Reflection - Changes in Practice

My 32 Week Journey

MindLab - Post graduate Certificate in Applied Learning.

The last 32 weeks have quite honestly been the best and the worst of my year.  While relishing the contact with colleagues beyond my local cluster, the thought provoking resources and the robust discussions, I have struggled with the assignments as often the requirements did not fit comfortably within the scope of my work.  Finding the rhythm that allowed me to read, consider and respond to resources, and complete the assessments took a wee bit of time.
I have found joy in the discussions and hearing from teachers  about the challenges they face trying to implement changes in practice because of rigid processes that get in the way. It has been a great opportunity to reflect on our own school and see what obstacles are getting in the way of innovative practice on our own place. 

I have discovered many things about myself in the process; I was less flexible than I first thought and I had a set of beliefs about schooling  and leadership that had gone largely unchallenged for a number of years.   As a result of the learning my leadership has become more conscious, more purposeful, in the sense that I am considering style and purpose more, rather than doing things habitually.  

In my role as the school principal, I have two sets of criteria that I am appraised against.  As a registered teacher, I need to meet the 12 professional standards in the Practising Teacher's Criteria.  I also have the four criteria for leadership practice that sit within the Kiwi Leadership model.

It states in the introduction that   'Principals work within four areas of practice to lead change and to solve problems in their schools: culture, pedagogy, systems, and partnerships and networks. 
As well as being pedagogical leaders, principals are responsible for the day-to-day management of a broad range of policy and operational matters, including personnel, finance, property, health and safety, and the interpretation and delivery of the national curriculum.'   (Kiwi Leadership)

The competing priorities of the job require some strongly held beliefs that guide decision making processes and time management to stay focussed on the most important aspects of the job.   It is very easy to get bogged down with the mechanics of the job and run out of time for the most important aspect - pedagogical leadership.  The other tasks could quite easily be completed by an expert in that field with little or no education background, but the pedagogical leadership and curriculum development is central to leading a successful school.

What are the priorities?     
It is my task as the school leader to ensure that the environment and culture encourages opportunity to trial and iterate changes in practice. We need to have a growth mindset around investigation and teacher agency. We also need to remove the systems that get in the way of change, and look for ways that technology can assist us in engaging learners and working more efficiently. 

• PTC Criteria 7 (Promote a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive learning environment) 

Our current focus for professional learning is around collaborative teaching and learning. We are developing a set of collaborative norms for our school, and doing a lot of research and discussion about the pedagogy and advantages of collaboration for both the teacher and the learner. Our recent involvement in a CoL network provides us opportunity to look at practice across schools and collaborate with others in developing a model that will work in our own place.

• PTC Criteria 12 (Use critical inquiry and problem-solving effectively in professional practice) 

We have an established framework for teacher inquiry, but it is not yet functioning as we would like. Ideally it will be a teacher-driven self directed inquiry that excites the teacher and leads to better practice and improved student outcomes. We need to review our systems and see what we can do better to remove barriers and change attitudes.  We need to challenge existing pedagogical beliefs, become experts at reading the data and find efficient ways of recording our processes as evidence for registration. 


What is next?
For our school, our next steps involve developing a culture where we celebrate change and challenge, for both students and teachers.  We need to understand the psychology of change, including the 'joy' of the Pit, as explained by John Fisher in the diagram below.  

For me personally, this involves further professional learning in collaborative leadership and gaining greater clarity around student and teacher agency.   I am not sure yet if I am ready to continue my academic journey into a Masters Programme - still reeling from the commitment of the post-grad certificate.  However I am committed to continuing my professional learning and truly being the Lead Learner in my school. 

