Q The challenge in facilitating such a process is to provide a safe environment for people to be able to share openly and authentically, yet to be able to move awareness of possibilities into new realms through appropriate challenges. Q Let the vision-building process touch people's feelings and imagination - new visions are not merely a collection of new thoughts but a way of engaging the thinking, feeling and therefore the will of the school to move forward. Q This process will provide the base for all the developmental work that will follow. Allow depth to emerge, be sensitive, slow and careful.
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WORKSHOP EXERCISES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES Normative analysis O One of the most important strategies is to conduct an organisational survey. This involves interviewing relevant roleplayers in an organisation. The interviews should be conducted on a one-to-one basis, or perhaps in a small group of two or three people who feel comfortable with one another and are prepared to talk openly. If the organisation is too large to interview each person, representative samples can be selected. It is important, however, in such a case, to ensure that as many divergent viewpoints as possible are represented. Findings are collated and analysed and presented to the group in the form of a report, with recommendations for how the process should or could be taken forward. It is absolutely essential that confidentiality be maintained, so that no person is at risk from information that has been divulged. Information contained in the report should not mention any names or give any clues as to whose viewpoints have been reflected. It is generally preferable to have an outside consultant conduct this survey, to ensure objectivity of reporting. Q Ask participants to identify, as they see it now, the strengths and weaknesses (or needs) of the school. This can be done by simply asking this question, or the following: • 'What makes you feel most excited about being at this school?' • 'What makes you feel most concerned and reluctant to come to school in the mornings?' • 'What aspects of the school worry you most?' • 'What aspects of the school are most inspiring to you?' There are many other ways of pursuing such an exercise, depending on your own school context. The point is to make it an exercise that allows people to express their passionate concerns and joys - it's not merely an intellectual exercise! Further ways of deepening this understanding of the school as it is include the following: Q Get groups of teachers to draw or paint the school as they see it - not a realistic portrayal of the size or how the grounds look, but rather a symbolic characterisation of the school, capturing aspects of the school nonverbally. Q Ask groups of teachers to find metaphors which aptly capture the norms operating at the school (slippery as an eel, like an unpolished diamond) - encourage them to make up their own expressions, rather than drawing on the more cliched ones. ©Juta & Co.
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Q Ask groups of teachers to name what would be missing from the community (qualitatively) if the school should close down tomorrow. Here we are after some sense of a unique contribution the school might be making at the present time.
Values clarification (helping to make values more conscious) There are many exercises which help people to explore and make more conscious their own values (see Appendix B for an example of a values clarification exercise). This is an extremely helpful way of getting participants to experience how values shape the way we approach things, and how values between people are often different. Not spoken about or made conscious, they can be a source of judgement and unresolved conflict.
Environmental analysis Get groups of teachers to do an analysis, over the past two decades and into the next decade, of: Q this particular school; Q the education system; and Q South Africa. You can also do an analysis of global trends. When giving the task to the groups, let each group do the task in such a way that it focuses on one of the above over the three decades, rather than each choosing a decade and analysing the three contexts.
Vision-building Help participants to move into the future imaginatively by providing a real context for them. The following instructions could be helpful. G It is five years hence. Your provincial department of education is holding a competition for the school which has made the most progress over the past five years. You have decided to enter the competition because of the work that has been taking place at the school over this period. Present the school to your judges in an honest, impressive way. You may use any form you like - using dramatic presentation and as many people as you deem necessary. Q It is five years hence. Write up an advertisement for the school to be placed in the local and national newspaper, highlighting the real ©Juta & Co.
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drawcards and unique aspects of your school, as a way of drawing more students.
Mission statement A possible way for structuring the mission statement is given below. The mission statement should say: G who you are; Q what you do; Q for whom you do it; Q how you do it; and Q why.
It must be: Q understood by all; Q easily remembered; Q constantly challenging; Q owned by the organisation; Q acceptable to all; and Q feasible in implementation. It should have the following attributes: Q inspiring; Q Q Q Q
clear, challenging; makes sense; stable but changeable; and prepares us for the future.
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CHAPTER FOUR
STRATEGY ... organisation development is an educational strategy employing the widest possible means of experience-based behaviour in order to achieve more and better organisational choices in a highly turbulent world (Bennis 1969:17)
In this chapter we will pursue the development of Yellowwood High School. Having developed a vision and captured this within a 'mission statement' (refer to chapter three), the next logical step is to: (a) set goals and outcomes, (b) plan action around these goals, and (c) evaluate progress in terms of the goals and outcomes identified. These three aspects of strategic planning relate to the 'strategy' element of school life (refer to chapter two). You may well ask: 'Goals, plans and evaluation around what?'. In the context of school development, the focus is on setting goals, planning action and evaluating (a) the school as an organisation, and (b) the curriculum. These two primary foci provide a basis for two central organising strategies in any school: organisation development (refer to chapter two for details about this process) and curriculum development. Although we will not be focusing on the latter process in any detail in this book, it is important to remember that this constitutes and captures the core purpose of any school: teaching and learning, and should form the focus for any development in a school. The need for clear statements of goals and outcomes, for thorough planning, and for evaluation of all aspects of the organisation and curriculum is a matter of importance in education in South Africa at present. This reflects a general trend to become more productive - a global trend which is clearly showing itself in the South African context. Fiscal constraints and the need to facilitate redress in South Africa have resulted in a much tighter budgeting and accounting system - and generally a move to a more rationalised system of education. But it is not only about money. The need for clear goals and outcomes, good planning and evaluation relates to an attempt to develop an effective education system which provides quality education for all in South Africa. While financial accountability is important, of even more importance is the need for us to develop our schools so that they provide our young people with optimal opportunities for personal development, ultimately to ensure that we are producing a society of which we can be proud. 77
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In this chapter, a framework for understanding 'strategy' as an element of school life is provided. We will then 'revisit' Yellowwood High School, attempting to understand some of the issues highlighted in the case study in the light of the framework outlined. The next section will consist of a discussion of an organisation development response to these issues. The emphasis will be on pursuing the strategic-planning process commenced in chapter three, where a vision and mission statement were developed. This section will demonstrate how to take a school through the process of setting goals and outcomes, planning and evaluation. The chapter will end with a summary of guidelines which we hope will help you as a teacher or principal to pursue a similar process in your school, as well as some workshop exercises relating to the development of the 'strategy' element of school life. FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING THE STRATEGY ELEMENT OF SCHOOL LIFE
Figure 4.1 framework for understanding schools: strategy
Before we discuss the strategy, let us remind ourselves that we are referring to interdependent elements of school life, which include identity, strategy, structures and procedures, technical support and human ©Juta & Co.
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resources. These elements reflect the culture of the school, and are directed and held together by leadership, management and governance. All these elements form a dynamic relationship with the microand macro-context within which schools operate. All these aspects link directly with the identity in that they take the broad vision and mission of the school and articulate them as practical aims and goals that can be pursued in order to achieve the identity. For a school to achieve its broad purpose, therefore, more specific goalsetting, planning and evaluation are necessary. The other elements of school life flow from the strategy. Structures and procedures should relate to clear goals and plans that have been developed. In order to achieve the goals that were set, the necessary material (technical) and human resources need to be accessed. One of the main reasons we often do not achieve our goals is that we have not adequately assessed the availability of material and human resources that is, our goals have not been realistic in terms of our capacity and outside realities (the external context). The way in which we deal with goal-setting, planning and evaluation reflects and perpetuates a particular culture in the school. For example, a school that has a clear sense of direction, and pursues it successfully through the process of thorough planning, reflects a different character or culture from a school that works in a haphazard way, without any clear sense of purpose. And, finally, the way in which the strategy element is developed in a school is dependent on the leadership and management style and approach of that school. If the school is attempting to work within a democratic management framework, the process of planning will be collaborative, with different roleplayers. Having looked at how the strategy element relates to other elements of school life, we will now look at the three key aspects of this element: goal-setting, planning and evaluation.
Strategic planning process Strategic planning refers to a rational process of goal-setting and planning that is pursued in most organisations. From the steps listed in the box below you can see that all elements of school life are touched in this process. Strategic planning constitutes one important, comprehensive strategy for school development.
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This strategic planning procedure includes the following steps: 1. An environmental analysis: identifying past, present and future trends and realities in education. 2. Vision-building: developing a vision for the school, culminating in the development of a mission statement. 3. Goal-setting: developing broad aims as well as specific goals and outcomes in relation to all aspects of school life. 4. Reality checking: conducting a SWOT analysis (identifying the Strengths and Weaknesses of the school, as well as Opportunities and Threats both inside and outside of the school that will facilitate or hinder the achievement of goals set). 5. Developing plans of action: aimed at achieving the goals and outcomes set. 6. Setting up appropriate structures and procedures (including for monitoring and evaluation). 7. Mobilising material and human resources to achieve the plans. 8. Ongoing evaluation and development.
Goal-setting Words such as 'goals', 'aims', 'objectives' and 'outcomes' are often used interchangeably, and mean different things to different people. However, there is some purpose in using different terms - primarily to indicate a move from a broad view to very specific goals one is trying to achieve. In the context of this book, the following terms are used to reflect this move from a broad to a narrower view. Aims refers to broad statements of purpose, usually captured in the mission statement. Broad aims are often more long term in nature.
Example of aims The broad aims of this school are: Q to provide opportunities for holistic development of the students; Q to support and provide opportunities for the development of the staff of the school; Q to provide a democratic environment for learning and development; and so on. Goals are more specific statements of purpose, linked to broader aims. Specific goals are usually short term in nature, linked to a specific timeframe. ©Juta& Co.
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Example of goals Goals relating to the aim of supporting and providing opportunities for the development of the staff of the school are: O to have fortnightly meetings where teachers can share their experiences and help one another around particular curriculum issues; Q to form a staff development committee which will be responsible for setting up and managing a staff development programme for all staff in the school; Q to provide opportunities for staff to attend inservice programmes that deal with the development of their specific subject domain expertise, their pedagogical competencies and their ability to participate in the development of the school as a whole; and so on. Outcomes are statements of expected results relating specifically to goals set, usually incorporating a time-frame.
Example of outcomes Outcomes relating to the goal of providing opportunities for staff to attend inservice programmes could include: Q by the end of the year, half the staff will have had the opportunity to attend a minimum of one inservice programme dealing with either their subject domain or pedagogical competencies; Q by the end of the year, all staff will have attended a school-based programme dealing with the development of the leadership and management skills of all school personnel. An important function of a statement of outcome is that it provides a basis for evaluation. At the end of the period concerned, therefore, you can make judgements about whether or not you have met your goal. When setting goals you need to ensure that all aspects of school life are being covered. Three areas that require attention are: Q the school as an organisation; Q the curriculum; and Q the staff. Elements of the school as an organisation that need to be considered include issues relating to the culture and identity of the school, strategy, structures and procedures, technical support, human resources, ( Juta & Co.
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leadership, management and governance, and contextual issues that relate to the school's life. It is important to set goals in relation to all of these elements to ensure whole-school development. All elements of the curriculum also need to be considered to ensure that the school's central educational purpose is pursued. These include the philosophy, aims, goals and learning outcomes; the content of the curriculum; teaching and learning process or strategies; evaluation and assessment (of the curriculum and of students); materials (including textbooks and teaching equipment); facilities/sites of learning; human resources (who will be taught, and who will teach); selection of teachers and students; financial resources; overall curriculum structure and management; the curriculum development process itself; and the link between the school and the community, particularly in terms of needs and market-place realities (education and work relationship). Goals need to be set in all of these areas to ensure that they are adequately addressed. With regard to staff development, goal-setting is important. While broad aims, goals and outcomes relating to the school and curriculum as a whole need to be developed by the school community concerned, achievement of those goals is dependent on each person playing her or his role in the collaborative effort to build a good school. In relation to the staff, it is necessary that staff develop their goals in the context of the broader goals as developed by the school. When setting goals, the following criteria should be considered.
Criteria for goal-setting Q Is the statement of the goal clear and unambiguous? Q Is the goal achievable? Q Is it realistic in terms of internal capacity? (What are the strengths and weaknesses of the people and organisation that would make it possible or impossible to achieve?) Q Is it realistic in terms of external realities? (To what extent do external forces create opportunities for or threaten the likelihood of successful achievement?) Q Is there commitment to the goals by those who have to implement them? Q Do the goals link to the school's overall vision and mission - and, ultimately, to the needs and demands of the community and society?
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All of the above questions or criteria relate to an analysis of your goals in terms of whether they are realistic. This is a very important consideration if you are to achieve them! The questions raised above relate to a process often called a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for: S W O T
= = = =
Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats
As indicated above, the first two aspects of the analysis refer to internal capacity questions, while the latter two refer to blocks and supports in the external environment. The environmental analysis outlined in chapter three is a process which provides a solid basis for this analysis. Before proceeding with detailed planning, it is necessary to do a reality check in terms of whether there are sufficient strengths and opportunities to support the achievement of the goals concerned, and to identify potential weaknesses and blocks. Attempts should then be made to see how weaknesses and blocks can be addressed to facilitate optimal achievement of the goals concerned. Before moving on to the planning process, it is important that we emphasise that, within a participatory organisation development framework, the involvement of the various roleplayers in relevant aspects of this process is necessary.
The planning process The process of planning also needs to include relevant roleplayers in appropriate ways. It is essential to identify who is affected or should be involved in which aspects of school life, and to ensure that those people are optimally involved in the process of planning action to achieve goals relating to that aspect. An important management challenge is to identify and include the necessary people to pursue this activity, and to delegate responsibilities accordingly. Setting goals and outcomes (within the context of an environmental analysis and an internal capacity check) is the first step in the process of strategic planning. A process of detailed planning then needs to occur to ensure that the goals are pursued and, it is hoped, achieved. This detailed planning should include an itinerary of actions that need to be pursued in order to achieve the goal(s) concerned and subsequently the outcome(s) identified. The itinerary should be placed within a time-frame. And it should clearly identify responsibilities relating to the action concerned. Once plans have been developed, it is important for a second round of 'reality-checking' to occur. It is too easy to develop elaborate, idealistic ( Juta & Co.
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plans. You need to check that you are working within the constraints and possibilities of your strengths and weaknesses, and of external opportunities and threats. The same SWOT questions should therefore be asked here: 'Do we have the capacity to do this?' 'Do we have sufficient support to ensure successful achievement of these plans?' These questions may highlight the need to develop more modest and realistic plans. Included in the planning process should be procedures for monitoring progress - during the period concerned, as well as at the end of the period. This relates to the third important aspect of the strategy element of school life: evaluation.
Evaluation The term 'evaluation' is often considered in a negative light. Our history of 'inspection' and control of schools has provided us with many reasons to feel negative and to be cynical of any 'evaluation' process (refer to chapter one). But we need to redefine this term or, if preferred, use terms less often interpreted negatively, such as 'appraisal', 'reflection', or 'review'. Whichever term we use, we are referring to a process which reviews what has occurred over a particular period of time. The purpose of evaluation is to inform future planning and, ultimately, development. So, while you have to account to the Department of Education, and to the community at large (particularly parents) in terms of the educational purpose you are instituted to serve, you need to be engaged in a continuous process of growth and development for your own sake. This requires that you create structured opportunities to reflect on yourself (your school, the curriculum, and your own professional development) so that you can remain in touch with needs and demands, and so that you can continually improve the quality of education at your school. Some specific questions that you need to ask when considering evaluation are set out in the box below.
Evaluation questions Q Why should we evaluate? Q What should be evaluated? Q Who should be involved in the evaluation? G When will evaluation take place? Q How should the evaluation be pursued? o
Why should we evaluate? This question has been broadly answered above, but needs to be more specifically addressed whenever you are
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planning an evaluation. Participants need to be aware of and committed to the purpose of the evaluation. In particular, the school needs to know how the evaluation will be utilised in the process of reporting and future planning. o
What will be evaluated? This is a question that should be answered by all concerned in the evaluation. One of the ways to address resistance to and fears about evaluation is to provide all participants with an opportunity to participate in the development of criteria for evaluation which act as 'indicators' of achievement. However, while an open process should be pursued to identify criteria or indicators for the evaluation, the broad categories identified below can act as a rough guide.
What should be evaluated? G The school as an organisation (including all elements: culture, identity, strategy, structures and procedures, technical support, human resources, leadership, management and governance, and contextual issues). Q The school curriculum (market-place realities; philosophy, aims, goals and learning outcomes; content; teaching and learning strategies; materials; assessment and evaluation procedures; facilities/sites of learning; human resources; selection procedures; financial resources; overall curriculum structure and management; and the curriculum development process itself). Q Staff appraisal (including various aspects of relevant personal and professional development).
o
The latter aspect (staff appraisal) should be linked directly to staff development if it is to be optimally formative (or developmental) in nature. This will be discussed in more detail in a later section (chapter seven: human resource development). While the school community should be involved in deciding what to evaluate, one aspect that should be considered for evaluation should be the previous goals set and the outcomes identified. Hie evaluation process is a natural culmination of the goal-setting and planning process, and should be directly linked to that. Who should be involved in the evaluation process? As with all other aspects of a school development process, all relevant members of the school community could be appropriately involved in the evaluation. By 'appropriately' we mean that the particular 'what' (see above) should determine who should be involved. Everyone cannot be involved in everything! Those people who are particularly involved in r Juta & Co.
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or directly affected by any aspect of the evaluation should be involved in some way. A further question relates to who should conduct the evaluation. While staff internal to the school could and should take care of most of the evaluation procedures, some form of external involvement is necessary - for both summative and formative purposes. Many organisations do their own internal evaluations on a regular basis but every three or five years employ an external evaluator to conduct a more formal, 'objective' evaluation. This is particularly important when confronted with major organisational crises, when considering major changes, or when internal dynamics make it difficult for an internal person to conduct such an exercise. The Department of Education's education development and support services would normally play a central role in such an external evaluation or quality assurance process. Q
When will evaluation take place? Evaluation as a process should be structured into the ongoing work of the school's life. This could include all or some of the following procedures: • Ongoing reflection on your practice - by all staff. • Quarterly or half-yearly reviews. • Annual reviews. • Major reviews (three or five year or other timeframe, usually stipulated by the Department of Education):
Q How should the evaluation be pursued? First, this refers to the challenge of involving relevant roleplayers in the process in appropriate ways - so that they feel ownership of the process and the product (evaluation outcomes). The way in which the evaluation is pursued will be a large factor in determining its success. If the fears and hopes of the people concerned are respected, and appropriate democratic practices pursued, evaluation can play a major role in the development of good schools and, therefore, quality education in South Africa. Various forms of research can be pursued to collect the necessary information: perusal of relevant school documents and reports (particularly for the purposes of collecting 'facts and figures'); questionnaires; interviews; group discussions (revolving around the evaluation questions); and observation. Analysis of the information arising out of the above-mentioned and other research procedures should be compiled in an accessible form in some kind of evaluation report. The evaluation report should act as a step in further strategic planning in the school. Evaluation should therefore be seen as one important step ©Juta & Co.
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in the ongoing process of strategic planning that is needed to ensure the development of a good school.
Revisiting Yellowwood High School The story of Yellowwood High School does not refer specifically to goalsetting and planning processes, but there are various issues that appear to relate to that element of school life. While the school seems to be experiencing many problems and limitations, it is surviving, and is attaining some success in terms of examination results. This suggests that some form of planning must be occurring, albeit in an ad hoc way, and albeit around values which we may not support or even be aware of! Planning around the timetable is obviously occurring, and while there do appear to be some problems with regard to the examination timetable (because some teachers are away writing their own exams), it seems to run efficiently and without any overt dissatisfactions. General schoolrelated planning seems to occur in the fortnightly staff meetings. The fact that there is administrative efficiency in the school suggests that planning in that area is being successfully carried out. The efficiency of the management system (primarily the principal) is a positive characteristic of Yellowwood High School, but the autocratic manner in which it is pursued causes problems in the school. We can see how the elements of school life are interdependent. As mentioned earlier, the manner in which the school is managed will affect the particular way in which goal-setting, planning and evaluation are developed. While there is evidence of some planning occurring at this school, there is also evidence of a lack of effective planning in some areas of school life. For example, resource control is a problem. Accessing, maintaining and utilising of resources (financial and other) requires goal-setting and planning, even in the face of real external constraints. Also, while the timetable reflects planning in terms of the daily activities of the formal schooling hours, there appears to have been little planning around the use of the school facilities in the after-school hours. If a strong community-school relationship is an aspect of the vision and aims of the school, this is an area that requires specific goal-setting and planning. A further area around which there appears to be little planning is that of staff development. While some teachers are pursuing their goals in this regard, there is a lack of overall school commitment to this important area of development. The case study reveals that, despite quality assurance systems being established in schools, there is currently little school, curriculum or teacher evaluation. Mr Strider (the principal) takes in the teachers' record books every two weeks, and visits teachers in their classrooms when problems occur. It appears, however, that this system does not serve any clear purpose. Teachers do not receive any feedback so there ©Juta & Co.
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is little that is formative about this process. It is also a threatening system to the teachers - who no doubt feel that they are being judged. Student assessment appears to consist mostly of regular tests. The pass rate is quite good in terms of current South African standards. It appears, therefore, that outcomes in terms of student academic achievement are moderately good. But 'good' in terms of what? This is unclear. Passing examinations is not the only criterion of a good school, and would only be one of many aspects of the school's vision and aims. Student assessment needs to be congruent with those aims. In chapter three, we took Yellowwood High School staff through a process of vision-building in order to address many of the issues highlighted above. The following features of the vision that was developed are highlighted below. Q Yellowwood High School is a community school. Q The school is run democratically by a representative governance structure. Q The school curriculum has been changed to accommodate needs expressed by the various roleplayers (including the students) who were part of the curriculum development process. It has been developed to include subjects such as life skills, art and drama, and to ensure that education support services are available to all. G The school has an active staff development programme. Q Resource shortages have been addressed through fundraising, organised primarily by the parents. Q Personal relationships among the staff have improved considerably, with a generally positive collegial atmosphere permeating the whole school. Q Matric/Grade 12 results have improved considerably (90 per cent). In addition, students feel that they have been equipped to cope with the demands of work and life. Q The staff of Yellowwood High School are involved in policy development and are therefore continuously contributing to the development of the education system in South Africa. The mission statement emerging from this process appears in the box below.
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Mission statement of Yellowwood High School We, the community of Yellowwood High School, commit ourselves to the holistic education and development of all people in our school community, by providing a safe and nurturing learning environment, led democratically and supportively in the interests of all those involved with the school. Our commitment is based on the principle of respect for the rights of each individual. We aim to do this by offering a relevant and integrated school and after-school curriculum, based on the principle of full, active and critical participation by all those involved. We will ensure continuing relevance through a process of ongoing critical self-reflection and staff development.
FURTHER ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT RESPONSES After completing the vision-building and mission development process, we proceeded to take Yellowwood High School through the process of goal-setting, planning and setting up of procedures for evaluation. Having developed the vision and mission statement, the staff felt ready to pursue the development of specific goals and outcomes, and to develop action plans to ensure that they are achieved. This was, in fact, checked out with the staff before the vision-building process was commenced, so they were aware that this was all part of an overall strategic planning process. They still wanted us as external consultants, together with Ms Pietersen, the area manager with whom we were working, to facilitate this process. They expressed the view, which we agreed with, that after having been through the process thoroughly with an external consultant, they would be more equipped to conduct their own planning processes in the future. The 'educational' nature of this consultancy process was considered by all concerned to be an important aspect of the work. The school needs to build its own capacity to plan properly.
From mission to goal-setting The staff agreed to have a further all-day workshop to identify particular goals and outcomes relating to the vision and mission statement developed earlier. It was decided that this would be held on a Saturday to avoid loss of teaching time, and so that other relevant roleplayers could participate - in particular parent, student and community representatives, school governing body members, and some people whose input would be particularly useful (for example the school nurse, school psychologist, social worker, learning support facilitator, school ( Juta & Co.
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development/area manager, curriculum advisor and administrative support personnel). Prior to the workshop, the parent and student representatives of the school's governing body were asked to present the vision and mission statement to their respective constituencies. They were to ask for comments on these documents, and for suggestions for particular goals that they felt should be pursued. The parent and student representatives were asked to bring these ideas to the workshop so that they could be incorporated in the development of the goal-setting and planning process. At the workshop the participants pursued the process indicated in figure 4.2 below. The participants comprised most of the teachers (three were absent), all the support staff, the school governing body members (excluding one of the community members), the school psychologist from the local education support centre, and a representative sent by the area manager. You can see from the outline above that the mission statement was checked - particularly in terms of input from the parents and students who met to discuss the document prior to the workshop. Although only a few changes were made, everyone felt that they had some ownership of the mission and could therefore commit themselves to it. The participants of the workshop then worked in small groups. Each group had to identify three priority goals for the school, and then specific goals that needed to be pursued in terms of the internal dynamics of the school (the various elements of school life), as well as the various aspects of the curriculum. They were asked to place these on small separate sheets of paper (to facilitate sorting later on!). Each group presented its goals. As facilitators of the workshop we proceeded to summarise the presentations, noting the goals that were identified as a priority by more than one group, and then checking out whether any other goals identified by the groups also constituted a priority for the school at this time. Participants were reminded that while they might want to eventually include all these goals in the development of the school, this particular planning process was for the next year only. Prioritising is a very important process because it enables participants to have a clear idea of their intentions and not to feel daunted by trying to do too much. After coming to consensus on the priority goals for the school for the next year, the workshop participants worked in small groups again to identify specific outcomes relating to each of the goals identified. Each group was responsible for a particular set of goals. The statement of goals and outcomes that emerged from this process are described in figure 4.3. We had hoped to do a 'reality check' at this point, using a SWOT analysis to examine the internal capacity and external blocks and ©Juta & Co.
