“Professional communities that are focused on learning know, understand, and use reflective practice as the feedback loop in the continuous process of assessing our students’ needs, monitoring their progress, and planning our instructional practice to meet those identified needs” (Lindsey et al., 2009, p. 111). This best occurs within the context of accommodating a culturally bland curriculum through effectively interacting with the community the school serves. The objective should be to communicate and problem solve with an engaged and supportive community, an ally in educating their students (Lindsey, 2009). The framework within which to apply the Tools of Cultural Proficiency, lie in Senge’s Five Disciplines (as cited in Lindsey et al., 2009): Personal Mastery, where motivational tension is created between an awareness of where you are and want to be; Shared Vision, where stakeholders collaborate and communicate effectively to identify what really matters and how things ought to be; Mental Modes, where reflection and inquiry cycle on themselves perpetually; Team Learning, where empathic listening and risk-free design thinking predominate; and Systems Thinking, where school structure and interdependency serve the journey of cultural proficiency.
To move things along when conversations diverge or to avoid emotional episodes that cause people to close themselves off to productive self-inquiry, breakthrough questions exemplify Covey’s sixth habit: Synergize! To synergize means you actually seek out diverse opinions with the expectations of outcomes far more sophisticated or creative than you initially suggested. Surrounding yourself with like-minded people is appropriate as it regards working toward a common mission, but is less than courageous if you want to set the stage for truly powerful alternatives. Exploring the reasons behind objections can shed light on your own biases or assumptions, and open the door to an entirely new direction. The work you spend in understanding one another, within the bounds of a trusting culture, slingshots you past the perceived limiting beliefs that individuals bring to situations. We have no designated leader on my fifth grade team; rather we are a team leading students, and are grateful for the structure put in place as scheduled collaboration time. Administration hijacking of that time notwithstanding, it affords us an opportunity to look at student work, align instruction goals, and compare best practices. This is where I need to adopt Wagner’s (2009) “Second Survival Skill: Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence” (p. 22). Careful use of breakthrough questions as it regards meeting the needs of underserved groups, in our school or beyond, can provoke productive conversations as we move forward. My example can influence the behavior of others, hopefully creating a wave that can change school culture. To keep myself informed I will continue to build my professional learning network on Twitter. Through these resources of websites and current articles, I can keep in touch with relevant data as well as best practices. I can encourage my colleagues to do the same in my effort to contribute towards institutionalizing continual student growth through developing a culturally proficient school. References Delores B. Lindsey; Linda D. Jungwirth; Jarvis V.N.C. Pahl; Randall B. Lindsey (2009-08-03). Culturally Proficient Learning Communities: Confronting Inequities Through Collaborative Curiosity. SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition. Wagner, Tony (2014-03-11). The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need —and What We Can Do About It. Basic Books. Kindle Edition.
0 Comments
|
AuthorEach different, all the same. ArchivesCategories |