References:

Ministry of Education.  Kiwi Leadership for principals,; principals as education leaders http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Leadership-development/Key-leadership-documents/Kiwi-leadership-for-principals

Ministry of Education (nd). Practising teacher Criteria and e-learning . Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/

John Fisher, Process of Personal Transition, 2012. Retrieved form https://www.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/949533/fisher-transition-curve-2012.pdf

Professional context - Crossing boundaries and creating connections

INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION

A definition of Interdisciplinary Collaboration is 'combining or involving two or more academic disciplines or fields of study'.  It is a common practice in medicine when a patient presents with complex symptoms that require treatment from more than one specialist. It is most authentic when no single discipline can adequately describe or resolve a complex problem.

In a primary school classroom it would involve the teacher (or a group of teachers) planning a unit of work that used more than one core curriculum area, and through using essential skills or key competencies, finding answers to overarching essential questions.  We might call is project-based or inquiry learning, and it is commonly accepted in most NZ schools as a way of connecting learners with real-life and complex problems. While harder to achieve within the constraints of a secondary system of discrete disciplines, it is still possible in an environment where teachers and leaders collaborate and work flexibly. 

Interdisciplinary collaboration starts to look quite different when you take on leadership roles in a school.  Leadership often requires you to work with agencies and service providers, sometimes outside of the education sphere.  You need to work collaboratively with these people and agencies in order to achieve the shared goal that in some sense benefits your school, your teachers  or your students.  

My interdisciplinary connection map

As the Principal in my school, I have purposefully made professional connections in order to receive support in my professional work.  A Principal's role is much the same as a specialist teacher in a school - you are the only one who does that work, and so you can become isolated from colleagues doing the same work elsewhere.  The guidance, encouragement and advice I receive from my colleagues is fundamental to my progress as a leader and my enjoyment of the job. 

One interdisciplinary connection I am looking forward to developing further is the establishment of the Kaipatiki Community of Learning, involving 3 ECEs, 6 primaries, 1 intermediate, 1 college and 1 special school.  The opportunity this brings for interactions with leaders in different education contexts to mine is exciting.  For leaders across a local education pathway to discuss the  challenges and opportunities they face collectively provides space to stretch our practice and encourage collaboration within and across our schools. 

The model represented in the article "A Conceptual Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration" (Mulligan and Kuban 2015) is one that the framework of CoLs (MoE booklet 2016) can deliver well.  

I am optimistic that the collaborative and inter-school relationships that develop out of the CoL will have significant impact on both student achievement and teacher practice.  I also believe it will provide a strong framework for building leadership capacity within the CoL, and this can only benefit the schools involved and the children they serve.  

References:

Ministry of Education (2016)  Community of Learning - Guide for Schools and Kura

Barton, K. C., & Smith, L. A. (2000). Themes or motifs? Aiming for coherence through interdisciplinary outlines. The Reading Teacher, 54(1), 54-63.1.

Mulligan, Laura MacLeod   & Kuban, Dr. Adam J. (May 2015)  A Conceptual Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration,  ACRlog   retrieved from http://acrlog.org/2015/05/14/a-conceptual-model-for-interdisciplinary-collaboration./

Using Social Media in teaching

What is the place of social media in teaching?

I am a regular user of social media in my personal life.  I connect with friends and whanau through Facebook, with people that interest me through Twitter, with professional contacts through LinkedIn, watch video on YouTube, and collect inspiration through Pinterest.

In the last two years I have started using social media on my professional life also. I have connected with groups internationally that provide online learning via webinar, local groups that post and discuss current issues in our educational climate, connected with school leaders for professional dialogue, accessed webinars through VLN (virtual learning network) and more recently set up groups for our school - one for parents and another for teachers, to encourage dialogue and sharing that builds each community.

 As I have become more familiar with the various privacy settings available on each of the platforms, I am increasingly comfortable with the idea of teachers and students making use of SM to extend the parameters of their learning spaces. While there is potential for risk in online environments, there is also in the real world.  It is our job as adults in their lives to minimise the risks while allowing our students to experience the vast range of opportunities in the world to engage them in learning.  I see no difference between this and learning in the online world.  There are some great resources available for schools and teachers using online platforms in their professional work, and more recently excellent guidelines provided by the Education Council for teachers using social media personally and professionally.