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YELLOWWOOD HIGH SCHOOL Strategic planning workshop Practical details Participants: Teachers, support staff, school governing body members, school psychologist, area manager representative Dates/times: Saturday, 9 am-4 pm and Tuesday, 2-7 pm Venue: School staffroom Agenda/Outline of Procedure: 1. General orientation and introductions 2. Reviewing the mission statement 3. Identification of goals Small groups: (a) identify three priority goals for the school for the next year, (b) identify three goals relating specifically to the internal dynamics of the school, (c) identify three goals relating to the school curriculum Plenary: Group reports back Input: Summary of priority goals identified Plenary: Open discussion and reaching of consensus on priority goals for the school for the next year 4. Identification of outcomes Small groups: Identify specific outcomes relating to each of the goals identified Plenary: Presentation of goals and outcomes (each group presenting their goals and outcomes on a sheet of newsprint) 5. Reality check/SWOT analysis Input: Presentation of redrafted mission statement and statement of priority goals and outcomes Small groups: A = Look at the priority goals and outcomes. Brainstorm weaknesses and strengths in relation to each of these. How can the weaknesses be addressed? In the light of this, are the goals realistic? B = Look at the priority goals and outcomes. Brainstorm opportunities and threats in relation to each of these. How can the threats be addressed? In the light of this, are the goals realistic? Plenary: Group reports back 7. Where to next? (Development of plans of action) Figure 4.2 Strategic planning workshop outline
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PRIORITY GOALS AND OUTCOMES GOAL
EXPECTED OUTCOME
1. To develop democratic structures and procedures for the school
2. To develop the capacity of all members of the school community to participate democratically 3. To set up a staff development committee
Structures and procedures (rules and regulations) that facilitate optimal and appropriate participation of the school community in decisionmaking All members of the school community
have
the
ability
to
participate
in
the life of the school The institution of a staff development committee that takes respon„, , . sibility rfor staff development programmes and processes in the school
figure 4.3 Statement of goals and outcomes
supports to achieving the goals set, but there was no time to pursue this during the workshop. We explained the process to the participants, emphasising the importance of this reality check in the planning process. It was agreed, therefore, that we would meet for a further half-day to do a SWOT analysis. The following Tuesday afternoon/evening was set aside for this from 2 pm to 7 pm, with a finger supper provided by all participants. The parents and community representatives could not be present at this workshop because of their own work commitments, but they were very happy for the others to go ahead, and to receive a report on the outcome. The break between the two workshops enabled the facilitators (us) to rewrite the mission statement, and the statement of priority goals and outcomes in a coherent and visibly accessible way. After presenting the newly redrafted statements, we conducted a SWOT analysis. We asked half of the workshop participants to deal with the Strengths and Weaknesses analysis, and the other half to look at the Opportunities and Threats aspects. Each group was asked to take the priority goals and outcomes, and brainstorm any weaknesses and strengths (internal capacity), and opportunities and threats (external supports and blocks) they expected would be present when trying to achieve the goals. Once they had done this, they had to look at the weaknesses (those who were focusing on internal capacity) and the threats (those who were focusing on external factors) and discuss ways in which these could be addressed. Once this process was complete, the group had to make a decision about ©Juta & Co.
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whether the goals concerned were realistic or not. The findings from each group were reported at a general meeting. In the process of discussion, it became evident that some conflict had emerged in the group looking at internal capacity (weaknesses and strengths of the school to achieve the goals concerned). In the process of identifying weaknesses in the small groups discussion, one of the teachers had suggested that the current management approach in the school would act against the achievement of some of the goals - particularly those dependent on a democratic approach. The principal took exception to this. This was raised in the general meeting at the end of the workshop. We had to spend some time facilitating a resolution to the conflict. We gave participants a restricted time opportunity to express their views on this matter, asking them to present their views in a constructive way. We noted that 'management' did not involve the principal only, but also the deputy principals and heads of department, so was not a personal issue. This seemed to free up the discussion somewhat. Many of the participants, including the principal, identified both strengths and weaknesses of the current management system. At the end of the brief exploration of the issue, where we felt there was some common understanding of what the problem was, we asked for a proposal on how to take this forward. It was agreed that a task team should look specifically at the management structures and procedures of the school, and pursue the particular goals and outcomes in this regard.
Developing plans of action This opened up the next step in the strategic planning process: to develop plans of action to achieve the goals set. There was no time at this workshop to identify clear responsibilities in this regard so it was decided that a school development team should be developed to take the matter further. In fact, it was decided that the school needed a school development team as a formal structure - to ensure that ongoing school development is embedded in the life of the school. The facilitators were very excited to hear this coming from the participants as this was one of their aims - to institutionalise school development. Five teachers (including the principal), one parent, and one student were elected to the school development team. They were given the responsibility to (a) identify action plans that needed to be pursued to address the goals and outcomes set, and to identify persons and teams responsible for the development of each of these action plans; (b) to develop a strategy for evaluation of the school, of the curriculum, and for staff appraisal and development, (c) to oversee the task team on school management structures and processes, and (d) to identify further development programmes that needed to be pursued. ( Juta & Co.
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GOAL: To set up a staff development task team in the school ACTION
TIMEFRAME
RESPONSIBILITY
1. Organise a process of elections and set up the task team 2. Develop the terms of reference for the task team 3.
April
Deputy principal
End of term 2
Task team
OUTCOME: The institution of a staff development committee that takes responsibility for staff development programmes and processes in the school Figure 4.4 Example of a plan of action
Two weeks later, we met with the school development team who had agreed that as external facilitators we should initially play an active role in the school development team - until the team was clearer about its role and felt confident to address the many challenges facing it. After clarifying the initial terms of reference of the team (refer to (a) to (d) above), we identified the planning that was needed to ensure that all goals were pursued. After looking at the statement of priority goals and outcomes, various teams and individuals were allocated to develop specific action plans. These included (a) a team to look specifically at governance and management issues (the task team referred to above); (b) a team to look at staff development and appraisal; (c) a team to set up appropriate evaluation procedures; (d) a curriculum development team, and (e) a community involvement team. Realising that staff would not necessarily know how to proceed with this, it was agreed that an example of a plan of action (see figure 4.4) should be compiled and given to the teams and individuals concerned. You can see that for each goal, specific actions are identified. Next to each of these is a time-frame (when this should occur or be completed), and the names of the people or person responsible for pursuing the particular issue. During this discussion at the school development team meeting, we raised the idea of providing staff with an opportunity for setting personal goals - within the context of the broader goals that had been set. The feeling was that this was important but that the staff needed to complete this process first and then be provided with a structured opportunity to look at their own needs and goals in the light of that. It was agreed that this would be pursued at a later date. ©Juta & Co.
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Developing evaluation structures and procedures The evaluation task team, comprising three teachers and one of the deputy principals, asked us to meet with them to discuss what they needed to do to develop structures and procedures that would facilitate an acceptable evaluation system at the school. They were very aware of the negative feelings about evaluation that existed in the school, and were not sure how they should address these. We commenced by talking about these negative feelings, looking at why they and their colleagues were very wary of the evaluation process. We shared our views about evaluation, highlighting that we could redefine this concept and process to ensure that it embodied the formative aspects of appraisal. We felt a need to find out exactly what the Department of Education was expecting from the school in this regard, and decided to invite the area manager to the next meeting. At the next meeting the task team outlined to the area manager what they were trying to achieve. She (Ms Pietersen) was very impressed. We asked her what the Department expected from the school in terms of evaluation. She indicated that the Department had developed quality assurance instruments which needed to be used in the whole school review/evaluation processes pursued by the school, where schools would review their own progress against the vision, mission and goals that they had set for themselves. The Department hoped that schools would take the initiative to develop structures and procedures that suited their needs and that met national and regional demands. One of the teachers asked whether the school could look at the Department's quality assurance instruments and adapt them to suit their own needs. She agreed to this. It became clear to all concerned in the meeting that some form of negotiation between the local school and district, provincial and national structures needs to be developed around this issue if it is to succeed. Ms Pietersen said that she was available to participate in this task team if the school so wished. It was decided that Ms Pietersen would not become part of the team but would be kept informed of the process, and participate where appropriate. A further meeting was held to start planning the evaluation process. We were asked to attend again, to help set the terms of reference. We presented our understanding of what we thought was necessary in terms of the why, what, how, when, and who of evaluation. This provided a framework for setting up a comprehensive evaluation process in the school. We suggested that before proceeding with detailed planning of the different aspects of evaluation, an overall plan of action should be presented to the school. This was agreed to. A general staff meeting was called. Members of the school governing body who were available were also asked to attend. Unfortunately, only two members of the governing body attended, and approximately eight ©Juta & Co.
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teachers were absent. We realised that this was a difficult time of the term and that some of the teachers simply could not or would not attend as a result. It was agreed that we would proceed nevertheless, and that those who were absent would receive the document and be asked for their written or verbal response. (We received only one response but at least everyone had been given an opportunity to make a contribution.) After the general plan was presented, indicating the why, what, how, where and who of the process, staff were given an opportunity to discuss the issue of evaluation generally. Initially, there was little discussion, which was unusual given the open discussion that had ensued on many previous occasions. But we were aware that this was a sensitive issue which needed considerable group facilitation skills to encourage the open discussion that was needed to carry this through. After a relatively slow start, the discussion started to liven up. Teachers began to share their hesitations with regard to evaluation - although they recognised the good reasons given for why evaluation was important. Their history unfortunately made them unfavourably disposed towards any form of evaluation. We asked what they would need to have in place to make this a more acceptable process. The meeting agreed that the evaluation task team should take their ideas and develop the plan further to ensure that all their concerns were addressed. The evaluation task team met once more to develop another draft of the plan, incorporating the fears and hopes expressed at the meeting. This was presented at the next general staff meeting and accepted by all concerned (although we noted that a few teachers remained passive throughout the process). We made a note of those who were evidently resisting or extremely passive in the process and later suggested to the convenor of the evaluation task team that they discuss the matter informally with the respective people, and see if they could be brought into the process in a more positive way. We did comment, however, that in any innovation, there are always a number of people who do not participate, or even resist the process, and that sometimes you can do nothing about it except prove through practice that it is beneficial to all concerned. At this final meeting of the planning of the evaluation process for the school, we indicated once again to the team that the process needed to be sensitively pursued, and that if ever there was a need for a democratic process, it was here! They agreed and said that they would try to pursue the process as sensitively as possible, and ask for our help when necessary. They indicated that they were already aware that they would need help to develop the research instruments to collect data when conducting the various forms of evaluation. We agreed to help them with this.
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GUIDELINES Q The goals and outcomes developed for the school need to be in line with the vision and mission of the school which, in turn, need to be framed within provincial and national education policy. They need to be developed within the context of internal capacity (strengths and weaknesses) and external supports and blocks (opportunities and threats). Q The goals and outcomes that are developed need to revolve around all aspects of school life: the school as an organisation, the curriculum and staff development. O Plans of action need to be developed around the goals set - to ensure that the outcomes are achieved. This involves delegating responsibility to teams and individuals to develop action plans which set out to directly achieve the goals set. These action plans need to be couched in a time-frame, and clear responsibilities need to be delegated (who will do what?). Q Plans of action also need to be evaluated against reality. If they are not realistic in terms of internal capacity and external supports and blocks, they will probably fail. Q The process of evaluation needs to be included in the planning process. How will the various aspects of the school and its work be assessed? What will be evaluated? When will it be evaluated? Who will be involved? And, why is the evaluation being done? Q In addition to general goals and plans of action, staff should be given an opportunity to develop personal goals and plans - within the context of the broader picture. Q A comprehensive strategic planning process provides a procedure that helps to take the school through a holistic development process. Even if you deal with only one aspect or problem to begin with, it provides a framework for general school development.
WORKSHOP EXERCISES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES
Strategic planning process At the beginning of the process of strategic planning, before the vision and mission have even been developed, it is useful to introduce the members of the school community to the overall process of strategic planning.
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Strategic planning process 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Normative and environmental analysis. Vision-building and development of mission statement. Goal-setting. Reality check: SWOT analysis. Development of plans of action. Setting up of appropriate structures and procedures to pursue plans. 7. Mobilising material and human resources to pursue plans. 8. Monitoring the process, and evaluating the outcomes.
Goal-setting You can take the members of the school community through particular steps when you are ready to develop specific goals and outcomes from the mission statement. Refer to figure 4.2 for practical guidelines for pursuing a goal-setting activity.
Conducting a SWOT analysis Once goals and outcomes have been set, a reality check should be conducted. The SWOT analysis provides a framework for doing this. The workshop outline in the box below could be used for this purpose.
Developing plans of action Once realistic and clear goals and outcomes have been identified, the following procedure could be followed to develop plans of action: 1. A person or team could be identified as having overall responsibility for the development of the plans of action, for monitoring their development and for evaluation of the plans. 2. The person or team responsible for the development of the plans of action then needs to identify which plans of action need to be pursued. Then particular persons and/or teams need to be delegated to each of these. 3. Each person or team should then develop a detailed plan of action for the area concerned. The following steps could be pursued: • identify the goals and outcomes concerned; • next to each goal/outcome, identify all the actions or activities that would need to be pursued; and
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• next to each of these activities, note (a) the time-frame and deadline of the activity, and (b) the person(s) responsible for this. (Refer to figure 4.4)
SWOT analysis 1. Input: Mission statement, and statement of goals and outcomes that have emerged. Introduction to the SWOT process, emphasising the importance of conducting a 'reality check'. 2. Small groups: The goals should be examined in terms of (a) weaknesses and strengths (internal capacity) of the school to achieve these goals, (b) opportunities and threats in relation to these goals, (c) how the weaknesses and threats can be addressed or overcome and (d), in the light of all of this, whether these goals are realistic? (Each group could do all of the above, or you could split the task across groups.) (Responses to these questions could be written on small pieces of paper to make it easier for reporting back and compiling an overall picture.) 3. Plenary: Group reports back. This can be done by each group sticking its pieces of paper on the respective newsprint.
Developing evaluation structures and procedures The following procedures could be followed: 1. Development of a task team to manage the evaluation process in the school. 2. Initial discussion of feelings about evaluation should be facilitated. 3. This could be followed by a discussion on the value of the evaluation. 4. Input on what the Department of Education expects at provincial and national levels should be included at this point. Some form of discussion and debate could follow from this. 5. The task team could then develop a proposal for how evaluation could be pursued in terms of: • the school as an organisation; • the curriculum; and • staff. This proposal should include suggestions pertaining to the why, what, how, when and who of evaluation. ©Juta & Co.
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6.
The proposal could be presented to the whole staff for further development.
7.
A session focusing on the what and the how of the evaluation should be pursued. This could include the development of a code of conduct for the process. This code of conduct should include an identification of processes that would be acceptable and unacceptable to all concerned. With regard to the what., participants need to be involved in the process of developing appropriate criteria for evaluation (or appraisal) which reflect the school's vision and mission. This needs to be pursued within the context of the external quality assurance processes established by the Department of Education.
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CHAPTER FIVE
STRUCTURES AND PROCEDURES ... there should be harmony between the educated individual's need for tasks that are meaningful, satisfying and creative and an adaptive organisational structure (Bennis 1969:35)
The aim of this chapter is to examine the 'structures and procedures' which provide the basis for the way systems interrelate within the school. This element includes the way in which structures are arranged in the school, the lines of responsibility and authority within and between these structures, information flow or communication between these structures, and lines of accountability. This element also includes the rules and regulations that determine how these structures relate to one another. Four key issues that are of importance when considering this element of school life are structural arrangements, decision-making structures and procedures, accountability, and information flow between the different parts of the school. Theoretical issues relating to the element of structures and procedures in schools will be briefly explored. This will include a particular emphasis on the development of democratic structures and procedures. We will then revisit the Yellowwood High School Case Study to identify some of the strengths and weaknesses in terms of structures and procedures that were present in the school before they commenced their organisation development work. Further organisation development responses for the development of appropriate (to the school's vision and aims) structures and procedures at Yellowwood High School will then be developed. The chapter ends with a summary of guidelines, as well as workshop exercises that principals and teachers could use to develop their structures and procedures in an optimal way. A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING THE STRUCTURES AND PROCEDURES OF SCHOOL LIFE While we are examining structures and procedures in this chapter, we need to remember that this is one element which relates in an interdependent way to other elements of school life. The structures and procedures of any school reflect and perpetuate the culture of a school - that is, the way in which the school organises itself reflects particular 101
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characteristics of the school. For example, an autocratically oriented school will have structures and procedures which reflect and perpetuate a top-down, hierarchical leadership and management approach. These
figure 5.1 Framework for understanding schools: structures and procedures
structures and procedures in turn partially determine how people relate to one another (human resources element). That is why some people say that the way to make people democratic is through changing the structures so that they are 'forced' to behave in a democratic way! Of course it works the other way as well: people who are used to or are convinced that it is important to work in a democratic way will set up structures and procedures that reflect a democratic ethos. The relationship between people and structures is therefore a dynamic one. Structures and procedures also link to the strategy element in that they need to serve the aims and goals developed, and provide the basis for planning and evaluation. As we saw in the previous chapter, structures and procedures need to be developed to ensure that aims and goals are pursued, and that planning is done in an effective way. And evaluation will only occur if it is structured into the way in which the school formally organises itself, and where clear procedures are outlined. And of course, the effective working of the system as a whole - its structures and ©Juta & Co.
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procedures - is dependent on technical support. The way these structures and procedures are supported is once again determined by the vision, aims and culture of the school as a whole. And the way schools are structured, and the procedures they set up to fulfil their tasks, are also dependent on external contextual forces, for example, global trends in how schools are organised.
Structural arrangements The general and particular aims and tasks of the school will determine the way it is structured. As mentioned in chapter two, 'form follows function'. One important aspect of the strategic planning process is in fact to ensure that appropriate structures and procedures are set in place to facilitate achievement of the goals of the school. One way of visualising the structures and procedures of a school is to see them in the form of an organogram. This is a diagram reflecting the structures and procedures of an organisation. Let us look at how Yellowwood High School is structured at present.
Figure 5.2 Organogram of Yellowwood High School
From the above we can see how the different parts of the school relate to one another - particularly in terms of responsibility and authority, and in terms of communication and accountability. What is not clear in the picture of Yellowwood High School's structural arrangements is whether and how horizontal functions relate to vertical functions. Vertical structures are those that run 'top-down', (,'Juta & Co.
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and usually have clear 'line-functions' where particular structures are located under others in a vertical way. Figure 5.2 shows this vertical relationship clearly. Horizontal structures and functions cross over these vertical lines (the picture produced by this is often called a 'matrix') from left to right. These structures and functions are usually dislocated from the line-functions, and cross over all or some of the line-functions. So, for example, instead of placing the learning support teacher and 'learners with special needs' in a specific classroom which falls under a specific head of department, it could be restructured into a committee or forum that draws from all or some of the line-function structures, and aims to 'infuse' its work into all relevant structures and aspects of school life. This would, in fact, be congruent with the move towards inclusive education referred to in chapter two. Of course, working within a matrix model would mean giving much more attention to issues of coordination and collaboration (greater teamwork) between traditionally separated professions and disciplines, but this is a major challenge that has to be addressed if we are to understand and work with school development in a more holistic and comprehensive way.
Decision-making The organogram can also reflect how decision-making is structured in the school. Decision-making structures and procedures refer to the way the school organises itself in terms of its decision-making processes. This includes what structures it sets up to facilitate all the decision-making needed to manage and administer the school's tasks, and what procedures (rules, regulations and methods) are used to make decisions. This aspect of structures and procedures is therefore concerned with who makes what decisions at what level of the structures of the school, and how decisions are made. Clearly, if one is committed to the development of democratic structures and practices in South Africa more generally, and in schools more specifically (refer Education White Papers, Department of Education, 1995 and 1996), then this becomes a key issue for development. Decision-making processes relate directly to issues of power - of control and responsibility. In fact, one of the ways to analyse a school in terms of power relations is to look at the highlighted questions about decisionmaking. If we want to build a democratic school then we have to build democratic decision-making structures and procedures. We will look at what this means in more detail in a section below.
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Structure
Decision-making functions
School governing body
Overall school policy; overall management of the school; financial management; hiring and firing of teachers; disciplinary hearings; ...
Principal
Day-to-day management of the school; teacher appraisal; staff development; ... Ongoing financial management; timetable; teacher appraisal; resource control; ... Management of teacher discipline; subject materials; curriculum development; ...
Deputy principals Heads of departments Teachers
Students/LRC Support staff
Management of student discipline and general classroom management; teaching and learning strategies; development of teaching and learning materials; ... ...
Administration; equipment and facility maintenance; security; ...
Figure 5.3 Decision-making structures and procedures at Yellowwood High School
The question of who should be involved in the decision-making process relates to the important question of participation. Maximum participation of all those affected by decisions in the decision-making process is ideal and should be striven for on both moral and efficiency grounds. The moral argument is that it is a way of empowering people, of allowing them to participate actively in the control of their own lives. The efficiency argument is that successful implementation of any decision or plan is largely dependent on the extent to which the people concerned have some sense of ownership - of control and responsibility. Asking teachers to do something when they were not part of the decisionmaking process can be problematic. It splits control and responsibility. That is, you give the teachers the responsibility, but they do not have any control. This breeds dissatisfaction in any workplace setting. Of course, the control and responsibility split works the other way as well: to give teachers control without responsibility is equally problematic. The process of empowerment needs to foster both aspects. Although maximum participation is an ideal in decision-making, there are different degrees of participation. A good leader and manager will utilise the full range of possible approaches, the choice of approach being dependent on the needs of the particular situation (this relates to the ©Juta & Co.
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contingency approach to leadership and management - refer to chapter eight). What are the options in terms of participation? Heron (1992) gives us a useful framework in this regard: Q Decision by the leader only (directive approach). Q Decision by the leader in consultation with staff (negotiating approach). Q Decision by the staff (delegation approach). These three broad approaches relate to particular styles of leadership to be discussed in more detail in chapter eight. One could look at this on a continuum from minimum to maximum involvement of staff and other roleplayers. All levels of participation are potentially appropriate, depending on the needs of the particular situation. In a crisis, it is often necessary for an individual or small group to be directive and to take the necessary decisions to address the immediate demands of the situation. Negotiation is necessary when all concerned have an interest in the outcome, and need to be involved in agreeing on that outcome. And it is appropriate at times to delegate decision-making responsibilities to others - particularly when they have the resources and capacity with which to do this. There are times when one person or small group can or has to make the decision. There are times when a majority involvement is necessary. At other times it is important to strive to include everyone. The latter approach is particularly important if it is around an issue that directly affects all concerned, and where the implementation of the decision is dependent on ownership by all concerned. An example of this could be the adoption of an additional language of learning at the school. An important point emerging from this discussion is that appropriateness of participation is the key to good decision-making processes in any organisation. And, in order to decide what is appropriate, one needs to decide on what kind of decisions need to be taken by whom. Another important factor is the consequence of the particular approach adopted. How these decisions are or should be taken is also an important question. This question highlights the various methods of decision-making that could be pursued (once again depending on the needs of the situation). This includes decision by majority vote, or by consensus. The latter approach, which strives to reach a unanimous outcome, is usually favoured but not always possible. Particular procedures to be used for any decision-making need to be agreed upon before decisions are taken. This can prevent many problems with dissatisfaction after the decision has been taken. For example, it is helpful to ask the meeting to agree on a particular procedure so that they accept the outcome. If all parties have agreed on a majority vote approach, then all have to accept the outcome. While minorities (who ©Juta&Co.
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have disagreed with the outcome) may be dissatisfied because their views did not prevail, they are more likely to go along with the decision made if they were party to agreeing on the procedure in the first place. Finally, with regard to the how of decision-making, an awareness of basic decision-making steps can be helpful in ensuring a positive outcome. These steps relate to a problem-solving approach and are set out in the box below.
Problem-solving steps 1. The decision-making procedure should be clarified and agreed upon. 2. The issue around which the decision revolves needs to be clarified to all concerned. 3. All those participating in the decision-making process should have access to any necessary information relating to the decision area. 4. Various options (alternatives routes that could be followed) need to be considered. 5. The consequences of each option need to be clarified. 6. Arguments for and against each of the options need to be voiced. This allows for rational debate around the issue concerned, and will aid in the 'informing' process referred to above (point 3). 7. Once an opportunity for debate and discussion has been allowed, proposals need to be invited. 8. Participants then need to be allowed to express their support or resistance to the decision suggested (for example through voting). 9. If consensus is to be reached, then debate needs to continue until everyone is prepared to go along with the decision. 10. Once the decision is agreed upon, delegation of responsibilities relating to that decision should be identified.
While this may seem to be a long-winded approach to decision-making, once it is internalised by those involved, it will become less time-consuming and will be more likely to be followed by decisive action.
