… PURPOSE IN POSITIVE INTERACTIONS …

Peer interactions, I think, are vital for growth of any organization. And more so in educational institutions because schools are nurturing students for their various adult and global roles. Therefore, I think, the inter play of relations among staff members and between staff vis-a-vis  school leader is very important in schools. No organization is devoid of relations- good or bad- they do exist and are, in a way, the barometer of its growth and health. But, I think, in schools these relations need to move beyond being good or bad and must be guided to a higher level of being Purposeful - Purpose of bettering student achievement levels across the school.  Peer interactions in staff need to be goal- focused because, only and only, purposeful discussions and exploratory deliberations can lead to new directions and creative solutions to persistent and enigmatic problems, which are many in schools. Therefore, it is absolutely imperative that some deliberation time must be earmarked in Time tables.

I am of the firm opinion that such an intervention will go a long way in creating positive intra relationships among teachers in the school. But bringing teachers to a table where they can   Share problems and dilemmas, is in itself, according to me, a great sticky problem for a school leader. Only that leader can bring people to a discussion table whose personality is richly endowed with confidence, concern and affection. This is so because if the leader is not confident, is not genuinely concerned and has no affection than he cannot give it, simply because he does not have it.  Therefore, only a leader whose heart is in the right place, in my opinion, can lead his/her flock to create confident professional and positive personal relationships. Each person in this world values his / her relationships because each good relationship fills a void in one’s life and adds a new dimension and meaning to life. For all human beings, irrespective of the profession they belong to, Meaningful Relationships lead to fulfillment and a lot of happiness. Truly- happy people, I believe, make even tedious work seem easier. What I am alluding to is that meaningful relationships contribute to meaningful work. And as the time passes each relationship adds on and helps create and build an umbrella-like stimulating and motivating environment which has growth germinating in it.  And from this positive and caring environment, in my belief, emerges a sort of cohesion and ownership which paves and forges a path which can only lead to qualitative improvement and growth…      

SCHOOLS NEED TO OPEN UP...

                                                     SCHOOLS  NEED TO OPEN UP…                                                        “…when a school has its act together…they become more confident and proactive in seeking parent and community connections…” (Leadership and sustainability; Michael Fullan; p. 60)

 In my view , Schools as institutions exist in the society for the development of the society.   But in recent times schools, in general, seem to have disconnected from the community around it or it could also be because of some reasons best known to it, community keeps away from the school. I think in both the situations, schools are bound to be affected because it nests in society and entry to the nest cannot be insulated/gated for the’ birds whose progeny’ are inside. schools need to open up to participation, that too actively, by the parents and community .

The way forward is, I think, to set up active channels of communication –directly and indirectly through notes PTMs, SMCs, telephones and magazines in a conventional way and could also be through participation in all school activities. All this, in my view, could invite the community for partnerships for increasing achievement levels of students.  Because in my opinion , communication has to be less of a criticism and more of supportive and positive  so that  students do not have to face a non threatening environment at home .This kind of communication could prove to be an effective intervention which could help build more supportive learning environments at home. Consequently, may be bringing children closer to parents.

This kind of active participation between parent and community, I believe, could also trigger a perceptual image makeover of the school. It would definitely enthuse and comfort, me as a unit of , the parent  and community to know what transpires with children in school. They would be eager to work , and it would come  intrinsically ,for the development of the  school .But I  believe, that such channels of communications can be only established   by any school which has already fostered an  inter relational strong trust between the school leader, staff and the students prior to venturing out for trust building measures. Only Confident leadership supported confident staff who have established a positive work culture within the school will open their schools for scrutiny….

Leader as a Facilitator

I want to share one successful story of a school head of Uttarakhand. When he was appointed in the school he had no infrastructural facilities, had no resources, the condition of the school was very bad, He did not get any support from the school management. Then he gave his contribution at his own expenses in improving the condition of the school. His family members also joined him in this work. His wife prepared mid day meal for the students. He spent all his income and monthly pension for the improvement of the school. Then he started taking help from the community and now the school has all the required facilities and the condition of the school is very good. By investing his own resources in the pursuit of his vision of quality education for every child in the community, he has won the trust and support of his staff and parent community. By seeking out the primary cause of drop-outs and creating hostels to solve the problem, he has demonstrated concern for his students and has shown the way for finding creative and innovative solutions. This is a live example of a facilitative leader.

What are the qualities which makes a leader a facilitator?

In the module Leadership Effectiveness, Education Leadership Programme Courses by Center for Education Management and Development, (pp-1) the author defines the qualities of a facilitative leader that he is a visionary and is focuses on specific goals and objectives. Driven by values, he is humanitarian and has a balanced and serene temperament. He is centered and conscientious, a lifelong learner, a proactive, rational, liberal thinker, with vast experience, the leader is innovative, creative, empowering, impartial, supportive, flexible, open minded and transparent, with a polite bearing. He is able to accept criticism, act as counselor, deep thinker, problem solver, is able to accept his shortcomings and believes in others’ abilities and competence and has concern towards increasing others’ competence and welfare. “The facilitator is a person who helps a group free itself from internal obstacles and difficulties so that it may more efficiently pursue its goals.” (Thomas  Keyser, pp-26).

