Consultation, Leadership, and Empowerment

Consultation, Leadership, and Empowerment Presenters: Ernest Cherullo Kim Conlon Felicia Watts

Objective(s) • To increase this groups knowledge base of why we should look at collaborative practices • To increase knowledge as to why collaboration is needed • To increase knowledge of the benefits of teacher and staff empowerment on staff and student performance • Challenges to Collaboration

Increasing Knowledge • Why look at collaboration? • Collaboration between special and general education teachers has existed for many years • Over the past several decades this collaboration has received increased attention as part of a larger effort to increase inclusive education • The need and federal directive to blur the boundaries between general education and special education • McLaughlin (2001)

Why is collaboration needed? What comes to your mind when we talk about collaboration? • Collaboration can have multiple meanings to different people • Collaboration involves teaching practices as well as a community of professionals working together to improve teaching and achievement of ALL students. • Collaboration is considered central to the successful inclusion of students with disability into the regular educational environment. • It is now the LAW that students have access to grade level curriculum! • McLaughlin (2005)

Why does collaboration run into problems? • Collaboration can have multiple meanings to different people • Collaboration involves teaching practices as well as a community of professionals working together to improve teaching and achievement of ALL students. • Not everyone is sure how to do this? • Collaboration is considered central to the successful inclusion of students with disability into the regular educational environment. • If the need special ed how can they be in the regular education environment?

Why is it needed • What do the current changes in the law mean to teachers, instructional practices, etc… • It means that students are no longer just entitled to be present in a classroom but now have RIGHTS to the curriculum. • What does this mean to teachers? • Principals? • Curriculum Coordinators? • Districts as a whole? • Can provide sense of empowerment to teachers, staff and students • McLaughlin (2005) and Seed (2006)

Characteristics of Successful Collaboration in these articles • In the research synthesis performed by McLaughlin (2002) several factors to successful collaboration were noted in all of the studies she reviewed: • Schools valued teamwork • Common goals • Shared sense of responsibility • Communication and collaboration as key strategies for teachers

Empowerment and Collaboration • With increased accountability schools are re-examining two ideas that have been tried, but not been fully committed to: teacher empowerment and collaboration- Seed (2006).

Empowerment • Why look at empowerment of teachers and staff? • Many individuals leaving profession as the curricula is becoming prescriptive. This is leading to the deskilling of teachers Apple (1993). • Greater student performance on testing • Better decisions by teachers • Often better results • Greater assumption of responsibility by those in the process

Barriers to collaboration and empowerment • Time • Space • Longer time to make decisions • Administrators had to take the flak for the teams final decisions

Types of Problems Seen in Collaboration • “Leadership emerges from, and always returns to, the fundamental wants and needs and values of the followers.” Burns (1974). • Taken from Gates, G. & Robinson, S. (2009)

Challenges • 1: • Technical Work • Educational reform has ushered in many changes to schooling, yet teachers possess a significant repertoire of professional experiences, skills and knowledge basis. • Gates, G. & Robinson, S. (2009) • This results in an differentiated playing field for problem solving! • Teachers are tasked to engage in a process without adequate training. • What are the outcomes if not training is provided? • What can we do to fix it?

Challenges • 2 • Technical and Adaptive work • Student motivation and variability (variation in preparation and skills) are two factors that often impact learning • Gates, G. & Robinson, S. (2009) • Teachers feel frustrated that they cannot accommodate all of the students needs • Feel overwhelmed • Blame the student • If stop here will get ambiguity and inconsistency of practice

Challenges • 3: • Adaptive Work • Policy makers and reformers argue that they know the various challenges and difficulties inherent to teaching and learning. • Reality is that at the level of implementation teams often are forced to become self-reliant on investigating, stumbling, and uncovering realities of implementation. • Gates, G. & Robinson, S. (2009) • How can administration/ administrators prevent this?

Challenges • 4: • Nonrational technical work • This again follows a more top down style of implementation. Teachers are being asked to do something they may not believe in while not understanding the problem or even agree that there is a problem. • Gates, G. & Robinson, S. (2009) • Often results in staff that feel frustrated and are disempowered from the decision making process and therefore have trouble buying in? • How can we create greater buy in from staff?

Benefits to Collaboration and Empowerment • Greater teacher self satisfaction • Greater student performance • Increased sense of a school community and culture (less of “us” and “them”) • Less isolation of teachers

References • Gates, G., & Robinson, S. (2009). Delving into teacher collaboration: Untangling problems and solutions for leadership. NAASP Bulletin 93(3), 145- 165. • McLaughlin, M. (2002). Examining Special Education Collaborative Practices in Exemplary Schools. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 13(4) 279- 283. • Seed, A. (2006). Making empowerment and collaboration part of the lives of highly qualified team teachers. Middle school journal, 37(5), 40-44.

Consultation, Leadership, and Empowerment