Week 26- Professional Context

Week 26- Professional Context

Starting by reading through the class notes for this week, the first sentence under "School Context" really made me think and reflect on my school (see I'm reflecting!!! Week 25 boom!)- 

"Stoll (1998) defines school culture as three dimensions, the relationship among its members; the organisational structure including the physical environment and management system; and the learning nature" (course notes, 2016). 

Relationship- The relationships among our staff at our school are great. Everybody works well together, they support one another when time get tough (usually around report writing, testing etc). We also have the culture where we cans hare our thoughts and opinions and are listened to and we can have robust discussions to come up with the best solutions- we are ALWAYS encouraged to take risks.

Organisational Structure (physical/management)- Currently our physical environment is a bit of a shambles with buildings being moved and new classrooms being built. However this has been managed in a way to have the least amount of impact on our students and staff by changing systems and restructuring activities to make this work as best it can. We have also got a new (into our second year) management set up (discussed in LDC1) where we have our principal, 2x deputy principals, then AKO leaders (curriculum focused) and Whanau leaders (key competency focused). This new organisation has allowed for leaders to focus on their set area as well as giving more people opportunities to lead. 

Learning Nature- From the new organisational set up, our learning nature has changed and developed. We have become much more collaborative, year 7 and year 8 students working closer with one another, creating a tuakana taina feeling about our school. The teachers and other staff are having more opportunities to work with more of our colleagues which we are loving.

Activity 2: 

What is the organisational culture (collective values/principles) that underpins your practice? How would you contribute to fostering a positive professional environment in your community of practice?

According to Hongboontri and Keawkhong (2014), "school cultures are unique and distinctive. They are created and re-created by people considered members of a context; i.e., teachers, students, parents, and communities, among many others." Within our school context, we have a large immediate community of practice. 730 students, students whanau, 32 classroom teachers, 25 support staff, 3 leaders and our Board of Trustees. We then must include our contributing schools as part of our community of practice, the Ministry of Education, and our local iwi. All of these groups of people have their own priorities and opinions on what our school should look like and how it should run. 

The organisational culture within our school is one of a trust model. We are trusted to be professionals and do our jobs to the best of our abilities. This allows freedom and creativity, to feel that it is safe to take risks and to constantly be reflecting on the successes and failures we experience. This is evident in the numerous leadership roles within our school, (see above), as we are accountable to each other rather than upper management. Upper management rely on their choice of leaders to be doing their job successfully and to bring forward issues as they arise. 

What changes are occurring in the context of your profession? How would your community of practices address them?

As a classroom teacher, the biggest change that is occurring is technology and the use of this within the classroom. In the 4 years previous to this year, I have taught in an e-learning/BYOC classroom, where students had 1-1 devices. This year however, I have a mainstream class that has a total of 1 chromebooks that the students share, one between two students. When I started teaching 4 years ago, only the e-learning classes had computers, the rest had to book time in the ICT suit. This use of digital devices is fast growing and very soon there will be no such thing as "e-learning", it will simple be learning! This is exciting, however our community of practice needs to get on board and go with these changes. There are still teachers that are not willing to use these devices to their full potential, and parents who cannot see past the way they were taught when they were at school. Therefore, our battle is to educate the adults within our community of practice to ensure they are supportive and have the knowledge and understanding to support of students. The students are digital natives, they know how to use these devices, they just simply need our assistance to use them to grow their knowledge and understanding in a positive and safe way.

References:

• Hongboontri, C., & Keawkhong, N. (2014). School Culture: Teachers' Beliefs,      Behaviors, and Instructional Practices. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 39(5), 66-88. Retrieved from http://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2332&context=ajte
• Stoll (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Understanding-school-cultures/School-Culture