Accountability Some committees may be very good at taking decisions, yet the decisions are seldom followed through. Why is this? One of the reasons may be that there is no accountability system in place to monitor that responsibilities are fulfilled. Taking minutes of meetings is a traditional and very (', Juta & Co.
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helpful way of doing this. Whenever a decision is taken, this is noted. Where action needs to be pursued, this is also noted with the person (s) name linked to that. It is normal practice to then pick this up under 'Matters Arising' on the agenda of the next meeting. This provides a very tight reporting system which allows the organisation to monitor its work. The demands of both democracy and efficiency require some form of accountability in the school. All roleplayers have to be held accountable in terms of the particular responsibilities they hold in the overall school system. If we accept this as a given (and although we may be fearful of accountability systems that 'police' people, generally people see the need for this in any organisation), then the task of the school is to find a system of accountability that facilitates the fulfilment of the school's aims within the context of the particular values and norms of the school (culture). Ideally, accountability should not need to be practised as a policing system. Rather, we would hope to establish an ethos in the school where mutual accountabilities are fulfilled through a deep sense of commitment to the realisation of a shared vision. We have to ask some of the same questions raised around the issue of decision-making: who should be accountable to whom-, about what? The way we answer this question will reflect the overall ethos and management approach in the school. If we are trying to develop a democratic school, where all roleplayers are seen to be important participants in the school development process, then all concerned need to account for their involvement in this process. We are accountable to one another, but also to the state and community. Building a democratic ethos in schools is not just a political issue. When people feel they are genuinely part of a real process and participating meaningfully in the shaping of the school life, decisions that are made are far more likely to be followed through. In building a democratic ethos in our school, we are building a far more humane organisation where people feel valued. The way in which accountability is pursued is important. A top-down, hierarchical approach would involve a system of accountability which, in an organogram, would consist of upward arrows (refer to figure 5.2). A bottom-up approach would have the arrows going in the opposite direction. One could argue that the kind of democratic schools that we are trying to build, which capture the approach to accountability referred to in the previous paragraph, should include a system of arrows which go in both directions: up and down! And sideways as well! This places an emphasis on mutual accountability. All roleplayers have to account for their actions to the bodies that represent all of these roleplayers. For example, principals are held accountable for certain responsibilities: to the Department, to the governing body, to the teachers and other staff members, to the parents, to the students. Likewise, teachers are accountable ©Juta & Co.
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for their work: to the Department, to the governing body, to the principal, to other staff members, to the parents, and to the students. Accounting occurs through some form of reporting system. Forms of reporting include: Q Minutes of meetings. Q Verbal reports at meetings. Q Written reports at stipulated times (for example every quarter). Q Evaluation reports. One of the tasks in a school development process is to identify how this accountability should operate so that it reflects the management approach adopted in the vision of the school, and what kinds of reporting systems are needed to facilitate this process.
Information flow/Communication systems The last issue to be dealt with in this section is that of information flow, or formal communication within the school as a system. This does not refer to informal communication between people, but rather to the way in which the various subsystems of the school communicate and link with one another. Once again, the particular way in which the subsystems link with one another reflects the ethos and, in particular, the specific management approach of the school. For example, in a democratically managed school, lines of communication between the different systems would be as open (transparent) as possible, to facilitate maximum participation in the life of the school. So, for example, decisions taken at a particular committee meeting would be minuted and distributed to all other relevant structures in the school. All relevant roleplayers would therefore be kept up-to-date with the discussions and decisions of that part of the school. Being kept informed is a particularly important issue within the context of a democratic organisation. The concept of 'transparency' - a popular term in South Africa in recent years - is relevant here. People want to know what decisions are being taken that affect their lives. They want to have the opportunity (even if they do not take it!) to participate in these processes and need to have access to information in order to do so. While the principle of transparency is essential in a democratically functioning school, concerns about confidentiality need to be taken seriously too. It is not always appropriate to make all minutes public. It is particularly important for people in leadership and management positions to understand what is happening in the school. In fact, appropriate decision-making is dependent on being aware of developments in the school. Keeping in touch with what is happening requires a good communication system. ©Juta & Co.
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There are different ways of ensuring optimal communication within the system. There is often the mistaken belief that everyone has to be present at every meeting in order to stay in touch with what is happening in the organisation. This is not necessary. Other forms of communication include: G Meetings (with one, some, or all concerned). G Internal communication (memo). G Circular letter. G Circulation of relevant documents, for example minutes of meetings and reports. Q E-mail (electronic mail through the computer/telephone link). Q Telephone. G Fax.
G
Intercom.
G Notice boards. Once again the particular form chosen needs to relate to the particular need of the situation. For example, meetings are expensive in terms of people hours and so should not be used simply to disseminate information, but rather for discussion and collective decision-making when necessary. If information needs to be made available, memoranda, e-mail messages, and notices are some of the methods that can be used. It should be noted, however, that written communication is often ignored or 'filed' directly into the wastepaper basket! It is useful, therefore, to limit the use of this method, to refer to these communications in meetings, and to repeatedly emphasise the role of these methods of communication in the democracy process. We need to remember that this aspect of structures and procedures links directly with the element of 'technical support'. Good communication within the school system is dependent on good administrative support. This is an issue that will be addressed more fully in the next chapter.
Democracy We have spoken a great deal about democracy in this book. It is appropriate that we stop for a moment to look at what we mean by this. In the context of school development, it is important that this popular yet often misused concept is clearly defined, with current understandings and expectations being made visible. Many problems in our schools (and elsewhere in our society) relate not to the fact that people do not want to be democratic, but rather that they have different connotations of and expectations linked to that concept. And these differences often emerge ©Juta& Co.
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as major conflicts within the school. This is particularly true when it comes to the central issue of participation'. All members of the school community may agree that democracy is linked to participation, but will have different ideas of what this means. To one person, this may mean that she or he must be involved in all decision-making processes, while to another person, it may mean that he or she needs to be informed of decisions that have been taken. The issue of democracy is likely to be raised during the process of vision-building (refer to chapter three). This is when a debate about what democracy means could occur. One way of facilitating this debate is to ask members of the school governing body to share their expectations of democratic practice in a school. Where there are similarities, these need to be highlighted. Where there are differences, there needs to be some debate and resolution in terms of definition - for the purpose of school development. From this discussion one could then identify the key characteristics of democracy. It is useful at this point to link this discussion to theoretical understandings of democracy and key concepts such as participation, transparency, control and responsibility. In the process of clarifying the concept of democracy, a discussion of 'representative' and 'participatory' democracy also becomes important. Representative democracy refers to the idea that all relevant constituencies need to be represented in the decision-making process. We therefore 'elect' representatives to represent our views in a particular situation. The representative school governing bodies as outlined in the South Africa Schools Act (1996) represents such a structure. Each constituency has the opportunity to elect people who are 'mandated' to represent their interests. Within a democratic system, representatives are then held accountable to those who elected them. Some form of reporting to the constituency concerned therefore has to occur. Participatory democracy is a system of democracy that emphasises the importance of participation of all constituents in the processes concerned. So, for example, a school that subscribes to a participatory democracy would find ways to include all its members in the various decision-making processes. All members would have access to the information and decisions generated in the organisation (through various forms of communication), and would be given opportunities to contribute to the development of the school. Most democratic systems include a mixture of representative and participatory democracy. Once again, the contingency approach is appropriate here. Representative forms of democracy are particularly appropriate for governance structures, where it simply is not practically feasible to involve everyone. Where large member bodies are involved (for example governance of the country), representative democracy is the only practical alternative. The principle of participatory democracy, however, is pursued through the process of voting. All members of ( Juta & Co.
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society (above a certain age) do, therefore, have opportunities to voice their opinions, particularly during referendums. At school level many of the structures reflect the representative principle (for example Learner Representative Councils), while participatory democracy is evident where all members are provided with an opportunity to participate, for example at general meetings, through voting procedures, through participation in particular aspects of the school's life, and so on. In the process of achieving clarity about the meaning of democracy in the school development process, therefore, it is important to highlight these two different approaches, and discuss how they can be used to develop a democratic approach that is relevant to the aims and tasks of the school. Given the important role that structures play in the development of democratic practices in a school, the development of democratic governing bodies is essential. The establishment and maintenance of these structures requires thoughtful preparation and planning, particularly if the school has a history of non-participation. All constituencies need to be prepared and supported to participate optimally, and structures and procedures need to be developed to facilitate participation. This is recognised in the SA Schools Act of 1996. A further point of clarity that needs to be reached is around the relationship between democracy and education. The particular nature of the school as an organisation, within the context of education, needs to be carefully explored in relation to the concept of democracy. As Morrow (1989) and others argue, schools are particular organisations, and education a particular kind of process that does not reflect 'equality' in the way often understood within the context of democracy. This is because the educational relationship (teacher-student) is about the one guiding the other. Although there should be mutual respect between teacher and student, they are not 'equal' in terms of the knowledge and skills being imparted. In order to find a style of democracy that is appropriate to a schooling context, therefore, it is necessary for the particular nature, aims and tasks of the school to be clearly articulated, and appropriate structures and procedures set in place accordingly. Ultimately, the challenge of building a democratic school is a central concern for the leadership, management and governance of the school. This challenge will be pursued in more detail in chapter eight.
Revisiting Yellowwood High School When you re-examine the case study of Yellowwood High School, following conclusions relating to the structures and procedures of school can be drawn. First, you are referred to figure 5.2 which is an attempt to capture structures and procedures of Yellowwood High School (based on limited information provided in the case study). ©Juta & Co.
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Particular strengths and weaknesses that can be noted about the school in the case study include the following issues: Q The school does have a school governing body, consisting of the principal, the deputy principals, three parents, and two community leaders (who seldom attend meetings). This committee meets on a quarterly basis and at other times when necessary. The management structures also include subject departments, with each department being coordinated by the respective heads of departments. There is no staff association, and no student representative body. The students and the teachers do not feel that they have access to the governance structures of the school. Q Parents' meetings are organised but very few parents attend. Parent involvement in the school is an ongoing problem. Q Despite the many needs relating to social problems (for example drugs and violence) and learning difficulties experienced by so many of the students, there are no structures within the school that facilitate the provision of education support services (including school health, welfare, psychological and learning support services for students, staff and parents who need support). Q There is clearly a sense of dissatisfaction with the way in which the school is managed and therefore organises itself. The structures and procedures are generally perceived to be 'top-down'. There is a perception that while there is spoken commitment to democracy, this is merely a lip-service commitment. Q Mr Strider appears to take most of the decisions affecting the school, with different levels of involvement of the two deputy principals in the process. Although teachers are consulted at times, they feel that they are merely playing a 'rubberstamping' role. At times voting is used but the governing body has the power to veto the decision. This makes the teachers feel that their participation is not real. Q There is also a feeling that there is a lack of accountability throughout the school. This lack is particularly evident between principal/management and teachers (with teachers feeling that the principal is not being held accountable to them), between teachers and teachers, and between students and staff. The principal has instituted various forms of reporting that force the teachers to be accountable: the fortnightly record books which have to be handed to the principal, the principal's visits to classrooms, and the monitoring of students' progress through regular testing. The top-down nature of this accountability process is clearly evident here. Q While some procedures are clear (teachers know that they must send their record books to the principal every fortnight, and there appear to be clear staff meeting procedures), others are not. For example, •c Juta & Co.
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there are no clear procedures for using resources, and no structures or procedures to facilitate staff appraisal. Q With regard to communication, teachers feel that there is a lack of 'transparency' in the school, which suggests that information is not flowing in an open way. There are regular staff meetings, however, so there is at least the opportunity for verbal communication at that level - although that is very dependent on how the meetings are facilitated. The organisation development work that has already occurred with the school has generated a vision and mission statement; goals and outcomes; the development of action plans to achieve goals set; and structures and procedures to pursue evaluation of the school as an organisation, of the curriculum and of teacher development. The vision and mission statement referred to commitments that relate to specific structures and procedures: (a) democratic structures and procedures, including a representative governance structure; (b) a staff development programme; (c) a fundraising committee; (d) provision of education support services (although no clear structure was envisaged in this regard); (e) an after-school programme; and (f) ongoing evaluation. The aims, goals and outcomes developed during the strategic planning process (refer to chapter four) relate to the above as well as other issues arising during the process. In the planning process, specific committees or task teams were developed to pursue the detailed planning around each of the main cluster of goals. These included an evaluation task team which was given clear terms of reference for its work which primarily consisted of the development of structures and procedures to ensure that evaluation became instituted in the life of the school. A management task team was set up to examine and develop the leadership and management of the school as a whole. A staff development task team was also set up to pursue issues relating to both staff development and staff appraisal. Other task teams were formed to pursue the various aspects of detailed planning. An overall school development task team was set up to oversee the comprehensive approach of school development. It was agreed that all the other task teams would fall under the school development team. This clarified the management process, and in particular, the process of reporting during the development process. It was interesting to note that during this process, a new set of structures and procedures was put in place in the school. This was the first time that the school had operated within the concept of 'task teams'. Interestingly, this development reflected the national trends where national, regional and local governments were setting up numerous task teams to attend to the various tasks and demands. This reflects a matrix ©Juta & Co.
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approach to organisation and management, referred to in some detail above. It draws on representatives and expertise to pursue tasks that need to be pursued, and in the process, brings democracy and efficiency together!
FURTHER ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT RESPONSES The democratisation project The need for Yellowwood High School to be democratised was expressed during the vision-building process, and continued to be a central issue throughout the strategic-planning process. The strategic-planning process captured this issue by identifying it as a priority goal for the school during the next year. One of the planning task teams took this on and developed a plan of action to achieve this goal. What follows is an outline of this plan and how it was pursued in practice. Once the plan of action had been drawn up, the task team presented it to the school community. A meeting was called of all roleplayers and the plan presented. Participants were asked to comment on and amend the plan where appropriate. Minor changes were made, after which the task team was asked to coordinate the process. We were asked to be available as trainers and consultants if necessary. The first workshop was held over a weekend and included all roleplayers, that is, all the teachers and other staff, student representatives, parent representatives, and representatives from the Department of Education. The workshop worked on clarifying the meaning of 'democracy' in this school community. Participants were asked, in small groups, to express their personal expectations of a school that espouses democracy. This was then shared in the plenary. As facilitators we helped the participants to identify where there was already a common understanding identifying and elaborating on key concepts such as 'participation', 'transparency' and 'representation'. We then dealt with areas of obvious difference (and conflict) and facilitated a debate around each of the issues highlighted. At the end of the discussion, consensus was reached about what kind of democratic practices the school was committing itself to. Although consensus was reached at the end, the process of discussion had to be handled sensitively as there were some very real differences which had to be managed constructively. What helped the participants to reach a point of consensus was the realisation that they had to find an 'operational' (practical) definition of democracy for the school. This included representative structures for all constituencies; clarity about who makes decisions about what; respect for all opinions; and a commitment to open communication in the system, including ensuring access to all relevant information.
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GOAL: To transform the school into a democratic institution reflecting democratic structures and practices ACTION 1. Workshop of school community to clarify concept of democracy 2. Workshop of school community to build new structures and procedures for the school 3. Workshop to review the school governing body - meetings of students - meetings of parents - meetings of teachers/ staff - meeting of current school governing body 4. Finalisation of the organogram of new structures and procedures, and representative development of plan of action for implementation 5. Implementation of plan of action including: leadership and management training for all sectors, including the governing body
TIME-FRAME RESPONSIBILITY August Management task team and consultants September Task team and consultants October/ November
Task team, consultants, and government representative
January
Task team, government structures
FebruaryNovember
School development team Staff development team and
consultants
OUTCOME: A school that has structures and procedures and a general ethos of optimal participation of all relevant constituencies in the life of the school Figure 5.4 Plan of action to democratise Yellowwood High School
The second workshop consisted of a very creative process, which all participants enjoyed. In small groups, they were asked to draw the structures of their school - the way they wanted it to be. They were asked ©Juta& Co.
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to indicate who would make decisions, about what, at which level of governance. They also had to indicate how accountability would operate (in terms of direction and specific forms of reporting), and they were asked to indicate how the different subsystems of the school would link with one another. The small groups presented their drawings, and commented on each others' pictures. Two of the participants were then asked to take the drawings home and come up with one drawing that captured the key aspects reflected in the various contributions. Two of the teachers offered to do this and to present it to everyone in a brief report two weeks later. Their diagram appears in figure 5.5 below.
Figure 5.5 Organogram of the 'new' Yellowwood High School
At this point, the need to review the governance structure was noted and pursued. The focus of this exercise was primarily on whether and how the governing body was in line with government regulations (South African Schools Act, 1996), and how it was operating. There was a particular focus on how the governing body was coping with its financial management functions. Members of the Department of Education were invited to participate in this process. Because it was not possible to organise another meeting, all members of the school community were asked to send any comments on the proposed organogram (figure 5.5) to the task team concerned. After the due date for submissions, the task team finalised the organogram ( Juta & Co.
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and circulated it to all concerned again. Attached to the organogram was a proposed plan of action for how to develop the structures and procedures over the next year. The school development team was asked to pursue this issue accordingly. The final aspect of the plan of action consisted of the leadership, management and governance capacity building of all sectors. Although two of the staff members had already attended a course on leadership and management, it was agreed that the whole staff (and members of the school governing body) needed to be exposed to skills training in this area. We were asked to structure a course for the school. We asked the two members who had already been through a course to join us in the planning of the course. It was agreed that they would act as the school representatives in this regard, taking responsibility for checking out whether the particular needs of this school community were being met. The design of the course is outlined in chapter eight, where issues relating to leadership and management are explored in more detail.
Reconstruction and development of structures and procedures of the school In addition to the democratisation of structures and procedures, development of this element of school life was also pursued in terms of other aims and goals identified in the strategic planning process. The structures and procedures task team was asked to come up with suggestions for changes that needed to be made to ensure that the school's structures and procedures addressed these other goals. They recommended that a teacher support team, comprising teacher representatives (one volunteer from each standard), a deputy principal, the guidance/lifeskills education teacher, the learning support teacher, a parent representative, a student representative, and members of the local education support centre (a nurse, psychologist, learning support facilitator, speech and hearing specialist, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, and social worker) be set up. A central purpose of this school-based support team was to help the school develop its capacity to be 'inclusive and health promoting' in all aspects of its life - an aim identified during the strategic planning process. This committee was directly accountable to the school governing body.
Decision-making procedures At one of the meetings, the need to closely examine decision-making procedures was highlighted. One teacher indicated that she felt that all the staff needed training in this regard - particularly as it was such an important aspect of democratic management. It was agreed that a short workshop on decision-making should be conducted. We offered to © Juta & Co.
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structure this workshop but one of the teachers was unhappy about our being the only consultants used in the development process. He felt that the school should be aware of all the resources available, and that they should be allowed to make a choice as to whom they work with. We agreed with this, and offered to access such a resource list for the school. This was easier said than done! But, with the assistance of the expertise at the district support centre, it took approximately a month to put something together. We felt that it was time well spent as it provided a resource for other schools as well. The staff development task team was asked to make a decision about which resource to use once they received the list, and to take the process further. The task team contacted the local district support centre and, in consultation with them, decided to use a non-governmental organisation (NGO) whose speciality was developing democratic decision-making processes. They asked us to participate in the planning process, however, as we were the central consultants for the overall school development process and they wanted to be sure that there was some sense of coherence. It was a very valuable experience for all concerned, as we shared skills and insights among ourselves and all came away better informed as a result of the collaboration.
Improving information flow Another area of concern raised at a staff meeting related to problems experienced around information flow in the school. Many of the staff felt that there were simply too many meetings. They were already overloaded, and the move towards democracy just seemed to increase this load. They asked if they could obtain some advice on how to set up their communication systems so that they service the principles of both democracy and efficiency! There was overwhelming support for this suggestion. The school development team was then charged to consult the resource list (referred to above) and identify whether the Department or some organisation could provide this advice. It was agreed that this did not warrant a general meeting or workshop, but rather that the school development team should delegate someone to obtain this advice and develop a proposal for the school accordingly. This proposal could then be presented to the whole school community before implementation. The outcome of this intervention was very successful, and linked directly to one of the priority goals set during the strategic planning process: to develop a democratic and efficient system of management and administration in the school. Some of the outcomes were: Q The school development task team conducted a workshop with the whole staff to highlight the rights and responsibilities of all to make communication work. Q The school development task team identified which subsystems of ( ) Juta & Co.
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the school needed to be linked, and in what ways, and how these links could be maintained. Input from the Department and a Graduate School of Business helped to facilitate this process. Administrative staff (including the principal) were provided with computers and introduced to basic systems that would help to organise important data for the school. Teachers and students were also provided with computer resource centres, and trained how to use them for word-processing and other relevant purposes. The school development task team identified which meetings were essential for the optimal running of the school, and ensured that minutes were taken and distributed in an efficient and useful way. Administrative staff went through a workshop where their role in the democracy process was highlighted and debated. Their role in ensuring the efficient circulation of relevant documents to relevant people was highlighted.
GUIDELINES In summary, the following guidelines can be drawn out of the above discussion. Q The structures and procedures in the school need to be developed in line with and in support of the vision, aims and goals of the school. Q If democracy is a principle embodied in the above vision and aims, then structures and procedures need to be developed to reflect this. Q Members of the school community need to have clarity about the meaning of democracy for schools. Opportunities for debating issues relating to democracy need to be given to the roleplayers concerned. G Members of the school community need to become aware of the alternative decision-making procedures available to them. Basic steps in decision-making should also be familiar to all concerned. Q Communication in the organisation needs to operate in such a way that those who are making decisions have access to the information they need. Q A variety of communication processes needs to be used in the school. This includes meetings, memos and circular letters, use of intercom and e-mail (where computers are available). Q If it is accepted that all roleplayers cannot participate in all decisions at all times, an important management responsibility is to define who makes decisions, about what, at what level of the organisation. ©Juta & Co.
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Q Lines of accountability need to be in line with the ethos of the school. Exactly how these lines should operate within a democratic school should be clarified. Q Appropriate reporting systems need to be set up to ensure accountability. WORKSHOP EXERCISES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES
Understanding and developing the structures and procedures of your school One way to heighten the school community's understanding of the school is to provide an opportunity for community members to draw the school as they see it. The workshop outlined below could be used for this purpose. After the workshop, the task team or designated person(s) could draw up a consolidated picture and present it to the school. Thereafter, a plan of action for implementation would need to be drawn up.
Reviewing and developing the school's structures 1. Reviewing existing structures Small groups: Participants draw/represent the school structures as they see them. Plenary: These pictures of the school are shared, and some discussion around similarities and differences pursued. Small groups: Responses to the above, particularly in terms of (a) how you feel about the existing structures and (b) positive and negative aspects of the school's structures 2. Reconstructing the school's structures Input: School's vision, mission and goals Small groups: Participants to redesign the school in the light of the input. Plenary: Group reports back and open discussion takes place.
Decision-making To facilitate clarification and development of decision-making processes, the management task team or other relevant person(s) could conduct an analysis of existing decision-making structures and procedures, and develop new ways of structuring this. The framework outlined in figure 5.3 could be used for this purpose. ( Juta & Co.
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This process could also be workshopped, with members of the school community developing this analysis. It is important to provide all members of the school community with opportunities to develop their decision-making skills. An example of such a workshop is presented below.
Decision-making skills training 1. What insights and skills are needed in order to participate? Small groups: Answer this question. Plenary: Group reports back and open discussion takes place. Input: (from this chapter, concentrating particularly on the issues of'empowerment' and 'control and responsibility'). 2. Different ways of making decisions Small groups: Exercise (giving group an opportunity to make a decision together). Reflection: What method(s) was/were used by the group to make the decision? Input: Different methods of making decisions (refer to this chapter). 3. The decision-making process Input: Steps in decision-making (refer to this chapter). Small groups: Exercise(s) that enables the group to practise making collective decisions. Plenary: Sum up and elaborate if necessary.
Accountability This is a sensitive issue in schools and therefore deserves some attention in terms of workshop and other activities. The following workshop outline is one way in which this hot issue could be pursued. As suggested above, a team or person could be delegated to draw up a proposal as to how appropriate accountability can be operationalised in the school. Contributions made during the workshop should be used as a basis for developing structures and procedures for appropriate accountability.
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Accountability workshop 1. Why look at accountability? Plenary: Brainstorm response to this question. Input: Link concept of accountability to 'democracy' and issues of control and responsibility. Also relate to Department of Education requirements. Plenary: Open discussion. 2. What should we be accountable about, and to whom? Small groups: Discuss these two questions. Plenary: Group reports back and open discussion takes place. Input: Sum up and elaborate on these two issues (refer to this chapter). 3. How can we institute accountability in our school? Small groups: Respond to this question - how can we make it happen? Plenary: Group reports back and open discussion takes place. Input: Sum up and elaborate where necessary. Suggest that a proposal be developed around this, and ensure that a person(s) is/are delegated to follow this up.