At our school, we have for a number of years used the Netsafe resource Hectors World to teach cybersafety in our classrooms. This programme takes children through a series of short videos to teach them the safety steps they need to take to protect themselves and their personal information while in online spaces.
                         
We are in the process of reviewing our digital literacy and cybersafety policies and procedures, as we move in to using more devices in our rooms.  We want our students to be producers of online resource not just consumers, and so we are developing the use of class and student blogs as a first step.  I am excited to see how this will work, and how we can extend that to social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram to connect with classes within and beyond our school.  Recently our cluster became a Community of Learning, and so now we have a fabulous opportunity to develop a virtual COL  among the 12 providers involved in our cluster - ranging from ECE to Secondary , and including our local special school. Our own Virtual Learning Network (VLN)

In my own leadership practice, I have been looking at ways to connect with the two main groups of learners I work with - parents and teachers.  Initially I approached a Board member ad another tech savvy parent to help me set up a WR Parents group on Facebook.  As Facebook is a commonly used and user-friendly site we decided to set up a closed group page, meaning users needed to request permission to belong to the group.  We have made clear that the page is only for parents/caregivers of CURRENT students, staff and Board members of our school, and that the member ship is checked and permissions reviewed annually.  We also set out clear guidelines for the purpose of the page and ensure that is pinned so it is visible to all constantly.  It is used for sharing photos and videos of events so that families that cant attend can still see what we are doing, is is a space for reminders of upcoming events and tasks, we have used it for quick surveys, and for sharing information and notices. Because FB sends notifications of postings, parents and families are more likely to see this than find a newsletter in their child's bag.

Because of the success of this page, I have recently set up another closed group for the teachers, seeing it as way to engage with professional articles, videos etc that challenge our thinking about how and what we teach. We will be using it as a library of professional resources.  This concept replaces the folder of professional Readings that nobody ever enjoys collating or reading.  Facebook makes it very easy for the user to copy and paste links or articles directly into the page, giving opportunity for teachers to share something provocative or exciting with their colleagues. And no paper!

I hope this initiative will encourage teachers to share and discuss their ideas and to look for research and thinking both locally and internationally that they can use in their own practice. My hope is that this will be teacher-driven and encourage discussion and debate about best practice in our school. We need to be reflective and open to new learning in order to provide the best for our students. Change is a constant in education, and if you are not open to changing then you are not open to improvement.

As Karen Melhuish said in her masters thesis (pg4) 'the importance of reflecting on one's own needs in relation to one's learners needs is front and centre' and in my view, central to improving practice.


                                                     
                                           

References

Education Council of NZ - Teachers and Social Media   -   https://educationcouncil.org.nz/ 

Melhuish, K.(2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’ professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato. Retrived on 05 May, 2015 from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/han.  

Ministry of Education and NetSafe, Digital Technology: Safe and responsible use in schools; (Feb 2015)  

Virtual Learning Network - http://www.vln.school.nz/  

Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsiveness

What does the Treaty have to do with my classroom practice?

Aotearoa New Zealand was the first country in which the colonising party set out to to negotiate a treaty with the indigenous peoples, outlining how the two parties would respectfully share the land and resources of the country.  

The Treaty of Waitangi promises three things; 

1. the Crown's right to govern the land,  
2. the right of Maori to the exclusive and undisturbed possession of their Lands and Estates Forests Fisheries and other properties, 
3. and to protect all the ordinary people of New Zealand, giving them the same rights and duties of citizenship as the people of England.

Our history shows that these principles have not been applied fairly or consistently.  Maori are over-represented in all the negative statistics that we collect in our country; poverty, poor mental and physical health, academic under achievement, crime and incarceration, suicide.   Our education system has contributed to the problem for decades, promoting deficit theories for under achievement and actively promoting curricula that marginalises our Maori students.  The third article promises to protect the rights of citizenship of Maori, and that includes the right to an equitable education system.

What does that mean for those of us working in schools?   

