Dion Ginanto
Organization is complex and dynamic. To deal with its dynamic and complexity, a leader should be creative
and innovative in order to maintain the balance of the organizations. Bekhard
(in Gallos, 2006) asserted that an organization, which can effectively adapt
and cope with the changes in its environment, is therefore called an effective
organization. School is one example that is always facing the dynamic and complexity
of the organization, including students' attendance, discipline, performance,
teachers’ collaboration, etc. The people in the building (teachers, principal,
staff, and students) should be able to adjust to the situation and need to be ready
to welcome changes. Every school setting has their different problems in which
every leader has different approaches to cope with. However, they will always
have a common issue/goal: improving students’ performance/success. Therefore, a
school principal needs to be ready to stand in the front line to empower
everybody as an agent of change to achieve the school goals. This paper
discusses one organization in which I teach: Berlian School, Indonesia. This
paper answers the questions: 1) what challenges faced by Berlian School in terms
of organizational development? 2) what approach/intervention should a leader
undertake to make a better performance? and 3) what leadership style could be
applied by a principle referring to the previous approach of change?
Berlian
School
Berlian School is the oldest public
high school in the district of Batanghari, Jambi Province, Indonesia. This
school was promoted to be an international standard school; however, the policy
of implementing the idea of international-based standard was terminated due to several
evaluations by congress, education watch, and researchers. This school has 743
students, 45 teachers, and 10 staff. The school was established in 1978.
Also read: Social Justice and Anti-Oppressive Education
Berlian High School is led by a
principal, and seven assistant principals (ap) with their different roles and
job descriptions: 1) ap for students affair; 2) ap for curriculum; 3) ap for
instruction and teaching materials; 4) ap for external relations; 5) ap for
infrastructures and facilities; 6) ap for information and technology, and 7) ap
for quality improvement. It is interesting because usually high school in
Indonesia only has four assistant principals. I had ever asked my principal why
we had more assistant principals than other schools did. My principal gave me
two answers: 1) to help him develop our school; 2) to help teachers get more
hours in teaching. The second answer sounds interesting to me, because in
Indonesia every teacher (except ap) needs to teach 24 hours a week. Because we
have more teachers than the other schools do, then our school adds more
assistant principals (assistant principals may teach 12 hours a week, with
their additional ap jobs).
Our school vision is “Menjadi
sekolah bertaraf internasional yang berkarakter budaya bangsa, serta
unggul dalam prestasi:” to be an international based school, which maintains
local wisdoms, as well as to be a high-achieving school. Comparing to other schools in our district, Berlian
School has more facilities, teachers, and resources. In addition, the total
number of students continuing to college is also higher comparing to the neighbor
schools. However, this school still needs to improve its performance,
especially on the notion of teachers.
Diagnosis
for Berlian School (a case study)
Almost all high schools in Indonesia,
or even in the world has one ultimate goal: students’ success. In order to meet
students’ success, most high schoos in Indonesia has similar problems/challenges:
teachers’ issues. I am focusing on
teachers, because teachers are the most influential factor of the school
success. Sari and Tedjasaputra (2010) wrote that there is an increasing
expectation for teachers in many part of the world to ensure that their
students meet high standard performances in learning, and be competitive assets
in this globalized world. Nevertheless, with this high demand of teachers
performances, Indonesian teachers (including my school, based on my experience
of my four years teaching) are facing several problems: 1) lack of
collaboration (Sari and Tedjasaputra, 20012); 2) ineffectiveness of Professional
Development (Thair and Traagust, 2003); and 3) lack of resources (Thair and
Traagust, 2003).
1.
Lack
of Collaboration
Lack of collaboration
seems to be a common problem for every school in the world. Berlian School,
based on my experience, is also lacking of collaboration. What parts are
lacking in collaboration at Berlian School? There are two parts of
collaboration, which are missing: informal and formal collaboration. Informal
collaboration is the collaboration that occurs as a result of teachers’
personal initiatives, without having a regularized structure (Sawyer &
Kaufman, 2007). An example of informal collaboration is spontaneous
conversations in the teachers’ lounge or hallway (Hargreaves, 1994 in Sawyer
& Kaufman, 2007). We do have an informal conversation, however, I felt that the
topic is far away from teaching and learning. Rather, it was about daily life
that has no connection with education.
Formal collaboration
is one that occurs less frequently, has protocols, guidelines and techniques;
typically established by the school administration (Sawyer & Kaufman,
2007). Several examples of formal collaboration, as summarized by Sawyer &
Kaufman (2007), are teaching teams, exchanging classes, co-teaching, peer
coaching, study groups, and small-scale conduction of applied research in
supportive teams. Based on my experience and observation, the formal
collaboration as mentioned by Sawyer and Kaufman, are not yet implemented well
in our school.
