Inclusive Change

What does the word Change mean to you? 

"Change is easy to propose, hard to implement, and especially hard to sustain." 

Andy Hargreaves

Andy Hargreaves wrote an article on one of the most important areas of leadership theory and practice, educational change and its impact upon teachers. 

It is important to remember - Change and Emotion are inseparable! There is no human change without emotions and there is no emotion that does not embody a momentary process of change.

Change is inevitable in the career of a teacher and can be natural (ending of a school year) or imposed (new leadership).

Andy summarizes educational change as an external change that is unwanted, imposed, repetitious and sometimes repellant, compared with more professionally positive, self directed change (p.294).

Teachers' emotional response to external mandated change vs. self initiated change:

External Mandated Change:

• Emotional response is negative
• Associated with government reform or legislation
• Forced upon teachers
• Implemented poorly
• Tight time scale
• Insufficient resources
• Teachers that respond positively to mandated change are more likely to be female, younger, do not teach mainstream subjects and in innovative schools.

Self Initiated Change:

• Emotional response is positive
• Fulfills teacher's purpose
• High school teachers more likely to become involved in change that benefits their students outside of the classroom
• Elementary teachers more likely to become involved when it involves other colleagues and changes on improving teaching and learning within the classroom. 

More often than not self initiated change comes form mandated change so how do leaders elicit a positive emotional response to a mandated change?

Andy concludes that it is less important whether the source of change is external or internal then the way it is implemented. Teachers want to see how it will benefit students, they want change to be flexible and to have proper support.

As a leader if you are trying to implement change in an elementary school:

1. Ensure that you are allowing staff to work together.
2. The focus relates to improving teaching and learning for students within the classroom
3. Invest time and money into the initiative (release time, resources).
4. Allow for professional flexibility so that teachers professional judgement, passion and purpose can be included in the change process. 
5. Ensure that you have the commitment of your teachers before moving forward with any agenda.

One problem that I can see arise when trying to implement change is the rotation of leadership. What is the desirable length of time for a leader to be at a school so that staff do not feel that the leadership and change initiatives are a revolving door and they can essentially wait it out until the next leader comes in. 

http://andyhargreaves.weebly.com/video.html

"Improvement is about doing something better; innovation is about doing something new." Andy Hargreaves