Building a democratic school (Refer to figures 5.4 and 5.5) This is a process that takes time! Various workshops and other processes should be pursued to achieve this. The following workshops are ways in which some of the steps in democratisation could be pursued. A democratic school 1. Clarifying the concept of democracy Small groups: Discuss what they expect from the school and the people (structures and practices in a democratic school). In other words: what would a democratic school be like? Plenary: Group reports back. Input: Sum up, concentrating on common points and differences. Input on definitions of democracy from various sources. Plenary: Open discussion, taking each of the differences noted above and debating them. Attempt to reach consensus on an operational definition of democracy for this school. This means moving away from the 'rhetoric' of democracy, to descriptions of behaviour and structures and procedures. 2. Building democratic structures (Refer to the first workshop in this section. This workshop outline could be used around the concept of democracy.) OJuta & Co.
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There is no one way of pursuing the task of developing a well-functioning, democratic governing body, but the procedure set out below is one possibility.
Capacity building of the school governing body 1. Clarify national and provincial government legislation regarding school governing bodies, and check current composition and functions in the light of this. 2. Clarify how it should operate to fulfil its legal functions and moral obligations, particularly in terms of developing democratic practices. 3. Identify capacity-building needs of all the governing body members and pursue ways of providing any training and support required. This is likely to include leadership and management development of the governing body members as well as the staff and other members of the school community. An example of a leadership and management training programme that could be developed in your school is provided in chapter eight.
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TECHNICAL SUPPORT What characterises the excellent and the very good schools? ... the needed resources ... are available. (Dalin 1994:xiv)
In this chapter we will deal with the challenge of addressing the need for technical support for school development. This includes the areas of (a) resources: access and control, with a particular emphasis on resources relating to teaching and learning support in the school, (b) finances and financial management, and (c) administration. The purpose of this chapter is to link the development of these aspects to broader school development, and, in particular, to explore how we can achieve democracy and efficiency. There is, we believe, the mistaken belief that when you 'go democratic' you lose your efficiency. We want to demonstrate that this is not only untrue, but that exactly the opposite is true. We will examine the different aspects of this element of school life (resources, finances, and administration) in some detail, looking particularly at how they relate to the other aspects of school development. We will then re-examine Yellowwood High School to analyse the initial case study as well as the previous school development work pursued (chapters three, four and five) in the light of this framework. We will then pursue the school's development further, addressing various resource, financial and administrative needs identified in the process of development. The chapter will close with a summary in the form of guidelines, as well as workshop exercises that you could use in your own school. A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING THE TECHNICAL SUPPORT ELEMENT OF SCHOOL LIFE We noted in the strategic planning process (refer to chapters three and four) that the processes of vision-building, goal-setting and planning are closely linked to the question of human and material resources. The successful achievement of goals is dependent on the extent to which we accurately assess our internal capacity, and the extent to which we realistically analyse our external context. The element of technical support cannot be separated from the realities of our context. Schools are dependent on external resources to survive. We are only too conscious of how the lack of resources has affected schooling in South Africa, and some even believe that this is a priority element to address in the context of school development. 125
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Figure 6.1 Framework for understanding schools: technical support
Problems relating to the various aspects of the technical support element are often at the root of interpersonal conflict in a school. This reflects a further link to the human resources element of school life. Typical conflict situations experienced in schools in this regard include issues relating to lack of access to resources (for example no or inadequate supply of textbooks); to the unfair distribution of resources (for example only some teachers have access to a particular resource in the school); and to the mismanagement of resources (for example teaching equipment is not adequately maintained). Lack of adequate resources and administrative support can subtly, and often not so subtly, affect and undermine the morale of teachers. While we cannot blame the demoralisation of teachers experienced in South African schools for so many decades solely on the lack or mismanagement of resources and administrative support, these factors have certainly played a major role in this regard. The effective development and maintenance of structures and procedures of the school is also dependent on appropriate resource and financial management, and effective administration. The link between administration and information flow within the school system has already been noted (refer to chapter five). Effective communication is dependent on an efficient administrative system. Good decision©Juta & Co.
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making is dependent on this effective communication. Democratic participation is dependent on all of this working well. Hence the link between democracy and efficiency! One of the core responsibilities of leadership and management in the school is the management of all aspects of technical support in the life of the school. In this chapter, we will also examine the management aspects of these areas.
Access and control of material and financial resources As mentioned previously, most schools in South Africa have suffered from extreme shortages in terms of material and financial resources. This has deeply affected the life of schools and, in some cases, has made it almost impossible to pursue educational goals. The lack of resources, the mismanagement of resources where they have been available and, in particular, the unfair distribution of resources within the education context, are currently being addressed under the new dispensation in South Africa (post-apartheid 1994). The issue of resources is a political one. It is an issue of power. But the reason we are deeply touched by issues relating to resources is that they relate to personal interests. It is not only about power but also about survival. In a capitalist society, where basic needs are minimally or not met by the government, this becomes a particularly crucial aspect. We can understand, therefore, why so much interpersonal and inter-group conflict is directly attributable to resource issues. Schools are primarily dependent on the government for the provision of finances and other material resources. The way in which the education budget is devised has a major impact on all schools in the country. This is an issue which we should all take seriously, and not merely leave up to the elected politicians and government officials. Teacher unions and other collective bodies play an important role in keeping a watchful eye on how the budget is developed, and do, or should, intervene when priorities have not been identified in an acceptable way. But it is not only the responsibility of the government to provide the necessary financial and material resources for schools. The private sector also needs to play a role. This includes the business sector, which can play a central role in helping schools to develop the resources they need to achieve their goals. It also includes the parents and the broader community within which the school is situated. Some form of payment of school fees seems to be acceptable practice in most countries, and has been adopted in South Africa. However, school fees need to take account of the socio-economic conditions of the community concerned. A partnership between the government, the business sector and parents is important. This challenge is being addressed in South Africa at present. In addition to government subsidies, school fees paid by parents, and r Juta & Co.
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contributions from the business sector, fundraising has to be an ongoing responsibility of the school community as a whole. This is an aspect of resourcing that needs to be creatively developed and well managed in the school. Before we look more specifically at general resource and financial management, it would be useful to identify what resources are needed in any school.
School resources O
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Accessible facilities (for all students and staff, including people with disabilities), including school buildings (appropriately designed in terms of 'learning space'), classrooms, desks or tables and chairs, toilets and basins, science laboratory(ies), library or general resource room, and sports field(s). Library resources. Teaching equipment such as textbooks and other teaching materials, chalkboards, overhead projectors and transparencies, video equipment, tape recorders, science equipment, equipment relating to learning support, computers. Learning equipment such as text- and other resource-books, workbooks, computers, assistive devices (for those students with disabilities who need them). Administrative equipment such as photocopier, computers, telephone, fax. Music and art equipment. Sports equipment.
In addition to the above-mentioned resources, specific resources relating to particular goals and plans developed by the school would also be identified and would need to be accessed if the goals concerned are to be met. Not only do these resources need to be available to the school, but they also need to be appropriate to the school in terms of its vision and aims. For example, a school that has committed itself to inclusion of learners with disabilities must ensure that the building accommodates their particular needs (for example wheelchairs). Resource management includes identifying, accessing and controlling resources in the school. Within this framework, we would like to suggest that the following issues are central to the successful management of resources in a school. O First, the school needs to identify what resources it needs. This relates to the strategic planning process specifically, but also to an ©Juta & Co.
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O
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understanding of the resources that are needed to achieve the aims of the curriculum. Once the resources have been identified, they need to be accessed. This requires obtaining information about what the school is entitled to obtain from the Department of Education; who is responsible for supplying these resources; where else the resources identified can be obtained and who is responsible for the provision of these resources (parents? the school? business?). Having identified the 'where' and 'who', someone has to take responsibility for obtaining these resources. This could involve a simple administrative procedure, or a more lengthy process of consultation and lobbying. Various strategies could and should be pursued to access the resources needed. These include: • accessing money from school budgets; • accessing money from district and provincial budgets; • writing proposals to obtain resources from local private and business sectors, as well as national and international donors; • obtaining resources from the local community; • developing one's own resources. Management of the resources entails having an effective 'stocktaking' system that enables the management and administrative bodies to keep in touch with what is available in the school. This is important for the purposes of ensuring that the school is adequately resourced at any time, but also to control possible theft. Security systems are also necessary. While our society is still riddled with excessive violence and crime, this is a particularly important point. Security includes strategies that range from simple locking systems to major security patrols where necessary. Management of the resources also entails managing the distribution of resources. As noted above, this is a potential area of conflict in a school, and needs to be managed sensitively. One way to ensure fairness in this regard is to include the school community in decisions relating to the allocation of resources. Resources need to be maintained. Responsibilities for the maintenance of resources need to be delegated to the relevant parties. Generally speaking, however, one important human resource needed for the purposes of school maintenance is a school caretaker. A central part of this person's job description should be to keep a regular check on all facilities and resources and ensure that they are kept in optimal working order. Maintenance of school facilities and other school resources is also an area in which students, parents and other local community members can play a central role. It is one way of facilitating ownership of the school, and is a very practical way in c Juta & Co.
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which all members of the school community can contribute to the school as a whole.
Teaching and learning support The central purpose of providing technical support in a school, including the accessing and control of physical resources, is to facilitate the process of teaching and learning. Two aspects that are being highlighted here are the material resources that relate directly to the teaching and learning process. When looking at the list of school resources in the box above, you will see that the issue of accessibility is highlighted, particularly in relation to students and staff with disabilities. But this accessibility is not only an issue for people with disabilities. It is about ensuring that the diverse learning needs of the student population in the school are addressed. This means that teaching materials developed by and for teachers must not only be available, but also accessible to all students in the school. This may include ensuring that student worksheets are available in Braille for students who are blind or who have some form of visual impairment, or it may include ensuring that lessons are presented in more than one language, and so on. The implications of the principle of addressing diversity in the school, therefore, are that, based on the specific needs of the school's student population, the school would need to identify and access the physical resources needed to support the teaching and learning process. Having acquired these resources, the development of competencies to use these resources optimally would need to be pursued. This is where the human resources relating to teaching and learning support (refer to chapter seven) would play a central role. In addition to ensuring that the teaching and learning materials and the medium of instruction are accessible to all students in the school, the issue of accessibility is very relevant to the school facilities. For both teachers and students, the school facilities need to promote rather than hinder the teaching and learning process. The school grounds, buildings and classrooms need to be accessible to all; they need to be safe (in terms of the physical and psycho-social environment); and they need to be conducive to the process of learning (for example, the 'learning space' in the classrooms needs to support rather than hinder learning). The school environment (physical as well as psychosocial aspects) is a major factor in determining whether optimal learning and development of its staff and students occur. The concept of a 'health-promoting school' (Department of Health 2000; Donald, Lazarus & Lolwana 2001) is relevant here. This refers to the development of a school environment that is supportive of the development of all members of the school community. ©Juta & Co.
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Financial management It is not the purpose of this book to provide a comprehensive guide to financial management, but some key issues relating to this important aspect of school life need to be highlighted. First, from a strategic planning point of view, accessing and managing the financial resources needed to reach your goals are essential prerequisites for successful achievement. As with all other resources, finances need to be obtained. Identifying what monies are needed and from where and whom they should be accessed is therefore an important aspect of financial management. Consultation with the Department of Education is important. The first step in the attempt to obtain money or in managing money that has been allocated to the school by the Department of Education is the development of school and project budgets. These budgets need to include items such as (a) capital expenditure (for example, computers, desks, assistive devices), and (b) operating or running costs (for example wages, telephone, stationery). Budgeting requires the estimating of costs that are likely to occur over a period of time. Estimates can be developed through looking at previous costs, as well as looking ahead at what is likely to be needed during the period concerned (usually a year). Although estimates are not exact, they should be as close to actual costs as possible. This is something we learn through experience, although consultation with people who have experience in this field does help. These budgets need to be submitted to the Department of Education in terms of its own regulations (which need to be ascertained), and to private funders. In the case of private funders, the budget needs to be preceded by a funding proposal which includes a clear motivation for why this money is needed, and how it will be used. Funders often insist on some kind of business plan which clearly outlines expected 'outcomes' which are evaluated over the period concerned. This is a clear example of how this element relates to other elements of school life - in particular, the identity and strategy elements. Once the budget has been completed and accepted by all concerned, some system of accounting needs to be set up. Generally, all that is required at school level is an income and expenditure statement. An income and expenditure statement comprises a list of all expenses, usually under the same headings as indicated on the budget. The income and expenditure accounting should be kept up to date so that whoever is responsible for the financial management of the school (usually the treasurer on the governing body, or an administrator allocated to this task), can see what the state of affairs is at any time.
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BUDGET FOR YELLOWWOOD HIGH SCHOOL 1 March 2000 - 28 February 2001 BUDGETED AMOUNT CAPITAL EXPENSES Computer hard- and software Desks Chairs Assistive devices School bus Fax machine Building repairs OPERATING COSTS Salaries (ex Department of Education) Wages: caretaker Travel Telephone/fax/e-mail Electricity Stationery Printing/photocopying TOTAL EXPENDITURE EXPECTED INCOME Government department School fees Business partners Fundraising TOTAL INCOME Figure 6.2 Example of a school budget
At the end of particular periods (every quarter, semester, and/or year) the school community should be presented with a financial statement. The above-mentioned income and expenditure statement could be presented to the school community. Budgets and financial statements need to be available for perusal and comment by the school community if the principle of democracy (in particular, 'transparency' and 'accountability') is to be pursued. We noted above that all members of the school community should be concerned about how budgets are developed and how money is actually spent. This is particularly true at local school level. It is important to note that budgets and the way money is actually spent reveal the priorities and, therefore, values of a particular system. Overall school development is linked to the financial accounting process. ©Juta & Co.
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YELLOWWOOD HIGH SCHOOL INCOME AND EXPENDITURE STATEMENT: TERM ONE INCOME Department of Education School fees Business partners Fundraising TOTAL INCOME R EXPENDITURE Budget CAPITAL EXPENDITURE Computer hardware software Building repairs Desks Assistive devices Fax-machine Chairs School bus
Spent
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OPERATING COSTS Salaries: Mr Pieters Ms Jones Wages: Mr Mbandla Travel Telephone/fax/e-mail Electricity Stationery Printing/copying TOTAL EXPENDITURE R Figure 6.3 Income and expenditure account
The foregoing discussion highlights an important aspect of financial management: members of the school community need to be equipped to analyse budgets and financial statements and, where appropriate, to manage finances. This relates to the human resources element of school life - in particular, the area of human resource development. It is particularly important at this point in the history of South Africa when schools are being given more financial autonomy, to build the capacity of the school to manage its own resources. c Juta & Co.
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Administration What do we mean by administration? This aspect of the technical support element refers to two aspects: (a) the actual running of the school and, more particularly, (b) the administrative support of all activities of the school. These two aspects are, of course, related. A principal is often called an 'administrator' because her or his primary task is to ensure that the school runs well. While managing the school relates to decision-making processes and a coordinating function, the role of administration is to ensure that the decisions taken are followed through. This role needs to be supported by various administrative tasks which require both material and human resources. While financial constraints do not always make it possible, a school should have access to at least one person whose job it is to provide the necessary support. This is usually the school secretary/receptionist. Without this support, effective management and administration of the school becomes almost impossible. But it is not only the management staff who need administrative support. Teachers also need administrative support to fulfil their educational tasks adequately. While administrative tasks are part of any principal and teacher's job, absence of any support makes their work extremely frustrating and difficult. In the strategic planning process (refer to chapter four), needs relating to administrative support should be identified. If these needs cannot be met, there is a strong likelihood that the goals set will not be achieved. In one way or another, all aspects of school life are dependent on good support. When considering the development of the school, the following key administrative tasks should be included.
Key administrative tasks Q Secretarial support to the principal and governing body, to the various school committees and task teams, as well as to teachers, where necessary and appropriate. Q Drawing up agendas and taking minutes for all meetings. Q Newsletters and circulars which keep the school community in touch with the school's activities. Q Timetabling for mainstream and extramural activities. Q Reporting systems for student development and evaluation. Q Reporting systems relating to staff development and appraisal. Q Reporting systems for particular projects. Q The setting up, maintenance and management of information systems (using computer and other technology). ©Juta&Co.
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At the beginning of this chapter, we noted that this element was closely related to other elements of school life and, in particular, to the human resources element. One particularly important aspect is the area of human resources or staff development. We have noted in this section how vital a good administrative system is to the running of the whole school. This suggests that all staff should build their knowledge and skills in this area. In particular, however, the staff who are responsible for this area of work in the school, such as secretaries, administrators and administrative assistants, should be provided with the necessary training and support. This should include involvement of these support staff in the general vision-building and strategic planning of the school. They are more likely to make a relevant and good contribution if they are aware of the aims they are serving, and how they fit into the whole. This is a particularly important challenge to meet when considering the democratic principle.
Revisiting Yellowwood High School When considering the case study presented earlier in this book, the following issues relating to technical support are highlighted. Q By far the most frequent dissatisfaction with the life of Yellowwood High School related to lack of facilities and materials. In particular, the following lacks were noted: a library with outdated books and very few other resources; open fields but no sporting equipment; inadequate classrooms in terms of size and accessibility, with broken windows in some instances; insufficient desks, with some being broken; and no hall for whole school meetings. Q In addition to a lack of facilities, one of the problems appears to be the lack of maintenance of the available facilities. While the caretaker at the school does fulfil many of his duties, the tasks are too much for him. This is mostly because of the vandalism of the school that has resulted in continued breaking of windows and desks. Failure to maintain some of the teaching and administrative equipment is also evident at the school (for example, a photocopying machine which often does not work). Q There is a staffroom, which is regularly used by the staff, but the way it is equipped and arranged does not appear to facilitate collegiality. Q The principal does have the services of a secretary/receptionist, but the case study suggests that one person is not adequate to fulfil the administrative demands at the school. Certainly teachers do not have access to any administrative assistance. They have to rely entirely on their own resources. O The photocopying machine is available to staff, but for some reason (a management of resources problem?) not all teachers have access to this important technical support. ( Juta & Co.
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Q There is a limited number of teaching aids, and even those aids that are available are not all working. It is not clear how these aids are distributed among the many staff. Q Although there are three computers, they are outdated and therefore virtually useless for both teaching and administrative purposes. Q The science teachers have found their teaching extremely limited because of the lack of equipment in the science laboratory. O The principal has a reputation for being very efficient so we assume that his administrative tasks are relatively well pursued, despite the limited material and human resources available. Q The school appears to have an efficient timetable, although it is unclear as to whether it is sufficiently flexible to accommodate the learning needs of all students. During the vision-building process, particularly when the environmental analysis was conducted, the serious shortage, mismanagement and maldistribution of resources in the past education system in South Africa was noted. When trends for the future were identified, the continued fiscal constraints and ensuing lack of resources were noted, but the expectation was expressed that problems relating to mismanagement and distribution of resources would be addressed in the near future. It was expected, therefore, that while schools would have to work within tight budgets, their basic needs would be met, and their own and the Department of Education's capacity to manage the resources would be developed. In the process of strategic planning, in particular during the development of plans of action, human and material resources were identified as being necessary for reaching the goals. During the democratisation project process, the need for good administrative support was noted as a prerequisite for the development of democratic practices in the school. In particular, the need for good minute-taking at meetings, and timely distribution of all documents relevant to decisions being taken, was noted and pursued accordingly. The need for a technical communication system was also noted and pursued. This entailed obtaining advice from information systems experts. FURTHER ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT RESPONSES It should be clear from the above that any interventions concerning technical support of the school need to be placed within the context of the development of the whole school. We can see from the previous section that this element has been addressed in various ways during the overall strategic planning process. Resource and administrative support, relevant to the particular needs and vision expressed through the aims and goals of the school, were identified during the development of action plans. ©Juta & Co.
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We will now look at how Yellowwood High School addressed some of the problems they were facing with regard to technical support. Many of these were picked up in the plans of action which focused on (a) resource and financial management and (b) administration. GOAL: To develop an efficient system for management of resources at the school ACTION TIME-FRAME RESPONSIBILITY 1. Setting up of resource February Deputy principal management structure: and management - resource management task team - maintenance of facilities and equipment 2. Audit of all physical March Deputy and admin resources in the school asst 3. Identification of gaps/ April Deputy and admin resources needed, and asst maintenance needs 4. Accessing resources April/May Deputy and admin needed from Departasst ment of Education 5. Identification of other April Deputy, admin asst sources (Workshop/ and staff meeting) 6. Development of proMay/June Volunteers from posals and accessing of staff resources from business sector 7. Accessing parent May/June Governing body, resources Ongoing parent rep 8. Teaching materials development - identiMay/June Heads of depts fication of needs and Ongoing strategies for access and development 9. Learning materials April Heads of depts 10. Development of Deputy and maintenance plan caretaker OUTCOME: An efficient and democratic system of resource management at all levels of the school. (This could be spelt out in more detail if necessary.) Figure 6.4 Resource and financial management plan of action i Juta & Co.
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Resource and financial management We can see from the above that the task team concerned identified the need to conduct a stock-taking exercise so that an 'audit' of resources could be developed. From there, particular gaps in terms of the goals set were identified. Members of the school community were then asked to try to access these resources. This entailed finding out what was available from the Department of Education first, and then identifying when and how the other resources could be obtained. Because this entailed a great deal of work - including proposal development, lobbying of parents and the business sector, and fundraising activities - a number of members of the school community were included in this exercise. In particular, the following tasks were delegated: Q A general fundraising committee was formed to set a target based on the needs that had been identified, and to develop a programme of action for the year. Q The deputy principal was asked to obtain the necessary information, and access resources where possible, from the Department of Education. Q Where particular resources, not provided by the Department, were identified, particular individuals (teachers, administrative staff and governing body members) were asked to develop proposals and present these to a variety of business sectors. Q The governing body parent representatives agreed to call a parent meeting and ask if any parents could provide any of the resources identified. At the same time, parents were asked to volunteer to help with the maintenance of the various resources. Q Heads of departments of the various subject domains were asked to identify their textbook and other teaching and learning material needs and to submit them to the deputy principal (Ms Molefe). With regard to resource management, the one deputy principal (Ms Molefe) was asked to take this on as her particular responsibility in the school. The task team helped her to identify what this would entail. Although she felt a little uncertain about dealing with this enormous responsibility, she was assured that she would receive the necessary support, particularly in terms of training and administration. With these assurances, she accepted. In order to address the many problems around resource maintenance, the caretaker was asked to meet with the other deputy principal (Mr Witbooi) to discuss (a) what maintenance work was needed to make the school and equipment accessible to all students in the school, and to keep them in good working order; (b) what resources were needed to ©Juta & Co.
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help with the maintenance of the various facilities and equipment; and (c) who should be responsible for what maintenance. With regard to the latter point, it was noted that while the caretaker had to take overall responsibility for maintenance, and had to do some of the work himself, his primary role was that of managing the maintenance work. This entailed pulling in the various resources available within the school community (particularly parents and students), but also identifying resources outside the school that could be of assistance. The issue of financial management was addressed in various ways. The task team identified the various areas of school life that required financial management. This included the school as a whole (which was the responsibility of the principal) under the guidance of the governing body (in particular, the treasurer), as well as particular projects in the school. In addition to the treasurer of the governing body, it was agreed that every project managing money should have a treasurer. In all instances, the role of the treasurer was to develop the budgets at the beginning of every financial year; to keep an ongoing income and expenditure statement; and to provide the governing body and school community with a financial statement. With regard to overall accountability, it was clarified that the governing body was the overall financial management body of the school. All reporting should therefore be to that committee. However, the commitment to democracy entailed a 'transparent' accounting system. It was agreed, therefore, that annual reports should be compiled by the school as a whole, including various projects, indicating the budgets and financial statements accordingly. When this plan was presented to the whole staff, there was a request that members of the management and staff (those who needed or wished to) be given the opportunity to develop skills in resource and financial management. It was agreed, therefore, that the staff development task team would consider this request in their development of a staff development programme for the school during the next year.
Administration The plan of action around goals relating to administration, presented to the school community at the general meeting shortly after the strategic planning workshop process, outlined the following activities that were aimed at addressing many of the long-standing problems identified in the initial phase (refer to the case study). The task team (which included the secretary of the school) which was responsible for this area of development identified particular administrative needs relating to the goals set. This was done within the context of identifying current weaknesses and strengths in terms of the administration of the school. Some of these had been highlighted during the (. Juta & Co.
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initial phases of the school development process, and then more specifically during the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of the strategic planning process. This process highlighted the need to employ a further administrative assistant to help with general administration of the school. This would free the secretary to serve the management committees in a more thorough way and improve the information flow in the school. The task team had to check with the Department of Education whether this was a post that they could fill - based on staff-student numbers - or whether it would have to be pursued privately. If it required private funding, fundraising would have to be organised. GOAL: To develop a system of administration that is both efficient and democratic. TIME-FRAME RESPONSIBILITY ACTION Administration task 1. Overall responsibility for This year team this area of school development Task team 2. Identification of admin- April istrative needs, particularly in relation to the school's aims and goals Task team 3. Identification of further May resources (financial and other) needed to develop an efficient administrative system Task team and 4. Development of an May consultant administrative system that will support the aims and goals of the school OUTCOME: An efficient system of administration that supports the school's attempt to achieve its mission. Figure 6.5 Administration plan of action
The task team then looked at which systems were needed to facilitate the smooth running of the school. An external consultant was invited to help with this process. After looking at the goals and tasks of the school, an audit of existing systems was conducted. The strengths and weaknesses of these systems were discussed. Some of these systems (for example the timetabling process) were considered to be adequate, while others had to be radically reviewed. In addition, a computer-based information system ©Juta& Co.