I also feel that in our school, the teachers are divided
into two parts: novice teachers and veteran teachers. Based on my observation
so far, there is a gap between the two groups. The novice teachers feel they
are not welcomed; meanwhile, the old teachers feel not comfortable to
collaborate with the young teachers due to the age gap. The novice teachers are reluctant to ask
question to old teachers; meanwhile, the old teachers resist to the new ideas
brought by novice teachers. The senior teachers seem to use the old method and
theory of teaching and learning; meanwhile the novice teachers always come up
with the up-to-date theory and methodology of teaching practices.
2.
Ineffectiveness
of Professional Development (PD)
For most teachers in Indonesia,
they are lacking of professional development. The PD is centered in a district
or provincial level. Thus, there are a lot of teachers who do not have a chance
to do PD. Meanwhile, there are certain teachers, who always be sent as a school
representative for a PD; and most of them are those who have a close connection
with a principal or superintendent.
And yet, the PDs were
not effectively applied. Scott and Scott (in Sari and Tedja, 2010) argued that
current teachers' professional development in Indonesia mostly emphasizes on a
“directive” method and prescriptive information dissemination with little
emphasis on teachers' interaction and collaboration. As a result, the PD was not really effective
to support school changes.
I have been teaching for
five years, but I was not lucky enough to be sent to a PD in the provincial
level. When I asked my principal about it, he told me that the quota is not
enough. I need to wait until next year. Nevertheless, after waiting for the
following year, I still had no a chance to the PD in the provincial level. And the
reason remained the same: there were not enough quotas. Therefore, I am
thinking of a professional development in a school level. I believe if the
principal can empower his assistant principals, to be teacher-coaches; then we
will have a regular PD without being afraid that teachers do not have quota for
a self-development.
3.
Lack
of Resources
Also read: Transformational Leadership
I could not agree more
with the notion of lacking of resources for teachers in Indonesia by Thahir and
Traagust (2003). The centralized program who invited one or two trainers will
cause a lot of teachers in the waiting list for a long time to the PD. Can we
imagine if in one district, the government only do one or two professional
development? How can teachers elevate their knowledge? How can they adjust to
the changes? The lack of trainers/instructors for PD in Indonesia has become a
serious problem that needs to be solved as soon as possible. If our school only
counts on PD held by government, I am afraid that teachers in our school will
inevitably find themselves teaching in the same way they done all the time.
Another resource that
is still lacking in my school is books and/or journals about professional development
that can promote collaboration. However, if the principal can make several
groups for professional development within the school, then we can buy several
books or journals, which can be shared and used together in groups.
Professional Learning Community
(PLC) as An Alternative Change
Given all the
challenges in most school in Indonesia, including my school; Professional
Learning Community (PLC) is considered to be one effective approach to make a
change. What is PLC? Dufour, Dofour & Eaker (2012) wrote
that PLC is an activity in which educators committed to working collaboratively
in ongoing processes of collective inquiry and action research to achieve
better results for students they serve. Professional learning community enables
teachers to work in team (not in a group) by focusing its activity for the
success of the students. PLC is ideally initiated by a school principal within
the building, and is conducted regularly for his/her teachers, focusing on
several topics to improve instruction including topics on increasing students’
positive behavior.
There are three components of PLC according to DuFour (2004):
1) ensuring that students learn; 2) focus on results; and 3) a culture of
collaboration. Further, DuFour (2004)
asserted that improving school by developing PLC is becoming a trend to lot of
schools in the United States of America. In line with this, Dennis Sparks (in Schmoker, 2006) emphasized that
professional learning communities are indeed the best form of staff development
so far.
Then, what kind of activities in PLC? The answer is, as long
as they promote collaboration, focusing on results, and ensure that students
learn; we can call them as PLC. For example: classroom walkthroughs,
instructional rounds, staff development using protocols, curriculum designs,
mentoring, journaling, lesson study, study/reading groups, dialogue, action
research, etc. The point is, if PD is
usually held 3 to four times in a year, and held in a district or provincial
level (Indonesian context) attended by a lot of participants; we can do PLC
weekly and at the school level.
My two favorite programs that I would apply if I become a
principal are classroom walkthrough and staff development using protocols. I did an internship for several schools here in
East Lansing, and I learned that classroom walkthrough is very effective to
maintain and increase the quality of teachers in the classroom. By doing
classroom walkthrough all teachers will feel that they are not alone in the
classroom. They could exchange feedback, and therefore the quality of
instruction will remain positive. In addition, in order for the teachers have a
formal dialogue in a small scope, I will apply self-development using
protocols. Protocols have been proven effective in several kinds of research, to lead
a discussion to be more efficient and effective. Protocols are also considered
to be a tool to make a sustainable self-development.
Team Leadership
To implement
the change, in this case, PLC; a school should deploy an appropriate leadership
style, which fits to the situation and the context. MetLife Foundation (n.d)
put leadership as one standards for professional learning: “Professional
learning that increase educator effectiveness and results for all students
requires skillful leaders who develop capacity, advocate, and create a support
systems for professional learning”. One leadership style that can be applied to
implement PLC is team leadership.