We must refuse to accept excuses for under achievement, and we must believe that every child is capable of learning. We must deliver a relevant and challenging curriculum that connects with the cultural experiences of our students.  We must value each student and their family, as partners in this process.  In short, we need to be culturally responsive.

My understanding of a 'culturally responsive teacher' is one who uses the students own knowledge and experiences to connect with new learning, building connections that value their cultural capital while giving them clear guidelines for how to achieve, while working in a school that explicitly values and plans for partnership and success. 

In 2012 the Education Review Office presented a report that  described how the cultural diversity principle in the NZC could be enacted in school and classroom curriculum. They included six criteria that they considered showed embedded practice of cultural respect;

• teachers were aware of students’ different cultural identities
• students’ cultural contexts were incorporated into teaching and learning programmes and into the classroom environment
• teachers provided practical opportunities for all students to be proud and share their languages and cultures through cultural groups, special events, and school festivals that celebrated cultural difference
• all students experienced learning contexts from multiple cultures 
• there were clear expectations in schools’ charters for celebration of diversity, stating the right of all children to feel culturally safe
• boards that had developed such charters sought representation from all the cultures of their school community, and staff were representative of many cultures.

This means that the school must plan for and deliver equitable practices that begin with the charter and end with the student achievement data.

Our Story

Our school has made commitment to providing an equitable education for all students that is inclusive and reflective of the diverse community we draw from, giving priority to our Maori students as our commitment to the principles of the Treaty.


What I bring to the process is a personal commitment.  I am the mother of two Maori children, living in a bi-cultural family.  I believe  that their education should celebrate both of their cultural heritages, and provide them with the skills they need to be successful in whatever they choose to do. They need to be comfortable with and able to function in both their worlds. This commitment is fundamental to the way I approach my own classroom teaching and has shaped my leadership practices also.

What do we do well?

We have a strong culture that exists in the school, evidenced by annual events, regular practices and shared language.  Many of these are traditional, western-education practices that celebrate success and build community. In wanting to be more representative of our culturally diverse community, we have made conscious decisions to include other cultural practices in  the culture of our school, and to publicly value to the cultural capital of our students, Maori and non-Maori.
As a teaching staff we have participated in professional learning sessions to improve our own use of Te Reo, and deliver a weekly programme of te reo in our classrooms with the support of a fluent Maori speaker (Te Reo Tuatahi). We use te reo incidentally in our everyday classroom instructions, and encourage the use of te reo by our students. 
We start every term with a student-led powhiri to welcome our new families to the school, we use tuakeina/teina relationships (buddy classes) to promote positive attitudes to learning and show respect, we focus strongly on our school values to guide our response to restoring damaged relationships (restorative justice), we include Maori concepts and knowledge in our learning plans (Matariki celebrations,kaitiakitanga, manaakitanga, whanaungatanga, ako).   Alongside this we run the more traditional responses such as kapa haka, te reo lessons in class, etc.  We have support groups for non-English speaking families, and through this we are starting to plan for events that also reflect their specific cultural heritage in our school. 

This year my personal inquiry has been investigating the extent that cultural confidence has on student achievement, using the research of Angus Macfarlane in his Ka Awatea project.  It outlines factors that promote academic and cultural success for Maori students, rather than just identifying the limiting factors.  This inquiry has seen me working with 25 Maori students, years 2-6,  on cultural activities that they indicated an interest in pursuing.  We have met with whanau twice already this year and presented student learning to them. It has been humbling to see the growth in some of our less confident children, those whose connection with their Maori side is less practised.  They are all able to present their pepeha, and explain what it means and why it is important. Informally I have sen an improvement in the engagement of these students in their classrooms, and anticipate seeing a corresponding acceleration in their achievement data from last year. 

What can we do better?

Documentation - review to ensure that our commitment to culturally responsive practice is reflected in the annual budget and strategic goals.  It is clear in the vision and priorities but needs to be followed through in the annual priorities for PLD, resourcing and staffing.  this requires a commitment from the Board of Trustees, which may require some professional learning as they are a new Board.  There are great resources for this, including Best Evidence Synthesis reports (MoE), EdTalks (some favourites listed in the references) and Hautu, the review tool provided by NZSTA.