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was developed to serve the particular needs of the school. (While there was some scepticism at first, all staff came to appreciate the benefits of this system for their work.) This task team clearly identified the material resources needed to ensure efficient administration of the school. A list of equipment and other resources needed was compiled and passed on to the deputy principal responsible for resource management. The task team also identified equipment that needed to be maintained in order to ensure efficient administration. This information was passed on to the caretaker. In conclusion: while many of the resource and financial problems and needs of the school can be addressed internally - even in the face of financial constraints - there are times when external problems have to be addressed to ensure that schools are properly resourced. At times the Department of Education, which is ultimately responsible for the management and administration of schools, will note these problems and try to address them. At other times, the Department may not note and/or address them - either because they cannot or will not. In that case it is important for collective action - through teacher unions, principal forums, parent bodies, student bodies, and so on - to raise these issues and engage the government in a way that forces it to address the issues. The role of the school as an agent for change should not be underestimated. We have ample evidence of this power in South Africa. We should not lose touch with that. For the sake of our children and youth, we need to ensure that we are providing them with a school environment that supports their learning and development, and, in order to do that, we need to ensure that the school is a workplace that supports the teachers and ether members of the school community as a whole. The element of'technical support' is an important aspect of this role. GUIDELINES In summary, the following guidelines can be drawn from the above discussion. Q The element of technical support is closely linked to all other elements of school life and needs to be developed within the context of a comprehensive or holistic approach to development. For example, many conflicts are caused by problems in this area of school life. Conflict management should consider the extent to which resource and administrative problems are causing and/or perpetuating problems in the school. Q Democracy is dependent on good administration. If we wish to build a democratic school, we have to attend to its administrative needs. Q We can build wonderful aims, goals and plans, but without the cjuta & Co.
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resources (material and human) to support them, they will not materialise. In addition to money, the following resources are central to the life of a school: accessible and safe facilities (including school grounds, buildings, ablutions, library, laboratories, sports field, desks and chairs), teaching and learning materials, teaching and learning equipment (chalkboards, overhead equipment, video/TV equipment, assistive devices, computers), and sports equipment. Resource management includes being able to: (a) identify what resources are needed; (b) obtain them from a variety of sources; (c) manage them well, and with fairness in terms of access and distribution; and (d) maintain them so that they are able to provide the service for which they were intended. Financial management includes being able to: (a) identify financial needs; (b) draw up budgets accordingly; (c) operate a system of accounting (income and expenditure account) that enables the management and school community as a whole to be in touch with the financial status of the school or project; (d) provide financial statements to the governance structures, and to the school community as a whole, and (e) stay out of debt! The school's capacity to manage its resources, including finances, needs to be developed. This entails ensuring that staff development programmes include this important area for those who need or wish to pursue it. This includes the administrative staff who should be given any necessary training and support to ensure that they can fulfil their tasks optimally. The human and material resources needed to ensure good administration need to be identified and obtained (and maintained!). Not only principals need administrative support. The school should look at how it can provide the teachers with the administrative support they need to enable them to concentrate on their central role of facilitating learning in and outside of the classroom. The school's information processing needs should be identified and appropriate information systems set in place. This includes computer-based systems.
WORKSHOP EXERCISES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES
Developing awareness and skills in resource and financial management and administration Specific skills training should be pursued by the relevant staff when necessary and possible. This includes learning how to set up and operate efficient resource, financial and administrative systems. ©Juta & Co.
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In addition to this, staff workshops highlighting general awareness and skills relating to this area of school life could be a useful strategy for enhancing the school's capacity. This could be pursued as set out in the box below.
1. Revisiting the school's mission statement and goals Input: Mission statement and goals. Small groups: Brainstorm implications of the mission statement and goals of the school for (a) resources, (b) finances, and (c) administration of the school. Plenary: Group reports back. Input: Summing-up, and elaboration if necessary. At this point in the process, small groups or individuals could develop proposals that could be presented to the school. 2. Developing efficient and democratic systems to facilitate control of resources, finances, and administration Input: Presentation of proposal developed around the area of 'resources'. Small groups: Members of the school respond to the proposal. Plenary: Group reports back, and open discussion takes place. Input: Presentation of proposal developed around the area of 'finances'. Small groups: Members respond to the proposal. Plenary: Group reports back and open discussion takes place. Input: Presentation of proposal developed around the area of 'administration'. Small groups: Members respond to the proposal. Plenary: Group reports back and open discussion takes place. At this point in the process, the small groups or individuals responsible for the development of the initial proposals can develop a further draft of the proposals, incorporating comments that have emerged through the small and big group discussions. 3. My role in resource, financial and administrative management in the school Individually: Each member identifies her or his rights and responsibilities in all three areas: resources, finances and administration of the school. Small groups: Each person shares the above. Plenary: Open sharing and discussion around rights and responsibilities of the school community in the management of resources, finances and administration.
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Developing a proposal for a project or acquisition of resources In order to obtain money, proposals need to be developed. These proposals need to clearly articulate the motivation for the money, and how it will be used. This is then presented to prospective donors together with a budget. The box below contains a basic outline that could be used for the development of a proposal. You should, however, obtain the specific criteria and format expected by respective donors and write the proposal accordingly.
A proposal outline 1. 2. 3. 4.
Title of project/focus of proposal. Name of school and convenor of project or area concerned. Introduction and motivation. Statement of aims and objectives and expected outcome of the project or use of resources. 5. Outline of the project or how the resources will be used. 6. Budget. 7. How the money will be accounted for.
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CHAPTER SEVEN
HUMAN RESOURCES If you don't know the kind of person I am and I don't know the kind of person you are a pattern that others made may prevail in the world and following the wrong god home we may miss our star. (from A Ritual to Read to Each Other William Stafford 1993:233)
In this chapter we will look at the element of organisational life that concerns primarily the people employed in the school - in particular, the staff. This includes the principal, deputies, and all teaching and nonteaching staff. When a school is viewed organisationally, we need to consider the employees of that organisation, since they are the people who are expected to be at the school daily, to fulfil the vision and mission of the school, to work with commitment and care, and who are paid to do this job. We need to ask ourselves what will ensure that the staffs developmental and personal needs are adequately taken care of. Even the best teacher can become demotivated and disillusioned if conditions at the school do not support the development and maintenance of quality education. To help us understand human and individual needs in an organisational context, we will look at the following: Q Q Q Q Q
Human resource utilisation. Human resources development and training. Personal and interpersonal dynamics. Service conditions. Psychosocial and learning support.
Given the particular nature of a school, when we talk about human resources we are also referring to the other members of the school community, in particular the parents and students. They too participate in the life of the school and when we refer to human resources, we need to include them and ensure that their contribution and their needs are addressed within the organisational context of the school. Perhaps the single most important factor in this element is that all staff and others need to feel valued and acknowledged for their efforts and contribution towards the school. Obviously, if there is nothing to acknowledge, false, inauthentic praise will not help the situation. Very often, however, staff feel undervalued, and no matter how much effort they put into their work - and beyond that - no one seems to notice or 145
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care! This can crush the enthusiasm of even the most committed teacher. Where people in leadership positions notice how people are working, and take time to express appreciation, commitment and motivation will be enhanced. A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING HUMAN RESOURCES IN THE SCHOOL
Figure 7.1 Framework for understanding schools: human resources
It has often been said that an excellent school requires excellent teachers. Support for excellence, commitment, motivation and ongoing staff development, comes from an enabling school environment. It is in this way that this element - human resources - connects with the other elements of organisational life. In order to remain enthusiastic and motivated, teachers, parents and students need to feel positive about the identity of the school and have shared in the shaping of its vision (identity element). Strategies for facilitating the fulfilment of the vision, and mechanisms for evaluating school and teacher performance ensure ongoing school and teacher development (strategy element). Structures and procedures in the school can either support or constrain staff and human resource development (structures and procedures element). ©Juta & Co.
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Clearly, technical support, in the form of adequate and appropriate teaching aids, materials, financial and physical resources have a significant effect on the quality of teaching (technical support element). The overall culture of the school is one which affects the morale of teachers, parents and students in such a way that they are either motivated and enthusiastic about the school - or not.
Human resources utilisation In terms of human resource management, identifying the human resource needs to promote excellent teaching and learning, is important. Once these human resource needs have been identified, they need to be found - preferably within the school itself- and then deployed in the best possible way. This is not simply a technical exercise where people are treated as commodities, but it is a way of trying to ensure that individual needs, talents and preferences are linked with the needs and goals of the school for the purposes of personal and organisation development. Within the life of the school there are many human resources which are available to the school in terms of fostering its ongoing development. There are, primarily, the teachers, but there are also parents, students, school support staff, education department support service personnel and community resources. All of these can (and should) play a role in building an environment in the school which supports quality teaching and learning. The extent to which the school is able to harness these resources, and utilise them to their full potential, is both an expression of, and a movement towards enhancing the capacity of the school. In this way, the line between the school and its community becomes more porous, with non-traditional roleplayers playing a more active role in both developing the school as an environment for teaching and learning, and in the process of curriculum development and provision.
Human resources development and training Changing syllabi, changing approaches to teaching, changing approaches to school management and governance, changing laws about forms of discipline - all these changes mean that teachers are constantly faced with having to adjust to new circumstances. This can become very stressful if they are not given support to cope with all these demands. Every teacher comes to school with specific knowledge and skills. However, teachers' learning does not end when they start teaching in fact, this is probably their richest learning time of all! Without ongoing programmes and processes to encourage and support staff development, schools become out of touch with educational trends and teachers lose the sense of renewal and inspiration which is such an essential part of meaningful education (both for themselves and for their students). ,(: Juta & Co.
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Teacher or staff development programmes must be developed around the particular needs of the individual staff and school situation and should be linked to the vision. For example, if we want democratic schools, then insights, knowledge and skills relevant to participation in such a system should be facilitated. Once the vision-building and strategic-planning processes have been completed, the staff will have a clearer idea of what their staff development needs are. Individual as well as collective staff development must be planned for. It helps to have a coherent programme rather than to address staff development needs bit by bit: there needs to be long-term planning - perhaps for a year - with the understanding that needs might change and that the programme may need to be adapted. But it is better to adapt a plan that has been developed than to have no plan at all and to choose activities from week to week without any sense of looking forward. Since the people working in schools bring their own personal realities into the workplace with them, it is important to acknowledge the link between the personal and professional realities of teachers. Teachers do not 'leave their problems outside the school gate' when they arrive at school. Their current realities, their life stories, shape the way they interact with their colleagues and their students, the way they deal with conflict and difference, the way they respond under pressure. As mentioned in the previous section, the less people understand these often less explored aspects of themselves, the less likely they will be able to respond openly to others, to operate with strength and confidence and to be in touch with their own valuable contributions and limitations. That is why staff development programmes should also offer opportunities for the personal development of individual teachers. Processes and programmes should provide space for teachers to understand themselves at a deeper level, to become more familiar, for example, with their own defence mechanisms, their own projections (negative or positive feelings) on to others, their own ongoing and often unexpressed frustrations. Helping people to get in touch with and release pent-up feelings that have often been carried for years makes it possible for them to be more at peace with themselves. The more 'at one' people feel with themselves, the less energy is arrested at levels where people are trying to cope, and the more energy there is to move into the world with courage and optimism. Ongoing personal development is therefore closely bound up with ongoing professional development, and should not be seen as separate or redundant in a school setting. We also need to take into account the development of other sectors in the school community, in particular the parents and the students. Appropriate programmes need to be developed and offered to enable these roleplayers to contribute meaningfully to the ongoing development of the school. One of the weakest areas in education in South Africa has been ©Juta & Co.
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appraisal (or evaluation) of teachers - and this for very obvious reasons. Because evaluation was managed in a top-down hierarchical way, it was seen as a way of maintaining control and keeping surveillance over teachers. Inspectors or principals would visit the classes of teachers, observe them teaching, complete a report which the teachers never saw, and in this way the Department of Education was able to keep records of teachers. Teachers' own values and pedagogical preferences were never taken into account, nor were their own reflections or self-evaluations asked for. As a result of this approach, teachers and schools began to resist evaluation, and in many schools inspectors were barred from entering the school premises. However, in very few schools was any other form of appraisal developed to replace this. The result was that teaching became an isolated craft, where most teachers feared or resented any other people observing their lessons. There was also a complete breakdown in accountability, because there was no shared system of appraisal which could hold teachers accountable for providing quality education. Within the current dispensation, all these negative and difficult aspects of the previous system of teacher evaluation have been taken into account, and the Developmental Appraisal for Educators (Department of Education 1999) instrument and process is an attempt to address all of these concerns. There has been, at a departmental level, recognition that it is crucial that appraisal is owned by the teachers of the school, that it embraces their educational values, that it reflects the vision and mission of the school, that it is in line with the provincial and national educational vision, and that it is seen and felt to be part of the professional development of teachers rather than a form of control. If teachers (and other relevant roleplayers) are involved in the development of criteria for appraisal (relating to the school's vision and stated values, and within broad democratic principles), then they will be far more likely to welcome appraisal as a form of support, rather than fear and resist it as they have done in the past. Appraisal is a way of ensuring that staff are supported appropriately in their work, and that the quality of work and the cohesion of the overall focus and vision of the school is kept alive in and out of the classroom. Seen in this way, appraisal is a central developmental process in the school (see chapter four). Ultimately, any appropriate appraisal process or system should facilitate the development of critical self-reflection for teachers. If the development of critical thinking is regarded as an important learning outcome for students, teachers themselves need to be able to think critically and, most importantly, to reflect critically on their own practice. There are many ways of building the capacity of teachers to think critically. One possibility is through peer appraisal at the school, using action research as a methodology for facilitating critical self-reflection (see chapter three, page 59, Organisation Development Interventions, for more details). ( Juta & Co.
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Action research is a systematic form of self-enquiry, where the researcher (the teacher) plans a lesson in order to achieve a certain aim or ideal, or in order to address a particular problem; teaches the lesson; observes the lesson while teaching; and reflects afterwards on what worked, what did not work, why it did not work - and plans the next lesson accordingly, with a deeper understanding of the successes and failures in this particular educational experience.
Figure 7.2 The action research cycle
Action research as a methodology is also useful in school-wide initiatives, where strategic planning has taken place (see chapter four), and certain aims, goals and objectives have been set. It is vital that staff regularly evaluate the implementation of these goals, as well as the goals themselves, which may have to be adapted or changed over time.
Personal and interpersonal dynamics In any social system (a family, a religious group, a group of friends, an organisation such as a school), certain informal patterns of relationships and dynamics establish themselves and become part of the modus operandi of the group or system. This is a natural process. However, more often than not the dynamics are to a large extent unconscious, and often become dysfunctional. For example, cliques often form among the staff of schools. It is not always clear what the basis for this group formation is, but the allegiances that develop within the cliques make it difficult for members to agree to matters with which the group generally does not agree. One of the bases for remaining in the group becomes loyalty to the group rather than openness which would allow them to critically engage with issues and to think things through independently. There are other power dynamics which come into play, and here we often find gender, race and age as issues of power between people. So a young woman on the staff might feel disempowered and lack the confidence to make contributions at staff meetings, since no one seems to take her seriously because she is young and because she is a woman. We ©Juta & Co.
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are not suggesting that all young women feel disempowered, but that it is helpful to be aware of some of these power relations which might play themselves out in your staffroom. Particular modes of interacting often develop in schools: you might find a staffroom that is stiff and formal, with not many people on first name terms with one another. Again, you might find a bantering or teasing mode, with many sexual innuendoes. You might find a staffroom where people are quite aggressive with one another, and then again, there might be a staffroom where people deny any conflict and like to smooth over the difficulties all the time. All of the modes of interacting described above have aspects which are normal and healthy, and all of them have aspects which are not, and distort reality so as to entrench certain stereotypes or prejudices that people might have towards one another. Often people develop intense feelings of aversion towards colleagues at their school, and they are unable to explain these feelings in any rational way. When looking more closely at these strong feelings, it is fairly common to find that buried under that aversion or anger might be feelings of vulnerability, of being threatened by that person, or perhaps of seeing (without realising it) difficult or undesirable aspects of oneself in the other person. These dynamics affect not only the two people concerned, but the rest of the staff as well. That is why it is always helpful to develop a culture in the staffroom where all of the above scenarios can be addressed openly. The less people know themselves (and why they respond to people and situations in particular ways), the less they are able to deal with these responses creatively. One way, therefore, of building a culture of collegiality in the school is by providing opportunities for staff members to engage in some personal development processes - processes which will allow people to come to know themselves at ever-deepening levels. 'Professional jealousy' also forms part of the interpersonal dynamics at a school: where a teacher is being particularly innovative and trying out new and exciting things in her classroom, other teachers might well try to undermine her effort by dismissing her as being 'ambitious', 'naive' or wanting to show other staff up as being lazy. Teachers have referred to this as 'contracting into mediocrity': not trying to be innovative because it alienates them from their colleagues. A sad state of affairs indeed! Time needs to be set aside for self-reflection - individually and collectively. This needs to be done on a regular basis; not just when there is a crisis. How people work together is a vital part of the overall culture of the school. It cannot be assumed that if a group of people work together in a school, they will work together creatively. Their relationships need to be worked at consistently. This aspect (an ongoing part of school life) needs to be attended to as seriously as any other - it cannot be taken for granted. Teamwork among colleagues needs to be facilitated - it is not ( Juta & Co.
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something which you 'do' once or twice and then merely assume that you will have a perfectly functioning team. Team-building needs to be an intrinsic aspect of human resource development. As an awareness is raised of the role group dynamics plays within interpersonal relationships, it is possible to structure meetings and workshops in particular ways so that maximum individual and group participation is facilitated. Aspects of group dynamics need to be made conscious for and understood by the staff (and other roleplayers in any group situation) (see page 160, Workshop Exercises). Facilitation of groups with an understanding of group dynamics helps to ensure that we can build cohesive teams of people working together openly and constructively. The sensitivity of the facilitator and the reflections of the group on their process of working together help to transform old patterns of domination and subjugation, insensitivity, and the inability to listen to others into more open, careful and respectful ways of interacting. Good facilitation and ongoing reflection also enable groups to identify what works well and to build on this. It is important to build skills to facilitate group processes amongst all staff members, since these sensitivities and awarenesses are important for classroom management and facilitation as well. The ability to manage conflict is of primary concern here: in every organisation there will always be some level of conflict, and this is natural and normal. Addressing group dynamics does not mean trying to create a 'conflict-free zone'. Indeed, conflict often provides the opportunity for development; it is how the conflict is managed which makes it a destructive or potentially constructive aspect of organisational life. The ability to facilitate group processes in a way that maximises the contributions of all participants, that encourages, supports and challenges, is a crucial dimension of leadership and management. Since one of the intentions of organisation development interventions is to build leadership and management capacity throughout the school, each staff member should have an opportunity to gain understanding of and to practise such skills.
Service conditions Conditions of service for teachers have been at the centre of much controversy and debate in South Africa over the past decades as teacher associations and unions fought for equity and justice. It is an area of fundamental importance: conditions of service are the real 'bread-andbutter' issues of teachers and if they are unsatisfactory, teachers' performance will most likely also be unsatisfactory. Conditions of service which have been carefully thought through with the best interests of the teachers at heart are a way of valuing the services of these teachers. Standardised structures and procedures should exist with respect to ©Juta & Co.
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I
the conditions under which staff are employed. This includes recruitment, induction, job descriptions, scales of remuneration, promotions, leave and other personnel issues. Criteria should be transparent and perceived to be fair, and teachers should have full knowledge of every aspect of the conditions under which they are employed. Where this is not the case, arbitrary decisions are made which increase tension and result in conflict and demon'vation. In our South African schools, these conditions of employment are of particular concern, since many of the problems we face are directly related to lack of fairness and equity. The issue, also, of affirmative action, where traditionally 'white' schools have predominantly white teaching staff, must continue to be addressed urgently in order to build appropriate and just conditions of employment for our current teaching force.
Psychosocial and learning support We live in harsh and often troubled times. Social issues prevail in many of our communities - issues which reflect dysfunctional homes, and fragmented communities, poverty and often a lack of hope. What teachers have to deal with in schools is the manifestation of the breakdown of family and community life. It is reflected in the social behaviour of the students, and very often too in their ability or capacity to learn. Many children come to school having had very little to eat; young children, particularly the many orphans resulting from the HIV/AIDS pandemic, have often to fend for themselves and younger siblings. Role models are often gang leaders, and lack of employment opportunities for family members often means that people resort to crime and violence, or other socially unproductive ways of trying to make ends meet. Many schools feel the impact directly of the disintegration of social structures as schools are attacked by gangs, or vandalised. The social factors referred to above are some of the barriers to learning and development that need to be addressed if successful learning and teaching is to occur. Providing an enabling environment for teaching and learning means taking these factors into account, and recognising that the school is not set apart in a vacuum from its immediate and broader communities. In addition to the psychosocial factors that impact on the teaching and learning process and which therefore can either hinder or support students' learning, the fact that students in any school and classroom present with diverse learning needs presents a challenge to teachers. Teachers are required to be flexible and responsive to a wide range of learning needs. They need to understand, identify and address barriers to learning and development in their classrooms. There has, over the past few years, been a flood of policy changes to support transformational processes at schools. This has included strategies designed to create inclusive, safe and productive learning ( Juta & Co.
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environments. Many schools, teachers and parents require support in order to provide such a learning environment. Many students also require direct support to enable them to engage successfully in the teaching and learning process. Various forms of education support services have been identified as being needed to respond to these needs: Q support to the school as a whole (including various aspects of organisation development) - such support focuses on building the environment of the school so that it fosters good classroom practice; Q curriculum support to teachers, including support in particular learning areas; Q psychosocial support for teachers, students and parents, to assist them in both understanding and addressing some of the concerns mentioned above; Q additional learning support for those students who require it; Q medical support for students who require it. In South Africa, this support is being developed at 'district' and school levels (Department of Education, 2001 White Paper 6). At district level, support teams comprising education support personnel, such as psychologists, learning support facilitators, nurses, social workers and institutional and curriculum development officers are being established with their primary function being to assist schools to develop their capacity to identify and address barriers to learning at a local level. Within schools themselves, school-based support teams are being established. This team, consisting primarily of teachers plus other human resources from the district support team and local community people when appropriate, has the important task of assisting the school to identify and address - in a problem-solving and preventative way - barriers to learning and development.
Revisiting Yellowwood High School In our scenario of Yellowwood High School we found that while relationships among staff members appear to be fairly relaxed, there seem to be divisions on the staff. There are issues relating to race, gender and age: white teachers seem to keep together and the only African staff member sits on her own; the men tend to dominate in terms of decisionmaking and voicing opinions; and younger teachers seem to feel marginalised in the school. Relationships between staff and students tend to vary widely: some teachers are distant from students, heavyhanded and disciplinarian, while others are really concerned about the quality of the students' lives, and take a keen interest in them, both in and out of the classroom and the school. ©Juta & Co.
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We also saw that no formal staff development programme was in place and it was usually left to the individual teachers to commit themselves to their development - in their own time and at their own cost. There was also no appraisal occurring, and no strategy for the development of leadership capacity among staff or students. Although on the whole staff were dissatisfied with the status quo, no one seemed prepared to do anything about it until a small group of teachers felt they could no longer cope with the situation as it was. That was when we were called in. FURTHER ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT RESPONSES As we had been dealing with interpersonal issues throughout the process, we did not devote special time to addressing these concerns. As we have mentioned, interpersonal relationships pervade every aspect of school life, and issues need to be addressed as they crop up. At this point of our work with the school we needed to put a staff development programme in place. Bearing in mind the vision and mission that had been created, we needed to brainstorm and prioritise staff development options. Since a staff development group had been established, we met with this group and helped group members to design a process by which a clear plan could be drawn up for the year. The group felt that it was important that collective and individual staff development needs be identified and that the staff as a whole be responsible for doing this. The staff development group recognised that its role at this point was to facilitate a process, not to decide on priorities or options for the staff. They asked us if we would help them to design the workshop, and co-facilitate it, with the understanding that over time (negotiated between us) we would withdraw from the process and they would take responsibility for ensuring that the staff development programme was kept alive, relevant and meaningful to the staff. At an afternoon workshop, we decided that it would be best to divide the staff into groups of six, to get them to reread their vision and mission, to draw up a list of staff development options, and then to prioritise them. Each group would then present its ideas, and the staff as a whole, in plenary, would prioritise and make choices for staff development themes, topics, activities, and so on. The second part of the exercise was for teachers to sit on their own for a while, and to reflect on their own individual development needs. This would then be discussed in the groups of six, and suggestions would then be made in plenary about coordination of the whole programme. There was much overlap between what the groups perceived as being important. The following options were mentioned in every group: G Leadership and management course for the coordinating group, the principal, deputies and heads of department. © Juta & Co.
