Teacher agency and ISTE roles within the change process

An ISTE describes the movement of a school through the three stages of the change process, as outlined by Fullan. She estimates that the school has reached the institutionalisation stage but despite this, her monitoring of the changes to teachersā€™ practice suggested that those changes were fragile. In response, she explored some changes in approach that would motivate teachers to re-engage in the professional learning.

Iā€™m a facilitator working within an Assess to Learn (AtoL) contract. In one school, we are in the third year of the contract. In terms of Fullanā€™s change process, Iā€™d say that ā€œinitiationā€ began with the school becoming involved in the AtoL contract. And that ā€œimplementationā€ has been for the last two years, which saw teachers involved in workshops, individual just-in-time classroom support, data collection, and target setting.

ā€œInstitutionalisationā€ would have begun this year, when school systems were identified as needing to be changed. But after talking to teachers and walking around classrooms, it was apparent that changes had not been sustained. I wondered why not. On reflection, while there seemed to be majority agreement on going forward with the project two years ago, it was the principal who had seen the need for change, not the teachers. As Kotter (1995) emphasises, it is establishing a sense of urgency at the start that motivates. Changes that were made in teacher practice were fragile; they were most probably not sustained due to a lack of urgency or motivation to change in the first place.

School systems were going to change, so it was imperative to get the teachers back on track. In fact, changing the systems provided the sense of urgency that had been lacking for them. But I could see that we also needed to change our approaches to their professional learning, and this time I looked to adult learning theory to inform the way forward:

A review of adult learning theories identified specific conditions that may promote learning in the workplace; (1) opportunities for individuals to work with and learn from others on an ongoing basis; (2) collaboration in group work and learning; (3) chances to work with and learn from others of similar position; and (4) variation, challenge, autonomy, and choice in work roles and tasks.

Smylie, 1995, cited in Sandholtz, 2002, page 2

I asked myself: how might adult learning theory influence my role as an ISTE and the strategies I adopt within that role?

With the help of fellow advisers and the teachers, we came up with a list of roles that ISTEs might assume and strategies they might use. We put them onto cards that teachers and ISTEs could use to discuss and agree upon appropriate roles and strategies within a given situation.

While this was helpful in defining and clarifying roles, something was still missing, and it seemed to be the teacher. How often do we as ISTEs consider the needs and wishes of the teacher in a truly democratic way? As Brookfield (1995) describes:

ā€¦ conditions under which all voices can speak and be heard, and in which educational processes are seen to be open to genuine negotiation.

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I worked with three individual teachers through the process below:

1. We identified ISTE roles and strategies theyā€™d experienced in previous professional learning, what had worked and what hadnā€™t, how the teachers had felt, and whether it had resulted in changes.

2. We worked together to analyse self-assessments by the teachers, covering their preferred learning styles, their feelings of self-efficacy, and their teaching styles.

3. We reviewed their self-evaluations of how they approached change and their confidence in implementing changes.

4. We discussed the outcomes from all of the above and used the ISTE role and strategy cards to negotiate how the professional learning would be developed for each teacher and to arrive at an action plan.

5. The teachers reflected on the process. Comments made in their reflections were encouraging ā€“ for example:

ā€œThis has really excited me. I have always thought PD should take into consideration individual teacher needs. No one has ever asked me how I prefer to learn and develop.ā€

ā€œI can see how we (lead teachers) could use this process to help make changes within the school. We can identify our strengths and needs and provide support for one another.ā€

We are now poised to more effectively examine individual teacher practice, working in small groups. The important questions for me now are:

• What changes in practice do I need to make as an ISTE in order to individualise professional learning for teachers?

• Does individualising professional learning for teachers motivate them to engage with and sustain changes in their practice?

• Do such changes lead to improved outcomes for students?

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