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Educators Engaged in Meaning-Making About Their Work

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Educators Engaged in Meaning-Making About Their Work Science and Mathematics Education Centre Educators Engaged in Meaning-Making About Their Work: Using an Expanding Circles Model of Governance, Grounded in Sociocratic Principles, to Improve the Work Educators Do Pauline Therese Joyce This thesis is presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Curtin University May 2011 Abstract The early part of the 21st century saw a dramatic shift in Western cultures away from representative democracy to a more participatory or deep democracy. Advocates of this new democracy consider that finding solutions to the problems that confront our world, on a global scale, are too complex to be left in the hands of elected officials. As a result, public participation, or community engagement, has become a way for organisations to dig deeper in order to find more resilient and sustainable solutions to difficult problems. This form of democracy presupposes informed citizens who are communicatively competent to take their place as fully participating members of a democratic society. As schools are considered by some experts to be the best place to develop the skills required for democratic participation it made me question the reality of making such a claim. Overwhelmingly, schools continue to function under endowed, autocratic leadership where there is little opportunity for democratic participation. In undertaking my research I took on the role of co-participant in two primary schools to explore the question: What happens when teachers are given greater opportunities to deliberate and make decisions about the work they do? How and why it happened became the focus of an auto-ethnographic study with co-participants from the two schools over a period of two and a half years (2008-2010). As the researcher, I coached, mentored and guided individual teachers, principals, teams of teachers and leadership teams through a restructuring and reculturing process that began with the introduction of a new governance model, sociocracy, where decisions are made by the socios, people in close social proximity to one another, rather than the demos, the general populace. The complex and emerging nature of this research determined that I use a multi paradigmatic design, as espoused by Guba (1990), in order to respond to the turbulent nature of the research field. My design allowed me to continually shift focus to reveal multiple perspectives, my own and “Other”, as I mined the rich underlay of data that emerged out of my interactions in each school. The quality standards used to measure the worth of this project are aligned to the methodologies chosen; they shift throughout the project as I consciously choose the best way to reveal the knowledge gained from my interactions in the field. I have 2 interwoven theory, practice and multiple voices throughout the text as a way of balancing the reported disconnect that teachers feel between policy and practice. The outcome of this research is a holistic, scalable organisational framework for schools to use as a way of creating resilient learning organisations that adapt and improve in a constant state of be(com)ing. 3 Acknowledgements My thanks go to the principals and teachers who invited me into their schools and took part in this journey with me as we tried to make sense of the emerging possibilities. Very special thanks must go to the assistant principals in my host schools who were most affected by the changes I proposed and most challenged by a need to re-vision what leadership might be for them in a different kind of space. Each assistant principal demonstrated what a vital part they play in a school as they balance the role of leader with classroom practitioner. It is a position that remains largely unexplored for the possibilities and opportunities that could be revealed. To my son, Rob, who didn’t baulk when I gave up work to become a full time student again; thanks for your ongoing support and love. To Rikki, who reluctantly joined me on that first Camino in Spain, but couldn’t stop herself from whole- heartedly embracing the journey. Your encouragement and belief in me has been such a joy. And to my eldest daughter, Georgia - thanks for teaching me the power of resilience and reminding me that we can’t do hard things on our own. In your words, the journey of this PhD has been “character building”! To Phil, who has always believed in me and who, as the ultimate social networker, could have cured cancer before Kevin Bacon1. What on Earth would I have done without Kate! The crazy breakfast debates, where we explored exciting ways of looking at the world of education, could have been overheard by others as the most vigorous of arguments. Kate kept me connected to the real world of teaching and the oftentimes devastating effect of big P policy on the passions and beliefs that teachers have about their work. Kate, I couldn’t have made it without you. Now that this is over you might just make it to work on time! To Peter Taylor, my supervisor, who gave me so much rope I got horribly tangled up in it so many times I thought I’d never break free. I had, over time, become crushed by the educational machine, and yet Peter still seemed to think I had something important to say. I discovered my voice under his subtle tutorage, a voice that I had literally lost through the damaging effects of a disconnected life world. 1 Future Makers - How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer http://www.abc.net.au/tv/documentaries/interactive/futuremakers/ep4/ - 10 Mar 2008 4 Finally, I owe both the opening and closing moments of this thesis to two people; Amir and David. I’ll get to David in a moment, but first to Amir, a visiting student from Pakistan, who arrived at SMEC (Science & Mathematics Education Centre) mid-way through 2009 with the endearing propensity of cutting to the chase. One day, as I sat eating my lunch, he pulled up a chair, looked me straight in the eye and said, So, Paula, why is it you are so old and only now doing this PhD? His question made me laugh out loud as I replied, Well, Amir, that’s the whole reason for this PhD I’m doing. Why, indeed, am I so old and only now finding my voice? Why did I finally have to leave the profession I claimed to be passionate about to have a say about my work? How is it that I now have the ear of leaders in education who in the past had told me my ideas didn’t matter? Ahhhh! Amir, I’m doing my PhD now because I finally found my voice and I can’t be shut down. This thesis exists because I finally became too old and disillusioned about education to be told what to do any more so I left the classroom to become a learner. This thesis exists as a challenge to leaders, at whatever level they operate, to find ways to keep the best teachers doing the work of teaching. It challenges leaders to let passionate voices speak and be heard no matter what their age and no matter what they may be saying; who knows, some of it just might make sense. This thesis is a guide for schools to recognise that, despite the inevitable policy merry-go-round and political mosh-pit that drag schools lurching from one philosophical viewpoint and associated degree of accountability to another, individual teachers and schools have a strong source of residual power over their own destiny to do what they believe is the very best to improve the educational opportunities for all. This thesis is both a political act of high treason (Pinar, 2004) and a call for teachers to take action in line with their beliefs about the nature of teaching and learning, and to create policy-in-action on the ground (Denzin, 2010). And so to David, a principal and courageous leader in one of my host schools, he could see that something needed to be done and set a steady course to do it. He took 5 on the change challenge and trusted me, his leadership team and his teachers to see it through. If the journey of this thesis has taught me nothing else it has revealed the absolute and irrefutable belief that the possibilities for real and sustainable educational change lie with leaders. Schools can have all the structures and strategies in place, all the professional development, all the checks and balances, the latest technology, the best of resources and the wildest ambitions, but without courageous leadership nothing will change. Our schools will continue to lurch from one externally imposed condition to another unless leaders take a firm hand on the tiller and steer a charted course to the uncertain future that we know is already upon us. We need leaders who can clearly determine and articulate a common purpose and vision for their school and identify the individual capabilities that are needed to achieve success. We need leaders who can communicate aspirational goals and never waiver from them when the going gets tough. Our children deserve better than what we currently present as education and our passionate and creative teachers deserve to be heard above the cries of mediocrity and sameness that keeps education chained to an outmoded industrial model. Principals and other endowed leaders in schools have a responsibility to challenge the status quo and not only ask what are we going to do and how are we going to do it but who is ready to step into the space they create where genuine transformational change can occur? Thanks, David, for giving it a go.
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