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Q A discipline course, with particular emphasis on developing a new attitude towards disciplining and understanding adolescents (moving away from punishment and towards negotiation and reward). Q Teaching large classes: group work and cooperative learning. Q Setting up an appraisal system. Q Addressing the full range of learning needs in the classroom. Q A counselling course, given the conditions under which many students and teachers come to school (it was agreed that the guidance teachers, the principal and one other teacher who showed particular interest, should attend a course). Q Conflict management. Q An anti-bias course, dealing with issues such as gender, race, religion, ability and age. Q Addressing various challenges relating to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Points raised by some groups and not by others were the following: Q Computer literacy for the staff. Q Group skills: how to facilitate and run groups discussion some people felt that this should be leadership and management course, as well as in teaching large classes, and should not be offered course).
effectively (in included in a the course on as a separate
Q Creative arts programme (since art was going to be included in the curriculum, it was argued that teachers should also have the experience of and exposure to creative art. It was agreed that this was a good idea, but would be voluntary: not everyone was obliged to attend). Q Leadership and management skills for the Learners Representative Council (LRC): helping to get the LRC going. A suggestion was also made that subject groups get together to talk about setting up a development plan for each subject being taught at the school, looking at individual teachers' needs also. It was agreed that, once a term, grade teachers (eight and nine; ten, eleven and twelve) would get together and look at ways of planning work across the curriculum. Interested students would be invited to join these groups and contribute towards the development of the curriculum. At this point during the workshop, certain teachers began to object to the process. Their feeling was that too many meetings were being set up and that the planning was unrealistic; that very soon people would become completely burnt out and demoralised yet again. They also ©Juta & Co.
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expressed concern about giving too much say and power to the students, and feared loss of control. We re-examined the vision and mission statement of the school, and saw that the plans were very much in line with these. We also acknowledged the feelings of uncertainty which come during transition time during a phase of moving from old structures to totally new ways of working. There would probably be some confusion in the beginning, and even some chaos, as people began to let go of old ways of working and allowed the new forms to emerge. We then asked the staff to prioritise their staff development needs. Part of their anxiety was probably related to the volume of activities they had identified for themselves, without seeing that this was a process which would take place over the next few years. Prioritising their needs would help to some extent to allay their concerns about being overwhelmed by the programme of activities they had identified. They prioritised in the following way (and related strongly to the new policy imperatives they were facing): 1. Appraisal. 2. Addressing diverse learning needs within large class contexts. 3. Discipline. 4. Conflict management. 5. Anti-bias. It was agreed that heads of department would call meetings of their subject/learning area teachers to discuss subject needs as a separate process. As far as the students were concerned, two teachers took responsibility for liaising with the students, and offered to call in an agency which specialises in the establishment and capacity-building of the Learners Representative Council. Given the new dispensation where teachers are expected to be at school for a minimum of seven hours a day, it was felt that if the timetable for students could be managed creatively, then there could be substantial time set aside for staff development programmes without teachers feeling that they were having to give up personal time. Three teachers undertook to develop a timetable for a staff development programme, which would be discussed at the next staff meeting. However, people still felt anxious that they were over-committing themselves and that the result of this would be a situation of burn-out for the staff. We used this emerging tension as a way of getting people to reflect on their own responses to and ways of dealing with conflict. We asked those people who were most involved in the discussion to take note of their feelings, and the way in which they approached this issue. We then mentioned that our own attitudes towards conflict colour the way we •('.' Juta & Co.
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react to a conflict situation. We emphasised the need to develop a repertoire of responses to conflict, rather than to be stuck in one mode of reaction at all times. People tend to see conflict as inherently negative, and therefore have a negative attitude towards it. Conflict, however, provides an opportunity for development and transformation, if it can be dealt with constructively. A few months after this workshop, we were asked to assist the school to implement an appropriate appraisal process. We suggested meeting on a Friday afternoon and evening and the following Saturday, as the establishment of such a process has several dimensions to it which take time to put in place. We were hesitant to yet again suggest a substantial chunk of time: teachers had already given up so much time to engage in a variety of developmental processes, and we were unsure how they would respond. We therefore posed an alternative: five two-hour workshops over five weeks. They opted for the Friday and Saturday. We asked that the staff development committee meet with us to plan the process together (see page 160, Workshop Exercises). By the Saturday afternoon, after following the procedure described (with one or two slight deviations), the staff of Yellowwood High School came up with an appraisal document and process which was developed from an appraisal instrument provided by the department, and which met everyone's satisfaction (see box). In addition to the requirements laid down for teachers in the Developmental Appraisal for Teachers document (Department of Education 1999), where each individual is required to identify a team of people serving as the appraisal team, the staff also opted for a process of peer appraisal, with staff members selecting a partner with whom they would work over two terms. Q Visits to one another's classroom would take place on a monthly basis. Q Teachers being observed would identify specific areas they would like their peers to observe. Q Discussion about this would take place before the lesson, and a time to meet soon after the lesson would be arranged. Q Teachers would be given an opportunity to reflect on their practice before being given feedback by their peers. Q The staff also decided not to opt for a grading system (points 1 - 5 on a scale), but rather to write comments against any particular criterion.
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Criteria for observation/appraisal 1. Student-centred learning: - student participation - questioning ability of teacher - facilitation of student-student interaction - ability to set appropriate projects - clarity of task description - evidence of active learning methodology 2. Lesson preparation: - structure of lesson: beginning and conclusion - appropriate use of materials - teacher knowledge of subject matter - systematic presentation of activities 3. Teacher-student interaction: - two-way communication - mutual respect - valuing contributions - encouragement 4. Development of positive self-esteem: - praise - respect - clear and honest feedback - create forum for sharing feelings (Further criteria were developed along similar lines.)
GUIDELINES Q While it is necessary to pick up and address interpersonal dynamics from time to time, everyone should become aware of the need to transform old habits of relating and stereotyping. Such an awareness will contribute towards greater participation in group processes, greater sensitivity about people's feelings and anxieties and more openness between people. G The process of setting up an appraisal system is as impprtant as the final product - that is, the appraisal document with criteria for appraisal and appraisal methodology. Any appraisal document will be as effective as the people who are using it, and the more involved people are in defining the educational values and goals in appraisal, the more effective they are likely to be. Q Staff development must be planned systematically, and must relate to an overall goal or goals. These goals should reflect the vision and r Juta & Co.
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mission of the school. Staff development programmes must be reviewed regularly. Q Staff development should address the collective needs of the school and the individual needs of teachers within the context of the school's aims. Q Under the broad banner of human resources, we see human resource development as an important aspect of this element of organisational life. Ongoing capacity-building of all roleplayers in the school should be seen as of primary concern. Therefore, the capacity of students, for example, to participate confidently, assertively and creatively in the development of the school should be seen as part of the responsibility of those involved in coordinating human resource development. This applies to the parents as well; particularly those involved in the governing body.
WORKSHOP EXERCISES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES Conflict management In every conflict there are always (at least) two sides to the story. There is seldom a situation where only one individual or party is responsible for the conflict. The aim, therefore, in conflict management strategies is to facilitate a process of critical self-reflection and communication, where participants can own their own part in the conflict. Taking responsibility before blaming others is an important part of the conflict management process. Q Roleplaying is very helpful, where particular conflict situations can be simulated. Observers are asked to highlight strategies for addressing the conflict which helped and hindered the situation. In this way, principles for dealing with conflict can be developed. Roleplaying can also help to 'get into the skin' of your 'opponent' and in this way you learn to empathise with other people's points of view. Q Participants can be given a questionnaire (see Appendix A) which helps them to identify ways in which they tend to respond to conflict situations. In the diagram, responses to conflict are understood to fall along two axes: from non-assertiveness to assertiveness and from noncooperation to cooperation. Within the four quadrants created by the two intersecting axes we find compromising, collaborating, competing, avoiding and accommodating responses to conflict. It is helpful for people to find themselves within this description, to identify their strengths and weaknesses and goals for growth, and to see that each response is appropriate under certain circumstances and can also be inappropriate under other circumstances. ©Juta& Co.
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Q Joint problem-solving: Participants are given a conflict 'problem' for which they need to find a solution. Emphasis is given to trying to find a 'win/win' solution - that is, one in which both (or all) sides gain something. The process of problem-solving involves: 1. Defining the problem. 2. Brainstorming various options for dealing with it. 3. Looking at the consequences of each option. 4. Choosing an action. 5. Evaluating, reconsidering and moving on. Q Developing negotiating skills, and learning how to make room to negotiate within a situation where there is a conflict of interests involves: • Preparing carefully before a negotiating meeting. • Anticipating the demands and needs of the other party. • Ensuring that you have a 'bottom line' - a shared understanding of the minimum with which you are prepared to leave the meeting. • Trying to prepare various strategies where both parties are likely to feel they have gained something. • Being prepared to compromise - the essence of negotiation means being able to give and take. Q There are various exercises which can be used to highlight certain patterns of conflict, mistrust or differences of opinion in an organisation which needs to be transformed.
Appraisal What follows is a suggested outline for the development of an appraisal process in a school. A session might be one two-hour workshop, or less. The sessions give an idea of topics and processes to be covered. Session One: Examine the department's appraisal requirements. Then, revisit the vision and mission statement: any additions, amendments? Implications for classroom practice - how would the vision and mission translate into what happens in the classroom? If no mission statement, help schools to articulate educational values by asking: 'What qualities, skills and understanding will students require when they leave school in order to contribute meaningfully to building a just and flourishing nation?' Then draw out implications for classroom practice. ( Juta & Co.
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Session Two:
Setting criteria for observation and appraisal - clustering the implications into particular areas: methodology, interaction, class atmosphere, teacher subject/learning area knowledge and preparation; identifying methodologies for appraisal - for example, action research.
Session Three: Developing the appraisal document - ensuring that it is simple, easy to use yet comprehensive; grading system or not. Session Four: Appraisal skills: practice in listening, observation and facilitation skills. Session Five:
Setting up the system: who appraises whom - peer appraisal for professional development; frequency of appraisal, documenting and sharing of information; coordination of the process.
Session Six:
Pre-lesson discussion, observation, post-lesson discussion.
Session Seven: Action research and critical self-reflection. These are the aspects of setting up an appraisal system that we regard as essential if it is to be meaningful, developmental and sustainable.
Interpersonal relationships In any group work (even in staff meetings where small groups are not operating), assist group members to reflect on the group process by asking them to respond to the following questions: Q Who participated in the process? Q Who did not participate in the process? Q How can participation of all group members be improved? Q Who influenced the group most (and how)? Q Was the task set satisfactorily completed? Q Any other questions relating to key group processes. These questions can be reflected on regularly so that group members become sensitised to group processes and no one is undermined or excluded. It is important, in building awareness of group processes, to take cognisance and remind people of the following broad areas which describe group dynamics (see box below).
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Group dynamics Q Participation in group processes: who participates, who does not, and how to address participation. Q Influence: who influences the group most, how this happens, and what the consequences are. Q Particular styles of influence: e.g. • autocratic • laissez-faire • peacemaker • democratic. Q Decision-making procedures: who makes decisions, and how they are made. Q Group atmosphere. Q Norms: the unwritten rules which govern people's behaviour. Q Feelings: the extent to which there is space for feelings to be expressed. Q Task functions: ensuring that the tasks set are optimally attended to and completed. Q Maintenance functions: taking care of the process of group work and interaction while engaging in a particular task.
These questions, reflections and areas to look for in group processes are important to bear in mind in the classroom setting also. Q A sorting exercise can help to highlight group dynamics. The group is divided into four smaller groups. Each group is given a collection of random objects, which they are asked to sort and organise into three piles (of similar objects) without speaking to one another. During the course of the exercise, a few group members are shifted from one group to another. Discussion and reflection afterwards centre on: • what happened in the group between people; • how participants felt; • how they dealt with their feelings; • how they felt about having to leave a group or how they felt about the newcomers who came to their group mid-way through the exercise; and • lessons to be drawn from this experience (differing unspoken values and assumptions). C Juta & Co.
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This exercise is particularly useful when groups who are not used to working together come together - possibly when parents, students and teachers come together for the first time in the establishment of a governing body or some other working group. o
Listening exercises are always helpful in developing trust and empathy. • Work in pairs, sharing a problem you have with your partner. Partner reflects back what she or he has heard: the content (facts), your feelings, and the will or intentions contained within you (what you might do about the situation, not necessarily expressed verbally). This requires careful and sensitive listening and should be done both ways. • Triangulation exercise: Participants are asked, in groups of three, to identify a particular issue or problem or situation in their work context which they feel they would like to change - that needs transformation or change. During this exercise each person should have an opportunity to share his or her issue with the other two, one of whom acts as a facilitator in the process and, through careful listening, asks questions to gain a clear understanding of the situation, to help the speaker to gain deeper clarity or insight into her or his own issue. The observer observes the process, and gives feedback to both the speaker and the facilitator. Each person has an opportunity to speak, to facilitate and to observe. After the process, participants express what they have learnt about facilitation (and listening) and observation. Highlight issues such as eye contact, body language, voice quality in the feedback, as well as the more obvious aspects of listening and facilitation.
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CHAPTER EIGHT
LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE The leader who knows when to listen, when to act, and when to withdraw can work effectively with nearly anyone ... (The Tao of Leadership, John Heider 1985:55)
In this chapter we will be looking at the central role of leadership, management and governance in understanding schools as organisations, and in ensuring that each element in the organisation is operating coherently. We will look at how this element holds the centre and supports the dynamic interdependence of all the elements of organisational life. We cannot emphasise too strongly the importance of developing strong leadership and management in a school!
figure 8.1 framework for understanding schools: leadership and management
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In our experience, the ability of schools to transform themselves, to grow in strength or to have a strong sense of purpose and commitment, is to a great extent dependent on the quality of leadership in the school. We need to build the leadership and management capacity in schools if we want to witness and facilitate significant improvement in the quality of education. We will look at the concepts of leadership, management and governance. We will also explore the various qualities, roles, styles and functions of leadership and management within an organisational setting. An overall consideration within this chapter will be that of empowerment and other issues of power, as well as a concern for building the leadership and management capacity throughout the whole school.
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The qualities of good leaders and managers So much has been written about leadership and management over the past few decades. Why should we be adding anything to what surely must have been said many times in many ways? Is there anything new or important that we can add? Possibly not. However, we do have strong thoughts and intense feelings about the supreme importance of leadership and management that we would like to share with you. Much has been written about the necessity of building skills and a clearer understanding of leadership and management and what it entails. While we do not dispute this (and will go into what this involves later on in this chapter), good leadership and management is far more than the acquisition of (certain) skills and understanding. Leadership is an art. It is a way of being in the world which is flowing, and caring, harmonising, warming, opening and challenging. Good leadership and management inspires and touches, holds and cherishes, is humble and certain, pushes and directs, waits and listens, notices, moves, contains, breaks through, senses the moment ... and rests. The art of leadership and management is a cyclic and sensitive rhythm of opening and closing, stopping and going, creating and receiving, acknowledging and confronting, observing and shaping, breathing in and breathing out. Good leaders need to have vision, imagination, passion about their calling, enthusiasm and commitment. They need to be perceptive, so that they know when to push, and when to hold back; when to direct, and when to let go; when to confront and when to leave the situation unchallenged. Being perceptive means being sensitive to the moods of others, and to their needs and organisational priorities. It means fine-tuning yourself to the almost imperceptible messages that indicate what is required in a particular situation. This requires astute observation skills and the ability to listen accurately and at deep levels ©Juta&Co.
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not only to the words but also to the feelings surrounding the words and movements. For good leadership and management, you need the ability to differentiate - that is, to make informed judgements about how to deal with particular situations out of an inherent wisdom and an understanding of the situation in all its complexities. Good leadership and management is about having a repertoire of responses and ways of being and doing in the world. Each moment is unique. What worked yesterday might be completely inappropriate today. Being a good leader means having the flexibility to recognise the difference and respond appropriately, so that you are not bound by rules but guided rather by wisdom and intuition. Clearly then, there is no set of rules which, if applied, automatically 'makes' a good leader. There is no blueprint which ensures that if the rules are followed, good leadership and management will be assured. Certainly, we can develop skills, we can understand more. But the mystery of good leadership does not end there. The paradox, the tension around good leadership, is that it is difficult to practise the skills, the marks of good leadership, if they are not really part of you. So another aspect of leadership must be authenticity: you need to relate to people, to those in your organisation (or school) and others, in a way that is genuine for you. People need to be able to trust you, to know that what you say is what you mean, that what you do is what you truly believe in. Does this mean then, by implication, that leaders are born and the rest (most of us) should just release ourselves from the strain and tension of leadership responsibilities and give up trying? Not at all. In this book we have emphasised the importance of personal (and professional) development within the framework of organisation development. Organisations can and must develop, but they cannot develop if the people who work in them are not developing. In this process of transformation it is possible for anyone to develop the capacity to become a true leader. It does require, however, commitment to the process of inner transformation. This is sometimes referred to as the process of individuation: the process of allowing the deeper aspects of the self to become realised in our daily lives. Very often our true selves lie buried beneath layers of pain, hurt, anger, abuse, fear and mistrust. If we are not conscious that this is so, then we are operating at a level which is not expressive of our full potential. Realising our full potential is not just about academic or sporting success or the right career moves. Most importantly, it is the ability to operate with clarity, depth, confidence and integrity in the world - with self-understanding. Good leadership is about deep selfunderstanding, with the acceptance that we never 'arrive' - we never know or understand ourselves in such a way that there is nothing more to know. Development is an ongoing process and, ideally, we never stop <; Juta & Co.
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learning - about life, our craft, ourselves, our environment, and the dynamic movement between these. Essentially, then, we are talking about morality as the base of good leadership - congruence between our espoused values and our practices, respect for others, modelling what we expect from others, being an example of what we talk about. This is what is meant by integrity, and that is a crucial aspect of successful leadership and management. There are certain skills and understandings which are necessary and important to leaders and managers. We will go into them in this chapter. What we are trying to convey is that good leadership and management is multidimensional and requires ongoing work and commitment to the process of self-understanding and of understanding others. Since all teachers are leaders and managers in their classrooms, this is true not only for principals, deputies and heads of department, but for all staff at the school. Ultimately, the challenge is to build leadership and management capacity throughout the school community, including students (who are the leaders of the future, and need to be equipped to take up that role), parents and community leaders.
Leadership and management: What do they mean? What do we mean by leadership and management? As we have mentioned in chapter two, we need to see them separately and yet always in their mutual context: we need to be able to differentiate their roles and purposes. If we see, in organisational life (as in personal life), the need to be moving forward, to be purposeful, clear and directed, and yet to have a stable environment which provides the base for this forward movement, then we can understand the need for leadership and management in the school setting. For it is precisely the ability to maintain this balance between movement and stability, challenge and safety, which is the art of leadership and management. Leadership, then, is essentially about moving forward, and having a sense of direction. It is about ensuring that the school does not get stuck in a rut or become stale and reactive. Good leadership will be aware of the school in relation to its immediate and broader context, and will constantly be seeking ways of making the contributions of the school more relevant, more purposeful. Leadership should be visionary, looking towards the future, and nudging and challenging people within the organisation to be alert and awake to the challenges. Being a good leader means making sure that all the people in your organisation can share your vision, or build upon it, challenge it and make it their own. Visionbuilding is essentially a collective activity, but requires that someone has a feeling for the road ahead and can steer the organisation accordingly. Leadership is associated with movement, direction and purpose. However, if there is too much movement, too much activity, and too ©Juta& Co.
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much challenge, it is very likely that there will be a loss of direction, and insufficient stability in the school. This is exactly where management becomes important. Management is essentially about holding the school, establishing certainty, confidence and security for the organisation, allowing rest and reflection. Management is about making sure that the school, as a whole, is functioning effectively and achieving its vision. It is pointless being excited and enthusiastic about infinite possibilities, but not achieving them simply because they are unmanageable or there is too much chaos. Management is the function which ensures that things are operating smoothly, that structures are in place to support forward movement, that processes are contained, that the school is operating efficiently. An important management function is that of 'holding' the organisation: providing the framework to fulfil its purpose. Thus relevant management issues would be systems management (ensuring the relevant structures and procedures are in place and are functioning effectively); time management (prioritising tasks, setting time-frames and keeping to them, using time productively - for example, when to have meetings and when to send memos out, and so on); stress management (producing a working environment which does not cause unnecessary stress) and conflict management (developing mechanisms for dealing with conflict openly and productively). Management is also, and very importantly, about looking after the people in the school. If we are too intent on 'doing the right things out there' and not sufficiently aware of how they are being done and how people feel about doing them, those deeds will probably be accomplished in a less than effective way. So leadership and management is about balance, equipoise - about holding the centre, having a picture of the whole, attending to the parts, moving forward when it's time to move forward, staying put when it's time to reflect, understand and consolidate. Part of the skill of leadership and management is about ensuring that everyone is 'on board', but that once on board, people are, in fact, on a journey with direction, that they're all aware of the direction, and that they have all agreed that that is where they would like to go. Having everyone on board with no particular place to go may make people comfortable for a while, but ultimately, when little or no progress is made, people tend to get frustrated. It is not possible to say that good leadership and management is half of each all the time. The art lies in knowing when to move forward, and when to concentrate more on drawing the strands together within the organisation. Being able to lead a school forward creatively means ensuring that the system is operating smoothly and can support and hold any forward motion through appropriate and facilitative systems and procedures. In a 'mature' organisation - a school which has developed all its elements over time and is functioning coherently and effectively <•. Juta & Co.
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leadership and management should be diversified and not rest on one person, or possibly two or three people. This means that the success of the school need not depend on the principal alone. However, it is important to see leadership and management as going together - in other words, not splitting the roles of leadership and management between people. Some people may be naturally better at leading than managing, and vice versa. But because leadership and management are so intertwined and interdependent, they need to, as far as possible, be practised together. Both are essential - you cannot have the one without the other. In South Africa, schools have tended to be run with a focus on management rather than leadership. 'Good' principals were efficient bureaucrats - people who completed forms on time, who established highly efficient structures which ensured that the school functioned as smoothly as possible. Systems for covering for absent teachers, invigilation timetables, procedures for disciplinary problems and systems of reporting were all regarded as essential aspects of a well-run school. As a result, most schools have been fairly rigid in form, and slow to respond to environmental challenges. What tended to be underemphasised was the need to lead the school purposefully and with fluidity in relation to an ever-changing set of circumstances. In this chapter we are placing a lot of emphasis on the leadership function because it was neglected in the past. It is not because we think management is less important.
Leadership and management styles Historically in South Africa, (educational) leadership has been extremely authoritarian. In reaction to this, a more facilitative style of leadership and management has emerged. Unfortunately this has sometimes become too laissez-faire, allowing many voices to be heard, without giving adequate guidance or rigour. This has resulted in a lack of direction and purpose. What is needed is an approach to leadership and management which recognises the need for directiveness within a culture of negotiation, and a commitment towards building autonomy (empowerment) for all participants (Heron 1992). In this regard, educational leaders play a seminal role in the process of developing a particular culture in a school. Leadership and management have been described in various ways. Leadership styles can be described (Hope & Timmel 1984) in the following ways: Q Autocratic - the styles of leadership where those in positions of power make decisions unilaterally and do not allow (overtly or covertly) dissent. This is a style of leadership that many in South African schools will be familiar with! Q Laissez-faire - essentially non-directive and open-ended. This style of leadership recognises the need for a more participatory approach but ©Juta & Co.
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does not provide direction or a framework for constructive participation. The result is often chaos. A laissez-faire approach has often been in reaction to autocratic leadership, and tends to go to the opposite extreme in terms of directiveness. Q Peacemaker - a style of leadership which tends to avoid conflict as a way of trying to keep everyone satisfied. While a peaceful environment is important in a school setting, if it is at the cost of addressing real issues which are undermining the effective functioning of the school, it is not particularly helpful - in fact it can be damaging when underlying problems are avoided. Q Democratic - described as a participatory, consultative, negotiating and inclusive style of leadership. Heron (1992) challenged this way of viewing of leadership or influence. What he pointed out was that if we polarise 'autocratic' and 'democratic' leadership, we run the risk of labelling any form of directiveness as being autocratic and authoritarian. Heron maintains that in an effectively and democratically run school, directiveness is an essential aspect. He describes three main styles of leadership, all of which are important: Q Directive - leaders need to be directive at appropriate times and in appropriate ways. Consultation and negotiation is not always necessary nor advisable, and leaders need to be given the trust and the prerogative to make decisions and to steer the school on a particular course with clarity when necessary. Hierarchical or directive leadership is often important in the initiation of development processes at schools. Q Consultative - there are times when it is absolutely necessary for leaders to consult and negotiate. Without consultation and negotiation, there is unlikely to be shared ownership of any change process, and implementation of ideas is likely to be constrained by lack of commitment. Good leadership and management means ensuring that appropriate consultation and discussion take place as part of school life. Consultative leadership and management is particularly important when development processes are in place: it is at this point that it is important to consult with people about specific decisions and choices relating to the ongoing development of the school. O Autonomous - leaders need to know when to delegate authority so that they do not hold the reigns of power unilaterally or in unchecked fashion. Delegation of responsibilities provides an opportunity for other members of the school community to take responsibility for and to participate in the life of the school in a more meaningful way. Delegation of tasks allows for the sharing of control and responsibility - an important aspect of democracy. jjjuta & Co.