What is
team leadership? Team leadership is a leadership style in which the members are
interdependent, share common goals, and who must coordinate their activities to
accomplish organizational goals (Hill, in Northouse, 2013). By sharing common
goals, every single teacher in the building will feel to be empowered. As a
result, their self of belonging to the school increases; and eventually we
can achieve our goals together. Team leadership is similar to distributed
leadership. Distributed leadership involves the sharing of influence by team
members who step forward when situations warrant providing the leadership
necessary and then stepping back to allow others to lead (Hill, in Northouse,
2013).
Also read: Minority Students and Parental Involvement
Team
leadership is congruent with the idea of PLC in which every body is a learner.
Teachers are learners, staff is learners, students are learners, and the
principal itself is a learner. Therefore, implementing a change of the professional
learning community by using team leadership will be effective. Not only because
PLC and team leadership have something in common, but also, this leadership
style fits with our culture and tradition “Gotong Royong”. Gotong Royong is
rooted in rural Javanese culture. It refers to the principle of mutual help
among neighbors in a community (Asian Disaster Reduction Center and
International Recovery Platform, 2011). Because teachers are already used to
the idea of gotong royong; the idea
of PLC, and team leadership, therefore, can be implemented effectively.
How does it Work?
There
are several strategies I will apply to make PLC works in Berlian School. My
First strategy is planning. Almost every successful activity is started
with an effective planning. Therefore, I will also think about planning in
order to run PLC smoothly. Collecting the data is part of the planning
strategy. I would disseminate questionnaire about collaboration and PLC to
students and teachers. Then, I will also do the survey as well as observation
to obtain the factual data before I make decision of change. By having data-driven decision-making, I will avoid making a decision based on assumption.
The
second step of implementing change is socialization.
I will introduce the idea of PLC to teachers, staff, and students. There have
been a lot of changes, which did not bring success, or even make it worse; one
reason is that the leader failed to communicate the important idea of change.
I will have both informal and formal conversations to the people in the building
about the idea of PLC. In addition, effective communication is also part of
team leadership.
The
third step is empowering everyone to
take part. The idea of team leadership is that everybody can lead. Therefore,
it is important to build trust among colleagues in the building. The first
approach is by giving a positive role model, and by making everybody in the
school feel comfortable of my leadership. Thus, ever body will feel that they
are being appreciated, and finally, they will voluntarily take part of the
idea of change we brought.
Having
clear and regular schedule of PLC is my fourth step. The difficult part of
making successful change is sustainability. And to make a sustainable program,
we will usually have a time constraint. Because every teacher will have lack of
time to do PLC. Therefore, I will implement the policy by taking one hour every
Saturday (every month) for professional learning activity. The students will go
home one hour earlier every Saturday (every month). The schedule will be put on
the hallway announcement, as well as the teachers’ office, so that the teachers
are aware of the PLC.
The last step is evaluating. Evaluation is so important
to measure our strengths and weaknesses of the program. I will have a formal
(survey and questionnaire) and informal (informal conversation with teachers)
evaluation. The evaluation will drive me
whether or not I will continue PLC for the next level.
Conclusion
To sum up, all
organization, including a high school needs to always make a change. This is
because change is an inevitable part of a good organization. One program that I
will implement to make a change in my school would be PLC. I believe by implementing
PLC in my school, I will be able to increase collaboration among teachers. By
having good collaboration in the building, it will bring a positive environment
in the school (positive school climate). The ultimate goal of implementing chance
(PLC) in my school is the students’
success. In order to make a smooth change in my organization, I will deploy
several steps in my team leadership: planning, socializing, empowering, having
clear schedule, and evaluating.
Written in 2014
References:
Asian Disaster Reduction Center and International
Recovery Platform. (2011). “Gotong Royong” in the recovery processes: The case
of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Availabele: http://www.jointokyo.org/files/cms/news/pdf/04_ADRC_Gotong_Royong_in_recovery.pdf
DoFour, R. (2004) What is a
professional learning community. ASCD
Journal. 61(8) p. 6-11.
Dufour,
Dofour & Eaker (2012) A big picture look at professional learning
community. Solution Tree.
Gallos , J.V. (2006).
Organizational development: A Jossey-Bass reader. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Northouse, P.G. (2013) Leadership:
Theory and practice (6th Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Sawyer and Kaufman (2007). Teacher
collaboration in the context of the responsice classroom approach. Teacher and Teaching: theory and practice,
13(3) 211-245.
Sari, E. and Tedjasaputra, A.
(2010). Collaborative learning among Australasian educators through online
learning community (OLC). In C.H. Steel, M.J. Keppell, P. Gerbic & S.
Housego (Eds.), Curriculum, technology
& transformation for an unknown future. Proceedings ascilite Sydney
2010 (p. 869-871).
Schmoker, M. (2004). Start here for
improving teaching and learning. School
Administrator. 61(10). p. 48.
Thair, M and Treagust, D.F. (2003).
A brief history of a science teacher professional development initiative in
Indonesia and the implications for centralized teacher development. International Journal of Education
Development. 23(2) p.201-213
Comments