But I think somehow this model is too theoretical because it is not possible for an individual to have all these qualities. He may be efficient in one field and another one may be efficient in another field. So we should make this more practical so that it can be implemented in real life situations so that it can be helpful in making the process of education more effective.

Here I would like to conclude that the facilitative leaders might be the first to innovate, but the last to produce real-world results. But leaders cannot do this work individually. They need support from all the members of the school, students, community participation. All of them should work together in a collaborative manner with team spirit. Only then the institution can achieve its goal successfully. Thus a facilitative leader channelizes the energies and skills of his team to achieve the set targets.

Reference:

· Leadership Effectiveness, Education Leadership Programme Courses by Centre for Education Management and Development

·       www.doh.state.fl.us/family/mch/training/leadership/leadership.ppt

‘Intelligent schools’: what does it mean?

In the book  ‘Policy and Practice in Education’ which I am currently reading, by Jim O’ Brien, Daniel Murphy and Janet Draper, the concept of “Intelligent School” strikes me as a particularly useful concept to think about school improvement that is so urgently needed in India. Around the year 1999 Scotland redefined the organizational structure of the improving school and made providing a good education for their pupils the core mission for each school, terming this new school an ‘Intelligent school’. This self- aware model of schooling envisages a community in which both teachers and learners are aware of what makes for effective and successful learning. In this kind of model the teachers and the learners are open to new learning and are open to respect the diversity involved in learning and work with and for each other to develop a healthy climate of mutual support and respect.

 I think ‘Intelligent School’ doesn’t mean producing good examination results only. School should not be working as an organization that needs to be constantly monitored and evaluated by an external body instead, it should be intrinsically motivated to develop within itself quality learning and development among students, teachers, head teachers and managements with the main aim of bringing wholistic development.

I agree with the Scottish concept of the ‘Intelligent School’. In India there is no such concept of intelligent school, but it can be developed by adapting some features of ‘Scottish Intelligent School’, some features of ‘successful schools’ of other countries and by setting and implementing some new norms to make a school an ‘Intelligent School’. Here I have shared some of my own thoughts to make Indian schools ‘Intelligent Schools’, they are:

Ø  Shared vision: every member of the school must understand, share and contribute to the vision of school, otherwise will not be able to achieve its goal.

Ø  Team learning/team building: sharing of ideas and learning should be important for a school.

Ø  Practice skill among each individual so that it is internalized.

Ø  Develop the school system as a whole, not in separate parts.

Ø  Encourage school members in teams to develop mental models that are more realistic in work place.

Ø   Role of teachers and school heads need to change.

·         They should keep up their reading and writing habits.

·         They should update their knowledge time to time.

Ø  Each and every member of the school community should learn and be aware of new technologies.

Ø  School administrators need to be transformed to school leaders.

Ø  Active participation of community and parents should be encouraged for a successful school.

I need everyone’s suggestions and comments to make Indian schools more effective, therefore I put a question here, What steps should be taken to make Indian school an ‘Intelligent school’?

Technology in Indian schools

 

During one of my trips to Tamilnadu Government schools as part of the SSA monitoring project I happened to visit a school where a group of children were huddled in front of the computer and animatedly discussing something. On closer look I realized that they were watching a CD developed by an NGO on Listening skills. On my subsequent visits I saw this same CD and many more of such CDs being used in other schools as well. There were no teachers to assist the children. The children were on their own navigating through the CD, learning and understanding-all this with so much fun and fervor.  This is when I realized that technology has come to Indian schools and like a stubborn guest it is here to stay.

Technology could do wonders in our schools to promote active learning and understanding. Essentially learning in schools has to be an active process following constructivist approaches. Learning is not just about asking a child to reproduce what she has understood, instead the teacher should use an appropriate instructional strategy/technology in the classroom so that the child is able to reflect, stretch her mind and transfer creatively what she has learnt onto a new situation. Teachers should no more confine themselves to setting their goals of learning at the level of ‘know’, ‘list’ and ‘explain’ instead they should extend themselves to arrive at learning at the level of ‘analyze’, ‘appreciate’ and ‘construct’.

So how can technology transform Indian schools? In her book ‘Teaching for understanding with Technology’, Martha Stone Wiske says that technology can help convert dull topics into ‘generative topics’. This would mean that the teacher need not use chalk and talk method to teach lessons on ‘mountains’ and ‘space’ instead she could take the help of internet or e-learning technologies to give wonderful visual and audio experiences to make mountains look real and space appear nearer.  A child instead of merely visualizing what a meteorite or comet would look like, can actually view a falling meteorite or a far away comet using appropriate technology. Thus technology can enable learners to see learning from multiple entry points viz., visual, symbolic and verbal. Technology can assist active learning. It can enable learners to actively engage with the learning material, reflect on it, understand the various relationships between variables and construct new knowledge. New technologies which teachers can use in schools could include video recorder, players, graphing calculators, computer and internet, multimedia web sites with its e-mail and video conferencing capabilities.

Technology can develop a new kind of citizenship in learners-learners who will be able to function effectively in the changing global scenario. It can help bridge the gap between learners who are separated culturally and geographically and enable them to learn from each other through discussion and collaboration. Finally technology when used well can make learning fun and enjoyable…. It will bring about the same sparkle in the eyes of millions of children… one that was seen in the eyes of those children in the Government schools of Tamilnadu.