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Heron claims that all three of these leadership and management styles need to be operating where a school is trying to build a democratic ethos. They are interrelated; any one in operation without the others will result in an imbalanced situation. The art is knowing when each is appropriate, and having the wisdom and flexibility to move between them without undergoing 'personality changes' in order to do so. A wise leader is one who does not have only one way of responding to situations. Another framework for looking at the skills and qualities of leadership is that of Yarborough (1985). She maintains that leaders and managers need to have an understanding of the various phases of change, the kinds of roles that are necessary in each phase, the personal qualities required to accompany these roles, and the appropriate intervention methods in each phase. Her approach is based on the assumption that there are two basic forces in any situation: the masculine and the feminine, the directive and the receptive, the hard and the soft. These two forces are inseparable. Leadership facilitation skills involve the gathering of accurate information of how people relate to one another, to leaders, to processes and materials, and then intervening appropriately. According to Yarborough, effective leadership involves a holistic orientation towards oneself and others (self-understanding and understanding of others), listening and observation skills for gathering the appropriate information, intervention skills for clarifying action and interaction, and self-development. She distinguishes hard and soft approaches within each of the above. Within the holistic orientation, a soft approach would involve being open, aware, receptive, flexible and open-minded. These stances all increase the leader's ability to perceive people and events in a systematic way, noticing how everything fits together. It is the ability to understand ambiguity, it is the gesture of 'being' rather than 'doing', the gesture of the healer. The hard approach requires the ability to categorise, to judge information, to name certain behaviours and to direct participants to move in a certain way. A hard holistic orientation is interested in efficiency, structure and precision. It is the stance of'doing', of the warrior. Soft listening skills involve being non-judgemental and non-focused, developing a heightened sensitivity to various stimuli (for example voice tones, body language, hearing the entire message); concentrating on the interpersonal needs of people's safety, security and closeness, and being accepting and tolerant of where others are. This obviously requires a high degree of self-acceptance. Hard listening skills are focused, quick to respond and offer solutions, and are often related to needs of power and control. Soft observation skills involve seeing the larger picture, noticing a range of behaviours (without interpreting them), and developing images and metaphors for the group. Hard observation skills tend to use the rational mind and focus on the specific. ©Juta& Co.
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Soft intervention skills involve formulating tentative guesses about the meaning of people's behaviour, reflecting on these behaviours without interpretation, indicating to participants the function of their behaviour, changing your response as leader without giving feedback, and waiting longer than usual to intervene. Hard intervention skills involve confronting certain behaviours, making suggestions for change, teaching specific skills, indicating your own boundaries as a leader, and indicating concern or worry about certain dynamics. Self-development is a crucial dimension of good leadership and management. Leaders themselves are the best (or worst) tools in the facilitation of change. Self-developed leaders, according to Yarborough, are those who are aware and accepting of a wide range of feelings, thoughts and behaviours, and are in themselves multifaceted. Yarborough emphasises the importance, in leadership and management, of being able to embrace all of the above; to be able to understand a situation and to know how to respond appropriately. Empathy and softness are not always helpful and developmental. Similarly, an approach which is always hard, directive, specific and focused will inevitably crush commitment and enthusiasm. Knowing how to lead and manage appropriately does not depend on only learning specific skills but rather developing ourselves so that we are able to respond with greater depth, breadth and understanding in any given situation.
Leadership functions: Task and maintenance A major challenge faces educational leaders in their attempts to build an effective school; to work creatively and sensitively with the tension around the task (or product) and people (or process) needs of the school. This means ensuring on the one hand that the school fulfils its task as defined by its mission and particular goals set, and, on the other hand (although not mutually exclusive), ensuring that human and other resource maintenance and development are occurring. These are referred to as the task and maintenance functions of leadership and management. Having clear tasks is very important for the ongoing development of any school, and for the morale of the teachers. However, when schools become too 'task-oriented', the process of achieving goals tends to become hidden and the tasks are achieved without due respect for the people who are working towards making them happen. This potential problem can be addressed by becoming more mindful of the maintenance of the organisation and the people in it. We should not be so task-oriented that we ignore the realities existing in the school which might hinder the achievement of the tasks. At times it might be necessary to put aside the task at hand and deal with other concerns - for example, people might be experiencing burn-out or some conflict might have arisen (refer back to our case studies, where we did not press on £ Juta & Co.
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with our programme at all costs, but listened carefully to where people were and what needs were being expressed). The art of leadership and management requires the balancing of the task and maintenance functions, and this requires sensitive listening and careful observation at all times. Knowing when 'to do the right thing at the right time' in terms of these task and maintenance needs and in terms of the different styles and qualities of leadership and management, requires the development of sensitivity to the needs of any particular situation. This sensitivity can be developed through building an understanding of interand intrapersonal, group, organisational, institutional and broader social dynamics.
Empowerment and other issues of power Essentially leadership and management is about power relations - about influence. The way an organisation is structured and the way people in leadership positions relate to other members of the school community will give some indication of the power relations existing in that particular school. It is important to be able to see and understand the forms of power and influence existing in a school. Management and management structures reflect the way in which power and influence are organised. If too much power is held within the leadership and management structures of the school (or any other minority or exclusive group), it is likely that the school will not be functioning optimally, because the contributions of others will be constrained by this imbalance of power. The challenge, naturally, is that people who hold positions of power (whether this be structured or through personal and interpersonal dynamics) should ensure that all other roleplayers in the school feel able to participate meaningfully in the life of the school. There are two dimensions to the empowerment process: subjective and objective empowerment. With subjective empowerment, we are talking about personal power, where people believe that they can make a difference in a situation, where they feel confident and assertive and able to participate. Objective empowerment involves the taking of power, building structures where people can participate and involve themselves in decision-making processes. Objective empowerment links to the need for structural power: political empowerment. Empowerment is about sharing control and responsibility - providing structures (formal) and relationships (informal) where people are not merely carrying responsibilities, but also exercising real control over the situations within which they are carrying such responsibilities. Empowerment requires thinking not merely for T but also for 'we'. It is helpful to think about empowerment by differentiating between 'power over' (others), or 'power-from-within' (Starhawk 1982). Leadership and management which entrenches power over others tends to ©Juta& Co.
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reinforce unequal power relations, where domination and subjugation become part of relationships and of the organisation. Those being dominated usually experience a sense of lack of control over their lives, and their frustration and resentment become part of the culture of the organisation. Leadership which supports and encourages power from within is a form of leadership which recognises the intrinsic worth of all people in the school, and will try to find ways, both at an interpersonal and a structural level, to validate and give space for the development of all. Empowerment is important simply because it is a basic human need to feel a sense of control over your life. Without this assurance, people tend to feel disconnected, undervalued and ultimately not engaged in their work. It is very difficult to put your heart fully into something if there is a fundamental sense of lack of control. It is very difficult to give fully in any context if people are lacking in confidence and assertiveness. Empowerment is fundamentally related to participation. From a sociological perspective, any society is as good as the people who contribute towards the development of that society. If people do not feel empowered to participate and contribute towards it, that weakens the base of the society. We need to find the balance between individual satisfaction and societal needs. Effective leaders need to have their own sense of confidence, direction and clarity. Empowered leaders are leaders who have a great degree of self-knowledge; who understand themselves, know their own strengths and limitations, and are willing to work towards their own process of transformation. More broadly, an empowered leader is both willing and able to work with others as a team. Empowered leaders keep a freshness and openness to the world so that they remain at a critical edge. Empowered leaders recognise that they cannot do everything on their own, and that far more is achieved by working collaboratively with others. The principle of synergy - of understanding and building on the collective energies of all roleplayers to create something far more than individual efforts could achieve - is relevant to the empowered leader. Can a leader empower others? Is it possible for anyone to empower anyone else? Power is something which one owns and takes; it is not something to be given to others. The notion of giving power to others hints of paternalism. Rather, we need to see the role of leadership as sharing control and responsibility, of being able to work with different types of people, different sets of values and often opposing needs. Leaders must understand their own developmental needs and give space for the development of others. The task of leadership is to ensure the empowerment of all. Often this means standing back and supporting initiatives taken by other people. t Juta & Co.
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Building leadership and management capacity It is obvious at this stage that a major challenge for all schools is to build leadership and management capacity throughout the whole school: teachers, administrative and support staff, students, parents, and any other people involved in the life of the school. Since every person has, or will, in their lives, have some leadership role, it is important to provide the structures and possibilities for the development of this need and potential. We need to remember that leadership is the right of everyone, and not the privilege of a select few. Organisation development can play a key role in developing the leadership and management capacity throughout the school. Through the development of skills, knowledge, attitudinal changes and particular leadership qualities as described in this chapter and throughout the book, it is possible to build leadership capacity. As we have emphasised, it is not merely the acquisition of a particular set of skills, or of a defined volume of information that will build leadership capacity. It is a particular orientation, a way of being in the world, and a way of understanding ourselves that needs to underpin all of this. It is the delicate and artistic interplay between knowledge (and particularly selfknowledge), skills, attitudes and qualities as described that will build capacity throughout the school. The way the school is structured and the ongoing staff (and other) development programmes that are in place will ensure such growth. Organisation development provides the framework for this process. Building leadership and management capacity is essentially about participation. When people in any context participate in shaping the life and direction of that situation, their capacity is enhanced. The more people participate, the more meaningfully they will be able to participate. Therefore appropriate structures and processes need to be in place to facilitate such participation, and control and responsibility need to be shared. Participation is not about delegating certain jobs (as decided by management, which essentially maintains control) to particular people. Decision-making is a key issue here - how decisions are made can be a powerful capacity-building (or breaking) mechanism. Who makes decisions about what and for whom is a question that needs to be addressed when we talk about capacity-building. It is vital that those people who are affected by particular decisions need to be represented in the decision-making process. Identifying developmental needs among the staff and other roleplayers (and then making provision for these needs through appropriate programmes, courses and processes, both at the school and off-campus) is a meaningful way of building leadership and management capacity. It is important to recognise the particular needs of a school, the particular skills and interests of the roleplayers in the school, and then to try to ©Juta & Co.
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marry these as far as possible. Providing support and responsibility for people to fulfil tasks which interest and excite them is important in building healthy organisational life. However, this obviously needs to be seen and accomplished within the context of the school's organisational needs. Finally, the way the school operates as a whole can contribute significantly to the development of leadership and management capacity. Respect for one another, openness, affirming the contributions made by people, structuring meetings in such a way that maximum participation is facilitated, showing interest in others, transparency and accountability and, ultimately, the recognition that every person makes a valuable contribution which needs to be fostered, are all part of the process.
Governing bodies and leadership and management In South Africa, the governing body of the school is the legal body responsible for the development of overall school policy (including language policy and a code of conduct), the vision and mission of the school, financial management and fundraising, as well as making recommendations about appointments at the school. The governing body (comprising the principal, teaching staff, administrative and support staff, parents, community representatives and students (for high schools)) is expected to provide support for the principal who, together with deputy principals, heads of department and other staff, is responsible for the day-to-day management of the school. Given the extremely important role and function that governing bodies must play in schools, it is vital that these bodies have the capacity to provide leadership and management for the school and its community. An effective governing body will ensure that the school is fulfilling its particular purpose, and provides an important mechanism for accountability and transparency. The governing body provides an organic link between the school and its community, and ensures that all the roleplayers are represented. This is an important way of ensuring meaningful participation of all the roleplayers in the school. The governing body is the guardian of the school. Without the capacity to guide the school with wisdom, insight and particular skills and understanding (for example, financial management), the purpose of governance would be lost. All that has been mentioned in this chapter about leadership and management, and the development of leadership and management capacity in relationship to the principal and staff, pertains to the governing body too.
Revisiting Yellowwood High School Perhaps one of the weakest areas in Yellowwood High School is its leadership. We get a sense of a school which has had very little sense ( Juta & Co.
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of direction, vision or enthusiasm. Yellowwood seems to have operated efficiently enough, and Mr Strider, the principal, does seem to have ensured that the school functions smoothly. Perhaps we are aware of this more through the absence of chaos than a strong sense of overall effectiveness. This is in the domain of management. Mr Strider keeps in touch with his teachers by taking in record books every fortnight. Yet he does not use this opportunity to engage in curriculum issues with teachers. Staff meetings are drawn up by the deputy principal, and it would appear that there is not much consultation around agenda items. Decision-making seems, in effect, to rest with the principal and the two deputies. In terms of leadership, Mr Strider has resisted a staff development programme, and does not seem to have provided any developmental support himself. Besides looking at record books, he seems to leave teachers alone (as far as classroom issues are concerned) unless there has been a particular problem. Perhaps most importantly, the staff do not seem to trust him. As far as his deputies are concerned, Mr Witbooi seems less accessible than Mr Strider, and Ms Molefe more accessible and sympathetic. As a team, however, they seem to have little sense of what meaningful leadership and management of a school are or could be. FURTHER ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT RESPONSES During our work with Yellowwood High School, we became aware that how we worked with the management of the school was a very sensitive issue. Since we tend to approach the development of leadership and management capacity by acknowledging the potential leadership role of all roleplayers in the school, we were hesitant to work with management alone. Clearly, management had little legitimacy, and so working with them alone could have jeopardised our process of working with the staff (and later the parents and students), by creating suspicion and mistrust. On the other hand, very little inspirational leadership was coming from the management team and, it would seem, very little understanding of how to lead and manage an organisation effectively. This dilemma, of how to strengthen management at the school, yet build trust and collegiality among all staff members (and other roleplayers), was something which we had to confront during the time of working there. To a large extent, this tension was resolved in the work that we did initially (see chapter three, Culture and Identity, and chapter four, Strategy) when we took participants through a vision-building and strategic-planning process. The methodology (of providing the structure and process for participants to identify their concerns and choices, and to provide ways of fulfilling their hopes and achieving what they had identified as their educational purpose) addresses, in an ongoing and ©Juta& Co.
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intentional way, the building of leadership capacity. This is achieved by our participatory methodology which emphasises sensitisation to group dynamics and processes, team-building, problem-solving and decisionmaking. These, as a fundamental part of all the work we do, provided the space for people (through small group work and pairs-work) to contribute in discussions (and other exercises) in a more assertive way. We found that people who tended to be silent in plenary (and, we learnt, in staff meetings as well), began to find their 'voice' and develop the confidence to express their opinions. We also ensured that everyone, over time, had an opportunity to facilitate small group discussions. Facilitation is an important function of leadership. Managing group processes, completing tasks within set time-frames, ensuring everyone has an opportunity to speak, summarising discussions, helping to point the way forward - all these became part of the way we encouraged participants to work. We tried to ensure that different people took responsibility for taking notes in groups, feeding back to the whole group, and facilitating. In addition, we would reflect on these learnings as part of the overall process of development taking place in the school. Thus we helped to make conscious that it was not only the content of group work that was important, but the process too. The process learnings were captured and formed part of the reporting system to the school from us. After a few months had passed, many things had begun to change in the school. One of the noticeable differences was a renewed motivation among staff members, particularly in relation to their teaching. Subject and learning area groups were meeting fairly regularly, and some of these, more especially the English and history groups, had begun to engage seriously in small curriculum development projects. Staff relations had improved considerably on the whole, but there was clearly still some tension around the management structure at the school. We were phoned by Ms Molefe, who was quite agitated. She was very eager to bridge the gap between the management and the rest of the staff, but was feeling some resistance from Mr Strider on the one hand, and many staff members on the other. Mutual mistrust still seemed to be playing a significant part in keeping the groups apart. She asked us whether we could come to the school to assist them in addressing this. We felt that we wanted it to be a need expressed by all the staff members, not just her. She took her concerns back to a staff meeting, and it was agreed that we should come and meet with the staff. We were very pleased that it was Ms Molefe who had initiated this session, as she had played quite a passive role previously. It was, for us, a clear indicator of some shift in the dynamics and we were pleased about this. We arrived at the school for a two-hour workshop: all staff members, with the exception of three, were there. Clearly this issue seemed to be important to the staff. Sttjuta & Co.
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We began the process by placing people in random groups of six, and asked them to discuss what they saw as the issue that we were hoping to address that day. Responses were quite clearly defined: Q Division within management. Q Time to take stock and review the greater process: what had changed and what seemed 'stuck'. Q Lack of communication between management and the rest of the staff. Q Mismanagement: lack of effective direction and management. Q Lack of trust in the capacity of the management team. Although the message was clear, it was not conveyed aggressively. Instead, it was articulated by most groups in such a way that everyone was able to listen with openness, and not slip into a position of defensiveness. We asked the groups, after the report-back, to look at some strategies for building better communication between the groups where they felt there were schisms. They came up with the following suggestions: Q Talk through the issues with the support of an outside facilitator (or a nominated staff member). Q Develop clear job descriptions for the layers of management, as well as the general teaching staff. Q Strengthen the school development task team which had emerged out of the strategic planning process. Q Arrange for the management team to attend a leadership and management course. We asked them to come to consensus, first in small groups and then in plenary, as to what the most important next step was. It was generally felt that the management team needed to develop their capacity further, and that they should undergo some leadership training. We were delighted that the staff as a whole had given the management team a mandate to do exactly what we had felt was necessary, although potentially divisive and alienating. In retrospect we realised that, in this particular situation the only way we could work with management alone was if the staff as a whole saw the importance of it. We suggested that the heads of department attend the workshop as well, and set aside three days in the first week of the next holidays in which to meet. The principal asked whether the governing body could also attend this course, since the newly appointed governing body had also identified this need for themselves. ©Juta& Co.
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During these three days, we helped them to understand their roles and responsibilities in more detail by exploring: Q their perceptions of their own needs and strengths in relation to their roles in management and governance; different styles, functions and qualities of leadership; Q understanding group dynamics and the development of facilitation skills; Q the democratisation of the school: transforming structures and people; decision-making; Q understanding schools as organisations and the role of management within this organisation; Q managing change, particularly in times of transition; O managing time, stress and conflict (we did a lot of work relating to staff meetings in this section of the process); Q self-development; and Q listening skills and observation skills. Although this might seem like a random list of items, the three-day process was woven together in such a way that through their own discussions, roleplaying, simulation exercises and other activities, these issues were addressed in a holistic fashion. All the issues were structured in an experiential way, so that participants had a first-hand experience of challenges and possibilities that faced them, and could draw learnings out of these experiences. Our intention was to provide them with a set of experiences and understanding which could inspire them to more proactive and imaginative leadership and governance, and ground them so that they might have the confidence to hold the school in such a way that ongoing growth and development were nurtured. Flights of visionary possibilities were balanced with a sense of systematic 'organisational responsibility'. Their response to the process was interesting. They felt both excited and overwhelmed - excited at the opening awareness of new boundaries, new horizons, new ways of being and working - and overwhelmed by how much bigger their responsibility and tasks were than they had ever experienced or anticipated. Their 'homework' task at the end of these three days was to develop a new job description for themselves, and to set up co-counselling pairs. In these pairs, they would meet once a month, and reflect with each other on their work - what they had achieved, where they felt they had not succeeded, how they might do it differently next time. They also gave one another feedback, both in terms of their job descriptions, as well as their personal goals which they had set for themselves. Another <;: Juta & Co.
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homework task was for three of the management team to facilitate a workshop for the rest of the staff on developing personal goals. Since they had had plenty of practice in facilitation in these three days, they all felt reasonably confident to be able to do so with their colleagues. We reminded the group as they were leaving that change needs to start with yourself. We can never make any other person change, but we can ourselves change our behaviour, perceptions and attitudes. It is often much easier to wait for others to make the first move, and if they never do, nothing shifts. However, we do have control over our own situations if we so choose, and need to take responsibility for our own ability to contribute either creatively or destructively to a situation. GUIDELINES Q Regard every exercise that you engage in with groups as an opportunity for building the capacity for leadership and management. This means providing a structure where people can develop: • listening skills; • observation skills; • facilitation skills. • confidence to express their opinions; and • confidence to challenge others' opinions. Q Structure process reflection into workshops so that participants can understand the intention of the process and their learnings in them. Q Leadership and management means holding the school together and helping it to move forward with purpose and clarity. This need not rest with one particular person only. However, the role of the principal, who has the designated task of ensuring that the school operates optimally, is vital. He or she should have the skills and qualities necessary to do this. Q Trust-building and team-building are important aspects of building leadership and management capacity throughout the school. Q It is important to try to match individual strengths and enthusiasm with the organisational needs of the school. Giving people responsibilities where they have little interest or confidence will not be effective in building leadership capacity. However, this match might not always be possible, in which case it is important to raise it as an issue which needs to be addressed. It is often necessary for people to develop skills on the job or to have to do something which they might not automatically have chosen as a task for themselves.
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WORKSHOP EXERCISES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES Observation and listening skills Q Since observation skills are important in leadership, developing these in various ways is important: • Participants choose partners and stand back-to-back with them. Get them to describe what their partner is wearing. • Participants shut their eyes and describe the room in which they are. Give each person an opportunity to add something to the description, letting people give details one at a time. • Ask participants to take note of the journey they make to school and back, paying attention to as many details as possible. Reflections on such exercises highlight the need to pay more attention to detail, to observe more accurately, to examine the extent to which subjectivity affects our ability to observe accurately, and so on. Q Listening skills: see workshop exercises in chapter seven. Listening carefully, accurately and empathically is crucial in good leadership and management.
Facilitation Q Practice in facilitation is important. In small groups, nominate a facilitator to guide group activities or discussions. The facilitator should ensure that: • everybody has an opportunity to participate; • no one person dominates group discussions; • people stay with the topic; • the task is completed in the allotted time; • the group atmosphere allows for creative engagement with the task at hand; • strong feelings are dealt with and not swept aside; and • conflict is managed constructively and appropriately. Feedback is given to the facilitator after the group process, with an opportunity for the facilitator to reflect on his or her facilitation first. Every person in the group should, over time, have an opportunity to facilitate. Q Tasks such as writing down the outcomes of the group process should be rotated, as should feedback in plenary. The ability to capture what is being said or done, and the ability to convey this to a bigger group are both important facilitation skills.
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Managing change Q One exercise which looks at developing the capacity to manage change in times of transition goes as follows: • Describe the changes you are facing currently. • How are you reacting to these changes? • How are you feeling about these changes? Q Collective problem-solving exercise: Take one of the transition issues you have identified and look at how you can manage it more constructively.
Stress management Q Individually close eyes, think back to a stressful situation - what is happening to your body? What can you do to prevent or release body stress? G Roleplay: Devise a stressful situation, either at school or outside, one which the participants can relate to but which is not too close to a personal situation. Give roles for the particular individuals in the roleplay, as well as a description of the situation (each roleplayer receives his or her instructions on a piece of paper). The group observes the roleplay. A fixed time is allowed for the roleplay (usually no more than ten minutes). Discussion is held afterwards about what the group observed. Discuss the factors contributing towards stress, and strategies for coping with these factors.
Time management Q Punctuality: Individually reflect on your average time of arrival at school. Does this reflect a personal trend? What factors at school help or hinder your own punctuality? Q Pie chart: Draw a typical pie chart of your life over a week (how much time proportionately you spend doing particular activities). In pairs, reflect on what you enjoy doing, what you do that you don't like but have to do, what you do that you don't have to do, what's missing in your pie chart, what time-wasting activities there are. Finally, redraw your pie chart the way you would like to see it over a week.
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CHAPTER NINE
LAST REFLECTIONS What we call the beginning is often the end And to make an end is to make a beginning The end is where we start from. (T.S. Eliot 1969:197)
In this book we have explored a process of school development through following the story of Yellowwood High School. Yellowwood High is a fairly typical South African school, and many of the concerns it faced (and still faces) will be familiar to you. We have tried to capture the moments of triumph and success, as well as the frustrating and difficult times. Change processes will always embrace both these extremes, as well as the myriad shades in between. The framework we have developed and used for understanding schools as organisations helps to shape our insight into the developmental needs of schools. We see it as an organising framework, one which helps us (and the schools with which we work) to have a clearer sense of how we can best facilitate a process of self-understanding and development. It helps to prioritise needs, goals and plans, and it ensures that interventions are systematic and holistic. A healthy school is one in which all the elements of organisational life are operating coherently and interdependently. Therefore organisation development work must ultimately pay attention to all the elements we have written about in this book. However, although the framework helps to simplify and organise our understanding of where a school is, we must never underestimate the complexity of the change process. While we might be able to develop a clear understanding of where a school is, and where it would like to be, the journey from the current reality to the future ideal is not a simple, linear journey. There are many unanticipated events that will occur, that might require us to change our plans and direction. There are many changes that will occur in the life of the school which will affect the development process - key staff might leave the school, for example, or new educational policies might have to be implemented. In other words, change is unpredictable, and part of the challenge of development is to ensure that the school as a whole and the people connected with it are able to cope with and manage change proactively and effectively. The challenge is therefore to become 'a learning school'. The story of Yellowwood High School is unique to that particular school. While you may feel that you know Yellowwood High School 185
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very well, and that there are many similarities between it and your institution, there will also be differences. The journey that the school undertook did not move in a linear process, starting with one element of organisational life and neatly working its way through a straightforward process, element by element. The process was an interweaving motion of movement and rest, of forward and backward (and sideways) movements. Your development process will be unique to your school. Understanding the principles of whole school organisation development will go a long way in assisting you to engage in and support development. Yellowwood High School's process thus far has taken about two years. Change is slow; there are no short cuts, no corners to cut. Many routes have had to be covered more than once. While there have been dramatic changes at the school, and the school has achieved much of what it set out to do, there are still aspects of the vision that was generated at one of the earlier workshops that have not yet been addressed. This is completely understandable: it is crucial that manageable steps are taken. If the goals set are unrealistic and unattainable, demoralisation can set in very quickly and a school can find itself worse off than before it began. There have been periods in the two years at Yellowwood High School where little new has been undertaken, and institutionalisation of certain innovations has been necessary. In other words, consciously chosen new practices need to be integrated into the day-to-day life of the school before additional innovations are undertaken. Because organisation development is a holistic approach to improvement, one of the greatest dangers is the tendency to want to shift too much too quickly (because there is a clear picture of the whole organisation). It is important, rather, to be able to be realistic about what is attainable, and to prioritise activities. It is helpful to start with projects which capture people's enthusiasm, and which have the possibility of impacting more immediately on other aspects of school life. For example, a curriculum development project might be a helpful choice if a school is prioritising, because this will affect classroom practice, the need for appraisal and staff development, to name a few aspects of school life that will need to be addressed. Development does not have an end point. It is ongoing, like life itself. Arriving at a particular destination only points us to the next place we should move towards. While it is a cyclical process, it is not circular. In other words, we do not end up exactly where we started off. We move towards greater clarity, coherence and effectiveness. This enables us to master our responses to inner and outer challenges with more confidence and certainty. Learning from experience, reflecting on actions, understanding what works and what does not, and why - these are all elements of a good school. Our picture of a good school is one which has the capacity to learn, is open to change, able to ask the right questions and respond appropriately (from a sound value base) to environmental ©Juta & Co.