Symbolic representation of culture - we need to complete the existing plan for signage and symbols for our school values and PB4L framework. Our intent has been to work with local iwi to sign a symbol or icon that represents each of our four values and use these consistently around the school. 

Community involvement - we need to mobilise the various cultural and ethnic groups in our school to support us in sharing their culture with our students.  This starts with our Maori community, and we have already discussed a larger Matariki festival as part of our Ka Awatea project outcomes.  This event will demonstrate a respect for cultural knowledge and celebrations that we can then use to encourage other ethnic groups to join us in planning other events and opportunities. A priority for us is Pasifika, as we have had a significant increase in Pasifika families to our school this year. 

Conclusion:

Russel Bishop's work in the Kotahitanga project has changed the way NZ schools look at Maori academic  outcomes.   His belief that 'caring and learning relationships are paramount to educational performance' has changed the way good teachers interact with their students and families.  And as we know from the Ka Hikitia document, what works for Maori works for everyone. It is simply good practice. 

REFERENCES:

Alton-Lee, A. (2003) Quality teaching for diverse students in schooling: Best evidence synthesis. Wellington Ministry of Education

Cowie, B., Otrel-Cass, K., Glynn, T., & Kara, H., et al.(2011).Culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment in primary science classrooms: Whakamana tamariki. Wellington: Teaching Learning Research Initiative.

Davis, P. Critical elements for raising Maori achievement. EdTalk  Retrieved from  http://edtalks.org/video/phoebe-davis-critical-elements-raising-m%C4%81ori-achievement

Education Review Office (2012):  The New Zealand Curriculum Principles: Foundations for Curriculum Decision-Making  Retrived from http://www.ero.govt.nz/publications/the-new-zealand-curriculum-principles-foundations-for-curriculum-decision-making/  

Hautu - Māori cultural responsiveness self review tool for boards of trustees
Retrrived from http://www.nzsta.org.nz/professional-development/hautu-maori-cultural-responsiveness-self-review-tool-for-boards-of-trustees

Hotere-Barns, A. Addressing Pakeha paralysis with non-stupid optimism . EdTalk Retrieved from  http://edtalks.org/video/addressing-p%C4%81keh%C4%81-paralysis-non-stupid-optimism 

Macfarlane, A (2016). Ka Hiwa Ra! - Listen to Culture.  NZCER

Savage,C, Hindleb, R., Meyerc,L., Hyndsa,A., Penetitob, W. & Sleeterd, C.(2011) Culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom: indigenous student experiences across the curriculum .Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(3), 183–198: 

Legal and ethical contexts in my digital practice

Ethical Dilemma - Use of Social Media

Our personal and professional lives are increasingly dominated by the pressure to connect virtually with networks of people that we may or may not know in real life to develop or strengthen relationships and build connections. 

  

There are many advantages in using social media platforms, and so many of them available now.   We have a vast range of platforms allowing us to  share, vent, educate, question and entertain. This graphic (taken for the EDUCANZ website) shows the range of forums and purposes available to us.

(Retrieved from http://teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/what-social-media - EDUCNZ)

Our story
Our decision as a school to start using social media was a considered one and responsive to our desire to have some influence over and control of our online presence.  We wanted to establish the boundaries for use and expectations for users, rather than have something develop outside of our control that didn't reflect the values and standards of our school community. We had seen many school Facebook pages being set up by community members, with no input from the school itself, and misrepresenting the school in its current form.  Often these were a forum for complaints about the school of old, but negatively impacted the current  school staff and leadership. 
We wanted to avoid this scenario and  achieve two things - provide a forum for discussion and sharing of information and a platform to share student experiences and work.  

However, as is often the case, the process for designing our school strategy for the use of social media came in response to a difficult situation. 