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challenges. We believe that a sound understanding of organisational dynamics will contribute greatly towards the building of excellent schools and classrooms in South Africa. We feel that we will have failed in our work if our organisation development interventions did not ultimately impact on and positively affect the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom. While our own focus is not on curriculum development, classroom support or subject coaching, we are not assisting schools in building their organisational capacity just so they can have a well-run school. It is because we believe that the school environment as a whole has such a profound effect on what happens in classrooms that we think this work is so important. But our primary concern, in the end, is the students, and the way in which their schooling prepares them for life. Ideally, we want the work that we do to ignite teachers' passion for the momentous task that they have undertaken. Our experience is that many teachers have forgotten how great and important the power and responsibility are that they hold in their hands. Teachers are fostering the growth and life possibilities of millions of young people. They have the potential to shape the future of our country positively or negatively. Providing a supportive, stimulating and nurturing school environment for teachers (through building organisational coherence) is one way of taking care of their future, the future of young people in their care and, therefore, our future. Ultimately, we wish to assist schools in becoming self-reliant. Our work would be severely limited if the schools with which we work became dependent on us to support them at every point along the way. School development needs to be driven and held by the school community. Our task is to ensure that school communities have the capacity to take ownership of their own processes of development. This requires not only capacity, but also commitment, enthusiasm and vision. Development is not a mechanical or technical process - rather, it is the unfolding of the potential of individuals and schools. Ongoing school development will become a reality only if it has meaning for those in the school community. We need to redeem the meaning and purpose of education so that our schools can become rich and warm centres of creative energy.
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APPENDIX A
THOMAS-KILMANN CONFLICT MODE INSTRUMENT Five conflict handling modes The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument is designed to assess an individual's behaviour in conflict situations. 'Conflict situations' are those circumstances in which the concerns of two people appear to be incompatible. In such situations, we can describe a person's behaviour along two basic dimensions: (1) assertiveness - the extent to which the individual attempts to satisfy his/her own concerns, and (2) cooperativeness - the extent to which the individual attempts to satisfy the other person's concerns. These two basic dimensions of behaviour can be used to define five specific methods of dealing with conflict. These five 'conflict-handling modes' are shown below.
Q Competing is assertive and uncooperative - an individual pursues his/ her own concerns at the other person's expense. This is a poweroriented mode, in which one uses whatever power seems appropriate to win one's own position - one's ability to argue, one's rank, economic sanctions. Competing might mean 'standing up for your 189
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rights', defending a position which you believe is correct, or simply trying to win. Q Accommodating is unassertive and cooperative - the opposite of competing. When accommodating, an individual neglects his/her own concerns to satisfy the concerns of the other person; there is an element of self-sacrifice in this mode. Accommodating might take the form of selfless generosity or charity, obeying another person's order when one would prefer not to, or yielding to another's point of view. Q Avoiding is unassertive and uncooperative - the individual does not immediately pursue his/her own concerns or those of the other person. He/she does not address the conflict. Avoiding might take the form of diplomatically side-stepping an issue until a better time, or simply withdrawing from a threatening situation. Q Collaborating is both assertive and cooperative - the opposite of avoiding. Collaborating involves an attempt to work with the other person to find some solution which fully satisfies the concerns of both persons. It means digging into an issue to identify underlying concerns of the two individuals and to find an alternative which meets both sets of concerns. Collaborating between two persons might take the form of exploring a disagreement to learn from each other's insights, concluding to resolve some condition which would otherwise have them competing for resources, or confronting and trying to find a creative solution to an interpersonal problem. Q Compromising is intermediate in both assertiveness and cooperativeness. The objective is to find some expedient, mutually acceptable solution which partially satisfies both parties. It falls on a middle ground between competing and accommodating. Compromising gives up more than competing but less than accommodating. Likewise, it addresses an issue more directly than avoiding, but doesn't explore it in as much depth as collaborating. Compromising might mean splitting the difference, exchanging concessions, or seeking a quick middle-ground position.
Interpreting your scores Usually, after getting back the results of any test, people first want to know: 'What are the right answers?' In the case of the conflict-handling behaviour, there are no universal right answers. All five modes are useful in some situations; each represents a set of useful social skills. Our conventional wisdom recognises, for example, that often 'Two heads are better than one' (Collaborating). But it also says, 'Kill your enemies with kindness' (Accommodating), 'Split the difference' (Compromising), 'Leave well alone' (Avoiding), 'Might makes right' (Competing). The ©Juta & Co.
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effectiveness of a given conflict-handling mode depends upon the requirements of the specific conflict situation and the skill with which the mode is used. Each of us is capable of using all five conflict-handling modes. None of us can be characterised as having a single, rigid style of dealing with conflict. However, any given individual uses some modes better than others and therefore tends to rely upon those modes more heavily than others, whether because of temperament, or practice. The conflict behaviour which one uses is therefore a result of both personal predisposition and the requirements of the situations in which one finds oneself. The Thomas-Killmann Conflict Mode Instrument is designed to assess this mix of conflict-handling modes. To help you judge how appropriate your utilisation of the five modes is for your situation, we have listed a number of uses for each mode based upon lists generated by company presidents. Your score, high or low, indicates its usefulness in your situation. However, there is the possibility that your social skills lead you to rely upon some conflict behaviours more or less than necessary. To help you determine this we have also listed some diagnostic questions concerning warning signals for the overuse or underuse of each mode.
Instructions Consider situations in which you find your wishes differing from those of another person. How do you usually respond to such situations? On the following pages are several pairs of statements describing possible behavioural responses. For each pair, please circle the 'A' or 'B' statement which is most characteristic of your own behaviour. In many cases, neither the 'A' nor the 'B' statement may be very typical of your behaviour; but please select the response which you would be more likely to use.
Questionnaire 1. A. There are times when I let others take responsibility for solving the problem. B. Rather than negotiate the things on which we disagree, I try to stress those things upon which we both agree. 2. A. I try to find a compromise solution. B. I attempt to deal with all of his/her and my concerns. 3. A. I am usually firm in pursuing my goals. B. I might try to soothe the other's feeling and preserve our relationship. 'C'Juta & Co.
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4. A. I try to find a compromise solution. B. I sometimes sacrifice my own wishes for the wishes of the other person. 5. A. I consistently seek the other's help in working out a solution. B. I try to do what is necessary to avoid useless tensions. 6. A. I try to avoid creating unpleasantness for myself. B. I try to win my position. 7. A. I try to postpone the issue until I have had some time to think it over. B. I give up some points in exchange for others. 8. A. I am usually firm in pursuing my goals. B. I attempt to get all concerns and issues immediately out in the open. 9. A. I feel that differences are not always worth worrying about. B. I make some effort to get my way. 10. A. I am firm in pursuing my goals. B. I try to find a compromise solution. 11. A. I attempt to get all concerns and issues immediately out in the open. B. I might try to soothe the other's feelings and preserve our relationship. 12. A. I sometimes avoid taking positions which could create controversy. B. I will let her have some of her positions if she lets me have some of mine. 13. A. I propose a middle ground. B. I press to get my points made. 14. A. I tell him my ideas and ask him for his. B. I try to show him the logic and benefits of my position. 15. A. I might try to soothe the other's feelings and preserve our relationship. B. I try to do what is necessary to avoid tensions. 16. A. I try not to hurt the other's feelings. B. I try to convince the other person of the merits of my position. 17. A. I am usually firm in pursuing my goals. B. I try to do what is necessary to avoid useless tensions. ©Juta& Co.
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18. A. If it makes the other person happy, I might let her maintain her views. B. I will let her have some of her positions if she lets me have some of mine. 19. A. I attempt to get all concerns and issues immediately out in the open. B. I try to postpone the issue until I have had some time to think it over. 20. A. I attempt to immediately work through our differences. B. I try to find a fair combination of gains and losses for both of us. 21. A. In approaching negotiations, I try to be considerate of the other person's wishes. B. I always lean toward a direct discussion of the problem. 22. A. I try to find a position that is intermediate between his and mine. B. I assert my wishes. 23. A. I am very often concerned with satisfying all our wishes. B. There are times when I let others take responsibility for solving the problem. 24. A. If the other's position seems very important to them, I would try to meet their wishes. B. I try to get the other person to settle for a compromise. 25. A. I try to show him the logic and benefit of my position. B. In approaching negotiations, I try to be considerate of the other person's wishes. 26. A. I propose a middle ground. B. I am nearly always concerned with satisfying all our wishes. 27. A. I sometimes avoid taking positions that would create controversy. B. If it makes the other person happy, I might let her maintain her views. 28. A. I am usually firm in pursuing my goals. B. I usually seek the other's help in working out a solution. 29. A. I propose a middle ground. B. I feel that differences are not always worth worrying about. 30. A. I try not to hurt other's feelings. B. I always share the problem with the other person so that we can work it out. ( Juta & Co.
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SCORING THE THOMAS-KILLMANN CONFLICT MODE INSTRUMENT Circle the letters below which you circled on each item of the questionnaire. Competing Collaborating Compromising Avoiding Accommodating (forcing) (problem (sharing) (withdrawal) (smoothing) solving) B A 1 2 B A A B 3 4
B
A A
5 B
6 7 8
B A B
9. 10
B A
A
11.
B A A
B
B
A B
12 13. 14
B B
A
A A B
15 16 17
B A
18 19 20 21 22
B B A A B
B
A B
B A A
A
23 24
B A
B
25 26 27
A A
B
A B
A A
B
28
A B 29 A 30 B Total number of items circled in each column:
B A
Competing Collaborating Compromising Avoiding Accommodating
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Competing Uses: 1. When quick, decisive action is vital, e.g. emergencies. 2. On important issues where unpopular courses of action need implementing, e.g. cost-cutting, enforcing unpopular rules, discipline. 3. On issues vital to the welfare of the organisation/school when you know you are right. 4. To protect yourself against people who take advantage of noncompetitive behaviour. If you scored High: 1. Are you surrounded by 'yes' men/women? (If so, perhaps it's because they have learned that it's unwise to disagree with you, or have given up trying to influence you. This closes you off from information.) 2. Are subordinates afraid to admit ignorance and uncertainties to you? (In competitive climates, one must fight for influence and respect which means acting more certain and confident than one feels. The upshot is that people are less able to ask for information and opinion - they are less able to learn.) If you scored Low: 1. Do you often feel powerless in situations? (It may be because you are unaware of the power you do have, unskilled in its use, or uncomfortable with the idea of using it. This may hinder your effectiveness by restricting your influence.) 2. Do you have trouble taking a firm stand even when you see the need? (Sometimes concerns for others' feeling or anxieties about the use of power cause us to vacillate, which may mean postponing the decision and adding to the suffering and/or resentment of others.)
Collaborating Uses: 1. To find and integrative solution when both sets of concerns are too important to be compromised. 2. When your objective is to learn, e.g. testing your own assumptions, understanding the views of others. 3. To merge insights from people with different perspectives on a problem. ("-, Juta & Co.
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4. To gain commitment by incorporating other's concerns into a consensual decision. 5. To work through hard feeling which have been interfering with an interpersonal relationship. If you scored High: 1. Do you spend time discussing issues in depth that do not seem to warrant it? (Collaboration takes time and energy - perhaps the scarcest organisational resources. Trivial problems don't require optimal solutions, and not all personal differences need to be hashed out. The overuse of collaboration and consensual decision-making sometimes represents a desire to minimise risk - by diffusing responsibility for a decision or by postponing action.) 2. Does your collaborative behaviour fail to elicit collaborative responses from others? (The exploratory and tentative nature of some collaborative behaviour may make it easy for others to disregard collaborative overtures; or the trust and openness may be taken advantage of. You may be missing some cues which would indicate the presence of defensiveness, strong feelings, impatience, competitiveness, or conflicting interests.) If you scored Low: 1. Is it hard for you to see differences as opportunities for joint gain - as opportunities to learn or solve problems? (Although there are often threatening or unproductive aspects of conflict, indiscriminate pessimism can prevent you from seeing collaborative possibilities and thus deprive you of the mutual gains and satisfactions which accompany successful collaboration.) 2. Are subordinates uncommitted to your decisions or policies? (Perhaps their own concerns are not being incorporated into those decisions or policies.)
Compromising Uses: 1. When goals are moderately important, but not worth the effort or potential disruption or more assertive modes. 2. When two opponents with equal power, and who are strongly committed to mutually exclusive goals, are in labour-management bargaining. 3. To achieve temporary settlements to complex issues. ©Juta & Co.
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4. To arrive at expedient solutions under time pressure. 5. As a backup mode when collaboration or competition fails to be successful. If you scored High: 1. Do you concentrate so heavily upon the practicalities and tactics of compromise that you sometimes lose sight of larger issues - principles, values, long-term objectives, organisation/school welfare? 2. Does an emphasis on bargaining and trading create a cynical climate of gamespersonship? (Such a climate might undermine interpersonal trust and deflect attention away from the merits of the issues discussed.) If you scored Low: 1. Do you find yourself too sensitive or embarrassed to be effective in bargaining situations? 2. Do you find it hard to make concessions? (Without this safety valve, you may have trouble getting gracefully out of mutually destructive arguments, power struggles, etc.)
Avoiding Uses: 1. When an issue is trivial, of only passing importance, or when other more important issues are pressing. 2. When you perceive no chance of satisfying your concerns, e.g. when you have low power or you are frustrated by something which would be very difficult to change (national policies, someone's personality structure, etc). 3. When the potential damage of confronting a conflict outweighs the benefits of its resolution. 4. To let people cool down - to reduce tensions to a productive level and to regain perspective and composure. 5. When gathering more information outweighs the advantages of an immediate decision. 6. When others can resolve the conflict more effectively. 7. When the issue seems tangential or symptomatic of another more basic issue. If you scored High: 1. Does your coordination suffer because people have trouble getting your inputs on issues? ,g Juta & Co.
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2. Does it often appear that people are 'walking on eggshells'? (Sometimes a dysfunctional amount of energy can be devoted to caution and the avoiding of issues, indicating that issues need to be faced and resolved.) 3. Are decisions on important issues made by default? If you scored Low: 1. Do you find yourself hurting people's feelings or stirring up hostilities? (You may need to exercise more discretion in confronting issues or more tact in framing issues in non-threatening ways. Tact is partially .the art of avoiding potentially disruptive aspects of an issue.) 2. Do you often feel harried or overwhelmed by a number of issues? (You may need to devote more time to setting priorities - deciding which issues are relatively unimportant and perhaps delegating them to others.)
Accommodating Uses: 1. When you realise that you are wrong - to allow a better position to be heard, to learn from others, and to show that you are reasonable. 2. When the issue is much more important to the other person than to yourself - to satisfy the needs of others, and as a goodwill gesture to help maintain a cooperative relationship. 3. To build up social credits for later issues which are important to you. 4. When continues competition would only damage your cause - when you are outmatched and losing. 5. When preserving harmony and avoiding disruption are especially important. 6. To aid in the managerial development of subordinates by allowing them to experiment and learn from their own mistakes. If you scored High: 1. Do you feel that your own ideas and concerns are not getting the attention they deserve? (Deferring too much to the concerns of others can deprive you of influence, respect, recognition. It also deprives the organisation of your potential contribution.) 2. Is discipline lax? (Although discipline for its own sake may be of little value, there are ©Juta & Co.
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often rules, procedures, and assignments whose implementation is crucial for you or the organisation.) If you scored Low: 1. Do you have trouble building goodwill with others? (Accommodation on minor issues which are important to others are gestures of goodwill.) 2. Do others often seem to regard you as unreasonable? 3. Do you have trouble admitting it when you are wrong? 4. Do you recognise legitimate exceptions to rules? 5. Do you know when to give up? (Adapted from a paper entitled 'Interpreting your scores on the Thomas-Killmann Conflict Mode Instrument' by Tony Saddington and Sandy Lazarus, 19 August 1993.)
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A VALUES EXERCISE Goals Q To explore the effect of values in a problem-solving group situation. Q To understand the importance and effect of values in a group or organisational situation. Q To understand the difficulties that groups experience in value-laden situations. Q To understand the importance of making conscious all the different values in a group and how to work together despite these. Q To understand the importance of listening.
Process 1. Introduce the aim of the exercise to the group. 2. Form groups of between six and eight people and give a copy of The girl and the sailor handout to each participant. Explain that the task of the group is to rank the characters in the story in the order in which they appeal to the group. The participants must strive to reach a common agreement, to achieve consensus on the ranking. They should not resort to voting or agree simply to finish the exercise. Allow between 20 and 30 minutes for this. 3. Reconvene the plenary and list the ranking of the groups. Lead a discussion on the subject of coming to judgement in a situation where values play a part. Some of the following points may be mentioned: • Groups usually have difficulty arriving at a committed decision where values play a strong part. • In this exercise, participants often choose to support a particular character without clearly understanding why or looking at the values which lie behind that choice. It often helps to speak about the values which we respect, see which character represents them and base our choices on this. • When we make a decision, our values are often unconscious. The aim of this exercise is to help make our values conscious so that we can make a really clear decision instead of one based on habit. ©Juta & Co.
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• Listening openly is very important in helping to resolve difficulties in this kind of value-laden discussion. • What can we do to help a discussion in which values play an important part? • How can we accommodate different values?
The girl and the sailor A ship sank in a storm. Five survivors scrambled aboard two lifeboats: a sailor, a girl, and an old man in the first boat; the girl's fiance and his best friend in the second. During the storm, the two boats separated. The first boat washed ashore on an island and was wrecked. The girl searched in vain all day for the other boat or any sign of her fiance. The next day, the weather cleared and still she could not locate her fiance. In the distance she saw another island. Hoping to find her fiance, she begged the sailor to repair the boat and row her to the other island. The sailor agreed, on condition that she sleep with him that night. Distraught, she went to the old man for advice. "I cannot tell you what is right or wrong for you," he said. "Look into your heart and follow it." Confused but desperate, she agreed to the sailor's condition. The next morning the sailor fixed the boat and rowed her to the other island. Jumping out of the boat, she ran up the beach into the arms of her fiance. Then she decided to tell him about the previous night. In a rage, he pushed her away and said, "Get away from me! I don't want to see you again." Weeping, she started to walk slowly down the beach. Seeing her, the best friend went to her, put his arms around her and said, "I can tell that you two have had a fight. I'll try to patch it up, but in the meantime, I'll take care of you." i;,Juta & Co.
REFERENCES Preface Fullan, M. & Hargreaves, A. 1992. What's Worth Fighting For in Your School? Open University Press, Buckingham. Chapter One Havel, V. 1991. Disturbing the Peace. Vintage Books, New York. Althusser, L. 1971. Lenin and philosophy and other essays (translated by B. Brewster) in New York Monthly Review: Ideological State Apparatuses. Giroux, H.A. 1983. Theory and Resistance in Education: A Pedagogy for the Opposition. Bergin and Garvey, South Hadley, Mass. Department of Education. 1996. White Paper 2. Beare, K, Caldwell, B.J. & Millikan, R.H. 1989. Creating an Excellent School. Routledge, London. Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. 1964. Oxford University Press, Amen House, London E.G. 4. SA Schools Act No 84 of 1996. Donald, D., Lazarus, S., & Lolwana, P. 2001 (2nd edition). Educational Psychology in Social Context. Oxford Press, Cape Town. Pielstick, N.L. 1988. Assessing the learning environment. School Psychology International 9:111-112. Chapter Two Dalin, P. & Rolff, H.G. 1993. Changing the School Culture. Cassell, London. Department of Education. 1995. White Paper No 1 on Education and Training. Morrow, W. 1989. Chains of Thought. Southern Books, Johannesburg. SA Schools Act No 84 of 1996. ANC Policy Framework, Jan 1994. Department of Education. 1997. Quality education for all: Overcoming barriers to learning and development. Report of the National Commission on Special Needs in Education and Training and National Committee for Education Support Services. Pretoria, Government Printer. Department of Education. 2001. White Paper 6 on Special Needs Education: Building an inclusive education and training system. Pretoria, Government Printer. Department of Health. 2000. Draft National Guidelines for the Development of Health Promoting Schools/Sites in South Africa. Dalin, P. 1998 (with the assistance of Katherine Kitson). School Development: Theories and Strategies: an International handbook. Cassell, London. Heron, J. 1992. The Facilitator's Handbook. Kogan Page, London. Fullan, M. 1991. The New Meaning of Educational Change. Cassell Educational Limited, London. Holly, P. & Southworth, G. 1991. The Developing School. The Palmer Press, London. Bennis, W.G. 1969. Organization Development: Its Nature, Origins and Prospects. AddisonWesley Publishing Company, Inc., Reading. Mass. Lazarus, S., Davidoff, S. & Daniels, B. 2000. Developing health promoting and inclusive ©Juta & Co.
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schools within an integrated framework for understanding and developing schools. Paper presented at the National Health Promoting Schools Task Team Meeting in Johannesburg on 15 September, and at the National Conference on Learner Support and Development in Cape Town on 26 September. World Health Organization. 1986. Ottawa Charter. Dalin, P. & Rust. V. 1983. Can Schools Learn? Nfer Nelson, Stockholm. Fullan, M. 1993. Change Forces: Probing the Depths of Educational Reform. The Palmer Press, London. Chapter Three Fullan, M. & Hargreaves, A. 1992. What's Worth Fighting For in Your School? Open University Press, Buckingham. Senge, P.M. 1994. The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization. Brealey, London. Walker, M. 1995. Context, critique and change: Doing action research in South Africa, in Educational Action Research, Volume 3, No. 1, 1995. Fullan, M. 1991. The New Meaning of Educational Change. Cassell Educational Limited, London. Chapter Four Bennis, W.G. 1969. Organization Development. Its Nature, Origins and Prospects. AddisonWesley Publishing Company, Inc., Reading, Mass. Chapter Five Bennis, W.G. 1969. Organization Development: Its Nature, Origins and Prospects. AddisonWesley Publishing Company, Inc., Reading, Mass. Department of Education. 1995. White Paper No 1 on Education and Training. Department of Education. 1996. White Paper 2. Heron, J. 1992. Chapter 5: The politics of facilitation ... Balancing facilitator authority and learner autonomy, in Mulligan, J. & Griffin, C. Empowerment Through Experiential Learning. Kogan Page, London. SA Schools Act No 84 of 1996. Morrow, W. 1989. Chains of Thought. Southern Books, Johannesburg. Chapter Six Dalin, P. 1994. How Schools Improve. Cassell, London. Department of Health. 2000. Draft National Guidelines for the Development of Health Promoting Schools/Sites in South Africa. Donald, D., Lazarus, S. & Lolwana, P. 2001 (2nd edition). Educational Psychology in Social Context. Oxford Press, Cape Town. Chapter Seven Department of Education. 1999. Developmental Appraisal for Educators (DAE), Government Gazette 18 February No 19767, Vol 404. Department of Education. 2001. White Paper 6 on Special Needs Education: Building an inclusive education and training system. Pretoria, Government Printer. Thomas-Kilmann. Conflict Mode Instrument, adapted by Tony Saddington, 25 February 1994. JJJuta & Co.
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Chapter Eight Heider, J. 1985. The Too of Leadership. Bantam Books, United States of America. Heron, J. 1992. The Facilitator's Handbook. Kogan Page, London. Hope, A. & Timmel, S. 1984. Training for Transformation. Homba Press, Zimbabwe. Heron, J. 1992. Chapter 5: The politics of facilitation ... Balancing facilitator authority and learner autonomy, in Mulligan, J. & Griffin, C. Empowerment Through Experiential Learning. Kogan Page, London. Yarborough, E. 1985. Facilitation skills, in Friedman, P.G. & Yarborough, E.A. Training Strategies from Stan to Finish. Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Starhawk. 1982. Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex, and Politics. Beacon Press, Boston. Chapter Nine Eliot, T.S. 1969. Four Quartets, V., in The Complete Poems and Plays ofT.S. Eliot. Faber and Faber Limited, London.
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