Our Dilemna 
This situation arose from a situation where a member of staff was publicly criticised on a parents Facebook page.  The parent concerned had a history of emotional, unpredictable, public and aggressive outbursts that were often directed at me or my staff.  After one particularly difficult episode she took to Facebook to vent her concerns. Despite having opportunity to speak to us, she was not satisfied with the outcome of the discussion. We felt we had addressed  the concerns with the mother and ensured that the issues raised were addressed in a fair and transparent process, as per the complaints policy in the school. However the whole process was undermined by the subsequent post.    As her page was fundamentally a public page, her views were shared widely and without challenge. The content of the post was factually inaccurate, biased and potentially damaging to the school. 
As a school we needed to decide what action we would take once this was brought to our attention. We also needed to decide how we would support the staff member named in the online rant.   We had to determine whether there was a case for defamation, if it was worth pursuing, and what the cost to all parties would be - student, staff, school and parent. 

We followed a process very similar to the one described in Alan Hall's 2001 paper: 

• Which stakeholder should be given priority? Why?
• What restrictions are there to your actions?
• Which courses of action are possible?
• How should the course of action be implemented?

The ethical issues facing us included: 

• the school's responsibility as an employer to support and safeguard the professional reputation and welfare of the staff member (with reference to employment law, employment agreements, and HR policy)
• the school's public reputation
• the ongoing relationship with the child and the extended whanau on both sides
• acknowledging mental health concerns  for the mother, focusing on the safety of her child.

Our greatest concern was for the safety of the child - we felt that if we challenged the mother, we could potentially negatively influence her state of mind and put the child at risk. 

The staff member named was not supportive of taking legal action, and felt that nothing positive could be achieved for any of those involved by going down that path.  The Board was of the opinion that continuing the conversation online would only add fuel to the debate, and that our best defence was the positive stories and public support of our own community.

Our decision was to maintain a 'dignified silence' in response.  In the end there were no more posts on the topic, the mother removed her child from the school as her rental arrangements changed, and peace returned.  As it often does. 
However it was a difficult situation for those concerned and challenged our understandings of online communities, conflict resolution and process.

How this influenced us
We had at first considered social media as simply a platform for  sharing good news, school
 events and student work. It was a 'feel good' news service.

This situation brought to our attention the opportunity to provide a forum for us to 'front - foot' issues within our school.  Social media was not just an opportunity to share student work and events, it was a platform for us as a school to address trends, share expectations and set boundaries with our community before they impacted negatively on any future relationship. It made clear to us that we needed to be in control of how our school was represented on social media.  We needed a platform that allowed us to present ourselves positively and fairly. We now have a moderated and private Facebook page that allows us to own the conversations about our school, and foster the positive relationships that then are reinforced on community public pages. We are able to set the parameters of what is appropriate and provide a model for acceptable online conversation with our community.  They now self-monitor this and any posts regarding a specific incident are referred by other members of the parent community to the school leadership, rather than being discussed online.
This incident had implications for us in terms of policy and procedure, as well as practice.  At the point of this issue arising, we had no formal policy in relation to social media in our school. We applied the complaints policy to our response, and this was somewhat successful, although did not capture the challenges of working  in an online environment.  We now have a cyber safety policy, and are developing a clause within that relates to the use of social media that will cross reference to our employment induction processes.

We have a lot of online presence now and are using a range of platforms to achieve all the goals of our online vision: 

1. to provide a way to share student voice, learning, achievements and events
2. to provide a forum for supporting  professional learning
3. to provide a forum to educate and inform our community about school culture and learning theory

                                         

REFERENCES:

Education Council of Aotearoa NZ  -  http://teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/  

Netsafe -  https://www.netsafe.org.nz/resourcesschoolleaderseducators/ 

Hall, A. (2001) What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers. Paper presented at the IIPE Conference, Brisbane.  

Duignan, P. (2003, September). Formation of capable, influential and authentic leaders for times of uncertainty. Paper presented at the Australian Primary Principals’ Association National Conference, Adelaide.